Ball and Chain
A small weapon that is all about the attached deathrattle. The Warrior’s goal here will be to equip the weapon, flood the board and then cast some Whirlwind effect before the second weapon swing. A 1/2 buff is massive for 1 mana, though this is a 1/1 buff in practice (as it requires us to damage our minions). We could theoretically use this card on minions we value trade with, but then we may not be able to immediately attack with the buff. It is also less realistic that we have multiple minions in a damaged state without some level of activation on our part.
This weapon encourages us to build an aggressive Enrage Warrior deck, one that floods the board and has multiple ways to damage its own board. While this is a tempting proposition, there is some contradiction here. Minions that flood the board tend to be small and are not necessarily good targets for self-damage due to their low health. There needs to be some balance between our desire to have as many bodies as possible to hit with Ball and Chain, maintaining Enrage Warrior level of minion quality, as well as enough self-damage activators (which are useless unless we have board).
This is not an easy thing to accomplish with the current cards available to the class, but Ball and Chain’s cheap cost and comfortable setup establish it as a strong contender to enable a new deck for the class.
Score: 3
Release the Beasts
A hand-buffing spell that encourages us to run more legendary minions, which is a nod towards Warrior’s rulebreaker legendary, Hogger. However, this spell is an awkward fit with Hogger that does not make too much sense.
The baseline effect is unacceptable. This is Grimestreet Outfitter’s battlecry for 2 mana. The only way this spell could be valuable is if our deck is dense with legendary minions. The problem with this scenario is that legendary minions are usually expensive and do not scale well with buffs, so we cannot build a competitive handbuff deck that is chock full of them.
Legendary minions are usually late-game win conditions that have important effects or battlecries. If we use Hogger to duplicate them, it will be to enhance the consistency of their effects. Not to have a slightly stronger buff spell so we can beat our opponents with a buffed board of legendary minions.
Score: 1
Scrappy Defender
This taunt cannot ever meet the condition for its activation on turn 4 if we are running a normal 30-card deck. Warrior has two options introduced in this set that increase its deck size. The first is Hogger, which duplicates the legendary cards in our deck. The second is Scramble for Gear, which shuffles cast-when-drawn armor spells.
For that reason, Scrappy Defender appears to be designed for slower decks rather than faster ones. The issue with this is Control Warrior may not want to spend a significant amount of mana on what is ultimately a 7-health taunt. Defender’s ability to pressure opponents as a 4-mana 7/7 is not too relevant for an archetype that strictly wants to survive, which is why it usually dedicates its card slots towards removal, armor gain and card draw.
Ironically, Defender becomes weaker in slower, drawn-out games, where Control Warrior’s pivoting to a pressure plan is more likely to occur. We think this is a luxury that the class cannot afford.
Score: 1
Disguised Watchman
A minion that can either be used as a board clear or self-damage trigger. Dealing 2 damage to all enemy minions for 2 mana is good, but we do give our opponent a free 2/4 in the process. The self-damage effect is only worthwhile if our deck heavily leans into this effect.
If we play an aggressive Enrage Warrior that looks to flood the board and connect with Ball and Chain, Watchman might deal too much damage to our board. After all, our minions are likely small and some of them may not even exceed 2 health. We are better off running Ominous Nightmares or Searing Fissure.
As for its use as a board clear, Crowd Control, which we will talk about next, is significantly better for a defensive Warrior archetype. While Watchman does have the advantage of versatility, it comes at the price of efficiency that is outclassed by specialist cards.
Score: 1
Crowd Control
A 2-damage AOE effect that is upgraded to 2+2 damage if we have 25 or more cards in the deck. Much like Defender, this cannot be active on turn 3 in a normal 30-card deck but becomes permanently active on curve if we run Hogger with a decent number of legendary cards.
Crowd Control’s upgraded effect is incredibly strong. A 4-damage AOE for just 3 mana is a guaranteed board reset against any kind of early-game pressure. In Standard, it is only eclipsed by Medivh’s Triumph. Quite frankly, this would be the strongest AOE in most formats, as Medivh’s Triumph is absurd when paired with a quest.
For Control Warrior, this is a staple inclusion, a mulligan priority and a firm win condition against any aggressive opponent that helps the deck bridge into the mid-game without much effort.
Two copies of Crowd Control, then figure out the rest.
Score: 4
Rioter
A minion that buffs any friendly minion’s attack that gets damaged. We suspect Rioter is more optimally used when paired alongside a whirlwind effect to leverage it as a board-based finisher. It can act as a threat since it can buff itself, but the opponent might be able to ignore it if it sits on the board alone.
Rioter forms a combo with Disguised Watchman to buff our board’s attack twice. However, it requires our board to be able to survive the damage, which is not trivial if we are playing a board-flooding deck. More realistically, it will be used with Ominous Nightmares and Axe of the Forefathers.
We are a bit hesitant of fully getting behind this card, mostly because of the support it requires to be consistent. Considering it is more expensive than Ball and Chain, cannot be pre-equipped, while landing a significantly weaker buff on our minions, it might be redundant.
But its main advantage over Ball and Chain is that it is a persistent effect that can snowball further. Provided there is enough health on our minions to take the pain, it can act as a pseudo-Bloodlust. In a board-flooding Enrage Warrior deck, this is our finisher.
Score: 3
Scramble for Gear
Gaining 2 armor for 1 mana is obviously weak, but the total value of armor is 12, provided we draw all the pieces. This makes Scramble for Gear a stronger card in slower matchups, when we have more time to draw the armor, but we normally want armor gain to outlast faster decks. As a standalone card, we are not impressed with this spell.
However, we cannot forget about Crowd Control. Scramble for Gear maintains Crowd Control’s uptime at later turns, which could still be relevant when blowing up an aggressive opponent’s board. Due to how important Crowd Control should be for any Control Warrior archetype, Scramble for Gear may be included for its sake.
One thing that we are encouraged to do in Control Warrior is possess a lot of card draw, as it synergizes with the quest. Adding another spell that shuffles value into our deck further leans into that need.
Score: 2
Rampaging Hound
Preparing this card on turn 2 means we can play Rampaging Hound on turn 4. This is not a bad prospect considering Control Warrior often does not have anything better to do on turn 2, so setting up a board clear turn against aggressive decks is an option to consider. We can also just use Hound to kill just a couple of minions while leaving it alive.
We would value this minion more if we were not hypnotized by Crowd Control, which is a superior board clear, as its outcome is not conditional on the opponent’s board state, it comes down earlier and it deals more damage to the board. There are also Decimation and Shellnado, so Warrior is not hurting for AOE.
This is a case where a useful card may not see much play because the class already has better options available to it. If this minion was available to other classes, we would rate it highly, but since we have the context of Warrior’s available toolkit, it may end up a fringe choice.
Score: 2
Warptooth
A new Patches, which activates whenever three friendly characters get damaged on our turns. This includes our own hero. Our minions do not have to survive the damage either. Warptooth can be drawn to our hand and still jump to the board upon activation, which means that a drawn Warptooth does not feel as bad as a drawn Patches.
It is enough for us to clear an enemy minion with a weapon, while trading with two other friendly minions, to summon Warptooth to the board. Of course, we could use a Whirlwind effect on our board to accomplish the same, but our point is that Warptooth is not too difficult to activate relatively early in the game if we play a deck that develops minions proactively.
It will not come out on turn 1 like Patches, but Warptooth is a bigger minion, and it is enough for us to summon it in the mid-game for it to make a significant impact. And if we manage to do it earlier, it becomes even more backbreaking.
But here is another thing to consider. Thanks to Hogger, we can have two copies of Warptooth in our deck. So, whenever we activate its condition, both copies jump to the board. This is not a 3/3 with charge now, it is a 6/6 with charge. This interaction is so powerful that we believe Warptooth decks will run Hogger even without a single other legendary.
To conclude, this legendary looks insane and might be the very best card in the set. A complete game-changer for proactive Warrior decks going forward.
Score: 4
Chainbreaker Hogger
Hogger copies every single legendary card in our deck and shuffles those copies into our deck. This includes legendary cards that were drawn in the mulligan phase. If our deck has 5 legendary cards, our deck size will be 35.
Our ability to run two copies of a legendary is a game changer. Legendary cards are often win conditions, so having two copies of them can add power and consistency to our win condition, as well as redundancy. Warptooth alone is a reason to run Hogger in every proactive Warrior deck, even if its legendary count is not high.
But when it comes to slower decks, Hogger represents a massive boost in value, positioning Warrior to potentially become a late-game powerhouse. The Herald package becomes more enticing with two copies of Deathwing, Ragnaros and Ultraxion. Two copies of Umbra transform Egg Warrior into a deck that will now be significantly harder to grind out of threats.
Those are just two examples, but the possibilities are vast. Remember, while some may point out that doubling our legendary cards will cause our deck to be too greedy against aggressive decks, Hogger allows us to cut some legendary cards while preserving our late-game power through the redundancy of others. We get to make the call.
The call will be to play this legendary in every single Warrior deck.
Score: 4
Final Thoughts
Violet Hold Set Rank: 1st
Overall Power Ranking: 2nd
Warrior’s set is the strongest and most well-rounded from this expansion, one that provides multiple different playstyles key tools to compete with. It also provides Warrior with two jaw-dropping legendary minions that could establish the class as the best in the game, or get it very close to the top.
Control Warrior gets a major boost in both its survivability options, thanks to Crowd Control, as well as its late game prowess, thanks to Hogger. It is the double boost it needed for a new chance to compete, as it is heavily lagging behind other strategies. Hogger makes us want to give the Herald package another chance, while the possibility to run two copies of Umbra in Egg Warrior should not go unnoticed.
Dragon Warrior will get tweaked, but that tweak is incredibly impactful on an already powerful deck. It can now run two copies of Warptooth and blow out opponents early. A free 6/6 with charge is complete bonkers and it already possesses the tools to trigger Warptooth quickly.
The arrival of Warptooth, along with Ball and Chain and Rioter, should also encourage us to build a faster Enrage Warrior deck with a low curve that floods the board. It might be tricky to strike a balance between its ability to go wide and its minions’ resilience to Whirlwind effects, but it will be a direction worth exploring as it should produce the fastest and most consistent way to trigger Warptooth.
No class has been given this kind of power boost in so many different directions. Expect it.
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