Thanks for posting this, glad to see the build. I think you really hit the nail on the head in explaining the proper use of whirlwind effects. In many ways it's a similar discussion as symmetrical effects like firestorm. When your build is setup to better handle or recover from the situations it creates the effect is no longer random, instead it's actually creating situations your build can exploit. Whirlwind effects have been key to disrupting many of the key strategies. Originally they annoyed me (in Beta), but I've come to appreciate their usefulness.
Back at the beginning of release, I ran a variation of this build, but with 3 wizards, loaded with wows/wwes, chillwind staves, and toughness. It worked hilariously well. I'm sure an enterprising person could do something like that now and use the items/tactics Paladin listed here, and combine with all of the new items and cheap strategies people have learned about since then. I can imagine 3 wizards with 3 obliterating sparks and wwe would be hilarious, and anyone you wwe next to you, if you have enough short prays, you can just decimate them.
I figured I would chime in and present this from a scrubbier perspective. I have played this deck off and on since Paladin's post, and I've done very well with it. I do not have 4x Lochaber_Axe, but just one. I initially had my one Lochaber_Axe and a Master's_Battleaxe divided between two warriors with whatever I could jumble together to make up for the lack of move: Team_Run, Sprint,_Team!, Quick_Run and various weapons with move/attack cards. My rating saw a significant bump. Right before the maps last changed, I managed to farm a Vibrant_Pain (still unable to contain excitement of pulling it from a brown chest). Instead of doing better, a seeming backlash of bad luck followed. My rating faltered, and as the maps changed I panicked and subbed in a priest with various buffs. Well, my windy wizard is back in rotation and I have equiped one warrior with VP, Strongarm, and Infused_Greatclub while the other works with that Lochaber and Master's Battleaxe. Pretty effective! I have some other differences to Paladin's version, most notably an Elf swapped in for one Dwarven warrior, but my wizard is essentially the same except for an ace up her sleeve which I will not mention. I am 7-0 against Cardotron in our past 7 matches since switching back to D&C. I had been rockin' the Impenatrable Nimbus when I had the priest (almost auto-win against Cardotron), so I was nervous about facing him without my magic force field. Instead, I find that the same stupidity that makes Cardotron waste all his attacks on a Nimbus'ed character sets up Whirlwind for maximum effect. Simply pass until Cardotron uses all his moves, then let loose with the wind. Sometimes he will pass while the wizard is holding a Teleport_Self or something, so I usually just wait until that nasty warrior and the soft priest have finished. Don't worry about the warrior, but focus on victory points and snuffing the wizard and priest. If you freeze the warrior, beware his Pathfinding! If you steer clear of the warrior, you may get banged up, but should be able to survive long enough to win on victory points.
I have been going hard at the level 11-12-13 SP quests (including challenges) in an attempt to get a Lochaber, but no dice. I have about a gazillion Coruscating Blades though ...
