Part Scrapper
We consider Part Scrapper the best card in the set, and the most likely one to enable a new competitive strategy to emerge. Mech Warrior did not pan out at the launch of the expansion, but Part Scrapper gives it a much better chance to compete.
Turning armor into a mana discount is incredibly powerful, especially when this mana discount can be banked for a future turn. We can’t see Control Warrior decks going forward that don’t try to utilize this synergy in some capacity. Dropping a big Zilliax early should be game winning in fast matchups, while Testing Dummy and Safety Expert offer other potential targets for the discount.
Warrior has cheap ways to instantly gain enough armor to get a big discount with Part Scrapper. Between Safety Goggles, Shield Block, and Armor Vendor, Part Scrapper should get consistent value at the early stages of the game. Safety Goggles is an incredible enabler of Part Scrapper in particular.
Say goodbye to Brann. Warrior might have a new way to play the game.
Score: 4
Standardized Pack
The final ‘Pack’ card, and it’s another bad one. Warrior does not need this kind of reload at the later stages of the game. By the time you have enough mana to reliably drop a couple of taunts from Pack, you should be able to do far more powerful things. There is enough card draw and value generation available to the class to avoid running such a weak card.
Score: 1
Safety Expert
This is the most exciting mech that Warrior has received this expansion. Safety Expert is a high-cost minion that works perfectly with the class’s two big mana cheating cards, while providing serious late game inevitability through the shuffling of bombs into the opponent’s deck.
Between Part Scrapper and Chemical Spill, Warrior can have 4 cards in the deck that allow it to develop a Safety Expert on 5. A Safety Expert on turn 5 can follow up a Boom Wrench on turn 4, which means we can reliably shuffle 6 bombs as early as turn 5. Past turn 5, we can instantly shuffle 9 bombs to the opponent with a single play (thanks to available mana to equip and break the Mini Wrench).
Add Inventor Boom into the equation, and a Warrior deck centered on Boom Wrench and Safety Expert as its primary win condition can consistently shuffle a horrifying number of bombs into the opponent’s deck over the course of the game. No deck can outlast this kind of damage. You must kill the Warrior before it happens, which means the competitive viability of this strategy is entirely reliant on its survivability.
Furthermore, Both Boom Wrench and Safety Expert have tutors in Town Crier and Instrument Tech, making their synergy impressively consistent.
Score: 3
Final Thoughts: Expect to see a lot of experimentation with Mech Warrior builds on May 14th. The competitive viability of Warrior will be the hottest topic in the early days of the patch.
