After finishing my midrange pally, I've been thinking about building either control warrior or freeze mage (and maybe some form of warlock). My question is, what is it like laddering with either of these decks? Pros? Cons? If any experienced CW or freeze mage player could give their opinion, that would be great.
Both decks can be powerful, both decks play for the late game and have long games and both decks involve having a fairly large hand size and managing your resources well. I would say the three main differences are:
As much as it has powerful removal spells and weapons, control warrior still plays on the board. A lot of your power comes from playing strong minions (especially in the late game) and actually beating your opponent with them. Freeze mage on the other hand basically has you loosing from turn one, with an incredibly impressive array of tools to delay that inevitable death while you cycle your decks into specific finishers like Alexstrasza with spells to kill them before they break through all of your defenses. In particular, this means that control warrior will feel more similar to midrange paladin and freeze mage will feel completely different.
Freeze mage is a deck that can be countered. Cards like Reno Jackson, Kezan Mystic and Flare as well as abilities that grant armor can truly break its main strategy and force you to go for a fatigue game, which is incredibly hard to pull off. This means in a bad meta, freeze mage can be hopeless, while control warrior has bad match-ups, but nothing that truly break the deck. This might change if Blizzard ever releases an anti-armor tech card.
Freeze mage is a very stable deck, while control warrior is a more flexible one. Ultimately, almost every card in freeze mage gives you something you absolutely need. You cannot take out Alexstrasza, Doomsayer, Frost Nova, Ice Block or really almost any of its cards, because the deck fundamentally doesn't work without them. You really can't play the deck well until your card collection is virtually complete. Control warrior meanwhile has many powerful cards, but few of them are essential. I wouldn't want to play the deck without Slam, Shieldmaiden, Sylvanas Windrunner or Dr. Boom, but missing any one of those cards still allows the deck to function with a reasonable replacement. This also means that control warrior has more room for tech cards like Big Game Hunter, Harrison Jones or Whirlwind.
In summary, I would say that control warrior is a more reliable and flexible deck that has remained a strong force in almost any meta because of its powerful defensive and removal tools and fairly straightforward power plays. Freeze mage meanwhile is a deck that has a more unconventional playstyle and the potential to be more overwhelmingly powerful in the right meta, but one that has more counters and less consistent match-ups, making it more of a meta call. If you're looking for something new and interesting to play that is a truly different experience from midrange paladin, then freeze mage is the deck for you. If you're looking for a second reliable high quality control deck that is closer to what you know, control warrior is the deck of choice.
Both decks can be powerful, both decks play for the late game and have long games and both decks involve having a fairly large hand size and managing your resources well. I would say the three main differences are:
As much as it has powerful removal spells and weapons, control warrior still plays on the board. A lot of your power comes from playing strong minions (especially in the late game) and actually beating your opponent with them. Freeze mage on the other hand basically has you loosing from turn one, with an incredibly impressive array of tools to delay that inevitable death while you cycle your decks into specific finishers like Alexstrasza with spells to kill them before they break through all of your defenses. In particular, this means that control warrior will feel more similar to midrange paladin and freeze mage will feel completely different.
Freeze mage is a deck that can be countered. Cards like Reno Jackson, Kezan Mystic and Flare as well as abilities that grant armor can truly break its main strategy and force you to go for a fatigue game, which is incredibly hard to pull off. This means in a bad meta, freeze mage can be hopeless, while control warrior has bad match-ups, but nothing that truly break the deck. This might change if Blizzard ever releases an anti-armor tech card.
Freeze mage is a very stable deck, while control warrior is a more flexible one. Ultimately, almost every card in freeze mage gives you something you absolutely need. You cannot take out Alexstrasza, Doomsayer, Frost Nova, Ice Block or really almost any of its cards, because the deck fundamentally doesn't work without them. You really can't play the deck well until your card collection is virtually complete. Control warrior meanwhile has many powerful cards, but few of them are essential. I wouldn't want to play the deck without Slam, Shieldmaiden, Sylvanas Windrunner or Dr. Boom, but missing any one of those cards still allows the deck to function with a reasonable replacement. This also means that control warrior has more room for tech cards like Big Game Hunter, Harrison Jones or Whirlwind.
In summary, I would say that control warrior is a more reliable and flexible deck that has remained a strong force in almost any meta because of its powerful defensive and removal tools and fairly straightforward power plays. Freeze mage meanwhile is a deck that has a more unconventional playstyle and the potential to be more overwhelmingly powerful in the right meta, but one that has more counters and less consistent match-ups, making it more of a meta call. If you're looking for something new and interesting to play that is a truly different experience from midrange paladin, then freeze mage is the deck for you. If you're looking for a second reliable high quality control deck that is closer to what you know, control warrior is the deck of choice.
Excellent post. I fully agree. CW is more flexible and although it has some weaker matchups like Midrange Druid and Midrange Pal, you can absolutely wins those matchups with some RNG and good decision making on your side. Both decks are very rewarding because you'll learn a lot by playing them.
Thanks to everyone for their feedback. Especially lionoffrost. Due to freeze mages hard counters, I think I will end up going with CW. I've got most of the required legendaries, just need Alexstrasza and Grommash Hellscream. I figure I'll do CW first, then Freeze as the only other legendary I'd need for that is Archmage Antonidas.
After finishing my midrange pally, I've been thinking about building either control warrior or freeze mage (and maybe some form of warlock). My question is, what is it like laddering with either of these decks? Pros? Cons? If any experienced CW or freeze mage player could give their opinion, that would be great.
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When there is a car accident on the other side of the highway, do you slow down to memorize each detail of the disaster?
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Control Warrior is better to ladder on without a doubt.
Control Warrior will be more consistent and better against what ever the meta currently is usually.
Freeze Mage is way more fun though and it can be pretty intense at times.
I have a full Control Warrior deck but it's soooooooooooooo boring sometimes.
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Both decks can be powerful, both decks play for the late game and have long games and both decks involve having a fairly large hand size and managing your resources well. I would say the three main differences are:
In summary, I would say that control warrior is a more reliable and flexible deck that has remained a strong force in almost any meta because of its powerful defensive and removal tools and fairly straightforward power plays. Freeze mage meanwhile is a deck that has a more unconventional playstyle and the potential to be more overwhelmingly powerful in the right meta, but one that has more counters and less consistent match-ups, making it more of a meta call. If you're looking for something new and interesting to play that is a truly different experience from midrange paladin, then freeze mage is the deck for you. If you're looking for a second reliable high quality control deck that is closer to what you know, control warrior is the deck of choice.