Also, everybody here seems to be under the impression that every Control Warrior game would be versus Warlock. Even if Control Warrior's matchup against Controllock is bad, there's still 9 classes OTHER than Warlock that exist and see some amount of play. "Control can't exist if Tickatus exists" is an almost insane - absolutist - statement that goes contrary to how card games even work. A deck being the best of its kind doesn't preclude other decks of its kind from existing. And the amount of nuance that could go into playing the Control Warrior mirror, or against any other class (nuance which I thought Control players would be excited about since they get to wrinkle their brains while they play Hearthstone) is totally lost because Tickatus has everybody so scared to even consider other control options.
Even if a change in approach is required to deal with Tickatus, which I've already talked about, it wouldn't be a variant on the deck itself, it would just be how you play the matchup. Every matchup requires a different approach for most decks.
If anything, and people have mentioned this already, Lord Juraxxus is the far bigger issue for Control matchups. 2 mana for a 6/6 every turn is a far larger issue than Tick could impose, one that Warrior doesn't have the card generation to deal with for long if the game hits fatigue. Maybe we'll get some Dead Man's Hand retrain or something in the mini set, Blizzard is more aware than we think of things like this, they're just never preemptive.
Vicious Syndicate typically had Control/Galakrond Warlock favored over Control Warrior, whether ETC or Silas-based. It is easier for Warlock to draw Tickatus than for Warrior to draw period, particularly with Shield Block rotating. Losing Shield block / Bloodsworn has pretty much killed Silas OTK as a reasonably consistent win condition.
Warrior does still have a lot of draw. Outrider's Axe and Cutting Class are a lot, and with Corsair Cache still around to tutor the Axe, I'd say Warrior has access to its draw capabilities pretty consistently. And to that point, curving out with Lorekeeper Polkelt if Silas Darkmoon is your most expensive card in the deck means you can draw him pretty consistently too, since it'll be impossible to have Corrupted Tickatus on turn 6. At that point, Tick just helps you access your Soulbound Ashtongue sooner if you haven't drawn one yet, by burning the cards in between. At that point it's a matter of getting more armor, which I think is the real challenge there.
Lots of armor seems hard in that matchup. Need Shieldmaiden maybe.
Man, Tickatus really did a number on control/combo players - they can't read anybody praise a control deck for being good without condemning it to "dies to Tickatus". It's like "dies to removal" at this point. But instead of making a charming MTG podcast with that name, I'm just complaining about it lol.
Warlock does have to draw Tick, but that downside is mitigated by the fact that Warlock has a hero power that draws cards. The Warrior reacts one of two ways to a Warlock matchup - it either turbo draws cards for its win condition (probably Silas Darkmoon + Soulbound Ashtongue) which it can easily do because that's something Warrior has always excelled at, or it doesn't draw at all, making Tickatus more likely to burn things other than those cards. If it were me, I'd turbo draw to make Tickatus irrelevant.
Warlock having a great deal of removal (an absurd amount of removal if I'm being honest with how I feel) isn't really relevant to the Warrior matchup because Warrior's minions aren't its win condition if it's using Silus + Ashtongue. Not to mention you could theoretically E.T.C., God of Metal combo them to death too, which is a more resilient combo when it comes to Tickatus burns (you have many tutors for minions and Rush minions). Altogether, yeah , I agree with OP. Control Warrior could have a chance at being really high up there post Lunacy nerf.
Also, everybody here seems to be under the impression that every Control Warrior game would be versus Warlock. Even if Control Warrior's matchup against Controllock is bad, there's still 9 classes OTHER than Warlock that exist and see some amount of play. "Control can't exist if Tickatus exists" is an almost insane - absolutist - statement that goes contrary to how card games even work. A deck being the best of its kind doesn't preclude other decks of its kind from existing. And the amount of nuance that could go into playing the Control Warrior mirror, or against any other class (nuance which I thought Control players would be excited about since they get to wrinkle their brains while they play Hearthstone) is totally lost because Tickatus has everybody so scared to even consider other control options.
Even if a change in approach is required to deal with Tickatus, which I've already talked about, it wouldn't be a variant on the deck itself, it would just be how you play the matchup. Every matchup requires a different approach for most decks.
If anything, and people have mentioned this already, Lord Juraxxus is the far bigger issue for Control matchups. 2 mana for a 6/6 every turn is a far larger issue than Tick could impose, one that Warrior doesn't have the card generation to deal with for long if the game hits fatigue. Maybe we'll get some Dead Man's Hand retrain or something in the mini set, Blizzard is more aware than we think of things like this, they're just never preemptive.
please don't bully my son
Warrior does still have a lot of draw. Outrider's Axe and Cutting Class are a lot, and with Corsair Cache still around to tutor the Axe, I'd say Warrior has access to its draw capabilities pretty consistently. And to that point, curving out with Lorekeeper Polkelt if Silas Darkmoon is your most expensive card in the deck means you can draw him pretty consistently too, since it'll be impossible to have Corrupted Tickatus on turn 6. At that point, Tick just helps you access your Soulbound Ashtongue sooner if you haven't drawn one yet, by burning the cards in between. At that point it's a matter of getting more armor, which I think is the real challenge there.
Lots of armor seems hard in that matchup. Need Shieldmaiden maybe.
please don't bully my son
Man, Tickatus really did a number on control/combo players - they can't read anybody praise a control deck for being good without condemning it to "dies to Tickatus". It's like "dies to removal" at this point. But instead of making a charming MTG podcast with that name, I'm just complaining about it lol.
Warlock does have to draw Tick, but that downside is mitigated by the fact that Warlock has a hero power that draws cards. The Warrior reacts one of two ways to a Warlock matchup - it either turbo draws cards for its win condition (probably Silas Darkmoon + Soulbound Ashtongue) which it can easily do because that's something Warrior has always excelled at, or it doesn't draw at all, making Tickatus more likely to burn things other than those cards. If it were me, I'd turbo draw to make Tickatus irrelevant.
Warlock having a great deal of removal (an absurd amount of removal if I'm being honest with how I feel) isn't really relevant to the Warrior matchup because Warrior's minions aren't its win condition if it's using Silus + Ashtongue. Not to mention you could theoretically E.T.C., God of Metal combo them to death too, which is a more resilient combo when it comes to Tickatus burns (you have many tutors for minions and Rush minions). Altogether, yeah , I agree with OP. Control Warrior could have a chance at being really high up there post Lunacy nerf.
please don't bully my son