Budget Aggro Face Warrior Deck List Guide (The Witchwood)

Our Budget Aggro Face Warrior deck list guide for The Witchwood expansion will teach you how to play this tempo Mage list. This Budget Aggro Warrior guide includes Mulligans, Gameplay Strategy, Card Substitutions, and Combos/Synergies!

Introduction to Budget Aggro Face Warrior

While the majority of Aggro Warrior decks have been fully Pirate based, there have also been more weapon heavy versions that only somewhat relied on Pirates. This deck is the latter, and is mostly all-or-nothing, so if you are into trades and having cards in your hand towards the end of the game then you might want to look elsewhere!

Thanks to Roffle for creating the deck list, I struggled to come up with something for Warrior that didn’t have an Epic in it!

Check out Hearthstone Budget Decks & Guides for All 9 Classes!

The Witchwood

The Witchwood brought Warrior a lot of cards that have the new keyword Rush. The Rush keyword allows you to drop a minion on the board and attack an opposing minion right away. This sounds a lot like Charge, but you can’t target your opponent’s face on the first turn. Witchwood also brought an interesting card for weapon decks with Hench-Clan Thug. This can be really solid if you have a weapon equipped, drop it on the board, and then remove one of your opponent’s minions.

This deck is missing one big piece, and that’s Town Crier. Crier is one of the best cards Warrior got in the expansion, and it absolutely fits in this list. If you want to play any type of Tempo Warrior in the future, you should craft them right away!

Budget Aggro Face Warrior Mulligan Guide

You are really looking for Worgen Infiltrator, Southsea Deckhand, Faerie Dragon, Bloodsail Raider, and Woodcutter's Axe. The Axe is likely the most important card because it will help maintain your board so you can continue to get in face damage, and you can potentially buff one of your Rush minions. You can keep a 3-drop if you have a 1 and 2-drop, Hench-Clan Thug is particularly good with your weapon. Dread Corsair can be another good keep if you have the Axe with The Coin. This gives you a turn-2 weapon and the 3/3 Taunt for 2-mana on your following turn.

Upgrade! is a very situational keep. If your hand is in desperate need of the early weapon then you might want to keep it, so you can just play it as a 1-mana weapon. While you don’t want to always play it right away, it can be tremendously helpful for chipping away at minions and enabling Southsea Deckhand. It also pairs really well with Heroic Strike to remove Tar Creeper which is a card that is very problematic for this deck and is seen regularly.

Budget Aggro Face Warrior Play Strategy

This deck can be very all-or-nothing which can be hard to play. You have to know when to trade, and then when to start attacking your opponent’s face. You can’t really afford to play footsie with your opponent who might have AOE, because if they have it then most of the time you lose (unless you got a lot of chip damage in and have weapons/damage spells in the late game). In most cases, you just have to go for it and hope they don’t have it. This deck basically has no refill ability, and you are lacking card draw until you can craft Town Crier.

With all that being said, you will want to trade a bit in the early game just to establish your board. This should mostly be done with Woodcutter's Axe or your Upgrade! weapon. You want to use your minions as much as possible to punch your opponent in the face. This also means you can’t get too cute with your Woodcutter’s Axe buff. While it’s great to land it on a minion with rush, it’s far better to remove something from your opponent’s board and continue to pressure them with your minions.

This also leads me into your Rush minions. While it’s great to get a trade with them on-curve, it’s far better to have a minion on the board than nothing. You will just have to gauge how you feel the next turns will go and if you can afford not to play a minion and be greedy (pretty rare).

Small note about Dread Corsair, it doesn’t work with Heroic Strike. It takes into account your weapon, not your attack damage. Also, make sure if you plan to play the Corsair that you don’t accidentally use your weapon first, destroy it, and then not have the mana to play this minion.

Faerie Dragon is surprisingly solid in this deck because it’s a minion you will rarely have to trade with, but your opponent will likely have to trade into. You don’t have to worry as much about your opponent clearing it with a spell or their hero power, so most of the time they have to trade.

Once you are out of the early game, it’s likely time to start only targeting the face. You played around long enough, and it’s time to make things happen. You should be trading still with your Rush minions (this is what they are strong at), but if you can help it try to keep at least one or two minions high enough health to avoid losing them to AOE. Arcanite Reaper generally goes right to the face, and this is also your best Upgrade! target (18 damage over three turns).

Mortal Strike is an interesting card for this deck. If it’s looking like you are going to be down to the write and need to finish them with this card, then you DON’T want to be hero powering (try not to make it obvious). You want to keep yourself out of range of death, but near 12 health so you can get that extra 2-damage. If your opponent is behind a taunt, you can also just smack your face into it to get low enough for that extra damage.

This leads me to using Heroic Strike. A lot of decks don’t have healing in them, so you can afford to use these when you have the spare mana. Rogue is a notorious class for this, it rarely has ways to heal itself, so you can liberally go for the face. For example, I had a turn where I was 1-off lethal, and was fairly confident my opponent had no healing. I went all-in with my Heroic Strikes, but had a Mortal Strike in-hand so I could get lethal even if they put up a taunt. Sure enough, they put up a taunt and thought they might be safe, but because I used my strikes a turn earlier, I was able to finish the job.

Budget Aggro Face Warrior Future Card Replacements

You can slowly transition this deck into a Tempo Rush Warrior. The deck is still coming together, so it wouldn’t be my first recommendation, but it has shown promise. While some cards line up with Tempo Warrior, you will need to change quite a bit of the deck. I’m only going to list stuff I think fits in this more aggressive version, and you can make the full switch once you have a majority of the cards.

• 2x Worgen Infiltrator > 2x Town Crier – I almost just included these and broke our no epic rule because these add so much to the deck. It gives you an extra card in a deck that is very often top decking in the late game. It also gives you a solid turn 1 play, while giving you a huge boost in winrate when you have it in your hand during your mulligan.
• 1x Mortal Strike > 1x Darius Crowley – Only really craft this if you know you are going forward with Tempo Warrior. It’s a very solid card, and fits nicely in this deck. Hopefully you got it as your free Legendary!
• 1x Mortal Strike > 1x Leeroy Jenkins – Leeroy acts as a powerful finisher in a deck that would love a strong finisher. This fits in this all-in aggressive version, but isn’t played often in the Tempo Warrior. I wouldn’t craft this if you don’t absolutely see yourself playing Leeroy in other decks.

Budget Aggro Face Warrior General Replacements

Here’s a list of cards you can add to this deck if you happen to have them or are missing anything in the decklist.

• Redband Wasp – Can fit in the deck, but the lack of attack and reliable ways to buff it make it weaker in this full face version.
• Fire Fly – Good early game minion that can substitute for other cards if you are missing them.
• Festeroot Hulk – Probably too slow for this deck, but can work as a replacement for a later game minion if you have it.