Hearthpwn

Introduction

Heh, greetings. I am SlayerMax, a consistently legend Hearthstone player from New Zealand. I am a fanatical control player, always preferring to crush the hopes and dreams of puny aggro players, or play a gentlemanly game of fatiguestone. This season I almost gave in to grinding legend with midrange shaman, but I hated the 'rolling' aspect of the deck, for totems and lightning storms. I took a deep dive into control warrior variants, praying to every Old God until I found one that answered my prayers. The underplayed, underestimated, glorious N'zoth Warrior. I fell in love with the deck because of how smoothly and efficiently your turns play out, it doesn't feel as draw-dependent as C'thun variants, but feels more proactive than the godless control warrior. This deck is for players who love:

• planning complicated plays
• great deck synergy
• versatile cards than can be used creatively
• shaman crushing
• hitting the hero power button.

The N'zoth package is generally seen as being the weakest of the three major variants. I believe this is incorrect, at least in the current meta, post Yogg nerf. As a highly competitive person, I delayed posting this guide because I know high legend players keep an eye on trending decks through this sub, and I wanted to keep the 'unexpected' edge for a while. But I also wanted to make a contribution to this sub that has helped me a lot with my gameplay and deck building. So here it is.

Deck list and proof

Bonus pic - beating my hero sjow with the deck

I don't believe the sample size of my statistics is large enough since I mostly played on iPad and didn't forsee writing this guide.

Disclaimer: It is assumed that you already know the basics of piloting control warrior, the fatigue game etc. Playing control often means you cannot make a single mistake in any turn of the game whatsoever. If you enjoy this high-risk, high-reward style of gameplay, read on.

Card choices

Shield Slam x2: Staple of every control warrior. One of the 'premium' removal cards, called so because if the game state is correct (you have enough armor) you can remove a massive threat for one mana.

Execute x2: Another staple. Even with the nerf this card is auto-include and another of your premiuim removal cards.

Fiery War Axe x2: One of the best cards in the game. Often goes two-for-one with an aggro deck's early minons, or in combination with your other cards, takes down midrange minions extremely efficiently.

Revenge x2: Used for helping to clear your opponents board, ping your own acolyte or enemy minion to execute (or both at the same time). Great anti-shaman and zoolock tech; they very rarely play around it. Often used in conjunction with your other board clears (Ghoul, Brawl, Geddon) to deal with awkward board states that a single card would not deal with efficiently on its own. Also can be used to activate your twilight summoner. Don't be too greedy with this card trying to get the 12 HP effect. Sometimes better to keep yourself in a good position with a 1-damage revenge than save it and get blown out.

Slam x2: A huge aspect of this deck is how you use your removal tools together to control the board. Slam is the perfect example of this. Versatile card that provides cycle and procs execute, or weakens an enemy minion so that your other cards can deal with it. e.g 3 HP minion: slam + ghoul, slam + revenge 4-5 HP minion: slam + FWA, slam + bash.

Acolyte of Pain x2: Cycles your deck and synergises with your cards that damage your own minions. Can also make turns awkward for your opponent as they often need to kill it in one hit, which can eat removal or force inefficient plays.

Bash x 2: Another removal tool for 3 HP minions or used in conjunction with your other removal cards. Armor gain to keep you alive. Not much to say here.

Ravaging Ghoul x2: Great card that procs execute, pings your own acolyte, and helps clean up your opponents board. Also commonly used to get 4 HP minions to 3HP, so they can be finished off with a bash or FWAcoughtotemgolemcough.

Shield Block x2: Cycle and armor gain. Good synergy with shield slam for taking out 5 HP minions on turn 4, 7 HP minions on turn 6 (with armor up).

Elise Starseeker: Backup plan if the N'zoth win condition goes horribly wrong. Can win you the game in the mirror and other control matchups, turning cards that can be useless in the end game (acolyte, shield block, revenge etc.) into threats. I anticipate most of the questions will be about weakening the N'zoth and including Elise, but I believe this tweak is actually what makes the deck better than traditional N'zoth warrior. I'll talk more about this under N'zoth.

Twilight Summoner x2: I'm expecting this choice to be questioned also. I was skeptical at first too, but try it out before you bash it (heh). Basically this card makes your N'zoth aoe-proof, which is extremely problematic for your opponent with your Sylvanas on board. This card is also an annoying minion in the midgame, often resulting in your opponent removing it inefficiently, misplaying around it, or blocking aoe effects such as fan of knives, swipe, flamewaker shenanigans, maelstrom portal etc. It also is a good way to set up a ping on enemy minions, to proc execute. Finally, you know that situation where you have to play a minion into your own brawl? This guy is perfect for that.

Brawl x2: Great card for dealing with an un-dealable board. As a general rule of thumb, you should brawl with ~8 damage represented on board with regular hero power, ~10 damage represented with Tank Up (justicar hero power). If you want to be good with this deck, you must learn how to use brawl correctly. A whole post could be dedicated to 'How and When to play Brawl', but that is not the focus of this guide.

Harrison Jones: For a deck to be competitve in this meta, you have to do well against midrange shaman. This is one of the cards in the decklist that helps this matchup immensely. Getting 2 or even 3 cards from a Spirit Claws can win you the game, and I'm seeing some more Doomhammers recently, which goes without saying.

Ironforge Portal x1: Extra unexpected life gain to shield from burst damage, and usually a 3/5 body. I only run one, basically because it doesn't ever really feel 'good' when you play this card, except maybe turn 6, Ironforge Portal + shield slam enemy minion. But it's good enough to run one.

Justicar Trueheart: Control matchups often go to fatigue, and having the Tank Up hero power is crucial for this. Also if you manage to stay alive after playing Justicar in an aggro matchup, you've generally already won. Often makes your aggro opponents concede if you've stabilised with the new hero power, which shouldn't be understated in a long ladder grind with an already slow deck.

Sylvanas: Powerful card that can deal with certain board states by herself, has powerful synergies in the deck, and can often make your opponent misplay (even at legend ranks). Some combos include Sylvanas + shield slam (steal your opponents minion, guarantee death for N'zoth), brawl with Sylvanas on board means you always end up with a minion. Primary revive target for N'zoth.

Baron Geddon: More aoe clear, really really good against shaman and zoo. Can be paired with other cards like revenge and ghoul for when the 2 damage doesn't quite cut it, like a shaman board with feral spirits, flametongue totem etc.

Grommash Hellscream: Generally used as a single-minion removal tool that leaves a threat on the board which must be answered. Good at taking out azure drakes, tomb pillagers and other 4 HP minions. Keep in mind that you can also do a surprise burst with Grom + revenge, Grom+slam, Grom+shield slam(if your armor is low enough). Most people don't play around the grom combos these days, but this situation is rare.

N'zoth the Corruptor x2: I originally didn't have Elise in the list, instead packing more power into the N'zoth with things like Cairne Bloodhoof. But this strategy always felt like putting too many eggs in one basket, and Cairne would just get Hexed and lose me the game. As such, I only run 3 deathrattles for N'zoth, with a backup plan of Elise. If you're like me, you'll save N'zoth for too long for the promised value, which can be your downfall. The inclusion of Elise means that you can N'zoth just to revive Sylvanas, which is huge in a control match. If you get some Twilight Summoners also, that's just bonus aoe protection.

General Strategy

Efficiently deal with every threat that your opponent plays, stacking a ton of armor, while working toward your late game win conditions of N'zoth and/or Elise. Know every card in your opponents deck that you will have to deal with this game and plan your removal accordingly. The way this deck loses is by using premium removal on something that it shouldn't be used on, then getting killed by a bigger threat later on that you don't have an answer to. The way this deck wins is by using your removal correctly, armoring out of burst range, and out valuing your opponent with N'zoth and Elise.

Match-ups and Mulligans

Your general mulligan strategy is to get your Fiery War Axe and another piece of non-premium removal: Slam, Ravaging Ghoul, Bash, Revenge, in decreasing order of priority. You can keep Acolyte of Pain if you already have FWA and Ghoul. Because this strategy applies to nearly every matchup, I won't be listing it below.

Shaman

Mid-range - highly favoured (70-30)

Aggro - highly favoured (65-35)

Mulligan: Fiery War Axe and Slam or Ghoul deals with anything Shaman can open with. Can keep Brawl if you already have a godly opening hand. You could also keep Execute if you have a god hand and suspect he is running 4 memer 7/7.

Tips: These decks are definitely the most prominent on ladder right now, and your removal lines up nicely against their threats. The way you win relies on how you use your removal. You have more removal than he has threats, so you can use some premium removal like Shield Block+Shield Slam on Thing From Below or Azure Drake, just make sure you only do that if you have a plan for his bigger threats like Thunder Bluff Valiant and Ragnaros. You really want to get a big Brawl off, and then deal patiently with whatever the Shaman tries to recover with. Especially after you get your Justicar down, you can pretty much chill and wait for him to lose. Always be counting burst damage potential, which can be a combination of: Bloodlust, Lava Burst, Al akir + flametongue totem, Lightning bolts, and sometimes Argent Horseriders. The more aggro version seems to be slightly harder than the more midrange counterpart.

Rogue

Miracle/Malygos - highly favoured (65-35)

Mulligan: Nothing special. It is correct to equip FWA on turn 2 in preparation (heh) to deal with his midrange minions.

Tips: This matchup feels very dependent on the rogue's draw. If he draws the nuts, it can feel like you can do nothing to win. But I feel that speaks more to the strength of these rogue decks than to the weakness of ours. Generally you never want to let his minions survive past the turn they are played, get your Justicar down, and start armoring up past the burst combo. If you deal with his minions correctly you will easily get past the 16 dmg (maly+2xsinister) or 25 dmg (maly+2xsinister+evis) threshold even after rogue has drawn all his cards. Make sure you have some way to deal with Malygos once he comes down though. Brawling with one of your minions is the best way to deal with his Concealed minions. If you can afford to (i.e you don't need to draw cards for the next few turns), armoring up with hero power instead of shield block is correct to maximise armor gain.

Druid

Malygos - slightly unfavoured (45-55)

Mulligan: FWA and early removal isn't as much of a priority in this matchup, still, I would never mulligan it away. I wouldn't keep two though. Can keep Acolyte, Faceless Summoner, Elise if your hand already looks okay. Sometimes you can keep Execute to deal with a crazy Innervate play.

Tips: Try to make the druid spend his turns removing your minions rather than ramping and playing his own minions. Admittedly this is harder to do with this deck than with other decks, but a curve like: t2 equip FWA t3 Acolyte t4 Twilight summoner keeps the Druid a step behind while you accumulate your premium removal to deal with his bigger threats like Arcane Giants, Ancient of War, and Ragnaros. In this matchup it's even MORE crucial that you save your premium removal for those big threats. If you start shield slamming Azure Drakes, you will probably lose. This matchup is difficult because your life total often isn't high enough to survive the Malygos combo even after dealing with all his threats, so the way you win is by pressuring him with Sylvanas and N'zoth so that he is forced to use combo pieces to stay alive.

Warlock

Zoolock - highly favoured (70-30)

Reno - unfavoured (40-60)

Mulligan: Assume zoo. Standard mulligan, can keep Brawl with a good opening hand (FWA, Ghoul). If you know it's Reno, keep Sylvanas with a good hand.

Tips: Like the shaman matchup, the zoo matchup can be a breeze if you have your removal tools FWA, Ghoul, Brawl. Unlike other decks, you kinda want him to get Silverware Golem from a discard to play into Brawl. Be aware of how much damage he can do from hand, which often isn't actually too high, and stay at a healthy life total. With Reno, I haven't played too many Renolocks, but it can be difficult because he can both deal with your N'zoth board and outvalue you with Jaraxxus. You win by assembling your N'zoth party as early as possible, then Golden Monkey after such that the pressure is too much for him.

Mage

Tempo - favoured (60-40)

Freeze - extremely highly favoured (95-5)

Mulligan: Assume tempo, because queuing into a freeze mage is pretty much a free win. Can be okay to keep a shield slam or bash to kill his 3/2s even if they get behind Mirror Image, but you reeeeally want that FWA. If you know it's freeze, keep Justicar.

Tips: Again the tempo mage matchup plays out similarly to shaman and zoolock, except the mage cannot make a board as large as the other two, so using a Brawl on 3 minions can often be the right play. Deal with his minions efficiently, armor up out of his burst range and you will be fine. Note that most tempo mage lists run Ragnaros, which will be their biggest threat, so make sure you have a plan to deal with him when he comes down. Keep in mind killing Rag with shield slam can be difficult because he often hits face and takes your armor away.

Hunter

Secret - unfavoured - (40-60)

Mulligan: Standard mulligan.

Tips: Hunter has been naturally good against warrior for a long time, and this isn't an exception. Their minions are just hard to deal with if you don't draw correctly, and one dead turn means one dead warrior. Though if you can survive until he starts topdecking, you will have a very good chance, especially with Tank Up.

Paladin

*Anyfin - even? (50-50)

Mulligan: Keep justicar .

Tips: Haven't played a whole bunch of this matchup, but it seems to be an armor game. Justicar turn 6 is very strong, and your goal is to armor out of range of the second anyfin, which is either 30dmg or 32dmg. Save Harrison for Ashbringer (weapon from Tirion)

Priest

*Control - favoured (60-40)

Mulligan: Keep justicar.

Tips: You're playing the value game again, can be tough if he runs 2x thoughtsteal, but that is rare. Play around Entomb, or you will lose. This means procing the twilight summoners the turn they are played if you can, and shield slamming your own Sylvanas. Make sure to get full value out of N'zoth.

Warrior (mirror)

Control - favoured (60-40)

C'thun - even (50-50)

Dragon/Aggro - slightly favoured (55-45)

Mulligan: If you know it is control or C'thun warrior, keep justicar. There's a decent enough number of Aggro Warrior around these days to assume Aggro in the mulligan, so standard mulligan for them.

Tips: Oh boy, the mirror is my favourite matchup to play. Again, a whole guide could be written about this, and I'm sure many have. I will go over some things that are absolutely crucial. This game WILL go to fatigue, don't play ANY 'draw' cards, the entire game, the one exception being Harrison onto a Gorehowl. There will be many turns where both of you are just sitting on 10 cards, using your most useless ones every turn (like using Revenge on an empty board). Your draw cards will be Golden Monkey'd to be threats in the late game, and you definitely don't want to be the one drawing the 'deal 10 damage' fatigue card first. Don't play your Sylvanas until you have shield slam in hand, and use it to steal his Sylvanas (if you're against control) or his C'thun (if you're against C'thun). Get full value from your N'zoth. Brawl has almost zero value in this matchup (unless you're playing another N'zoth warrior) so play your threats one at a time. It can be a good play to Brawl if he makes the mistake of playing more than one threat at once. If you're winning the fatigue game, don't play your N'zoth until he has used Golden Monkey- this dodges the brawl. Another cheeky play is to make his sylvanas steal your acolyte, which can win you the game. This matchup can get pretty complicated but can also come down to whom gets the better legendaries from Monkey. Against aggro and dragon, play the usual aggro strat, except for the fact that you have to play around dragon warrior's Deathwing. Which often means saving your Sylvanas if you're ahead.

Why play the N'zoth variant over the others?

I believe a huge indicator of the success of a control deck in any given meta is how well your removal lines up with the minions that the strongest meta decks include. This deck does this extremely well in that regard. Here is an infamous example situation:

1. You have the coin going second against a shaman.
2. You get Fiery War Axe and Slam from your mulligan.
3. Shaman plays Tunnel Trogg.
4. You coin + Fiery War Axe to kill trogg.
5. Shaman plays Totem Golem.
6. You slam the golem, finish with axe.
7. End result: you essentially go two-for-one with the strongest opening in the game.

Of course the other variants run FWA and Slam too. But I simply felt that the minions that this N'zoth list runs seems to just flow better than the Control and C'thun lists I tried. I found pure control lists to not be proactive enough for my liking, and I found the minions that C'thun warrior is forced to run to be too clunky, and I would often be floating mana. This list has a lot less floating mana, some proactive plays, does extremely well against Shaman, and has decent matchups across the board. Also, your opponent will not know that you are playing N'zoth until he sees a Faceless Summoner, which can put you at an advantage.

Final words

Thanks for reading! This is my first time writing a real guide, so let me know if you have any comments or questions, or feel like I missed something. I'm also keen to help out anyone wanting to give this deck a good tryout, so send me a PM if you want me to spectate some of your games, or you want to spectate mine.

Good luck, and blessings to you.

SlayerMax