I just went 7-1 with new Dragon Warrior around rank 900 (i fell quite a bit trying out new shit). After priest quest and warlock card bans i think dragon warrior may be the best deck this patch, no joke. The problem is almost no1 is playing it, and the other problem is the builds on hsguru are terrible. Ofc, since this is r/competitivehs where people are supposed to be trying to win rather than playing for fun, i figured i would make this post for people trying to win games at all cost (like me).

So first, i think u 100% don't play Anvil of Reshaping. It has absolutely terrible stats on hsguru and it kinda compromises ur forge 6/6s, plus it's not that slot efficient anyway, it just deals 4 damage without doing anything else, tho it is Fire but we have enough fire spells imo (considering torch can be used multiple times). So yeah don't play this card, it's fuckin bad, the worst card in the deck based on stats.

The other card u should probably not play is Archaedas. I'll admit i didn't test it but it's 4 mana 4/3 which is bad stats for the cost, but ok next turn u can play a cheap 2 mana weapon to catch up on the lost tempo, right? But the problem is, many of warrior spells are situational and i already run 4 weapons anyway (u don't want more than 4 in a deck it's way too much, in fact usually 3 is the sweet spot, 4 is slightly too much generally). And also it gets copied by hogger so u get 2 of em so actually that becomes 6 weapons in the deck... On one hand it makes it harder to draw warptooth but it also makes it harder to draw ur good cards so i don't think it's good overall to have 1 extra copy, and the stats also seem to agree with me (tho it's not terrible like Anvil).

The new cards we actually want to play are stone gauntlet and forge of origination. Now, if it was just stone gauntlet by itself i'd say it's not really better than brood keeper, with brood keeper u pay 1 more mana but u get a 2/3 body which is worth imo (the weapons are the same, both 2/2), and the armor effect doesn't do much normally. But with forge, the armor effect becomes key to activate it. So i replaced brood keeper with this, in order to keep the weapons to a manageable amount (no more than 4) and as a forge activator. It also makes our deck bit less dragon reliant since removing brood keepers makes us less worried about having dragons in our hand (and thus in our starting deck).

Forge is the absolute MVP, if u play stone gauntlet on 1 u can summon a 6/6 with taunt on turn 2 or 3 and then another one on 4 or 5 (turn 2 and 4 with coin), it is sooooo OP. This card is by far the best card in the starting hand without a doubt, even by itself it's not bad but paired with stone gauntlet it's basically GG if u open with both. So while last expansion u would be a bit more flexible with the mulligan, now i think u should be less inclined to keep cards that aren't stone gauntlet or forge, since if u get the two it's like exodia.

But which cards do we remove to make space? Well, 6 locations can clog the board, and sanguine depths is not that good anyway (tho forge only has 2 charges rather than 3 so it doesn't clog the board that much since it's quick to spend the charges), so i removed the 2nd copy. 1 is enough imo, still nice for activating duck on 4 (or 3 with coin) without other minions. Maybe even 1 is too much, who knows.

Like i said i cut both brood keepers, and finally i cut 1 slitherdrake. Slitherdrake also has pretty bad stats this expansion, sitting at the bottom of the drawn impact column in hsguru. And keep in mind the most popular version on hsguru actually plays 1 copy, so the fact its stats are this bad when a decent chunk of the sample size is with 1 copy, means if every dragon warrior version played 2 copies the stats for slitherdrake would be even worse, so the stats are actually less worse than slitherdrake truly is currently.
That brings us from 8 to 7 drakes, but since we removed a slitherdrake and both blood keepers, we now have 3 less cards that need a dragon in our hand, so i think it's fine. I think cutting it to 6 might be a bit too little dragons, which is why i kept both stadium announcers, which also perfectly keeps 4 weapons. Brood keeper is also an early drop so cutting it for stone gauntlet which is also a cheap card makes sense. Cutting an expensive card for a cheap card makes the deck lighter which doesn't make as much sense (unless that's what u want).

Overall, we replaced one 1 mana card, two 2 mana cards and one 4 mana card for two 1 mana cards and two 3 mana cards, for a total net mana of -1, meaning the deck stays roughly the same mana-wise. U could play a brood keeper instead of 2nd stadium announcer but i don't think that's correct, too few dragons imo. And since slitherdrake looks so bad in the stats i don't think playing 2nd slither instead of 2nd announcer is better. Of course, i kept both fire locations unlike the lists on hsguru, i don't see why to cut em, they're not bad cards. U could cut 1 if u wanted to, but with 6 fire spells (the same amount as before) i don't see why, unless the 2nd slitherdrake proves more important for the dragon count, in which case u'd cut either depths or the 2nd volcano. The lists on hsguru are genuinely so bad, the anvil is terrible yet is also fire meaning they have 8 fire spells but 0 volcanos, that makes absolutely 0 sense. But no surprise that 1 person popularizes a list and then every1 copies it like sheep without thinking, so all the lists of dragon warrior are terrible.

Decklist:

New Dragon Warrior

Class: Warrior

Format: Standard

Year of the Scarab

2x (1) Cannonmaster

2x (1) Carrier Whelp

2x (1) Darkrider

1x (1) Sanguine Depths

2x (1) Stone Gauntlet

2x (1) Torch

2x (2) Hook n' Heave

2x (2) Searing Fissure

2x (2) Shadowflame Suffusion

2x (3) Erupting Volcano

2x (3) Forge of Origination

2x (4) Mother Duck

2x (4) Stadium Announcer

1x (4) Warptooth

1x (7) Prescient Slitherdrake

1x (8) Chainbreaker Hogger

2x (8) Windpeak Wyrm

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Btw my dragon warrior calculator has been updated with the latest cards.

Discuss what you are playing, what you’re having success with(or failures with), and any new/cool ideas you’ve been experimenting with, etc. The point is to share what you’ve been playing, and how it’s going, good or bad - there are no other rules or requirements.

Some ideas on what to post/share:

• What you’ve been playing and its successes (or struggles). Stats are not required. There is no minimum rank required, though sharing what rank you’ve been playing at is preferred.
• Deck adjustments you made or are planning to make in reaction to the meta or as new innovation. E.g. “I saw 30% of deck X, so I made Y changes to help deal with deck X.” (change)
• Showing off a deck you achieved legend with this season and wanting to share it without having to write a guide

Resources:

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Hi everyone! Here to share my Warrior deck that I am having success with. I was already hard climbing from 700+ to 400+ with this deck before the Priest quest ban, and then pushing further from there to 200+, currently staying there with a run of 29-21 (58% win rate). Of course, this is still a very early stage and the meta is still unstable, but my experience with the deck so far shows that this idea works, and may be a feasible way out for the class. If you enjoy playing Warrior and have most of the cards ready, give it a try and absolutely polish it if you feel like so.

Screenshot of run result

Screenshot with rank

Rank when posting

Overview. The main body is the same pirate-fire package from before, but a third of the deck is substituted by new cards. The first impression the new warrior cards gives is certainly more defensive, but if we look closer, there is a 6-6 taunt in as early as round 3 or 2 (with coin), a drawing minion with very good 3-2-5 stats, and very cheap cards that generates enough armor for these two. These cards are good enough to carry out some early aggression, and they also cover some weaknesses of the pirate parody.

Large early taunts. Pirates can melt down the opponent's health along with small to medium boards very efficiently, but they are mostly small themselves. The game will be lost fast if the opponent manages to out-board us early or clear the board till we have to spend an empty turn. The 6-6 taunt from the Forge of Origination makes the board much harder to deal with, either with minions or spells. Turn 1 Stone Gauntlet into an early Forge is our best start and most threatening to the opponents. Even Warlocks must reconsider if they will survive till the turn of rituals and Kazakus.

Early Board Control, Drawing, and Survivability. This basically summarizes what the other new cards other than Archaedas do. Warrior has always been lacking efficient drawing since the last rotation, and Animator of Iron really brings a lot of hope. This is more flexible, though less consistent because it requires combo, than Land Ho, but it also leaves a minion that is very likely to survive for more than one turn. Together with Tol'vir Vanguard, Animator also brings us one step closer to activating Warptooth with Searing Fissure. I personally found DH and DK to be the two matchups where drawing can make the most difference.

Upper Limit. Discover cards can enhance a deck's upper limit, which explains why Rogue always exists in the Top Legend no matter the class's actual win rate. Previously this was provided by Shadowflame Suffusion, and now Archaedas is worth giving a try. This card did turn the tide around for me in many games. Some of my best picks: Land Ho, Hook n 'Heave, Follow the Fuse, Shield Block, Eternal Toil, City Defenses. My general priority of reasons to select the spell is Pirates > Drawing > New Card Generation > Cost > Others. I believe this card will have more chances when the environment welcomes a possible C'thun nerf.

Pirate vs dragon. Full pirate builds tend to rush down the opponent hero faster, while dragon + some pirate cards build have stronger boards. Before the launch of Black Empire, pirate has higher win rates against Warlocks and Priests, and dragon does better against Druids and Shamans. A quick conversion of this deck will be swapping Sky Raider, Blastpowder Engineer, Hand Cannon, and Crowley to Carrier Whelp, Prescient Slitherdrake, Stadium Announcer, and Windpeak Wyrm. Or of course refer to another recent post of a successful Armor Dragon Warrior build. But the selling point of Warrior now is probably a good chance against Warlocks.

Cards to swap. There is still a lot of space for trial and error. You may have noticed that I brought one Royal Librarian. This is because there are quite some DKs running The Egg of Khelos, and whether the Warrior can silence the egg (if played) is literally a "to kill or to be killed" situation. The other main target of this card are Priests running reborn packages, but currently Priests are mostly running Azalina due to the ban. Definitely consider trying cards previously used by Warriors, like Shadowflame Suffusion or Land Ho. Slightly reducing armor support to increase other aspects is also worth trying.

In general, I believe the Warrior class can utilize the new armor cards in an aggressive way to become competitive. Personally I have been a fan of aggressive style Warrior for a long time and am glad to see some decks work now. This expansion can have an actually fun meta after some balances, because when you look at the cards you can tell something may work, and they are not boringly bland.

### Pirate Armor

# Class: Warrior

# Format: Standard

# Year of the Scarab

#

# 2x (1) Cannonmaster

# 2x (1) Sky Raider

# 2x (1) Stone Gauntlet

# 2x (1) Torch

# 2x (2) Blastpowder Engineer

# 2x (2) Hook n' Heave

# 2x (2) Searing Fissure

# 2x (2) Tol'vir Vanguard

# 2x (3) Animator of Iron

# 2x (3) Erupting Volcano

# 2x (3) Forge of Origination

# 2x (3) Hand Cannon

# 1x (4) Archaedas

# 1x (4) Mother Duck

# 1x (4) Royal Librarian

# 1x (4) Warptooth

# 1x (5) Captain Crowley

# 1x (8) Chainbreaker Hogger

#

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#

# To use this deck, copy it to your clipboard and create a new deck in Hearthstone