Innate’s N’Zoth Warrior Deck List Guide (May 2017, Season 38)

N’Zoth is making quite the reappearance in the meta right now, we’ve seen him in Shaman, Paladin, and now potentially again in Warrior. Innate piloted this N’Zoth Warrior list all the way to #82 Legend, and has kindly allowed us to re-host their guide on the deck!

Hi all,

I have been tinkering with N’Zoth warrior the past few weeks and would like to share my results for those who might be interested. I played it exclusively during the last week or two of the season, and managed to reach rank 82 last night, 2 hours before the season end. The deck feels well balanced against the meta, with the exception of Jade druid, but one can only do so much when it comes to control warrior vs druid! The matchup is at least winnable if they draw sub optimally, and you curve out well as they do lack a way to clear a big N’Zoth turn if not already on board.

I am going to shy away from giving win percentages on each matchup, because I do feel like the sample size is too small to make meaningful conclusions. That said, I am happy to share my gut/experience on what is generally favoured or not but these only have basis in my personal experience, which obviously is based on a small sample size and includes personal bias.

Proof of rank 82 legend: http://imgur.com/rhC5izc

Overall stats (65% winrate over 68 games between legend 800 and legend 82): http://imgur.com/KFe2aOE, http://imgur.com/PIxcNlH

These stats only include about 60-65% of my games as I could not find a tracking app for my android tablet. If anyone has suggestion let me know, as of the Ungoro patch the one I was using no longer works. (Difference of 1 win in the images is because my last win showed in the app as part of the “next season”)

So Why Play This Deck Over Taunt Warrior?

Here are a few of the reasons I can think of:

• From a functionality point of view, I believe it has advantages against decks in which the quest is not relevant. While ideally you would mulligan away the quest in these matchups, the ladder currently is not so kind as to make that fully possible. Paladin, warrior and druid all run deck variations which you either need the quest against, or absolutely don’t want it against. Even if you make the correct mulligan decision, you can still draw it later on in matchups which you do not want it.
• I feel that N’Zoth puts very few requirements on what you put in your deck when compared to taunt warrior. I am not making the claim that N’Zoth is stronger, but I felt I had more flexibility building a deck against the current meta with N’Zoth as compared to taunt warrior
• I prefer playing different stylistic decks. I know this is contentious topic and I understand that in a purely competitive sense it is not particularly important, but like with anything the more you practice the better you get, and I tend to spam games with decks I really enjoy, and don’t do the same with decks I find more boring or uninteresting. It really does “feel” like the old control warrior used to.
• It might just be a case of you not having the cards for taunt warrior, but wanting to play control warrior. Most people playing during the WotoG era have N’Zoth, that said I know that a lot of people do not have Elise at this point.

Card Choices

I will not go into detail for every individual card but will try to touch on the way the deck plays out and notable inclusions.

Armorsmith x2, Ravaging Ghoul x2, Acolyte of Pain x2, Whirlwind x1, Sleep with the Fishes x1: Armorsmith feels almost required for the deck currently. It is the only way to really give yourself a win condition against most mage decks, and is quite strong against aggro decks (either forces a trade, or allows you to get value through taunts, whirlwinds and value trades). The other parts of this package are pretty standard in control warrior decks. I chose to only include 1 Whirlwind and Sleep with the Fishes just based on trial and error, as they felt like dead draws too often when I had 2 copies of either card.

Loot Hoarder x2: This was something I added in later versions and couldn’t believe I didn’t before. Makes your early game much more consistent, lets you cycle to your win condition faster, and also acts as a refill on your N’Zoth turn (often drawing you the late game Direhorn Matriarchs that you shuffle into your deck).

Gluttonous Ooze x1: Weapon removal feels very strong currently. Almost all the common classes use weapons right now, even priest and mage. Holding this for Medivh feels more and more correct as more and more priests and mages add him to their decklists. It is obviously MVP against pirate warrior, eating an arcanite reaper has won me more games than I can count.

Infested Tauren x1, Direhorn Hatchling x2, Cairne Bloodhoof x1, N'Zoth, The Corruptor: The reason to play the deck. In control matchups you have 4 6/9 taunts available to you before you hit fatigue, and a huge board swing with N’Zoth. Against midrange or board centric aggro decks this can sometimes act as your closer, but even if it does not the taunts are quite useful for stalling and stabilizing the board.

Dirty Rat x2, Brawl x2: Obvious synergy between the two cards. Dirty rat is one of the reasons I can beat quest rogue in the games that I do. It can also have quite big pulls against mage (and sometimes priest). Also can be MVP against Pirate warrior and other aggro (when they are near top-decking and it basically becomes a 2/6 taunt for 2 mana). I wouldn’t personally cut a brawl right now as there are a ton of “swarmy” decks (especially aggro druid, paladin, and even silence priest).

Shield Slam x2, Execute x2, Fiery War Axe x2, Slam x1, Shield Block x2: Pretty standard control warrior stuff. I like cycle but opted out of having 2 slams after a number of games where it was sitting in my hand against decks I needed to be proactive against. Haven’t missed the extra copy.

Elise the Trailblazer: Would be hard to find a sub for this, but could just choose another “tech” card I supposed (since she is basically tech against control). With how hard we are cycling this pack very often becomes relevant, and it can provide the little bit of extra value you need against warrior, mage and priest (as well as other control decks).

Mulligans and Matchups

Look for Waraxe, Armorsmith, Loot hoarder, Acolyte, Ghoul If meta is full of aggro druid, consider keeping Sleep with the Fishes, Dirty Rat, Brawl. If meta is full of Jade Druid, consider keeping Direhorn, Elise, Cairne. My instinct would be to mulligan for Aggro Druid. It has been more common in my experience, and feels very very favoured if you draw well (as opposed to Jade Druid that feels unfavoured even with a “nut” draw).

Aggro Druid (Favourable)

Try to keep your HP high, fight aggressively for board, but hold brawls for living mana if possible (i.e. don’t brawl a 2/3 minion board unless you are in danger, it would probably be better to play a taunt and stall if possible). The matchup feels favourable and the stats appear to show it. Despite hitting quite a few jade druids, my overall winrate is still 12-6 against Druid.

Jade Druid (Unfavourable)

Just cycle fast, try to play your deathrattles, and aim for an early N’Zoth if possible. Most of the games I won, I tried dirty rat turn 8 or 9 (or when their hand seemed awkward) and hit Gadgetzan Auctioneer. It really is what loses you the matchup, so if you can pull it you likely have a shot as long as you aren’t drawing terribly. They will usually hold it until turn 10 since they know you are a slower deck and will want to cycle it with Wild Growth. Don’t get too hung up on the losses, and mulligan aggressively for a good hand if you suspect it is Jade. You won’t win this with a mediocre hand most of the time.

Look for Waraxe, Armorsmith, Loot hoarder, Acolyte, Ghoul Consider keeping Fishes (if you have an activator, or can mull 3 cards on coin to look for one), execute (if hand is already passable, as you can lose the game to a hyena alone)

Don’t have a ton of data on this matchup. I would suspect it is a tough on and I definitely have played some games against hunter (on my tablet, hence the lack of stats). It plays out very similar to how control warrior vs midrange hunter used to, though their starts can often be more explosive. Try to cycle and fight for board, while keeping your HP high is obviously ideal, I would prioritize removal and cycle before your health total.

Look for Waraxe (most important, I would mill other good cards just for the axe especially if going 2nd), Armorsmith, Loot hoarder, Acolyte, Ghoul Consider keeping Ooze if you have a playable 2 drop already, and Shield block if you have a Waraxe + 1 other decent early game card.

“Burn” Mage (Even)

This matchup is the biggest reason to run Armorsmiths. Ideally we do not play it on curve (rather play it with a board, while trading or using whirlwind effects) but if it is the only drop it is worth throwing out if under pressure. The war axe is crucial for removing Mana Wyrm, Arcanologist, Medivh's Valet, etc. You want to avoid chip damage as much as possible. With that said, I feel comfortable dropping my HP to about 20 at the cost of board control, especially since it really becomes “free health” if he plays Alex. Ideally you spend the first 5-6 turns developing/controlling the board and cycling cards, then around turn 7 onwards you can start generating armor. Ooze can be MVP against Medivh, the Guardian, so if at all possible hold onto it for that. If you get the weapon it basically becomes a 3 mana 3/3, remove 3 7+ mana drops, which makes the reward high enough to risk holding it if possible.

Freeze Mage (Slightly Favourable)

Should play out very similarly to “burn” mage, but you can hold your armorsmiths much easier for a bigger armor gain turn. Ideally both on the same turn with one or two whirlwinds + trades). If you build enough armor this is basically over since freeze has limited damage and no way to take the board… that said about 90% of the mages I faced were the “burn” board-centric mage.

Look for Waraxe, Armorsmith, Loot hoarder, Acolyte, Ghoul as with most other matchups, also keep Ooze if you already have a playable early game card Consider mulling hard for an activator if you have sleep with the fishes, consider keeping 1 copy of brawl on the coin.

Murloc (Slightly Unfavourable)

Plays out similar to aggro druid, but feels more difficult as they do not run out of gas as quickly. Aggressively remove minions to avoid murloc buffs as much as possible. Unless you are going first and draw the nuts, you will likely need a board clear to stabilize (either fishes + activator or a brawl). If you hand is poor, don’t be shy to take a chance on dirty rat, especially if you have brawl in hand. Worst case it will pull a raid leader and lose you the game, but if the game is likely already a loss, it might be worth the risk. Like other aggro decks I will often play taunts to stall before using a clear if they do not have significantly more power on board than my taunt will absorb. The aggro deck is generally forced to all in due to their low curve, so the taunt might end up having them play 2-3 more cards which can seal the game as they might be out of gas after your clear.

Control (Even)

Try to cycle to your win condition (N’Zoth & eventually matriarchs + Elise pack). Don’t be shy about fatigue, but still keep it in mind as the game goes late. If you haven’t played N’Zoth and you are sub 5-7 cards, consider holding loot hoarders, acolytes, slam for draw, etc. Ooze on Tirion Fordring weapon is of course ideal, but if you can get a Truesilver Champion at a crucial point do not hesitate. Try not to overextend on the board, but I often try to bait out an equality since I know N’Zoth will require one. If you get one Equality you can basically extend onto the board as much as you like, because if they use the second one N’Zoth will likely seal the game. Try to use dirty rat in conjunction with brawl, as there is a lot of high value cards you can pull against control paladin.

I would say even, though the small stat pool shows it to be favourable, likely just natural variance.

Look for Waraxe, Loot hoarder, Acolyte, Direhorn, Cairne, Elise Consider keeping Execute (for big buffed early minions), brawl (you will almost always require one against silence).

I shy away from keeping armorsmith and ghoul here, they both feel underwhelming. The big goal is to cycle and play your “dudes” so that you can contest the board and hit a big N’Zoth sooner rather than later. Watch out early game for how you play your loot hoarders and acolyte, I will often throw them into enemy minions before playing out more minions because a potion of madness on either target can straight up lose you the game. Sometimes this matchup takes a bit more luck than others feel like they do. A win here might require a risky brawl or a lucky execute draw on a gigantic buffed minion, but all of this luck can be mitigated somewhat if you are able to cycle quickly. I would choose to play an acolyte into Northshire any day if that helps understand the flow of the matchup (i.e. I believe 1 draw for the warrior is worth more than the draw for priest if he bumps and heals).

Look for Waraxe, Armorsmith, Loot hoarder, Acolyte, Ghoul, Dirty rat I wouldn’t really consider keeping much else in this matchup, you just want to mulligan for some cycle, waraxe, and dirty rat due to its effectiveness against quest rogue.

Against Quest (Unfavourable)

Hopefully you have been lucky enough to get 1 or 2 dirty rats before they complete the quest. I play these without hesitation on curve. Logically it would make sense to wait for them to be completing the quest, then try to “snipe” a combo piece, but I have found that to be less effective than just playing the rats out. They often pull the bounce minions like Youthful Brewmaster, and they act as a wall to protect things like loot hoarders which can get in chip damage. It also makes vanish plays less effective as you can just pull their minions again the next turn. Without dirty rat it is still winnable but quite uphill, they need to draw less than optimally, and you need to curve out well. Basically just play solitaire in this case and try to work yourself towards a big N’Zoth while hopefully drawing brawls for if they overcommit post quest. I actively remove minions pre-quest as the deck doesn’t have the damage to push for lethal and they are much easier to remove pre-quest! It IS possible to run them out of gas if they don’t draw well, though it’s not the ideal win condition.

Against Tempo/Miracle (Even)

Just aim to aggressively remove minions, cycle/draw as a secondary goal. Lack of conceal makes this matchup much better than I recall pre-ungoro, most boards are clearable and a big Edwin VanCleef stuck much less often. There isn’t a ton to this matchup other than removing, playing on curve, and keeping track of their damage so you can (hopefully) play around what burst they have available, being greedy within reason (holding a brawl for instance), while not letting them chip your hp too much.

Look for Waraxe, Armorsmith, Loot hoarder, Acolyte, Ghoul Consider keeping 1 brawl.

I don’t have a ton of info on this matchup. I know elemental shaman is somewhat of a popular deck, but was not something I faced much in my local meta. Should play out similar to Murloc paladin. Be wary of Bloodlust, try to actively remove threats but don’t throw away your resources too quickly. I would consider playing direhorns and Cairne into “bad trade” type board states, i.e. board states where you are not in danger of dying, but know it will be easily traded into (as ideally they do not hex these targets).

Look for Waraxe, Armorsmith, Loot hoarder, Acolyte, Ghoul, Brawl.

I pretty much did not play against warlock. I would assume at this point that most will be zoo, but the mulligan should be somewhat similar to against handlock. This is just another aggro matchup where you will need to exhaust their resources while hopefully keeping your life total at a reasonable level. If someone has specific warlock decks they are running into, I would be happy to hypothesize and extrapolate as to how the matchup should likely play from the warrior side.

Waraxe, Armorsmith, loot hoarder, Acolyte, Ghoul, Ooze Consider keeping whirlwind (especially if you also have fishes), shield block if you also have slam, dirty rat if you have other playable 2 drops already. If you know it is pirate somehow I wouldn’t ideally keep loot hoarder, but it is a good drop against taunt and passable against pirate so I will often keep it.

Against Pirate (Favourable)

Armorsmith and Waraxe are MVPs early game. If on coin and no quest played turn 1, definitely coin out any two drop you have if you have another in hand. If you are lucky enough to draw Ooze, try to save for reaper or a buffed waraxe, but if you are under a ton of pressure or suspect he is holding weapon buffs it is not wrong to play it out on curve. Ideally we draw into taunts, but they are too slow to keep in the Mulligan. This is a matchup that with the current decklist felt quite favoured (earlier versions without armorsmiths felt 50/50 at best). While this is definitely a matchup to play almost 100% for tempo over value, try to save an answer for frothing if at all possible as it can lose you the game almost singlehandedly. Try to play the removal game before playing taunts to soak damage, unless you are of course in great danger of dying. Playing taunts into a board of 2-3 minions allows them to use weapons/heroic strike/mortal strike to remove taunts and push repetitive damage from minions. Without minion chip damage they should not be able to push enough damage other than a crazy buffed reaper.

Against Taunt (Even or Slightly Unfavourable)

This is similar to Jade druid in style of play, but much more even (this surprised me as I thought it would be unfavoured outright). You really are just trying to play out your minions and cycle and force them to respond. Don’t be shy to brawl 2/3 minions if they are somewhat valuable, as brawl often ends up dead in your hand since you are the “beatdown” in the matchup. Elise can be the gas you need at the end of the game to soak up rag shots while pushing damage, or develop a board after N’Zoth gets brawled. Dirty Rat should be played pretty early as long as you have some way to stabilize should it get a bad pull (worst I think is primordial drake, which is clearly not ideal to pull but at least is only 4 power). If you pull stonehill it can straight up win you the game. If you can get to all 4 of your matriarchs they are quite powerful due to their 9 hp against the hero power, try not to play more than 1 or 2 on the board though, as getting them removed through brawl is pretty back breaking. Also be weary of playing acolyte into a brawlable board, you really need to get the cycle and the only way that doesn’t happen is if it does through brawl.

To any who may try the deck, I wish you the best of luck! I had a blast with it last season, and really do think it is very fun to play while still feeling competitive. I did not feel like I was playing a gimmick deck, or trying to make something work just for the sake of being able to be “unique”.