Weekly Legends: True Control Warrior

Introduction

Where, oh where, have all the archetypes gone? While Control Warrior still exists on the ladder in the form of Quest, today we are going to take a trip down memory lane to a time long before Sulfuras ever existed. This week we are looking at a very cool deck that Titan_Hs brought to top 100 legend. It is a Control Warrior from the days of old, that simply aims to break down every part of your opponent’s plan before winning the game through gigantic threats and sheer attrition. There are a few finishers here, and everything else is either armor or removal. A little simplistic, but that gives the deck a lot of consistency, which is what a tank-up style deck needs. This build has the power to match just about anything with the right draws, and that makes it a great choice for the ladder. While it may not be as shiny or new as some of the other things I’ve covered, sometimes it is best to go with the classics.

Key Cards

Grimestreet Informant/Gluttonous Ooze/Spellbreaker

As with so many decks right now, this build runs a slew of one-of tech cards to help flesh out its core. All three of these cards can probably be tweaked to your liking (I personally like Harrison Jones myself) but they all do very important things. One of Control Warrior’s biggest weaknesses is a lack of tempo. Yes, you have a lot of ways to answer everything your opponent drops, but most of the game you are waiting for those plays to happen. In order to keep up with that style, the deck needs a lot of removal, which limits the amount of flex spots. However, there is still a bit of wiggle room here, and all three of these one-ofs really fill important needs that make the deck better.

Grimestreet Informant, like Kabal Courier, is a very versatile tool that can help you in a ton of ways. I find this card most often gets you more removal, but you can also discover big threats, tempo cards, as well as healing or more AOE. Being able to go out of your deck is a very nice bonus, and while the 1/1 body doesn’t do all that much, it gives you something to play on turn two should you need it. I would view this card as a Museum Curator that can freely adapt to different situations. Beyond the 1/1, there is also Gluttonous Ooze and Spellbreaker. While ooze is largely self explanatory (kill.weapons.), the breaker is a bit more nuanced. Control Warrior has always struggled with deathrattle minions, and the 4/3 just gives you a good way to clean up things like Savannah Highmane or shut down Edwin Vancleef. Every deck has a silence target these days, and that means the four drop is going to get you a lot of value. It also makes your removal much cleaner, which is never a bad thing.

Sleep with the Fishes

Nothing has made Control Warrior more powerful as of late than the sudden resurgence of Sleep with the Fishes. Once upon a time, double Brawl brought Control Warrior back into a meta where it was dead. Doubling up on AOE allowed the deck to become much more greedy and allowed it to shine. Now you have four AOE options that all get strong value throughout a game. Fishes is basically a two mana Flamestrike that is much more versatile. In this list, you can trigger the fishes with either Whirlwind, Ravaging Ghoul, or Primordial Drake. In fact, playing a turn ten drake into the spell is one of the strongest fishing tempo swings you have. That gives you a lot of power and enables you to run the card out against weaker boards where you don’t want to burn your Brawls.

Spell conservation is one of the biggest aspects of piloting any good control deck, and you need to know when to use Sleep with the Fishes. It is not going to be easy to set this card up, but in games where you need it you want to keep an activator in your hand if possible. Losing the ability to damage the board and turning this card on usually puts you in a really bad spot. For example, you may be playing against Hunter and you used your Whirlwind too early. Now you have to Brawl on five, which means your mana is much less flexible moving forward. That is just one scenario, but it highlights the importance of knowing when and how to play this card. As with Brawl, this is also a card you should try to hold off for a turn or two if you can. Making your opponent think you don’t have AOE is one of the best ways to get them to play into it.

Acolyte of Pain

Acolyte of Pain is a card that is crucial to Control Warrior’s success. The reason for that is, even with all of your low cost cards, your reactive play style is going to cause you to have some pretty dead hands. There have been many games where I will have no answers or no way to impact the board. That then leads to a few turns where you simply armor up while your opponent builds out their gameplan. Being able to get a few draws off of Acolyte really helps with this problem and allows you to smooth out your curve. Understand your early hand and know what you are going to need to fight your opponent’s specific class. For instance, Acolyte is a very strong tempo swing against aggro decks because they have to use resources or damage in one go. In those cases you should run it out early to eat damage and dig through your deck. However, when fighting against decks that can cleanly kill the acolyte you should hold off until you can trigger it the turn it comes down. When your hand is clunky against midrange or control you should not hesitate to drop down the 1/3 with a Whirlwind effect. This may not seem great at the time, but being able to dig for relevant threats or your finishers is exactly what you need to do in those matches.

Alley Armorsmith

Alley Armorsmith is one of the most interesting control minions because it a largely reactive play that gets much better when you control priority. Unlike other cards in this deck, you want to work hard to get the 2/7 out ahead of your opponent. While the armorsmith is always going to get value in some way, you really want the five drop to pull its weight. In order to that, it has to be in a situation where it cannot be easily answered. Decks like Hunter, Paladin, Pirate and Druid all have their own answers to this card, but if they don’t have the board when it drops they are going to have to do a little extra leg work. Some decks may not be able to get through it at all. That then allows you to get free value out of your taunt while sitting back and playing other cards that further your end game.

Alley Armorsmith is almost always going to come down turn five against faster decks, but you do not want to run this out just because you have the mana to do so. Always check your removal options first. This will help you better set up the card and make sure you get the most out of it. Playing this against an Arcanite Reaper or large Frothing Berserker may allow your Pirate opponent to knock the smith out in one hit. Yes, it gained you two armor and ate a significant chunk of damage, but you also no longer have your wall for future turns. However, if you try to use other means to heal or clear out the board instead, you can then play the 2/7 the following turn when they have no answer. Once that happens, your armor should take over the game.

The Finishers

Finishers are a big part of any good control list, and your options here are Elise the Trailblazer, Primordial Drake, Grommash Hellscream and Ysera. Of these four, the first two are absolutely the most essential. Elise was once the best finisher around, and she may very well be again. Her pack comes up in a ton of games, and gives you the fuel you need to power through late-game midrange or slow control builds. The 5/5 body is also one of the only midrange threats you have, which allows you to contest the board before some of your real power cards come down. Primordial Drake is also absolutely essential to this deck. Not only is it one of the most proactive finishers of all time, but the effect can just win games on its own. Getting to turn eight is often your win condition, and it is solely because the dragon is both AOE and a taunt wrapped into one.

The two other big bodied finishers are Grommash Hellscream and Ysera. Both of these cards have been used by Control Warrior lists since beta, and they both serve very important purposes at the top end of the curve. While Ysera does not do a lot against faster builds, her ability is one of the best ways to grind down slower decks. Wait on her in those games and use her as a trump card when your opponent has exhausted all of their options. Gromm is also fantastic, and a reason you could consider running Alexstrasza over Ysera. Getting ten charge damage gives you a ton of burst in a slow deck and makes it so your opponent cannot simply ignore your board. In addition, he also works as a great tempo play/removal spell in many scenarios. Do not get caught up on his damage potential here. Most of the time the orc is going to be a way to take the board.

Matchups

These are the decks I have seen the most while grinding up the ladder.

Pirate Warrior

Avast! Pirate Warrior is no doubt dipping in popularity, but that does not mean it is gone. This is probably going to be one of the swingier matchups around right now. While you can win the game very handily if you start off with your early removal and then curve into taunts or armor, you also can get obliterated if you miss a key turn or draw too many finishers too early on. This game is all about your removal options and knowing when to play them. Note that, besides Frothing Berserker, Pirate has no real gigantic threats. That means you can pull the trigger on Shield Slam and Execute very early to save yourself some life. You are going to kill everything that comes down, but you can wait a turn if your opponent has a weak board to set up AOE. Brawl and Sleep with the Fishes both are going to get limited value, but you can try to get some tempo from them if you aren’t under to much pressure.

Besides Alley Armorsmith (which you should try to save for a tempo situation or when you have the board) you want to quickly get everything you have down onto the board. This is not a matchup where you want to get cute with trying to get value. Be aggressive and challenge Pirate’s minions as soon as they hit the board. A 3/3 Bloodsail Raider may not seem like a big deal when it first drops, but three turns later when it has hit your for nine damage you’re gonna be sorry. The only exception to that rule is if you’re trying to set up AOE, or if you have a large amount of health and want to set up a massive damage/Armorsmith. You are going to get stronger as the game progresses and your opponent is going to get weaker. Letting them spend early turns eating Armorsmiths and acolytes goes a long way towards surviving until you can get to your walls.

Midrange Murloc Paladin

Prepare for a battle. While not impossible by any means, Midrange Paladin is going to be a very tough matchup. The reason for that is they have an extremely high threat density that allows them to pump out a ton of big bodies at different stages of the game. This keeps you on the back foot and makes it so one bad turn can ruin you. To combat that, you need to be very smart with your spells and tech cards. Plays such as saving Gluttonous Ooze for Tirion Fordring, waiting two extra turns on a Brawl, or burning a Sleep with the Fishes the turn before your opponent can stack up damage with Murloc Warleader are how you win this one. Be smart with your spells and do everything in your power to save your high-value removal for the later stages of the game.

It is important to remember that Paladin has a few cards that do almost nothing to you. Things like Equality or a late-game Truesilver Champion are very weak against control and do not matchup with your slower threats. Your goal is to make it out of the early game in one piece. Aggressively clear their murlocs. This will take down their snowball potential and protect your health during the end of the game. Paladin’s only real removal spell for big minions is Equality or Sunkeeper Tarim. Do what you can to get Ysera onto a completely empty board where she can just take over. Even if your opponent has the Equality answer, it means they have to burn valuable resources and eat a turn to use it.

Midrange Hunter

Hunter, with all of its constant damage and annoying deathrattle minions, has long been the bane of Control Warrior. While that is still true with Quest Warrior, I do not believe it is the case with this build. One of the reasons this deck is so powerful is because it overloads its front end with powerful removal spells and healing. That means you overcompensate for decks like Hunter, which then enables you to fight them at every step of their way. This game is going to be played in two stages. The first part is getting a handle on the board, and the second is you putting up a wall or armoring over your opponent’s burst. Use your hero power often here. Every piece of life matters against Rexxar.

Be proactive in this matchup. This is a game where you absolutely must get a handle of the board early on. This greatly limits what Rexxar can do and gives you breathing room to play your own threats. Most of Hunter’s minions have synergy with each other, and you never want to take unnecessary damage or suddenly find yourself locked out of a game because you didn’t pull the trigger when you could have. For example, not clearing a Rat Pack only to find out that your Brawl is suddenly useless. In that same vein, not pulling the trigger on a turn one Whirlwind to find yourself facing down an Alleycat that summons a pair of 1/1 plants. Now, this is not to say you need to be careless with your spells or that you should use them as soon as possible, but you always want to take the time to carefully think about your opponent’s next turn before deciding what your play.

Secret/Discover Mage

Mage has taken two different forms these days, and both of them are very common at the higher parts of the ladder. You need to be careful here. This game is all about your life total, and how well you can work to preserve it. Today’s Mages pack a ton of burn in many different forms, and they can wear you down over time. Alexstrasza is going to hurt when playing against discover variants, but Secret can hoard a ton of cards and then blast you down from a high life total. This matchup is much more about outlasting your opponent than it is about killing them. You don’t have the fast resources to pressure them out a game. Rather, you need to make good use of your armor and hit your hero power as much as possible. Also try to get as much value out of Armorsmith and Alley Armorsmith as you can. If those cards go unchecked they can close this one out on their own. The other important part is to simply get a handle on the board early. Both Discovery and Secret Mage love to press right away, and it is very easy to let that hit you for ten or more damage. You cannot let that happen. Use your early removal, get armor, and always stay above possible burn your opponent could have.

Quest Rogue

If you had asked me a week ago, I would have told you that Control Warrior is one of Quest Rogue’s best matchups. Now, I am not so sure. The reason for that is, like the Hunter matchup, getting the extra removal options lets you go a long way. Rather than just crumbling to an army of 5/5’s, you now have ways to fight back or clog up the board. That is important because this is no longer one sided. While it is very hard to rush Rogue down, you do want to clear their minions as they come to prevent The Caverns Below value. Anytime you have a body you can play early on you want to run it out to force your opponent to react.

To understand this matchup you need to understand a truth: your opponent is going to get their combo off. That is a fact of life, and it is something you have to live with here. However, that does not mean this is hopeless. The way you beat Rogue is by allowing them to do their Quest while playing early minions and hoarding both AOE and strong spot removal. It is usually going to take two or three clears before Rogue loses their advantage, but once they do you should take this. A 5/5 is very good, but when it is just one 5/5 a turn you can pull out ahead of it. Save all of your clear spells for after the caverns and then just run Rogue down.

Mulligan Guide

Removal and early minions. We live in a world of board control, and if you do not have it, you better challenge it in some way. You have to look for Armorsmith and Fiery War Axe every game and then go from there. Shield Slam and Shield Block are good to keep together against aggro or midrange, while you should always keep Whirlwind and Ravaging Ghoul against aggro.

Grimestreet Informant is close to a must-keep, but you typically don’t want to hold it against faster decks over strong opening removal. Acolyte of Pain is strong with a curve or the coin, and you want Gluttonous Ooze against any weapon deck. Spellbreaker can be good on curve against Hunter. While you typically don’t wait either Alley Armorsmith or Brawl, they both can be good against board flood decks with a strong curve.

Conclusion

What year is it again? I always love decks that adopt old archetypes and adapt them to a new meta. This is one of the more clever Warrior builds I have seen over the past month, and it absolutely needed to be covered. As the game continues to dip in power level, removal gets stronger. Not only that, but many different decks depend on their curve. It doesn’t take too many removal spells to cripple some of the more popular players around, and that allows Control Warrior to really shine. Hope you enjoy the deck, hope life is great, and, until next time, may you always clear the board.

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