Discardlock, also known as Discolock or Discard Lock, is a warlock aggro or midrange deck that utilizes discard effect synergy.
Discardlock first made its presence in One Night in Karazhan, due to the addition of Malchezaar's Imp and Silverware Golem. This version of Discardlock followed a template close to Zoolock and persisted as the main aggro Warlock deck until Knights of the Frozen Throne with the addition of Prince Keleseth.
Journey to Un'Goro gave Discardlock another variation with the Quest card, Lakkari Sacrifice. This version of Discardlock, however, fell into many pitfalls related to the discard mechanic itself, seeing little play until Rastakhan's Rumble, which added many cards that fixed the issues that plagued the discard mechanic.
Deck type[]
Discardlock comes in two variants: the aggro version and Quest Warlock version.
The first version of Discardlock uses discard synergy effects like Silverware Golem, Clutchmother Zavas, and Fist of Jaraxxus for early-game tempo, while cycling through their deck with Malchezaar's Imp and Hand of Gul'dan. Despite discarding cards at a rapid rate, Expired Merchant and High Priestess Jeklik provides them with extra cards to use to continue maintaining momentum, and even if they don't draw them the drawback of discarding is negated if they don't have any cards on their hand to discard in the first place.
Quest Warlock, on the other hand, plays much more differently, utilizing a midrange or control playstyle instead. While it also heavily utilizes discard mechanics, it does not play the same way as traditional Discardlock because you are required to actually discard a card to complete the quest. The deck utilizes low-cost, high-value discard cards to maintain the early game, while utilizing Clutchmother Zavas, High Priestess Jeklik, and Soulwarden to mitigate the effects of discard or make up for lost value. Once the quest is completed, Nether Portal creates a constant stream of infinite board value to gradually overwhelm the opponent.
Common Cards[]
The following cards are usually in the deck.
Core cards[]
The following cards are played in most or all versions of the deck:
Optional cards[]
The following cards are played more than occasionally, but not always: