'Hearthstone: Journey To Un'Goro' Taunt Warrior Guide: Garrosh Loves Fire Plume's Heart

400px-Fire_Plume's_Heart_full — Fire Plume's Heart burns forever Blizzard

Quest/ Taunt Warrior finally became a deck archetype after Hearthstone’s Journey To Un’Goro expansion. Playing Garrosh in Mean Streets Of Gadgetzan meant you wanted to do one thing: play Pirates and win games quick. The control decks that Warriors have always been known for were still around, but always took a backseat to Smalltime Bucaneer and Patches . After the release of the new set and the Warrior Quest card, Fire Plume’s Heart , Warrior decks slowed down quite a bit.

Taunt Warrior is a frustrating deck to deal with. After losing to a Taunt Warrior deck in the Hearthstone Championship Tournament preliminaries, pro player Fr0zen flamed on Twitter about how much he hated Taunt Warrior. The HCT Bahamas Summer Championship wrote that the deck is mindless – all you’re trying to do is finish your quest, get Ranganros’ hero power and then deal eight damage every turn. He later apologized, saying that he was just salty about losing all day to the deck, but it’s still a valid complaint about the deck.

What Makes Taunt Warrior So Good?

Any newbie to Hearthstone can take a look at Sulfuras , the weapon that drops after playing seven Taunt minions, and see that it’s a good card. A 4/2 weapon for three-mana isn’t too shabby, but it’s that “deal eight damage to a random enemy” hero power that really seals the deal. Before Ragnaros went to the Hall Of Fame in the sky, he was an auto-include in any deck that needed an eight-drop minion to stick around. Now, you can use his amazing power without the fear of a Big Game Hunter or Equality coming down to wipe him out.

The ghost of Ragnaros past isn’t the only reason Taunt Warrior has been dominating the Hearthstone meta. JTUG brought new Taunt minions out of the jungle that are bursting with value. Stonehill Defender gives you the choice of three Taunt minions that you can choose for (nearly) every situation, Twilight Drake clears boards without using Whirlwind or Brawl and Tar Creeper is so sticky, he’s never leaving the board. All of these new Taunt minions make completing your Quest by turn eight or nine an inevitability, which is why it has such strong match ups against slow Control and speedy Aggro decks.

Mulligans: Fiery War Axe, Stonehill Defender, Tar Creeper, Slam and Acolyte Of Pain are all useful in your starting hand. Against slower decks, like Jade Druid, a Ravaging Ghoul or Bloodhoof Brave would also be viable.

Decklist:

Fire Plume's Heart × 1

Whirlwind × 1

Armorsmith × 2

Execute × 2

Fiery War Axe × 2

Slam × 2

Sleep with the Fishes × 2

Acolyte of Pain × 2

Stonehill Defender × 2

Tar Creeper × 2

Ravaging Ghoul × 2