+5
Favorite this Deck

Heroic Vaelastrasz the Corrupt - Warrior's hand...

  • Last updated Apr 1, 2019 (Level Up Nerf)
  • Edit
  • |

Wild

  • 12 Minions
  • 18 Spells
View in Deck Builder

  • Battle Tag:

    N/A

  • Region:

    N/A

  • Total Deck Rating

    445

View 29 other Decks by Blacktiger_HS_channel
Link:
BBCode:
Export to

Heroic Vaelastrasz the Corrupt - Warrior's hand deck

Consistency: Reliable (expected number of tries 1-3)

Introduction:

As some of you know, I always try to explain why I chose certain class and deck archetype. Correct archetype is 80% of success. If your game plan is good, then usually you can beat the boss even with sub-optimal cards.

So... when Vaelastrasz was released, there was no reliable way to counter his milling. People had to kill him fast. Token-spam was the only possible win condition and almost all early decks were some variations of this approach.

But with appearance of Jade Idol and Dead Man's Hand people got cheap tools to combat milling tactic. Fatigue became a viable option to kill this boss. So let's discuss, what tactic is better and why.

How good is token spam?

Initially, when I started to work on this boss, I came up with some variation of a token druid deck, that everybody and his dog uses. It was kind of okay. I believe I had somewhere around 20-25% win rate with it. It also was cheap and easy to play. You can use such decks to beat Vaelastrasz eventually, but don't put Jade Idol in there. It is useless in this deck archetype.

Vaelastrasz, however, is surprisingly good at fighting a token spam. He has no AoE, but with big mana lead and a lot of cheap spells he is usually able to kill everything you played. And if you lost the board, then there is no comeback. In fact, Blizzard improved AI since Blackrock Mountain release and it does not ignore your board anymore, so it is much harder to beat AI with aggro these days.

So let's talk about fatigue:

As I said, there are two cards, which give you a big fatigue lead - Jade Idol and Dead Man's Hand. If you use them as your win condition, then the rest of your deck just has to keep you alive, which is a much easier task, than killing a 45HP boss by turn 7 with a huge mana disadvantage. But you obviously need a control deck.

Druid isn't good at control game, but Warrior is. So he was an obvious choice.

There are still few problems, though. This boss will burn a part of your deck. There is no way around it and control is much more sensitive about losing key cards than aggro. If you will burn your Dead Man's Hands, then there is no way to win. And there are some other cards like Brawl, you don't really want to lose. Also control decks tend to be more expensive and harder to play.

General strategy:

Ok, let's go through the game plan again. You need to draw and play Dead Man's Hand at least once... preferably with right set of cards in your hand. One 9-cards shuffle is usually enough, but not always. If the boss will burn one or both of his Gang Ups, then obviously you are in a much better position.

You have to survive until fatigue, though, and that's what the rest of your deck is for. Your hand will be full at all times, which kind of helps to find proper answers, but at the same time, it activates Clockwork Giants very early, and with the big mana disadvantage you will have a hard time keeping his minions away from your face. This tactic, however, is still better, than popular aggro spam.

Deck composition:

As you see, almost all these cards are very cheap mana wise. You need to play as many cards as you can each turn in order to reduce chances to burn your win condition or other important cards. And you will not have enough mana to play expensive cards until the very end anyway.

Dancing Swords are not very good for control and you probably will play them very late, but they may give you those necessary fatigue ticks to finish the boss.

Yes, there are 5 pairs of epic cards and you probably will want to know how necessary they are. Well, Dead Man's Hand and Brawl are mandatory. Doomsayer is highly recommended as well. Shield Slam and Crush are not so vital, but I can't figure out a good replacement, except maybe Big Game Hunter.

Mulligan:

You will have a full hand almost immediately, so your mulligan in this battle is not about finding early game, but about preserving important cards you don't want to burn.

Keep Dead Man's Hand (naturally), Brawl, Execute, Doomsayer (a very good early aggro stopper). Everything else is a matter of preference. I found Iron Hide and Whirlwind to be kind of valuable too, but I didn't keep them every time I had them. I am leaving it up to you.

Tactic tips:

Turn 2 and 3 Doomsayers are amazing. Not only they usually stop AI from playing minions (unless it has Naturalize), but by doing this they also burn his additional cards... hopefully Clockwork Giants or Gang Ups.

Always play Dead Man's Hand with a full hand (shuffle 9 cards into the deck). Every point of fatigue lead matters, especially if you burned the second copy.

Try to combo Iron Hide and Drywhisker Armorer with Shield Slam. There are not many ways to get Armor and if you will waste these cards, then Shield Slam will be useless.

Consistency notes:

My result with this deck is 7 wins and 7 loses. Exactly 50% win rate.

Luck is a big factor here, since outcome heavily depends on which cards you and Vaelastrasz will lose to milling.

Also note, that this deck is very skill dependent. With so many options every turn it is easy to do a lot of mistakes, shuffle wrong cards into a deck, waste valuable answers. If you can't win, then take your time and analyze your hand and the board every turn. There is no time limit in PvE.

Blacktiger's Blackrock Mountain deck collection:

Provided win rates are approximate. They are based on my tests and so partially depend on how lucky/unlucky I was during my testing. Also keep in mind, that you need a bit of experience with a deck to use it to its full potential. So first attempts usually have lower win rates, than suggested in this list.

Check my profile for updates and plans.