Witchwood Thoughts: Warrior
So far, Warrior cards have come in two general groupings: Rush cards, and whirlwind/’enrage’ themed cards--with some overlap. Unfortunately, neither grouping seems to be powerful enough to really form an archetype. So far, rush minions have either had too little health or too little attack. (The recently revealed neutral rush-worgen-styled cards are both, or either rather.) There is one primary exception to this: Militia Commander, although that’s only on her battlecry. Darius Crowley needs more health, and Redband Wasp is very close to being just right, but it’s hard to tell since a lot of its stats are locked behind the enrage mechanic. In passing, I will note that Woodcutter’s Axe is very good for rush minions, but probably has trouble lining up well, and would have been better with a more health based buff.
The whirlwind/enrage mechanic also seems to be rather spotty. Warpath is an excellent card, but the other synergy cards are rather strange, since many of them seem to be very board oriented while Warpath will deal a lot of damage to your board as well. The two main synergy cards, eg Redband Wasp and Blackhowl Gunspire, both have a decent chunk of health to survive multiple whirlwind effects, but both require ‘whirlwinds’ to really pull off their full potential. Gunspire, though has another problem. Yes, Gunspire can hit face, but it can’t attack, and can’t target enemies, so it’s inconsistent enough that I don’t personally want to claim that it does anything particular. And it’s rather expensive, so it seems difficult to consistently make use of it. That said, I have my hopes.
One last note, on Deadly Arsenal: it’s a beautiful card, but the decks that want to run it probably want Bloodrazor more. As far as I can tell, there probably isn’t any kind of deck that would prefer to run Deadly Arsenal instead of Bloodrazor. That said, Deadly Arsenal isn’t doomed, if any deck comes into existence that wants to run heavy weapons and is fine giving up Bloodrazor, then one or two Deadly Arsenals are probably not unwelcome. The power level is good enough to compel some sacrifice.
For even decks: maybe a dead man’s hand control warrior with warpath for AoE and the Death Knight, and Unidentified Shield for armor. It would be fun. A lot of draw would be necessary though, and that would be tough without Acolyte of Pain or Shield Block.
For odd decks: There would be a LOT of armor gain available, given the upgraded hero power and Shield Block, though the overall cardpool is lower than the odd deck, it has a lot of powerful options. That said, it doesn’t really seem to have a win condition.
~Aodhfyn