The Odds and Ends of Evenlock

The Odds and Ends of Evenlock

In recent weeks, Warlock's dominance has died down a bit to make space in the meta for Druid and Mage decks. I think it's a good thing that the meta seems to have a lot of options among tier one decks. It feels like many strategies are viable at the top for the first time in a while, and matchups are close, interesting, and difficult. But the power of drawing cards from your hero power can always adapt. Every other resource can be overpowered but card draw is always a resource and always a relevant one. And Evenlock's ability to use this resource on turn 1 is extremely powerful. Today, I want to talk about Evenlock, some of its rougher matchups, general game plans for the deck, and how it can move forward.

In general, our gameplan should involve mulling towards Mountain Giants. An early Giant can define the game, and forces our opponents to have hard removal or an answer early in the game, or the board threatens to snowball out of control. In the mirror, Mount Giants are the most important threat, and having coin + Giant can often close games quickly. One possible solution is to play out your Doomsayer and Draw a card on turn 3 if you're on the play to prevent their coin + Giant play on their turn 3.

The deck doesn't have a lot of ways to answer opposing Giants, in fact, so I have been experimenting with a Siphon Soul in order to have a clean answer for the mirror. Moreover, Evenlock has a plethora of options for stopping aggro decks, but a single Sleepy Dragon can cost us a bunch of resources. This is another argument I've found in favor of playing the one of Siphon Soul. It hits a bunch of late-game threats and value cards like Lich King, as well. The card has been great, but I am not sure playing 2 copies of the card is correct.

Speaking of Taunt cards, the Druid deck is certainly one of the harder matchups to play against. Spellbreakers are essential, and you have to save them, but they aren't enough on their own. They have so many ways to enable their resurrections that a Spellbreaker isn't enough. You need to have early pressure, and probably 2 fast Giants to win the game safely. One Giant is probably not enough because most good Druid players will probably mull towards a Naturalize to slow you down. Gul'dan wont beat Hadronox late, so it's important to pressure them out. I've seen lists playing Black Knight, and that is also an attractive option. In the list I provide here, I would be willing to cut the Acidic Swamp Ooze in favor of a Knight. My only concern is that Knight can be slow and by the time you are destroying a random Taunt out of Druid it's too late.

As for Evenlock's matchups versus slow decks, the return of Big Mage decks makes for an interesting matchup. Be careful to manage your card draw carefully, as you will often fatigue and run out of threats if you are not careful. Jaina might edge out Gul'dan in the late game fatigue battle, so again it's important here to put them under pressure with early Giants.

With an influx of control decks, I've swapped out Sunfury Protectors to try and find ways to get through more damage versus control decks. I am currently trying out Lifedrinker for extra reach, as Sunfury Protector didn't seem necessary. It felt like Evenlock was already beating the low-to-the-ground decks. For example, Odd Rogue and Paladin decks already have a difficult time with 7/7 taunts and Hellfires. Tempo Mage is rough because they can burn you out, but if you time your Hellfires well and manage your life total after securing board it should be fine.

Ultimately, it feels like the deck is largely about knowing when to draw cards, and how necessary it is to mull to Giant over anything else. Despite its massive early game threats, however, Evenlock has a lot of play and late-game power to it, able to maneuver through many matchups with its host of threats and answers. I think changing a few cards here and there can help the deck stay as a solid tier one option.

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