Hearthpwn

Tank Up, Rank Up! Baku Wallet Warrior

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1 - Introduction

Hey everyone, DegenerateBull here!  We are two frequent legend players (MoogleMog#1303 & DuskSculptor#1914) who enjoy brewing and playing off-meta decks.  It's been a little while since our last deckbrewing, but with the start of the year of the Raven, we're both back at it.  Thanks in advance for taking the time to click on this deck!  Feel free to add us as friends on Hearthstone and we'll try to help you with what you need :)

Do you miss the glory days of Justicar Trueheart and that extremely satisfying hero power?  Do you enjoy gaining so much armor that your opponent despairs at ordeal of whittling it away?  Do you prefer to hero power pass/ResidentSleeper until your opponent is out of cards?  Or do you just want to run a deck that runs a huge number of legendary cards?  If you answered yes to at least one of these questions, you’re in luck!  Control Warrior is back with The Witchwood, and hopefully will be here to stay!  After some experimentation, MoogleMog was able to climb from Rank 3 to Legend with this deck (last few games 11W-5L) and having a blast while doing so.  DuskSculptor will test out the deck as well, and we’ll continue refining it as the meta begins to settle.

Boomsday Update: Hit legend with the deck on 9/14, updating decklist.  If a couple people request a guide update in the comment section, I'll work on updating it for the current list.

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2 - General Game Plan

This deck focuses on stalling out the game, removing all enemy minions, and then out-valuing them with greed cards.  Keep using Tank Up and taunts like Stonehill Defender and Direhorn Hatchling slow the opponent down and bait out larger boards, which can then be cleared with Brawl or Reckless Flurry.

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3 - Card Choices (currently out of date)

• 2x Shield Slam: Premium removal made even better with Tank Up! 
• 2x Town Crier: Deck thinning with a body attached.  The 1/2 body is very relevant against aggro decks.
• 2x Whirlwind: Spin to win!  Fantastic against aggressive decks and all forms of Pally.  Combos well with Acolyte of Pain, Voodoo Doll, and King Mosh.
• 1x Acolyte of Pain: Cycle is super important for this deck, and Acolyte of Pain is the man for the job.  He also contests the board against Pally and aggro decks, and has synergy with Whirlwind and Baron Geddon.  Can be dead weight in control matchups though... 
• 1x Gluttonous Ooze: Tech card that was added late to help ensure that Skull of the Man'ari is removed before it pulls out Doomguards.  Also works well against aggro decks and Pally.
• 1x Ironbeak Owl: Another tech card meant specifically to deal with Rin, the First Disciple and Carnivorous Cube.  Also works well against even Pally and can find a use in almost every matchup.
• 2x Rabid Worgen: Reasonable card that’s mostly here to be pulled by Town Crier.  Helps contest the board and remove annoying minions like Knife Juggler, Northshire Cleric, and Mana Wyrm.
• 2x Reckless Flurry: Tank Up makes this card at least twice as good!  5 mana for a 4 damage board clear is pretty sweet, and that’s just the basic usage of this card.
• 2x Shield Block: Get some more of that sweet, sweet armor while also cycling through the deck.  Obvious synergy with Shield Slam and Reckless Flurry; it can be worthwhile to hold one of these if you need an emergency 9 damage single target removal or AOE.
• 2x Stonehill Defender: Stall the game and add more value.  Great against Pally and aggro decks.
• 1x Tinkmaster Overspark: Good vs Warlock and Druid (for Witching Hour).  Also works well vs solo huge drops (8/8 or 12/12 -> silenced 5/5 is still great).
• 1x Zola the Gorgon: Greedy card that often wins games.  Against faster matchups, this acts as a counter to silence by letting you just replay the minion again.  Works well with taunts, Baron Geddon (against Pally), and even Elise the Trailblazer if you’re feeling extra greedy or need the extra cards for fatigue.
• 1x Big Game Hunter: Big target removal, especially useful vs 10 drops from Spiteful Summoner or Mountain Giant.  Can be used in almost every deck (Baku
• 2x Brawl: Premium removal, Control Warrior staple from the very beginning.
• 1x Darius Crowley: Pretty good removal/threat made better by the fact that it can be pulled by Town Crier and Countess Ashmore.
• 1x Direhorn Hatchling: High value taunt that helps mitigate the risk of fatigue caused by to the amount of cycle the deck.
• 1x Elise the Trailblazer: Greed card that also reduces the risk of fatigue.
• 1x Faceless Manipulator: Flexible card that can often copy something nice from your opponent.  In fatigue battles, save this to combo with Direhorn Hatchling.
• 1x Baron Geddon: Additional AOE, especially useful against Pally to prevent his dudes from flooding the board.  Can also combo with Acolyte of Pain, Voodoo Doll, and King Mosh (over two turns).
• 1x Gorehowl: More single target removal.  Tank Up lets you smash minions without completely destroying your face.  Also provides some reach.
• 1x Baku the Mooneater: Tank Up enabler, ‘nuff said.
• 1x King Mosh: Ended up crafting this card for the deck, and it’s been performing pretty well so far.  Works best with Whirlwind and low damage Gorehowl.  Can be used over two turns with Baron Geddon.

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4 - Tech Choices and Cards To Try (currently out of date)

• 1x Harrison Jones: Cycle and weapon removal combined into one.  Great in a meta full of Warlock, Paladin, Rogue, and Hunter.
• 2x Ironbeak Owl: Helps improve the Warlock and Druid matchups.
• 2x Faceless Manipulator: Some other Control Warrior lists are running this, it can often copy something nice from your opponent.
• 1x Azalina Soulthief: Greedy card that’s good in control mirrors.
• 2x Gorehowl: Second copy for more single target removal and more face damage in a pinch.
• 1x Mind Control Tech: Since you often let the opponent flood the board, this card can sometimes win games if you get lucky.
• 1x Voodoo Doll: Tech card for big, single target removal.  Combos with Whirlwind, Reckless Flurry, Baron Geddon, and even Brawl in a pinch. Big Game Hunter is probably better at the moment.
• 1x or 2x Val'kyr Soulclaimer: Pally hate card made for eating dudes.

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5 - Match-Up/Mulligan Guides (currently out of date)

• Paladin
• Mulligan: Town Crier, Whirlwind, Acolyte of Pain, Stonehill Defender.
• Even (Slightly Favored): This matchup is a bit more difficult than Odd Pally due their buffs, Crystal Lion, and Call to Arms/Drygulch Jailor. Harrison Jones/Gluttonous Ooze are great answers to Silver Sword and Ashbringer if you can’t silence Tirion Fordring.  Like the Odd Pally matchup, rationing your Whirlwinds, Reckless Flurrys, and Brawls are key to victory.  My final boss to legend was Odd Pally - here's the replay.
• Murloc (Favored): Played a lot like the even pally matchup, but they have less ability to re-flood the board. Divine Favor can be dangerous though, so avoid having a huge hand if you can.
• Odd (Favored): Surviving the flood of dudes is extremely satisfying.  Make the most of Whirlwind, Reckless Flurry, and Brawl until you can drop down Baron Geddon prevent further dude floods.  If they silence him, use Zola the Gorgon to add another one to your hand. Harrison Jones and Gluttonous Ooze should target Vinecleaver.  Here's a replay.
• Warlock
• Mulligan: Shield Slam, Acolyte of Pain, Gluttonous Ooze or Harrison Jones, Ironbeak Owl.
• Cube (Slightly Favored): Finally, Control Warrior can reliably beat Cubelock!  Tank Up makes it much easier for Shield Slam to kill turn 4 Mountain Giant, while Reckless Flurry becomes another reliable board clear in addition to Brawl.  The main way to lose this matchup is an unanswered Skull of the Man'ari pulling Doomguard (which then gets Carnivorous Cubed), which is why the deck runs two weapon removal cards.  Ironbeak Owl can answer Carnivorous Cube or a Rin, the First Disciple from Stonehill Defender.  It’s often worth it to pop Possessed Lackey if you have removal for a resulting Doomguard to prevent it from getting cubed.  Here's a replay or two.
• Control (Unfavored): This matchup depends entirely on Rin, the First Disciple.  If you can silence it or draw through most of your deck before they play it, you win.  If they pop one early, it’s pretty much impossible to win unless you can rush their face.
• Hunter
• Mulligan: Town Crier, Whirlwind, Acolyte of Pain, Stonehill Defender.
• Odd/Aggro (Heavily Favored): Hunter can spend 2 mana and deal 3 face damage every turn?  Good thing we can Tank Up for 4! Whirlwind can kill most of their 1 drops, Stonehill Defender makes them cry.  The deck also runs plenty of weapon removal for Eaglehorn Bow.  A replay can be found here.
• Spell (Unfavored): This is a tough matchup if they get Deathstalker Rexxar up early.  The Elise the Trailblazer and Zola the Gorgon combo is super important in this matchup and gives you a chance to outvalue them.
• Rogue
• Mulligan: Town Crier, Whirlwind, Acolyte of Pain, Stonehill Defender.
• Odd/Tempo (Favored): Clear the board and armor up.  Make sure to remove Hench-Clan Thug ASAP.  Here's a replay or two.
• Quest (HORRIBLY UNFAVORED): Concede.  If you're brave, try rushing face and hope for the best.
• Miracle (Slightly Favored): The high amount of AOE in our deck makes Fal'dorei Strider a lot less threatening.  Priority targets are Gadgetzan Auctioneer and Hench-Clan Thug. Ironbeak Owl, Voodoo Doll+Whirlwind, or a big Shield Slam can deal with Edwin VanCleef.
• Druid
• Mulligan: Town Crier, Acolyte of Pain, Stonehill Defender.
• Spiteful (Even to Slightly Unfavored): Only saw this deck once, and I think it was a pretty close game.  Rationing removal is important to victory here due to the high number of threats and the overall danger of Spiteful Summoner pulling Ultimate Infestation.
• Hadronox (Slightly Unfavored): I've only played this matchup once and it was extremely close. The big thing to worry about here is the Hadronox spam at the end of the game.  When they play their first Witching Hour+Carnivorous Cube combo - you need to answer it with Ironbeak Owl+Zola the Gorgon+Reckless Flurry.  You'll need at least 3 board clears to deal with the Hadronox turns, so make sure to save Brawl/Reckless Flurry/Whirlwind+King Mosh.  When playing Stonehill Defender, try to discover Cornered Sentry to fill his beast pool with the Raptor tokens.  Tinkmaster Overspark can also be used to add another beast to the Witching Hour pool.  Don't forget to watch out for Naturalize!    Here's a replay from before Tinkmaster Overspark was added.
• Shaman
• Mulligan: Town Crier, Acolyte of Pain, Stonehill Defender.
• Shudderwock (HORRIBLY UNFAVORED): Concede.  If you’re a masochist, try to tempo hard and rush face.  But you’re better off conceding.
• Even (Heavily Favored): this is just like the Even Pally matchup - just keep the board in a manageable state.  The abundance of clears should make this relatively easy.
• Warrior
• Mulligan: Reckless Flurry, Rabid Worgen, Stonehill Defender.
• Odd Control (Even): These matchups are really interesting and take forever.  The key thing here is to NOT. DRAW. CARDS. EVER.  Silence their Direhorn Hatchling and make sure to combo Elise the Trailblazer and Zola the Gorgon.
• Rush/Tempo (Heavily Favored): They can’t pressure very much aside from Frothing Berserker and you can remove all their minions.
• Baku Taunt (Unfavored?): Only played one of these and lost – need more data, but theoretically you should be able to run them out of removal and keep playing threats with Elise the Trailblazer.
• Mage
• Mulligan: Town Crier, Acolyte of Pain, Stonehill Defender.
• Tempo/Burn (Favored): Tank Up is MVP here again.  Save the coin and Whirlwind to test for Counterspell, try to play Acolyte of Pain or Stonehill Defender into Explosive Runes.  Keep their board clear and keep gaining armor, save some removal after turn 6-7 for Archmage Antonidas.  Here's a replay.
• Control (Favored): Play it super slow and win in fatigue.  They'll run out of threats and cards before you do.
• Priest:
• Mulligan: Town Crier, Shield Slam, Rabid Worgen, Acolyte of Pain.
• Mind Blast Control (Heavily Favored): Prevent as much draw as possible and try to squeeze in a Tank Up almost every turn.  Don’t play too many threats at once because of Psychic Scream.  By the time they play Shadowreaper Anduin, you should have a very healthy armor total.
• Quest (Heavily Unfavored): Archbishop Benedictus makes this matchup pretty much unwinnable.  The only hope here is to use Faceless Manipulator on their Archbishop Benedictus and then Zola the Gorgon in order add a copy of the card to your hand.
• Spiteful (Unfavored): The number of high priority targets that require removal makes this matchup a little bit rough.  If you can prevent them from drawing too many cards, it’s possible to retake the board.  Getting good value off of Brawl and Reckless Flurry is key to victory.
• Combo (Unfavored): Not running Skulking Geist really hurts here.  Try to keep the board clear, but there’s not much you can do if they get three Divine Spirits…  Good thing this deck isn't currently in the meta.

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6 - Tips and Tricks

• This deck is all about deciding when and how much removal to use.  Knowing what threats your opponent has is critical to success, so try to keep up to date with meta decks.
• Zola the Gorgon is a very high-utility card in this deck - finding the right card to copy each game can often make the difference between victory and defeat.
• If you have questions about the deck, post a comment!

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7 - Updates

We will be updating this guide as much as possible throughout the season, but do bear with us as the two of us (MoogleMog#1303 and DuskSculptor#1914) are both busy working professionals.

• 2/28/2019: Reached legend the other day with a slightly modified list, deck is updated to reflect the new modifications.
• 2/15/2019: Updated the deck for post-Wild Growth nerf meta with the current list I'm running.  Guide will be updated if requested.
• 9/14/2018: Updated the deck for Boomsday and reached Legend.  Guide will be updated if requested.
• 5/23/2018: Due to meta shift, replaced Harrison Jones with Tinkmaster Overspark to better deal with druids.  Will update matchup guides to better reflect post-nerf meta.
• 5/21/2018: Reached Legend again with the current decklist
• 5/18/2018: -1 Acolyte of Pain, -1 Tinkmaster Overspark, -1 Direhorn Hatchling, +1 Town Crier, +1 Rabid Worgen, +1 Faceless Manipulator.  Updated guide to be more relevant to the meta.
• 4/20/2018: -1 Voodoo Doll, -1 Countess Ashmore, +1 Big Game Hunter, +1 Tinkmaster Overspark.
• 4/18/2018: Added replays to matchups played on PC
• 4/17/2018: Updated guide formatting and content
• 4/16/2018: Completed first draft of guide
• 4/15/2018: Reached Legend with the decklist