Jambre tries to surprise opponents with Even Control Warrior

After a period in the wilderness, Warrior has found a niche in The Witchwood.

It’s not a particularly new niche. Control Warrior is always the natural home of the class because of the hero power. Hitting that armor button lends itself to slower controlling strategies.

Justicar Trueheart gave Control Warrior arguably its strongest iteration, so Baku the Mooneater being able to bring back Tank Up made it a natural fit. That deck made an appearance at the HCT Europe playoffs last weekend, and has helped Warrior stay ahead of classes like Hunter and Shaman.

U.K. Hearthstone players James “Jambre” Brennan wanted to turn the deck on its head. Instead of building Control Warrior with odd cards, he went with even cards.

Obviously the deck has to forego some pretty core cards of Control Warrior, like Brawl and Shield Slam, which don’t fit the numbers. But Even Warrior can bring back cards like Slam and Execute.

There’s also some pretty random cards in here, like Bladed Gauntlet. As Jambre puts it in his deck guide on HearthPwn, the card is “flat out bad” when your hero power is two mana. But with the cost reduction, it’s a viable option.

Gather Your Party is a key part of the deck. For six mana, this decklist lets you pull a guaranteed eight mana minion if Genn and Gemstudded Golem have been played. Geosculptor Yip is a ton of fun too, especially when combined with Bring It On, to create threats from outside of the deck itself.

Jambre played the deck during the peak of his legend climb, achieving a 61 percent winrate over a 90-game sample. Control Warrior might still be niche, but it definitely has its place in the meta—whether you prefer Even or Odd.