Patron Warrior

Patron Warrior is a warrior combo deck revolving around the use of Grim Patron. It uses cheap activators such as Whirlwind, Inner Rage and Cruel Taskmaster, in combination with non-lethal trading, to repeatedly summon new Grim Patrons, leading to board control and a strong card advantage.

Grim Patron provides a loose win condition for the Patron Warrior deck, through clearing the opponent's board and enabling overwhelming damage to the enemy hero, but often serves as a mid-game combo rather than a finishing move. Patron Warrior also frequently includes Frothing Berserker as an alternate win condition, potentially growing to monstrous proportions in combination with the repeated trading of the Grim Patrons and a well-timed Whirlwind effect.

With other common cards such as Armorsmith and Acolyte of Pain, Patron Warrior features a range of synergistic effects, all revolving around dealing damage to the warrior's own minions. This range of synergies makes for a number of possible combos, resulting in what Ben Brode describes as "one of the most strategically difficult decks to play in [the game's] history".

Previously, when Warsong Commander had the effect of giving Charge to minions with 3 or less Attack, it was used as primary win condition for the deck, overwhelming the opponent's board with charging Grim Patrons that could seize control of the board and deal tons of direct damage, especially in combination with Frothing Berserker. While the nerf to Warsong Commander greatly reduced the deck's power level, Patron Warrior remained a viable deck regardless.

Patron Warrior became a wild-exclusive deck at the start of the Year of the Mammoth with the rotation of its key card, Grim Patron.

Common cards
The following cards are usually in the deck.

Core cards
The following cards are played in most or all versions of the deck:

Optional cards
The following cards are played more than occasionally, but not always:

History
Patron Warrior revolves strongly around the key class mechanic of benefiting from dealing damage to the warrior's own minions. The addition of Grim Patron in Blackrock Mountain enabled the creation of this distinct progression of the archetype through the repeated trading and non-lethal damaging of the Grim Patrons. Grim Patron was originally used in combination with Warsong Commander to devastating effect - Warsong Commander's previous text being Whenever you summon a minion with 3 or less Attack, give it Charge. - but the latter card was nerfed with Patch 3.2.0.10604, disabling this combo.