[Hearthstone] Ignis Ultimate Control Warrior Guide Part 1: Making Your Own Control Warrior Deck (OUTDATED)

Introduction

Hi everyone! Ignis here, HS player from Indonesia. Even though I'm still noob and need to learn a lot in Hearthstone, I'm quite experienced especially as Control Warrior player. To give you my credibility, below are my achievements in Hearthstone:

1. Indonesia representative for Blizzard Americas Qualifier 2014
2. Runner up at GosuCup#7 (1st season)
3. Top 8 at Gosucup#12 (1st season)
4. Top 8 at Clickstorm tourney
5. Rank 1 at DraftKO Team Tourney SEA (first team tourney in SEA organized by Coldsnap Philippines)
6. Rank 1 at Indonesian Hearthstone League A Season 2 (round robin)
7. Rank 1 at Indonesian Hearthstone League Playoff Season 2

In those tournaments, I always bring a Control Warrior. I love Warrior simply because the character is cool. Garrosh is a badass villain in Warcraft universe, and he is the only one in Hearthstone who doesn't admit his lose (he choose death instead LOL).

There are a lot of CW guides out there, so I dunno if my guide is worse or better than them. Regardless of my guide quality, I hope I can give a different perspective / new insight to any fellow Control Warrior player.

Characteristic

So, based on the name, you have the general idea that this deck is all about control. Unlike being aggressive and spend every card to the enemy's face, this deck preserve every card available and use the most effective way to neutralize enemy's threats. Warrior is very suitable for this kind of play because its 2 most effective removals, which are execute and slam, and a lot of good weapons.

Staple Cards

Execute

Simply one of the best removal in the game. With 1 mana you could remove any damaged minions on board. Synergize very well with cruel taskmaster and death bite deathrattle. 2 execute are absolute must in every Warrior deck.

Shield Slam

Another best removal in the game. Basically you could remove everything as long as you have a huge amount of armor, and most of the time armorsmith, shieldblock, and shieldmaiden will give you plenty enough armor for the task.

Cruel Taskmaster

Warrior lack of small direct damage, and this card really fill up that gap. You could use cruel taskmaster plus fiery war axe for 4 damage, cruel taskmaster plus death bite for 5 damage and so on. Not to mention you also could use this card with execute to kill any enemy minion, with acolyte of pain for extra draw + damage, and with BGH to kill 5-6 damage minion. The possibilities are endless.

Fiery War Axe

a.k.a Fiery "Win" Axe. This is one of the most efficient weapon in the game. It can trade with two 2-3 cost minions. Definitely best early weapon you can get.

Shield Block

This is a very versatile card to cycle through your deck. If you compare this card to arcane intellect (at 3 mana draw 2 cards) and healing touch (at 3 mana heal 8) this card is clearly between them. It gives you some survivability while drawing a card. Not to mention that you could combo this card with shield slam for 5 damage to any minion at 4 mana or 7 damage to any minion at 6 mana.

Acolyte of Pain

Usually your only draw mechanism beside shield block. It can be used with cruel taskmaster for draw and trade, and with death bite deathrattle for extra draw while clearing enemy board.

Death Bite

Basically a truesilver champion with heal replaced by an extra whirlwind at the end. Very valuable weapon.

Sludge Belcher

Senjin shieldmasta + goldshire footman in one card with no extra mana cost (exactly 4+1); this card is definitely the best taunt in the game. The decreasing popularity of The Black Knight and huge amount of aggro deck in the current meta make this card is an absolute must. Sometimes a single Sludge Belcher can make a face hunter insta-concede.

Brawl

Warrior only AoE card in the game. The increase of deathrattle minion like haunted creeper and piloted shredder make this card less viable. Nevertheless this card can still swing the board pretty effectively.

Shieldmaiden

This card got everything from board presence, survivability, and synergy with shield slam.

Sylvanas Windrunner

This card itself is very strong. It can also use with brawl to swing the board and steal some big annoying minion like Ysera if combined with a shield slam.

Dr. Boom

a.k.a Dr. Balanced. IHIHI HUHUHU AHAHA. Self explanatory here.

Grommash Hellscream

IMO this is one of the best class legendary. With cruel taskmaster or deathbite deathrattle combo this minion can finish your opponent right away. You could also use this minion to remove 4/4 minion like azure drake and give a scary presence on the board that need to be removed ASAP.

So if you include all staple cards, your deck will look like this:

Almost Staple Cards

*This section is very meta-dependent*

2nd Shield Block

As you can see there is only one shield block in the staple deck. That's because the addition of shieldmaidens that also give 5 armor. But the aggressiveness of the current meta make a 2nd shield block an excellent choice.

Big Game Hunter

With Dr. Balanced in almost every deck, BGH is a very nice removal addition with a little board presence as a bonus. You could also use a cruel taskmaster + BGH to remove 5-damage minion.

With those cards now your deck will look like this:

Filler Cards

Let's breakdown the filler card choices to fill the remaining slots. The amount of ⋆ indicate the card popularity in Control Warrior.

1 mana; pick 0-2 cards

Whirlwind ⋆

Personally I don't recommend this card because the value is very low and there is already death bite deathrattle that does the job well. Pick this card if you encounter a lot of Warlock and Paladin only (to counter imp-losion and muster for battle).

2 mana; pick 0-4 cards

Armorsmith ⋆⋆⋆

This is a general choice for many Control Warrior because its flexibility. It can be used to kill 1 health minion early game (face hunter's leper gnome, midrange hunter's webspinner, mech mage clockwerk gnome, and so on) and usually at turn 2/3 the enemy don't have any mechanism to kill this minion due to its health. Later it can also be used to produce many armor along with a taunt like sludge belcher.

Ironbeak Owl ⋆⋆⋆

Silent is always useful. Bringing this tiny owl in your deck will never hurt. Be careful though, don't let this tiny owl died because your whirlwind / deathbite deathrattle unless it's inevitable.

Acidic Swamp Ooze ⋆

The current meta is filled with a weapon class such as face / midrange hunter, patron warrior, aggro/midrange paladin, oil rogue, and less popular midrange / mech shaman. Acidic swamp ooze is very good tech card especially if you don't have Harrison Jones.

Revenge ⋆

Expensive whirlwind with a potential to become hellfire. This card can save your ass in a pinch and an extra 1 mana for a whirlwind is not a big deal. This card is particularly good against zoo, midrange paladin, and patron warrior.

Slam ⋆

cheap damage dealer with card draw potential, this card is quite flexible and effective.

3 mana; pick 0-2 cards

2nd Big Game Hunter ⋆⋆

A 2nd BGH is a good tech card in Control Warrior because you could use it with cruel taskmaster to remove 5-6 damage minion. It's also very good against handlock.

Mind Control Tech ⋆

MCT is not quite popular in Warrior deck because there's a brawl already. But it can be a nice surprise to your opponent especially if you take the right minion. The downside of this card is too much RNG involved.

Deathlord ⋆

This card is not popular in Control Warrior deck but I think you should give it a try. In an aggro matchup this card will shine, and in a control matchup this card can pull a battlecry minion (owl, dr.boom, etc) to put your enemy at value disadvantage. If you manage to pull those minion and remove it this card can give you the win.

4 mana; pick 0-2 cards

Senjin Shieldmasta ⋆⋆

Pre-naxx, this card is absolutely the best neutral taunt you can get. Now, being the second best taunt after sludge belcher make this card still a good addition to your deck especially if you face a lot of aggro deck.

Piloted Shredder ⋆⋆

Meet this super sticky and cheap minion from GvG! This card is almost in every tempo/aggro deck, and Control Warrior can also put this card in a very good use to maintain the board presence.

Spellbreaker ⋆

This card is very popular in the arena because its good value. However, in constructed, this card almost never used. Nevertheless, this card can be a great alternative to ironbeak owl because it still survive from whirlwind / deathbite deathrattle effect.

5 mana; pick 1-3 cards

Harrison Jones ⋆⋆⋆

The current meta is filled with a weapon class such as face / midrange hunter, patron warrior, aggro/midrange paladin, oil rogue, and less popular midrange / mech shaman. Harrison Jones is a great tech card to counter weapons while getting extra card draws.

Loatheb ⋆⋆

Loatheb give you a very strong board presence and save your minions from spells. It's a very good card for preparing bigger presence like Dr. Boom and sometimes can seal the lethal for the next turn.

2nd Brawl ⋆⋆

2nd brawl is a good surprise tech card for Control Warrior due to many patron in the current meta. Generally your enemy don't expect 2nd brawl and you can get a very good value from it.

Blackwing Corruptor ⋆

This is a good removal and the stats (5/4) is certainly not bad. A very good synergy to dragon cards.

6 mana; pick 0-2 cards

Emperor Thaurissan ⋆⋆⋆

Usually a Control Warrior can only play 1-2 cards per turn and sometimes this is a big problem to tackle a very fast class like druid. Thaurissan helps you to play more cards next turn and therefore gives you a higher chance to control the board.

The Black Knight ⋆

The Black Knight is a very situational card and often sitting in your hand for a long time. That's why it's quite unpopular these days. Yet, this card can give you a very huge advantage in board if the battlecry hit a big taunt such as Sludge Belcher. using TBK against an Ancient of War can make a druid insta-concede.

7 mana; pick 0-2 cards

Baron Geddon ⋆

Warrior lack of AoE and this 7-mana legendary can clear enemy board while giving a scary presence. This card is particularly good against shaman to clear the totems in a single turn. Sadly this card is vulnerable to BGH.

Gorehowl ⋆

This weapon has a very extreme value. It can eliminate many big minions at the cost of your health/armor. Sadly, due to many weapon counter (druid and handlock at least bring 1 ooze right now) and aggro / tempo deck (zoo, midrange hunter, tempo mage) in the current meta, this weapon become less viable.

Crush ⋆

IMO Crush is an underrated card in Warrior. It's a very strong removal especially in 3 mana cost.

8 mana; pick 0-1 cards

Ragnaros the Firelord ⋆⋆

Best legendary in the vanilla HS and a strong contender in 8-mana cost cards until now because its immediate value.

Chrommagus ⋆

Very good 8 drop if you control the board due to its immunity from BGH. This card value is quite insane if you manage to keep it in the board. It's a shame that this card is very slow.

Sneed's Old Shredder ⋆

This is a very sticky minion and very suitable for a control battle. Sadly it's too slow and there's many RNG involved. Still, spawning a Kel Thuzad from this minion definitely will make your day.

Kel Thuzad ⋆

This card value can be really really insane if you have many minions on board. However, Control Warrior usually have a very few minions; render this card become very situational.

9 mana; pick 0-3 cards

Ysera ⋆⋆⋆

This dragon is very hard to remove because its 12 hp. The dream cards are very valuable especially Ysera Awaken. This is a very perfect late minion and surely will give you the win if it can't be removed by your opponent.

Alextrasza ⋆⋆⋆

This is one of the staple card in Control Warrior pre-GvG. After GvG patch this card become much less popular because the healbot and BGH (as a result of Dr. Boom). Regardless, this dragon is still very valuable and versatile because can be used on your opponent or yourself.

Nefarian ⋆

Those 2 spells you get from this card may give you a very huge advantage. It's very funny to kill a jaraxxus with a sacrificial pact.

10 mana; pick 0-1 cards

Deathwing ⋆

Surprise madafaka! This card can win you the game if played very carefully. Just be sure there's no BGH or other hard removal on the enemy's hand before you drop this crazy dragon.

Card Choices Consideration

1. Mana Curve

Developing a bell-shaped mana curve is very important to stabilize your deck. Getting a 5-9 drops early will hurt you a lot. That's why you should keep track your mana curve all the time.

Example of a pretty good curve:

2. Theme / Synergy

Putting specific card like Blackwing Corruptor will need at least 2/3 dragon. Of course it's funny if you put Blackwing Corruptor without adding some dragon.

This is the example of an effective dragon-themed Control Warrior deck

3. Encounter

Develop your deck depend on the class you encounter a lot. If you encounter a lot of aggro deck, put a lot of taunt and armor generator. If you encounter a lot of control deck, put a lot of greedy card and hard removal like BGH and crush. Always modify your deck through the meta.

Deck Example

In this section I will give a few Control Warrior decks and explain the card choices.

Stable Control Warrior

This is one of the most popular build of Control Warrior due to its stability :

This is a deck that used by Jasonzhou from team Celestial. Here's the hearthpwn link. Usually Control Warrior deck is only differ a little from this list. The most common differences is they replace the ironbeak owl with revenge. brawl, or baron geddon. This deck chose armorsmith for its 2-mana cards because its stability. The ironbeak owl is also very versatile because it can disarm early annoying drops like mad scientist and can also silence sylvanas / tirion in the late game. For 5-mana cards, this card use Harrison Jones because the current weapon popularity. For 6-mana cards, this card use Emperor Thaurissan which is a very solid choices because it can be played anytime and give you mana advantage next turn. Lastly, for 9-mana cards, this deck uses Alextrasza and Ysera that also can be played anytime as long as you have a board advantage. Alextrasza also very useful to gain life if you're in a critical condition.

Anti-Aggro Warrior

This is one of my deck to counter specific aggro matchup :

-1 cruel taskmaster to increase the amount of taunts. Added AS for extra armor and presence, deathlord and senjin to block a lot of damage. Deathlord has a very good synergy with brawl, because the minion that summoned from deathlord can be brawled immediately next turn. That's why in 5-mana cards the choice is absolutely 2nd brawl. Finally, Alextrasza is there to give you a second life or put enemy into a danger state.

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There's plenty Control Warrior decks in hearthpwn, be sure to check them especially a particular themed deck like Dragon Control Warrior.

Closing Words

I hope this guide can give you a general idea about making your Control Warrior deck. Of course this guide is far from perfect and therefore I really hope you could give me some critics and feedback. 

Stay tuned for my Control Warrior matchup, mulligan, and real case example guide!