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[HIGH LEGEND] In-depth Tempo Warrior Guide

  • Last updated Jun 1, 2016 (Old Gods)
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Wild

  • 19 Minions
  • 9 Spells
  • 2 Weapons
  • Deck Type: Ranked Deck
  • Deck Archetype: Unknown
  • Crafting Cost: 9000
  • Dust Needed: Loading Collection
  • Created: 5/25/2016 (Old Gods)
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Hi everyone, I’m Graphaus (https://twitter.com/NitradoGraphaus ), a french player for Team-Nitrado and I wrote this guide to explain how Tempo Warrior works.

I. Introduction : 


The first version of tempo warrior was created back in April by the russian player ShtanUdachi who brought it to rank 6 legend. A while after that, Xixo used the same decklist to push for rank 1 legend.
With the release of standard, the deck lost lots of its powerful cards like Death's Bite and Dr. Boom. Luckily, British player BoarControl came up with an updated version, adding new WOTOG cards like Bloodhoof Brave and Blood To Ichor. He proved its strenght by achieving rank 3 legend multiple times thereafter. Then Sjow made the huge performance of becoming rank 1 legend on both servers with an Arch-Thief Rafaam Tempo Warrior.

II. Uses :


Tempo warrior was used a lot at DreamHack Austin and the Spring preliminaries.
Because I love stats, I tracked all games. I saw that there were 97 warriors in the europe spring preliminaries, and 54/97 out of those were tempo oriented (55.7%). 3 tempo warriors got into the top 8. In NA we saw 77 warriors, and 46/77 were tempo (59.7%) with a whopping 5 tempo warriors in the top 8!

III. Strategy :


In this section I’ll give a global strategy for the deck and a gameplan, if you want to see how to play against a particular deck, refer to section IV.
The goal of the deck is to have the board filled with sticky minions that can’t be removed easily and to overwhelm your opponent with stronger and stronger minions.
You have to constantly strive for board control and try to make optimal trades. After you have board control it is easy to set up for a good Battle Rage to refill your hand.
To finish your opponent, you have access to a sick finisher in Grommash Hellscream, who deals 10 damage or 13 if you have a Fiery War Axe equipped.
Versus aggro decks you mulligan for weapons, cheap minions and good removal spells ( Whirlwind / Blood To Ichor ) to fend off the early threats and to survive till the later stages of the game where you’ll have the upper hand with you big bombs.
Versus control decks, you want to keep your midrange minions ( 3 and 4 drops ) and your value spells ( Battle Rage & Execute) with the goal to gain more card advantage than your opponent.

IV. Mulligan :

[DRUID]: Beast 55/45 - Ramp 35/65

Against Beast: Druid don’t have great AOE, only Swipe, so you can easily flood the board and make value from your Whirlwinds effects, try to always trade his board to be prepared to Mark of Y'Shaarj, and to execute his 4-Heath/more minions like Druid of the Claw or Violet Teacher.

 

Against Ramp: You have to take the board very quickly with midrange minions like Frothing Berserker or Fierce Monkey.
You have to be greedy on your Execute, by Execute only big threats, and try to trade his midrange minions with your Fiery War Axe and some small minions.
Notice that Ramp Druid is playing generally 1 Mulch so don’t drop a single big minion.

 

Mulligan : Blood To Ichor, Fiery War Axe, Fierce Monkey, Ravaging Ghoul, Frothing Berserker, Kor'kron Elite.

 

[HUNTER]: Mostly Midrange 40/60

Try to value your trades and to have the board, be careful for unleash the hound, so don’t fill up your board with 1HP minions. .
Anticipate a Savannah Highmane on turn 6 and Call of the Wild on turn 8.
A turn 8 Call of the Wild is very hard to play against, so in this matchup, try to close the game as soon as you can.

 

Mulligan for: Armorsmith, Fiery War Axe, Ravaging Ghoul, Fierce Monkey.
You can keep Frothing Berserker if you don’t have Fierce Monkey in your hand.

 

[MAGE] vs: Freeze 85/15 - Tempo 45/55

Against tempo : Try to drop your axe as early as you can to remove his early minions, then push for the board with your midrange minions.

 

Against Freeze : Play this deck as the double combo druid, by dropping threats each turn and then curving into your hero power turns.
Try do draw your Armorsmith as soon as you can to drop your twice Armorsmith and use 2 or 3 Whirlwind effects to gain infinite armor and close the game. DO NOT drop your armorsmiths singular, without gaining tons of armor.
Be careful of your opponent’s Doomsayers, play each turn while thinking what happens when your opponent drops a Doomsayer. Don’t use Execute on their Doomsayer except if :
- You know there aren’t other big threats
- You have armorsmith on your board

 

Mulligan for: Blood To Ichor, Armorsmith, Fiery War Axe, Fierce Monkey, Ravaging Ghoul, Frothing Berserker.
If you know that it is a freeze mage, you can keep Battle Rage and Bloodhoof Brave.

 

[ROGUE] Mostly Miracle 65/35

Rogue doesn’t have great AOE, so try to flood the board to force him to use his spells on your minions. You should use your execute on his Tomb Pillager or Azure Drake.
Try to not lose tempo at turn 6 by getting your Cairne Bloodhoof sapped, Sap is the best card for rogue in this matchup, so try to play around it by playing multiple small threats.

 

Mulligan for: Blood To Ichor, Fiery War Axe, Fierce Monkey. Frothing Berserker, Ravaging Ghoul.
If you have already a 3 drop minion, you can keep Bloodhoof Brave.

 

[PALADIN] vs: Aggro 70/30 - Control 40/60

Against Aggro: Try to abuse your Whirlwind effects to clear your opponent board and then take the board. Don’t forget that Blood to ichor is the perfect answer for a t1 Argent Squire.

 

Against N’Zoth : This matchup is a very hard matchup and you have to be aware of a lot of things :
Most N’Zoth palladins play 1 or 2 Kodo’s, so don’t drop your bloodhoof Brave without enraging it. This matchup has only a few victory conditions :
If you’re lucky, try to have Doomhammer from your Malkorok
Otherwise try to force him to use his equalities on a small but threatening board with something like a Frothing Berserker and then drop Varian Wrynn.
Note that N’zoth paladin can’t deal easily with Ragnaros the Firelord.

 

Mulligan for: Blood To Ichor, Fiery War Axe, Fierce MonkeyFrothing Berserker, Ravaging Ghoul.

 

[PRIEST] vs: Control 30/70

Priest is very hard to play against because they have removal for everything, so try to force them to play their AOE as soon as you can by dropping midrange minions, and then overwhelm him with other threat, try to keep your Frothing berserker, to drop the 2 after an Auchenai circle (like 2 Frothing + Blood on the 3-1 Auchenai is very hard to deal with as priest) and to OTK your opponent just after.


Mulligan for: Fiery War Axe, Battle Rage , Fierce Monkey, Frothing Berserker, Ravaging Ghoul.

 

[SHAMAN] vs: Aggro 30/70 - Midrange 55/45

Against Midrange: Shaman will always try to have the board and to get value with their totems, so try to constantly remove their board with your Whirlwind effects, to make most of their cards useless.

 

Aggainst Aggro: Pray to stop their aggression as soon as you can, and then regain life with your hero power.

 

Mulligan for: Blood To Ichor, Whirlwind, Armorsmith, Fiery War Axe, Fierce Monkey, Frothing Berserker, Ravaging Ghoul.

 

[WARLOCK] vs: Reno 45/55 vs Zoo 65/35

Against Reno : Try to take board advantage as early as you can, but be careful, Renolock has 4 AOE, So don’t flood to much. Battle Rage is a very good card in the matchup because it can contest your opponent’s hero power.
Try to Execute only high health enemy minions.

 

Against Zoo : Try to always contest the board and make good trades, keep a whirlwind effect for Forbidden Ritual.

 

Mulligan for: Blood To Ichor, Armorsmith, Fiery War Axe, Fierce Monkey, Ravaging Ghoul

 

[WARRIOR] vs: Control 35/65 - Tempo 50/50

Against Control: Try to make him use Brawl as soon as you can, then flood the board.

 

Against Tempo: You have to take the board before he does so by taking good trades. Note that Kor'kron Elite is very useful in this matchup to counter a turn 3 Frothing Berserker or Acolyte of Pain.

 

Mulligan : Blood To Ichor,Fiery War Axe, Fierce Monkey, Ravaging Ghoul, Frothing Berserker, Kor'kron Elite

 

V. Deck composition & Card subsitution :

Core : (19)
2 Blood To Ichor
2 Execute
2 Fiery War Axe
2 Armorsmith
2 Battle Rage
2 Slam
2 Frothing Berserker
2 Ravaging Ghoul
1 Bloodhoof Brave
1 Grommash Hellscream
1 Ragnaros the Firelord

Core vartiation : (7/8)
2 Whirlwind
2 Acolyte of Pain
2 Fierce Monkey
1 Bloodhoof Brave
2 Arathi Weaponsmith
2 Kor'kron Elite


Tech cards : (0/1)
1 Harrison Jones

Late Tempo Cards : (2)
1 Cairne Bloodhoof
1 Sylvanas Windrunner
1 Hogger, Doom of Elwynn
1 Malkorok

Finishers : (1)
1 Varian Wrynn
1 Arch-Thief Rafaam

 

VI. Malkorok :


Because Malkorok is my favorite card, I have made some stats about this cards.
First of all, there are 20 different weapons avialable, so 5% chance to have a specific weapon
Notice that I consider Doomhammer as a 4 attack weapon.
Now, the % to have enough attack :
7 => 5%
5 => 15%
4 => 30%
3 => 55%
2 => 85%
1 => 100%
So in 30% of the cases Malkorok can kill an Azure Drake directly, and in 55% of the cases a 3 health minion.

VII. Common Questions :

Malkorok Remplacement :

Malkorok is a very good tempo card that created a 6-5 body with a weapon, with only 5% chance to get Cursed Blade, so not that bad as it seems. If you really want to replace it, I’ll advice you to try Sylvanas WindrunnerHogger, Doom of Elwynn, or even Gorehowl.
If you really are low budget, you can go for Obsidian Destroyer.

 

Varian Wrynn remplacement :

Varian Wrynn has direct value when he hits the board. If you don’t have Varian Wrynn, you can play Arch-Thief Rafaam, but you have to wait 1 turn to have an use of his battlecry.

 

Why no Brawl :

Brawl isn’t really good in this kind of deck because the goal of the deck is to constantly have the board, and Brawl is a dead card in almost 85% games.
And when you use Brawl, you doesn’t run that much removal to refill the board before your opponent.

 

VIII. Thanks :

I want to thanks Mitsuhide (https://twitter.com/ONE_Mitsuhide) for his help to complete the guide ! :)