ETC Control Warrior List & Guide

This is a comprehensive guide on ETC control warrior and will include Matchup Mulligans, General Strategies and Card Substitutions based on rank. Also excuse the font errors, this is my first guide on here and the settings were being an absolute pain.

Intro To ETC Control   

Warrior has been based around control for most of its history, this archetype has rarely been terrible and sometimes pretty busted, see pre-nerf Dr Boom Mad Genius. However with the introduction of E.T.C., God Of Metal the archetype has gained a very strong and flexibile win condition. Something the Archetype has lacked since its last hero card rotated out of standard with the release of ashes of outland.

The deck revolves around 3 main win conditions. Armor Smithmith, Rattlegore and the aforementioned E.T.C., God of Metal.  Armor smith is your best friend when it comes to fighting off those pesky demon hunters, in combination with Risky Skipper, Bloodsworn Mercenary and any random third minion (usually a lackey) you can gain 20+ armor in one turn and deal 3 damage to all your opponents minions which can often secure the game against aggro. Rattlegore is an excellent secondary win condition against control matchups due to how unbelieveably sticky he is and getting a second or even a third from Bloodsworn Mercenary doesn’t hurt. The final win condition is from E.T.C., God of Metal  where in combination with Pen Flinger , double Bloodsworn Mercenary  and finally Animated Broomstick you can kill almost any opponent with the 36-42 damage from this combo. 

ETC Control Warrior Mulligan Guide

VS Demon Hunter/Hunter

• Risky Skipper  is excellent against DH early in combination with cards like Armorsmith  and Battle Rage  to help you remove their board, gain armor and draw cards.
• Minefield  is probably the most critical early game card for dealing with a Demon Hunters early board before it snowballs out of control like it has a knack for.
• Ancharrr  this card is excellent for dealing with some smaller threats as well as helping you draw into your Risky Skipper and Sword Eater 
• Lord Barov is an absurd tool to full clear a pesky board. In combination with Risky Skipper  you can full clear most boards for just 4 Mana and leave you with a 3/1. 

VS Control

• Ancharrr is the best card to keep as it helps thin out your deck so you can draw other important cards 

• EVIL Quartermaster is another great keep to help you generate some early armor and value

• Shield Block is just another good card to help you cycle and generate armor. Keeping this is usually too slow against aggro but it’s perfect against control match ups.

VS Warrior 

• Rattlegore, why the hell would I keep a 9 mana card in my opening hand? Just hear me out on this one. When you see you’re against a warrior it is more than likely that he is playing the same deck as you and because both of you gain too much armor for the otk to be viable, the mirror match is decided by who plays and duplicated rattlegore first. Silas Darkmoon  is in this deck solely because of the mirror match up to steal their Rattlegore and it’s also good against other control matchups.

• Ancharrr for the same reason you keep it in control matchups.

• Shield Block also for the same reason against control.

General Strategies 

Vs Aggro 

When against aggressive decks like Aggro Demon Hunter, Highlander Hunter and Soul Demon Hunter your strategy will be almost entirely on survival. Armorsmith will be your best friend in this goal as in combination with Risky Skipper and Bloodsworn Mercenary you can gain a lot of armor in a single turn.
In matchups like these the ETC combo will almost never be applicable but you always have Rattlegore as a backup win condition in the rare case the player hasn’t conceded by the time they run out of steam. To reach this point you will have to focus on effective use of your removal and armor gain, knowledge of exactly how to tackle each situation will come from experience.

Vs control

This matchup is usually the ideal situation in which the ETC combo will be viable. Decks like Pure Paladin and Evolve Shaman produce most of their pressure in the mid-late game so against decks like this you’ll most likely win with the OTK combo. So to make it to 10 mana and pull out all 5 pieces of the puzzle your general strategy will be to maximise your draw though Ancharrr and Cutting Class. 
Using Risky Skipper and Battle Rage in combination with your other minions will provide you with very flexible draw. Drawing 3 with Battle Rage is the most common but sometimes you can draw 4 or 5 if the conditions are right. Just make sure you don’t overdraw because knowing Hearthstone, the one card you mill will likely be a combo piece. 
Also in some cases your opponent will avoid playing any minions to not give you an opportunity to use the combo because they can beat you in fatigue or have an alternate win condition like C’Thun. In this case Rattlegore will likely be your best bet either through duplication with Bloodsworn Mercenary or in some cases you can give it to them using Silas Darkmoon and use it to perform the combo the following turn. 
Lastly, when performing the combo itself keep in mind you need to be able to attack an enemy minion at least 4-5 times. Normally this isn’t an issue as your opponent will be trying to play minions anyway but the most amount of damage you’ll be able to do against someone with a 5 health minion is 24. So just make sure to check your opponent has enough of a board for you to combo with before you go ahead and play the combo.

Vs mirror match [CARD_IMG NAME=”Silas Darkmoon” ALIGN=”RIGHT”]

In the mirror match the entire game will likely come down to whoever plays Rattlegore  first. However do this with caution as Silas Darkmoon is in this deck for that exact reason. If you play it first your opponent may steal it with their own Silas so I highly recommend playing it when you have your own silas ready to steal it back but if you don’t you might want to weigh up whether or not you can risk it. This will most likely depend on how many cards you have remaining in your deck.

Aside from the Silas and Rattlegore situation your main strategy will be to maximise your draw and keep yourself above 40 hp so you don’t open yourself up to the OTK. So you will be wanting to cycle as much as possible and often waste a lot of your removal to open up more room in your hand.

Card Substitutions By Rank

• For most of the early ranks, Bronze to Platinum, the default deck will serve you nicely as it strikes a great balance between greed (draw) and tech cards (removal). However you can substitute a copy of Cutting Class for a second Brawl if you find you need the extra clear.

• For Diamond 10-6 a copy of Minefield can be changed for a Blade Storm as I find the decks here are a lot more diverse than the ranks above while the people piloting these decks are usually better than those at the ranks below.

• For Diamond 5-1 I would strongly recommend keeping the deck as it is. This version is the best equipped to deal with Demon Hunter and at the time or writing you will find only the sweatiest of Demon Hunters trying to get themselves into legend. 

• For Legend  you can start to diversify the deck a bit by including tech cards like Kobold Stickyfinger which is great against the mirror match, Demon Hunter and Evolve Shaman. Zephrus The Great can also find its place in the deck with Cutting Class a good candidate to be replaced. 

Conclusion and Final Thoughts

This season I have played this deck exclusively and managed a 74% winrate from bronze 10 to legend over 4 variations of the deck. ETC Warrior is an excellent deck with few bad matchups, however the deck has a high skill ceiling which can prove difficult for newer players. Due to this the general winrate of the deck sits around 51-54%. So to summarise, if you are a newer player you can choose to play this deck but you might not experience the same success myself or others did until you get your feet wet. However if you’re a seasoned veteran in hearthstone this might just be the perfect deck for you.