Naturally, since Hearthstone did me the favor of including two heroes from Warcraft II, I feel a sharp pain in my chest if I don't play with decks that invoke nostalgia from that game.

Uther Lightbringer, Hero of Darrowmere
x2 Truesilver Champion
x2 Hammer of Wrath
x2 Consecration
x2 Equality
x2 Blessing of Kings
x2 Avenge
x1 Muster for Battle

x1 Regional Commander (Stormwind Champion)
x2 Goldshire Footman
x2 Stormwind Knight
x2 Spellbreaker
x2 Paladin Companion (Guardian of Kings)
x1 Silver Hand Knight
x1 Lord of the Arena
x1 Cleric (Shattered Sun Cleric)
x1 Gnomish Inventor
x1 Flying Machine
x1 Quartermaster
x2 Dread Corsair


Uther and the Hearthstone cards are very friendly toward constructing WCII Alliance themed decks. I really like to throw in 2 Footmen, 2 Knights, and a single Stormwind Champion to represent the RTS player. (The Knights do surprisingly well, since low-attack high-health cards work nicely in a paladin deck.) I feel the obligation to add a Dread Corsair for Tides of Darkness flavor, but you see I often add a second because the Truesilver Champion makes him FREE, and his taunt can come in handy. And also, while I had my doubts about running a Flying Machine at first, it has proven to be a very effective 3-point removal bait. (And I've actually had a few times when it's survived to the next turn, and been blessed to give my opponent's face 10 damage to think about.)

The Guardian of Kings is a ridiculous angel-themed unit? So I just pretend it's another paladin. If I had Tirion Fordring, I'd run him without thinking (the only time he fought under Uther was during the Second War, after all). Same with Big Game Hunter, to represent the Dwarven Demolitionists.

The only detriment is how much Draenei pervade the paladin decks. I look away for spell cards, but not so much for minions. It's particularly sad for me because I really really like the Aldor Peacekeeper, and I even have a gold version of him.

So when I need to get a little more competitive, I say that the new theme is Draenei intervening in the Second War. I drop one of the Spellbreakers and an Equality and throw in two of those Peacekeepers... then drop something like the Shattered Sun Cleric and have a Defender of Argus... and sometimes a Noble Sacrifice. I also usually toss the Silver Hand Knight since I rarely get much out of him, and throw in a cheap-feeling Antique Healbot instead.

I've toyed with a "Hero of Khaz Modan" deck that would use my two Shielded Minibots and outright replace the Guardians of Kings with two Antique Healbots, along with other gnome/dwarf and mecha themes, but I haven't quite pulled that off yet. I own a Thermaplugg, so I'd probably fit him in somewhere.

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Gul'dan, Hero of Darrowmere
x2 Mortal Coil
x2 Drain Life
x2 Shadow Bolt
x2 Juggernaught Cannon (Darkbomb)
x1 Twisting Nether

x1 Doomhammer's Warlord (Frostwolf Warlord)
x1 Raid Leader
x2 Blackrock Grunt (Frostwolf Grunt)
x2 Amani Berserker
x1 Bomb Lobber
x2 Ogre Brute
x2 Boulderfist Ogre
x2 Ogre-Mage (Ogre-Magi)
x2 Death Knight (Spectral Knight)
x1 Giant Turtle (Oasis Snapjaw)
x1 Kezan Mystic
x1 Doomguard
x2 Antique Healbot
x1 Bloodsail Corsair


For me, it's harder to build a WCII themed Gul'dan deck. All of the warlock hero minions are bizarre demon-looking things, so you have to pull from the neutral units to build a Stormreaver Clan... including Gul'dan's personal inventions (the ogre-mage, the death knight, the giant turtle). I've made other versions with a Summoning Portal and more minions, but I felt the Ogre-Mage units were wasted without giving Gul'dan his offensive damage spells. And naturally, the Bloodsail Corsair is an obligatory tribute to the Tides of Darkness feel. I appreciate that he's one of the few pirates who doesn't require my hero to have a weapon for his full benefit.

The Antique Healbots are cheap, but I find that I can't win without them. So I write them off as Stormreaver goblin innovations, to keep Gul'dan breathing as he channels the forces of the nether.

Gul'dan, Hero at the Portal is a version that leans closer to the thematics of Warcraft: Orcs & Humans. You get to lose the corsair in exchange for the superior Acidic Swamp Ooze, or two. Also Haunted Creeper for the feel of summoning spiders, and of course a couple of Wolfriders.

Another route is to go with Thrall, Echo of the Past, and play Thrall as if he were Doomhammer... with the totems understood to be peons, or something. Thrall's deck actually has Bloodlust, along with the Doomhammer itself, and it feels really satisfying to give Windfury to an ogre or to a Reckless Rocketeer.


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I know a lot of you are Warcraft III fans. It seems you'd have an easy time making a "Hero of Mt. Hyjal" deck for Jaina, Thrall, or Malfurion, drawing from anything that feels thematic to that final battle. Likewise Gul'dan has a lot of Scourge units (Infernals, Mal'ganis), and could easily be roleplayed as the Skull of Gul'dan.

Thanks for sharing

As you may know I run a lot of theme decks, but all of my theme decks revolve around gameplay (secret decks, buff decks, demon decks, enrage decks, golden decks, giants decks, legendary decks...) and none around flavor. But you and Stormcaller have inspired me to make some.

Also I will share some of my past and present gimmick decks here later.

What's funny is that Hearthstone has a natural factionalism, even if it's not Alliance vs. Horde. It's a factionalism based on class (of course). Marx's prediction is a reality!

The result being, Garrosh's decks can already feel like all the warriors of the world uniting to beat down cloths, and Uther's can already be made into the paladins of the universes working together, etc. Your demons and giants deck probably already qualify for that sort of thing. Any of them can, really, if you envision a silly storyline.

EDIT: No, I just can't deal without my 2 Aldor Peacekeepers. So Draenei Intervention it is.

Since we talked about Majordomo Executus, here is the deck I've been using him in. At first the deck was beyond terrible but after I tweaked it into what you see below it is half-decent (thought that is more despite Majordomo rather then because of him). I reckon it would go to rank 16-14 on ladder though I only played it in casual so I can't be sure.

If one wanted to improve it, I'd cut Ragnaros for a Piloted Shredder, he is there for flavor and I wanted to test if Hero!Ragnaros says anything special when you play the minion (he doesn't : / ). Possible swap one Kirin for another PS.

Anyway here's the deck, it's fun enough and I may return to play it at some point:



For the Majordomo!

Someone make me a warrior deck. And a rogue deck. Also Paladin.

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Depends on what you have. Do you have Blackrock Mountain? Naxxramas? Both? Neither? What legendaries do you have access to?

Here's a Warrior deck I've had fun with recently. It's a standard Grim Patron combo deck. If you don't have the legendaries, you can also get decent mileage out of cards like Rampage or Armorsmith, since the deck involves a lot of whirlwinds.



Obviously, it doesn't work if you don't have Blackrock Mountain, but you also need Naxx for the Death's Bites, Sludge Belchers, and Unstable Ghouls.

I became much more impressed with Death's Bite when I realized that its deathrattle is unavoidable. I was on the receiving end when that weapon came up, so I threw down an Acidic Swamp Ooze... but that just destroyed the weapon a turn early, and the deathrattle happened then. That 1-damage-for-everyone can't be silenced, or counterspelled, or anything.

I guess it's not that impressive on the whole, but it made me scratch my chin a little.

Like most cards, its impressiveness depends on the situation. It definitely has the potential to ruin a Paladin's or Face Hunter's day, and if you time it right then it gives you a pretty favorable trade against a Sludge Belcher. But, on the other hand, it's incredibly disappointing if you can't capitalize on the whirlwind effect, like if it's on a mostly empty board, if you have no Executes in hand to KO high health minions, or if the Death's Bite gets destroyed before you can get out your enrage minions, Armorsmiths, Frothing Berserkers, or Grim Patrons.

Is anyone else sick of seeing Dr Boom everywhere? Not facing him persay, just the fact that he’s in every deck. I think he’s become extremely overrated. I mean yes, he’s incredible value for his mana (7/7 plus unavoidable 2-8 damage most of the time), but he’s super easy to remove and you end up burning your entire turn on playing him. I feel like there are so many better choices for decks out there, either in terms of tech cards, or just stickier 6-damage bodies. Like Kel’Thuzad or foe reaper. I’ve gotten into the habit of replacing Boom with KT and it’s won me so many matches. It’s crazy how much the meta is driven by popular opinion… like back when running 2 yetis was “mandatory.”

Also Thaurissan. So many decks just toss him in with the notion of “who doesn’t want cheaper cards!?” Honestly, unless you’re running a combo/tech or control deck he’s not going to do much for you besides eat a removal. Aggro/Zoo/Midrange can’t afford the tempo loss of dropping a single 6-mana and tempo is designed to already have a naturally good curve, along with typically small hand sizes.

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Head Canon: The Deathwing Gambit

I love that stupid Grim Patron deck.

It's so idiotic and fun.

Also there's a Hunter zoo deck out that I've found really useful too.

I'm still disappointed by the lack of Death Knight stuff.

But you can sort of make a Scourge deck I guess.

Who do you guys think is more generally useful? Alexstrasza or Dr. Boom?

I got a gold Toshley I don't care about, so I basically get to pick which ever legendary I want. And I was wondering which one you guys think I should go with.

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"The Demons did their job well. You creatures are as reckless and bloodthirsty as they ever were."

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I'm thinking about experimenting with spell damage in an enrage warrior deck. Two-damage whirlwinds seem as though they could allow the deck to break through most of the things that block it.

Aside from that, I'm experimenting with dragon control paladin. Turn seven Ysera can fuck someone's day, but I'm not entirely sure how viable it'll be.

Are dragon decks only viable with the Aspects, cause I'm not seeing much reason to use dragon cards yet.

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Hungry Dragon, Blackwing Technician, Dragon Consort, Chromaggus, and Blackwing Corruptor (when we get him) are all pretty impressive cards. Combine them with Azure Drake and paladin's pretty impressive ability to survive the early game, and you have a decent deck without the aspects. That said: Ysera and Alexstraza are still pretty awesome at seven mana.

Yeah, most of the aspects aren't even very good outside of Alex, Ysera, maybe Malygos...

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"The Demons did their job well. You creatures are as reckless and bloodthirsty as they ever were."

Spectral Knight is a decent stand-in. Apparently the artwork depicts General Lightsbane.

I'm waiting and hoping for a Gryphon Rider.

The new dragon cards have very, very good stats for their value and their conditionals/activators are fairly marginal if you have good board control and hand size (i.e. you've been trading well). In other words, they're an extremely good tempo tribe, MAYBE mid-range depending on the class. IMO you can make a very solid tempo deck without leggo dragons in the mix and just use Crushers as a finisher, but Ysera IS very powerful in any dragon deck because she's naturally a very good board control card. Then again, in a tempo deck, you're usually reaching for lethal around turn 9 or sooner, so take that as you will.

I'm actually extremely curious about trying Malygos in a consort deck. 13 damage avenging wraths, 7 damage consecrates, 8 damage hammers... there's a lot of really powerful game ending combos there.

EDIT: Didn't know spell power was renamed spell damage at some point.

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Head Canon: The Deathwing Gambit

Overrated? Maybe. Still incredibly useful for a lot of mid-range or late game decks (not rush decks, obviously, since if you let the game go that late you've probably already lost). Yes, he's a removal magnet, but so are a lot of big cards. His biggest strength is that there is no single card that counters him, on account of the Boom Bots. As a result, any trades involving Dr. Boom are going to work in your favor, since barring incredibly bad RNG from the bots you are almost guaranteed a 2 for 1 trade at minimum.

One more thing to consider is that one of the reasons Dr. Boom is played in so many decks is that most other 7 drops just aren't very good, especially when you focus on the neutral 7 drops. War Golem has the same stats but without the Boom Bots. Blackhand, Ravenholdt Assassin, and Core Hound have low health and aren't as sticky. Baron Geddon has the same problem, but he did have a niche in Control Warrior decks due to the AoE effect. Troggzor is okay if you are facing a spell-heavy deck, but is otherwise a 7 mana 6/6. Stormwind Champion is also okay in some scenarios, but is most valuable when you already have board control. If you need a 7 drop to fill out that part of the mana curve in your deck, Dr. Boom is one of the most reliable choices.

I do as well. Few things in the game are as satisfying as a good Warsong Commander/Grim Patron combo.

Seconded. They've been a playable class for almost 2/3rds of WoW's life as this point. WTB Death Knight Hero in Hearthstone.

Generally Dr. Boom is more useful, though you may want to consider Alexstrasza if you are interested in play a very control-heavy deck like Control Warrior or Freeze Mage, since her Battlecry enables their win conditions by making it easier to burst down the opponent in the following turns.

I meant an actual Death Knight class.

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"The Demons did their job well. You creatures are as reckless and bloodthirsty as they ever were."

Let me know if you have luck with it. I didn't do well trying Dalaran Mages/Archmages/Geomancers/Ogre-Mages with my paladin, because it felt like there weren't very many spell damage cards available.

Plus I'd hang on to Hammer of Wrath instead of playing it, which more often than not turned out bad for my momentum.

I've seen it done. My friend gave it a shot and found that while a successful Maly spellcast could damn near end the game, the issue was actually ensuring that you both kept him out long enough to use those spells, and also didn't end up using those spells in order to survive long enough to do it.

The key combos would be to use a consort to drop maly for 7 mana and emprah to drive the mana cost down on everything.

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Head Canon: The Deathwing Gambit

Lore-Themed Deck: Battle of Grim Batol / Day of the Dragon
Class: Paladin (and why wouldn't Uther be at this battle?)

x1 Archmage (Rhonin Redhair)
x1 Alexstrasza
x1 Malygnos
x1 Nozdormu
x1 Ysera
x1 Dragon Consort (Korialstrasz)
x1 Dragon Consort (Tyranastrasz)

Complete with any paladin weapons/spells plus any minions that fit old Alliance thematics (humans, highblood elves, gnomes, dwarves). GvG mech cards also fit the flavor of a Khaz Modan campaign, so there you go for cheap support.

There are, as of yet, no suitable cards for an Elven Ranger or a Wildhammer Dwarf. Sorry to Vereesa and Falstad.

Do they have milling mechanics in Hearthstone yet? Like hand/deck destruction.

Rogue/Druid mill. If you do that you are literally worse than Hitler delivering cancer on Christmas to orphans.

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