Hearthpwn

Hey Gang - 

I'm Goose Snack from the NA Server.  This is the deck I used to reach Legend in Season 27, NA Wild from Rank 5, 2 stars.  I played Secret Paladin until Rank 5, and after a couple hundred games, I could not get past Rank 4.  I decided to make the switch to this deck.  I doubt I'm the first person to use this decklist, so I'm certainly not taking credit for it.  

I chose this deck because the Wild NA meta was mainly Paladins of all types, Mage, and Hunter.  The deck didn't have any bad match ups, and I actually won more than I lost vs. my worst matchup, N'Zoth Priest.  I started strong against Midrange Hunter, but started to lose repeatedly toward the end of my run.  Ironically, my final boss was a Midrange Hunter.

For some general advice, you always want Fiery War Axe, I cannot think of a matchup where you wouldn't want it in your opening hand.  The ideal combo is turn 4 Death's Bite, attack face or minion, turn 5 Grim Patron, cast Inner Rage on your Patron, and then attack with your sword, spawning more Patrons.  So by turn 5, you should have 4 Patrons on board, and hopefully your opponent's board is clear.

Below is a general strategy to the common opponents I faced, with my Win/Loss record.  My record was 48-24 (66% win rate) overall.

Warrior: 5-4 

All warrior opponents were Patron, except maybe 1 or 2.  Mulligan for Grim Patron, and hope you get your patron's down first.  That basically decided the match.  You can actually clear patrons fairly well with warrior, but by then you're playing catch up the whole time, so don't bother.   You also have a lot of cards that trigger patrons, but at the same time, so does your opponent.  Get your patron combo off first, and you should be in good shape to win.

Control Warrior is a difficult match up.  You need to go face, and kill them sooner rather than later.  You can win if they don't pull off a Brawl. The matches were over by Turn 8, either I was going to win by Turn 9, or I was way behind from board clears. 

Druid: 2-2

I ran into 2 token druids, and 2 Midrange Beast Druids, which happened to be the same player.  So, assume token druid.  Treat it like any aggro deck - keep the war axe, and even Blood To Ichor is not bad to hang onto.  As a general strategy for all aggro decks, you have to keep the board clear early, so keep all cards that allow you to do so.  Save your Executes until after they buff their minions.  Clear minions with your weapons, take as much face damage as you can, and boost up with your Armorsmith in the late game.  I had a lot of comebacks from pinging Armor Smith with patron.

Mage: 9-0

All opponents were Spell Mages, with one Freeze Mage.  For Spell Mage, the war axe and blood to ichor will kill off the Mana Wyrm and Flamewaker.  That's really your only priority.  Even the Death's Bite helps destroy the Flamewakers.  I kept execute for the bigger minions (Water Elemental, or Archmage).  A good opponent will not play their Wyrm or Flamewaker if they see you holding a weapon; so, do not cast your weapon until after they play those cards.  I had a lot of opponents play their flamewakers, and next turn I would play war axe with blood to ichor or death's bite.  

As for Freeze Mage, keep your armor high - this should not be a tough match up if you play good defense early on.  They should not have enough spell power to beat you.  If they play Alex, combo off with Armor Smith to buff yourself for the next turn where they can deal over 20 damage.

Paladin: 19-6

This deck is made to punish Secret Paladin, but really, it does well against most Paladins because they do not have an easy board clear for your patrons.  Patron plays in well because most of Secret Paladin's minions have 1 or 2 power,  Save your execute for MC and Tirion.

You can force N'Zoth Paladins to use their board clears early on with Frothing Berserker and Bloodhoof Brave.  Make sure to keep your hand low so they do not use Divine Fervor to draw several cards.

Shaman: 2-1

Mainly faced aggro.  Same strategy as versus token druid, you need fiery war axe early.  Honestly, didn't face many of these guys.  Whirlwind and Ravaging Ghoul worked well to clear all the totems.

Priest: 4-3

They were all N'Zoth Priests, which is technically your worst match up.  4 out of 7 times I won, because I just went all out aggressive, hoped they didn't draw into their board clears.  So, take an aggressive approach, and try to kill as fast as possible.  The longer the game goes on, the lower your chances of winning.  Remember not to play Bloodhoof Brave after turn 6, unless you trigger his Enrage ability, otherwise it gets stolen.

Warlock: 3-2

They were all zoo decks, except one Reno.  Same strategy as with Aggro Shaman - your board clears work better because most of their minions have only 2 health.  This was another match up where I had some major come from behind wins.  Most Zoo players go face when they think they've got you beat, leaving a lot of their minions on board.  I used my patrons, combined with Armor Smith to regenerate my health, and create new patrons off their weak minions. 

Hunter: 4-6

Not sure what happened here.  I would fall behind early, and then lose to consecutive Call of the Wild plays.  When I won, they would not play CoW.  I suggest playing Tempo Style, trying to keep their beasts off the board, until you can successfully combo.  Unfortunately, they have a lot of cards to destroy your patrons.  An alternate win condition I found was using Frothing Berserker.  

Rogue: Nil

Sadly, no rogue players.  What happened???

If you have specific questions, feel free to ask.  Good luck this season.

- Goose

Update: Mulligan Guide for Common Matches, Sir Finley Hero Power Thoughts

Aggro, specifically, Mage, Shaman, Warlock:

For these three classes, I always assumed Spell Mage, Aggro Shaman, and Zoolock, so Fiery War Axe is a must. Sir Finley Mrrgglton is probably a keep, but more effective against Zoo than the other two classes. Frothing Berserker isn't a bad keep either, since it gets a body down by turn 3 that can cause a lot of problems.  Ideally, you have Axe and Berserker, and you're able to deal damage to a minion on turn 3 with your Axe, thus boosting your Berserker to at least 3 power.  Obviously, all high cost cards you should be dumped, but a really bad low cost card is Armorsmith.  I used to think it was a good keep, but it just gets killed instantly, and I obtain essentially no value for it, so drop that one too.  Whatever you pick, make sure you get stuff down early against these classes.

Control - Warrior, Priest: 

Axe isn't a must vs. Priest, but you should always keep it against Warrior.  For Priest, you want Frothing Berserker, and if you can, get him to 4 power so he cannot be killed by the Priest spells.  I won some matches with just 2 Berserkers fully powered up.  Against Priest and warrior, you want your combo pieces, so if you have Patron and Death's Bite, you may as well keep them, and hope you curve out.  I was dropping a Patron down on Turn 4 with Coin, and getting him to combo off with Inner Anger.  The sooner, you combo against these decks, the better.

Secret Paladin

Mulligan for your war axe, but I also liked Blood To Ichor, to knock the shields off minibots,  Ravaging Ghoul is great to play on Turn 3, to kill off their minions after they cast Muster for Battle.  Finley is a decent keep as well.

Midrange Hunter

Mulligan for Axe, Finley, and actually Ravaging Ghoul isn't bad either.  This was a tough matchup, so whatever you can play early and curve out is a good idea.  You got to keep the 3 power minions off the board, so a Blood To Ichor and Whirlwind combo isn't bad either.

As for Finley - you always want Mage power, second is Warlock, third is Priest.  If you're trying to race for damage, and concerned about taunts, Hunter power isn't bad, but the healing power with Priest was great for the Berserkers and Patrons.

Good luck!