Warlock
I have the core set and 1 epic spell tome.
Equipment
Demonhide Armor
Dragonscale Hauberk
Elemental Wand
Fireshaper Ring
Helm of Fear
Lash of Hellfire
Moloch's Torment
Moonglow Amulet
Ring of Curses
Conjurations
Battleforge
Pentagram
X2 Wall of Fire
Attacks
X2 Flameblast
Fireball
Ring of Fire
Firestorm
Creatures
Adramelech, Lord of Fire
Malacoda
X2 Necropian Vampiress
Goran, Werewolf Pet
X3 Flaming Hellion
X3 Darkpact Slayer
X4 Firebrand Imp
Incantations
X3 Dispel
X2 Explode
Enchantments
X3 Agony
Death Link
X2 Decoy
X3 Ghoul Rot
X2 Harmonize
X2 Hawkeye
X3 Hellfire Trap
X2 Maim Wings
X3 Marked for Death
X3 Poisoned Blood
Burn. burns add up(that is if they don't get rolled off)
I'm concerned about mana. No mana crystals means a maximum of 12 channeling at the cost of 18 mana via both harmonizes and the moonglow amulet. The average casting cost for this build is ~7. When i switch up the moon glow amulet for moloch's torment( or if amulet gets dissolved), channeling will drop to 11,. Assuming my opponent dispels at least one of my harmonizes, leaves me at 10, if not 9(back where i started). Not a good spot to be in.
The only thing i can think of to make this work is pentagram to bring me my creatures. Casting pentagram and a bloodreaping firebrand imp turn 1 leaves me 0 mana. 9 next turn- harmonize on pent, another firebrand imp. then send those 2 imps to start hurting my opponent while gaining my pentagram mana. 0 mana again means 9 next turn- what to do... Battleforge. Start gearing up with the amulet, F ring and wand . Keeping in mind that early equipment casts are targets for dissolves, have the LOH, Moloch's, and curse ring for later.
Placing traps and decoys to bait out seeking dispels for cheap mana.
Then later in the game switching to cheap curses to make targets easier to bring down and bait out dispels. Eventually poison blood on enemy mage and ghoul rot, death link, marked for death. Boom. Dead.
Multiple copies of pretty much every enchantment means if i lose one or two to dispels i have one left for the mage. Tough to judge when to cast death link when going up against a deck with X6 Dispels/X5 Seeking Dispels. Never cast a curse unrevealed.
First, the average damage you will get out of a Burn token over the course of a game is 3 (assuming that your opponent doesn't remove it with Geyser or some other ability.
I would suggest the following changes:
I wouldn't suggest more than 6ish creatures for a Warlock. To that end, drop the Pentagram and ALL of the Firebrand Imps (they don't make good Blood Reapers and compare poorly to other level 1 creatures). The Darkfenne Bats are better (flying lets them survive longer and Rot is superior to Burn). Then drop some of the other creatures (I suggest dropping 1 Vampire, and down to 1 of each of the level 3 demons). The reason is that the Warlock scales poorly as the game progresses, yet begins the game with a lot of strength. So it is in your best interest to end the game sooner rather than later. As such, it is highly unlikely that you'll ever be able to cast more than a few creatures per game (since the good Dark creatures are all fairly expensive). You could honestly go down to 4 (my Warlock build only has Adramelech, Goran, Vampire, Dark Pact Slayer), though having more options isn't bad.
Additionally I would drop the Moonglow Amulet, the Dragonscale Hauberk, both Harmonizes, 1 Agony, 1 Poisoned Blood, 1 Marked for Death. Also I like Bear Strength over Hawkeye (you have more melee creatures and it is a +2 bonus instead of +1).
Now that you've dropped all those points, you can pick up several things that will fill holes in your deck.
To improve your mana, you can add 2 Mana Crystals (these cost less to cast than a Moonglow Amulet or a Harmonize on yourself, can't be removed with a dissolve/dispel/explode, and cost the same to put in your spellbook).
You really do want a few Nullify and Jinx cards. I personally like Nullify better; it prevents your opponent from casting NASTY things on you (I once stopped a Power Drain with this) and it is really cheap. Jinx is also really nice though. It costs you a quick action and three mana to deny your opponent a quick cast for one turn, so it's situational, but you can use it to prevent your opponent from casting dispel on your Bear Strength for a turn (allowing you to smack them with more dice) or casting a Teleport to escape, ect. It is a card that lets you keep winning once you already are, so I would recommend 1 or 2. Nullify is more useful, and I like 3-4 (though 2 is also fine if you need to save points).
For more Conjurations, a Deathlock and an Idol of Pestilence can really ruin some spellbooks. If you can defend an Idol you will utterly destroy a swarm deck, and Deathlock is a hardcounter to significant portions of a Priestess' power until it is destroyed. You probably won't use both every game, but they are so useful at ruining your opponent's day.
The Elemental Cloak is also a really nice thing to have; you can wear it at the same time as your armour and it gives you -2 to Flame, Frost, and Lightning in addition to +1 armour trait. The Leather Boots can also be nice; they cost 1 point to include in your book, cost 2 mana, and give you another +1 amour. This will give you a total of +4 armour, an unavoidable critical damage barrier (it ignores all armour - awesome!), -2 to the two scariest elements (also making it more unlikely you will get burned or dazed/stunned), and preventing melee attacks outright on a roll of 9+ with your helm. This will give swarm decks even more trouble (in addition to dealing with the Idol) and give you some decent protection against spellbooks that focus on 1 or 2 large creatures.
Then I would add in a Cheetah Speed, at least one Bear Strength, and some of the War Incantations (such as the one that allows a creature to make an extra quick melee attack after it makes a melee attack or the one that turns a melee attack into an unavoidable attack). Vampirism is also a very nice enchantment for large creatures, especially since it is in-school for you.
Very quickly in the game you will have to decide if you're going for an early-game victory or a mid-game victory (for example, against a Priestess you probably want her dead before she can take down Deathlock, but against a Beastmaster who is summoning tons of weak creatures a mid-game strategy is probably more appropriate since they will dominate in the early game but lose steam as the Idol keeps ticking away a 5th of their creatures' health each turn).
For a mid-game victory, the mana crystals and battleforge are a nice start, followed by some Hellfire Traps and Nullifies to protect yourself and your creatures. Goran is a nice mid-game creature (getting him out by turn 3 or 4 is doable with a 2x mana crystal + battleforge start).
On the other hand, for an early-game victory a quick Adramelech and Lash of Hellfire can wreck your opponent if they aren't prepared for an early-game bash. In this case, you can worry about casting the mana crystals and battleforge later if it looks like you won't be able to finish off your opponent.
An example would be something like this:
Turn 1 (19 mana) - move to the center zone closest to you and cast Hellfire Trap somewhere in your opponents space (either super-cheap damage for you or your opponent delays a turn hitting it with Seeking Dispel)
Turn 2 (26 mana) - cast Adramelech and put unrevealed Cheetah Speed on Adramelech if possible
Turn 3 (9 mana) - If opponent is in range, reveal Cheetah Speed and put on Bear Strength, run in and hit for 8 dice.
Turn 4 (9ish mana) - cast Lash of Hellfire and attempt to pummel your opponent's face
In subsequent turns just cast things that make you more scary, like a Bear Strength on yourself, Ring of Fireshaping, Cheetah Speed on yourself (if you have 2), Hellfire Traps/Walls of Fire in their way, ect until they're dead.
For a mid-game victory, you could try:
Turn 1 (19 mana) - Battleforge and Mana Crystal, move one space closer to center
Turn 2 (16 mana) - Hellfire trap in the center on their side, second mana crystal, move towards them.
Turn 3 (20 mana) - Cast Goran, Nullify on yourself
Turn 4 (13 mana) - Cast either Cheetah Speed or Bear Strength on Goran, get out your lash of Hellfire with the forge, try to hit your opponents with it
On subsequent turns, just try to keep the pressure on them. Goran isn't the same level of beast that Adramelech is, but he'll distract your opponent for a bit while you build up for Adramelech. Casting Vampirism on Goran will also give him a lot of staying power (with Bear Strength and in the same space as you his full action melee attack hits one target for 7 dice and then 3 dice).
Hope that helps.
