Hearthpwn

-Introduction-

Hey everyone, DegenerateBull here!  We are two frequent legend players (MoogleMog#1303 and DuskSculptor#1914) who enjoy brewing and playing off-meta decks. For this season, DuskSculptor#1914 will try climbing to at least Rank 5 with this deck.  Feel free to join us on this little adventure if you would like and help us get some insight and feedback.  Additionally, thank you in advance for taking the time to click on this deck!  And if you want, add us as friends on Hearthstone and we'll try to help you with what you need :)

This deck seeks to utilize some of the lesser seen and utilized a slew of cards such as, Animated Berserker, Amani Berserker, Rampage, Mad Bomber, Deathspeaker to create some interesting synergies.

While on the surface this deck might seem very straight forward, but once you dive a little deeper and get some games in, you will notice that there can be some awkward turns and tough decisions to be made. If you enjoy playing something other than mindless aggro decks, and love to some RNG fiestas with spice... well this just might be the deck for you.

-General Game Plan-

The main goal here is to pressure the board against the control matchups and to try to maintain the board at all times against the aggro matchups.  A word of caution, while we do have cards like Blood Razor and Scourgelord Garrosh to help us re-establish board, it is extremely difficult against the environment now a days to take back the board.

-Card Choices-

• Inner Rage: Interesting 1 of utility card.  Many times we will be using this card to activate enrage or boost damage, but it can also be used as a 1 damage ping to fight for board.
• Fire Fly: This card hardly needs much explaining, but this little guy helps you tempo up early and sometimes even gets to have Rampage put on him because we traded him into a 1/1 the turn earlier.
• Amani Berserker: Why are we running this? Hear me out... This is quite an amazing turn 2 drop when able to be paired with Animated Berserker and by itself, it does alright because it makes for some awkward turns for our opponent.
• Cruel Taskmaster: So this guy is basically like Inner Rage with a body. We can use him to either buff one of our own guys or ping off one of our opponent's.
• Mad Bomber: What is this non-sense? I don't even draft him in arenas cause he screws me!... So one of the main reasons we are actually running this guy is because of the current aggro meta. So many turn 1 plays now a days revolve around 1 health minions and he often times can nail them. Here is a short list of the targets you can expect to hit: Patches the Pirate, Southsea Deckhand, Swashburglar, turn 1 Jade Idol, Alleycat, Blood Imp, Acherus Veteran, Grimscale Chum, Righteous Protector, N'Zoth's First Mate. This card can indeed be a RNG nightmare, or a blessing so knowing when to play it and how to optimize it will be key.
• Rampage: An under used card that can help push for some insane damage, or be used to help maintain the board.
• Youthful Brewmaster: As of now, there are not that many good warrior 2 drop minions that will fit in this slot and even in the neutral, the pickings are slim. As of now, I'm trying out a 1 of this card. I see some potential for this card, and it just might find a home here.
• Fiery War Axe: Since the Evergreen Nerf, this card has fallen out of favor, but having a 1 of can help us from pushing extra face damage to contesting 3 drops.
• Frothing Berserker: One of the most feared warrior cards, this guy can quickly spiral out of control if not answered. Having this card stick through turn 3 and following with Blood Razor can lay on some massive hurt to our opponent.
• Ravaging Ghoul: This used to be one of the most feared Warrior cards, but now a days he has been thrown by the way side. Here in this deck, the ghoul serves as a Swiss Army Knife. He triggers our enrage, pings our opponent's board, and provides a 3/3 body all for only 3 mana.
• Stonehill Defender: This is just a solid all around card. When played he can help protect some of our more fragile early drops, and when played later he can help us pick up more beefy taunts to help us establish more board presence. One note of advice is do not get greedy with the discoveries. More often than not, the card that you can actually play is probably the better pick.
• Blood Razor: An interesting removal card as well as an enrage activator. This card has many synergies with this deck. It can allow for Rampage to be played, it activates Amani Berserker, and Frothing Berserker. Additionally, it can also be upgraded by Bloodsail Cultist if you need to hit with it again and stave off the whirlwind effect.
• Bloodhoof Brave: When played without being enraged, this guy is a solid wall against aggressive decks, and when his enrage is triggered, he turns into a mean lean beating machine. 4 Mana for a 2/6 that can gain 5 attack is nothing to sneeze at.
• Kor'kron Elite: Quick 4 damage to face that also requires our opponent to have an answer next turn or the damage slowly piles on. This is one of our best tempo play cards.
• Cobalt Scalebane: We were looking for solid 5 drops for this deck and man... this guy is definitely a solid 5 drop. He survives dragon fire potion, provides our other smaller minions with attack, and also hits for some solid damage.
• Grommash Hellscream: One of our finisher cards, Grommash Hellscream can help bridge some massive damage gaps. When combined with a Blood Razor deathrattle effect we can push for 10 damage on turn 8. When combined with Inner Rage or Cruel Taskmaster we are looking to push through 12 on turn 10. Do be aware that this card doesn't always have to be coupled with a card that enrages him. Sometimes it's just right to play him without angering him :P
• Scourgelord Garrosh: Scourgelord Garrosh might see a little out of place here, but he serves really 3 purposes. More often than not we will be using him to help push 4 damage a turn to finish our opponent of in the late game. And the next most important reason we have him here is to help clear away pesky enemy units in clusters. The last minor purpose he serves is the 5 armor he gives. Because the game might devolve into a face race, Scourgelord Garrosh is always a welcome sight when we just need that little bit of help to make it past the turn.

-Mulligan Guide-

To be added soon..

-Match-Up Guide-

• Druid
  • Aggro (Slightly Favored) - We tend to do well here as we have have ways of making our minions big too. While Aggro Druid can buff their minions and pump them up for cheap we can do the same with Rampage, Inner Rage, and Cruel Taskmaster. Additionally, we can answer and hurt their early threats with Mad Bomber. We can also clearing some of their minions with our whirlwind effects.
  • Jade (Slightly Favored) - Generally speaking Jade Druids are looking to ramp as fast as possible and we can generally slam lots of different temp threats on the board forcing them to answer it. With Druid having few AOE clears aside from Swipe this MU really should be in our favor.
• Hunter
  • Mid-Range (Even) - Generally this MU is quite even. If they have the perfect curve then they win, and if we have the perfect curve we win. It's a classic case of Curvestone at it's finest. Making sure to clear their beast minions here will be key so they can not buff them with Houndmaster, Crackling Razormaw, and Bonemare. Additionally you should be aware to play around Deadly Shot if you have the luxury of doing so.
• Mage
  • Exodia (Favored) - Generally speaking we can get enough threats on the board and close out the game before they can get their combo pieces together. However, sometimes the degenerate bullshits can happen where they only go through 10 cards and the combo is already in order. Barring all non-sense we go this match in the bag. Just play tempo and push for face as hard as possible.
  • Secret (Slightly Favored) - This MU can be more annoying than the Exodia MU because Mirror Entity[card], [card]Medivh's Valet and Firelands Portal[card] can be quite the trouble. We don't care too much about [card]Counterspell because we don't have too many spells. Mostly the MU boils down to some early curves and tempo, and overall we have the advantage here.
• Paladin
  • Murloc (Unfavored) - As good of the tools we have, we do have trouble getting around Righteous Protector,  Wickerflame Burnbristle, Corpsetaker and the paladin secrets that come out of Hydrologist. Instead of being able to make the optimal trades and gaining tempo many of the turns are wasted chewing through divine shield and taunts. Because of the eminent doom of the swing turns with Blessing of Kings, Sunkeeper Tarim, Spikeridge Steed, and Murloc Warleader we are constantly clearing because of the threat of either giant taunts of losing the board. This MU I almost feel like you just have to go all out make the right reads on when to trade and when to hit face.
  • Handbuff (Unfavored)
• Priest
  • Razakus (Very Unfavored) - Because of the sheer amount of draw and removals that Razakus has, it is very unfavored. The only way we win this MU is literally not playing around anything and just going YOLO and hope they don't have have anwers. You can play things to test for removals, but basically we win by them not having their removals. I wish there was a more elegant way of playing this MU, but I just don't really think there is one.
  • Big EZ (Very Unfavored) - We have the possibility of winning if they do not Barnes on turn 3 or 4. However, not many decks can win against turn 3 or 4 Barnes. Big EZ Priest is really kinda a huge RNG fiest if they have the right cards, so yeah... Go hard on the board and push for face as much as possible.
• Rogue
  • Miracle (Favored) - Not that you see this MU very often anymore, but if Miracles is still run once in every 30 games just know that you are pushing face and force them to have answers. Test to see if they have eviscerate before playing Frothing Berserker and this card can really basically win you the game by itself with a few minions on the board.
  • Keleseth (Unfavored) - In my experience if they get Keleseth on turn 1 or 2 then we are basically going to lose the game and if they get Keleseth on turn 1 or 2 and then Shadowstep it, you just concede the game and don't even bother. The deck right now is very degenerate and if they don't get Keleseth then we really have a fighting chance. We get good tempo on turn 2 with Amani Berserker and Mad Bomber where as they just have dagger if they whiff on Keleseth.
• Shaman
  • Token (Unfavored) - This is potentially a problematic deck because of devolves. They can basically devolve your whole enraged board and then issue in a huge tempo swing on turn 6 with Dopplegangster + Evolve. Additionally, they can answer Frothing Berserkers with Jade Lightning which is another blow out. The gameplan is to try to get them as low as possible while clearing minions when in favor. By the time turn 6 comes around you basically hope that they don't have Dopplegangster + Evolve and if they do hope that you have enough damage to finish the game soon as we can't swing the board much after that.
• Warlock
  • Handlock (Even) - My only advice here is to play around Defile and Hellfire. Don't over commit on the board as if the board is right a single Defile could potentially just wipe the whole board. As for Tainted Zealot + Defile if you have the luxury of playing around it sure, but know that not every deck runs Tainted Zealot.
  • Zoolock (Even) - Much like the Rogue list, it all really comes down to if they have Keleseth on turn 2. Because warlock has some good 1 drops to challenge our 1 and 2 drops do be aware that even if they do not Keleseth on turn 2 we can't let our guard down. Fighting for board and then transition to face racing them. Blood Razor is going to be a MVP here as it triggers our enrage and can whirlwind away their 1 health minions.
• Warrior
  • Pirate Keleseth (Even) - Because pirate Keleseth doesn't have much draw and doesn't have any Shadowstep nonsense nor does it have the combo bullshit that Rogue does this MU really boils down to draw and if they have the Keleseth. Generally, we are winning if they don't have Keleseth because of our ability to play 2 drops and keep the board, but again... Keleseth allows for some degenerate buffs.
  • Control (Even) - The control MU here is very interesting. Because warrior has access to executes, the goal is to have rush him down and do not over commit on the board. Getting Brawl on turn 5 is potentially game losing so try to deal as much damage as possible while playing the least number of cards. Once you seeBrawl then you can go wide again if you don't think he has a whirlwind effect with Sleep with the Fishes. We can get some much needed damage early and then finish with charge minions or Arcanite Reaper.

-Updates-

We will be updating this guide as much as possible throughout the season, but do bear with us as the two of us (Mooglemog#1303 and DuskSculptor#1914) are both busy working professionals.

• 10/08/2017 - After considerable testing, I have unfortunately decided that I will most likely not be able to hit Rank 5 with this deck. If anyone is looking to get to Rank 10 with this deck, I think later on in the season, it will be possible. As of now, I believe that this little innovation will not be able to climb to Rank 5. Thank you everyone for your interest. As of now, I will keep this deck list alive for anyone interested, but going forward, I probably will not be updating this guide for a while. Thanks again everyone!
• 10/05/2017 - Rank 14 to Rank 13
• 10/05/2017 - Revamped deck with some minor tweaks and changes:
  • Removed: 1 Animated Berserker, 1 Deathspeaker, 1 The Black Knight, and 1 Bonemare
  • Added: 1 Youthful Brewmaster, 2 Arcanite Reaper, 1 Cobalt Scalebane
• 10/04/2017 - Updated guide for card choices for the new deck list.
• 10/03/2017 - Revamped deck almost entirely. Changing deck from super aggro to mid range for the following reasons:
  • With many decks running pirate hate ie. Golakka Crawler on ladder, we decided to just remove the pirate package entirely. Nothing feels worse than having your opponent eating your pirates and getting a bigger minion in the process.
  • We found that running a super aggro list basically meant trying to win on the draw. If we drew poorly, we just lost the game, if we drew well, we won the game. To make the deck a little less draw dependent we decided to go with a more mid-range style deck.
  • The last and final reason quite possibly was that the first version of this deck was just not that spicy and also was under performing on the ladder. We only manage to get a slightly higher than 50% win rate, so we figured some changes were in order. This list should super spicy for all you spice enthusiasts!
• 10/02/2017 - Rank 15 to Rank 14
• 10/01/2017 - Rank 17 to Rank 15
• 09/30/2017 - Removed 2 Bittertide Hydra added in 2 Frothing Berserker