Razor's Math Warrior [Legend]
- Last updated Oct 2, 2014 (Naxx Launch)
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Wild
- 20 Minions
- 6 Spells
- 4 Weapons
- Deck Type: Ranked Deck
- Deck Archetype: Unknown
- Crafting Cost: 5320
- Dust Needed: Loading Collection
- Created: 9/29/2014 (Naxx Launch)
- RazorHS
- Registered User
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- 4
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- 6
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Battle Tag:
N/A
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Region:
N/A
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Total Deck Rating
487
Stream: twitch.tv/badrazor
Peak rank season 5: #40 - Peak rank season 6: #133
Video of combo in action (twitch)
Some fun and instructive games (twitch)
Introduction
This deck is inspired by my old Molten Panda Combo Warrior deck. After the Warsong Commander nerf that restricted the minions that received charge to 3 attack or less, I continued to brew ideas to make it usable again in my spare time. The earliest incarnation of this deck actually made an appearance in Deck Wars Season 1 vs StrifeCro, where it was able to take 2 games in a best of 5. It wasn't until Naxxramas where both the metagame and the new card pool made a truly viable Warsong Commander deck possible again.
Do we have lethal? Let's do some math...
The name 'Math' Warrior comes presumably from Hyped, where one of my stream viewers told me he referred to it as such because of the extreme amount of counting the deck requires at times. I found the description very appropriate and decided to name it as such.
I played various iterations of this deck exclusively in ranked ladder in both Seasons 5 and 6, making Legend both times. I peaked at Legend #40 in Season 5, which to add some context, was before the Leeroy and Buzzard nerfs. I also brought this deck to the BlizzCon Qualifiers Phase 1, where I was able to 3-0 one opponent with it and take a few other games. While I'm not going to argue that this deck is going to be the next big thing, I will say that this is an alternative build of Warrior that is both fun and has the potential to be effective competitively.
Playstyle
This deck excels at being highly adaptable. While you can generally classify it as a combo deck, it can be played like either an aggro deck or a control deck as well, depending on your draws or what you feel is appropriate.
I've been told that this is one of the hardest decks to play optimally in Hearthstone. I'm not sure if it is true but I can understand why some people say this. Because of the ability to play both very aggressively or extremely greedily, the gameplay decisions are less clear cut than more linear decks such as Face Hunter or Control Warrior. As such, you'll often be finding yourself faced with several substantially different lines of play. Additionally, because you have multiple cards that have both singular use and also function as a part of a combo, you'll often need to make judgement calls on whether you want to play them immediately gain an early advantage or hold on to it to secure the combo for late game. It's difficult to summarize exactly how to play the deck concisely so my main advice is to simply practice deck to understand the implications of all the different lines of play. Generally speaking though, when in doubt, play it like a tempo deck - not a combo deck.
Card Interactions
The core 'combo' featured in this deck is the combination of Warsong Commander, Frothing Berserker, Unstable Ghoul, with Death's Bite and Amani Berserker as cards that add additional value to the combo. When played together, you use the Death's Bite and the Unstable Ghoul's whirlwind-style effect to buff your Frothing Berserker and charge it at your opponent for large amounts of damage.
Battle Rage is an underused sleeper card that has become much stronger with the introduction of Death's Bite. You can almost always draw one card because it is not hard to get your hero damaged, and you can draw additional ones by casting it after Death's Bite deathrattle triggers with minions in play. You can also fairly reliably draw at least 2 cards because this decks plays are fair amount of mid-range minions that are not difficult to get damage in combat. Usually drawing 2 cards is sufficient value for Battle Rage, but drawing 3 or more is not uncommon and can be often too much for your opponent to overcome.
Inner Rage is an extremely versatile card. It can help activate execute, ping off small minions or help finish off larger ones for no mana cost. It allows you to activate Grommash on turn 8 instead of the traditional turn 10 with Cruel Taskmaster. It can net you an extra card with Battle Rage. It can also buff your Acolyte of Pain for an extra card and keep it from being stolen with Cabal Shadow Priest.
Card Selection
Ragnaros the Firelord - Used primarily to improve Druid and control matchups. Less useful against Shaman and Zoo. Could be replaced by Alexstrasza, Cairne, Ysera, or any other generally high value minion.
Gnomish Inventor - Used primarily to improve curve and draw density. Some cards of this deck work better when combined with one or two other cards, so drawing an extra card really helps. Could be replaced by Sen'jin Shieldmasta if the metagame leans towards aggro over control.
The Black Knight - Used primarily to improve the Handlock and Druid matchups. The large number of Sludge Belchers running around makes this card a pretty solid pick in the current metagame. Could be replaced by a solid 5 or 6 drop.
Amani Berserker - Used primarily to improve the Hunter and Aggro matchups. Also increases the damage ceiling of your lategame Warsong-Frothing-Unstable combo. Can be replaced by Haunted Creeper, which has really neat interactions with Warsong Commander.
Matchup Overview
The strongest matchups (+65%) this deck has are against Control Paladin and Priest. This is notable because traditionally these decks are strong against our counterpart, the Control Warrior.
The weakest matchup this deck has is against Miracle Rogue, although the win-rate is around 50%. The Miracle Rogue stats are primarily from before the Leeroy nerf so today the matchup may play out differently today.
Mage and Warrior are generally favored matchups (+60%) that aren't overly draw dependent. The remaining matchups (Druid, Shaman, Zoo, Handlock, Hunter) are somewhat favorable (+55%) but because these matchups are more draw dependent, the effect of variance may make the true win-rates of this deck in those matchups different from what the stats collected suggest.
Mulligan Strategies
Druid - Fiery War Axe, Death's Bite, Frothing Berserker
Hunter - Fiery War Axe, Death's Bite, Korkron Elite, Amani Berserker, Unstable Ghoul
Mage - Fiery War Axe, Death's Bite, Korkron Elite
Control Paladin - Acolyte of Pain, Battle Rage, Gnomish Inventor, Sludge Belcher
Priest - Fiery War Axe, Death's Bite, Korkron Elite
Miracle Rogue - Loatheb, Fiery War Axe, Death's Bite, Gnomish Inventor, Sludge Belcher
Shaman - Fiery War Axe, Korkron Elite, Death's Bite
Zoo - Fiery War Axe, Death's Bite, Korkron Elite, Unstable Ghoul, Amani Berserker
Handlock - Execute, Death's Bite, Acolyte of Pain
Control Warrior - Fiery War Axe, Death's Bite, Korkron Elite, Acolyte of Pain
Final Thoughts
This deck is an absolute blast to play and has been a profound joy to develop. I hope you guys have as much fun playing it as I do! You can find me on twitch.tv/badrazor where I regularly stream this deck. I also have a large number of highlights and full games there explaining how to play the deck if you want to learn more. Feel free to leave feedback in the comments below, they're greatly appreciated!
I ran Raging Worgen but over time I found the OTK component of the deck makes it less consistent as a whole since the OTK part of it can be used like a finisher like Force of Nature / Savage Roar is a finisher in Druid, rather than the entire focus of the deck. As a fun deck, it is certainly a viable option, but for climbing ladder, I found Frothing Berserker is better since it is tougher and more survivable when you need to play it without charge.
Hey tapif! I'm glad you're enjoying the deck. I don't have any specific video for how to deal with shamans, though you can probably find some shaman games here and there in some of my vods explaining the key strategies. Since there is interest, I'll probably compile them into a single video and include a more detailed guide at some point in time and I'll let you know. As for music, these are some of the things I listen to often:
http://youtu.be/DtSWpsPsiLg (psycho-pass ost)
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLHZ94UMH85E6Y6DIlEnohdgWSOv6Cpz3i (tastynetwork playlist)
http://youtu.be/4PCgJGxz-FU (attack on titan ost)
http://youtu.be/aTZMBtAotms (epic music)
I'm never played warrior, and i don't have warrior legendary. I changed it on Raging Worgen and it's very fun to play. Thanks for deck.
This deck sucks so hard, You need to be able to draw all the times, which have a lot to do with RNG, then you need to get the right mulligen, so you can survive til you have the combos. And you need to make sure your combos wont get picked out after one turn. There is way to much RNG involved in this deck, it have nothing to do with skills at all, after about 20 games i have a win rate at 10%.(against my normale controll warrior that have about 80%) It fares bad against control, because they just remove the cards you play, so you max get one hit in. And against aggro there is not enough removal, that wont damage yourself. But OFC. as you say yourself you only have a win rate at 65% at the max. In Other words it is not that good of a deck.
All warrior decks must contain at least 1 (2x is optimal) brawl at current meta. Shamans and Zoo eat you otherwise.
Yeah, the best scenario vs. Zoo is definetly the absolute board control but sometimes you just draw terrible cards and brawl may save you especially when the Lock fills the board with minions at turn 5. It can alkso save you at late game vs 5/7 charge demon. Although it's very situational vs. zoo, it may still help and vs. shaman brawl is a must (they are also using giants nowadays). As you also indicated it helps a lot vs. Handlocks/Handmages too. I have built a new deck and testing it atm: http://www.hearthpwn.com/decks/107607-clearem-all-anti-aggro-tempo-warrior. It's working really good atm.
I used the last of my dust to make this deck and don't regret it. I am really enjoying the learning curve and flexibility with this deck!
Ragnaros is from a time when Druid and Miracle were more prevalent. Today, not so much. I've been on the verge of replacing him myself, but I haven't decided what yet. If the reason to cut him is because everyone spams minions on the board, Faceless Manipulator is only going to get small minions - so maybe something bigger is better.
I was thinking to replace rag with brawl. Because flood deck have been more common.
Firstly I just have to say this is a fantastic deck. I've been trying out all sorts of different Midrange and Tempo Warrior lists for the past couple of ranked seasons and this one is certainly one of the more fun ones to play.
Personally I feel Cruel Taskmaster is a necessity in this deck for the early rungs of the ladder at the dawn of a season where there's a lot more aggro, so I've decided to cut one Inner Rage. It also is a 2/2 charge that can buff stuff like Gnomish Inventor and Acolyte of Pain to generate more of a threatening board presence when Warsong Commander is out. I also ended up cutting an Amani Berserker for a Whirlwind, since it's again a better anti-aggro card that just so happens to be completely degenerate with Battle Rage and Frothing Berserker. I can't even tell you how many times I've drawn 3+ cards off of Battle Rage, but almost every time I do I win.
I do have one question though, how do you have a positive winrate against druid? I feel that they're just able to spam minions that are too big for you to really push through effectively and unless you get a good Black Knight, some lucky Sniper Rag hits or a Warsong Wombo Combo the match is pretty much a massive uphill battle the entire way through. Shaman is also a negative winrate for me too (I've lost 22 out of 37 games) mostly because of how weak the deck can be to Feral Spirits and Lightning Storm coupled with the fact that having a belcher hexed is a massive loss of tempo that the deck can almost never come back from. So if you have any suggestions to improve thos matchups I'm certainly all ears, although it seems like maybe adding Sylvanas would help the druid matchup a bit, but for Shaman I have no clue as Brawl & Baron Geddon aren't the most synergistic choices.
Some good changes! I might try those myself when I have the time, but I'm glad you're experimenting there is definitely room for improvement, especially since the metagame is changing all the time.
Based on stats from Rank 5 -> Legend last season, my druid result was 10-8 (55.6%) and shaman was 13-9 (59.1%). I've never felt advantaged in those matchups but I'm usually able to scrap out just enough wins to stay positive. If luck had swung the other way I probably would be negative.
My advice for the Shaman matchup, the deck has pretty good responses for Feral Spirits - between Fiery War Axe and Korkon Elite, you can usual turn the tables and make it a tempo loss for them instead. Mulligan for those aggressively. Getting Sludge Belcher Hexed is actually pretty bad, but most Shamans tend to save them for bigger minions. That is partially why you have Rag in the deck - even though it's not amazing against Shaman totems, it's good to have something to punish them for using Hexes so liberally. If you are struggling that much against Shaman, I would probably suggest putting in Brawl despite the counter-synergy, maybe for Rag, Black Knight, Loatheb, or a Gnomish Inventor - it should swing the matchup several more points into your favor.
As far as Druid goes, I feel like aside from the BK or Rag plays you mentioned a lot of it is trying to buy tempo by whatever means necessary. Sometimes this results in some really counter-intuitive plays - like whacking a Keeper of the Grove with Fiery War Axe then Executing it so you can also play a minion - but the premise of the idea is that if you get board control, you can buy back the cards you throw away with Battle Rage later. I'm not saying to always do this, but it's plays like this that are commonly overlooked that could have been used to potentially snowball the game into your favor.
This deck is garbage right now. Bad against priest, hunter, zoo and control warrior, which is 90% of the meta.
Maybe it is, but I'm still finding a way to win with 'garbage', and I'm having fun doing it.
BTW, Priest is the best matchup for me at 16-6 (72.7%), and Control Warrior is 15-10 (60%). I agree with Hunter and Zoo though, those matchups are horrible and I'm barely staying above 50%.
Replaced Rag with KT, the synergy with the charge minions is great if you can get it.
I rather like the idea, I think I'll give this a try myself too.
I would like this idea if it getting Cabal Shadow Priest'd wasn't so devastating - with Priest as popular as it is. Outside of that though, Warsong Commander or not, you could probably get some decent value out of her.
I think Kel'Thuzad has some synergy in this deck as a budget replacement for one of the legendaries. It works well with Acolyte of Pain, Frothing Berserker, Warsong Commander, Kor'kron Elite, and Sludge Belcher. I just started using this deck and it has won me the game a few times.
The card draw is siiick! Thanks for the deck!
Raging worgen could be nice with this deck.
It used to be in the deck until I realized I wanted more overall consistency and not only gun for an OTK. Both Frothing Berserker and Raging Worgen serve burst purposes, but Frothing Berserker is tougher so playing him solo when you really need to gives you a little more value. This helps round out situations where you don't care about the combo and are trying to establish board control or just survive.