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What Will Happen to Control Decks in Murder at Castle Nathria?

By: Old Guardian - - Updated:

Murder at Castle Nathria is almost here, just a few more days! As primarily a control player, I have some concerns about the new expansion. Control decks have never received as little support as they do in Murder at Castle Nathria. The big exception is Prince Renathal, but as we have already been playing with the Prince for a month, it does not really feel like a Castle Nathria card.

In this article, I will take a look at the control support in Murder at Castle Nathria, and try to find ways to build control decks for the new expansion. Control decks will largely rely on the old cards and will face new challenges from all the midrange archetypes promoted by the new expansion. This will be a challenging environment and we will need to see what happens to the overall meta before we can lock in the final 30 or 40 cards. But some work on the core structures can already take place!

Control Warrior

Warrior is the traditional control class, but most of the Warrior cards in Murder at Castle Nathria promote a pain or enrage archetype that damages its own minions. The Warrior set also does not look too strong overall. Still, there are a couple of cards that are of interest to control decks:

  • Conqueror's Banner is the most control-oriented Warrior card in the set. If the mana curve of your deck is significantly higher than that of your opponent, you have a chance to draw three cards for a mere two mana! However, this will be wildly inconsistent. If you pull your Shield Slam and Frozen Buckler, well, yeah, good luck with that. I do not dare to try this card until I can see the mana curves of the main meta decks.
  • Burden of Pride is another potential control card. Three Taunt minions can buy you time to defend, and as most Control Warrior decks are unlikely to run Prince Renathal, getting beaten down to 20 Health by turn four is not impossible at all. Even if you have more than 20 Health, three Taunt minions take a number of hits to get through.
  • Decimator Olgra is potentially a board clear, but you’d want there to be some damaged minions on the board to make her shine. I also do not want to pair her with Whirlwind, as making a combo of two cards that cannot stand alone is rarely an effective practice unless you have loads of card draw.
  • Remornia, Living Blade has major potential, but only if you can buff it. Without buffs, it can hit a couple of times for four damage and that’s it.
  • Riot! has some board-clearing potential, but it requires a bunch of minions to work. That is not something that traditional control decks have.

Overall, most of the cards that you can imagine running in a Control Warrior deck are far better suited for a Midrange Handbuff Warrior or an Enrage Warrior. They can provide control elements to these decks, but are often ill-suited for a dedicated control deck.

What does it take for a control deck to succeed? You need to be able to defend during the early game and then turn the game around later on with a major win condition. We receive no control deck win conditions in Murder at Castle Nathria. Not a single one. The biggest game-ending card in the expansion is Sire Denathrius, and you need to play a lot of minions to make Sire deal enough damage. Control decks are rarely able to do that.

A traditional Control Warrior in Murder at Castle Nathria could look something like this:

Old Guardian's Castle Nathria Control Warrior

Deck Import

It is so hard to find a win condition other than Kazakusan for Control Warrior, and I am worried that Kazakusan will simply be too slow. I am running the Overlord Saurfang package for card draw as I have done in Sunken City. Here, Saurfang may even have some synergy with Decimator Olgra. I am not sure if there are enough ways to activate Decimator Olgra in a deck like this though. Burden of Pride may help with stalling the game and with leaving some damaged minions on the board. Still, it is a tough position for Warrior.

What if we tried something else? Maybe take a page from Habugabu’s book and build a Renathal Quest Warrior?

Old Guardian's Castle Nathria Renathal Quest Warrior

Deck Import

The Juggernaut from the Warrior Questline is definitely a win condition. There is even a new Pirate in the expansion with Suspicious Pirate, so we can quite easily have enough Pirates for a 40-card deck. There are 24 Pirates in this one! Pufferfist and Defias Cannoneer provide synergies with Decimator Olgra. Riot! might be able to clear some boards as we are playing a lot of minions.

Smothering Starfish is a leftover from the current meta, but who knows what the optimal tech card in the next expansion will be?

You may notice that there is no Remornia, Living Blade in this deck either. Sadly, Remornia is a minion while in your deck, so you cannot tutor it with the Questline. Also, there are no handbuffs here to make it stronger, and it does not synergize well with the random weapons you get from the Juggernaut.

I am not feeling too optimistic about Control Warrior. There are several new archetypes coming, and Control Warrior is fighting back with mostly old tools.

Control Warlock

Warlock is another iconic control class. Right now, Curse Warlock is the only viable way to build a Control Warlock, and that is likely to remain true in Murder at Castle Nathria. Most of the Warlock Nathria set is focused on supporting Imps, but there are some cards that could see play in control decks as well.

  • Lady Darkvein is the most promising Control Warlock card in the upcoming set. The Shades can repeat Curse spells, Shadow Waltz, or even a Twisting Nether. There is just no reason not to use Lady Darkvein in any Control Warlock deck.
  • Shadow Waltz has some control applications, although it can be hard to play on curve with a control deck as you may not have minions on the board.
  • Shadowborn can discount a wide variety of Shadow spells in a control deck, including Twisting Nether.
  • Suffocating Shadows is cheap hard removal, but targeting a random minion is a downside.

A Curse Warlock in the new expansion could look something like this:

Old Guardian's Castle Nathria Renathal Curse Warlock

Deck Import

I have added the new Shadow package of Lady Darkvein, Shadow Waltz, and Shadowborn. They synergize well with the existing Curse spells and Twisting Nether, which I have now included two copies of in the hopes that the Shadow package makes it stronger.

I have also opted to switch out Mutanus the Devourer in favor of Theotar, the Mad Duke in the hopes of interrupting combos more effectively and earlier.

There are still some tech cards in the deck, like Immolate and Rustrot Viper. I hope that Immolate can counter some Infuse cards, but it might be too slow to do that. The big Rogue dagger is really scary, so I dare not leave home without a Rustrot Viper. I hope that Theotar will catch the payoff cards in time.

Could there be other Control Warlock archetypes in Murder at Castle Nathria? Well, The Demon Seed still exists, but none of the new cards really help it succeed. There are also some things that can be done with Imp King Rafaam: the Fiend from Dark Alley Pact is a Demon, so Rafaam could also be part of a Handlock deck. Dark Alley Pact on four into Lady Darkvein on five and possibly Imp King Rafaam on six if all the big Demons somehow end up dead. That sounds powerful, but also incredibly unlikely. Maybe there is also some kind of Imp deck with Rafaam, Dark Alley Pact, and a big Sire Denathrius finisher, but any Imp deck is more likely to be either aggro or midrange.

With no new control win conditions for Warlock – although Warlock has more of a chance to include Sire Denathrius in a deck than Warrior – Control Warlock looks forward to minor improvements at best.

Control Paladin

Control Paladin gets some cards that can be used during the game, but nothing obviously strong that just wins.

  • The Countess is the closest thing we get to a control deck win condition in Murder at Castle Nathria. She requires a Pure Paladin deck, and success is not guaranteed even with three Discovers.
  • Muckborn Servant is a usable early-game card. Cheap minion. Has Taunt. Gives you another card. Seems perfectly fine, but nothing spectacular. I believe the Servant will be included in most Control Paladin decks though as a generally useful card.
  • Stewart the Steward is a value powerhouse that has incredible synergy with the Paladin Hero Power, and no synergy with Lightforged Cariel‘s Hero Power. Either way, there is no reason to not run Stewart in all Paladin decks.
  • Elitist Snob is a Zilliax in disguise. United. Precise. Perfect. But not a card that just wins games on its own.

The Paladin toolkit gets a number of strong midrange cards. They can also be used in control decks, and they should find a home in most Paladin control decks. The question is how do those control decks win games? The Countess is an unreliable win condition. Even building a huge Mr. Smite can be unreliable against Theotar, the Mad Duke. Sire Denathrius has terrible anti-synergy with Lightforged Cariel, but how can a control deck survive without Cariel? So many questions.

Anyway, Paladin has a couple of alternative paths that it can pursue. First, there’s Pure Paladin with The Countess:

Old Guardian's Castle Nathria Pure Paladin

Deck Import

There’s nothing immediately wrong with a Pure Paladin deck like this. It has a lot of pretty good cards. But is pretty good enough? That is a big question for Paladin. In late Sunken City, pretty good has not been enough. It gets you to something like 49%, maybe 50%, but that’s it. Why would Castle Nathria be any different?

Paladin could also pursue a Prince Renathal path and keep Mr. Smite as its win condition. Renathal Paladin should become stronger now as the card pool grows bigger. Paladin also receives a number of usable cards for the early and mid-game. Therefore, Paladin could also go for something like this:

Old Guardian's Castle Nathria Renathal Control Paladin

Deck Import

Again, a collection of fine cards, but nothing that is obviously broken. And that just might not be enough.

I guess Paladin could have one more path with Dragons and Kazakusan. That approach has not been strong before, and there are no new Dragons available, so it does not look too promising either.

Paladin. Lots of pretty good cards, but nothing super strong. That’s a dilemma.

Control Priest

The main Priest theme in Castle Nathria is copying and stealing cards from the opponent. I’m not fully convinced this can make for a meaningful control deck, although it is possible that it can be integrated into Quest Priest. Traditional Quest Priest is also getting some interesting additions:

  • Cathedral of Atonement provides Priest with some minion buffs and card draw. As Quest Priest tends to run a lot of minions, there should be no shortage of potential targets.
  • Clean the Scene may not be the strongest board clear, but it costs five mana. This can be important for Quest Priest, as the five-mana slot has been a difficult one for the archetype to cover.
  • Theotar, the Mad Duke is especially interesting for Quest Priest, as it helps with the four-mana slot and at the same time allows you to trade a useless card away and grab something that can advance the Questline from the opponent.

Castle Nathria Quest Priest could look something like this:

Old Guardian's Castle Nathria Quest Priest

Deck Import

One Neutral card that I am especially excited about is Sketchy Stranger. If you can Discover a Mage Secret from it, you cover both two-mana and three-mana slots with a single card.

Quest Priest is one of the control decks I’m most excited about in Castle Nathria. The win condition is still Seek Guidance, but more cards in the pool make it easier to fill the mana curve to advance the Questline, and there are new options for all difficult mana slots in the archetype. Alas, Quest Priest is excruciatingly slow. It may be too slow to survive the pressure in Castle Nathria, but it also packs tons of board clears to get rid of all this board-based gameplay.

The identity theft package could also complement Quest Priest well, but we will need to know much more about the upcoming meta to know for sure.

Control Mage

Mage gets more control support than any other class, but it is all about this one single package. Volatile Mage, Skeleton Mage, whatever you want to call it. Nightcloak Sanctum, Cold Case, Deathborne, and Kel'Thuzad, the Inevitable form the package of exploding Volatile Skeletons that Mage can use in their attempt to take over the world.

There are multiple ways that the final deck can be built. With Prince Renathal or maybe without? With ping package or maybe without?

Here is my draft of a 30-card version with the ping package, so that you have both Kel'Thuzad, the Inevitable and Mordresh Fire Eye as big plashy finishers.

Old Guardian's Skeleton Ping Mage

Deck Import

Control Shaman

The final control class in the game is Shaman. Control Murloc Shaman is a strong deck right now, but I really don’t see what it would get from Castle Nathria. Primordial Wave to get rid of buffed enemy minions? Theotar, the Mad Duke? Mutanus the Devourer being a Murloc is actually an upside in Control Shaman, so you don’t want to replace it in that archetype, but you could add Theotar to the deck in addition to Mutanus. Shaman’s control support is the weakest of all control classes in the new expansion.

Conclusions

Control decks get hardly any new win conditions in Murder at Castle Nathria. Sire Denathrius is difficult to use as a control deck, as you do not naturally play a lot of minions. Perhaps there are brand new ways to build control decks that play enough minions to use Denathrius, but most likely that design will pivot the deck towards a midrange strategy. Pure Paladin gets The Countess that could also be a curve-topper in a midrange deck, and might not provide enough value to win the game for a control deck. Mage gets the Volatile Skeleton package, which most likely will go to a control shell.

At the same time, Theotar, the Mad Duke is both an opportunity and a threat. You can steal important cards from midrange or combo decks and give them a useless removal piece instead, but you can also lose your Kazakusan or Mr. Smite and be left without your main win condition.

Priest, Paladin, Warlock, and Warrior all get cards that are perhaps more directed at midrange decks, but that can be adapted for use in control decks as well. These cards are mostly for early game and mid-game, and you still need something for the late game to actually win.

Quest Priest, Skeleton Mage, and Curse Warlock look like the most promising control decks for Castle Nathria. Warrior, Paladin, and Shaman all have some tools, but they can be difficult to combine in ways that win games.

I am not optimistic about control decks in Castle Nathria, but they get some tools that might be just enough to keep them afloat. We’ll find out next week!

Old Guardian

Ville "Old Guardian" Kilkku is a writer and video creator focused on analytic, educational Hearthstone, and building innovative Standard format decks. Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/OldGuardian Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/old_guardian

Check out Old Guardian on Twitter or on their Website!

Leave a Reply

2 Comments

  1. OParis
    July 30, 2022 at 11:25 PM

    Maybe there are not alot of new win conditions, but control players got one of the most valuable resource for them, that they thrive for alot: hand/deck disrutpion.

    One of my biggest issues(for YEARS) as a main priest was combo decks: I could find ways to counter aggro no matter how powerful they were, but combo decks like old quest mage or celestial druid were just cutting through my winrate.
    The moment I could shine was at Illucia’s release because I finally had a tool to counter them. So cards like Theotar and the new thief legendary priest card will be so much more useful for me than any new win condition.

  2. XClusive
    July 30, 2022 at 12:39 AM

    I like to think of Brann + Kael’thas + big win-con minions as the main focus for Control. Curselock can sustain long enough to end it with Denathrius, Mage has enough freeze and Ping-power to end with either Kel or Mordresh.

    I’m betting on a Renothal or simply Renathal Questline Priest and Weapon Control Warrior list to maybe do something for those classes.

    Our only save would be Druid becoming as strong as it looks to be, and the meta turning hyper-aggro because of it.

    For the first time in a long while I’m looking towards Wild for the more sustainable Control-ish decks. Reno Secret Mage, Pure Libram Paladin, Evolve Shaman, all look to be incredibly fun decks. We’ll have to find out if they end up being good as well.

    Fun read, hope to match you on ladder so at least two people can have a fun match!