Warlock hero-power... how good is it?

Community Discussion
1

Read somewhere the “Warlock hero-power” (-2 Life, +1 Card)
is one of the BEST. Is it? Let’s contemplate a little, shall we?

Pro:
Card-advantage is, as the term suggests - an advantage, of course.
More cards = more power/options/combos/etc. In the simplest of terms, if you have 2 more cards than your opponent, it could come down to a matter of trading off until you have cards and they don’t …probably equals win.
However…

Con:
I’ve had my share of Warlock-games in which that draw-damage starts to make me rather nervous long-term. You almost -have- to play cards that benefit you for hurting yourself in order to offset the drawback. Sometimes you already have all the cards you should need to make a go of it and be casting constantly from here on out, so, might seem silly to take that draw-damage. And of course there is a point at which excess of card-drawing leads to self-ruin, for what good are all these wonderful cards if your opponent is busy beating your face in while you’re gleefully stock-piling? Better be some rather game-changing cards.

How do you RATE the Warlock hero-power?
(especially compared to the others)
Do you have a FAVE among the standard-10?
Heck… RANK them top-to-bottom, I’d be curious.

2

Drawing is the key to winning. Most decks overtime that have the best drawing engines have always been at the top. Static decks with little draw depends on op cards or massive amount of synergy in order to win, so yes Warlock hero power is number one along with DH’s hero power.

Follow by hunter’s hero power and all the rest in between. The worst hero power is probably tied between 3 to 4 classes.

3

Luckily warlock has a decent amount of synergistic cards that have a huge benefit if the warlock damaged itself that turn. Dark glare was originally considered one of the most broken cards ever made

Also, lifesteal exists. Sometimes the more your deck has damaging itself as part of its strategy, the more it might need to think about working in some lifesteal in order to keep from killing itself

In regards to game changing cards, they usually are. Warlocks aren’t any different than any other control deck. All control decks generally take the approach of draw as much stuff as fast as you can. Warriors do it by using things like risky skipper + armorsmiths + battle rage, druids do it with overflow, etc. Warlocks don’t need sacrifice spots in their deck for draw when they can use their hero power instead

Health is just a resource. The trappings of a new player is believing that because they lowered a control deck’s health down to single digits before they lost that they “almost won”. That is a false assumption. A good control deck player is calculating how much health they can afford to give in order to ensure they do the best possible play at the best possible time. So while it looks like they were just getting beat into the ground, really they were just biding their time and gathering resources

3 Likes
4

Really? I may be wrong, but it was never a problem before scholomance and in standard it was never played in a tier 1 deck.

5

I wasn’t playing before scholo but I heard it was ridic in Wild, and one of the first times a standard card was nerfed due to Wild

1 Like
6

It’s a really good hero power. However, a good hearthstone players know when to pull and when to hold depending on who and what their opponent is playing.

7

It has it’s downsides. It doesn’t directly do anything to the board and health is not an insignificant resource. Warlock doesn’t have that many methods for regaining lost health.

The benefits of getting key cards faster our simply not running out of cards while not having to leverage card draw mechanics generally outweighs the negatives.

It’s hard to rank hero powers and very subjective but I’d do it like this:

  1. Demon Hunter
  2. Warlock
  3. Mage
  4. Priest
  5. Rogue
  6. Druid
  7. Paladin
  8. Shaman
  9. Warrior
  10. Hunter

Basically hero powers that work on/against the board and heros > board value hero power > hero power that only affects heros. This isn’t clearcut since heros tend to play to thier hero powers strengths (face hunter) or gain some secondary bonus (armor value synergy cards for warrior).

8

Wild was unplayable unless you joined them and then it was a matter of who had dark glare 1st.

9

This wasn’t my point.

Darkglare alone wasn’t a huge problem and, as far as Ii remember, nobody called it broken when it was released and nobody played it in a top tier deck, even in wild.

The deck you are talking about came out only during scholomance, because of flesh giant.

I wrote my previous message because I was curious to know if anyone really called that card broken or used it in a super strong deck before scholomance, because I don’t know that information (but I think the answer is no)

10

Flesh Giant is what made people try Darkglare.

Turns out it’s good enough in its current state without playing Flesh Giant.

I encourage you to look up Necropotence and Yawgmoth’s Bargain from MtG as a starting point in learning how to evaluate life vs card draw.

Winning with 5000 life left is no more of a win than a win with 1 life left.

1 Like
11

wrong. winning with 1 hp means you might have lose some other games while if you win with 30 hp then you’re playing good and might won even more.

12

1.Paladin(Baku)
2.Hunter(Baku)-Demon Hunter(Baku)-Rogue(Baku)
3. Demon Hunter(Basic)
4. Warlock(Basic)
5.Druid(baku)…IF only there was a viable baku druid deck XD
6/6. Mage//Priest(Basic)
8.Warrior(Baku)
9. Rogue(Basic)
10. Druid(Basic)
11. Hunter(Basic)
12. Shaman(Basic)(Greymane version only good in Totem shaman otherwise bad)
13. Paladin(Basic)
14. Warrior(Basic)
just put the unlisted as unsure of rank or forgotten :D…anyway tired of writing(this part was posted after the wizard//finley ranking)

Wizard//Finley…what to give opponent ?
Warrior(if you dont need rush kill opponent//buy you survivability if your near dying)…usually the best to feed to non-warrior
Shaman//Pally(only if they dont carry fields buffs)…Shaman of pref as it usually
cannot finish off your minions with 1 health left
Rogue/Druid(if them harming themselve help you) and that your not next to dead
…or if they carry a lot of weapons rogue weapon will annoy them
Warlock(only if they’re near fatigue or low health because they dont wanna die)
…just dont give lock power if you know your opponent play otk or aggro deck
Demon Hunter(same as rogue or druid but giving the other 2 is better as they cost more if your given the option)
Mage(same as rogue,druid,demon hunter…but dont give it to opponent if any of those 3 choice are given as they dont harm themselve with this hero power)
Hunter power(only give it to opponent if you feel 100% safe from face dmg and that you favor better board control)
…do Note that Shaman//Pally power can get in the way of certain removals or
if your trying to kill your own sylvanas for say in an attempt to steal a good minion…also affect other cards that goes with rng like that(something to keep in mind when giving a new power to opponent)
EDIT: Note 2:…vs aggro in rare case you be prompt with an horrible roll choice(DH,Mage,Hunter power)…in such case the pick is base on cards in your hand…board state…opponent class(likelyness of cards in their hand)

Note 3: sometime its best to not change their power(if its already scrap for them)

EDIT 3:actually…1 final note…should you turn off a lock hero power ? if you got the coin and the combo in opening hand…do it…it will screw them up hard if you can do it by turn 2…beyond that the combo is nearly harmless to a warlock