The new year’s starting off with a bang. Warriors are flooding the post-expansion meta, throwing high explosives with reckless abandon. With a terrifying amount of burn and many hyper-efficient Control tools Bomb Warrior is performing exceptionally well. But is this explosion of Warrior decks just a flash in the pan? And can anything stop the mechanical menace?
Replace those pesky bombs with discovered cards.
Very few decks have the capability of outlasting Bomb Warrior’s damage. If they run Augmented Elekks, Wrenchcaliburs and Clockwork Goblins, that’s upwards of 40 damage from bombs alone. Add the random damage from Blastmaster Boom’s bots, and the inevitable chip damage from the endless stream of mechs, and even Nozari won’t be enough.
However, there are ways of outlasting the burn. You could play Arch-thief Rafaam in Warlock to replace your bombs with Legendary minions, or Archivist Elysiana as a neutral option. Shaman can run healing with Kragwa the Frog for massive long-term sustain. However, you may sacrifice a lot to have a chance, but still potentially lose to the sheer quantity of bombs or an Archivist Elysiana of their own to win the fatigue war. Not to mention the infinite value of Doctor Boom.
So if you can’t outlast them easily, what’s the best way to win?
Deathrattle Hunter is horrible for Warrior to deal with
Warrior has exceedingly strong removal, but it does have weaknesses. Sticky Deathrattle minions are the class’s Achilles heel. With most removal being single target or rush-based, deathrattles can be exceptionally hard to deal with. Mechrattle hunter in particular is a great counter.
Since Warrior’s weapons and single-target removal like Omega Devastator will only deal with the first part of the deathrattle, the likes of Mechanical Whelp or Savannah Highmane can really ruin their day. What’s more, Deathrattle combos tend to be slightly faster than the Warrior’s bomb, giving you a nice window to kill them. And just as a cherry on top, Deathrattles make Brawl horrible in most situations.
The final way to beat bomb Warrior may simply be to wait. With so much of the meta unrefined, Warrior’s control tools, value and uninterruptible late-game value preys on slow decks. Once aggro is licked into proper shape and we see the likes of Zoo Warlock, Secret Paladin and Murloc Shaman take up more of the meta, Warriors may ditch the bombs for more removal. While not guaranteed, we saw similar patterns in new-expansion metas with Quest Warrior’s direct damage gradually receding in favour of more controlling strategies.
If and when that happens, you won’t have to worry so much about those endless 5 damage bombs. And if you really can’t handle it, I hear Arena’s nice this time of year.
Images courtesy of Blizzard Entertainment via hearthstone.gamepedia.com.
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