Team IHearthU Deck Guide: Powder Control Warrior

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This is IhearthU-Powder bringing you another weekly deck tech. This time we are going to look at control Warrior, more specifically a deck that we at IhearthU have been using in several tournaments recently. Warrior has always been a class which has lived under the radar, it has never been that overpowered class that everyone played, but since Naxxramas it is hard to deny that Warrior has become a lot stronger. This specific deck is a little more tailored to beat aggressive decks which is one reason Warrior has become very popular, with a few key cards it shuts down aggression very well.

Key Cards:

Armorsmith: Maybe the single greatest card to stop early aggressive minions, however with the effect that you gain armor not only when Armorsmith itself is attacked but also when your other minions are it combos extremely well with taunt minions as well as whirlwind effect cards like Unstable Guul and Deaths bite. This card can certainly snowball the game in your favor and is a must in any Warrior control deck.

Unstable Ghoul: Not a staple card in Warrior control but again one of the best cards in the game to battle aggressive decks and this is the reason it is in our deck. With the whirlwind deathrattle effect it creates a situation where your opponent rarely has a good way to trade with it and often has to sacrifice more than one minion to get rid of it. The versetility of this card is endless, you can use it against more control decks to get another draw of your Acolyte of Pain or simply to deal one damage with the deathrattle to be able to play execute. Simply enough it is a good card which helps a lot in the Hunter matchup which is normally what you want Warrior to beat.

Baron Geddon: Another aggression killer but this time for seven mana. With the ability to do two damage to everything at the end of every turn this card is good for more than just battleing the casual zoolock, it is also great against a deck like Shaman. Five health can often also be quite hard to deal with and there is always a chance that big bad Baron can stick around for more than just one turn. He basically brings another threat into the deck with the added bonus of being very good against aggression.

Alextrasza: “The life saver” more than I can count has Alextaza saved me at one of two hp against a hunter or a zoolock. Alextraza is especially good in warrior because you can utilize your weapon before playing it bringing your life total down as low as possible right before getting it back up to fifteen. There has been an ongoing rivalry between which card is better Alextraza or Ysera but in this deck there is no choice, Alextraza brings much more to the table and can pull you back in games where you never thought you had a chance.

Mulligan:

Warrior might be one of the easiest decks to mulligan with because you basically want the same things every time. Against aggressive decks or any deck that has any low cost minions, this means almost every deck except druid and handlock, you are looking for four or five different cards. These five are Fiery War Axe, Armorsmith, Cruel Taskmaster, Acolyte of Pain, Unstable Guul and if you are going second Deaths Bite and Sheild Block can also be alright to keep.

How to play:

The goal with Warrior is basically to stay alive as long as possible so that you can get out your big threats and overwhelm your opponent, and the way you do this is by using your small minions and your weapons to prolong the game. The key to being able to do this is by not throwing away your spells. Because your minions do not have that much attack the rarely trade one for one so you either have to combo it with your weapon or a spell. Hopefully you can use your weapon without bringing your life total too low but if you have to use a spell it should be the last resort since you have so few.

Key Matchups:

Hunter: The most common matchup you are going to get is the Warrior vs Hunter matchup especially when you are playing this deck in tournaments, and this is the matchup the deck is basically built to beat. You basically look for your small creatures and your weapons like the mulligan part of the article describes and all you do is try to stay alive. The only thing you have to worry about is always trying to have one way in your hand to deal with a Savannah Highmane. Highmane is the only card that is hard for you to deal with and if you leave it on the board for too long it will be your demise.

Mage: Warrior is great against all mage decks, especially Freeze Mage, simply because of armor. Mage normally kills you with direct damage either after Alextraza or after a constant stream of minions. This is where armor shines, Alextraza does not affect your armor count and as we have already established this deck is well suited for killing aggressive decks with many minions. So your strategy against mage is basically look for anything that gives you armor as well as one weapon. You want the weapon to deal with things like Mad Scientist and Loot Hoarders so that you are free to keep armoring up the following turns. As long as you remember to armor up as much as possible you should win.

Rogue: Rogue used to be a tricky matchup for Warrior but with the addition of Deaths Bite, Loatheb and Sludge Beltcher this matchup has become a lot stronger. What you want to try to do it gain as much armor as possible because Rogue has a hard time dealing more than a certain amount of damage. As long as you have ways to deal with the few minions the Rogue manages to throw our your late game threats often carry you over the edge for a victory.

Combos , tips and tricks:

This deck is very straight forward and there are not that many “combos” that you can do. You always want to try to combo your Unstable Guul with either an Acolyte of Pain or an Armorsmith simply because it goes very well with their active abilities. Another good combo you can do is playing an Acolyte of Pain before using the second charge of your Deaths Bite this again to proc the active ability of the Acolyte. Some more basic combinations are Sheild Block + Sheild Slam and attacking with your Deaths Bite and using the whirlwind effect enable you to play execute.

Budget replacements:

To be fair if you are looking for a budget deck you should stay away from Warrior control and I am not going to go through every legendary card and say what you can replace it with because that would defeat the purpose as there is no version of this deck that will be good enough to play at a high level without almost all of the cards seen. If however you are a huge Warrior fan and you do not have all the cards that are listed in the deck I provided I can give you three different options. You can email me at [email protected] where I will answer any questions you have about the deck or about my guide, you can book one on one coaching with me at Ihearthu.com where I will gladly give you any advice about what cards you should play instead and game play in general or you can check out my article next week which will be on a budget Warrior deck.

That is it for me for this week, be sure to check out my twitter @IHU_Powder where is constantly update about everything that is going on and be sure to check out my article next week!