Hearthpwn

I thinkColdlight Oracle orCorrupted Seer could be great packages depending on what you need.

Currently I am thinking of either of these two..

x1Jeweled Scarab, 1xAzure Drake, 1xCorrupted Seer

OR

1xColdlight Oracle, 1xAzure Drake, 1xStampeding Kodo

Giants is much less consistent than this list though, which is why you see a guy getting legend rank with this and not OTK Giants.

The concept is really good and a great meta sniper. The problem is that if it gains success, its SUPER easy to counter. Right now, most top decks don't play the counters so this deck is able to thrive. So long as this remains a hushed underdog it can get a ton of wins. That said, I don't like lists that revolve around practically NEEDING a 3-card combo to win.

Quote from 2ndWFetzer »

Okay i played vs a better version of this deck 2 times now of rank 2 Players

And he would not have been able to win vs me until he played upgrade on his gorehowl!

i had 8 armor (because i knew it was this deck) but then he played upgrade, killed my armor

next turn i put my armor up to 1 again

then he: alexstrasza attack with gorehowl charge gg

You still need: The Black Knight and Upgrade for sure!! the guy that i played against had it and if he didnt i would have won.

I see a lot of people talking in stream chats about this list... What other cards did you see?

Quote from Jackwraith »

Nope. Just played six straight games against Mages and they completely handled this deck every time. Charge creatures just aren't cost-efficient enough or are just bad against Mages (Rocketeer), if not bad in general. The lack of card draw and the overwhelming amount of freeze in the current Mage card set makes winning with this kind of one-dimensional approach far too difficult.

Pretty much summed up the one test game I did with this list. You just run out of steam while the opponent still has a full grip.

I guess that entirely depends on how long your charge minions are reliably staying on the field. From my experience the opponent generally cleans up any chargers I drop next turn. Looking at something like Reckless Rocketeer, I doubt you're consistently getting more than five damage out of it. At that point in the game, wouldn't it be more reliable to be able to just shoot 4 or 6 damage at the face?

What are your thoughts on including Mortal Strike? I've found the card to be instrumental in giving this type of deck added reach that can go over taunt, the archenemies of a deck like this. Looking over the list, I'm not sure where I'd fit it in but I can't count the number of games I've won off double Mortal Strike late game.

If you're not playing 2x Fiery War Axe you're wrong. Add another Shield Slam (or cut the 3 armor related cards) and 2x Fiery War Axes, then you can start testing and tweaking. if you don't have the axes, you're not playing optimally. They are some of the BEST cards in the game.

I've done some more work with the deck. Please see the updated list below

Summary of how the deck plays:

The only inclusions in the current deck list that I am currently questioning are the Harvest Golems and the singleton Execute. I understand why the Harvest Golems are good but I just cannot bring myself to like them in this build. They offer no immediate board presence and the deck doesn't have the traditional means most of utilizing them that most lists do due to the small minion count. Execute would most likely come out for a Brawl to help deal with swarm decks.

Some possible considerations for the (?) slots with commentary are as follows:

Additionally, any two of the following silver bullets could fill the slots of the Harvest Golems:

Anyone have any suggestions for the taking this list the last mile? I've tried a more control oriented spell power list with greater draw power but I think that until Mind Control goes to ten mana, the deck can lose to priests easily due to the reliance on legendary finishers. I'll include that list below for anyone who might be interested.

OK so I gave the suggested changes a try and found them quite lacking for several reasons. Let's start with Armorsmith. This guy used to be the nuts in the Pyromancer deck where one could reliably expect to have multiple minions on the board to trigger the effect from Whirldwinds and the Pyromancer's AoE. In this deck, poor Armorsmith is a lonely 1/4 for 2 without any taunts or other beefy minions to take damage for her. Unfortunately she does nothing really to aid the deck in its main objective. 

A lot of people have been downing the warrior’s hero power, noting that it does little to help an aggressive deck. Indeed while the warrior’s ability does nothing to further the goal of making the opponent dead, it does give that warrior something that he desperately needs – staying power. Garrosh and his card set were not designed to dally with minions and trades. He was made to go at the face – Armor Up! merely ensures that the enemies health total drops first. With this in mind, I started working on the following:

Spells – 15

1x Inner Rage

1x Whirlwind

2x Upgrade!

2x Shield Slam

1x Cleave

2x Heroic Strike

2x Slam

2x Shield Block

2x Mortal Strike

Weapons – 5

2x Fiery War Axe

2x Arcanite Reaper

1x Gore Howl

Minions – 10

1x Bloodmage Thalanos

2x Arathi Weaponsmith

2x Kor’kron Elite

2x Azure Drake

1x Argent Crusader

1x Ragnaros, the Firelord

1x Grommash Hellscream

Anyone who is familiar with Magic: the Gathering will recognize the Red Deck Wins, at-you-face style of play that inspired this deck. Given the presence of Shield Block and Armor Up! Garrosh has the ability to take a beating while he spends his resources taking the enemy life total to zero. As such,Mortal Strikes, minion attacks and weapon durability should be directed at the enemy hero baring any must-remove threat such as Northshire Cleric 

After trying many enrage variants, I often found the creatures far too easy for other plays to remove “U-Mad-Brah.dec’s” motley assortment of pissed off hooligans. Indeed the theme of face smashing shards of glass holds true for the whole lot of the warrior’s crew. As such, I opted to play only minions that acted as if they were “spells,” or in other words, had charge or a powerful battle cry.

Given the heavy focus on weapon, armor and direct damage play there was little room remaining in the deck for normal assortment of neutral buff minions that are all the rage. Without the near guarantee of a minion on the board, Defender of Argus, Shattered Sun Cleric, and Dark Iron Dwarf all seem quite lackluster. Additionally the nerfed Battle Rage ceased to be something that could be relied upon to draw cards with the low minion count. 

The deck mainly generates card advantage through either cantrips such as Slam and Shield Block or through 2-for-1ing the opponent via beneficial trades. Given that the deck is mainly looking to go for the face, health and armor can be thought of as a form of virtual card advantage as all points to the dome but the last essentially don’t count. Using Armor Up! when there are no better plans can often allow one to go for the kill and survive by the skin of his or her teeth.

The deck has a lot of synergies that work really well together. A Shield Block followed up by a Shield Slam has the potential to handle most mid-end game threats that are featured in the current meta. For two mana, Slam can bring a minion such as Sen’jin Shieldmasta within Fiery War Axe or Heroic Strike range or pop a divine shield while drawing a card. Gorehowl, while normally either seven points to the face or a minion-chopping chainsaw, can be particularly devastating when combined with Upgrade! 

Mortal Strike is a phenomenal game closer along side Heroic Strike. The deck usually ends up winning with under ten health remaining which means that the 2x Mortal Strike are a form of reach that are often not accounted for by the opponent. They should be the last form of removal used given on-board problems. To best take advantage of Mortal Strike and Shield Slam it is important to swing FIRST then Armor Up! as in all situations Armor >>>> Life.

The deck faces problems vs. opponents who can drop multiple taunt creatures in a single turn. Mirror Image and Feral Spirit in particular give this deck fits as the lack of board presence means often spending a spell and a point of durability. Additionally, the inherent lack of powerful mid-game board clearing often means that swarm decks pose a challenge if killing them outright isn’t possible. Being limited to only one attack from the hero per turn means that token decks often can snowball enough to take the win if Cleave and/or Whirlwind are not drawn early.

While seven weapons including Arathi Weaponsmith may seem like a lot, even with Upgrade! the deck burns a lot of durability smashing face. The remaining creatures all have charge or spellpower, the latter being something I am currently tinkering with due to the large amount of damaging effects and cantripping nature of Bloodmage Thalanos and the Azure Drakes.

While I am quite pleased with the weapon and support spell exoskeleton, I am not yet happy with the minion lineup. While it’s working, I cannot help but feel there is a more effective combination of hitters. Here is a list of other creatures I’ve tried and found lacking:

Abomination: These guys seem on paper to be exactly what the deck needs. They have the AoE to take care of swam decks and can hold the line while Garrosh goes in for the kill. They can even be suicide for a final two points of damage. Unfortunately in practice I found that the create situations when the best play is to “rely” on them only to have them silenced, polymorphed, etc. leaving one in a terribly vulnerable position.

Captain Greenskin: An Upgrade! on legs, what’s not to love?!?!? Well… a lot. This is another card that looks like it would be amazing for the deck but in practice just isn’t that good. His cost, while efficient, is simply too much to invest. Many times I’ve found that when I can spare five mana, I’ve already exhausted my durability or need to wait ANOTHER turn to first play a weapon. Unlike Upgrade! he cannot usually come down the same turn as an Arcanite Reaper or Gorehowl for smashing. He also makes a terrible top deck for this type of deck. He’s much better suited for a deck like Artosis’s enrage deck that was featured in the Blizzcon Invitational.

Dread Corsair: Free 3/3 taunt minions seem awesome but with the all of the dodge-the-priests-removal four attack creatures and the buff trio, these guys don’t last long.

Sunwalker: These defensive juggernauts largely suffer from the same problem as the Abominations in that relying on them leaves one open to blow outs and not relying on them makes them quite useless. 

Novice Engineer / Acolyte of Pain: Without buffing mechanics for the Novice Engineers and ways to ensure multiple draws from the Acolytes of Pain that most decks these days run, these guys just felt lack luster. Indeed card drawing in general seems to not fit well with the warrior as even with a strong engine, its often hard to catch up. Much like the “Jund” archetype from Magic: The Gathering’s standard scene a few years back, warriors tend to fair better when they focus on card-for-card quality. 

Gadgetzan Auctioneer: In a similar vein, the Gadgetzan Auctioneers felt very “win more.” Either they were taken out immediately or they only further a winning situation. The Gadgetzan Auctioneer never did much once I fell behind and thus I find it not worth the slot.

In place of the spellpower, there are several other themes that I’d like to give a try. After looking at Artosis’s ek0p warrior weapon deck, one element I’d like to try to incorporate is the Bloodsail Raiders. I’ve tried them in the past and found that without charge, they are glass cannons that are removed immediately. Were I to include them I’d add them along side a Molten Giant-Warsong Commander package to take advantage of Garrosh’s suicidal tendencies.

Sylvanas Windrunner and Carine Bloodhoof are too powerful deathrattle minions that warrant testing now that silence has become much less prevalent in the meta. Sylvanas Windrunner specifically has been getting a lot of attention lately and I think she deserves a spot in the deck. Additionally The Black Knight seems to be a popular means of dealing with taunt nuisances though I wonder if he will suffer from the same problems as Captain Greenskin. Perhaps the lowly Ironbeak Owl is just as effective while also being capable of dealing with pesky priests wombo-combos. Finally Baron Geddon seems like he may be a potent option for crippling board control given how Brawl’s RNG nature makes it unplayable

Thoughts? Comments? Cute Kittens?