MUA: C’Thun Warrior Mirror

Introduction

Hi guys, anothersy here. I am Hearthstone Player from Thailand who has been playing Hearthstone even since Closed beta. After a few months of grinding the arena, I started to play ranked and playing competitively.

Based on my initial guide of C’Thun Warrior, I decided to expand an extra MUA of the C’Thun Warrior Mirror match. This guide aim is to make you understand the basic DOs and DON’Ts and a better understanding in the mirror match. Enjoy!!

Deck sample

Based from my guide from link we have 2 types of C’Thun Warrior, one that runs emperor-thaurissan and doomcaller and the other that runs elise-starseeker. Both have similiar strategies in the early game and mid-game but differs in the late game, I’ll include both decks strategy in lategame.

Mulligan Guide

I would always keep justicar-trueheart if she shows up, she slightly helps gain the upper hand if the game goes to fatigue stages. fiery-war-axe is also a nice keep and helps controlling the board in the early game. Acolytes and cycle cards are considered dead cards, so you will never keep them. Early cthun minions such as cthuns-chosen , elise-starseeker and beckoner-of-evil are good keeps since we are eager to buff our cthun and being able get battlecry effects from our 7 drop minions. Our starting hand should be something like:

Cards to keep:

fiery-war-axe , cthuns-chosen ,elise-starseeker

beckoner-of-evil , justicar-trueheart

Important Points to keep in Mind

These are a series of checklist that you would always consider when you play the control mirror, some small mistakes in these points usually build up a small disadvantage that may lead to a lost, or putting you in a bad situation.

DO NOT DRAW TOO MANY CARDS!! the game usually takes it to fatigue stages, drawing too many cards will force you to play aggressively and not gaining value of your cards, slightly losing you in the value game too. Keep the number of cards remaining in deck on both sides in mind, you would want to be slightly behind in cards and not to far behind, cycle if you far behind or need an answer for a threat on board.

• Never play acolyte-of-pain and hoping to draw a lot of cards from him. Only play him when you are punishing your opponent on playing a sylvanas-windrunner and making him steal your acolyte.
• Never play shield-block unless your opponent has drawn a lot of cards or you need to fetch a card or activation of your shield-slam
• harrison-jones is best used to deny your opponent’s gorehowl, sometimes you simply play him for no card draw too.

DO NOT PLAY TOO MANY MINIONS!! One of the most powerful board clear in the game is brawl which is not very effective in this particular matchup, but if you let your opponent able get a good brawl value, you’ll be slightly losing some advantage.

• Maintain at most only 2 minions on board.
• While brann-bronzebeard + twin-emperor-veklor combo is a good combo against other decks, you wouldn’t play it in this particular matchup.

Early Game Strategy

Early game of the mirror is usually a series of armoring up and pass by both sides on the first few turns, when hitting turn 4, cthuns-chosen is very likely to be played, you can clear it cleanly with a few combination of cards such as ravaging-ghoul , slam , disciple-of-cthun or just ignore it and play your own C’Thun’s Chosen and see how your opponent deals with it.

Mid-Game Strategy

Mid-game strategy of the mirror is a series of denying minions back and forth to gain board control, failing in denying your opponent’s minions is a small chip of your armor which would be crucial in the fatigue/late game stages so  try to not lose health to much from their minions.

This is also the point of the game where both players start stacking up cards in hand, you would want to hit 10 cards before deciding to play a card which is the less useful according to the board state. Keep in mind that:

• acolyte-of-pain and shield-block should never be played unless you’re gambling for a brawl to increase the odds, or digging for a removal.
• Never play sylvanas-windrunner on an empty board, she’s best played when your opponent has a big minion such as cthun , therefore she counters cthun especially when you are expecting your opponent to have doomcaller , unless you really need an answer to a pressuring board.

Having gorehowl here is puts you in a very good spot, as you can deal with most minions your opponent will play, but save those 5-6 attack on Gorehowl, as you would want it to killancient-shieldbearers at 6 attack too.

Late Game Strategy

The late game stages is frankly where the most actions and important choices happens in the game, and will highly be where most of this MUA is written about. So, at turn 8 and beyond is where we start dropping our big dudes and I’ll separate the gameplay for those 2 decklists I have listed above

Lifecoach’s List has superior over sjow’s list if they are able to pull out their Doomcaller + Brann combo, which you can only deny it with a sylvanas-windrunner C’Thun steal.

sjow’s Decklist (with Elise no Doomcaller)

When playing against sjow’s List

• Playing as sjow’s list you have an addition option of winning the game with your the-golden-monkey however, you can only play it after your opponent plays cthun otherwise you won’t be able to deal with a big buffed cthun. (Sometimes you can get away with it by randomly getting rend-blackhand and a random legendary dragon but it doesn’t happen often)
• Killing your opponent’s big stuff with your gorehowl and pressure them with your 7 drops is another method of winning, if you opponent ignores it just keep punching him in the damage, you’ll gain a headstart in the fatigue stage.
• In this particular match, staying behind on fatigue and cards is very crucial, you wouldn’t want to be the player who is forced to play aggressively because you are losing in fatigue. Also not being the player that reaches 10 cards first is also good, as you are able to deal with cards your opponent plays, rather than being the player who throw cards away.

When playing against Lifecoach’s List

• A difficult matchup, due to the superior late game of doomcaller + brann-bronzebeard vs. Our elise-starseeker, the key of winning is never allowing that combo to happen, by stealing your opponent’s cthun so your main job of sylvanas-windrunner is simple, steal that C’Thun!!!!!
• Try gaining as much value from gorehowl and brawl as possible, the more threats you negate, the easier you will be able to pressure them with your own minions.
• If you manage to get a fast golden-monkey (at least 20 cards left) , you could just jam it down, 20 legendaries are a lot to handle.

Lifecoach’s Decklist (Doomcaller + Emperor Thaurissan)

When playing against Elise List

• Our ultimate win condition is simply getting the doomcaller + brann-bronzebeard combo, but it is safe only when your opponent has already played sylvanas-windrunner or you have a Sylvanas + shield-slam to steal your cthun back.
• Hang on to your cthun until sylvanas-windrunner is played, is she is played and died. Spam cthuns like crazy, or until you have exhausted all their removals.
• The most difficult card to beat is gorehowl , try throwing small minions for them to swing with it, rather than throw big things for them to gain full value.

When playing against Doomcaller List

• This matchup is the strangest Control Warrior matchups that negates our first rule: DO NOT DRAW. In this particular matchup, it is a race on who will pull out the doomcaller + brann combo first, so drawing a lot of cards to be ahead is the go. (Not like 10 cards ahead, but slightly ahead)
• However, sylvanas-windrunner steal strategy is still viable, so try not to put yourself in a position that you are forced to play Sylvanas without stealing cthun , or letting her die to allow your opponent to spam cthun like crazy.
• Our big drops such as twin-emperor-veklor or ancient-shieldbearer are just vanilla cards, use them to pressure your opponent.

Conclusion

The Control Warrior matchup mirror dates a long way back in first hearthstone days, the general gameplay remains quite the same, but differs on the win condition of the deck and how your opponent wins too. Therefore it requires high understanding and experience to master and win the matchups. Not every game is the same, as the cards are not in the same order and the lines of play differ game to game. You can also identify how skillful you opponent is, which is fun part of a control matchup, guessing cards and plays.

Final Thoughts

Well that concludes my first MUA in C’Thun Warrior mirror, hope you guys enjoy it. Feel free to comment or ask questions about the guide that is not clear for you, I’ll be more than happy to answer them. Thanks again for reading 😀

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