The Absolute Control Warrior

Disclaimer: I’m just going to say this outright: I believe Standard is inferior to Wild. Yes, this is a Wild deck; and yes, practically nobody considers Wild to be “meta” or competitive, but, to me, that’s a bit erroneous. I’m an old timer at hearth – in terms of both playtime and adhering to the “good old days” – and Wild is what Hearthstone should be about – it’s what Control Warrior should be about. Nowadays, Control Warrior is riddled with sub-par cards, such as Ravaging Ghoul and Alley Armorsmith just to name a few, in order to compensate for being in Standard and pales in comparison to its glory days of pre-Standard where CW smashed decks left and right. The current replacements for the cards that got shafted “down” to Wild just cannot replace the great cards of the previous control meta, and, if anything, are just weaker versions of cards like Death's Bite and Sludge Belcher that truly defined Control Warrior and the Control meta in general. So why settle for inept versions when you can move to Wild and play the best cards for CW without sacrificing quality. Thus, it’s exactly because of this vented frustration of settling for less that I have decided to post this decklist, and without further ado, here is my *incomplete guide/version to what I still believe is the very pinnacle of CW decks:

Introduction: The purest, ultimate form control warrior that draws from some of the oldest, but still best, components in the Hearthstone game. I believe that no other control warrior is a “real” control warrior, but this. This CW deck is Control Warrior in its raw, unblemished, primal form and radiantly burns all who dares to so much as to glance at its righteous and virginlike state in divine light. All the current CW decks in the Standard/Wild meta, such as using Ghouls/Fishes/etc. are irrelevant, and does not epitomize the “true” definition of CW: “big” minions, insane removal, and hair-pulling amounts of armor. Thus, this deck is sculpted from the previous ashes of past metagames, hoping to truly revolutionize the Wild meta, open people eyes to the Wild cards, and forever cement the glory in all that is holy of Control Warrior in the Hearthstone universe.

How to Play: Playing this deck is seemingly easy. On one hand, it’s really f*cking simple. From early-mid game, just use weapon/removal to clear. One late game hits, just drop your big minions, overwhelm the opponent, and win the game. Simple? Maybe, but there are silver linings that vary in accordance to a specific scenario, hence why I called it “seemingly easy.”

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Card-by-Card Breakdown (I’m just going to go in order of mana cost):

• 2x Shield Slam: With this deck, and Warrior in general, you can easily get sizable amounts of armor. Therefore, this card is cheap heavy removal and should be an auto-include.
• 2x Fiery War Axe: Called “win axe” for a reason. Essentially 2 mana for 6 damage, and clears pretty much any 2-3 drop in the game.
• 2x Execute: Cheap removal. Got nerfed slightly, but still great.
• 1x Revenge: Good AOE clear against aggro, especially with the recent Buccaneer nerf. The potential 3-damage proc can also be a life-saver when you’re on your last legs. Debating whether to run 1x or 2x. See Potential substitutes section down below.
• 1x Slam: Card draw. Grom./Execute trigger. Debating whether to cut entirely from deck. See Potential substitutes section down below.
• 2x Bash: 3 damage + 3 armor for 3 cost. Not bad. Can also be used for face, albeit rarely.
• 2x Shield Block: Another draw engine. Cycles itself and gives armor. Can set up for easy shield slam.
• 2x Acolyte of Pain: Draw engine to help draw into your big minions for later on and helps remove little minions early on. Has synergy with Death's Bite, Slam, Revenge, and even Baron Geddon.
• 2x Death's Bite: Insanely good weapon. 4 damage minion clear on the turn you play it, and then 5 damage minion clear + 1 damage AOE on all other minions on the next use. Sets up Grom. and is great at removing mid game minions. Simple put, this card is value kreygasm and is utterly amazing.
• 1x Elise Starseeker: Is 4 for 3/5, which is not horrendously bad by itself. More importantly though, is the Golden Monkey , which can turn the game around in late game/near-fatigue when you’ve run out of useful cards to play. Especially good in mirror matchups. The G. Monkey is also a solid 4 for 6/6 taunt minion.
• 2x Brawl: Punishes aggro decks hard. Essentially ignores divine shield and stat pads, and with the amount of weapons Warrior has, you can usually kill the last minion if it’s enemy minion for a full clear. Run 2x for the abundance of aggro in the current meta. Also has synergy with Sylvanas Windrunner.
• 1x Harrison Jones: Weapons-heavy classes dominate the ladder ATM (think Pirate Warrior), so this card is a must-have. Also acts as draw engine. Can be replaced with Acidic Swamp Ooze.
• 2x Sludge Belcher: Nothing much needs to be said about this card. It’s the absolute king of taunt minions, and is fabulous at stopping aggro in its tracks. Run 2x, cause why not?
• 1x Justicar Trueheart: So good for just straight up bulking armor. Every turn is basically 4 armor, and by the time late game rolls around, you’re sitting there with upwards of 20, 30, or 40 armor. Has synergy with Shield Slam, and is also crucial in CW-CW matchups.
• 2x Shieldmaiden: A somewhat beefy 5/5 body and 5 armor, which combos well with Shield Slam. I prefer to run 2x because the armor gain is too good to pass up, but I can definitely see only running 1x.
• 1x Sylvanas Windrunner: Not much to be said here. One of the best neutral Legendaries in the game, and can single-handedly shift the momentum in your favor.
• 1x Baron Geddon: The 2 damage AOE is super satisfying and can easily clear minions to stabilize the board. The 7 attack also poses as a potential large threat.
• 1x Dr. Boom: It’s Dr. 7. ‘Nuff said.
• 1x Grommash Hellscream: Your ultimate finisher. Can readily deal 14 damage in conjunction with Death's Bite, and his high health allows for easy enrage activation. Can also be used defensively to clear one of the opponents minions, and then force them to deal with an imposing 10 attack minion. His base 4 attack also proves difficult and tricky at times for Priest.
• 1x Alexstrasza: It’s late game and you’re sitting there comfy as f*ck with 50+ health, and you draw Alexstrasza. You play Alex. and set the opponent’s health to 15. Suddenly, you’re threatening lethal with Alex. + Grom. with activator – cards you most likely have in your hand by then – unless the opponent removes the 8/8 body or plays taunt minions. Now, that is somewhat of a “perfect” scenario, but you get the idea. Overall, Alexstrasza is just an incredibly versatile card that can be used offensively, as shown above, or defensively to possibly dam the floodgates when the outpouring deluge of face damage overwhelms you.

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Weaknesses and potential pitfalls:

…TBC

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Potential substitutes (testing these cards as not 100% sure ATM which cards to take out for these cards, but all cards below are definitely viable tech choices/replacements if you don’t have a specific card or dust):

• + 2x Dirty Rat – draw out battlecries such as Reno/Kazakus since Meta is dominated by these cards currently
• + 1x Acidic Swamp Ooze – straightforward replacement for HJ; see above section on Harrison Jones
• + 1x Ysera – (testing this card heavily right now as replacement for Alexstrasza) dream cards are good and potential fodders late game/fatigue
• + 1x Ragnaros the Firelord – overall good card
• + 1x Emperor Thaurissan – for the massive discounts/speed up deck
• +/- 1x Revenge – with the amount of pesky aggro currently, this card is a great AOE clear when you’re getting overwhelmed by minions, and is easily proc since aggro drops your HP fast 
• +/- 1x Slam – another card draw engine and Grom. activator
• + 1x N'Zoth, The Corruptor – just tried him out in a couple of games; he’s not bad, but I don’t run much deathrattle minions anyway, so IDK (credits to Immolate for giving me the idea)

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*P.S. Will update as I get more time. Right now this is just a bare-bones rant; there is still much information I want to discuss and include to further explain why this is the best version of CW and why I chose some of the cards. Also, there are definitely forms of frivolous sarcasm and exaggerations sprinkled about, if you haven’t noticed by now.

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Change Log:

~3/11/17 – created first version

~Edit #1 3/12/17 – Fixed a couple grammatical/syntax issues, added in new potential replacement cards (N’Zoth, Rag, and Ooze), and added in new “Card-by-Card Breakdown” section. Also cleaned out some formats/text to make it more visually appealing and easier to read.