We’re all thinking of the same thing, from what all other classes have gotten. We all have our opinions on how warrior is going to turn out and how standard is going to change how most other classes are going to be played.
i wanted to make this thread to share some opinions about the class, but the most important one i had on my mind: Warrior isn’t going to be bad, just too confused of an identity. Here’s why: Dev’s current idea is for for taunt minions with some removal is what they want to push out. and i think it has some decent potential all around.
the issue with this, is that other classes seem to take on this idea a lot better with a key identity to the table, like shadow priest creating aggressive boards alongside good ressurrect cards. this is being enforced during the rotation. For warrior its just “taunt, big stats” and not much else, there’s not really a particularly good “identity” that Warrior’s fit in, in terms of control.
FoL is giving Warrior, some options to set itself into a control type of deck. but the cards aren’t designed to a point where each of them give something substantial, Riff cards for example do give a >fair< effect. but not to a point where its a very strong advantagial card every time. this becomes a fair problem, if we look at the legendary cards from warrior, mainly because you can gain a good advantage from those Riff cards. its just. what is the goal of having either the legendary minion/spell in your deck? what goal is it achieving? nothing that speaks directly in terms of identity. Warlock got a pretty clear identity for control. wich looks like its going to be discard/control synnergies.
ill keep the rest pretty short to keep it clear, other sets that aren’t rotating out have been enforcing the same. there is no clear “identity” that we’re seeing. nothing particularly great to create some decks around. i do think there will be some decks that are going to float around and be tested. but we have to wait to see how things are going.
lastly, i think ill be looking into some control based warrior decks myself involving Blackrock n’ roll. because i think that card is going to be pretty strong in a minion based control deck. i just hope the devs can make fun warrior decks at least!
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I’m just sick of them pushing crap.
Enrage effects in Warrior are all well designed and fun IMO. I’ll feel like I played a smart game, lined up my cards really well, put my opponent on the backfoot. I have more cards in my hand, I have a board lead. I have a path to victory. But then what happens? I get Frost Wyrm’s Fury’D, or some stupid Astalor combo, or my opponent gains 8-10 health for 2 mana.
And it just locks me totally out of the game.
To me the problem with Warrior right now is really everything else. I don’t think there’s even room to buff the smart cards they’re printing for Warrior. There’s just so many pushed things. Especially from hand damage that doesn’t really require forethought or synergy ultimately.
IMO there’s just a lot of cards that are going to need tuned down if they want these sort of janky Sunfury Champion-type plays to work. Decks cannot have a 2/2 minion that cycles into a 5/5 that gives you huge advantages if you wait 3 turns. They just can’t. Rotation’s going to help but I don’t think it’s enough.
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Yet another expansion where they come up some “fresh” archetype and try to push it through. The past expansions it looks like theyre trying to force tempo warrior as more or less the only alternative since control warrior has been deep frozen, nuked and ejected into deep space.
The problem though is that there are so many classes that do tempo/aggro better. And have been doing it better since forever.
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The riffs are overcosted and you have to activate finale just to make up for the tempo loss.
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What gets me is that Warrior can actually stomp most of tier 1 and tier 2, it’s just that it’s SO BAD against everything else.
For the last few days I’ve been playing a weird Control Warrior list that I’m sort of modelling after what I expect to play once rotation hits, and the deck absolutely wrecks Unholy/Frost Aggro DK, Shadow Priest, Frost Mage, Fel Demon Hunter, and Miracle Rogue. And if you get a good mulligan and first few turns, Imp Warlock isn’t too much trouble either.
But the second you meet a Blood DK, Thief Rogue, Quest Druid, Control Priest, or Pure Paladin, it’s GG. Control Warrior dominates tier 1 decks but completely fails to stop anything below tier 2, it’s madness.
Side Note: It’s absolutely bananas that Quest Druid with Astalor can see my 100+ health on board and not even break a sweat. If you don’t high roll Call to the Stand or Disruptive Spellbreaker, you can’t beat it. It’s the same old, tired story of Guff. Brann > Astalor 1 > Anub > Astalor 2 > Astalor 3 > Astalor 3 > Astalor 2 is something that just happened to me at Diamond 8. I really can’t wait for rotation.
You got a list? I’ve been fooling around with weapon warrior lists.
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I’ve also tried with Provokes, Executes, Slams, Sanguine Depths, Shield Block, Onyxian Drake, and Grom. Brawl might be a weak card in the deck at the moment, I’m rarely needing Rancor AND Shield Shatter AND Brawl. But if you don’t draw your board clears, you just die.
I also tried a version without Renathal, but Warrior plays with too much of a card disadvantage. So many cards need other cards as activators.
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Interesting! I really like Control Warrior because it doesn’t feel non-interactive or too reactive. You really have to play for board and combine cards in interesting ways to keep up with your opponent.
Of course that also makes it worse.
I keep forgetting Shield Shatter is a card, I think I disenchanted it when it got nerfed and I’m not going to craft it 2 weeks before it rotates.
This is where I’m at. It’s really hard to figure out what to keep and what to cut. Without Shield Block I feel really vulnerable to Frost DK + Shadow Priest, but without the Astalor/Brann stuff I find it’s hard to win control matches.
The core of the deck is kind of the Sunken Trident stuff. Sunken Trident combines very nicely with Olgra, Rancor, Slam, Execute. But the deck doesn’t have a ton of armor, so I forgo the Shield Slam/Shatter stuff (beyond the fact I don’t have the latter). The way this build works Weapon Expert always draws Trident and has some funny synergy with Brann. With Sunfire Smithing to improve the synergy with Thori’belore and Forged in Flame (Forged in Flame also working with Thori).
This deck is so polarized, it dominates aggro match ups. Dominates them. But loses pretty badly to Shadow Priest, Frost DK and most anything with late game because it just isn’t consistent enough to get to that Astalor-Brann combo.
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I think warrior is dead in the water, and won’t see any improvement until balance patches/mini-set.
I think it’s really cool to see how we are approaching a Control Warrior from completely different directions. My version’s draw is Outrider’s Axe, Heavy Plate, Last Stand, Weapons Expert, and Finley, whereas you have Forged in Flame, Harbor Scamp, Hookfist, and Weapons Expert.
I did start with Brann and School Teacher in my list but felt like it was too inconsistent. One felt almost worthless without the other, though I would definitely run School Teacher without Brann before I’d run Brann without School Teacher.
I also angled for the “huge stats” strategy that BRnR will bring to the table, as the win condition. But that makes my list extremely vulnerable to hard removal. I went up against a Bolner Shaman of all things and had my suped-up Fleshshaper pair eaten by an Insatiable Devourer. Yeah, that game ended shortly thereafter.
Brann is in here for Astalor more than anything. It’s one of the most efficient value pairings in the game. Turn 5 brann into Astalor in any slow match up is really my only chance against Big Spell Mage or Blood DK.
School Teacher is there more to justify the Brann. But Olgra and Weapon Expert have good synergy too. I’ve gotten like 6/5 Sunken Tridents sometimes.
Honestly I was super resistant to it if they want to just buff Azsharan Trident to 2 they probably could at this point. It’s totally in line with Frost Strike + Plague Strike + Bone Breaker. Plus they’re taking out Bloodsail Deckhand. And then Sunken Trident might as well do face damage if Shadow Word: Undeath and Unleash Fel can.
I’d really rather they tone down the power level, but it doesn’t seem like they want to do that.
Control-style decks that rely on big taunts are just too easy to counter these days, unless you happen to be a druid abusing mana caps or cheating mana with Anub…neither of which are options for warrior. DKs will destroy them with a cheap card, mages will just use objection/poly, priests will drown them, etc. It’s just not a good strategy for winning these days. Weapon warrior is an option but it has the same weakness it always had, you can be rushed down or get killed with hand damage…and killing enemy minions just helps decks like undead priest do their thing. Warrior is just not in a good spot and I don’t see that changing.
Its a shame they didnt bring back cards like seaforium bomber, clockwork goblin, and wrenchcalibur to punish decks like druid and mine warlock that seek to just draw their entire deck.
Bad news, at Diamond 5 I hit a wall of Pure Paladin and Thief Rogue. Control Warrior can’t beat those.
Yeah only way I beat Pure Paladin with my deck is if I run 2 brawls, 2 executes and they draw Countess super late.
Thief Rogue is such a weird combination of humongous value and then massive tempo pay offs if the game goes past like… turn 7.
There’s really nothing we can do as a playerbase if the developers simply do not want to create good warrior cards. I do not claim to know or understand their design philosophy but i believe if team 5 wanted to push warrior then they would simply make an overpowered synergystic package that can carry the class for a year like imp warlock which goes in both aggro and control locks. One thing that seems obvious is that control warrior wont become a good deck anytime soon as they seem to hate this archetype even though they could give it a legitimate win condition so that it wouldnt have to rely on fatigue like in the past. I think warrior simply has not been a popular class in the recent years so they do not prioritize the class and just decide to lazily print whatever cards for it. It really is what it is and there is no excuse for this but this is the current team 5 design philosophy we have now so its either we accept it or just move on to another game. I myself just do my 2-3 night a month ladder climb and dailies as i have not enjoyed the game since 2021 and am considering permanently quitting for good.
I think the best control warrior deck should use mechs zilliax has magentise we can use it to make a big heal turn it could work il be trying to see if mech control warrior or just a mech warrior in general can work this expansion.
I had 28 Spell Damage on board against a Control Warrior. You can imagine it didn’t go well for the Warrior.
I was killing my own minions to finish my Questline because they wouldn’t play any.
There were multiple turns where it was HP and pass, back and forth.
The whole idea of hard attrition doesn’t work if your opponent has offensive value.
Control Warrior needs a reliable closer. BraR has a problem with when it gets into your hand. The effect should have been an aura “for the rest of the game, when a minion is added to your hand, give it stats equal to its cost”.
Then if you draw your big stuff, you can shuffle it back in with Finley.
As it is right now, if you draw your big stuff first, you just lose.
Or you can play Fires afterwards, and your big deck is automatically buffed.
Exactly. Warrior is getting “FAIR” cards, when everyone else is getting competitive ones.
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I think that framing makes it sound like Warrior cards are weaker, when they’re not. They’re unfortunately – balanced. It’s just the things Warrior does (play for board, sequencing armor gain, etc.) aren’t quick enough. When I play warrior these days I always feel like I’m just one (maybe two) turns off from stabilizing and winning a game.
Just Priest/DK/DH/Mage/whatever got there a little bit faster.
It’s very very frustrating.
It’s important to note, though, that Warrior has good decks. Enrage/Aggro Warrior IS a solid deck and there are fun variants of it. (At least I think so) Just no one plays it. I think even Pirate Warrior (god help me) is seeing play now?