I want to list the best decks versus Handlock because we will be seeing an increase in its popularity, and because so many of you despise it. The following list will be in the order of decks that have the highest WRs versus Handlock to the lowest. Data take from HSReplay, since the release of AV over the course of ~1,100 games in legend. These are, in other words, Handlock counters from best to worst.
OwlTk Warlock ( 76.8%)
Anacondra Druid (65.8 %)
Face Hunter (61.9%)
Libram Paladin (54.8%)
Mozaki OTK Mage (data unavailable)
Quest Rogue (data unavailabe)
Poison Rogue (data unavilable)
Hope these stats help someone. Sorry for the small list - the rest is all green in favor of Handlock. Later, I’ll upload an image and link it so you can see the entire list of matchups.
latest VS report also shows a good matchup vs Handlock for Mozakimage (no surprise here), Facehunter and Buff Paladin, basically everything with enough reach to punish the midgame healthdrop before the healing stacks up once they´re down to 10cards.
it should probably be one of handlocks worst matchups, fairly easy for mozaki to stall it till leathal vs handlock, you don´t even need a big combo to kill them form ~16health they usually drop down to in the midgame + as mozaki doesn´t play minions much they have to kill their own stuff if they want to heal.
don´t have the live stats, but colorwise in the report mozaki, celestial and buffpala are the three top decks vs handlock, so i guess at around 60-40 at least.
The first four of those decks all just got nerfed, and Mozaki Mage is bad against pretty much everything else, along with not being fun to lose to either.
pretty much, now we just have to hope that everyone gets nm the mozaki train and there will be swift nerfs (at least for the mages, warlock will probably lose 1 heal/dmg on the razorboar guy and call it a day).
I wonder post patch how all those will fare now that all have been nerfed.
It does seem like Handlock will rise as a meta tyrant with all other decks trying to counter.
The problem being, that unlike combo or weapon, or other such decks, Handlock doesn’t have a distinct weakness to take advantage of except “rush them”.
i mean the favoured decks clearly shows burn from hand still gets them more often than not, so i guess weapon rogue should actually do well aswell.
But yea, it will certainly not lead to a shift in the meta away from “solitaire”.
Currently, according to VS live, Handlock is about the 4th best deck, maybe 5th. The decks above that appear to be decks that directly counter Handlock…so it could be that Handlock is warping the meta and everyone is playing a deck to beat it.
To be fair, Face Hunter is worth playing anyway, as is Libram Paladin. They are both great decks and both counter Handlock.
Priest counters Face Hunter and Libram Paladin and could shove them back down, but Priest didn’t get any love and Warlock decks are on the rise which spells disaster for Priest.
It really feels like Handlock is warping the meta imo, and I’m playing Handlock.
It’s frankly shortsighted to predict what the meta (at D5-legend) will develop into. Certainly, these predictions are not based entirely on mere assumption. Rather, history usually doesn’t repeat itself – however, it does rhyme. This is to say your predictions are most definitely not exactly entirely baesless (knowing T5’s tack record). But, please, try and not pass off your predictions as anything but predictions – we absolutely do not know yet the ultimate results of these nerf, aside from confirmation bias inspired anecdotes inspiring topics for players to whine.
The fact of the matter is this. The nerfs, having been released so recently, require us to be patient in allowing the meta to settle (I am also tired of this cliche – but it holds water). It’s hardly been two days and people are naively outraged that nothing has changed, both in regard to these nerfs and in regard to AV as well. It is a highly naive approach, supported by no reliable data (which I will be able to provide in only a day or two). These knee jerk reactions are based entirely on baseless presumptions. And, how many times have such assumptions failed? Too many times to count. I take all such predictions with more than one grain of salt.
Wait for the data to be available so we can definitively conclude what’s what. Then, you can utilize data to support your assertions, instead of making baseless ones.
I get what you’re saying, but we know what the meta was before the nerfs, and we knew Handlock was extremely strong. So when they nerf all the decks that were sitting above Handlock and didn’t really address Handlock, it’s reasonable to say Handlock is going to be extremely good.
I just went from D5 to Legend in about 2 hours with Handlock to prove a point. I went 22-8 (73% win rate). It’s not like I’m just exaggerating, I’m just telling it like it is. People are going to purposefully be targeting Handlock because it’s absurd.
Unless some deck comes out that counters Handlock really hard, I don’t see that changing. Mozaki Mage might be it, but at the same time Mozaki is almost certainly going to get nerfed as well.
If you really wanna beat handlock, I’d say Quest Rogue is one of the best decks. Assassin shadowstep noggenfogger and scabbs. Enough said… it also cleans up vs freeze shaman and Palidan
Handlock is actually quite favored vs Quest rogue, with 54% winrate over it.
That’s reasonably my experience as well.
You really need to have a perfect draw with both assasins and shadowsteps to beat them (and q rogue doesnt have that insane of draw power to ensure that), plus the big “drop everything and lock with neophytes” wrecks quest rogue since it can’t leverage it’s best tempo tools like shadowsteps and saps.
Quest Scabbs can be dealt with with Tamsin+soul rend.
Hero Scabbs also doesnt do that much, since you just bounce 0 and 1 cost minions back into their hand, and so they can redevelop next turn and be almost at the same spot as before.
Later, I’ll upload an image and link it so you can see the entire list of matchups.