Since my guide last week on the new “pain” Darkglare Warlock deck, it expectedly exploded in popularity. With many players piloting the deck at the high legend ranks, however, it was time to find a counter to the deck. I played about 80 or so games between 200 to 400 Legend on the European server throughout the past week. In this time, one deck stands out above the rest that most people seem to be overlooking. The deck I’m talking about is Odd Warrior.
Odd Warrior exists in some form or another since Baku, the Mooneater released in April of 2018. The deck’s popularity surges and fades throughout the year, but it does well against many current popular lists. The main deck we target with Odd Warrior is the popular Darkglare Warlock. With many removal tools, life gain, and the ability to beat Loatheb, it allows Odd Warrior to take a unique place as a counter to the deck in the current meta.
In addition to Odd Warrior’s matchup against Darkglare Warlock, it can win against other popular meta decks such as Raza Priest, Odd Rogue, and Combo Druid. While not each of these matchups is as simple as the others, you can seriously increase your winrate against unexpecting opponents with the right approach.
The Odd Warrior decklist
I’m by no means an expert with Odd Warrior, so I don’t want to go too far into discussing the decklist, but the image above shows the decklist I used to climb today from about rank 380 to 125 Legend with only a single loss. The deck features several tech cards that are probably not correct for every metagame, cards such as Kobold Stickyfingers are only good to deal with the Kingsbane Rogue matchup. During my climb, I faced two Kingsbane Rogue players in a row early on, so the tech card was required to win the matchup from then on forward more consistently.
The board clears that allow you to beat Darkglare Warlock
The classic clear, Brawl
The decklist I played to counter Darkglare Warlock plays four distinct board wipes. The first, the classic, Brawl. Brawl is a seriously consistent card in many matchups, not just against Darkglare Warlock. In the majority of games, they don’t have time to set up a board with Loatheb, or they take too long, so you have the ability to play Brawl for ten mana instead. By far, Brawl is what led me to victory in the most games against Darkglare Warlock, both in the testing games & in my final climb today with the deck.
Reckless Flurry
The second board clear in Odd Warrior is Reckless Flurry. Reckless Flurry is a vital part of the matchup against Darkglare Warlock. Having the option to clear Darkglare with only a single hero power setup allows you to drastically slow down games. While there were times that Darkglare cleared board setups with Molten & Flesh Giants, this was much rarer of an occurrence.
It is often quite difficult to have Armor set up past the early turns, but ensuring it is an option by holding onto Armor generating tools in the mid to late-game does increase your chances in the matchup.
The armor generating tools I included in the list are Shield Block, Evil Quartermaster, Bash, and Eternium Rover. More options are available, such as Iron Hide to increase the consistency of Reckless Flurry against decks such as Darkglare Warlock and Odd Rogue if you are struggling with the matchup later on.
Plague of Wrath
Plague of Wrath is a card that is still in the deck, but it is high on my list of cards to replace. Since I no longer have space in the deck for Whirlwind, which I replaced with Risky Skipper’s, it is just a lot worse. The card’s main synergy options are area effects such as Ravaging Ghoul, our minions, or a card such as Dyn-o-Matic.
Lord Barov
Lord Barov is honestly the card that makes this deck as absurdly powerful as it is right now. The combination of Risky Skipper & Lord Barov to have a guaranteed board clear against Darkglare Warlock as early as turn four is honestly incredible. The speed of the clear is something not available for any other class in Hearthstone.
In addition to that, it is immensely flexible. There are a dozen ways to activate Lord Barov in the deck if you don’t have access to Risky Skipper. Some examples of these include Shield Slam, Bash, Ravaging Ghoul, Reckless Flurry (at low Armor), Dyn-o-Matic, and even some of the Lackey’s generated by Evil Quartermaster.
A simple mulligan guide to Odd Warrior
Again, since my dataset and experience with Odd Warrior is limited, I don’t want to pretend to know more than I do. The best cards to find in your mulligans are heavily dependent on what you expect your opponent to play from my experience. So let’s cover the three of the most common decks you are likely to face on the Ranked ladder right now.
Beating Darkglare Warlock as Odd Warrior
By far against Darkglare Warlock, the card we want most is our new lord and savior, Lord Barov. Finding this card in the first few turns of the game allows you to near guarantee victory against the deck right now. The amount of time this card grants you allows the rest of your deck to control the match. Other good tools include cards such as Eternium Rover, Risky Skipper, Reckless Flurry, Brawl, and Shield Slam.
If you include the card in your list, Bulwark of Azzinoth is a card that is extremely potent for this & various other matchups. The only reason I did not include this card in my initial list is that I don’t have the dust (yet) to craft the card. If you have access to it, you should include it in the current meta.
The Highlander Priest matchup
The Highlander Priest matchup is an interesting one. I had quite a good track record in the matchup, but discussing the deck with other players who played it from the Priest side of things believed it favored them. My path to success was to simply Tank Up! As many times as possible. There is a point quite early on in the matchup at around 60 or so armor, where Priest simply can’t win anymore.
While some Priest players include more ways to use Spawn of Shadows, through cards such as Seance, most people have cut these cards to improve their matchup against Darkglare Warlock. Because of this, the best cards in the matchup are those that generate Armor, such as Shield Block and Evil Quartermaster.
On the other hand, Coldlight Oracle & Brann Bronzebeard are a path to success. While it may take some turns to reach a point where you feel confident in overdrawing an important card, this is a great chance to end the game early on. If the opponent plays Lorekeeper Polkelt, you know (almost) exactly what their next draws will be. Overdrawing the right card can end the matchup on the spot with as little as one Coldlight Oracle.
Odd & Kingsbane Rogue vs Odd Warrior
The final category of decks you are going to face is the popular Rogue Archetypes. Against Rogue, our best cards are Shield Slam tools to deal with Hench-Clan Thug if they are Odd Rogue or Kobold Stickyfinger against Kingsbane Rogue. In general, however, most of the removal cards in our deck are good enough to hold. As long as you have time to slow the game down, the better your chances get.
That is all for this quick writeup on Odd Warrior. I wasn’t initially planning on making any content about it, but I guess I’m a sucker for old friends’ requests! I hope you enjoyed reading it, and give the deck a try on the ranked ladder. Let me know how you do, looking forward to seeing some of the Darkglare Warlock’s losses coming soon!
To stay up to date with Arend’s journey in the Wild Legend ranks, be sure to follow him & AceGameGuides on Twitter!
Do you want to have your deck featured, or work with AceGameGuides on creating strategic content? Email Arend@AceGameGuides.com, and we’ll talk!
Since my guide last week on the new “pain” Darkglare Warlock deck, it expectedly exploded in popularity. With many players piloting the deck at the high legend ranks, however, it was time to find a counter to the deck. I played about 80 or so games between 200 to 400 Legend on the European server throughout the past week. In this time, one deck stands out above the rest that most people seem to be overlooking. The deck I’m talking about is Odd Warrior.
Odd Warrior exists in some form or another since Baku, the Mooneater released in April of 2018. The deck’s popularity surges and fades throughout the year, but it does well against many current popular lists. The main deck we target with Odd Warrior is the popular Darkglare Warlock. With many removal tools, life gain, and the ability to beat Loatheb, it allows Odd Warrior to take a unique place as a counter to the deck in the current meta.
In addition to Odd Warrior’s matchup against Darkglare Warlock, it can win against other popular meta decks such as Raza Priest, Odd Rogue, and Combo Druid. While not each of these matchups is as simple as the others, you can seriously increase your winrate against unexpecting opponents with the right approach.
The Odd Warrior decklist
I’m by no means an expert with Odd Warrior, so I don’t want to go too far into discussing the decklist, but the image above shows the decklist I used to climb today from about rank 380 to 125 Legend with only a single loss. The deck features several tech cards that are probably not correct for every metagame, cards such as Kobold Stickyfingers are only good to deal with the Kingsbane Rogue matchup. During my climb, I faced two Kingsbane Rogue players in a row early on, so the tech card was required to win the matchup from then on forward more consistently.
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The board clears that allow you to beat Darkglare Warlock
The classic clear, Brawl
The decklist I played to counter Darkglare Warlock plays four distinct board wipes. The first, the classic, Brawl. Brawl is a seriously consistent card in many matchups, not just against Darkglare Warlock. In the majority of games, they don’t have time to set up a board with Loatheb, or they take too long, so you have the ability to play Brawl for ten mana instead. By far, Brawl is what led me to victory in the most games against Darkglare Warlock, both in the testing games & in my final climb today with the deck.
Reckless Flurry
The second board clear in Odd Warrior is Reckless Flurry. Reckless Flurry is a vital part of the matchup against Darkglare Warlock. Having the option to clear Darkglare with only a single hero power setup allows you to drastically slow down games. While there were times that Darkglare cleared board setups with Molten & Flesh Giants, this was much rarer of an occurrence.
It is often quite difficult to have Armor set up past the early turns, but ensuring it is an option by holding onto Armor generating tools in the mid to late-game does increase your chances in the matchup.
The armor generating tools I included in the list are Shield Block, Evil Quartermaster, Bash, and Eternium Rover. More options are available, such as Iron Hide to increase the consistency of Reckless Flurry against decks such as Darkglare Warlock and Odd Rogue if you are struggling with the matchup later on.
Plague of Wrath
Plague of Wrath is a card that is still in the deck, but it is high on my list of cards to replace. Since I no longer have space in the deck for Whirlwind, which I replaced with Risky Skipper’s, it is just a lot worse. The card’s main synergy options are area effects such as Ravaging Ghoul, our minions, or a card such as Dyn-o-Matic.
Lord Barov
Lord Barov is honestly the card that makes this deck as absurdly powerful as it is right now. The combination of Risky Skipper & Lord Barov to have a guaranteed board clear against Darkglare Warlock as early as turn four is honestly incredible. The speed of the clear is something not available for any other class in Hearthstone.
In addition to that, it is immensely flexible. There are a dozen ways to activate Lord Barov in the deck if you don’t have access to Risky Skipper. Some examples of these include Shield Slam, Bash, Ravaging Ghoul, Reckless Flurry (at low Armor), Dyn-o-Matic, and even some of the Lackey’s generated by Evil Quartermaster.
A simple mulligan guide to Odd Warrior
Again, since my dataset and experience with Odd Warrior is limited, I don’t want to pretend to know more than I do. The best cards to find in your mulligans are heavily dependent on what you expect your opponent to play from my experience. So let’s cover the three of the most common decks you are likely to face on the Ranked ladder right now.
Beating Darkglare Warlock as Odd Warrior
By far against Darkglare Warlock, the card we want most is our new lord and savior, Lord Barov. Finding this card in the first few turns of the game allows you to near guarantee victory against the deck right now. The amount of time this card grants you allows the rest of your deck to control the match. Other good tools include cards such as Eternium Rover, Risky Skipper, Reckless Flurry, Brawl, and Shield Slam.
If you include the card in your list, Bulwark of Azzinoth is a card that is extremely potent for this & various other matchups. The only reason I did not include this card in my initial list is that I don’t have the dust (yet) to craft the card. If you have access to it, you should include it in the current meta.
The Highlander Priest matchup
The Highlander Priest matchup is an interesting one. I had quite a good track record in the matchup, but discussing the deck with other players who played it from the Priest side of things believed it favored them. My path to success was to simply Tank Up! As many times as possible. There is a point quite early on in the matchup at around 60 or so armor, where Priest simply can’t win anymore.
While some Priest players include more ways to use Spawn of Shadows, through cards such as Seance, most people have cut these cards to improve their matchup against Darkglare Warlock. Because of this, the best cards in the matchup are those that generate Armor, such as Shield Block and Evil Quartermaster.
On the other hand, Coldlight Oracle & Brann Bronzebeard are a path to success. While it may take some turns to reach a point where you feel confident in overdrawing an important card, this is a great chance to end the game early on. If the opponent plays Lorekeeper Polkelt, you know (almost) exactly what their next draws will be. Overdrawing the right card can end the matchup on the spot with as little as one Coldlight Oracle.
Odd & Kingsbane Rogue vs Odd Warrior
The final category of decks you are going to face is the popular Rogue Archetypes. Against Rogue, our best cards are Shield Slam tools to deal with Hench-Clan Thug if they are Odd Rogue or Kobold Stickyfinger against Kingsbane Rogue. In general, however, most of the removal cards in our deck are good enough to hold. As long as you have time to slow the game down, the better your chances get.
That is all for this quick writeup on Odd Warrior. I wasn’t initially planning on making any content about it, but I guess I’m a sucker for old friends’ requests! I hope you enjoyed reading it, and give the deck a try on the ranked ladder. Let me know how you do, looking forward to seeing some of the Darkglare Warlock’s losses coming soon!
To stay up to date with Arend’s journey in the Wild Legend ranks, be sure to follow him & AceGameGuides on Twitter!
Do you want to have your deck featured, or work with AceGameGuides on creating strategic content? Email Arend@AceGameGuides.com, and we’ll talk!
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