How to play aggro vs control

Do you just vomit your whole hand and pray they dont have aoe or do you play 1 minion at a time so they are forced to use flamestrike on a 3/3. Otherwise even if you stick 2 minions on board, flamestrike trades 1 spell for 2 minions so eventually they will have more cards then you and outvalue you lategame. But 1 minion on the board is still slow.

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Aggro decks like to make minions with high health pools that are resistant to clears.

For example, if you hit a dire mole and a tar creeper with a fungalmancer (all three are minions that are run in multiple aggressive decks right now) then you have a 5 health minion and a 7 health minion on turn 5, both of which survive flamestrike.

Most of the successful aggressive decks right now also run very efficient refill for after you exhaust your hand
Odd paladin: Divine Favor
Odd rogue: Myra’s Unstable Element
Midrange Hunter: Master’s Call

It’s Also important to note that the control deck is built around the concept of answering threats. Your opponent might just have efficient answers to all of your plays, starve you into an unwinnable late game, and take the win. It’s what they’re deck is designed to do and they’re frequently going to do it even if you make all of the right moves.

You’ve got to judge their actions. For example: If you played some minions with less than 3 HP, and the Priest calmly heals face + passes, then you can be absolutely sure he has either Duskbreaker or Mass Hysteria. At this point, you basically stop developing at all, or only play cards that make these two answers not good enough - weapons, single buffs etc.

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First, I am not a good aggro player.

I believe the most important aspect is knowing your deck’s strength and identifying the opponent’s deck build.

Today’s game can be very polarizing. Aggro can have a god hand/draw where control cannot react in time. While on the other hand, some control deck have so much anti-aggro tech that aggro is unable to break through.

In an aggro vs control, you are the aggressor that dictates the starting pace of the game. If you allow control to dictate instead, the game is lost eventually. As such, playing that extra threat or not depends on how well you can manage the above aspect.

If I am odd paly against odd rogue which is quite unfavourable. I dump all resources on board to hope for a early turn 5/6 kill. And pray they get a few bad draws before finding their board clears. With alot power on board, it helps getting thru taunt easier too.

Odd Paladin is actually favored against Odd Rogue, considering that a lot of them don’t actually run board clears except the occasional Fan of Knives, though it’s pretty rare for me to see that.

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Sorry had a brain fart. It’s odd warrior I meant oopsie

Oh. Yeah that matchup is a different story entirely :laughing:

Spread health levels and watch mana.

If I’m facing a potential Hellfire, I’ll think about restricting lesser health minions and favor 4+ health. If what I’m worried about is a guaranteed clear like Scream, I’ll take more risks and get in more damage before 7. If what I’m facing is Reckless Flurry, I might either expend burn to remove armor or only play weenies, whereas with a Brawl threat I’ll just stop developing anything but weenies, esp. if under threat of Reckless as well.

The best way around numerical AoEs with set damage is to have a mix of high and low. As an Evens Shaman, this often means trying to feed a Dranei Totemcarver on a board of small tokens, or a Sea Giant.

Also, if AoE is too big a threat, it can be a good time to play slow development cards like card draw or Discovers. I run an Arcane Dynamo in my Shaman, and if I know a wipe is coming, I’ll play it instead of Giants. Now they -have- to clear because I could have a Bloodlust, but I’m also not losing a “real” 6-drop.

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Sometimes you have to chip away at a control player’s face when you can, whilst holding on to buffs, weapons, and other boosts until you have enough burst damage to win. It’s nerve-wracking, and it doesn’t always work, but it’s an alternative.
Also, I know it’s not efficient, but don’t concede all the time. You learn by playing things out, regardless of how outmatched you might be.

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Yeah my friend was all kitty about his Merloc Warlock deck. “I WON SIX STRAIGHT! People rage quit by turn 3 or 4 and most games are over by 6! You gotta try this deck Slim!!!”

So I asked, how do you get past turn 3 Tarcreeper (or Stonehill)? The Board sweepers? Just hope they don’t have one? Well I have the 4 cost minion silence. Okay, tell me what this deck has.

I make it, I find opponent and…

Quest Warrior. Well this can’t be a worse matchup. Yep, all the taunts and brawls and blade burners.

Next match. Spiteful Priest. Yep Duskbreaker turn 4. Duskbreaker turn 6. Play Spiteful yep god minion. Play free from Amber get Obsidian Statue. Yep, see, deck sucks. Well I won 6 straight. Well the Matchmaking gods must be really generous to you and say you always get TIdecaller into + + + + + Murloc which I dont know how with the taunts you have mixed in there to win by turn 6…

Get the best pattern deck you can vs most" decks and let the sequenced dropping begin.

aggro loses to control, plain and simple. Control’s whole point is to run aggro decks and even some tempo or slightly slower decks out of steam. All you can really do is play aggressively as possible and hope you win before they draw answers.

That being said, the meta favors something closer to midrange right now. Aggressive enough to outpace other midrange, but with a late game backup plan vs control.

After trying my friends Hyper aggro Murloc Warlock - I played my gimped Control Priest.

My opponent. Warlock.

Got nothing to start with. Warlock plays Infusion. Turn 2 draws a card coins Infusion. Turn 3 drops the now 6/6 dr give all demons in your hand +1/+1.

Well this is going to be a crap match and the Warlock knows it and says well played. What for? Dropping 3 cards? No such thing as well played in HS.

So total defense trying to stay alive ah yes - Doomguard turn 5. And Doomguard buffed up turn 7 for 7 more face dmg for the final dagger.

Oh that 1 2 3 RNG. Another game of skill complete.