Hearthpwn

Hey guys, Fr0zen here back from a 1 year break, recently I have been collaborating with another high ranked legend player Sylv in building a bunch of decks with fresh ideas. 2 weeks ago we created a Midrange Dragon Warrior that quickly became our favorite and we believe is a strong contender for a tier 1 spot in the right hands, at one point we were both holding top 5 legend with the list. Other notable players like Justsaiyan, Muzzy, Crimzig also achieved high win rates along with high ranks. I even made a reddit post but quickly deleted it deciding that it doesn’t do this amazing deck justice to post it without taking the time to write a detailed explanation or a guide and since I was busy with finals and family, the guide was delayed until today. The list was featured on the meta snapshot for warrior and played by multiple streamers like Kibler and Justsaiyan.

Started Streaming on Twitch again http://www.twitch.tv/fr0zen5499/ if you like the deck and wanna see it played more be sure to drop a follow.

Stats/Proof from 2 weeks ago:

Stats:

http://i.imgur.com/a96vWfz.png

nearly 500 games since then but I didn't sort them between my control warrior stats.

Ranks:

http://i.imgur.com/x9hego3.png

Decklist at that time:

http://i.imgur.com/m7zjyaN.png

Current List:

http://i.imgur.com/sTTcgc5.png

Proof:

http://i.imgur.com/QpQ1s2M.jpg http://i.imgur.com/RifzMi8.png

Before you play though, this deck is probably one of the hardest deck I’ve ever played in the game and needs crazy high skill cap and a deep understanding of both dragon decks and control warrior archetypes so don't be discouraged if you fail at first.

Core Cards 24 Cards:

The decklist posted is not the most refined but the one we achieved the ranks with, since then we made some modifications and probably tested every remotely playable card for this deck. Since the archetype is very different, I would like to give insight on the thoughts behind our card choices.

2x Execute: This card is core and strong because the amount of card draw we put in the deck, with the amount of pings and cycle it becomes a way of gaining a lot of tempo while being viable in every matchup.

2x Fiery War Axe: One of the strongest cards in the game highest value early game card and an auto include in every warrior deck.

2x Slam: Cycle is extremely important and slam pretty efficient one, strong in both aggro and control matchups. Against aggro you generally use the card to clear knife jugglers when you miss war axe while in control matchup the cycle is vital for you to get into your big threats.

2x Alexstraza’s Champion: Hands down the strongest card in the game and auto include in every deck if no conditions are to be met. If you think about it, at worst its usually a dark bomb but at best it's a 3/1 deal 3 damage if you run it into a darnassus aspirant or mechwarper, you can also feel great about charging it into your opponents face on turn 2 as the deck has a lot of strong finishers.

1x Cruel Taskmaster: Really debate about having 2 of this card as core but the fact is it’s probably one of the most cuttable cards from this list. Although flexible and one of strongest cards against face aggro, the card is very lackluster against control which makes it a card you can think about dropping. You should have at least one as it is important to have enough triggers for Grommash in a lot of control matchups.

2x Acolyte of Pain: A very staple card in control warrior but also fits incredibly well with this deck, you have as many ways to trigger it as control warrior and it helps you cycle toward your dragons for your dragon synergy cards. By itself it’s usually a 3 mana 1/2 that draws 2 cards and can occasionally trade up with cruel task master.

1x Big Game Hunter: Core in almost every deck that isn’t full face aggro, remember you can cruel task bgh 5 attack minions which is almost always correct for tempo.

2x Death’s Bite: Another extremely powerful card that synergizes with most of the deck, the whirlwind is your only aoe against most decks particularly secret paladin although it does only 1 damage you can us your pings and slams to clear board most of the time.

2x Blackwing Corrupter: Half the reason to play dragon decks, the card is a fire elemental that you can play on 5 mana with a condition.

1x Dr. Boom: At first I wasn’t going to include it in the core cards but then I realized how stupid I was, still the best neutral card in the game, it is important that you remember you can use your deaths bite whirlwind and boombots to clear board. One of the strongest aspects of the card is that if you’re alive against aggro, you can usually set up lethal with turn 7 Dr. Boom turn 8 Grommash.

1x Grommash Hellscream: Core in control warrior, by itself it can remove midrange minions like azure drake but with a trigger it can allow you to do 16 damage a turn with Death’s Bite and cruel task.

6x Dragons (4x Core):

I broke this part off because it is core to have 6 dragons at least but only 4 of them are core the last 2 is interchangeable.

2x Twilight Guardian: The other half of the reason to play dragon decks, taunts are extremely powerful in this game as it often forces your opponents to take bad trades and this stat wise is pretty much as strong as Chillwind Yeti on 4 yet it has taunt.

2x Azure Drake: Probably the strongest dragon card pre expansions, not only does it fit the theme of the deck, the spell power also comes in handy with slam and sometimes bashes.

2x Dragon: Although which other 2 dragons you include isn’t core, fact that there are 6 dragons in the deck is core. To clarify with math, without considering mulligans you draw a dragon in your opening hand 77% of the time by the time you play alexstraza’s champion and 87% of the time by the time you play twilight guardian without considering card draw.

Cards Considered (bold more viable ones)

2x Zombie Chow: When this card was in the deck aggro shaman was the largest part of ladder, zombie chow destroys shaman as it can be cruel tasked to kill totem golem and tunnel troggs while contesting all of shamans 1 drop. The card is often extremely painful to draw vs control decks however.

2x Cruel Task: In the list I’m currently running because of the synergy the card brings to the deck.

2x Bash: Also in current list as it gives an extremely efficient card against aggro decks nearly a core card. Although unfairly priced as a deal 3, the armor gain helps you survive while using your efficient cards like War axe and Death’s bite.

2x Blackwing Technicians: The upside of the card +1/+1 isn’t strong enough to offset the downside of doing nothing if you miss a dragon.

2x Fierce Monkey: After thinking through I believe that developing a zombie chow on turn 1 isn’t that good in the deck and the heal 5 is often detrimental. Also if you miss zombie chow on 1 it is painful to resort to chow hero power on 3 against a lot of the field. Fierce monkey does zombie chows job against aggro with taunt while often protecting your future taunts from silence.

1x Brawl: The deck simply doesn’t need this card since this card usually doesn't generate tempo, if dragon warrior falls so far behind that the core cards can’t help you comeback, you probably already lost the game. Brawl being a dead card in most of the matchup makes it a terrible include as most hands don’t have enough room for tech cards.

1x Brann Bronzebeard: My favorite card in the deck and currently played this card destroys warlock especially since its hard for reno or handlocks to deal 4 damage on turn 3 or 4, and a variety of control decks by itself. Stats wise 2/4 for 3 isn’t even terrible but the effect can often be game breaking against control decks while almost every minion has a battle cry.

1x Emperor Thaurissan: Really wanted a card to fit the 6 mana slot and fancied the idea of Brann Nefarian but realized that there aren’t enough broken things that Emperor enables us to do in this deck.

1x Sylvanas: The deck is midrange so it needs lot of tempo which this card doesn’t give.

2x Volcanic Drakes: Really cool idea brought up by Crimzig, on paper with deaths bite and pings it's a 2-4 sometimes 0 mana 6/4 that allows dragon synergy but in reality most of the time you really need it on board it's a 6/4 that just dies to shredder.

2x Drakonid Crusher: The idea of the card is cool but it’s too slow to and has a condition that can only be met vs. midrange and control and I have to tell you, even in the rare times you get the condition off a 9/9 for 6 mana is too slow vs midrange while a 9/9 vs control just dies to bgh or other removal.

1x Chillmaw: Ran it for a while but you come to realize that the card clears your own board just as often as it clears your opponents can be core in the right metagame if more zoos and patron midrange paladin pops up. Stat wise a 7 mana 6/6 taunt isn’t the most appealing either.

1x: Alexstraza: Absolutely terrible in the deck, literally a 8/8 for 9 that sometimes deals damage to yourself. The deck has too much chip damage and tempo for it to be run and the only benefit is the few times you survive till turn 9 and heal yourself.

1x Nefarian: Nefarian was in the list before we decided Ysera was better in every way and also when I got Brann Bronzebeard off with Nefarian and ended up with 4 useless spells instead of 2.

1x Onyxia: The coolest card in the deck and probably the greatest contribution by Sylv when creating the deck. When you go through all the dragons, they each have their own special effects but none of them generates tempo. Onyxia is different, since against a lot of decks our board is going to be constantly cleared Onyxia summons 14/14 worth of stats which very often pushes lethal the card like dr. Boom also can’t be effectively dealt with by any cards except maybe twisting nether.

1x Nozdormu: Only considered this deck because I queued into Lifecoach while playing this deck. Also, you rope while playing secret paladin Lifecoach, seriously :/.

1x Ysera: Best value minion in the game, only weak to a small amount of removal that are often extremely slow, wins every long game and often gives combo cards for a lot of damage.

1x Deathwing: Inspired by Fibonacci, the card is really cool in warrior decks and does well against a number of decks but so often it just loses you the game if removed and your topdecks without dragon synergy unlike control warrior topdecks is really bad.

Matchups and Mulligans:

Across the board always keep (usually 1): War Axe, Alexstrasza’s Champion, Twilight Guardian

Keep acolyte against control matchups

Vs. Midrange Druid (60/40) Vs Aggro Druid (65/35)

Druid has always had trouble dealing with dragon decks as they generate a lot of tempo, keep developing minions and controlling the board and keep out of combo range, the matchup is usually pretty easy since you can take away their tempo with your efficient removals and high value minions.

Keep bgh vs aggro keep execute vs midrange

Vs. Freeze Mage (90/10) Vs Tempo (65/35) The matchup against freeze mage plays like druid but with armor gain making it very unfavored for freeze mage, vs tempo mage you have more cards that usually generate more tempo than they do and your cards usually kills their minions which is extremely important as they do not have a lot of minions.

Vs. Secret Paladin (37/63) Vs. Midrange Paladin (50/50) Vs. Murloc Paladin (60/40)

Try to keep board control with your removals against secret paladin, you usually do pretty well against challenger up until the point they play Tirion and you instalose. Against midrange you have the burst to finish them and the aoe’s to clear. Against murloc paladin you want to be extremely aggressive and constantly pressure their life total, late game you need make sure they are stuck constantly stuck between playing lay on hands and clearing your board.

Vs. Control Priest (65/35) Vs. Dragon Priest (60/40)

Against control try to keep pressuring them and take favorable trades, make them scared of Grommash lethal as much as you can. Against dragon priest if you draw war axe or alexstraza’s champion you are pretty much set as it always 2 for 1’s them. Always keep execute in this matchup in case they play a deathlord or velen’s a minion.

Vs. Oil Rogue (80/20) Vs. Malygos Rogue (60/40)

Oil rogue is a much more favorable matchup than Malygos rogue because oil rogue requires board control which this deck does a brilliant job denying in order to do enough damage to kill you but Malygos rogue does damage from hand and has strong clears. Always clear rogues board even if you have to use your removals inefficiently since they only have a set amount of theats in their deck.

Vs. Aggro Shaman (70/30)

Although I farmed Shaman at a much higher winrate than I believe the matchup is, you can easily still lose if they nut draw you and you miss a removal or a dragon for a taunt. You want to force the shaman to use damage on your minions and pray you can set up lethal by turn 7 turn 8, you also have to remember that their biggest minion is most likely totem golem which means you shouldn't feel bad throwing your execute on it.

Vs. Renolock (50/50) Vs. Handlock/Demonlock (40/60) vs. Zoolock (40/60)

These matchup all take a ton of thinking and planning in order to win. Against handlock they often build too many walls for you to remove you end up not being able to kill them while also having to play around molten giants. Against renolock, you actually have enough cycle to outdraw them and then drop more bombs than them but the difficulty is to get through all their board clears and be able to actually kill them. Against zoolock they can often run you out of resources and pressure you out of resources or removal and kill you before you can drop your own bombs.

Finally Vs. Control Warrior (65/35) Vs. Patron Warrior (65/35)

The deck plays like a midrange deck with a lot card draw which allows you to consistently drop bomb after bomb on control warriors until they end up dying. Most of your minions also require your opponent to trade 1 for 1 card wise often drying up their card supply. The pings and removal of the deck actually always allow you to kill all of the patrons the turn its spawned making the patron matchup really easy.

Tips (IMPORTANT)

If your opening hand is strong you can very well consider keeping higher cost dragons.

Always remember to setting up for lethal is usually better than your opponents 2 damage minion, forcing them to trade will often win you more games.

Make sure you have a play the dragon synergy cards before your dragons.

Always develop minions over weapons on an empty board.

Thoughts:

This deck could easily eventually become a tier one deck as it includes all the necessities of a stable deck with enough card draw, board control minions, and burst. Overall the deck is a blast to play despite the high skill cap and I wish you all good luck on ladder.

FAQ:

Armorsmith: Although I never considered it, I know many will ask why not armorsmiths, the card is really bad and inefficient against most minions and the armor gain does nothing in this deck. This deck is a midrange deck and a 1/4 on board is not going to cut it.

No 6 Drops: At first I thought having a 6 drop for curve is important but then I realized that the deck can squeeze a lot of things together on 4 with a lot of active combinations that allow you to curve out perfectly. There are no solid tempo 6 drops that fit in the deck that there’s any remote reason to run.

At the end of the season I did in fact hit top 100 legend however I did not do it with this deck since about 30% of the meta was running secret paladin and the matchup against secret paladin is very unfavored. I hit top 100 legend with renolock.

Still very top tier deck with high win rates across the board the last 2 days I played. http://i.imgur.com/aMfNmFX.png Streamed a little with a VOD hope it helps. http://www.twitch.tv/fr0zen5499/v/34000652