Hearthpwn

The Grim Patron Warrior Handbook

This is my Grim Patron Warrior deck. There are  many like it  but this one is mine.

Mulligan Guide

Warrior: Loot Hoarder, Acolyte of Pain, Fiery War Axe, Death's Bite, Harrison Jones. Keep Grim Patron in the right conditions (advice on this in match up guide). 

Druid: Loot Hoarder, Acolyte of Pain, Fiery War Axe, Death's Bite, Grim Patron. Always keep a Grim patron.

Priest: Loot Hoarder, Acolyte of Pain, Fiery War Axe, Death's Bite, Emperor Thaurissan. Don't keep emperor if you don't have anything else.

Rogue: Loot Hoarder, Acolyte of Pain, Fiery War Axe, Death's Bite.

Hunter:Armorsmith, Wirlwind, Fiery War Axe, Cruel Taskmaster, (and Acolyte of Pain, Loot Hoarder if you already have any of the first 4, on occasion I like to keep an inner rage in this match up too, especially with acolyte or armorsmith to kill huffer).

Paladin: Same as hunter, except also keep Harrison Jones if you have wirlwind and Armorsmith/fiery war axe . 

Mage: Fiery War Axe. (If you have fiery war axe then keep Loot Hoarder, Acolyte of Pain, Armorsmith, Dread Corsair)

Warlock: Fiery War Axe. (If you have fiery war axe then keep Loot Hoarder, Acolyte of Pain, Armorsmith, Dread Corsair... If you have a death's bite and a dread corsair with the coin, that's a fine pick just mulligan the other 2 for normal low drops)

Shaman: Fiery War Axe. (If you have fiery war axe then keep Loot Hoarder, Acolyte of Pain, Armorsmith, Dread Corsair)

-----------------------------------------------

Tip for aggro: If you have the axe & armorsmith/acolyte, it can be good to keep taskmaster or inner rage.

Dread Corsair Mulligan: Keeping dread corsair with the coin? That's your call, obviously not a good one when you're trying to be greedy. But if against aggro with fiery war axe or death's bite and the coin it's worth considering

-----------------------------------------------

Some Card Explanations

2 loot hoarders. This is to guarantee that a 2 drop + card draw happens more often.

2 Inner rage. Many games can be decided by getting out an early combo, this lets you skip armor up more often, draw more cards, increases the odd to get better battle rage too.

The original deck which got me to rank 3-4 is -1 sludge belcher -1 harrison jones, +1 gnomish inventor, +1 dr boom.

Just one taskmaster and one dread corsair here. I think in this deck taskmaster is even more situational than inner rage as you need more mana to use it. Dread corsair is horrible when you don't have a weapon. I find having 1 of each of these to be the perfect amount.

Why no slam? There is limited slots in this deck, and I prefer double loot hoarder to get the 2 drops. By putting in slam I am reducing my guaranteed card draw and turn 2 plays.

-----------------------------------------------

Random Tips On Using This Deck

2 Grim Patron's is just not enough, try and get at least 3 or 4 when you do a combo.

Dread corsair is in this deck for a reason and it's not just to throw out as soon as you equip your death's bite. The best use of dread corsair is playing it along with a combo to protect the patrons.

-----------------------------------------------

Match Up Guides

Warrior: Keeping Grim Patron is a judgement call. If I have another combo piece like Inner Rage or Death's Bite then I'll definitely keep the patron. If I have a grim patron and I'm going  second, and I'm going to to mulligan the other 3 cards, I think that's a good time to keep the patron as you get 3 rolls to get another piece towards your turn 5/6 combo. If the enemy warrior gets his combo off before you, don't quit. Wait and save all your cards and look for a way to get a clever board removal or a frothing berzerker OTK. Vs patron warrior you should always try and save your dread corsair for your death's bite patron combo. With Harrison Jones always keep it for when they are on their death's bite. If you get it on a good turn you win. If it is Vs control warrior - get out a grim patron combo and hope he doesn't have brawl.

Druid: Grim Patron is a good pick. If you are against a skilled player, you will only win this match up by getting out a Grim Patron combo early. Usually any tempo style play will not work on it's own, although you are forced to resort to tempo style gameplay and fight for board control until you can get off a grim patron combo. Don't rely on a frothing OTK because they usually don't have many minions on board.

Priest: Go super greedy. Usually you're only going to win this with a big OTK. Use what you can to keep tempo but always save enough to make the kill. I've only lost outright to a very aggressive priest. Most priests are too slow and will let you draw your entire deck and get off your frothing OTK on them.

Rogue: Bit of a different playstyle here. Like priest you need to save at least 1 frothing for an OTK, but you also need to keep up the tempo play, clearing the rogue's minions while not actually playing patron combo's until you have seen the rogue use his aoe and you think it's safe. Even though every match vs rogue seems close and difficult to win, patron warrior can really pull this one off well if you play right.

Hunter: For facehunter, Only play Armorsmith on turn 2 if you have no other turn 2 play, save it for  a big wirlwind combo (they typically happen at 10-15 health) and then from that point you can't die. If you can get out a couple of grim patrons at any point in the game, you also win this way. Vs facehunter, 2 grim patrons is more than sufficient, especially with an armorsmith out and a charge grill in your hand for the next turn. I had a lot of hunters get lucky on me at the higher ranks, but this a really nice match up for patron warrior. Mid range hunter is a fairly tough match up but if you can swarm the board with grim patrons and use your armorsmiths in good ways you will win. You also have possibility of being able to rush down mid range hunters.

Paladin: Mulligan for aggro every time. Try and get out early grim patron combos and win in any paladin match up if they don't have equality concecration. Watch out because they can win if they play well.

Mage: If it's mech mage you need the axe to win, period. You might need to use executes on Snowchuggers and Water Elementals sometimes. Same story if it's tempo mage really. These 2 match ups are not favored. If it's freeze mage, try and rush them down while gaining lots of armor. If you can rush them down fast enough it's always an easy game.

Warlock: You need the axe to win vs Zoo and Demonlock. Both of these should be easy games if you use execute correctly and save your whirlwinds for boards filled with 1/1's. Once you got a patron combo out you should win. VS Handlock it's horrible. The only way you can win is if you work out some surprise lethal with grom or berzerkers. Other than that, you have no chance vs handlock.

Shaman: This is a hard match up no matter what shaman it is, it's difficult to give playstyle instructions for all the different types of shaman, but you must assume it's mech shaman for the mulligan, your experience vs mage and warlock should give you enough knowledge to play this well, albeit keeping all the shaman's difference in mind.

Harrison Jones is huge in this warrior meta, everyone's running it. Here's some advice on playing around it...

A good player will save their harrison for a death's bite. I always try and bait out harrison with fiery war axe first. But if there's no way to play around it just yolo!!

Here is a good mind game that might win you a game or 2. So It's turn 4 and you are going first without the coin, there's no minions on board... so you equip fiery war axe and pass the turn without swinging. He will find it tempting to coin out his Harrison for 2 cards. At which point, you smile, equip your deaths bite and kill the harrison, ready to win with a big combo next turn.

-----------------------------------------------

My stats from somewhere around rank 4 to legend + match up notes.

I highly recommend you record your wins and loses. I just write them on paper in between games. Some points: It was all handlock at rank 3+. Face hunter's out and mid range hunter is back, which isn't such an easy win for us. And finally tempo mage is really good against patron warrior.

• Mage: 11-9
• Hunter: 11-7
• Druid: 9-10
• Warlock: 6-13
• Warrior: 18-5
• Rogue: 4-0
• Paladin: 8-2
• Priest: 2-0
• Shaman: 2-4