Second rower Richard Whiting scored two second-half tries to add fresh impetus to Hull's mid-season revival as they condemned third-placed Warrington to a shock second home defeat of the season.
England winger Tom Briscoe also touched down twice as Hull came from 10-0 down to claim a fifth win from their last six Super League games and climb to a season's high fifth place.
The Black and Whites have not lost under their new captain Gareth Ellis but it was the long-serving Richard Horne who masterminded their dominant second-half show after another veteran half-back, Lee Briers, had threatened to win the game for the home side.
Warrington were without their captain Adrian Morley, who is set to make his comeback for partner club Swinton in Sunday's Northern Rail Cup match against North Wales Crusaders at Leigh.
With Brett Hodgson also absent, Australian forward Trent Waterhouse led the Wolves for the first time and he carved out the home side's first tryscoring opportunity, passing out of the tackle to release centre Ryan Atkins but winger Chris Riley spilled the final pass.
With Briers prompting and probing to great effect, Warrington looked more threatening and it took a wonderful last-ditch tackle by Briscoe to deny Joel Monaghan.
The pressure finally told after 28 minutes when centre Simon Grix pounced on Briers' pinpoint kick to the line and the veteran stand-off was again heavily involved five minutes later when the Wolves scored a second try.
Briers took Garreth Carvell's short pass to go through a gap and the supporting Richie Myler lofted a kick to the corner for Monaghan to touch down for his 15th Super League try of the season after he was only partially stopped by Briscoe and full-back Shannon McDonnell.Briers added one conversion to make it 10-0 but Hull, who had an early try by Whiting disallowed for foul play, struck four minutes before half-time to keep themselves in the hunt.
The visitors pounced on a dropped pass by forward Mike Cooper on his own 20-metre line and the quick-thinking Aaron Heremaia slid a kick through the fragmented home defence for Briscoe to touch down for his first try.
Daniel Holdsworth added the goal to cut the deficit to four points and Hull would have been level at the break had they finished off a clean break by centre Ben Crooks but his pass to Tom Lineham was intercepted by Atkins.
The Wolves continued to make the pace in the second half and, although they wasted two promising attacking positions with handling errors, they extended their lead on 46 minutes when Atkins outjumped Lineham to collect Myler's high kick and touch down.
Briers kicked his second goal to restore his side's 10-point advantage but Hull struck back in devastating fashion with two tries in six minutes, both fashioned by Horne.
His long pass enabled Lineham to produce a clinical finish for his 10th try of the season while a short pass got Ben Crooks striding into space and Whiting was in support to touch down.
Holdsworth's second goal levelled the scores and Hull hit the front for the first time on 69 minutes when an Atkins knock-on gifted them a dream attacking position and Horne's short pass enabled Whiting to crash over for his second try.
Holdsworth kicked his second goal and Hull made sure of the win two minutes from the end when Briscoe kicked ahead and won the race to grab his second try.