*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
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- 5
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- 18
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Total Deck Rating
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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.
Lack of draw really hurts this deck. Acolyte and Shield Block is not enough, especially if there's no weapon to Harrison Jones. Too many times in the late game I'm praying for a particular card (typically brawl) and can't find it.
As a player using this deck, I agree with that. From my experience, it can be avoided by not playing more than 1 card each turn in early game, or armor up in order to get a decent cards in hand, even when there are minions on opponent's board. If thing goes bad, a brawl in hand will help in most situation.
Agreed. Playing this deck you need a mentality similar to freeze mage - you have to decide when to use taunt/removal and when to just take the damage and deal with it next turn. Too often I'll Bash something that has 3 health because I can, when instead I should ask myself if it's dangerous, and if not then just armor up and pass.
Pilotted Shredder is a good target for bash (if I don't have 2 drop weapon). Play with this deck a lot and you will have experience on CW's card management.
Control Warrior generally only runs exactly one more Acolyte of Pain or one more Shield Block than this list, no one complains about it not having enough draw. If you're really desperate for cards, fit in a Gnomish Inventor or Azure Drake, but i think your play style needs to be adjusted, not the deck.
Does good against most decks but I pretty much lose every single game against secret paladin.
Set-up your turns in advance. Don't just think of the turn at hand, think of what he'll do the following turn and try to prepare your answers accordingly.
I think this deck was a necessary evil with the rise of all the aggro decks lately. I used to play regular cw until i got tired of all the aggro shamans and SMORC hunters in 3/4 of my match ups. I could still beat them obviously, but not quite like this deck. this just shines against aggro decks. there's honestly nothing more satisfying than dropping a Reno on turn 6 against a face hunter when you have less then 10 health. causing you to be able to stabilize in the subsequent turns where otherwise you would have been flat out dead. only aggro losses for me with this deck were because Reno was nowhere in sight combined with a bad starting hand. This deck also holds it own surprisingly well against control decks. I was a little skeptical at first being used to playing with 2x shield slam, 2x execute, 2x death's bite etc. The benefits of being able to fully heal your hero for a 6 cost far outweigh the benefits of having a few extra removals, especially since Gorehowl makes up for the lack of removals. I can proudly say I have beat multiple golden control warriors and priests with this deck. it does struggle against druid. I Just try my best to keep my health above 15 at all costs.
Other than druids, other matchups seem winnable. Impressive deck.
Any reason for not running Bouncing Blade and Crush?
The deck doesn't need extra removal against anything but Reno Jackson Warlock, so i opted to run some more early to mid-game cards over those options.
I've been playing Hearthstone on and off since open beta. I've built countless decks on my own and from this website. I can honestly say that I've never had so much fun playing a deck than I have with this Reno Legend Warrior. It's so satisfying to play against a face hunter and have them work their heart out to get you within lethal range, only to pop a Reno on your turn. After playing about 20 or so games with this deck, I can tell you that I've won most of my games. Yes you will occasionally draw bad hands, and you will lose from time to time, but that's with EVERY deck. After playing with this deck a bit and getting comfortable with it's mechanics, I am not afraid at all to match it up with any deck on the ladder. Even when you draw bad, there are so many tools in this deck to get you the cards you need to save yourself and win you the game most of the time.
If you are having trouble with those pesky aggro decks, build this deck. If you like playing control warrior, build this deck. You'll love it! The only cons this deck has really is it's price. But if you have the cards and/or the dust. Give this deck a few runs, you won't regret it
Good deck. Played it on and off for a few seasons.
1 thing that sucks about this deck though is the horrible font size and typesetting. If this makes it easier for you to read you really need to get your eyes checked.
I don't know what to say man. Really liked it at first, still do, but after playing a couple of games I just started losing endlessly. I'm a multiple times legend player who mostly has done Control Warrior, at least 2-3 times it has gotten me to legend. This time around I figured I'd let this deck carry me to legend from rank 2, although I must say that I'm only dropping, at rank 7 now even... I love the deck but I'm just not sure it fits today's meta. Draw bad and you're out. And believe me, I'd really want this to work, it's the only reason I'm still playing it, 'cuz both you and I know that finally establishing full controll is the best feeling ever.
EDIT: Props for doing all the guides and such, admireable!
My friend hit legend with it recently and it got to me rank 4 without any trouble even though I've played very little ladder. Maybe you're not approaching this version correctly? This is definitely harder to play than normal Control Warrior, you have to grab the tempo while you can and ride it to victory a lot of the time, which isn't really something Control Warrior looks to do.
Be extremely greedy with your Brawl and when the late stages arrive and you know he wants to play Lord Jaraxxus, try to start pressuring him as much as possible. Lord Jaraxxus only has 15 health and is usually played when fatigue is starting/about to hit, so he's really quite fragile, although it's almost impossible to beat him in a value war.
I think Elise is only important against Priest and other Warriors, so if you're not encountering those match-ups, a Refreshment Vendor or a Piloted Shredder is a better option.
The key to beating secret paladin is to plan ahead for their power turns. The deck is extremely predictable in nature, and you have to use it to your advantage. It's important you try to grab tempo from them in the early stages, since challenger on an empty board is relatively easy to deal with in comparison to the alternative.
I recommend you replace it with a different deck until you have enough dust.
No is the short answer.
Definitely not is the long answer.