Hearthpwn

It's not a clickbait title! The Sunken City brought us the real rise of the handbuff Warrior. Pretty sure it will become the new meta very soon. FunkyMonkey could call it somth like "Going fat with Legionnaire Warrior" ^_^

Overall picture

There are few handbuff decks already out there, but they didn't see their true potential. All because of a small cute Legionnaire card. Fun fact: try searching in Hearthpwn, when this card is used in Alterac Valley... Well, never. Four weird decks don't count. And it's clear why Legionnaire is underrated:

• Too low health to be a threat
• Hand should be full of minions
• Can be devolved/polymorphed etc
• Needs something on board to bump into
• With its 9-attack it actually can't go face if you think about it.

But now in Sunken City:

• There is no devolving stuff anymore
• Our hand can be full as never before
• Shoulder Check can rush Legionnaire immediately.

Don't get me wrong, it's not some super-duper-meta-breaking stuff here. The deck just shows a strong contest to everything meta have atm. +11/+11 is a buff cap, but in my experience once every 3-4 fights you get at least +9/+9 on several minions stuck in hand (because opponent concedes).

+1/+1 buff synergies

Obsidiansmith is OP to Handbuff Warrior with its Dredge mechanics. This ends the eternal problem of the Rush Warrior, when not drawing Conditioning meant auto-lose. Now we always have our buffs. Chances are crazy high. Also Obsidiansmith gives us several buffing synergies, which we can already see in handbuff decks:

• Twin-fin Fin Twin (busted)
• Encumbered Pack Mule (too busted)
• Blademaster Samuro (the only AOE-removal for us)
• Outrider's Axe (4/4 woot gief moar drawz!)

Overlord Runthak. This card was always nice +1/+1 for any handbuff deck. Especially because of a slight chance to give extra buff if not removed.

Click-Clocker is obviously awesome +1/+1 buff to your:

• Amalgam of the Deep
• Gorillabot A-3
• Whatever discovered from Deeprun Engineer

+2/+2 buff synergies

Conditioning and Legionnaire. Simple as that. Our hand becomes fat. Fat rushers. Fat taunts. Fat everything. Good vs aggro. Good vs midrange. Good vs control. Maybe just always good?

How to max the hand

Sunken City meta is glorious for refilling our hand. Which is very convenient environment for any handbuff deck by the way:

• Harbor Scamp
• Deeprun Engineer
• Amalgam of the Deep
• Ram Commander (busted)
• Scrapsmith (busted)
• Gorillabot A-3
• Nellie, the Great Thresher (too busted)

Strategies, thoughts, feelings

It is not an aggro deck, but sometimes feels like aggro. Well, it's aggro, let's be honest. But weird aggro. Weirggro o_O

I'm testing mostly two versions of the deck on five accounts. Both show good winrates until Legend. Main version you see here. In the second version I remove Ram Commander for Taelan Fordring and Varian, King of Stormwind. But those two are slowish for a hand refill.

There was a third deck i tried. With Kazakus, Golem Shaper and without any 4-drops. Kaza can be really good because of copying buffed divine shield Golem. But I encountered too much aggro decks and was just forced to have Blademaster Samuro and Outrider's Axe.

Sometimes it feels like there should be second Outrider's Axe. But when i put it there, suddenly all opponents have Rustrot Viper, so no ;E

The deck requires some sort of a skill to navigate. The thin line of commiting/overcommitting seems to be very sensitive and even illusive. But overall list of tips about using Conditioning can be simple:

• Vs aggro - just use everything to survive
• Vs midrange - save buffs until turn 5
• Vs control - can wait until 10 to get +3/+3
• Vs combo - aggro as much as you can.

This deck seem to be ridiculously weak against three cards:

• Smothering Starfish just removes all our buffs and Legionnaire's deathrattle.
• Gigafin just owns us, and can be destroyed without activating deathrattle of the taunted Gigafin's Maw only with discovered Goliath, Sneed's Masterpiece.
• Shadowcrafter Scabbs, well, you know this good old sap mechanics...

As for 70% of all fights - they seem to start after turn 5. You have a full hand. You buff it. You go crazy. Build a fat board after fat board after fat board.

Mulligan

Conditioning > Dredge > Discover > Draw

Almost in any case scenario.

When to concede

If it is turn 7-8 and we still have no Conditioning, no Legionnaire, no Overlord Runthak... Well, it is most likely a loss. We just go next not to waste time of the true Warrior ^_^

P.S.

If you want to help against war, check my profile for infos. Putin huilo ^________^

Update

The more aggresive version of Legionnaire warrior is here, guys! Give it a plus, please, for the glory of Ukraine:

hearthpwn.com/decks/1409325-gorloc-legionnaire-handbuff-aggro-warrior