Hearthpwn

My name is MTGOStark and I've been playing strategy games for the better part of a decade. I've placed either at Rank 1 or somewhere in the Top 100-200 in nearly every strategy game I've played, including League of Legends, Dawn of War II and Magic: The Gathering Online. I started playing Hearthstone last year, and so far have reached a peak ranking of Legend Rank 2 in September 2015. I consistently make Legend every season and usually play in Top 10-100 Legend when I'm not testing new decks.

I played this deck from Rank 16 to Legend in just 3 days, attaining a Top 10 Legend rank. 

Edit: Made Rank 2 Legend a couple times now with this deck

This deck takes the standard Patron decklist and cuts out what I consider chaff in favor of power cards like Dr. Boom that fill out a blank spot on the curve, and tempo cards like Dread Corsair that swing the game around vs. aggro, or get in the last few points of dmg vs. control (you can even play it and Emperor out on the same turn to protect the Emperor). 

Patron's turn 7 is empty; generally turns are filled as:

Turn 1-3: Develop/defend

Turn 4: Deathbite

Turn 5: Combo

Turn 6: Combo/Emperor

Turn 7: Nothing

Turn 8: Warsong Combo

Having a huge gap in the midgame makes the Turn 8 combo much more dangerous than it should be. I think the 7-mana slot should be filled, and what better card to fill it than Dr. Boom. It's a solid midgame topdeck when your hand is just disjointed combo pieces, giving you time and counterpressure to draw the rest of your combo. 

The deck doesn't play Armorsmiths or Gnomish Inventors; the reasoning for this is Armorsmith is a bad card in nearly every matchup if you look closely. Even vs. aggro, Armorsmith gets easily contested by Knife Juggler. Whirlwinding for a bunch of armor midgame is rarely relevant, I find that in the vast majority of games Shield Block and hero power are enough. Gnomish inventors are just way too medicore; you're certainly not playing it for the 2/4 body, you're playing it for the card draw, and drawing a card for 4 mana just sucks. If you play properly, Acolyte of Pain and Battle Rage should provide more than enough card draw.

Mulligan

Generally, you are mulliganing for Turn 5 combo (Patron, Inner Rage, Whirlwind and/or Death's Bite). The degree to which you should adhere to this varies greatly by matchup however. 

Patron: Combo

Aggro: Still mull for combo, but Unstable Ghoul, War Axe, and even execute are higher priority than normal

Control: Execute and Emperor become higher priority than normal. You also don't want to combo off without Battle Rage since they'll usually have an easy 1-card clear. The win condition is often Frothing Berserker rather than Patron so Emperor and Whirlwind effects are higher value. 

Midrange: Combo; Execute becomes a consideration

Stream

Thanks for reading my guide. I also have a stream at twitch.tv/mtgostark. My focus is on coaching players of all ranks on how to be better for FREE. I consistently get Legend every season and usually play at Top 10-100 Legend skill level. I also test new and creative decks, or make unique variations of established decks. If you're interested in getting FREE coaching, watching others get coached, or seeing some solid Legend gameplay, I welcome you to tune into the stream! The current schedule is Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and Sunday @7:30pm EST.