Hearthpwn

The Revival of Grim Patron has finally come with this season's twisted mode. Due to the revert to Warsong Commander a while back, Patron is making it's revival due to the card limitations for this twisted. This guide is for people who weren't around when Grim Patron was meta, or it's a great refresher to returning players. 

Why Play Grim Patron OTK

This Twisted goes all the way to Gadgetzan, and one thing a lot of classes lack are survivability.  The only class who can maintain themselves is Mage and Warrior. But every other class somewhat struggles with survivability. Which forces classes to play Aggro/Midrange decks or Control decks. These archetypes are what Grim Patron destroys. There are very few OTK decks on this Twisted variant.

Basics of Grim Patron OTK

Grim Patron is considered one of the more complicated OTK decks due to the unpredictability of the board state of each game. For example, If you're trying to OTK on an empty board, you will need more cards like Whirlwind, Inner Rage, and Death's Bite. Then you would need them all discounted also with the OTK pieces. But you also have to consider on what cards you have used during the game. For example, you might need to burn your Whirlwind early on your Acolyte of Pain and/or use it with Battle Rage

Super Simplified Combo- For people who don't wanna read a lot.

Emperor Thaurissan discounts majority of the OTK, play Warsong Commander FIRST, then play Frothing Berserker then, Grim Patron. Proc Grim Patron with Inner Rage and/or Death's Bite and/or Whirlwind. Prioritize AOE cards last. Hit Face

 

Emperor Thaurissan Priority

Emperor Thaurissan is the heart and soul of the deck. But you will be need to do a bit of math to maintain the combo.

Best Case Scenario- Emperor Thaurissan hits Whirlwind at least one copy, one copy Warsong Commander, one copy of Grim Patron, both copies of Frothing Berserker. This would be more than enough to combo with even on an empty board. Assuming you also have things like Inner Rage and Death's Bite at one durability

But ultimately, you're not going to be getting best case scenario most of the time. So maintain the idea that the whole combo without discount at the bare minimum is 11-12 mana. this is assuming the enemy has the board has bout 2-4 minions played. 

Just note you don't have to hit all the combo pieces with Emperor Thaurissan. It's just makes it more likely the OTK succeeds if you do.

Priority Hits [From Most Important to Least]

• Warsong Commander
• Frothing Berserker
• Grim Patron
• Whirlwind

Mulligan Strategy

Mulligan is almost straight forward for all matchups. 

Priority Holds [Most Important to Least]

• Acolyte of Pain
• Fiery War Axe
• Whirlwind
• Slam

Tips for New Grim Patron Players

Once again, the main idea for new people to keep in mind is trying to maintain mana cost. You don't have to use both Frothing Berserker, you don't need to always discount Whirlwind all the time due to other cards like Death Bite and Inner Rage being able to proc Grim Patron

Also don't be afraid to greed with card draw like Acolyte of Pain and Battle Rage. If you're bout to use Death Bite's Deathrattle. Place down your Dread Corsair to get the extra cards.Acolyte of Pain and Battle Rage are your huge card draws. These cards are the main catalyst of winning the game.

Stats- Read Notes

Grim Patron has a decent win rate. The photo shown below isn't ACCURATE. This is due to Firestone not logging majority of the matches despite being on. The win rate is closer to 65% after 40 games.  The main class struggles are against Warrior, Mage and Priest.

This is due to Mage having Ice Block and being more spell focused. Warrior is just really good right now because they can easily defend against aggro decks, while being a one of the best control decks. Priest has the second best control deck, but also being really volatile with C'Thun, which is another card Warrior can abuse.