Hearthstone Control Warrior Legendary Rank Deck

Hearthstone Control Warrior Legendary Rank Deck by InGross

It took me just under 150 wins this season to get to Legend with control warrior. Here is the list I spent the most time with:

• 2 Whirlwind
• 2 Execute
• 2 Shield Slam
• 2 Cruel Taskmaster
• 1 Cleave
• 2 Fiery War Axe
• 2 Slam
• 2 Shield Block
• 2 Acolyte of Pain
• 1 Big Game Hunter
• 2 Kor’kron Elite
• 2 Azure Drake
• 1 Brawl
• 1 Black Knight
• 1 Cairne Bloodhoof
• 1 Sylvanas Windrunner
• 1 Baron Geddon
• 1 Ragnaros
• 1 Grommash Hellscream
• 1 Alexstrasza

Cards that floated in and out of the deck, depending on the Meta that day were Harrison Jones (great in the mirror, and against Miracle Rogue–usually replaced Sylvannas), a second BGH (handlock–replacing Geddon), and Blood Knight (zoo, pally aggro, shaman, token druid–replacing Ragnaros).

Gorehowl was in the main deck for a long time, but got removed because too many decks rely on OTK burst. Gorehowl, while giving amazing value out of one card, often results in 10+ damage to yourself in the process. It’s just not worth it in this meta.

Armorsmith is nearly useless against everything. Most of the time I used it to turn on Execute, so I just cut it. Barely notice his absence.

The deck is very rewarding to play because it is consistent, has no truly unfavorable matchups, and has lots of opportunity for card advantage. The biggest threat, and #1 reason for losing, is tempo (as with most decks). For that reason alone, Brawl and Kor’Kron elite are very important to the deck–and to a lesser extent, Baron Geddon and Black Knight. Thankfully there are no devoted tempo decks in the metagame right now, which makes it a good place for Control Warrior to be!

On to match-ups.

Miracle Rogue This is a fairly easy matchup. Aggressively kill minions, but don’t get caught with your pants down to a Van Cleef with no Execute or Shield Slam. It is more important to Armor Up every single turn than in any other matchup. Do not to play Acolyte on turn 3; wait until you can use a taskmaster on it in the same turn. The few difficult choices you have to make often come down to things like: Play Cairne and armor up, or play Ragnaros? 99% of the time, always armor up.

Handlock & Zoo Don’t mulligan away BGH or Brawl. Zoo is a very close matchup. Don’t worry about getting value out of Slam–use it freely on Imps or Knife Jugglers. Against Handlock, keep an active count of the number of Giants and Drakes you’ve killed, and stay above 20 life when they hit 10 mana to avoid a OTK from Leeroy + PO + Faceless. Against Handlock, don’t play a Kor’kron and smash them under 15 life unless you are ready to deal with Molten Giants on your next turn.

Druid Don’t mulligan away Black Knight. Most good druids will always use Druid of the Claw in cat form, but you will almost always have other targets and Black Knight is a huge beating if you can get something with it. Try to identify which version of druid you are playing by their early game plays: Argent Squire –> Tokens; Wild growth –> Ramp; Ancient Watcher –> Midrange. Treat Tokens like Zoo. Don’t worry about saving removal for anything unless you are playing against ramp, where you might need to kill Cenarius, Rag, and/or multiple Ancients of War and Sunwalkers. Around turn 7, always be calculating their OTK potential when making decisions.

Shaman Don’t save Black Knight specifically for Ala’kir–its fine to kill a feral spirit. Brawl, Geddon, and Azure Drake + Whirlwind or Cleave are going to be important and potential necessary to win. If they are playing a version with Argent Commanders, it is much harder because you can get behind in tempo more easily. Shield + Slam is very nice against Fire Elementals, but don’t feel like you need to save it. Its fine to use on a Unbound Elemental. If you play a turn 2 fiery war axe, don’t feel like you need to kill totems every turn. Consider using it to clear out the spellpower totem before playing an Azure Drake, but otherwise use your axe on Feral Spirits, Argus, or Mana tide, or Flametongue totems.