Handbuff Warrior +11/+11
- Last updated May 4, 2022 (Kazakusan Change)
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Wild
- 25 Minions
- 4 Spells
- 1 Weapon
- Deck Type: Ranked Deck
- Deck Archetype: Rush Warrior
- Crafting Cost: 7260
- Dust Needed: Loading Collection
- Created: 5/2/2022 (Kazakusan Change)
- BlazeStratoff
- Registered User
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Total Deck Rating
73
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
The problem with decks like these is that your win condition is outgunning your opponent with buffed minions. It's a fine strategy for Paladin because of Cariel's hero power (Smite buffed to 20+ attk, etc). This deck does not have a win condition. This meta is all about the win condition. There are too many powerful plays in the expansion for straight up tempo decks. You are banking on your opponents making bad trades. Pretty much any deck can take you to diamond but I don't think this has what it takes to get to legend. You have one full clear(when buffed) with Samuro and then what? Mages and Paladins will stack the board 3-4 turns in a row. You won't have a choice but to trade your buffed minions. Every buffed minion traded is one less minion hitting face and one less turn before your opponent overruns you or executes their win condition
Hey! It's a fair point. That's why we invented from this midrangy-ish deck the pure aggro deck. It's here, made to Hearthpwn mainpage too:
https://www.hearthpwn.com/decks/1409325-easy-handbuff-aggro-warrior
All you need just remove mechs for Trogg, Finley, and Gorlocs. And add Smite. And it becomes too easy!
i've been playing a version of this, kinda mismatched with other version running less of the mech stuff more control/survive stuff, actually feels decent, one thing i seem to be noticing is i feel Legionnaire is too slow. even if i can get it down and to die to get the handbuffs they either arent enough buffs or its too late for them to matter enough. looking for replacements, the other handbuff stuff has felt great and the rest of the deck shell fits nicely. will post back by findinds.
Nice one! Sometimes I notice too, that Legionnaire is slow... But often it feels good. Maybe you are playing at highter tier, like Diamond 5+ and top 1000 Legend? I didn't test handbuffs decks there, but i can suggest it is whole different meta there ^__^ But anyways will be very greatful if you report on your further experiments! Cheers! <3
thrown 2 bulk up's in instead and feels pretty good actually, feels amazing when you hit the scrapsmith with it, and is still good even if you hit a pack mule.
I’m putting Finley for new hero power and taking out mechs
Finley is great idea indeed! But what instead mechs?
It's interesting, i tried smth like that at start of testing this deck. But how with that stronger minions you do both at the same time : aggresiveness + refilling hand? Meta is pretty fast as i can feel. And large hand is important. So I dunno, returned to mech package some tries later.
like the idea for the deck bro, i got rid of the mechs(gorrila bots,engineer and clickclocker) in favor of some stronger minions, doesnt seem like the deck for mech synergy
Somehow i managed to reply from second account, which was unknown for me till today :E Anyways, what minions you used instead mechs?
for the 6 mech minions i took out, i put in 2x trogg, finley(heropower one), 1X gorloc, rokara(the minion), and MR SMITE, this card single instantly became the best card in the deck, in matchups that were tougher now you can try to make sure you buff some pirates with mr smite and suddenly it is almost an otk, if you take anything from this message, PUT IN SMITE it makes the deck go from good to scary good
Thanks for ideas! Look sick now, i even posted new deck, check it too!
hearthpwn.com/decks/1409325-gorloc-legionnaire-handbuff-aggro-warrior
I think Gorloc x2 is very viable since we have less hand refill without mechs. And Smite, yeah i know its potential from previous patches, and now it seems very effective too. Still i don't like aggressive decks much, so won't make much testing. Will be nice if you comment on aggro experiments some time later.
I will try.