Check out my stream, playing this deck every day, and there are vods from today: http://twitch.tv/faction60

Hi all, I've hit legend in the current season with this deck. I played it almost exclusively from Rank 9 > legend, since the day GVG hit, and got legend in 3 days.

This deck has no bad matchup and has a solid winrate all around. Scroll down further for statistics, card explanations, and matchup details

WINRATE STATISTICS

OVERALL: 103 WINS, 68 LOSSES (60%)

ROGUE: 5 WINS, 0 LOSSES (100%)

PRIEST: 13 WINS, 3 LOSSES (81.3%)

MAGE: 17 WINS, 5 LOSSES (77.3%)

PALADIN: 17 WINS, 8 LOSSES (68%)

SHAMAN: 6 WINS, 4 LOSSES (60%)

DRUID: 6 WINS, 5 LOSSES (54.5%)

HUNTER: 20 WINS, 19 LOSSES (53%)

WARLOCK: 12 WINS, 15 LOSSES (44.4%)

WARRIOR: 8 WINS, 10 LOSSES (44.4%)

As you can see, this deck has NO bad matchup, with the absolute worst matchups still almost 50%.

CARD EXPLANATIONS AND POTENTIAL REPLACEMENTS

TROGGZOR: He's amazing against control or midrange decks. If you drop him onto a board you control or a clear board, it's simply GG unless he dies to Ragnaros, or they play Sylvanas. His value is deceptive: yeah, your opponent will avoid playing spells, and often play minions after you play Troggzor. This is GREAT. This gives you ALL THE TEMPO, allowing YOU to react to the things they play, and kill their minions so that they can't kill Troggzor without playing spells. So while he might not always spawn a burly rockjaw trogg, he's still winning you the game. I don't consider Troggzor a replaceable card.

IRON JUGGERNAUT: This card is just a solid midgame threat a lot of the time, but sometimes the mine will win you the game. It enables you to play very aggressively against other slow decks, since you know they will take 10 damage eventually, and the mindgames can alter your opponents play, as they will try to stay above 10 life to avoid the mine death. He can be replaced however, with Hogger, Cairne, or the Black Knight. I'd suggest Hogger, as he's nice vs Hunter.

SHIELDMAIDEN: Two extra midgame threats is exactly what Warrior needed with GVG. Warrior class minions are very weak in mid/late game, and now Warrior has Shieldmaiden to shore up that weakness. A very solid body, lifegain, and shield slam synergy. These girls are not replaceable!

BARON GEDDON: The final "questionable" card in the list, Baron Geddon is a very solid threat against control, and his effect enables game winning plays against aggro. While you could do without him, I would never choose to. However, a good (but much slower) replacement is Dr. Boom.

MATCHUPS, STRATEGY AND MULLIGANS

Hunter

Keep: Fiery War Axe, Cruel Taskmaster, Armorsmith, Ironbeak Owl

This is a very swingy matchup that can go either way, often decided purely by each players starting hand. Face hunter is a lot easier than midrange hunter with Highmane's and Belchers/Fel Reavers, however, both can beat you. Prioritize removing Undertaker early over anything else. IF YOU ARE ABLE TO, and turn 5 and 6 are approaching, MAKE SURE TO SAVE IMPORTANT REMOVAL CARDS like Shield Block+Shield Slam, Execute, etc, for Fel Reaver or Highmane. However, if you're forced into execute before then, you really don't have a choice sometimes. In the lategame, try to armor up every turn and draw towards Alexstrasza and your other lifegain cards. Also attempt to get as much armor from your armorsmiths as possible.

Warrior

Keep: Armorsmith, Cruel Taskmaster, Fiery War Axe, Acolyte of Pain

Our deck is at a disadvantage in the mirror against decks that run Gorehowl, Big Game Hunter and/or Ysera. For this reason, you have to play aggressively and try to overwhelm your opponent with threats, rather than play for pure value. Once the Gorehowl is out, you are NOT going to win on card advantage, so it's a race against the clock. Early game, try to maximize draws from your acolytes. Later in the game, Iron Juggernaut, Alexstrasza on the opponents face and setting up Grom are all key to winning the mirror. Even though Gorehowl/BGH decks have an advantage, it's still almost 50%, possibly even higher - I have had dreadfully bad luck with brawls and Ragnaros RNG, which usually decide the mirror.

Priest

Keep: Fiery War Axe, Cruel Taskmaster, Armorsmith, Acolyte of Pain, Ironbeak Owl

Priest in general is a pretty easy matchup, as long as you deny them an early board, they have a VERY reactive midgame. You can play tempo in the midgame against control priest, and defensively against deathrattle/midrange priest. Control priest can't keep up with the pure volume of threats this deck throws out in the midgame - between Sludge Belchers, Loatheb, Shieldmaidens, Iron Juggernaut, Troggzor and Baron, we have a ton of cards that they have to expend a lot of resources to deal with, and if they manage to deal with them, they still have to handle Alexstrasza, Ragnaros and Grommash. Play your Acolytes and Armorsmiths early game, as if you play them later on, they will get stolen. Later in the game, you want to try and force the priest to play their Cabal Shadowpriests with no value. If you play an Acolyte or Armorsmith, make sure you have a commanding board lead already, so that you can deal with the swing easily. Also, be careful playing Sludge Belcher when the priest has 8 mana, as they can steal them with Shrinkmeister+Cabal. Against Deathrattle Priest, simply remove all of their creatures and play defensively. It's like a less hectic Zoo matchup.

Zoo Warlock

Keep: Fiery War Axe, Armorsmith, Cruel Taskmaster, Brawl

Zoo is, like hunter, a very random and swingy matchup, often decided entirely by starting hands. Try to remove all of your opponents creatures, play stuff on curve, etc etc. This matchup effectively plays itself, on both sides, and there isn't much to say, except that if you can afford to, save shield slam or execute for Doomguard.

Handlock

Keep: Cruel Taskmaster, Armorsmith, Execute, Shield Slam, Shield Block

We're slightly favored against Handlock because Iron Juggernaut gives us some really strong reach which can shut down Jaraxxus until they draw the mine. Also, as long as we have removal for their turn 4/5 threats, our midgame is extremely tough for Handlock to deal with. Play this matchup as aggressively as possible, and if you fall behind, try to pull as much value from Brawl as possible, as it's your only comeback mechanic in this matchup. Always be looking for potential lethal in the coming turns, and don't be afraid to hit the face unless you have no way to deal with moltens at all.

Duplicate Control Mage

Keep: Fiery War Axe, Armorsmith, Cruel Taskmaster, Acolyte of Pain

This matchup used to be very hard for Warrior, but with the addition of 2x Shieldmaiden and Iron Juggernaut as midgame threats/reach, it's a LOT easier. Play around Duplicate as much as possible. The mage will be aiming to pull mad value off it, however you can play very aggro in the midgame and simply overpower them, forcing them to make trades as you hit face.

Mech aggro/midrange mage

Keep: Fiery War Axe, Armorsmith, Cruel Taskmaster

We're heavily favored in this matchup, it's like a much slower Zoo, without enough reach to kill you once they run out of cards. Simply remove everything you can and play your threats on curve whenever you can afford to. Play around secrets, etc etc. Very easy matchup. Make sure to save Troggzor and/or Loatheb to counter Antonidas, unless you have nothing else to play at some point, then it's fine to play them anyway.

Shaman

Keep: Fiery War Axe, Cruel Taskmaster, Armorsmith, Brawl

While there are of course lots of variants of shamans, they all play the same in the warrior matchup: Flood the board. For this reason, Baron Geddon and Brawl are two key cards that your gameplay essentially revolves around, as we have no other mechanics for coming back from a lost board. Not much to say - remove all the shamans stuff. He will almost always control the board early, so you need to pull off a nice Baron or Brawl to come back. Sometimes, you can overrun shaman in the midgame with all of your threats, but usually they will have the removal to deal with them.

Druid

Keep: Cruel Taskmaster, Armorsmith, Fiery War Axe, Shield Slam, Shield Block

Druid is an easier matchup now that Warrior actually has stuff to play in the midgame. Almost every druid on ladder is playing ramp, so you'll want to be able to shield slam their threats, which is why we try to keep shield slam+shield block. If you can stunt a druids early and mid game, you can overpower him easily in the lategame. Always play around the combo, (keep above 14 hp/armor unless forced to drop below that amount)

Paladin

Keep: Fiery War Axe, Cruel Taskmaster, Armorsmith, Acolyte of Pain, Brawl

Basically every paladin is running a hybrid midrange/controllish build, with muster for battle, quartermaster, shieldbots, Tirion, Bolvar, etc. The only way that they can win is to play Muster for Battle into Quartermaster while you have no way to deal with it, so play around it. YES, THIS MEANS USING FIERY WAR AXE AND TASKMASTER JUST TO KILL PALADIN DUDES. Save owl for Tirion, Sylvanas or Bolvar (if needed, you can usually kill him without it though so try to avoid owling him) and if the paladin manages to get a nice quartermaster off, just brawl him. Acolyte of pain is key in the early game against paladin - if they use their coin early, or you coin him out, they will either have to owl him or give you at least 2 draws. The reason to coin him is to avoid truesilver.

Rogue

KEEP: Fiery War Axe, Armorsmith, Cruel Taskmaster

Most rogue decks right now are a "backspace" like variant that uses tinker oil and early game mechs to play aggro and hit the face. These decks are extremely easy for our deck to deal with, as we can easily answer anything they play, and we have too much lifegain for them to kill us. The game effectively plays itself.

Miracle rogue is a bit harder, but we are still heavily favored. Against Miracle, make sure to keep an answer for auctioneer in your hand, like execute+task or shield slam. Do not let violet teacher or auctioneer survive a turn, ever.

Thanks for reading and if you have any questions just ask in comments, or come ask in my stream :)

-Faction

Heh, Greetings