Avalon's 12 Wins Quest Pirate Warrior

Hearthstone Duels Choices

Hero

Hero Power

Treasure

Greetings,

it's been a long while since the last time I wrote a fully-fledged guide (maybe in the early DM Faire meta?) so I may as well do it again, even more now that I hit a 12er in Duels.

First of all, the general information.

Edit: I also hit a clean 12-0 with the same starting deck! 

Passive Treasures Chosen

First pool - All Together Now

Second pool - Rally the Troops

Deck Overview

The deck overall feels really smooth: most of the times you don't even need Cap'n Rokara's The Juggernaut to close out games, given the sheer pressure you're able to put on your opponents, especially in the very first few turns. This doesn't mean that your Quest reward is bad (because it absolutely isn't), but rather that it will shine only in the last fights of your runs (when each player's HP total is higher) or against opponents with healing tools like Soul Fragments in Warlock and Flash Heal/Desperate Prayer shenanigans in Priest.

Mulligan Tips

Always Keep - N'Zoth's First Mate, Harbor Scamp (best card in the deck)

Possible Keeps - Bloodsail Deckhand, Bloodsail Raider, Stormwind Freebooter

Baits - Fogsail Freebooter (reach card that you don't want to play on curve if not necessary)

For the first few games, Outrider's Axe will probably be your only weapon card in the deck, so I suggest you to never ever keep it in the mulligan, and that for two reasons:

• The first one is because it's a 4-Cost card in an aggressive deck that already has to give up one card in the mulligan, and you cannot possibly afford to give up your early game more than you're already forced to do.
• Raid the Docks's completion will draw you a weapon, so whiffing that reward would be quite sad, although not game-losing.

Playstyle Tips

Weapons - don't be afraid to overwrite a Weapon with another one: you don't want games to last many turns, so if you think you can optimize your damage output, just break, for example N'Zoth's First Mate's Rusty Hook in favor of Sword Eater's Jawbreaker.

Weapon Buffs - kind of the same reasoning: from my experience, Weapon buffs are powerful and provide you some nice extra damage, but you should keep in mind what your goal is. The Juggernaut overwrites your weapon every single turn, so don't be afraid to use Ratchet Privateer or Bloodsail Cultist's effect just for a single single. Sure, exploiting those buffs for as much as possible would be beneficial for you, but in the end you want to win the game, not to have a trip to value town.

Quest Completion - if you are not going to kill your opponent, consider playing a Pirate just for it to count towards the Quest completion. Missing on the effect could suck (Bloodsail Raider/Fogsail Freebooter with no weapon, Sword Eater with an early existing and powerful weapon,...), but if you're just one or two Pirates away from Cap'n Rokara, then advancing towards her and playing a vanilla body is not the end of the world.

Hero Power, Signature Treasures and Passives

Hero Power - Bruising is the superior Hero Power when it comes to board centric decks: you can value trade your units and keep control of the board with incredible ease. No Guts, No Glory is straight up worse and you don't have enough Armor gain for Magnetic Mines.

Signature Treasure - although I've tried Auto-Armaments in the past, I think this Signature Treasure is far better in the Legendary/Rush build, while in Pirate Warrior you want as much damage as possible, and a 4 mana 2/6 that draws a card or two is not insane, especially if your opponent has a Shadow Word: Void ready to screw you over. Scrapmetal Demolitionist, on the other hand, grants you remarkable damage, especially if you give it enough time to scale during your run.

Passive Treasures - your deck is filled with Battlecry units just because you want that synergy to be offered to you. Meek Mastery and Battle Totem are more than valid alternatives.

Final Observations

Game approach/Buckets choice - pretty much like a real pirate, you want to go for your opponent's throat. Be as aggressive as you can and avoid picking slow and expensive cards, as well as Armor gain effect: the don't provide any damage output and, if you need to gain Armor as a Pirate Warrior, chances are you're going to lose the game. Kill them before they can kill you. Go for cheap Battlecry units, especially if you manage to get All Together Now, Rally the Troops or Battle Totem. Menagerie cards like Tent Trasher are decent as well, if there isn't anything better.

Bruising - nutty, really nutty. I'd be surprised if it will stay the same for long. Abuse it while you can.

Rally the Troops - the card draw effect is vital for you to keep pressuring your opponent. Consider keeping a 1-Cost Battlecry unit in the mulligan in order to play it on turn 1 instead of the Quest, which will be played on turn 2 along with the discounted turn 1 draw or another cheap Battlecry unit or a Pirate. Try to plan ahead and trigger Rally the Troops every single turn if possible.

Priest - gets demolished. They are too busy clearing your board and they usually run out of spells for big Mind Tether swing turns.

Final Rant - Meek Mastery and Oops, All Spells! can burn in hell :)