Hearthpwn

Come in and Warm your Frozen Boots by the Fire!

Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Gunnolf, and I am originally from the Land Down Under a.k.a. Australia. I am an avid gamer that has acquired a real passion for card games, which originated from my humble beginnings as a Yu-Gi-Oh collector and eventually grew from my dabbling in Cardfight Vanguard and Buddyfight, until we reached the game we know as Hearthstone.

I've played Hearthstone since the days of classic, with multiple accounts on both EU and NA servers. Despite having reached the Rank of Legend and my own personal mentality of equating 'having fun' with 'winning', I am not really a fan of meta power-grinding & net-decking, not that there is anything wrong with that. Therefore, I enjoy thinking about new, cool and fun deck ideas that push boundaries while also allowing you to win and those are what I want to share with you guys every-time I post a decklist.

I have presently become a contributing writer to WILDHS and will be posting articles there on a semi-regular basis, regarding deck-archetypes the status of the meta as well as how to get the most fun out of this game even if you aren't a big spender. If any of this sounds interesting, then I highly recommend that you check out of the website, as the writers and the owner himself are some of the nicest people you'll ever meet with great in-game knowledge (link to be website can be found HERE). You can also follow me on Twitter for latest updates.

If you genuinely like my content and would like to see me produce more of it, then please consider supporting me on Patreon. This is by no means necessary but it will definitely help me out in the long run. Thanks for Reading ^^

---

Brief Forethought

My dearest Readers, Subscribers, Patrons and Friends let me start off by wishing you a very Happy New Year. May you achieve everything you want and need to achieve and may you all feel the love, happiness and warmth I am sure you all richly deserve. I apologise for my absence from the website over the last few days but rest assured more content is coming an I will be replying to all your lovely messages over the coming days. Times are tough for me but your continued support definitely gives me a lot of light to look forward to. Anyway on to the deck.

---

Deck Introduction

I am very, very certain that this deck needs no introduction. It has become and continues to be an infamous manifestation of the aggressive style of decks. Although in recent times, it may have been surpassed by other forms of aggro it still nonetheless is and continues to remain a threat. All Blizzard needs to do is print one low costing weapon for warrior and this deck will jump from its low tier 2 status all the way back to tier 1. The aforementioned will happen because it's Wild and Blizzard has continuously demonstrated what their stance is on the format. As usual, I will demonstrate alternate ways of playing of building the deck and what tech choices should be included to deal with the meta. All in all, if you ever feel burned out by playing combo/control decks all the way to legend, Pirate Warrior is still more than powerful to get you there. Enjoy and I promise that next month I will have another great homebrew Legend deck (assuming I get there with it) for you to experiment with.

---

Card Choices & Deck-Building Explained

In this section, I will explain some of the card choices I opted for and the reasoning as to why they were included over potential counter-parts. 

1) Woodcutter's Axe: Hooray for Witchwood. Still in the testing phase but this 2 drop weapon is still a great addition to the deck even if the deathrattle is useless.

2) Spellbreaker: This card is M-A-N-D-A-T-O-R-Y as a one of in your deck ( can potentially play two) because of the prevalence of Cube-Lock which has proven to be one of the toughest match-ups for the deck this season.

3) Captain Greenskin: I love this card and it is almost like he was specifically designed for this deck. Technically he can be substituted out (covered below) but as it stands, he's great for giving you extra reach with your weapons and provides pirate synergy.

(At the present time, only a few cards have been listed but I will include more if questions pop-up within the comments section regarding substitutions and why other cards were included.)

---

Possible Card Substitutions

This deck (in the way in which I have built it) only really has one real Flex(ible) Slot.

-1x Captain Greenskin / +1x Fel Reaver: Even without the Corridor Creepers you can include the 5mana 8/8 over the Upgrade effect since decks can easily struggle to deal with the stat dump and all the card needs to do is hit their face once and it will have accomplished its job (this is the main reason why I consider the card superior to Leeroy Jenkins, although he is a viable inclusion as well except not as good). Any more damage than that and you have probably won. Technically you can also play Bittertide Hydra but Fel Reaver is better against aggro mirrors.

---

What NOT to play in this Deck!

Ok, this is a new segment that I will occasionally do on some decks now and again but it won't be a recurring thing with every deck description. Anyway, there is one card that will never see play in this particular list and that is Prince Keleseth. Why won't this legendary see play? Well that is due to the simple fact that Ship's Cannon is way superior to any benefit the legendary prince can offer.

---

Guide & Match-ups:

This is probably the most important part of the guide, as the key to winning most games is knowing what you are up against and choosing your opening hand to respond accordingly. I will not include the full range of match-ups at the present time since this is primarily an aggro deck and the difference with how you mulligan for Reno Mage in Comparison to Reno Priest is almost identical. Therefore, I will limit my Match-up description to those that I found to be a little tricky and required some experience.

Vs Aggro Druid (28-17, Decklist Dependant 50-50): Historically, pirate warrior was considered unfavored against aggro druid but if hold your weapon charges for clearing minions and control the board to the best of your ability then you will definitely be favored to win. Watch out for Gollaka Crawlers. After the Fiery War Axe nerf they were cut from many lists but now they are slowly creeping back into fashion.

Vs Aggro Call to Arms Paladin (13-5, Favored): At first you might lose but as you get accustomed to playing against the deck you realise that even if they establish play Call to Arms if you establish your board dominance early then the spell itself is irrelevant. Just clear their strong minions like Ship's Cannon and Knife Juggler and you'll be on your way to a turn 5-6 victory.

Vs Aggro Mage (10-2, Favored): Make sure you bait out secrets like Explosive Rune and Mirror Entity with your small pirates. The damage you take to your face is wholly irrelevant in the early game as your objective is to rush them down. Their deck runs no real aoe apart from an rng one from Primordial Glyph but you honestly just never play around that. Priority kill that must die at all times is Flamewaker (Note: Make sure you test for Duplicate especially if you are considering killing a Kabal Crystal Runner).

Vs CubeLock & DemonLock (19-12, Barely 50-50): I hate this deck haha. I don't like huge minions being cheated out and if I were to comment on the deck, I would call it a slightly more balanced Big Priest. Anyway, most of the time the match-up comes down to kill by turn 6 or lose. For this match-up you almost always want to keep Spellbreaker in your opening hand since it was specifically included to deal with Voidlord. From 9-6 I faced a huge number of them and as a result I teched in a second one for the pocket meta. Beating them was a tad easier after that.

From my playing last season, these were the decks to beat. All the rest i.e. Renomage, Renopriest, Jade Druid, Exodia Mage, Combo Priest, Zoolock, Oil Rogue, Giants Hunter, Face Hunter were all typical rush-down/tempo playstyle. Essentially, describing the match-ups would offer nothing new. However I will state that Pirate Warrior is favored in all the match-ups listed above, now if the reno decks get Reno Jackson on 6 and Zoolock plays Prince Keleseth on 2 that is just bad luck for us. Even though in those situations the game may be not unwinnable it'll be much harder.

---

Small Mulligan Guide

You're chances to win the game are much higher with the coin so going second is a blessing so make sure to use it well.
You never want Patches the Pirate (well duh!) and you always want to have N'Zoth's First Mate and Ship's Cannon.
There is often great merit in keeping Spellbreaker against warlock just to be able to deal with Voidcallers and Voidlords.

---

Author's Notes

Pirate warrior is still a great aggro deck despite the repetitive nerfs it had to endure. You can easily still pilot it to Legend if you are feeling burned out from previous climbs and want to do something a bit more relaxed.

Please note dear reader that even though it is an aggro deck winning with any deck that is aggressive and achieving a winrate close to or above 60% can only be done with thought, tech choices and in game knowledge. Board flooding with this deck will only get you a 50% winrate as any other aggro deck. So when you play this version or any other deck for that matter, I plead with you, think out your turns even the simplest ones. Try to understand and calculate your odds of winning based off of what cards your opponent may have, what they kept in their mulligan and what they did up to that point.

Finally, I have more decks coming in the following weeks. One for Mage, one for Priest and one for Warrior so please stay tuned, leave an upvote, Subscribe and look at my other decks in the meantime.

I enjoy deck-building a multitude of interesting decks that are both entertaining and Legend viable (with some odd Free-to-Play lists mixed in). So if you like this deck (or anyone of my other ones) consider leaving a thumbs up, as it really helps in the long run! :)

Thank you guys for all your support and if you have any suggestions, let me know. 

 

Check out my other decks!

>>> CLICK HERE <<<