Tempo Warrior (69% Winrate 40-18 to Legend) Deck Guide

Thanks to sudajalem for allowing us to re-host his Tempo Warrior Guide!

Introduction

Hello guys, I’m sudajalem, fellow comrade from Uruguay, and even though I never created any content in this subreddit I follow it very closely and read it on a daily basis.

I was encouraged to make this guide because I’ve just hit legend for the second time. I play mostly in my free time between work and other activities (so I’m not really going for highest possible rank every season) and I mainly attempt getting legend as a personal challenge, so I wanted to share my opinion on Tempo Warrior which is a deck I really enjoy playing.

First of all I would like to give the decklist, the stats, and proof of legend. Proof Decklist Stats 

We all know why Tempo Warrior has a comfortable seat in the current meta: it has almost everything to answer the opponent’s plays, you have Whirlwind effects to remove tokens and the swarm of small minions, single target removal for the scary ones, weapons to get control of the board and quality minions to maintain the control in the mid-game, and can threaten yours opponent with late game powerhouses like Ragnaros the Firelord and Grommash Hellscream.

Card Choices

2x Blood To Ichor – Excellent card for getting board control early. You can remove Argent Squire‘s divine shield and generate a solid body, it can give you reach to finish a Totem Golem with Fiery War Axe, can even be an activator for Execute or a tool to enrage Grommash. I think this may be the one of the best cards of the set for Tempo Warrior because it is such a flexible card.

2x Execute – Staple in most Warrior decks, and has a reason: it’s the king of single target removals. Costing as little as 1 mana, and given all the ways you have to activate this, it is always a major tempo gain.

2x Whirlwind – Another amazing activator for both our draw engines and minions. Once you secure a board and if you have Frothing’s in play, this can present you with some really unexpected lethal set-ups. Just a complete must in the current meta polluted by Zoolocks and Totem Shamans.

2x Fiery War Axe – Best 2 mana weapon in the game. Arguably the best source of both tempo and board control in the early game.

2x Battle Rage – Our main draw engine. Such a strong card used in the mid-game to reinforce our hand. Once we played our early cards and secured the early game, this card allows us to transition into the mid-late game with enough cards to maintain pressure.

2x Slam – Amazing all-around card. Gives us reach to finish mid game minions and draws a card. What more can we ask for?

2x Armorsmith – Now these girls! Man, I can’t stop loving them, they are such a good card in the current meta. Their ability to be both helpful in the early game, and can be a lifesaver by generating so much armor once we get board control is what encourages me to make this a “2of” staple in my Tempo Warrior deck.

2x Acolyte of Pain – Now I have mixed feelings about this card, and during my climb I playtested with 1 and 2 copies but couldn’t really figure out which is the correct amount. I think 1 is enough in the current meta (as this card challenges no minion in the early game and we have enough ways to draw cards), but it feels so wrong playing just one as it has been a staple in Warrior decks for so long that I’ve ended up leaving in two of them. In the end, I get the feeling that one of the Acolytes could be swapped for a Spellbreaker.

1x Fierce Monkey – This card is mostly used to fill up our 3 mana slot in the deck. It has good stats for a 3 drop, and the taunt effect can certainly be useful to protect other valuable minions, or our face.

2x Frothing Berserker – This is a great card for this type of deck. It is such a threatening minion to be left on the board that your opponents will most likely remove it right away. Played on curve while removing your opponent’s board and they will likely be forced to use an important removal like Hex or Soulfire. It can also be used to set up an unexpected lethal.

2x Ravaging Ghoul – Due to the Standard rotation, Warrior lost a very strong card in the form of Death's Bite. Luckily, WoToG has given us Ravaging Ghoul to soften the blow. It’s an all-around amazing card, has solid stats for it’s cost. and it has the precious Whirlwind effect that’s so crucial for this deck’s gameplan.

I’d like to make special mention for the cards in the 4-slot, since this is where we can be really flexible depending on what decks we are facing the more. I ended the climb with a combination of 2x Arathi Weaponsmith & 2x Bloodhoof Brave. The reason for this is the huge amount of Zoolock I had to face in higher ranks, and Arathi Weaponsmith provides a reasonable body to fight for board along with a 2-2 axe that can easily help you take out most of the Zoolock minions. It turns out that is also good against Shaman to remove those pesky 0-2 totems that Shaman keeps summoning.

I feel like this slot can be played with a combination of three cards available to Warrior which are Arathi Weaponsmith, Bloodhoof Brave and Kor'kron Elite. But in the end, the composition of the 4 mana slot will be defined by your playstyle and the decks you are facing the most. Kor'kron Elite favors a more aggressive approach and can be better vs Control Matchups to push for damage and apply pressure. While Arathi Weaponsmith is more oriented to a board-controlish playstyle.

1x Stampeding Kodo – This is the card-slot in the deck that I feel is the most flexible of all. I ended up using Kodo since it has so many targets in the current meta with all those Bloodhoof Brave, Frothing Berserker, Acolyte of Pain, Leokk, even Doomsayer. It is such a strong tempo play in those cases. I’ve also played Harrison Jones in this spot. I even tested Malkorok and the new Hogger, Doom of Elwynn but the results weren’t so appealing.

1x Cairne Bloodhoof – This is our board clear insurance. It is such a strong card. Its value is off the charts in the current meta where almost no silence is played. It has to be played very carefully against Shaman and Rogue because Hex and Sap can be really devastating. I would craft it again with no doubts.

1x Sylvanas Windrunner – This has to be THE most incredible card in Hearthstone. I think this an auto-include in this deck. Played correctly and it can turn the tides of a game. Many times, opponents will just ignore her and play more minions, giving you the upper hand to make some sick plays next turn. She has won me many games so I would not even think of replacing her. MUST CRAFT.

1x Grommash Hellscream – Auto-include in almost every Warrior deck. It’s an excellent finisher since we have many activators in our deck. It can be used as premium removal while almost always leaving a big threat on the board.

1x Ragnaros the Firelord – This guy can be your MVP or be a complete waste depending on the moment you play it. Ragnaros requires some understanding and game-planning to really play him on a turn where he can immediately impact the game, he can also be a lifesaver and turn around unwinnable games if you pray to the RNG gods enough. I think this is a must in Tempo Warrior, and should be given crafting priority because it will never cycle out of Standard.

Other viable cards

Malkorok – It has seen some play in Ladder and Tournaments. In theory it seems like a good card and even though I haven’t really tested extensively, I think it is not a great card against Zoo, which ladder is full of, so I ended subbing it out.

Harrison Jones – Tech card against Paladin, Shaman and Warrior. Consider using him if meta in the moment you’re playing shift towards heavy weapons.

Hogger, Doom of Elwynn – Tested it at the beginning of the season, seems good if you can spare some WW effects to use it with him. Would need to test it more extensively to really give a solid opinion.

Revenge – Used it in some games in place of Whirlwind, and proved to be very strong at swinging games against Zoo or Shamans. Ultimately I find WW to be more flexible because of the reduced mana cost.

Other cards I would like to test when I get some free time are Shifter Zerus, Sir Finley Mrrgglton and Spellbreaker, so If you guys have any input on them, it would be greatly appreciated.

Matchups

Miracle Rogue

In theory we are the underdog in this matchup, but in reality (and as my stats show) I found that we can very easily gain the upperhand if we tweak our mulligans. We need to be AGGRESSIVE so we mulligan for our early drops and make the Rogue choose to either use resources to answer them, or develop their own minions. I found out that if going first, ditching the Fiery War Axe to find our early drops is okay. If going second you can keep it to protect your own board. The important thing in this matchup is to keep the tempo going, we need to out-tempo the Rogue, and while this may seem to be a hard task, we usually can accomplish it. Do not be afraid to Execute an Azure Drake or Tomb Pillager if this results in you playing another minion in the same turn. Keep applying pressure while chipping away the Rogue’s health and you will often win this game.

Zoolock

This matchup is all about getting Armorsmith and Fiery War Axe in the mulligan. It is okay to keep Ravaging Ghoul or Whirlwind if we have one of the previous mentioned cards. Blood To Ichor is a strong play when going second, since it can remove an Argent Squire shield, weaken a Voidwalker to kill it next turn, or simply force the trade if used on a Flame Imp. From there we just do our best control the situation. We will need to plan our turn to get maximum value out of our WW effects. Most likely we can swing the board on turns 3-5 and from there on we just keep removing everything while getting our card draw engine on.

Aggro Shaman

Similar to Zoolock mulligan plus we can keep Execute when going second if we already have good cards to answer the Flamewreathed Faceless. We really need to draw well to win this matchup, our Armorsmith can be game changing. We also need to time our taunts to avoid Doomhammer going face. Usually the Shaman will run out of cards faster than us, that’s the moment we take the game. Harrison Jones can be tech’d in if you are facing a lot of Aggro Shaman.

Totem Shaman

This matchup can be really hard or really easy depending on how we both mulligan. I generally keep Armorsmith and Fiery War Axe, and a 3 drop if I already have one of them. If we manage to establish early control of the board with Axe, Armorsmith, Frothing Berserker and Slam, we should transition to a strong mid-game and the odds of winning will be on our side. If playing from behind early, Ravaging Ghoul and Whirlwind alongside with Execute can helps us get the tempo swing needed to get back in the game in turns 4-6.

(I’ve just included info about the matchups I feel more confortable talking about given my experience and knowledge. I will keep updating information to this section as I get more input on these and the other matchups)

Conclusion

I feel very happy to finally reach legend once again since last time I did it was with a (oh coincidence!) Midrange Tempo Warrior. Feel free to start the discussion about my analysis and please be welcome to make any critique as I will take everything into consideration to improve this post.

Also, I would like to give a big thanks to everyone who contribute to this subreddit as it proved to very helpful for me to understand and improve in certain areas of my gameplay.

Happy laddering!