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Mulligans
Hey everyone,
My name is Immolate, and this is my Midrange Warrior decklist. After the Small-Time Buccaneer and Spirit Claws nerfs earlier today, I realized that Control Warrior was not going to be as viable due to the lack of Aggro decks. I still wanted to play Control Warrior, so I created this Midrange Warrior deck. I took out a large amount of the spells you normally see in Control Warrior, such as Slam and Revenge, and replaced them with more card draw and more minions.
Grimy Gadgeteer is the star of this deck. Landing a buff on a 5-drop in Control matchups or on a taunt minion in Aggro matchups can snowball the game quickly in your favor. A 4/9 Alley Armorsmith can almost singlehandedly destroy a Dragon Priest.
I played 7 games with this deck and climbed from rank 15 to rank 11 in about an hour and a half. I won my first 6 games against two Jade Druids, two Dragon Priests, a Reno Mage, and an Anyfin Paladin. I lost my last game to a Renolock due to an early Brann + Kazakus into Lord Jarraxxus.
(Update: I am now 13-1 (93% Winrate) with this deck. Playing some more games today, will update W/L ratio as I play.)
(Update 2: I am now 14-4 (77% Winrate) with this deck. Reno Mage accounted for all three of the recent losses with this deck. They just seem to have too much burn in addition to strong mid/late game threats for this deck to deal with. I’m going to do some research and perhaps add some tech cards to specifically beat Reno Mage. I’m currently considering 2x Dirty Rat or possibly Nefarian and Rend Blackhand to replace the Fierce Monkeys.)
(Update 3: I am now 17-7 (about a 71% Winrate) with this deck. These last 3 wins and 3 losses came from the Rend Blackhand version of the deck. I had trouble drawing him consistently, although he was extremely good against Reno Mage. I’m currently experimenting with a copy of Dirty Rat and Harrison Jones.)
(Update 4: I have stopped testing this deck as I am working on several other decks at the moment. This deck is struggling against Jade Druid right now, so I can’t really ladder with it.)
Against decks that you know will be able to outvalue you in the long run, such as Jade Druid and Anyfin Paladin, you need to play somewhat aggressively. Dropping solid threats each turn and pushing damage as often as you can will win you the game. Against somewhat more Midrange and Anti-Aggro decks, such as Reno Mage, Dragon Priest, and Midrange Jade Shaman, you need to play like a standard Control Warrior, removing every threat that the opponent can play until fatigue. The game against Reno Mage and one of my games against Dragon Priest went to fatigue. The Dragon Priest could not deal with the large amount of minions in the deck, and the Reno Mage could not win the fatigue battle even though I was low on threats because of the value that Justicar Trueheart brings to this deck.
I am considering removing the 2x Fierce Monkey for weapon removal and possibly a copy of Sleep with the Fishes.
Let me know your thoughts on this deck, I am constantly looking to improve the quality of my decklists. If you have any suggestions, please let me know! Drop an upvote if you liked this deck/had fun playing it.
Have a great day/night,
Immolate
Looks interesting, but I’m missing Gorehowl, can I use Malkorok instead?
Hey,
Malkorok is a pretty good replacement. He is a large threat that provides a tempo swing most of the time. Because he is a minion, he can also receive buffs from Grimy Gadgeteer. An 8/7 with a free weapon on turn 7 is insane in this deck. However, Gorehowl is a key card in matchups where there are a large number of medium sized threats (Dragon Priest and Midrange Jade Shaman), so your win rates against these decks may decrease. If you choose to include Malkorok, you should probably play this deck more aggressively and try to close out the game by playing big minions on curve and removing your opponent’s major threats.
If Malkorok doesn’t work, you could try a different large threat such as Ysera if you are facing control decks, or a copy of Revenge to help beat Pirate Warrior and Aggro Rogue.
Or you can just get a Gorehowl off of Malkorok every time. 🙂
How the hell did you do that well? I’m at 4-10 (29%) every game I feel I’m behind in value.Ive had games were i play on curve..and my opponent plays three things (jade shaman cough cough) or the have an answer and I’m just sitting here going OK…so I’ll play…1 minion…OK they killed that too…OK I brawl to clear and then have nothing to follow up with.What they hell am I not getting about this deck? I try to mulligan as close as possible to the cards you have listed at the top. When do you use Grimy gad? turn 4 he gets wiped off the board every time and I’m praying to rnjesus the the whole time for the buff to go were I want it and not on Rag…or if I try to wait to play him till I have only the one minion I want buffed in hand well its WAY! too late. Please help I like the look and sound of this deck so i want it to work and I love playing decks and are not really in the meta. Sorry for a bit of a rant there I just came off 7 losses in a row (vs every class but warrior)
Hey,
First off, thanks for giving this a go! I’m sorry to hear that it hasn’t been working out for you. This deck is difficult to pilot, especially in control matchups. There are a few things you can do to achieve a better winrate.
Step 1: Identify the deck you are playing against.
If you see a Warrior on the ladder, your brain should immediately go “Pirate Warrior” and you should then figure out what cards in your deck best counter Pirate Warrior. The above mulligans are just your best early game options. You may have to make decisions for each individual matchup. For example, keeping Grimy Gadgeteer against Pirate Warrior is not a good idea, as it can easily die. You are better off keeping Taunts and removal like Bash and Fiery War Axe, which are all solid cards to help you deal with your opponent’s early game board flood. However, when you play against a Reno Mage, you can probably keep Grimy Gadgeteer as Reno Mage is a slower matchup.
Step 2: Identify the amount of large threats in your opponent’s deck.
You only have so much hard removal. If you run out of hard removal and your opponent plays an Alexstraza or Ysera, you could be in trouble. So identify the targets that you need to save hard removal for. In Reno Mage, your looking at an Archmage, an Alexstraza, Thaurissan, anything big off of Kazakus potions, and possibly a large Twilight Drake. Some lists also run Medivh. Correct me if I’m missing any. You need to save your removal for these threats. In decks like Jade Druid, you will never be able to have enough hard removal for all your opponent’s huge Jade Golems. Therefore, you need to play more aggressively and use removal to keep your minions alive.
Step 3: Stay focused.
This is crucial. You need to keep track of how many threats your opponent has played and how many they are likely to have left. You need to understand which cards your opponent is likely to have/play. You need to play around AoE spells like Swipe and certain forms of burst damage. If your opponent is Pirate Warrior, and he has no cards, no minions, and no weapon, and you are sitting at 6 health with 2 Taunt minions, do not set him to 12 health or lower. This could allow him to topdeck Mortal Strike for the win. I strongly recommend getting Hearthstone Deck Tracker to help you see what your opponent has played.
Step 4: Don’t get tilted by Brawl.
Brawl can be a terrible card at times. However, it is one of the best board clears in the game, and can remove a horde of Jade Golems when combined with hard removal or a weapon. It is easy to get frustrated when Brawl doesn’t work out. Sometimes, you will simply have bad RNG. The only thing you can do when this happens is to stay calm and keep playing with a positive mindset or to take a break from the game.
Step 5: Make changes!
This deck is still a work in progress and is definitely not perfect. Making some changes to the decklist can help you win certain matchups more often. For example, Dirty Rat can be amazing against Midrange Jade Shaman. Sure, pulling a Jade Chieftain seems bad, but it’s one less 8/8 Taunt you have to worry about later in the game. This deck also has no weapon removal, so adding a Harrison Jones or an Acidic Swamp Ooze might be a good idea. I have even tried out some crazy stuff like Rend Blackhand and Nefarian that worked decently well against control decks like Reno Mage and Renolock. Try out some changes to see if they improve your winrate!
I realize this was a little long. I hope this answered some of your questions. If you have any more questions, be sure to let me know and I will get back to you as soon as I can. If you have any changes you think would make the deck better, try them out or tell me about them so I can test them out. Lastly, don’t give up! Although it is difficult to play, this deck is viable! It just might need a few tweaks here and there. Good luck!
Dont get me wrong. This is a solid deck for laddering especially with the nerf. But this is not a midrange deck this is a control deck with some midrange card options
Hey,
As I said in an earlier comment, this should probably be called a Midrangy Control Warrior. However, “Midrangy Control Warrior” sounds terrible and wouldn’t fit in the name, so I decided to go with “Midrange.” Sorry if this caused any confusion!
I appreciate that you think this is a solid deck. If you have any suggestions for it, please let me know!
why thaurissan?
Hey,
Emperor Thaurissan is a huge win condition in this deck. It provides a large threat that the opponent has to answer, and it allows you to play more of your buffed minions/removal spells per turn. In addition, if it receives a buff, it becomes even more difficult to answer and can obtain value for multiple turns. Finally, if you have either Brawl or Sylvanas Windrunner in hand when you play Thaurissan, you can reduce the Sylvanas + Brawl combo to an affordable mana cost. For these reasons, Thaurissan is a great inclusion in the deck.
Rend Blackhand? You have two dragons in your entire deck, plus it’s an absolutely unplayable card.
Hey,
Unplayable, or “none of the professional players use this”? I’m always trying out new crazy stuff in my decks. Just because a card is “unplayable” doesn’t mean it can’t be useful in the right deck/matchup. I tried it out in this deck with some extra dragons, but I was having draw inconsistences, so I cut him. I am currently experimenting with Dirty Rats.
I don’t have the LOE wong for elise, should I use ysera instead for value?
Hey,
Ysera is another major late game threat, so it should be ok. Just remember to try and bait out hard removal with your buffed minions so Ysera can achieve full value. Good luck with the deck!
Just as a side note, most of the legendaries in this deck are solid picks and don’t have great replacements. Ysera is still really, really good in this deck, but you may find yourself losing some extremely long fatigue games because you don’t have Elise to squeeze value out of dead cards. If you do lose some games with this deck, don’t give up. If you come up with some changes that you think would make the deck better, then please let me know! I’m still tinkering with it.
Not completly sure, but i wonder if a grommash could fit, as it is a proactive play
Interesting. I would consider removing the 2x Fierce Monkey for Grommash and a Cruel Taskmaster. However, I don’t have Grommash right now and I’m not going to craft him unless Control Warrior/Midrange Warrior remains a solid deck after Justicar rotates. If this deck is still good after Un’Goro, I will give this a shot! Thanks for the idea!
Midrange with Brawl ? Elise ? Justicar ?
Hey,
It’s probably better described as Midrangey Control. It keeps some of the solid Control elements to win both the faster matchups and the slow fatigue games. These cards make the deck more versatile and removing them would significantly reduce the winrate of this deck. Brawl is especially useful against decks that can summon hordes of high health minions, such as Dragon Priest, Midrange Jade Shaman, Jade Druid, and health buffs from Kazakus in Renolock and Reno Mage. Justicar allows you to gain life consistently against Aggro and helps stack up armor for fatigue matches. Elise is a solid win condition against control decks if you run out of major threats.
Is it possibile to replace the Justicar? I don’t feel like crafting her since she’s rotating out….
Hey,
Justicar is a key card in this deck, but you could replace her with another solid 6 drop like Cairne Bloodhoof or Sunwalker. Another option would be an Ironforge Portal. A third option would be some kind of weapon removal, so either Harrison Jones or an Acidic Swamp Ooze. As I said, I’m not sure how removing Justicar will affect the overall performance of the deck. Try some of these changes out and let me know what works for you!
If you choose a Taunt minion like Sunwalker, you can probably take out a Fierce Monkey and replace it with an Acidic Swamp Ooze.
I tried your deck out for the first time and got annihilated by a mage. The problem was the player used two potions of polymorph on me so my buffed minions did not matter at all! They pulled Rag on me too and double flamewakers, so I was crushed hard. I think it is almost better to put in some Eater of Secrets.
Hey,
First off, thanks for trying out my wacky deck. 🙂
Sounds like you had a Tempo/Secret Mage matchup. I haven’t seen any of those on ladder, so I can’t say for sure how to make that matchup better.
Eater of Secrets is a very situational card and is only good against Mage in the current meta. I don’t think it is the best choice, but if you want to add one, you could take out a Bloodhoof Brave or a Grimy Gadgeteer. As the meta seems to be slower now, it is probably better to replace the Bloodhoof as Grimy Gadgeteer provides much more value. Let me know if it works for you!