Hearthstone at its core is a game that people should have fun with, but that can get bogged down in the pursuit of competitive meta strategies. Thus, I humbly present Memes and Dreams, a series on Out of Cards looking to bring some good ol' memey fun into people's Hearthstone experiences. Each week we will do a deep dive on a different 'for fun' deck, discussing the basic ideas of the deck, what makes it tick, and roughly how to pilot it. This week we round out the classes with a very ambitious Control Warrior!


I'm Playing All the Old Gods, so That Way I Always Come Out on Top

A bit similar to last week's, I regret to inform the readers that I struggled quite a bit to create a Warrior deck, namely because I lack the vast majority of good Warrior cards. Bladestorm, Lord Barov, Ancharrr, Deathwing, Mad Aspect, and Kargath Bladefist never found their way into my collection, barring me from creating a respectable Warrior deck. Nevertheless, I endeavoured to complete the circle of Meme decks for all classes, so I took the already expensive base of Control Warrior and displaced legendaries I didn't have with ones I did have!

To be frank, I kind of dreaded having to make a guide for Warrior due to my somewhat modest collection and my general lack of playing with the class. Warrior has been my nemesis, even giving me grief in PvE modes (took me a LOT of tries to beat OG Dungeon Run with Warrior). I tested with a budget version of the deck, so I can't be sure how well the actual list will play. All that said, I had a fun time piloting the deck and I hope y'all do too!

The Meme - Play some good old-fashioned Control Warrior. Stall the game until you whittle down the opponent and deplete them of resources. Aggro decks concede early :P

The Dream - Drop the facade, trod over the fraud clods, leave them awed and forced to applaud the power of your Quad God Squad!


Key Cards

C'Thun, the Shattered Card Image Athletic Studies Card Image Battle Rage Card Image

C'Thun, the Shattered is by far the most significant of the Old Gods in this list. He provides a decent win condition and a slew of additional control tools. What makes him extra-special is that he grants four additional spells, making Yogg-Saron, Master of Fate, that much easier to proc. C'thun is also really nice in that he requires the least amount of deck-building setup out of the four Old Gods, making him much more flexible should you decide to alter the deck and pursue a more personalized route.

Athletic Studies might sound like a weird one to be a 'Key Car', but hear me out. It's a cheap spell for Yogg, it can generate additional minions for N'Zoth, God of the Deep or Y'Shaarj, the Defiler, and it even makes Fleethoof Pearltusk easier to Corrupt by reducing its cost. It's a pretty innocuous card, but it helps the deck feel a lot smoother and rounds out otherwise awkward curves.

Battle Rage doesn't have much to be said, it draws a bunch of cards which is very nice when digging for removal or Corrupt cards. Rage probably doesn't get included without Risky Skipper, but she isn't here despite being a strong card since her inclusion doesn't directly affect the Quad God Dream plan.


Honorable Mentions

Risky Skipper Card Image Armorsmith Card Image

Well, now Risky Skipper gets included. The Skipper-Armorsmith combo has been the backbone of many Warrior decks since Skipper got released in Galakrond's Awakening. It's kinda hard to not include the pair based on the sheer amount of armor and board clear they provide. That said, they are not so integral to the deck that they can't be replaced, but that's for a different section of the article.

N'Zoth, God of the Deep Card Image

N'Zoth, God of the Deep is the next-best Old God for the deck, unsurprising since Menagerie was pushed for Warrior in MatDMF. There are a plethora of good minions for N'zoth to resurrect and he can be played as a fairly strong win condition. Y'shaarj has the problem of Warrior having basically no strong Corrupt contenders, both of their Corrupt cards being situational 1-cost cards and Warrior lacks the resource generation for Yogg to be that strong (looking forward to War Cache).


Budget / Alternate Options

Runaway Blackwing Card Image Darkmoon Dirigible Card Image

This deck has a TON of legendaries, so there's a lot to be cut down. First, we'll look at replacing Deathwing, Mad Aspect, Kargath Bladefist, and Siamat since they are not Old Gods and we mainly care about Old Gods. Deathwing is the most straightforward replacement since any strong, expensive dragons are serviceable. Runaway Blackwing, Evasive Drakonid, Evasive Wyrm, even Tent Trasher are good candidates since they all have immediate effects on the board. Kargath's value niche is hard to fill, but the general 'cheap Rush' is easy enough to replace with Darkmoon Dirigible, Restless Mummy, or Fishy Flyer. Dirigible and Flyer have the additional benefits of being generated by N'zoth or Y'shaarj later. Siamat can honestly be replaced with any number of cards, I mainly wanted something that cost 6+ to corrupt Fleethoof Pearltusk, so a second Khartut Defender could work. Any of the Old Gods can be replaced with, any cards to be honest. Their late-game niche can't be filled to any extent, so just going for a generally good card might be the way to go. 

Minefield Card Image Circus Amalgam Card Image

Bladestorm and Brawl are the epics of this deck and both fill the same roll has powerful board clears. Unfortunately, finding a similar strong board clear at a lower rarity is somewhat difficult. Minefield is a very good damage spread for its cost and can help especially against aggressive token boards. P[Hearthstone Card (lague of Wrath) Not Found] is technically a board clear, but it's pretty hard to pull off without enough AoE support. Reaper's Scythe is also a decent contender, but the lack of cheap spells in the deck can also make it hard to pull off. If you're alright with forgoing Aoe in the deck, you can include something like Circus Amalgam or other Taunts to help deal with wide boards in a slower fashion. 

Lord Barov Card Image Sword Eater Card Image

Lord Barov is a very strong combo with Risky Skipper and could certainly be slotted in if you find yourself struggling to reach the late-game. You could even take this in a much more Taunt-oriented direction with Armagedillo, Sword Eater, and Scrap Golem. EVIL Quartermaster is a generally good card, stabilizing your face and generating Lackey value. It doesn't fill out any specific purpose or niche, but it's worth consideration. The list is kind of tight in removal and Old God-enablers, but there's always room for customization!


Matchups

VS Aggro

While this deck is technically designed to beat Aggro and beats it in the trifecta, the split focus on all four Old Gods leaves our early-game resources a tad lacking. Bladestorm, Brawl, Heart of C'Thun, and Risky Skipper are going to be clutch here for their ability to wipe boards. Those don't become available super early and are likely to leave a minion or two up, so you'll have to be content with taking some early hits. Later cards like Gyrocopter and Siamat will help seal the deal and stabilize you to the point where Aggro shouldn't be able to kill you. As long as you keep the board squeaky-clean and your face nice and healthy, they will probably concede after burning through their resources. Control Warrior is as old as the game itself and players will typically recognize when they can't win, which is unfortunate for playing the Old Gods, but oh well. 


VS Control

This is nice. This is a nice matchup. These games will go on for a LONG time, giving you plenty of room to play all your Old Gods, and you're gonna need it. Some Control matchups you'll be able to play through everything and win the game through either sheer Old God value, or C'Thun, the Shattered blasting them. Some matchups will have a win-condition that you have a very hard time dealing with though, such as Rattlegore or Tickatus. For especially Tickatus, you'll want to keep all your C'thun pieces and proc C'thun once all the Tickatuses (Tickati? Tickateese?) have been used. Otherwise Yogg-Saron, Master of Fate and Y'Shaarj, the Defiler are your next best win-conditions. N'Zoth, God of the Deep can put a lot of pressure, but Control decks will likely have an answer. You can space out your Y'shaarj value to force out enemy removal and keep pressure. Yogg is a bit of a hail-mary, he makes some MASSIVE board swings to win. And of course, there's Rod of Roasting, which hopefully you are more equipped to survive by overstacking armor.


VS Combo

Gonna be honest, there is very little hope in this matchup. This deck can't put out any serious threats until at least turn 6+, making it exceptionally difficult to pressure enemies. Your best hope is stockpiling Risky Skipper and Armorsmith to stack a lot of armor and hopefully getting out of reach. Thing is, Combo decks these days can extend way past 30 health, so even overstacking armor isn't always guaranteed to keep you alive. I wish I could say more for this matchup, but the chance this deck can beat any Combo deck before they reach their combo requires them to be exceedingly unlucky in their draws.  


Conclusion

With this article, we reach the end of the first chapter of the Memes and Dreams series! I have had a blast writing these articles and even more of a blast reading everyone's feedback. It's so great to read everyone's stories, experiences, ideas, and in one case, fanfiction! You guys have honestly made writing these articles the highlight of my week. Going forward you may see some classes more than others based on how much I enjoy the class, how meme-y the class can be, and how many cards I have for the class (RIP Warrior :P). That said, if there any decks or classes you want to see covered, mention it and I'll do my best to make and test it!

Speaking of, the #1 most requested thing for this series was a Wild version. I don't have a ton of experience in Wild and to be honest, the format scares me. I hear a tale of giga-Aggro decks and hyper-degenerate Combos, snuffing out any motivation I might have had to try the format. However, if y'all send Wild decks you want to see covered my way, I'll give it my best try, assuming I can make it. If I get enough material to start it, I'll make a new series based on the Wildest memes Hearthstone has to offer. Matchup info might not be included, but I'll cover your ideas to the best of my ability! Let me know about anything else you would like to see or changes to Memes and Dreams! Until next time!


What is your meme deck of choice? Do you try different ones for each expansion or do you try to evolve old ones with new cards? Do you have any meme dream stories? Tell us in the comments below!