What do you get when you merge the spontaneous chaos of a Grim Patron deck with the stability and early pressure of a mech deck? Pissed robots looking for a fight!
Jayme is the mad scientist behind the latest deck featured on the show! You can see how this deck performed in its deck battle against the current Happy Hearthstone deck in this week’s episode!
Note from Josh: The rest of this article was written by Jayme. Thanks, Jayme!
Mech Patron
At its core, this is a Grim Patron Warrior combo deck that uses Warsong Commander to deploy Patrons in a quick and surprising way. However, the combo is hidden into a standard Mech deck, which has great tempo plays on the early turns to gain you some board control or just flat out win before needing the Patron combo.
Let’s get straight into the cards I used in my deck for the mighty showdown with Josh. You can find the simple Mech Patron deck list on the podcast episode. Here, I’ll provide additional commentary where I feel it’s helpful or necessary.
2x Execute
Super cheap removal that I use for large Taunt minions, or pesky Legendaries that need instant answering. Fairly easy to trigger the damaged condition with the cards in the deck.
2x Warbot
Best played on turn 1. He’s not going to do too much damage, but he’ll be great for knocking out early minions, and at 3 health, he’s resistant to enemy hero powers.
One of the best turn 2 plays, you`ll get enemy minion removal out of this card. Worthy mulligan target.
This card is something that not a lot of other Patron Warrior decks run, but I think it`s potential outweighs the risk of it becoming a dead card in your hand. You`ll almost always gain board advantage for using it and, at the very least, it draws a card to replace itself.
2x Revenge
While other Warriors may prefer the cheaper Whirlwind, I find the extra mana investment in Revenge allows us to use it as a board-clear in late game losing situations as well. Due to our lack of AOE, Revenge fills that critical role.
This guy is perfect for activating Patrons, removing 1-health enemy minions, or triggering your Grom Hellscream. He`s also decent when paired with an Acolyte of Pain or a Warbot.
The linchpin to making this deck a credible threat. Never deploy her on a board without a combo piece. She`s just too valuable and vulnerable.
2x Death`s Bite
Great turn 4 play as it can take care of any midrange threats you may be up against. Time the Deathrattle effect to take maximum advantage with Patrons, Acolytes, or Grommash.
His surprising Battlecry will almost always allow your early Mech drops to trade up and take out higher cost enemy minions. A 2/5 body is also good at two-for-one’s against early minions or removal as well.
The big finisher, when you need it. 10 damage to the face is pretty much where you want to be, with this guy. 12 damage when paired with a Taskmaster. Boom!
2x Mechwarper
The key to an accelerated opening, Mechwarper is incredible for his cost, and can let you drop your midrange minions early and often. Mulligan target.
One of the best 3-drops in the game, for similar reasons to the Piloted Shredder. Having minions stick on board after they’ve been killed gains you tempo on an opponent’s turn, and that is great value.
2x Spider Tank
Great stats for this Mech, his big body means he’s usually taking out opposing 3-drops with ease, and living to fight again. 4 health takes him out of range of Frostbolt, Quick Shot and a lot of the early removal spells that are popular.
One of the best 4-drops in the game, this guy is a credible threat with staying power as he phones in a friend when he’s kaput.
His sole job is to keep you alive long enough to combo. But at best, he Charges into battle off a Warsong for a trade.
2x Grim Patron
The secret weapon of the deck. Play him with a combo, or don`t play him at all. Simply, losing a 5-cost 3/3 to a Frostbolt is your worst nightmare.
Possible Additions
I also used these cards while testing the deck. Go ahead and try swapping some of these in there, if you have them. See if they work better for you than they did for me.
In theory, this card should totally work in this combo style deck. However, I found it’s complete randomness to be more of a pain than a boon. It combos extremely well with Commanding Shout and Grim Patrons though. And against a big solo drop, it will kill pretty much anything. This is more of a sideboard than a substitution card.
Great value with the Mech ability trigger. However, I prefer the Spider Tank as it doesn’t require the set up cost.
Swap him in for Screwjank Clanker if you don’t have them. He’s a great body for the cost, with some Spare Parts upside that makes him better than a Chillwind Yeti.
I think most standard Patron Warrior lists run this in favor of Revenge, but I opted for the latter for it’s more toolbox ability of getting me out of a jam. Swap out for Revenge if you don’t have them, though. Essential to have this sort of effect.
Final Thoughts
If you like surprising combos that result in almost unbeatable board-states, then you should consider my Mech Patron decklist. It can be vulnerable to board clears, like all minion-heavy decks. But the steady tempo backbone will build you some good early control through profitable trades, and can help survive until you can unleash your combo. I’m not even a Warrior player, as I primarily play Shaman, Priest, Druid. But this Grim Patron card came out in Blackrock Mountain expansion and I just had to make this deck. It’s super fun, very powerful and it’s really funny when the “Everyone, get in here!” chains off a bunch of times.
Be sure to listen to our last episode of the podcast, where we talk about the deck at length. If you try it out, tell us what you thought of it, and what cards you swapped in to have the most success.