Warlock Aggro Build

[thaRuckus]

Curious as to the efficacy of this deck. Heavy on equip and curses, with options as far as conjurations. Any thoughts are welcome!
Conjurations (18)
-Battle Forge
-Deathlock
-Mordok's Obelisk
-Suppression Orb
-Idol of Pestilence
-Hand of Bim-Shalla
Equip (14)
-Lash of Hellfire
-Gauntlets of Strength
-Elemental Cloak
-Fireshaper Ring
-Ring of Curses
-Mage Wand
-Demonhide Armor
Creatures (7)
-Dark Pact Slayer
-Necropian Vampiress
Attack Spells (11)
-Ring of Fire x2
-Fireball x2
-Firestorm
Incantations (31)
-Explode x2
-Dispel x2
-Seeking Dispel x2
-Dissolve
-Piercing Strike x2
-Perfect Strike x2
-Drain Life
-Battle Fury
-Teleport x2
Enchantments (39)
-Retaliate
-Death Link
-Essence Drain
-Magebane
-Chains of Agony
-Marked for Death
-Maim Wings
-Vampirism
-Ghoul Rot x2
-Poisoned Blood
-Hellfire Trap x2
-Agony x2
-Reverse Magic
-Nullify x3
-Bear Strength x2
-Cheetah Speed

The idea is to get the Forge out first turn at center, along with a cheap equip. Then forge equips me as I move forward flinging curses. Mage Wand will carry Battle Fury, and the Lash will be brought out by turn 4 so dissolves are used on other equip. Dark Pact Slayer will be a Reaper, and I was kicking around the idea of Death Linking the Vampiress, as she can heal anyways. DoT curses like Magebane and Ghoul Rot early, then another Ghoul Rot when it invariably gets dispelled. My buddy plays priestess almost exclusively, so am curious if this is the deck to counter him.

-EDIT- Posted in the wrong forum. Sorry.

[sdougla2]

If you're planning on using Battleforge so consistently, I'd suggest Leather Boots and Regrowth Belt. It's nice to have more options to use it for, especially when some of those options are cheap like Leather Boots. I'd also suggest a Mage Staff as a way to deal with incorporeal creatures and to give you a flexible weapon that isn't weak to fire resist. Sectarus is certainly nice, but I'm not sure if you'll be able to support the mana for both it and Battleforge early, and I'm not sure whether you have the expansion.

I'm not a fan of Deathlock, since I prefer the Warlock's healing to direct healing effects anyway. Vampiric is just so strong.

You might want a couple of Fireblasts so that you have a few unavoidable attacks to burn through Blocks and Reverse Attacks while keeping the damage up. This also allows you to kill Huginn and Fellella easier, and you will need to kill them.

Your creature selection is minimalist, but those are probably the 2 best creatures for a Warlock in a vacuum.

I haven't tried this in a game yet, but Rouse the Beast seems like a good choice if you're planning on summoning creatures later, once you're in combat.

I don't find Maim Wings to be particularly essential. Lash or Mage Staff gives reach and Vampiress can fly if you want anyway.

Reverse Magic seems overly expensive for you to include.

If you have the expansion, Falcon Precision is probably better than Piercing Strike.

Personally, I'd switch one of those Seeking Dispels to a Dispel. That depends on your meta though. It helps to have multiple Dispels against other Warlocks that rely heavily on curses and against Forcemasters, particularly if you plan to ever use those creatures.

You could really use a Mongoose Agility.

Your build is really focused on shutting down swarms. Do you really need Mordok's Obelisk, Suppression Orb, Idol of Pestilence, 2 Rings of Fire, and a Firestorm? All of that plus the damage barrier on Demonhide Armor seems like overkill.

You seem very vulnerable to weak conditions. How do you plan to deal with Gorgon Archers?

As for your plan, your opponent can hold off on using Dissolves and save those for Mage Wand and Lash. None of the other equipment you include are particularly problematic for the Priestess. You are focused way too much on anti-swarm if you're primarily concerned with beating the Priestess. It really depends on what the Priestess does, but the biggest concern for this type of strategy against a Priestess in general is getting daze/stun locked. Between Staff of Asyra, Temple of Light, Angel of Light, Angel of Lightning, and Pillar of Light, you can be facing many daze/stun chances. Add a defense and Temple of the Dawnbreaker you can find yourself at a severe action disadvantage.

[thaRuckus]

Wow! Excellent analysis. Much appreciated. So I definitely see the point about swarms; I removed Suppression Orb and replaced with Force Sword (hoping to cancel out some Daze/Stuns) and Regrowth Belt, and removed Maim Wings & Reverse Magic. Mongoose Agility is too good, don't know why it wasn't in there in the first place; also added an extra copy of Vampirism for my 'Reaper.
My thoughts on Deathlock are to play it late, when DPSlayer and the Vamp are down, to limit the Priestess's turtling. Maybe a Sacrificial Altar to use their death throes in my favor? With a build like this, though, I fear that is planning to far into the game, as in if I don't shut her down quickly she all but wins through Temple play.
My compatriot loves him some creatures, so I think Demonhide and the AoE spells will stay in. Any other ideas on how to cancel Daze/Stun?

[sdougla2]

You can destroy Temple of Light and with attacks and Staff of Asyra with Dissolve. Lash is quite good at taking down structures. You could also block line of sight to Temple of Light with Wall of Fire. That will only stop it temporarily, but it can help.

If you have creatures out, that limits how bad getting hit with a daze/stun is. On the other hand, many of those attacks that daze/stun get a bonus against dark/non-living creatures, so Vampiress and Dark Pact Slayer are relatively easy to stun.

Toss Ghoul Rot and/or Magebane on your opponent so that they take damage even if you have trouble getting successful attacks in. If you think they'll try to heal, use Poison Blood to prevent it.

The other thing to look out for against the Priestess is Knight of Westlock guards. They hit reasonably hard, have good armor, and you may even miss them due to their defense. You can focus them down or bypass their guard with position control (Teleport) or Mongoose Agility.

[piousflea]

In a build with zero mana crystals/moonglows/harmonizes, you will NEVER be able to afford Drain Life. Drop it and pick up something else instead.

You want at least one Decoy in every deck. It's extremely versatile and only costs 1 spell point. Put it in.

2 Rings of Fire is overkill. It is extremely rare that you get to use more than 1 in a game. Pick up some Flameblasts instead, they are really good for piercing through block/reverse attack.

3 Nullifies is overkill IMO. I would drop one of them and pick up a Knockdown. You never know when it will come in handy. If nothing else, it is really good for grounding flying creatures and for "dispelling" Guard tokens. Since it's fairly situational, one is plenty.

On the other hand, many of those attacks that daze/stun get a bonus against dark/non-living creatures

Oddly enough the Vampiress is considered a living creature. (This is because nonliving creatures cannot heal, which includes vampiric) Therefore it does not suffer a massive increase in stun chance from Pillar of Light, unlike iron golems which are equally vulnerable to Light and Lightning. However, there are some Priestess attacks with +vs Dark, and they'll hit hard against anything warlock related.

[baronzaltor]

In a build with zero mana crystals/moonglows/harmonizes, you will NEVER be able to afford Drain Life. Drop it and pick up something else instead.

I feel like the Warlock can spend enough rounds saving mana from constant melee attacks that Drain Life isnt too hard to afford.  I almost always pack 1-2 to secure a good health swing in my favor on close games and dont often use channel boosts.

I also like Drain Life because its not an attack, so it lets you sneak around Daze checks, Forcefields and such.

[thaRuckus]

Thanks guys for the replies. Regarding actual play, I got stomped by the priestess late game - I let the game drag on too long, and stun/daze really did me in, like sdougla2 said. While the forge managed to produce all my equip, I feel like I really need to get Sectarus to make this build work. I simply could not put curses out fast enough, and was wasting actions casting when I should have been meleeing. Other than quick casting and then melee, is there another way to get a curse out when I need to melee attack that round? I really would love to QC, then quick spell a curse, then melee. Is that a possibility, or is sectarus my best option?

[sdougla2]

There's also the other familiar for the Warlock, but so far it's a promo you can get at organized play events. That gives you another way to cast curses. So there are 2 familiar options and just using a quickcast to play the curse.