*Now Triple* Double Legend Reno Warrior
- Last updated Jan 22, 2016 (Explorers)
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Wild
- 20 Minions
- 7 Spells
- 3 Weapons
- Deck Type: Ranked Deck
- Deck Archetype: Unknown
- Crafting Cost: 13200
- Dust Needed: Loading Collection
- Created: 12/30/2015 (Explorers)
- SongOfSaya
- Registered User
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- 18
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Good late 2015, Hearthpwn. This is going to be my first write-up....Ever. So please, be gentle! or don't.
First, little bit of background. I've been playing since early closed beta, have hit legend around 10-12 times before and have roughly 5.6k or so hearthstone wins under my belt, most of which are on Control Warrior. Recently, League Of Explorers came out, and it contains a couple of very interesting cards with extremely powerful yet conditional effects. I'm referring to Elise Starseeker and, of course, Reno Jackson.
After much trial and error, I've come up with a list I'm extremely confident with and that I piloted to legend with relative ease. After sharing it with a friend of mine, he too had a rather easy climb into legend. I'm fairly convinced of it's ladder viability and it's reliability in completely crushing aggressive decks. Without further ado....
VODs of the deck against famous players(Played by a friend of mine):
AsmodaiTV
Zalae
Zalae 2
Hotform
Dog
Proof of Legend
Friend has hit legend with it again in the January 2016 season
Card choices:
Execute: Prime removal, allows for huge tempo swings by dropping a threat in addition to executing theirs.
Shield Slam: Prime removal number 2. Excellent for tempo swings and removing large and small threats alike, depending on the matchup.
Zombie Chow: An unusual choice in warrior, but due to the nature of the deck, we're only running the one copy of Fiery War Axe; this card is here to pick up the slack and can be converted to a random legendary by Elise Starseeker.
Fiery War Axe: Excellent weapon due to its ability to completely dominate the early stages of the game while still staying relevant later on. Absolutely a must run; this is one of the cards I once considered running 2 of.
Revenge: Sometimes this card will just be a more expensive Whirlwind. However, sometimes it will let you come back in games you had no business winning by giving you a 2 mana, non self damaging Hellfire for a powerful board wipe. Both effects are obviously extremely powerful in a metagame so infested with Secret Paladin.
Slam: Good for cycling to find your key cards and also useful for picking off minions behind taunt.
Armorsmith: Very strong defensive minion, especially since this deck runs a fair amount of taunt to protect it. One of your many, many life gain cards.
Cruel Taskmaster: Very versatile that proves useful at all stages of the game. Combos well with: Armorsmith, Acolyte of Pain, Big Game Hunter and Grommash Hellscream.
Ironbeak Owl: Silence is something warriors always wanted, but always had trouble fitting in. Our little friend here is the best source you could ask for, since it allows for you to counter early aggression efficiently, trading one for one with even Shielded Minibot and Mad Scientist in faster matchups. It's also good for removing devastating card texts in the slower ones, such as Sylvanas Windrunner.
Jeweled Scarab: This little gem of a card often acts as a wonderful curve filler early game. More often than not offering great warrior 3 drops, both proactive and defensive, such as Bash and Frothing Berserker. However, it can also act as a wonderful toolbox, giving plenty of powerful situational cards that could get you out of a bad situation, such as Mind Control Tech.
Bash: Strong removal and life gain that prolongs the game. What's not to like?
Shield Block: Gets you armor and cycles through your deck to find important cards and serves to enable Shield Slam.
Acolyte of Pain: Another source of card draw. Synergy with all the whirlwind effects in the deck make him a soft taunt and a high priority target for your opponent.
Big Game Hunter: Staple 3 drop in most control decks. Plenty of juicy targets for it to hit and can combo with Cruel Taskmaster to take out 5 attack minions for free.
Fierce Monkey: Similarily to Zombie Chow, this card is here to pick up the slack should you not find your weapons. However, he also has the added bonus of providing you with taunt in the later stages of the game.
Death's Bite: Best weapon in the game, bar none. Provides immense clearing power in both the mid and late game and serves as an excellent activator for Grommash Hellscream. This is the card I ran 2 of for a very long time until i finally decided against it in order to guarantee Reno Jackson activates.
Elise Starseeker: Your win condition against control decks. Sporting a good body to fend off aggro decks, she's not completely dead in those matchups either. All around a solid card that will win games on its own.
Sen'jin Shieldmasta: This deck is defensive at its core, therefore Tazdingo got the nod over Piloted Shredder in this particular deck.
Brawl: Possibly the strongest AOE card in the game for its mana cost outside of maybe Hellfire, especially combined with weapons. Following this card up with Reno Jackson will usually result in victory due to both the board and your health being stabilized over two turns.
This and Revenge are your primary ways of dealing with overzealous aggression.
Harrison Jones: This card serves two very important roles: reducing damage output while fishing for your Reno Jackson against aggro, and applying pressure and fishing for Elise Starseeker against control. Invaluable in a meta where Doomhammer is so popular, not to mention all the paladins running around.
Sludge Belcher: One of the absolute strongest defensive cards in the game, delays the game and trades down fantastically.
Justicar Trueheart: Core card in slower warrior decks. The raw longevity that this card can provide in a control matchup is through the roof. It also helps get out of reach against any combo deck. This is a power card and generally wants to be played before Golden Monkey.
Reno Jackson: The reason the deck is built the way it is. The destroyer of aggro. Salvation incarnate. Gorehowl's partner in crime. Not only is this card a humongous powerhouse against fast decks, it lets you alter the way you play against slower ones, allowing you to be downright reckless with the amount of damage you take. This has two advantages. Firstly, you get to cash in your weapons much more than you might normally be able to. Secondly, no one expects Reno Warrior, and i mean no one. So, they tend to be a lot more willing to go all in to try to finish you off, at which point they get punished and you can easily close out the game from there.
Shieldmaiden: Decent body paired with a burst of armor to activate Shield Slam and get out of reach. Just a very solid warrior card.
Sylvanas Windrunner: Extremely powerful effect that'll likely give your opponent a headache when she hits the board. Her value potential is insane, and she wipes the board clean with Brawl.
Gorehowl: This is the third and final piece of your control killing lineup. This card brings insane value and has unbelievable synergy with Reno Jackson, easily going 5 for 1 against the more midrange decks as well as taking out multiple multiple large threats at virtually no cost with the right setup.
This card alone can win you the game if you space out your healing properly.
Baron Geddon: A very high pressure board clearing beast that has the incredible side effect of taking out the Big Game Hunter that was just used to take out your Dr. Boom in order to take back the tempo. This card is absolutely necessary for this deck because it provides an additional AOE effect that a slow control deck such as this one desperately needs.
Dr. Boom: This card is already monstrous in most decks. It has some added synergy in a deck like this that has difficulties building a board and dealing with lots of small minions. The good doctor is a true powerhouse that everyone should own in their collection, bringing both a ton of value and pressure to the table.
Grommash Hellscream: The deck's main and almost only source of burst damage. He ends up being used as removal to setup 2 turn lethals a lot more often than one might think, as he only has a handful of activators in this deck. That being said, his synergy with Ysera is incredible due to her spells being both able to increase his reach, bypass taunts, or even both at the same time.
The knowledge that Grommash Hellscream is in your deck makes your opponent have to play with only 20 health, which gives you a huge edge against a lot of matchups.
Ysera: A different kind of finisher, Ysera is here to both generate value and end the game in a timely manner, preferably along with Grommash Hellscream for 15+ burst damage from the hand. If anyone is unfamiliar, the dream cards are Laughing Sister, Emerald Drake, Dream, Nightmare and Ysera Awakens.
Armor>Health. Always.
What do i mean by this exactly? I mean that unless your life total would hit 0, you should always value Armor over Health. That means you want to try to gain Armor after you take damage, rather than the other way around. But why? Why would you want Armor over Health?
There are two reasons for this.
Firstly, Shield Slam is a card.
Secondly, no cards can ''Adjust'' your Armor like they can your health. In this deck specifically, you run Reno Jackson, so it's to your advantage to be low on Health and high on Armor. It also plays around your opponent's Alexstrasza.
Matchup and mulligan guide.
Druid
Keep: Zombie Chow, Fiery War Axe, Slam, Jeweled Scarab, Bash, Fierce Monkey, Sen'jin Shieldmasta, Death's Bite and Reno Jackson.
Aggro Druid 3/10 (Easy)
Fairly easy matchup due to their lack of draw, and your amount of lifegain is usually sufficient to carry you, especially with all your taunts. Try to prepare a hard removal for a turn 5 Fel Reaver as much as possible.
Midrange Druid 8/10 (Very Hard)
This matchup has always been extremely painful for Warrior, and even though Reno Jackson helps, this is still a rough one. You want to try to keep their board as controlled as possible while trying your best to stay out of the infamous Force of Nature Savage Roar range. This is tricky to say the least, but not unwinnable by any means. This matchup gets much easier if they don't run Harrison Jones or draw their Ancient of Lore too late.
Hunter
Keep: Zombie Chow, Fiery War Axe, Slam, Armorsmith, Ironbeak Owl, Cruel Taskmaster, Bash, Death's Bite and Reno Jackson.
Face Hunter: 2/10 (Very Easy)
You run a large amount of healing, so your primary goal is to grab control of the board so he has to rely on burn to kill you. Once that's done, you can very easily out heal their direct damage. Don't give them Eaglehorn Bow charges unless you have to or are holding Harrison Jones.
Hybrid Hunter: 5/10 (Medium)
Similar strategy to Face Hunter, but you definitely want to try to hold on to some removal to be able to answer their mid game threats. Try to control the board before healing as much as possible.
Midrange Hunter: 4/10 (Easy/Medium)
Similar to Hybrid hunter, but much less punishing early on. A lot of them run taunts, so don't get greedy for face damage, and try to prepare as best you can for a turn 6 Savannah Highmane.
Mage
Keep:Zombie Chow, Ironbeak Owl, Fiery War Axe, Slam, Jeweled Scarab, Armorsmith, Bash, Fierce Monkey and Death's Bite.
Freeze Mage: 0/10 (Heh, Greetings.)
Armor up. Every turn. Save a way to kill Emperor Thaurissan, Alexstrasza and Archmage Antonidas, and you literally can't lose.
Tempo Mage 5/10 (Medium)
This matchup is very slightly in your favor, but can easily go downhill if they draw well. Killing Flamewaker should be a top priority and holding on to an answer forArchmage Antonidas is always good. Once again, try to seize control of the board before spending your healing unless necessary.
Reno/Grinder Mage 3/10 (Easy)
This matchup is a walk in the park as long as you follow two simple rules: firstly, don't get overzealous. A lot of them run Molten Giant and Echo of Medivh, and a wall of giants could easily lose you the game. Secondly, don't give them good Duplicate value. It's really quite simple, but also extremely important.
Paladin:
Keep:Zombie Chow, Slam, Armorsmith, Fiery War Axe, Ironbeak Owl, Jeweled Scarab, Acolyte of Pain, Death's Bite, Brawl and Harrison Jones.
Secret Paladin 5/10 (Medium/Easy)
Fight aggressively for board control and do your best not to give them a good Redemption or an Avenge you can't immediately answer. Try to think a few turns ahead as much as possible and try to put yourself in a good position to deal with Mysterious Challenger, either by keeping his board clear or by letting him overextend into a Brawl.
One more tip which is good against all paladins: they have little to no burst. Their highest damage card is Blessing of Kings, which is easy to play around. This makes it really easy to bait them into going all in, then swinging it back with a well timed Reno Jackson.
Midrange Paladin 8/10 (Reporting for duty)
This is the most difficult matchup for this deck by a fair margin. The innate value from their hero power against yours makes it really difficult to fatigue them unless they draw a lot with their tech cards. Ideally, you want to try and keep their recruits to a minimum without using up your good board clears until they use up Quartermaster. You generally want to close out the game with Grommash Hellscream combined with a Ysera card since they can only run so much healing.
Murloc Paladin 5/10 (Medium)
This matchup is similar to freeze mage in the way that you want to try to get as high on life as humanly possible. The only issue is they run a decent amount of minions themselves, which makes it a lot easier for them to chip away at your armor. Secondly, you need to save up a strong aoe to deal with their Anyfin Can Happen.
Possible replacement for Grommash? Thanks!
Ragnaros the Firelord. Winrate will suffer greatly.
Thanks!
Emperor Thaurissan and Nefarian. Winrate will suffer.
Great deck btw! It works well. Thanks!
Hey SongOfSaya,
First of all, thank you so much for making this really awesome guide. The level of work that has gone in to it is phenomenal! Doing decently well against almost everything (had a 64% winrate after 30 games but slipping to 55% now) but I've hit a bit of a wall it seems. I was doing great against druids of all sorts had about 80% winrate which was nice and 65% winrate against all pallies.
But recently I've dropped off severely (45% and 38% now respectively) and wanted to know if you have any tips for playing against them that are a little more detailed than your mulligan guide or maybe some videos vs' these classes.
For example I feel that playing an early Armorsmith gets control of the board against pally a little but it's usually pretty weak if you have no fiery, which I haven't been getting 9 times out of 10, Revenge immediately after muster? Seems like it might be a dumb move to me but I'm unsure. Also when to use Harrison bugs me. I know it really good against Tirion but I feel that sometimes the game finishes before I get there because I didn't draw enough answers and Harrison could've got me there from light's Justice muster.
Once again thank you so much for this awesome guide. It's super fun and a great learning experience for me!
Peace.
Certainly.
Against druid, you want to gain board control. Sometimes that'll mean being at risk of Force of Nature + Savage Roar for a turn or two, but it's important that you play to Win, not to not lose.
Against Paladin it's all about planning ahead, setting up for their turn 6 as best as possible. A Mysterious Challenger on an empty board really isn't that threatening, it's when he's with friends that it gets tricky.
Thanks for those tips. I still can't seem to get the deck to work out. My winrate is now flat at 50%. Druids are 38.5% and Pallies at 41.4%. I don't really know what I could be doing better... You need to make some vods talking through the plays! Not to get demanding or anything... :P
With that being said I also tried teching all the things that you mentioned and I can't quick seem to not get raped in the butt by those pesky pallies and damp druids... :S
lol i just got rank 4 with this deck with no loses from rank 5 to 4
EDit: OFC, with a few changes
This deck's been legend multiple times with relative ease. Improve your play or pick a different one if it doesn't match your style,b ut don't blame something that's been proven to work multiple times.
Man, where have u taken a legend? On what server? Really struggling above rank 8 with it =(
As someone who enjoys more tempo/aggressive decks, I'm surprised how much fun I've had playing this one. The only problem I've had is that I lack Justicar Trueheart and the dust to craft her. I currently have Iron Juggernaut instead, and while the bomb is fun, I can think of many other games Tank Up would have won me. Does anyone have better suggestions for a replacement until I get more dust, or should I grind out Arena for a while?
You're in for a rough climb, craft her.
Such a great deck, sitting currently at 90% win ratio overall, 7-0 against secret paladins, wow.
Thank you so much :)
Any replacemnts for geddon and harrison?
harrison -> ooze
Can't think of any good geddon replacements
Not many replacements for Barongeddon... Abomination could sort of work, but your opponent has the opportunity to avoid the damage with silence, entomb, sap etc. Geddon just thumps them at the end of the turn.
Played this deck exclusively this season (started on rank 17) and so far it looks like unstoppable machine. Got rank 5, even though i consider myself rather bad than good or even medium skill player and usually end up in rank 7-8 at the end of month. I faced a lot of Secret pallys, face shamans, tempo mages and control priests. All these matchups i consider favorable. Only Renolocks were quite problematic for me, most of the time you cannot catch up with their curve and draw power.
Hi SongofSaya,
I'm having the opposite experience with this deck than most people who have posted. Played it exclusively (at least 30 games so far, if not more) in ranked this season (started at 20) and have barely managed to claw my way to Rank 14. And I mean claw!
The deck is just brutally draw dependent. If you don't have the right card at the right time you're hooped. I have the full deck, but I am constantly - I would say even desperately - waiting to draw the right card against any opponent. So, what am I doing wrong?
Need healing? Reno is card # 29.
Need a weapon? Here's Gorehowl on turn 3 and then Fiery Axe on Turn 14.
Need Removal? You're one armour short for Slam, or have nothing to deal damage and activate execute. Or worse, you used execute on Dr. B. b/ you didn't have BGH to hand and now you have Ysera to deal with.
Need a board clear? You're at 13 health so all revenge and Baron Geddon will do is make more Grim Patrons - lol, whoops!
30 health and 25 Armour? Still loses to Anyone Can Paladin if you don't have a Brawl immediately to hand, or you have to clear the first Anyfin and then the opponent plays their second one.
Elise Starseeker is... interesting. Particularly hilarious when Golden Monkey is the very last card in the deck. Or second last ahead of Reno, and all you have to do is play a taunt and draw Reno to win. And yes, both have happened.
You mention that this deck should rarely have more than a few cards in hand, but I'm often holding 5-7 cards in that can't be played. I also frequently find myself pushing for exhaustion and then have nothing left to clear my opponents last minion or 2, so I lose due to combined exhaustion and damage.
I'm ready for the 15 neg votes plus at least 6 'learn to play brah!' posts that are incoming, but that is my experience so far.