righteous' community deck guides: odyn warrior

Today I am launching a brand new series, covering decks, mulligans, and potentially even spicier inclusions.. 

I also will be interviewing a member of the THL community each post and learning more about them and their styles of deckbuilding and play.

In this article, I will be covering the new meta molder, Control/Tempo Warrior! My interviewee this time will be Nice Jewish Owl, a standout member of the community with a particular knack for Control Warrior.

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Q: Before we get started with the deck itself, NJO, what’s your reason for starting out in Hearthstone; what drew you to it?

A: "I actually watched Kripp videos for a few weeks before I ever started playing Hearthstone. 
I don't know why but I [got] recommended some of his vids on Youtube and decided to try out Hearthstone as soon as it was released on mobile.”
 
“(I think I played for at least a year or two as a mobile only gamer, I had a literal pen and paper deck-tracker to know whether my Reno was active in my Freeze Mage list)."

Q: How long were you a mobile gamer for?

A:”I don't remember when exactly I switched to playing on my computer, it was at some point in high school, so around 2014-2015.“

Q: When you first started the game, what was your initial favorite class, and how has it changed over the years if at all?

A: "My initial favorite class was definitely Mage, I was a huge fan of Freeze Mage back in the day. I started playing Control Warrior around Scholomance, 
and with the birth of ETC warrior in Darkmoon Faire I became the Warrior 1-trick I'm known as now."

Righteous! Now, let’s get right into the deck guide!​

Q: Do you have a current favorite version of the Warrior deck we're covering?

A: "I'm not confident on a list yet, I've been experimenting with Khaz'goroth, Bash, and Minotauren. I think pocket meta definitely influences the last few slots-cards like
[Rustrot] Viper or Speaker Stomper. [They] can be useful tech options."



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​"The former is what I submitted for Pro this week, but for ladder I’d probably swap a few cards in and out."

Q: What would be some of the changes to the ladder list that you had mentioned?

A:”Ladder list would be a bit meta dependent, if I'm seeing a lot of other warriors I'd add in a viper instead of a brawl. If lots of Mages I'd probably add Speaker Stomper over Minotauren. Haven't played a whole lot of it on ladder since I've been enjoying Naga Mage too much.“

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According to HS Replay statistics, Bellowing Flames, Verse Riff, Stoneskin Armorer, and Chorus Riff, and Steam Guardian are the typical keeps in the mulligan for current 30 Ignis warrior lists.

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​Q: Do you have any ideas that might be supplementary to this mulligan, or anything that you take away from it?

A: "I would almost always keep Bridge Riff, Bellowing Flames, and Craftsman’s Hammer. I think without any of those cards I wouldn't be keeping anything else. I would definitely
advise against keeping Stoneskin Armorer or Bash, and wouldn't keep Verse riff, or Chorus riff unless I also had a bridge riff in hand."

"Certain matchups would also affect mulligan choices a lot, in control mirrors (Warrior/Priest/DK) I'd be inclined to keep Odyn/Ignis in the opening hand
Generally when mulliganing with Control Warrior, you want to keep in mind your plan for winning the matchup - against a deck like Mech Rogue you can win by 
just clearing and surviving their early boards."

Q: Why are Bridge Riff, Bellowing Flames, and Craftsman's Hammer almost always a keep?

A: “Bridge Riff is just a very strong tempo play on 5, whether reactive or proactive, along with setting up your next riff for a big tempo swing. Bellowing Flames is the most efficient removal you have available, very good against most early boards, and also gives something to do on turn 2 other than hero-powering. [Craftsman’s] Hammer is also very card-efficient removal, and the armor gain helps offset the downside of using a weapon for removal.”

Q: If a class has multiple meta relevant decks, like Hunter with the Arcane Secrets, or the 40 list that runs many beasts, how do you hedge your bets in the mulligan against those types of classes?

A: “I think between Arcane and Beast Hunter I wouldn't mulligan too differently, but in situations where it's vastly different decks (e.g. Shadow Priest vs. Control Priest, or Outcast DH vs. Relic DH) I would generally hedge for the more aggressive deck in the mulligan. I think you get more punished by not having answers early against aggro than you do by being slightly slower to get to your wincon against a slower deck. With that being said, if I have a hand that has both Bellowing Flames and Odyn against a priest I'd consider double keeping, since I've then already got a piece of efficient removal if it's Shadow, but I also am not sending my wincon back to my deck if it ends up being control.”

Q: Do you think we'd ever make the switch to consistently running 40 card Warrior with Hunter likely seeing less play?

A: “Switching to 40 card doesn't seem super appealing to me, the deck has decent card velocity, but there's very few additional card draw options that I'd want to run, so I'd be much more worried about diluting the deck with an additional 10 cards, and I don't think the extra health is worth it.“

Q: How do you see the Hunter nerfs changing the meta in relation to this Warrior archetype?

A: “The Hunter changes will probably end up being bad for the deck- while I'd put Arcane Hunter around a ~50/50 matchup for the deck, the decks that Arcane Hunter is quite good against are also the decks that Warrior isn't great against-those being both Mage decks, slow Druid decks, and Warlock. “

Q: During the early parts of the game, what is the most important thing to keep in mind? How do you navigate them?

A: "I think it's important to know your gameplan from turn 1 (or ideally from the mulligan). Knowing what threats you're going to need to answer is useful when it comes to 
knowing what cards to use when. (e.g. Bladestorm isn't great against a lot of Hunter boards, so using it to clear off a couple worms on turn 3 makes sense. 

Bladestorm does line up well against the board of 4/5's from Rainbow Mage, so I'd be much more hesitant using it against skeletons on turn 4). Also knowing what minions are threatening 
vs. what you can allow to stick around. Against a deck like Drum Druid the early minions aren't very threatening, but it's absolutely vital you have board clears available for the 
swings later in the game, so it can be better to prioritize card draw and conserve resources instead of using premium removal against a 3/2 or a couple treants."

"One mistake I see often [with] Control Warrior is people not prioritizing tempo in the early turns. While you are playing a 'control' deck, having a 3/3 on board that lets you value trade is premium removal; Trial of Fire is a great reactive card, but it's also an absolute nightmare for your opponent to try and develop into if you just drop it on turn"

Q: The typical end game of most Warrior lists either relies on Odyn or Ignis to finish out the game. But how do we get there?

A: "This is where minion pressure is incredibly important. Because Odyn is essentially requiring you to pass your turn (and Ignis is quite low tempo as well), having either a 
board advantage, or at the very least forcing your opponent to not develop going into your Odyn turn is your best bet to survive. Also, be mindful that in some matchups you 
really don't need Odyn or Ignis to close out the game. If you're able to connect a few times with bridge riff minions, or stick a couple of val'kyr for a few turns you can 
get the win against decks like mech rogue or arcane hunter."

"Also, sometimes playing Ignis and picking a cheap option for tempo is your best bet for surviving- your late game value doesn't matter if you don't make it to the late game."

Q: In the late game, let's say you don't draw Odyn or Ignis, what's the plan from there?

A: Play for tempo! You're a control deck, but you don't always need to trade. If you've got board advantage and a respectable life total, sending your minions face is often the right play. 
The deck does have decent deck velocity, but sometimes Odyn and Ignis are going to be your bottom 2 cards - 
some matchups this just means your gonna lose, but against more aggressive opponents you can often find a win by just gaining board advantage and then sending it all upstairs as 
soon as you're not worried about dying anymore.

Awesome! Thank you for coming on to help with the Blog NJO!