Hearthpwn

Hi, first time posting here. Just thought I'd share my decklist for those dragon warrior enthusiasts out there. I just hit #1 NA Legend today (7/3/15) with it.

Proof: 

See updates below strategy guide for revision explanations! Also please check out my stream to learn more!

twitch.tv/lokshadow

youtube.com/lokshadow

twitter.com/lokshadowhs

Mulligans/Strategy (Updated as of 9/14/15)

Warlock: There are many variants of Warlock these days such as Zoo, Handlock, Demon Zoolock, Demon Handlock, Malylock, Dragon Control, Dreadsteed, etc. so it’s a very difficult matchup to mulligan for. In general it falls down to whether or not it is an aggressive deck like Zoo that plays mostly on curve or a control deck like Handlock that taps more frequently for card advantage. The general advice is to watch the mulligan as a hint since keeping more cards is generally more likely if they have a lower-curving deck like Zoo. If unsure, always mulligan as if they are Zoo. Weapons are the priority here. If you have weapons, then you can keep armorsmith/acolyte/execute. Brawl is also worth keeping if you have a good hand but too slow otherwise. Against Handlock, you want to keep weapons, execute, acolyte, and BGH. Only keep shield block shield slam combo if you have both. For both matchups you usually want to draw into revenge rather than keeping it.

-Zoo: Think critically about when to set up your deathsbite for whirlwind effect and when to use your board clears. If there is no pressure on the board, you don't need to use them. Try to hold on for as long as possible and get the full board clear (opening up deathrattles, etc.). It’s a good idea to save armor gain if you’re holding onto revenge for after you’ve hit <12 health for board clear and stabilization.

-Handlock: I prefer to play this matchup slowly and not hit face at all to prevent cheap moltens. You have a good amount of removal and minions to keep up with the mountain giants, twilight drakes, and dr. boom (and possibly ragnaros). Save brawl for the board that includes giants if possible! Don't alexstrasza his face until he's either at 15 or has played both moltens. Bait out BGH/siphon with your other threats and don't be afraid to use grom as removal if necessary. Maintain a board presence such that he feels the need to throw out belchers and taunt-givers (or even better, healbot such that he's even further from playing moltens). Deathwing will normally be played to clear a jaraxxus board at the end of the game while he is taking fatigue damage.

-Malylock: The main way to lose this matchup is just to get out-drawn by your opponent's hero power, so it is critical that you don't play naked acolytes because they will get silenced. At the very least make sure you draw 1 card from them. Malylock has a finite amount of damage though, so it is possible to out-tank the damage. You want to maintain board control as usual and pressure his face (you should look for tell-tale signs like implosion or imp gang boss to differentiate from Handlock). Their most annoying minion is probably twilight drake, so it is fine to use your executes on these. Be aware that you may have to bait out 2x bgh or 1x bgh + siphon before deathwing, which again is best saved for the end game to clear malygos+board when they are fatiguing and push all-in.

-Dreadsteed: This is not that common of a matchup, but I think in general you have to play it like a combination of Handlock and Malylock where you don’t want to hit face to enable moltens (some lists run moltens) and where it is critical to keep up in card draw. You will have to try to fatigue them out.

Warrior: Pretty much you mulligan against patron since you have a lot more time against control warrior. You want to look for weapons, acolyte for card draw, and harrison/brawl. If you have a good hand, it’s worthwhile to keep justicar/emperor as well.

-Patron: Try to have a weapon set up and either harrison/brawl in hand to stop their turn 5 patron spam. If you're not able to prevent the turn 5 patron or have brawl to clean it up, it's usually gg. It's definitely possible that you have a combination of shield slams/executes/baron to clean it up though, so check for that first. Stop playing your 1 attack minions when they have 8 mana and can warsong/patron combo. You want to build up armor, play your 6 drops, and pressure with your 8/8s. Another key aspect of this matchup is to prevent their card draw as much as possible (reduce the number of damaged minions that they have on board, trying to keep them at full health in the early game by waiting until they have armor to prevent an extra baby rage card). After they have played emperor and if you’re at a high enough health total, you can go into turtle mode with justicar and stop playing minions to prevent activation of unstable ghouls. Don’t forget that chillmaw serves as a 2^nd brawl!

-Control: You are definitely favored in this matchup and it all boils down to who can use their removals more efficiently. Try to save shield slams/executes for those beefy targets. Don't overextend into brawl (especially since 2x brawl is not uncommon). You want to keep up in card draw but don't overdraw yourself such that you're fatiguing way faster. Remember that you will win the fatigue game because all your cards have more value than the typical control warrior list. Sylvanas is the one card that you will need to play carefully around since you have no silences, but it is generally possible to either trade a small board in or use a removal on her. Also note that there are some warrior lists that run Varian now, so it’s a good idea to save brawl for that!

Hunter: I think since midrange is a bad matchup anyways, there's no point in trying to mulligan for this unless you're absolutely sure you're facing midrange. Thus, you want your weapons and early game minions like armorsmith/acolyte. Be mindful of using your hero power just like hunter is using theirs!

-Face: Armor up as much as possible to survive their damage until you can stabilize with armorsmiths/shield maidens/alexstrasza and build board for the lethal. Be careful that there are some face decks with misdirection as a trap, so have a small minion on board attack first if possible.

-Midrange: Really hard... I think it boils down to if you can build up a board or hand before their highmane in order to efficiently clear it. I think baron is MVP here in that it can clear hyenas after you kill the highmane. Usually the matchup is won if you can continually freeze shieldmaidens or small minions and drag the game out such that hunter runs out of cards and you can stabilize with your superior late game. It is also possible to save revenges to clear off pesky hyenas, shredders, and houndmasters!

Mage: Mulligan against tempo/mech mage and look for your weapons, armorsmith/acolyte, and revenge. If you have weapons, then save your cheap drops for those mirror entities. The goal is to survive their early game onslaught, which can be quite overwhelming sometimes, but if you can do that, then they don't have enough late game to sustain. Keeping revenge is an insurance in case they push too hard (usually revenge will clear the board if you’re at <12 health). Keeping brawl is also a consideration if your hand is good.

-Tempo/mech: It's fine to use removals like shield slams or executes to remove annoying minions like flamewaker hiding behind taunts, but try to save something to deal with boom/antonidas/rag. Getting emperor down safely is important to get those tempo removal plays and getting the dragons out. Similar to zoo, if you have revenge in hand, try to save armor gain for stabilizing after you’ve hit <12 health.

-Freeze: Hero power as much as possible and try to save armorsmiths for whirlwind effect value or when you have a couple minions on board. Save removal for the doomsayers/emperor/antonidas/alexstrasza.

-Echo Molten: I got asked about this matchup a couple times on stream. The key is to figure out what type of mage it is early on before you set them below 20 health. If you don't see the unstable portals/apprentices and don't see loot hoarders/acolytes, then be wary of moltens. Playing around duplicate is important. It's fine to give them belchers/alexstrasza/healbots but much more annoying to give them sylvanas/emperor. Once you figure out it is molten mage, stop hitting the face (don't even bother setting them close to 20). You will win by fatiguing them until you can safely one-shot them into fatigue lethal. You will maintain board control by playing your mid/lategame minions. They will either have to start pinging themselves or alexstrasza themselves to enable moltens but even then they are expensive moltens and you can deal with them one by one. As a note, some popular streamers like Rage and Neviilz have updated their lists with 1x frost giant to bolster their control matchup. This is another one of those prime targets to try to steal with sylvanas + shield slam or using nefarian to try to get a polymorph/polymorph boar. Keep in mind that in such a long game, the frost giants will be 0 mana!

Shaman: Mulligan for mech shaman by looking for weapons, armorsmith/acolyte, and execute is also a good keep against those fel reavers, buffed mechs, or fire elementals. Brawl is often a good keep as well.

-Mech: Early game is really important to keep them from snowballing out of control and it really falls down to whether or not you got your weapons to start clearing the board or brawl for when they overextend. You want to get the point where they are just left topdecking and you can stabilize with your armor gain. Keep removal in mind for those fel reavers!

-Midrange: Try to control the board from getting out of control with weapons and early game minions to limit the totems. You have brawl/baron for the midgame board reset and save removals for the fire elementals/boom/neptulon. Keep up in card draw by saving acolytes until you can make sure you draw 1 card before they get earthshocked. You have many more threats than they have hex/bgh for, so eventually they will run out of answers/cards. If it goes to late game, try to make sure you have weapon equipped before deathwing to clear that damned taunt totem! The additional AoE like revenges and chillmaw also help with clearing the board.

Priest: Against Priest, I don't mind keeping some of the heavy drops like deathwing or nefarian just to prevent them from being thoughtstolen. Otherwise, we're looking for the executes and weapons to deal with early game minions like deathlord or a minion buffed by velen's chosen. Don't alexstrasza until you have a shot to play aggressively with grom finisher or they are about to start taking fatigue damage. Don't overextend into light bomb and it is best to use your midrange minions like shieldmaiden to bait out the deaths/removal before you start playing dragons. You also want to play around mindcontrol, so keep that bgh for the mindcontrolled 8/8. Also be wary of sylvanas and obviously remove it before playing deathwing in the end game. As an update, since dragon priest is very popular these days which don’t run thoughtsteals and mind control generally, we have to adapt and mulligan less greedily and throw away those high drops. Always keep removal for that ysera in mind since that’s pretty much their only win condition. You will win the fatigue game with justicar and superior late game.

Paly: Since aggro paly is so fast, you have to mulligan for the weapons and armorsmith/revenge to stop them.

-Aggro: Saving a good deathsbite charge to clear all the 1/1s is important as well and prioritize popping divine shields! It's much easier to deal with a blessing of kings with execute if there aren't any shields around. Knowing when to spend the coin is critical because you have to survive until your brawl/revenge to try to stabilize the midgame until you can get your shieldmaiden/justicar and emperor down. Play around divine favor if possible by spending some of those cheap removal cards to clear their board.

-Midrange: Since we don't run owl, it is very important to save harrison for that tirion. Be wary of when he might have quartermaster combo and keep the 1/1 count low. Save brawl for a large board or after quartermaster combo, and try to bait out BGH before using baron as a clear since he can often clear for 2 turns! Nefarian can also draw useful AoE like consecration or avenging wrath, so keep that in mind. If it goes into late game, you want to have baited out the 2x belchers, 2x aldors, and bgh before deathwing. The 2x revenge and chillmaw are also helpful as extra AoE against those annoying murloc knights!

-Xmas: Alright, the new cancer deck in town after TGT. The key is to play around the mysterious challenger. Generally you will use your weapons/armorsmiths to pop divine shields and try to control the board, but you will be inviting damage early on to activate your revenges (save armor gain for stabilization after). You want to try to save the board clears for that turn 6 mysterious challenger where you will activate most of the secrets and use some combination of AoE/execute/shield slam to clear the board (assuming filled board). On an empty board, it’s often easy just to weapon into noble sacrifice and BGH the mysterious challenger. Usually save harrison for value since many lists do run tirion. It is very difficult to beat a xmas paly that curves out perfectly into loatheb, mysterious challenger, dr. boom, tirion though! Think of the matchup mostly as a puzzle though for you to figure out how to diffuse those secrets.

Rogue: Weapons, especially deathsbite, are key to this matchup since they get so much value. Keep removal for those hard to remove minions like 6/6 edwin or emperor. Try to play "unsappable" targets in the midgame to keep from losing tempo like emperor/shieldmaiden/justicar/corruptors. Sylvanas/alexstrasza are prime sap targets so avoid playing these until necessary. Always try to keep the Rogue board clear since tinker's oil can burst for so much damage. Rogue does have a finite amount of damage, so often it is just about out-tanking the damage rather than having lethal yourself. Deathwing can be used when Rogue dumps their hand and pushes all-in with loatheb. Even if it gets sapped, you will clear their next board.

Druid: Druid... kind of comes down to how well they wild growth/innervate/curve out. I like to keep weapons and execute as well as armorsmith/acolyte. The main way to keep up in mana/tempo is to get your emperor down as soon as possible to get those swingy free removal turns. Only use deathwing as a last resort. Against faster token druids, it is fine to use revenge as a whirlwind before they get power of the wild value!

UPDATE 2: If people are interested in learning more about the deck playstyle and different matchups, please feel free to check out my stream sometime at twitch.tv/lokshadow

UPDATE 3: Made some revisions to the deck that seem to be working well:

-1 Taskmaster/+1 Revenge (both are 2 drops and can activate Grommash but Revenge can serve as AoE)

-1 Sludge Belcher/+1 Blackwing Corruptor (see the next revision but I added a 4th dragon so now the battlecry is more consistent and worth running 2x)

-1 Baron Geddon/+1 Ysera (missed running Ysera and Baron Geddon's effect is taken over by the 1x Revenge)

UPDATE 4: Another update before TGT

-1 Dr. Boom/+1 Baron Geddon (Helps improve some of the aggro matchups and is in preparation for replacing Dr. Boom with Chillmaw!!)

UPDATE 5: TGT Updates

A lot of testing still, but this is the current version of the list. It is trying to adapt to the sheer number of midrange token style decks, especially both midrange inspire paly and secret paly.

-1 Alexstrasza's Champion: After some testing I concluded that this card doesn't belong in a control-oriented dragon warrior and is more suitable for a aggressive midrange build.

-2 Armorsmiths: I really hate taking these out but felt like they were not high impact enough to deal with the tokens compared to revenge.

2 Revenge: MVP card against the rise of tokens. The key is to play similar to handlock and invite damage early game such that you can get huge swings with 2 mana hellfire.

2 Shield Block: After cutting armorsmiths you really need to run 2x for the instant armor gain for shield slam value. This is for fast stabilization after tanking health down to 12 or less.

-1 Acolyte: I took out 1 acolyte in favor of the shield block for the card cycle.

1 Twilight Guardian: Extra dragon for triggering the corruptors/chillmaw and serves as a good taunt/midrange minion. Trades better than the armorsmiths/acolytes.

1 Baron Geddon: Baron's back! A very solid 7 drop that serves as another board clear. Against all the midrange token decks that can flood the board much more easily due to the inspire cards, one can never have enough AoE. This brings the number of AoE up such that we have 2x revenge, 2x deathsbite, 1x brawl, 1x chillmaw, 1x baron, and 1x deathwing.

Hopes this helps people out who are still interested in playing Dragon Warrior but struggling in the current meta. Suggestions and new ideas are welcome! Please check out my stream as well for more play testing!

twitch.tv/lokshadow

UPDATE 6: New season

Trying to keep the list updated for the current meta, and since at the beginning of the season there are lots of aggro including face hunters, the following changes have been made:

+2 Armorsmiths

+1 Acolyte

-1 Shield Block

-1 Twilight Guardian

-1 Ysera

Essentially reverting back to an older build that has the early game package with Armorsmiths/Acolytes and doesn't run the slower dragon like Ysera which doesn't help with racing/guaranteed board clear.

 Update 7: October Season

Addressed a question in comments but thought others would benefit from these alternative lists.

I'm currently running a greedy version of this deck (rank 6 NA atm for the new season): http://i.imgur.com/OVnAnKb.png

This includes the Twilight Guardians.

Here is also my tempo version that I run on EU: http://i.imgur.com/EakmdEF.png

I don't have 2nd Twilight Guardian on EU but I think Shredder is a more solid value 4 drop especially for a tempo deck.

Update 8: November Season

Got some request to update the Dragon Warrior deck list and I have just updated it to the greedy version. This is only appropriate in a control-oriented meta when I see more Control Warriors, Handlocks, Dragon/Control Priests, Midrange Paly, Midrange Shaman, etc which this deck handles better in my opinion than traditional Control Warrior.

If you are interested in my anti-aggro warrior build, I've uploaded a screen shot of my Suck FMOrc list here: http://i.imgur.com/5iBtzly.png

Hope this helps and please give me a follow! Cheers!

twitch.tv/lokshadow

youtube.com/lokshadow

twitter.com/lokshadowhs