Hearthstone Corrupt Warlock Guide: Playing Tickatus and Y'Shaarj

To execute the primary win condition in Hearthstone Corrupt Warlock, keep Tickatus in hand while you play a card costing 7 or more mana, play the Corrupted Tickatus to burn five cards from your opponent's deck, and summon Y'Shaarj, the Defiler on Turn 10 to cast a 0-cost copy that burns five more.

Never play Tickatus while it is uncorrupted. Its baseline Battlecry burns the top five cards of your own deck; only the Corrupted version targets the opponent's library.

How the Tickatus and Y'Shaarj Engine Works

The archetype converts defensive survival into total deck destruction against control and combo decks through a specific sequence:

Hold Tickatus in hand: Tickatus costs 6 mana, meaning it cannot trigger its own Corrupt keyword.
Play a 7+ mana enabler: Casting a high-cost spell or minion while holding Tickatus activates its Corrupt state, changing its Battlecry to target the enemy deck.
Deploy Corrupted Tickatus: Playing it burns five cards from the top of the opponent's deck and logs the minion into your played Corrupt pool.
Summon Y'Shaarj, the Defiler on Turn 10: Y'Shaarj adds a copy of every Corrupted card played earlier in the match back to your hand and discounts their mana cost to (0) for that turn.
Replay your discounted threats: Play the free Tickatus immediately to burn another five cards (ten total across the match) alongside any free 6/6 Strongman Taunt minions returned by Y'Shaarj.

High-Cost Enablers to Corrupt Tickatus

Corrupting Tickatus requires playing an enabler on Turns 7 through 9. Use the following cards based on the board state:

Enabler Card	Mana Cost	Role and Board Impact
Soulciologist Malicia	7	Uses accumulated Soul Fragments to summon 3/2 Rush Souls, clearing mid-game boards while enabling Tickatus on curve.
Strongman (Uncorrupted)	7	Deploys a plain 6/6 Taunt; cast this only as an emergency enabler when you lack other 7-cost options.
Twisting Nether	8	Clears the entire board to reset overwhelming enemy pressure and prime Turn 9 for Tickatus.
Enhanced Dreadlord	8	Provides immediate protection through a 5/7 Taunt minion that summons a 5/5 Lifesteal minion upon death.

Maximizing Milling with Felosophy

Felosophy can duplicate Tickatus before it is corrupted, increasing your deck-burning potential to fifteen cards:

Clear low-cost Demons first: Felosophy targets the lowest-cost Demon in your hand. Play out cheap Demons like Spirit Jailer beforehand so Tickatus is the designated target.
Trigger the Outcast bonus: Position Felosophy on the far left or far right of your hand before casting to copy Tickatus and give both copies +1/+1.
Corrupt both copies together: Play an 8-cost enabler such as Enhanced Dreadlord or Twisting Nether while holding both copies to corrupt them at the same time.

Playing one Corrupted Tickatus from hand on Turn 9 and then dropping Y'Shaarj, the Defiler on Turn 10 allows you to chain the free Y'Shaarj copy and your second hard-cast copy over consecutive turns, burning fifteen cards and pushing opposing control decks into fatigue.

Matchup Strategy and Mulligan Priorities

Your role changes depending on the opponent's speed:

Against Control, Priest, and Combo

Mulligan: Keep Free Admission, Tickatus, and card-draw tools.
Game plan: Use your Life Tap Hero Power in early turns to find high-cost enablers. Protect Tickatus until it is fully corrupted, then assemble the Y'Shaarj turn to remove key combo pieces and late-game win conditions.

Against Aggro and Fast Tempo

Mulligan: Discard Tickatus and high-cost enablers entirely. Look for Armor Vendor, Spirit Jailer, Drain Soul, and School Spirits.
Game plan: Treat the match purely as a fight for survival. Use School Spirits to wipe early token boards and Hysteria on large opposing threats to force trades. Cast Cascading Disaster on Turn 4 even if uncorrupted if it removes a lethal minion. In fast matchups, Y'Shaarj serves as a defensive recovery tool that drops multiple free 6/6 Strongmans with Taunt rather than a deck-burning finisher.