Deck Guide: Blood Death Knight - The New Powerful Class

This week we had the launch of the new Hearthstone expansion, and in the last article we met some decks to start well in March of the Lich King. And nothing better than starting the expansion with a deck of the new class, which brought the new Corpses and Runes mechanics, leaving most of the players excited to test it.

Therefore, today we are going to delve deeper into the Blood Death Knight, one of the most used decks to date.

This list is extremely slow, and its intention is just to control the board, hold the threats and recover life until it beats the opponent by “fatigue”.

The Blood Death Knight deck takes this name because we use 3 Blood Runes for its assembly, which allows us to run minions like Alexandros Mograine or Soulstealer, in addition to the spell Vampiric Blood, thus further increasing our arsenal of control cards.

It's worth mentioning that the deck has great interactions with Corpses, a really fun mechanic that arrived with the new expansion. See some examples:

Now let's take a closer look at these cards to understand their importance in the list.

Minions

We started with minions to defend against in the early game, such as Noxious Cadaver, Body Bagger, and Hematurge. In addition to being a good starting board, some of these also generate extra resources, such as Corpses or in the case of Hematurge a Blood Rune card!

Another low-cost minion is Astalor Bloodsworn, it deals 2 damage to an enemy, making it a good early game removal. Astalor also leaves an "evolution" of it in your hand, which you can use later. You will understand better with the image below:

To add even more value to the deck, Prince Renathal allows you to carry 40 cards in the list (10 more than the usual).

Going into the mid-game, we have some good minions to hold the match, like Venomous Scorpid and School Teacher.

You still have big late-game removals, Gnome Muncher, Soulstealer, Patchwerk and Sylvanas the Accused can get rid of huge opposing minions.

There are a lot of strong Battlecry in the list, so Brann Bronzebeard is key. Imagine a Sire Denathrius, Alexandros Mograine or a Mutanus the Devourer with double the effect!

If you suspect that the opponent has a very important card to defeat in the hand, you can bet on luck and play Theotar the Mad Duke!

Sire Denathrius has already been mentioned, but it's worth mentioning that he will be your main finisher. This minion deals 5 damage when played, but while Sire Denathrius is in your hand, this damage increases by 1 for each 2 friendly minion that is killed. You can often stack 30 or 40 damage on Sire Denathrius, killing an opponent instantly.

Spells

This list has few spells, but they are of paramount importance.

Heart Strike, Asphyxiate, Corpse Explosion, Death Strike and Blood Boil are the removals present in the deck. Since the last two have Lifesteal, helping even more to hold back the threats.

Apart from removals, we only have one spell in the deck, which is Vampiric Blood: it grants you more life than a card draw.

Facing an aggro deck or another control is totally different! We have to adapt our strategy and game posture based on the matchup.

Against Aggro

If you're facing an aggressive deck, prioritize looking for the cheapest removal cards, like Noxious Cadaver and Heart Strike.

Astalor Bloodsworn is a good one, in addition to being a small removal, its second step grants armor (perfect against aggressive decks), and the last evolution is also great for removing the opposing board.

The Soulbreaker weapon can be used to trade with opposiong minions, as well as spawn more Corpses for you!

Usually, the most aggressive lists tend to fill the board with small minions to deal a lot of damage, so maybe it's great to keep Blood Boil in your hand, if you hold out until turn 5, this card will definitely make a difference!

Just by playing defensively and nullifying threats, you will already beat the most aggressive opponent, they will quickly run out of gas and of cards to play. You won't find it difficult to beat him when by dealing with their threats and gaining life. So be reactive and just respond to your opponent's moves!

Against Control

If you play against a control player, change your strategy completely!

Imagining that they won't press at the beginning (because it's a slow deck), we should already take the small removals from the hand, so forget about Noxious Cadaver and Heart Strike.

It's more interesting if you start accumulating cards that will make the difference at the end of the game, like bigger removals or Sire Denathrius.

It is likely that the opponent has a good amount of giant minions in the list, so in the mulligan we should look for minions like Theotar the Mad Duke and Sylvanas the Accused. The spells Asphyxiate and Death Strike will also be helpful.

Facing this type of deck, it's interesting to play some minions at the beginning to strengthen Sire Denathrius (if it's in your hand).

It's also important to use Brann Bronzebeard cautiously, as it can be the key to victory. For example, combining Brann with Alexandros Mograine will make the opponent take 6 damage at the end of their turns, severely punishing slower lists.

Blood Death Knight is certainly a great choice for control players, the deck is fun and explores all the news of March of the Lich King. With a gameplay very different from what we are used to, the new class promises to come strong to the Metagame, I recommend this deck to everyone!

I hope you enjoyed our article, if you have any questions about the deck or about Hearthstone in general, just ask me here in the comments!

Thanks for reading!