Basic + Naxxramas + Blackrock Mountain Starter Warrior Hearthstone Deck

Editor’s Note: With the new Standard Format in 2016 for Hearthstone, we highly recommend going for cards in the Classic set and Whispers of the Old Gods (Standard Format). Here are budget guides, also from Sheng, to get you started!

• Budget Standard Standard C’Thun Druid
• Budget Standard Midrange Hunter
• Budget Standard C’Thun Mage
• Budget Standard  Aggro Paladin
• Budget Standard C’Thun Priest
• Budget Standard C’Thun Rogue
• Budget Standard Midrange Shaman
• Budget Standard Zoo Warlock 
• Budget Standard Combo Warrior

Introduction

Greetings, I’m Sheng, a Legend rank constructed and 7.5 win-average arena player. I run HearthstoneCoaching.com where our coaches have helped many students achieve the same.

Whether you’re a newer player, or an experienced one who just wants to find the most efficient way to spend your cash or in-game gold, you can never go wrong by investing in Hearthstone’s single player expansions. Both The Curse of Naxxramas and Blackrock Mountain have provide unique and useful cards for Hearthstone Deck that cannot be unlocked anywhere else.

My Blackrock Mountain decks are a new series of guides where I try to construct the most  effective Hearthstone decks I can for each class, with only one contraint — that I only use cards from the Basic, Naxxramas, and Blackrock Mountain card sets.

These 0 dust decks are meant to help newer players kickstart their Hearthstone journey, by providing unique and viable decks that can be used against friends and foe on casual or ladder (though you may want to check out the upgrade section at the end of each guide to get further on the ladder).

Deck Playstyle

If there’s any deck I’m most excited about in this series, it’s this one. Blackrock Mountain has brought about a single card, grim-patron, which finally makes a cheap combo warrior deck viable! Of all of our decks, this one is probably the most unique because you can flood the board with 3/Xs on a single turn.

A situation like this is often how you can win games with this deck. Whenever you have the sweet combo of warsong-commander and grim-patron on the board, it only takes one whirlwind to set off an almost infinite line of charge minions.

While this can be very strong when you have the right combination of cards in the mid to late game, the trick is to survive a relatively weaker early game in order to get to a point in the game where you can piece your warsong-commander, grim-patron, and whirlwind combo together.

Minions – 22

2x zombie-chow

• The Zombie Chow is strictly an early game minion used to pressure your opponent’s board early. The goal of casting a Zombie Chow onto the board early is to trade with your opponent’s more expensive minions before its deathrattle becomes a liability. There’s very little downside to killing off your own Zombie Chow when your opponent is close to full health, but playing him later in the game might just put your opponent out of reach if he has a way to deal with it.

2x acidic-swamp-ooze

• The Ooze is a great little card that has an incredible battlecry against more than half the classes in the game (Hunter, Paladin, Rogue, Shaman, Warrior). His 3/2 body for 2 mana passes the Vanilla Test, and there’s no downside to playing him even if the battlecry doesn’t destroy a weapon.

2x unstable-ghoul

• Generally, this card is here because it’s a good enabler for our grim-patron. It also trades evenly with 2/3s and 3/2 minions, which is a plus.

2x shattered-sun-cleric

• 3 mana for 3/2 isn’t mana efficient, but the battlecry more than makes up for it. The downside is that if you don’t have a minion on the board, this card suffers.
• The ideal scenario is to play this on the same turn a minion you control can trade with something equal in value and survive, or can trade up to kill something more expensive.

2x warsong-commander

• Generally a weak play on turn 3 by herself due to the poor stat distribution, but she’s an insane card to play late in the game, when you can enable any 3 or less attack minion in your hand to gain charge.

2x gnomish-inventor

• Provides really necessary card draw into our deck, which helps us draw into answers to our opponent’s minions or missing pieces in our warsong-commander, grim-patron, and whirlwind combo.

2x korkron-elite

• 4 mana for a 4/3 with charge is great value. bluegill-warrior and wolfrider both have one health, and are much less durable.
• Kor’kron will 2 for 1 against 2/3s, and can be used to finish off your opponent.

2x senjin-shieldmasta

• Taz’dingo! The Sen’jin Shieldmasta trades one point of attack in exchange for taunt, but it’s generally a fair trade. While a Sen’jin won’t 1 hit kill a 4/4 or 3/4 minion, he’ll be able to protect your lower health minions from dying to favorable trades from your opponent, and can be the key to slowing down the game against aggressive rush-down decks.

2x grim-patron

• The most important card in our deck, and our main source of damage late in the game if we’re able to find ways to self-inflict damage on our own Grim Patrons.
• He’s especially effective if you have warsong-commander on the board, as every Grim Patron that spawns gains charge.
• whirlwind, unstable-ghoul, and deaths-bite‘s deathrattle can all enable Grim Patron.

1x loatheb

• Loatheb is an amazing card… when played correctly. 5 mana for a 5/5 is fair, but it’s Loatheb’s ability to shutdown opponent’s spells that makes him so valuable. Play Loatheb on turn 6 before a mage can cast flamestrike on turn 7 and he’ll win you the game.

2x sludge-belcher

• If you thought the senjin-shieldmasta was good, well just wait until you see his bigger brother, the Sludge Belcher. Sludge Belcher is an extremely annoying card to deal with, because when he dies, he leaves behind a smaller taunt. This effectively shuts down very aggressive decks, that are generally forced to use silence to get around him. Another benefit to the Sludge Belcher’s deathrattle is his synergy with kelthuzad. Good luck getting past that wall of taunts when both are on the board at the same time!

1x kelthuzad

• Kel’Thuzad is probably the most win condition in our deck. If you have any semblance of a board going into turn 8, he has a good chance of winning the game for you. His value only goes up when you have deathrattle minions on the board that spawn more minions.

Spells – 4

2x execute

• A really cost-efficient removal card that’s become even easier to play thanks to the inclusion of multiple whirlwinds and unstable-ghoul.

2x whirlwind

• Useful in many many ways. It can serve as a board clear against very aggressive token decks, or synergize with execute and grim-patron.

Weapons – 4

2x fiery-war-axe

• An extremely efficient card that’ll give you card advantage. 2 mana to kill two 3 health minions is incredible value.

2x deaths-bite

• 4 mana for a 4 attack and 2 durability weapon is incredibly good value. When it’s down to 1 durability, you can use it to attack a 5 health minion and kill it off with its whirlwind effect deathrattle. This deathrattle is also a great enabler for execute and grim-patron.

Blackrock Mountain Improvements

grim-patron

• Grim Patron is essentially the centerpiece of this deck. Everything in this deck is about getting grim-patron out in an advantageous situation where you can spawn more Patrons.

Mulligan Guide

In general, you want to mulligan so that you can put out minions on your first three turns. If you’re going second, feel free to keep a single 4 mana minion so that you can coin it out on turn 3. Coining out a minion on turn 3 is actually a significant tempo boost, as a card like chillwind-yeti can be used to trade against at least two lower cost minions.

Cards to Keep

• 1 Mana: zombie-chow
• 2 Mana: fiery-war-axe, acidic-swamp-ooze
• 3 Mana: shattered-sun-cleric
• 4 Mana: korkron-elite, deaths-bite

Remember, you want to plan out your first three turns with your opening hand, so if you already have a 1 mana and 2 mana minion, you should mulligan away your remaining card or two to dig for a play on turn 3.

Upgrades

Instead of making an upgrades list, check out Nuba’s article on Grim Patron Warrior, and its strengths and weaknesses. It includes many upgraded cards, and is viable up to Legend rank.

Conclusion

I hope you enjoyed the guide to our Blackrock Mountain Grim Patron Warrior deck. As always I’d be happy to answer questions from you in the comments section. 🙂

And… before I leave. I’ll just leave this here. Have fun!

Coaching Lessons

If you’re interested in reaching Legend rank, or earning unlimited gold from arena, my team at HearthstoneCoaching.com would love to help! We’ve provided over a thousand hours of excellent coaching to students around the world. 

Want to Become Better at Other Games?

I also run RankOneCoaching.com, where our top coaches will develop a personal plan for you to achieve your dreams in other games. Personal lessons are an in-depth experience and most students improve significantly after just one full session!

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