Budget Patron Warrior (LoE Edition)

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 students around the world reach many of these same achievements.

If you’re new to Hearthstone, or just have a limited collection of cards—I feel your pain. It is often difficult to find cheap but viable decks to play on the Hearthstone ladder. Given this dilemma, I’ve set out to help those of you with a limited collection by creating budget decks for each class.

Requirements

1. Reach Level 10 to unlock all of the Basic cards for this class.
2. Complete the Naxxramas, Blackrock Mountain, and League of Explorers expansions.
3. Have 760 Dust for crafting cards.

Deck Playstyle

• This deck is designed by /u/SirFunchalot on Reddit. He has a more comprehensive guide on the deck here!
• Patron Warrior is one of the most synergistic decks in the history of Hearthstone. Each card in this deck works towards our strategy of surviving until we can bring out grim-patron or a raging-worgen with charge to kill our opponent in a single giant turn.

Minions – 12

2x armorsmith

• When played in conjunction with whirlwind and a board full of grim-patron, Armorsmith can keep us out of range from dying to burst damage, while building a board at the same time.

2x cruel-taskmaster

• An enabler for grim-patron an acolyte-of-pain, Cruel Taskmaster can also serve as removal if you can bring by allowing you to execute an enemy minion.

2x acolyte-of-pain

• One of our primary methods of card draw. We want to draw more than one card from each acolyte-of-pain we play.

2x raging-worgen

• Our primary win-condition for our deck. With the nerf to warsong-command so that it doesn’t give minions charge, we can enrage and buff this card with inner-rage and charge to create a large raging-worgen to kill our opponent in one turn.

2x gnomish-inventor

• Primarily in our deck to contest the board while simultaneously drawing us a card.

2x grim-patron

• One of our primary win-condition and the reason why this deck works. Extremely awkward card to clear as cards like fan-of-knives, consecration, and holy-nova will just spawn more Grim Patrons for us. You want to save Grim Patron for a turn when you can spawn more copies of him on the same turn.

Spells – 14

2x inner-rage

• A cheap card to enable grim-patron[card] or to draw a card from [card]acolyte-of-pain. Sometimes used as removal in conjunction with execute.
• Also enables rampage and raging-worgen.

2x execute

• A card that synergizes with most of the spells in our deck. Allows us to deal with large taunts and big threats.

2x whirlwind

• An enabler for our win-condition minions and also a board clear.

2x battle-rage

• Allows us to draw a ridiculous amount of cards after triggering our own grim-patrons.

2x rampage

• A great way to keep a 3/1 grim-patron alive to spawn more grim-patrons or to buff raging-worgen.

2x slam

• Serves multiple purposes, allowing us to trigger our own grim-patron to draw a card, or as removal. Remember that you can Slam your own minions to either enrage them or to cycle a card.

2x charge

• Primarily used with raging-worgen to kill our opponent in one turn.

Weapons – 4

2x fiery-war-axe

• A great weapon for establishing control of the board early.

2x deaths-bite

• Another great weapon for establishing board control. Many times you’ll want to save the remaining weapon charge to trigger grim-patron. It’s pretty key to play this early on and keep it at 1 charge for a turn when you can play grim-patron.

Mulligan Guide

In general, you want to mulligan to setup your first three or four turns. Please note that there is a distinction between going first and going second in Hearthstone, and this should factor into your mulligan choices.

When going first, your advantage is the ability to play first. In addition, you gain mana crystals before your opponent. To take advantage of this, you want to be aggressive in your mulligan to put minions on the board.

When going second, your advantage is mainly the-coin, which gives you tempo over your opponent for a single turn, and also an extra card. Depending on the nature of your deck, whether it’s Aggro, Midrange, or Control, you’ll be looking for different things.

• When playing an aggro deck, you’ll be looking for the same cards going second as you would going first. The objective is to quickly populate the board and bring down your opponent’s life total.
• When playing a midrange deck, you’ll also be looking to get onto the board early, with the caveat that you can keep a single copy of a situational minion or spell that you think may be useful to counter an opponent. This spell might be something like a kezan-mystic to counter classes with Secrets or removal like frostbolt.
• When playing a control deck, you’re looking to save the coin until much later in the game, generally when you can bring out a large late-game threat earlier than usual.

While I won’t make an exhaustive list, these are some of the cards you should consider keeping in your opening hand when playing this deck. In general, your goal with this deck is to get onto the board as soon as possible. It’s important to dig for an early 1 or 2 mana minion to play so you can begin to pressure your opponent’s life total.

Minions

• 2 Mana: armorsmith, cruel-taskmaster with acolyte-of-pain or against Hunter.
• 3 Mana: acolyte-of-pain

Spells

• 1 Mana: whirlwind
• 2 Mana: slam

Weapons

• 2 Mana: fiery-war-axe
• 4 Mana: deaths-bite

Gameplay Video

Conclusion

I hope you enjoyed this guide! If you have questions, feel free to use the comment sections below. Our team at HearthstonePlayers would be happy to answer them.

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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