Hearthpwn

I'll start with core cards in this deck. From my statistics there is a top 3 card that i almost always keep :

 

Death's Bite : 100% seen/kept. i kept this card every single time it popped in my starting hand for a good reason : Patron is a deck that wants to control the state of the board killing midrangy minions and this card kills almost everything on curve from turn 4 to turn 5. You should always use the last charge to either spawn patron/pump Berserker or setting up a draw engine with  Battle Rage/Acolyte of Pain. Don't use it if you can't get profit out of the whirlwind effect . You might be tempted to use the last charge against a board full of 1/1 and some other junk but that's the wrong play. The free whirlwind effect will make the comeback easier later on...and patron is awesome at coming back.

 

Acolyte of Pain: 87.3% seen/kept. This little dude is really important and you have to learn how to abuse it as much as you can. NEVER play it if you can't draw at least 1 card on your turn damaging it...basically you need to set up Acolyte to draw at least 2 cards out of it (one in your turn, and 1 from the opponent attack). Inner Rage on acolyte might seem weird but is totally legitimate, Death's bite is also fine but hiding this dude behind an Unstable Ghoul is one of my favourite play against aggro and attrition matchups in general. In general Acolyte is an high priority target for your opponent....use it wisely. I love to Slam my own acolyte  A LOT.

 

Side Notes : If you suspect a mirror match Execute the opponent acolyte. It's extremely important

Fiery War Axe : 80.3% seen/kept Once again, you want to control the board in the early/mid game and this card fits this role perfectly. I never kept this card against Priest and Warrior or if i knew the opponent was playing Handlock.

 

Side Notes : there are list only running 1 Fiery War Axe and there is a great debate about the right number. My take on it is that you can skip the second axe in a heavy control meta but you absolutely want the second in a aggro/midrange meta

Combo Core Card :

Warsong Commander : NEVER KEEP Yeah, it's called Grim Patron Warrior. Yeah it often wins with huge Frothing Berserker...but this deck would not exist at all without this card. Your usual game plan is to use the first warsong to take control of the board with combo and SAVE  the second one for your Frothing Berserker....be aware, once you throw away both Commanders in control matchups you are dead...just concede seriously.

 

Side Notes : Against paladin, Hunter and mech/tempo mage, one of my favourite play is to reverse the aggression making 4 patron on turn 5-6 and then the turn later drop the Warsong Commander to make more patron and activate a battle rage. This effectively makes you combo 1-2 turn earlier against those deck most of the time and the game is over.

 

Frothing Berserker & Grim Patron : At the start of the game and in the first 3-4 turns you have to decide your gameplan accordingly with your resources. Usually against control you want to go for a Emperor Thaurissan & Frothing Berserker  kill (see the combo below) and against midrange/aggro a bunch of patron often do the trick.

 

Side notes : once you have a plan, stick with it. That means that if you are setting up a Grim Patron you can use Frothing Berserker as a tempo play and vice versa

 

Combo : The Frothing Berserker kill requires a delicate setup. You need the following cards:

 

2x Frothing Berserker 1x Warsong Commander 1x Emperor Thaurissan and at least 2 whirlwind activator of any kind. Search aggressively for those card and drop Thaurissan only when you are ready to kill the opponent in the following turn. The perfect kill is : 2x Frothing Berserk 1x Warsong Commander 1x Emperor Thaurissan Grim Patron and 2x Whirlwind.This is you usual kill for CW that stacked up a lot of armor

 

Draw Engine : 

Slam : it's a really nice card, it removes many aggro threats and at the same time it cycle himself in the control matchup. Against Dragon Priest (or dragon decks in general) save it to kill Twilight Guardian with Death's Bite. Remember that you can even Slam your own Acolyte of Pain or Grim Patron

 

Acolyte of Pain : See above

 

Shield Block : it's a bad card in this deck. I really hate this card actually since it synergies poorly with battle rage in the control matchup (where Battle Rage is already quite hard to use effectively)...it's mostly used because on turn 3 there is often nothing to do (Acolyte should be saved) but it basically just cycle himself and nothing else. 5 Health are irrilevant in most matchups since you are already ahead in the aggro game where it could matter. I hate this card in Patron.

 

Battle Rage : Your best card draw engine. Usually using a battle rage for 3+ usually wins you the game and if you have this card in hand you should try as hard as you can to setup your board to abuse it. Don't be too greedy, often even battle raging for 2 is fine if you need to fix your hand.

 

Coldlight Oracle : So, this is the unusual card i'm using but i find it's a good card in this deck. The problem with Coldlight Oracle is that even if the effect is symmetrical YOU are the one paying for it and you are passing the initiative to your opponent...and that is bad indeed. But still it turns out it's not as bad in Patron Warrior. The point is that when this deck has the right tools it's simply unbeatable and when it doesn't it sucks pretty bad. The point is that the 2 card i'm drawing are going to matter MORE than the 2 cards you are drawing...as simple as that.

 

Side notes: Coldlight Oracle is amazing against control (handlock & CW specially)... Control decks just plays 1 threat a turn and their turn are pretty much predictable...Especially against patron they usually sit on 9 card waiting to react and that's the case where Oracle shines the most. It backfires against aggro sometimes but i feel Patron is so ahead in the aggro matchup that it doesn't really matter and a big turn of Armorsmith is all you need to stabilize anyway

 

Activators :

Inner Rage : Never keep Inner rage. is an activator that makes the turn 5 Patron combo possible even without coin but it's a card you want to draw in the 5-6 turn most of the time.

 

Side Notes: cycling Inner Rage  on Acolyte is ok. It puts the dude outside of Cabal Shadow Priest in the Dragon Priest matchup(really important) and it makes it fight the opponent acolyte better in the mirror. If you are playing against a deck that runs belcher save 1 to kill it with a single patron

 

Whirlwind & Unstable Ghoul: the fill the same role for 2 different matchups :  Whirlwind is better against control since it costs zero mana with Thaurissan for the One Turn Kill. Unstable Ghoul is better against aggro. It's literally a nightmare for Secret Paladin (i actually mulligan aggressively for this card in this matchup)

 

Side Notes : Ghoul is 2 more damage per each Frothing Berserker. Remember that YOU CANT Execute your own Ghoul to proc the whirlwind effect. I lost a game cause of it and the streamer named "Dog" from team Value Town lost a game in the recent tournament since he tried the same thing .

 

Death's Bite : see above for desription...once again, being cold blooded on Death's Bite last charge and maximize his effect is the first thing you need to master to become a good Grim Patron Warrior. I have no doubt about that.

 

Emperor Thaurissan : this is the second card you need to master to become a good Grim Patron Warrior....this card makes the impossible possible but it's really tricky to use and it's nearly impossible to list every scenario...but the main rules are: 

 

-Never play it you only have and hand full of activator but no combo pieces (or just 1 combo piece)

 

-Always play it when you have the cards listed in the OTK combo that i wrote above

 

-it's fine to keep Thaurissan in the starting hand in the following matchups : Handlock / Dragon Priest / CW or every other control deck 

 

-Mind Trick if the situation is desperate just slam thaurissan on the board....most of the time it will save you 5 health and the opponent will suspect an incoming OTK and will start playing more defensively

 

-Mirror Match the mirror match requires little to no skill...the first guy who goes off with combo usually wins but thaurissan makes the comeback possible even with a single Frothing&Warsong due to the huge amounts of patron spawning with whirlwind on the opponent side

 

Other Cards:

 

Armorsmith : This is you third win condition aganst aggro decks. Save it for high whirlwind turns and they'll usually win you the game even if you don't have patrons on the field. It's an high priority target for the aggro player so you have to optimize this card as much as you can...it's not unusual to finish the game at 7 health and 35+ armor

 

Execute : Hands down the best removal in the game. Always keep against handlock and hold on against dragon priest for the creature that gets chosen by Velen Velen's Chosen

 

Dread Corsair : feel free to replace this card with whatever suits your gamestyle/meta better. I mostly used this card lately as a Repenteance checker. I used even Loatheb (surprisingly good, Loatheb is just a really solid card) in this slot or Gnomish Inventor 

Gameplan: It's possible to kill both with Grim Patron or Berserker Combo. In the Midrange version avoid to summon more than six creatures on the field to play around Consacration

 

Against Secret : - Use Execute as tempo play if needed to stabilize

 

                            - Setting up a big Armorsmith turn often wins you the game since they                               don't have burst

 

                            - It's really hard for them do deal with Patrons, any of the 4-Patron Combo is fine

 

Against MidRange:  - Save Execute for Tirion Foldringa nd Boom

 

                                   - Always kill recruits, and i mean EVERY recruit

 

                                   - While Equality and Consacration can wipe your board                                      is not worth to play around it.  Just don't go All-in with combo

 

Early game :

 

There are currently 2 Paladins on the ladder (Secret and Midrange) and both are favorable matchups. You should always mulligan for Death's Bite and Fiery War Axe and in both games it's crucial to keep the opposite side of the field clean. The midrange version is actually harder since they can often Muster + Quartermaster rushing you down really quickly. This is one of the few cases where using a Whirlind effect without value is worth. Unstable Ghoul is a really strong card in both matchup since it blocks Shielded Minibot into Muster for Battle curve.

 

Mid game : 

 

In both games it's usually worth to make 4 Patron is you have control of the board, otherwise just keep drawing. This is the point of the game when using your resources wisely is crucial, if you don't have combo don't panic and just try to lower the pressure

 

Late game : 

 

It's usually when you start doing your tricks with big draws an a lot of pressure with patrons...nothing to say here, if you arrived at 8 mana with some health your are going to win the game 99% of times. Against Secret this is either an armorsmith turn or a Patron and warsong turn

 

Side Notes : Against Secret paladin Playing Frothing Berserker as a tempo play is fine, it captures the attention of your opponent leaving Acolyte of Pain unchecked

Warlock is usually a really really tricky matchup. You are either facing Handlock or Zoolock and your choice on mulligan makes the situation weird. If you keep a good hand against Handlock you are probably gonna lose if the opponent is actually a Zoolock and vice versa. The "good" news is that Handlock is so hard for you that is not even worth trying to mulligan for certain cards (such as Execute or Emperor Thaurissan) and your best bet is just to search for cards to counter Zoolock like weapons.

Zoolock: 

 

Zoolock is a creature archetype deck. It revolves around sticky minion and some burst in the form of Doomguard and Power Overwhelming. That said weapons are really good and your win condition is Patrons. You'll always play berserker as a tempo play since their pressure is really really high and your whirlwind will often proc their Nerubian Egg. Once you start making patron the game is over so you just want to keep their board in check and draw into combo. You don't need Warsong Commander and the classical 4 patron turn is often unbeatable for them.

 

Early game: 

 

Kill everything they drop at you but leave the Haunted Creeper untouched. Most of the time they will avoid playing Knife Jugler in the early game, but when they play it on turn 5 you can often just play Patron and proc the creeper with a small creature for extra Patrons. Surprisingly this works often ! Cycle your Slam play your Acolyte of Pain and Battle Rage even for 2....you really need Patron

 

Mid game: 

 

At mid game you are basically experiencing a good amount of pressure. You need Patron by turn 5-6 or you can simply concede. This is also the point where you should leave the Voidcaller alive....you can't afford to face Doomguard or Malganis at this stage of the game unless you have Execute

 

Late game :

 

Once again if you are into the late game you have won. It's auto-pilot from turn 8.

 

 

Side Notes : You might be tempted to search for Armorsmith but it's really easy to remove in this matchup,,,more often then not it will just gain you 4 life and some armor, you can't rely on it to win against zoolock 

 

HANDLOCK:

Handlock is simply the worst matchup for this deck. They have many Aoe, they have big taunts and they hit hard. You can't use Patron to win this game, your only chance is to use Berserker for a OTK and never put him at an health lower than 20 before your big turn. You usually need Thaurissan Frothing, warsong ,a couple of Whirlwind effect and at least 1 Execute. Your tactic is just to draw as much as you can an play a small Patron combo (without Commander) as a tempo play.

 

 

Early game: 

 

If they are tapping on turn 2, you are facing an handlock. You should try to draw as many cards as you can. Use weapons to kill Ancient Watcher (since sooner or later they are gonna taunt it anyway or Shadowflame it) and drop your small minions to try a setup for Battle Rage in the mid game.

 

Mid game:

 

This is when Mountain Giant and Twilight Drake drop on the field...don't waste your Execute for drake if it's not taunted, always execute the giant to gain more time....cycle your slam on this minions. Whenever is possible try to save the last Death's Bite charge. Use your Battle Rage even for 1, you can't afford to setup it most of the time.

 

Late game:

 

In turn 6-7 you want to have Thaurissan Frothing, warsong ,a couple of Whirlwind effect and at least 1 Execute, If you don't, just continue drawing as much as you can and buy some time with your smal taunts. If you have thaurissan and some combo pieces your best bet is to drop it and hope for the best. 

 

Side notes: The matchup is terrible....but i feel you are actually favoured in every game you can play Thaurissan on turn 6. Basically if you don't see Thaurissan and the Handlock player has an average hand...it's pretty hard to win....with Thaurissan your chance of winning change drammatically. Just DRAW DRAW DRAW DRAW.

In this section i'll refer to druid as the combo druid that most likely looks like this :

Kolento Legend #1 Druid Unknown Deck by LegacyDecks - Sep 17, 2015 View Deck String Export to BBCode Export to Cockatrice Export to MarkDown Export to Html Clone this deck
Minion (17) 1x Dr. Boom 1x Emperor Thaurissan 2x Ancient of Lore 1x Ancient of War 2x Shade of Naxxramas 2x Azure Drake 2x Darnassus Aspirant 2x Keeper of the Grove 2x Druid of the Claw 2x Piloted Shredder	Ability (13) 2x Force of Nature 2x Innervate 1x Living Roots 2x Wild Growth 2x Wrath 2x Savage Roar 2x Swipe
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. There is also something like a taunt Druid (not really common in the ladder right now) but it's not really an hard matchup at all since big taunts without AoE are bad against Patrons. Combo druid, on the other hand, it's a fairly even matchup where the patron is slightly favoured (my win percentage is 58%) but the druid player can still win some games.

 

Match Overview: 

 

-So you are playing Patron, a combo deck that usually works either wonderfully or terribly wrong when you are drawing bad.

 

-The opponent is playing combo Druid, a deck that (exeption for few cards) has been around in the competitive scene since....well, since forever. It's a solid deck, playing efficient and flexible minions and a nice finisher. 

 

In few words it's a match between snowball potential (the Patron) vs solidity (the Druid). Your main plan is to have control of the board at every turn of the game. Druid is eccellent at throwing threats but once he lose control of the board it's almost impossible for them to get it back.

 

Early game:

 

With the addition of Darnassus Aspirant is often correct to keep a Fiery War Axe & Death's Bite hand. You are going to use your weapons constantly and they are your best tool to keep them at a steady 0-1 minion on the field. If you don't have Death's Bite never keep Acolyte of Pain. The drawing dude is too fragile in this matchup and will always require an activator (an activator that you can't afford to keep or the ramp nature of druid will tempo-you-out of the game). You can throw Armorsmith out in this game since it's unlikely you are going to outarmor a druid. Frothing Berseerker is not needed to win this match up Patrons are way more than enough, so use Frothing as a tempo play to prepare your board for the mid game skirmish.

 

Side Notes : You might be tempted to cycle Slam in the early game but that's a bad play (unless of course your hand is terrible). The ideal use of Slam is taking down a Druid of the Claw in combination with Death's Bite...so try to save it whenever it's possible

 

Mid Game : 

 

At this stage you are probably facing  Piloted Shredder and/or Druid of the Claw. This is the most important stage of the game where you either :

 

-Make a small 4 patron combo ( do this only if you leave NOTHING on the opposite field)

 

-Buy some time using Execute really aggressively

 

(Belive it or not the only target for Execute in this Matchup Ancient of War, but even the gigantic taunt is no match if you have a bunch of patron...you'll simply brute force it the old good way without any problem. The other target is Boom...but once again, it's not threating at all if you are already in the Patron business)

 

-Play Emperor Thaurissan whatever your card is. Similiar to the aggro matchup, it's really hard to get value out of OTK with Thaurissan in this matchup, but still, whenever he is played the opponents needs to play more carefully (not overextending, killing it immediatly etc etc). He also brings back a balance in the tempo of the following turn discounting your activators, and card draws

 

Mid game is also where you want to be less reckless about your life total in preparation of their combo

 

Late Game:

 

Once again in this stage ,if everything went smoothly, you are winning....and aganist druid you are winning badly. They have literally no way to come back...the only "delay" in your winning is when they use the full combo to kill 4 of your patron. But that's on 9 and by that time you probably had a big battle rage and dealt 15-20 damage to him while they are throwing away their finisher

 

Side Notes : No matter how hard you are winning, if you have the chance for a big battle rage or more damage with some activators ALWAYS chose the big battle rage (this is more a general rule, unrelated with this matchup)....seriously i mean always (unless you have lethal of course)