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.
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 that are competitive on the Hearthstone ladder.
When I first started playing Hearthstone, I would often go online to lookup the most popular decks played at Legend rank, and find that my limited card collection would not build them. While it was sometimes possible to substitute less important cards, there would often not be cheap substitutions for a crucial Epic or Legendary that completed a deck.
Given this dilemma, I’ve set out to help those of you with a limited collection by providing budget ladder-viable decks for each class.
Requirements
- Reach Level 10 to unlock all of the Basic cards for this class.
- Complete the Naxxramas and Blackrock Mountain expansions.
- Have 1300 dust available for crafting.
Design Principles
Many readers have requested that I update my Budget deck series to include cards from The Grand Tournament. I have to apologize for the delay in getting these written, as I wanted to spend as much time as possible play-testing and tuning these.
Unlike last time, I didn’t set a particular dust limit to any of my decks, but rather limited myself to just cards from the single player adventures (Naxxramas and Blackrock Mountain at the time this was written), and cards from the Basic, Common, and Rare cardsets. Many of these decks mirror the top decks played at the Legend level, with substitutions for some of the more expensive Epics and Legendaries. At the end of this guide, there is an additional section that provides substitutions for cards to make this deck even stronger.
Again, the overall goal is to provide a set of budget decks for newer players that can be viable to at least Rank 10, and even below.
Playstyle
- Patron Warrior might just be the most synergistic deck in the history of Hearthstone. Each card in this deck works towards our strategy of surviving until we can bring out Grim Patron or Frothing Berserker to kill our opponent off in a single-turn.
- This time around, we’ve focused on a more heavy card-cycle deck with the inclusion of two shield-block, which also helps us survive against more aggressive decks. We also have shield-slam to synergize with the added armor.
- I believe this version is better than Senfglas’s decklist from last time as it’s a bit more refined, and can more consistently draw you into the cards you need to combo.
Minions – 14
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 unstable-ghoul
- Another trigger for grim-patron and frothing-berserker that can gain charge from warsong-commander.
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 frothing-berserker
- Besides grim-patron this is another one of our primary win conditions. When comboed with cards that deal damage to every minion on the board, Frothing Berserker can become huge.
2x warsong-commander
- One of our primary combo pieces, synergizes with almost all of the minions in our deck, and allows us to one-turn-kill opponents with charging grim-patrons and frothing-berserkers.
1x gnomish-inventor
- Primarily in our deck to contest the board while simultaneously drawing us a card.
2x grim-patron
- 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.
1x emperor-thaurissan
- A key card that allows us to play our combo pieces much earlier. He’s also a threat as a 5/5 and can chip our opponent’s health down into lethal range.
Spells – 13
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.
2x execute
- A card that synergizes with most of the spells in our deck. Allows us to deal with large taunts and big threats.
1x shield-slam
- Synergizes really well with our shield-block, and can even serve as a cheap enabler for spawning a second Grim Patron if you have 1 or 2 armor.
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 slam
- Serves multiple purposes, allowing us to trigger our own grim-patron to draw a card, or as removal.
2x shield-block
- This card is primarily used to cycle, and gain armor to survive against more aggressive decks once you’ve won back the board.
Weapons – 3
1x fiery-war-axe
- A great weapon for establishing control of the board early. We only play one copy as I’ve found that it’s a dead card later in the game, when you really want to be holding a deaths-bite at one charge for the whirlwind effect.
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 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.
Minions
- 2 Mana: armorsmith, unstable-ghoul (against Aggro)
- 3 Mana: acolyte-of-pain
Weapons
- 2 Mana: fiery-war-axe
- 4 Mana: deaths-bite
Gameplay Video
Conclusion
I hope you enjoyed my guide to Budget TGT Patron Warrior. For more advanced Warrior decks that aren’t constrained by a limited dust budget, check out the Warrior meta decks on our sidebar. As always, I’d be happy to answer questions from you in the comments section.
Editor’s Note: Be sure to check out the New Players section, other Beginner and Budget Decks, and our most popular section – Monthly Top Meta Decks.
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!
Published: Sep 24, 2015 08:06 am