Hearthpwn

I reached legend on July 14 with my control warrior list which has a few little tweaks - and starting at rank 3 I had a 19-game winning streak. On July 17, I peaked at #6 legend - my first time hitting the top 10! I'm pretty excited about that. Overall, I went 46-13 with this list - 78%. Of course that's not normal and requires a fair bit of good fortune, but it is evidence of the deck's effectiveness.

Here are the links:

Deck: http://imageshack.com/a/img538/1505/RX9ezm.png
#6 Legend: http://imageshack.com/a/img912/1243/PVArPX.png
Winrate (see v1.1): http://imageshack.com/a/img633/577/bJ4Bog.png
15-game streak from r3 to legend (there were 4 more wins after to bring it to 19): http://imageshack.com/a/img537/1982/FzREGN.png

As you can see, there's nothing radical in the deck. The tweaks/decision points for this list were Revenge over Whirlwind; one Cruel Taskmaster; a Sen'jin replacing one of the usual Sludge Belchers; double Brawl; Geddon/Rag/Alex without the super value dragons which are popular right now.

For this run to legend, I felt that my big threats should be able to come out with as much tempo as possible. That's why I included Rag, who shoots the turn he comes out, Geddon, who affects the board at the end of the turn, and Alexestrasza, who has an immense and obvious impact either offensively or defensively. And Grom of course. I think that these threats, along with the standard Sylvanas/Boom, did better for me than some of the more grindy options would have done. These threats of course CAN grind people out, but they are better able to quickly put on the pressure or quickly react than other options.

I want to make a couple of opinionated points about choice of big threats. One is this: Alexestrasza is the MVP among the legendaries in control warrior. It should not be removed for anything. It saves you when you've held on just long enough to take over the game from an aggressive opponent, and it turns a grind-fest into huge immediate pressure when you want to go on the offensive. It won me a lot of games, as it has done in the past. I really do not think there is a good justification for not running it at this time.

The other point is this: Geddon is viewed as one of the first cuts, and it should not be. Or at least one should think very carefully before doing so. It is a very strong card. Sometimes it is game-changing by virtue of a big clear, sometimes it simply flips the tempo around by finishing off a damaged minion while putting a threat on the board. It can clear the garbage to let Sylvanas steal the one big thing. The aoe can even be that little bit more damage you need to get lethal. I don't think there's a single matchup where it's a bad card. Sometimes you just get wrecked and no card is very helpful, but in a close game Geddon is very often important.

I'd also like to mention that Ragnaros is a very strong card and although I get why he gets swapped out for Ysera, I think it's a bit off that this is considered the standard thing to do right now. It's at the very least a close call, in my opinion.

One more opinionated thing: please don't cut a Shield Block. It's so good. Heal yourself, cycle, activate Shield Slam. It's one of the best Warrior cards in the game.

I wanted to smooth out the curve a bit, hence the 1 Sen'jin. I would say the 1 Sen'jin/1 Belcher worked out pretty well by making it more likely that I'd have a strong turn 4 play. There were times when it was strictly worse than a second Belcher - like it would be turn 5 and I'd play the Sen'jin and hang a mana. But I think it often did smooth out the curve and was overall a good idea. The original idea was to have a smoother curve by also running Loatheb with it (ie, three 4's and three 5's), but I felt as if I needed a second Brawl so I took out Loatheb for a Brawl. So the 5-mana slot was a little awkward sometimes with only 1 Belcher and Harrison there (turn 5 Brawl is rare). I think taking out a Brawl for either Loatheb or a second Cruel Taskmaster would be a solid change, but maybe only if Patron Warrior is not a big concern (I didn't end up facing many but I'm sure that's all I'd face if I took out a Brawl). Regarding the curve issue - I'm not a big fan of Piloted Shredder in Control Warrior. I don't think it fits the strategy very well, and I think the stickiness of a 4-drop isn't as relevant for this style of play. I could be wrong, but I like Sen'jin better.

Double Brawl is pretty popular right now, and I think it was pretty helpful for me (maybe as helpful as a Loatheb or something instead of the second one would have been). It didn't exactly serve its intended purpose though - I put it in because I was afraid of Patron Warrior, which I do badly against if I don't have brawl in hand when they get out their first wave of Patrons, but I ended up not seeing as many Patron Warriors as I expected, and still lost a couple despite the tech. However, it was useful in other matchups and I didn't get screwed too often by drawing Brawl when I needed something proactive. Two Brawls can also be pretty good in the grindier games. If you're not under too much threat of lethal and can make the 5-mana value plays, they can be the difference.

I think that Revenge did end up being worth it. There were not many games where it mattered one way or another whether it was a Whirlwind or a Revenge, but there were a couple of wins that I don't think would have been possible without Revenge, and I think that luckily there weren't any games where I wasn't able to make a very important play because of the 2 mana Whirlwind. I was probably lucky in that regard though. I'm sure it does cause problems sometimes. I do think, though, that having a cheap 1-damage aoe is very helpful, whether it's Whirlwind or Revenge. I seem to have more consistent results when I have one in there. It's very versatile, clearing tokens, activating Execute and Grom, cycling with an Acolyte.

The deck has quite a lot of board clear with the Brawls, the Revenge, and the Geddon. Possibly too much in another time - but for the past few days it has simply been helpful. Control warriors can have trouble dealing with a broad board, so addressing that is something that does make sense. It certainly helped me against Paladin. I think that a nice thing about the 4 cards I included is that the two other aoe's beyond the Brawls are both high upside cards. Revenge and Geddon can both do something big in the right situation, so the deck doesn't really get lighter as a result of it.

The card that I think would fit very well in this deck that I ended up cutting is Loatheb. Another 5-drop would fit the curve very well, and Loatheb does some interesting things. So I think cutting a Brawl for Loatheb makes sense, although it's not an easy decision. The other card that would be helpful is of course a second Cruel Taskmaster. I think having an extra whirlwind effect is a little more important though, and I couldn't find anything I was okay with cutting this time around. I think double Armorsmith is a little more important than double Cruel as well, although that's a close call, because Cruel Taskmaster is so versatile. The Sen'jin may have helped compensate for the slightly less flexible early game, since it's a midrange minion that comes out a little sooner.

Something that is needed in order to have a winning streak is luck, and even before the 19-game streak (15 to reach legend and then 4 more) things seemed to be breaking my way quite a lot - sometimes in small ways, but also at least a couple spectacular strokes of luck, such as Rag lethal over 4 or 5 minions, and winning a 1 vs. 3 or 4 Brawl twice in one game. I also drew well, and my opponents' hands seemed somehow more toothless than usual. Everything seemed to be working - won some vs. Druid even when they got turn 2 Wild Growth, didn't drop a single game against Face Hunter (usually they get me sometimes), had the weapons to manage Zoo, held my own against Handlock (with some luck). I even had one Mech Mage who I think was trying to trick me into thinking he was Freeze by not playing anything the first 3 turns, but I'm not sure what that was supposed to accomplish. Anyhow, lucky. But also, I think I've improved my Control Warrior play a lot. This is the second time I played it all the way to legend, and I felt my play was noticeably stronger this time around. I felt I was seeing the ways to play with efficiency and tempo more clearly this time, and generally being more precise.

Thanks for reading. Nothing too new, I know, but maybe worth discussing nevertheless.

Mulligan Stuff:

I find it difficult to just do a list of what to keep for each class, because it can depend on what else you have, and it's often unclear about what the right decision is, so I'm inconsistent. So I thought I would look at the cards and do more of an analysis than a set of rules. Fortunately there are some things that are good against pretty much everyone. I think this stuff is fairly subjective, and I would like to see what other people think.

To begin with, I've been keeping Fiery War Axe, Death's Bite, and Acolyte against everything this month. In the past I tried to be more conditional about the latter two, sometimes keeping Death's Bite only on coin and throwing back Acolyte vs. Mage to hard mull for a weapon because I felt it was weapon-or-bust vs. tempo or mech mage. But lately I've been viewing Death's Bite as a good keep even off coin because it's such a good tool to have early on, and I've been okay with hoping that the rest of my mulligan and my first couple of draws will get me something to help smooth the way to turn 4. It is, however, often too slow if you don't draw into any other early game before turn 4. And Acolyte, although it isn't on its own fast enough against aggressive mage, can be part of a really strong hand if you throw back the rest and get back a weapon. If you don't have good luck on the draw it can at least absorb damage and cycle you to what you need, so it's not the worse. Right now I think throwing it back to hard mull isn't so good because it lessons your chances of getting a really strong hand where you have multiple good early pieces. If you don't like keeping Death's Bite off coin in some matchups, definitely do still keep it against Druid, Warrior, Priest, Warlock (you need it against Zoo, and it can kill a Twilight with two hits if necessary against Handlock). But I've just been keeping it against everyone for the most part, because it's such a good control card as you transition to the middle game.

Armorsmith I think is a bit more conditional than those other three (I used to think the reverse, compared to Acolyte - I viewed Armorsmith as more automatic and Acolyte as more conditional - that might be because I've only been running one Cruel Taskmaster, so that combo with the Armorsmith doesn't happen very often). It's a definite keep vs. Hunter, Paladin, Mage, Shaman, and Rogue (doesn't trade well vs. rogue but the threat of armor gain and the inconvenience of dealing with a 4-health 2-drop is effective against a deck with a lot of non-recurring damage). I think it should be kept against Warlock (the pings and life gain are pretty good against Zoo, although it's not very helpful against Handlock), Druid (because it's such a tempo game that you want to get something out there, and it can activate execute and shield slam, help death's bite deal with 5-health on first charge and 6-health on second charge, etc.). Against warrior I'm starting to think it should be thrown back. It doesn't seem to do too much early, and it gives them a way to get value from their first Death's Bite charge. You may be able to get a bit more from it later if you play it before a whirlwind effect or put it behind a taunt. I think it should often be thrown back against Priest too, although I'm unsure about that because there's something to be said for using it pre-Cabal, and perhaps combining with Axe to kill a Dark Cultist. I wonder what other people think about Armorsmith vs. Priest. The reason to throw it back vs. Priest would be to go for Death's Bite, Execute, Acolyte.

Cruel Taskmaster should be kept vs. Hunter because it is top tier vs. face hunter. I think it can be kept vs. Paladin because it's top tier against aggro paladin, but it can be mediocre against midrange Paladin - so I'm not too sure on that one. I'd feel more comfortable keeping it vs. Paladin if it's not the only good piece in my hand or I'm on coin so the rest of the mulligan involves more cards. In other matchups I think it's not quite good enough to keep except when considering keeping it with Armorsmith or Acolyte. It can be good against Mage because Mech Mages run the 2/1 mechs, but Mech Mage isn't very popular right now, and most Tempo Mages don't seem to run 1-health minions. Against Zoo I don't think it does enough on its own. There are certain hands in certain matchups where you could consider keeping it with an Execute if you also have a weapon (point being you don't want to consider using two card slots in your opening hand on that unless you have something else that's useful). In various matchups it can be good with Armorsmith.

Execute should usually only be kept against Druid (need tempo removal for the midrange stuff) and Priest (Deathlord, Blademaster, Velen's Chosen), but it should be kept against those two. It is really top tier against Priest - it can mess them up. Like, Execute on a Deathlord into anything decent gives you an advantage.

Revenge I think is worth keeping against Paladin, but not against anything else.

Shield Slam I rarely keep, although if you expect to be purely defensive against a deck with low-health minions and you have other good stuff like like Armorsmith and Weapon, it's not bad to keep. Armor up + Shield Slam Huffer is certainly not a weak play.

Shield Block is something that you don't want as your only early play, but it's not bad to keep with something like a weapon and an Armorsmith - it cycles, delays the time when you're going to be at risk of lethal, and if you draw into Shield Slam it'll activate that. Something like Weapon, Shield Block, Shield Slam can be pretty appealing too. I do think it's worth considering keeping Shield Block sometimes along with something else that's more active, because digging deeper into the deck while increasing the life total is a good thing. But you do need strong board-affecting plays as well.

The Sen'jin is something I'm a little unsure of because the idea for it is to be available as a drop earlier than you could play a Sludge Belcher, so having it in hand early in the game tends to be what you want. But on the other hand it's not as good as a weapon, and sometimes having an Acolyte is more important. Plus in some matchups increasing the odds of getting Harrison is actually helpful. Some thinking about the curve is necessary. Going first, you won't want to keep it alone because unlike Death's Bite, it's not strong enough to warrant increasing the risk of having no play until turn 4. Something like Fiery War Axe + Sen'jin seems like a good keep though, because you have your initial active play, and with the Sen'jin you're guaranteed to have something substantive that can come down relatively early. On coin, you can consider keeping Sen'jin when throwing the rest back, if you think turn 3 coin/Sen'jin seems as if it'll be a good play. Death's Bite and Sen'jin as turn 3 and 4 can be good.

Harrison should be kept against Warrior, Paladin and Rogue, but probably not against Shaman because they are too inconsistent about whether they have weapons or not - and if they do, sometimes only a single weapon.

I'd usually only keep BGH in one situation: vs. Warlock when I've also got stuff in hand that is good early-game against Zoo. Then I can deal with Zoo but I'm hedged against Handlock. If you're seeing a lot of Handlock, keeping it when you're on coin and mulliganing the other 3 might be worth the risk, because you still have a lot of chances to draw your anti-Zoo stuff.

When running 1 Brawl, I had started keeping it vs. Warrior because of Patrons - but with 2, I'm likely to throw it back and trust that I'll draw it by turn 5 or 6 (but of course sometimes I don't and that's bad).

Once in a while, when the rest of your hand is perfect for early game, Belcher could be worth keeping to guarantee a mid-game drop.

That's pretty much it as far as stuff that's worth considering keeping.