Sludgelock is a top 100 deck

Multiplayer Discussion
1

UPDATE (September, 2): There’s a new iteration of this deck. Check this post for more info:

Sludgelock is a top 100 deck - #22 by Altair-2432

If you’re wondering what beats Druid, Rogue, InsanityLock and the rest of the bullies, seek no more.

It’s Sludgelock.

https://ibb.co/Jr7ybLW

(picture flexing my rank)

Deck list:

Summary 
### Sludgelock
# Class: Warlock
# Format: Standard
# Year of the Pegasus
#
# 2x (1) Fracking
# 2x (1) Miracle Salesman
# 2x (1) Tidepool Pupil
# 2x (2) Baritone Imp
# 2x (2) Crescendo
# 2x (2) Disposal Assistant
# 2x (3) Furnace Fuel
# 2x (3) Sludge on Wheels
# 2x (3) Trogg Gemtosser
# 2x (3) Trolley Problem
# 2x (4) Crazed Conductor
# 1x (4) Pop'gar the Putrid
# 2x (4) Waste Remover
# 1x (5) Symphony of Sins
# 2x (6) Chaos Creation
# 1x (9) Yogg-Saron, Unleashed
# 1x (0) Zilliax Deluxe 3000
#   1x (0) Zilliax Deluxe 3000
#   1x (4) Twin Module
#   1x (5) Perfect Module
# 
AAECAZ2rBAT5xgWplQaAngbHpAYNx8IFyMIF3cIFhY4GlZcGlpcGl5cGhJ4GoqAGq6AG96MGpqgGwr4GAAED9bMGx6QG97MGx6QG7t4Gx6QGAAA=
# 
# To use this deck, copy it to your clipboard and create a new deck in Hearthstone

1st iteration of the deck went 52,25% in 425 games, all in top 1k. It’s a big sample for 1 individual on a deck. You will not often find a bigger one xD

Favorable matchups:

  • Demon Hunter - 64% winrate in 14 games
  • Druid - 53% in 119 games
  • Mage - 75% in 8 games
  • Priest - 56% in 18 games
  • Rogue - 59% in 32 games
  • Warlock - 58% in 73 games
  • Warrior - 62% in 13 games

Unfavorable matchups:

  • DK - 44% in 78 games
  • Paladin - 43% in 21 games
  • Shaman - 47% in 43 games

Unknown:

  • Hunter - 33% in 6 games

2nd iteration, replacing 2xFlame Imp for 2x Tidepool, went 66,15% in 65 games.

7-0 against rogue, 9-1 against druid…pretty much no point in posting individual matchup stats due to low samples + I’ve been highrolling today

Tidepool is not that useful an add-on as much as Flame Imp hurt me in this meta. Apparently, 3-6 self-dmg in this meta is A LOT.

The deck is easy to learn, but hard to master, and every game is like a puzzle. You constantly have to calculate multiple options so you don’t miss a hidden lethal with your sludges xD

Surprise element is huge - people forgot how to play against it.
There are no mirrors, for those who hate them - and you win against painlock (once you learn how to play that matchup) and against Insanity pretty comfortably.

The deck is very flexible. Against slower matchups you’re the aggressor, and you’re aiming for the fatique package to swarm the board.

Against faster matchups you are control deck. You play your minions to minimize the dmg you receive face while collecting parts of combo and healing. Once they slow down because they’re running out of gas, but before YOU run out of gas, you go all in.

I would enjoy writing a thorough tutorial for this deck and each matchup, but knowing how big it would be, I won’t go through all that trouble for nothing.

If at least few of you express the desire to read it and play the deck, I’ll do it.

P.S. Yes, it’s flexing, so what? Take is as you want.

I just wanted to share my excitement with others and maybe see if we can shake up the meta.

Peace!

4 Likes
2

Out of curiosity is yogg really still needed? Im not sure what you would care to replace it with (probably nothing since its working ok) but is it a flex slot now in the deck with warriors being obliterated?

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Here is Altair again with his sample of 1 “stats”. Nobody needs you to know that anyway. It’s on hsguru for days.

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No, it’s actually useful. It gives at least 5% more winrate against DK-s and snowballed Druids, and it’s sometimes the only chance to beat overheal Priest, as you keep it to steal his Aman’thul

You can still steal 1 zilliax to run it into another (every bit of heal helps) or AoE a whole board of minions (you don’t have much aoe in the deck, so every little bit counts)…it’s actually useful.

I’d say that 2xtidepool are flex slots. You can swap them for something early game, but I don’t know what. I’m not using tidepool too much, but sometimes it saves the game, when you get lucky to get a triple crescendo or 2nd symphony out of it. It doesn’t happen too much because you use spells sparingly, especially early game.

There’s nothing else which can be discussed getting swapped. Zilliax is neccessary because you need heals, miracle salesman is a broken 1-drop and sometimes you need the Snake oil to discard with trolley so you don’t discard something useful, and the rest is synergistic with the rest.

5

maybe glacial shards instead of tidepools to help with handbuff paladin and shaman aggression? tidepools seem weird in a tempo deck where you don’t wanna hold stuff for too long.

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It might be a good idea

I’ll give it a 200-300 games more with tidepool, though, just to see if I can learn to play it better xD

As it stands, I’m holding the spells for far too long, because this is a minion-based deck and I can’t do anything without minions (fatique package = minions, sludge package = minions, even the heals are minion-dependant)

But I can see the potential in it from the few times I managed to throw 3 or 4 crescendo because of it. The deck is objectively stronger than Insanity. It’s got ALL the best from both worlds. It’d be a shame to miss this opportunity.

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7

Yes please, can’t figure out few turns.

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Yes, sir
Will do later today when i catch some time

Any specific questions or matchups i can address?

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9

Well, more like general game plan as I’m not sure when to start with sludge package and when to start with insanity package. Probably too much tied to my insanity past preference (tried it first when it just appeared and was weak). :slight_smile:

Also what’s the general game length - base sludge back in the days has been pure aggro but am I correct that your deck is closer to later “control” sludge and game length is longer.

One more thing - how to use symphony properly as it’ll shuffle the deck and mess up the bottom. On the other hand answer to the first question may explain this one as well.

Well, and of course the mulligan.

I’d really like to use the deck as primary but somewhat seem to misuse it completely so far so feel dumb. :smiley:

P.S. Is it possible to add you as friend to spectate some sludge games? Or do you stream maybe?

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Good question. Since it’ll take me hours to make a guide, lemme give you a brief tutorial

Generally, it depends on the matchup - against slower decks you try to force insanity package, against faster decks try to force sludge package.

However, another good, or rather “safe” option is to pick whatever you have more of in the mulligan - if you have sludge on wheels + Waste remover, it’s almost always a good choice to keep those; if you get baritone imp + Crazed conductor, it’s a possible highroll, but it can also cost you the game against faster decks like frost dk and pirate aggro decks.

Yeah, it’s slower than it used to be on average (you do have Yogg and 9 mana Zilliax now), but some matchups, like Druid, Warrior and Rogue, are equally fast or even faster than before. You always force the fatique package against those - not much use of sludge on wheels when they’ll never play minions.

I can’t tell you average game length since I can’t find those stats on Firestone (if you know how, tell me and I’ll check), but average number of turns for win is 7, while average number of turns for losses is 8.6, and since you’re expecting a winrate of about 52-53%, it’s around 7.6 turns on average

Druids and rogues die turn 6, most of the others die turn 7, and sometimes matchups go 9+

Keep it in mulligan when you have fatique package without any sludges, because it’s almost a guaranteed highroll when you play it on crazed conductor turn 5 (+6/+6, if not, depends, either draw minion or draw 6 if you have only 3-4-5 cards, or if opponent is around half health, you might as well start burning him with deal 6)

Otherwise, you use it as soon as you dont have sludges to shuffle (or when you have 1-2 sludges and your survival depends on it). It’s good in almost every situation, especially when you have a minion on board and one in hand.

What I’ve said before + miracle salesman + trolley problem if you don’t have any spells and if you have only furnace fuel in mulligan

Against warlock, keep Popgar (don’t keep crescendo, you need to draw it at the right moment) and avoid fatique package, prefer sludge package and Tidepool for when you draw a crescendo

Fracking is almost always a good keep, unless you have miracle salesman already

It’s OK. It’s probably the main reason people don’t play it - it’s mechanically very complicated to learn xD

However, it’s also addictive once you start using it properly

Early game, it’s all about the tempo, pressure (except against shamans and DK - you just wanna control them and survive, not hit face, until you draw your heals and then you tempo swing - keep crescendo for Dazzler if it’s a Rainbow deck)

So trolley problem on 3 or 2 with coin is usually a great play (sometimes even worth discarding a crescendo or fracknig or even chaos creation to do it - you’ll learn when with experience, I can’t possibly explain that properly, I’m still trying to learn the rule)

Rule of thumb: When you have a choice between 2 cards which cost the same, pick the one with highest amount of stats. So if you have to choose to play Baritone Imp or Disposal Assistant, it’s always baritone imp.

Another Rule of thumb: if you lost the early battle for board against aggro, concentrate on surviving and there’s a big chance you’ll stabilize and outvalue them later (DH, DK, Shaman matchups)

Against Paladins: clear every minion, no exceptions. Save damage from hand to clear lifesteal minions. Your win condition is literally killing their whole hand and watching them concede with nothing to play. Dmg to face is usually useless as they have unbalanced amount of heals and you’re probably not killing their stuff if you go face.

Another trick: You wanna play Waste remover on 3 with a coin or on 4 when you go 1st if you have that, and you don’t have a crazed conductor stacked on 2. Don’t worry about burning cards, unless you had a bad opening against a slower deck and you know the game will be a longer one - in that case, focus on drawing and waiting for the right moment to swing the board.

Finally, since it’s mostly a tempo deck, when and how to swing a board?

  1. Popgar + crescendo + sludges = “tempoing down” - when you already have tempo advantage and your opponent cannot heal, it’s usually a good idea to play this on 6 or 7 and just fire everything face to put them low. Usually that means your opponent will waste whole turn clearing the board and many cards in your deck are lethal

  2. Popgar + crescendo for max heal = survival - sometimes you’re forced to just play it to survive, if you think it’s even possible. If not, you need a more drastic play/risk

  3. Chaos creation + sludges on bottom = I usually play it when it seems like good value, but sometimes for tempo

You can throw it without any slzdges on the bottom if it’s the fastest tempo play - if your enemy has only 1 5/5 minion you need to clear on board, or if he doesn’t have any minions and he’s low, then you throw that to his face and hope for lethal (Leeroy, Doomguard…) or something menacing.

Alternatively, chaos with 2 sludges is good when you’re behind to potentially come back, chaos with 3 sludges is great for tempo/control, chaos with 4 and more sludges means you have to focus on clearing the board because once their board is empty, this is almost guaranteed lethal.

Yogg saron is kept for titans usually - Aman’thul, enemy Yogg, or one of the double Zilliax’s so you can kill the other and heal are the most frequent targets, but I’ll let you have fun discovering other good targets :smiley:

I think this should be enough to give you a good start.

What rank are you? On what server?

Yes, I play on EU only nowadays, though

Altair#2432

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11

I appreciate your dedicated explanation.

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They’re also problematic for new F2P accounts that try to optimize their collection. I’d play those warlock decks this month but I don’t, because they need expensive cards from 2023 that will be gone in the Rotation early 2025.

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Was legend 7k but with extreme low rolls yesterday evening (and most likely I should’ve not played being so tired as I can’t recall most games :rofl:) is is something like 13k now. Anyway, seems to be a great position to learn the deck in somewhat relaxed background.

I’ll send a friend invite soon today, thanks.

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That’s such a shame, it’s a fun deck and a very good one to learn the basics of the game, because it has everything in it:

  • it’s a board-based deck
  • it has spells and finishers
  • it has healing/survivability
  • it’s aggro
  • it’s control
  • it’s combo
  • it’s tempo

perfect deck to learn hell of a lot in a short time of playing + it WAS ( not sure if it still is, probably not) one of the loaner decks offered for free to every returning player.

playing tired is good for progress, it helps you automatize your gameplay for easier grind

but it’s true that it can delay your learning, if you automatize wrong plays

However, it can all be corrected with some focus and motivation

The most important thing about lowrolls is to not tilt. The sooner you forget how you lost, the better. Sludgelock is a highly streaky deck - you will have sessions where you can’t lose and days when you can’t win, but at least it’s a fast deck so the agony doesn’t last for too long (well, to be fair, if you don’t tilt, your lowroll sessions last longer than highroll ones because your wins take 7 turns on average and your losses take 8.6 turns on average)

Deal

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Would just like to update the thread - deck really works once you get the idea. Easy 14k → 11k with lots of fun. Once I’ll have more time to play I’ll try to get back to that 7k and maybe fight a bit towards higher ranks. Even if not this month I’ll definitely use this deck for next legend climb. :slight_smile:

Thanks to Altair for the guide and allowance to spectate some games. :partying_face:

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Anytime!

Glad finally someone’s enjoying the deck :smiley:

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You literally just quoted me being aware

Well, how else do I let people know where I get my data from?

I always want to know which rank people are, so I know the amount of knowledge of the game they possess (if they’re trying to progress ranks, ofc, otherwise it’s pointless)

If they know more, I want to learn from them

If I know more, I wanna teach them

Too bad most people don’t do as I do. And you know why? probably because they’re ashamed.

So the real problem isn’t me flexing. I’m not even flexing. It’s others being ashamed and jealous. Their own ego problem.

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Its just a wierd shot to take at people looking at your thread is all. Even if youre referring to yourself it could be interpreted as an attack by other people

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LOL, I just realized what you mean xD You’re right. It didn’t even occur to me it could be interpreted that way. Ofc I was referring to myself, because people kept poking at me because of reasons stated above.

I edited that part out, would appreciate if you’d do the same from your quote

Thanks :smiley:

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Yea i always appreciate posts about decks and posts that arent troll complaining. I just wanted to make sure you weren’t unintentionally rubbing people the wrong way if something was unclear. Being high rank is cool and fun and all that, but being too aggressive about it could turn people off. I think the most important thing is thst we try and have a community on here where everyone feels included and not alienated for whatever reason. Its important that we can communicate without everything turning into some kind of endless fight xD

Cool deck ps.

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