Hearthpwn

Hello everyone, I just wanted to share the deck I have been using to climb from rank 6 to legend last evening. I have always loved playing paladin and from time to time I experiment with it to see how effective it is in the current meta and I am surprised to say that it does really well.

This deck pretty much destroys any control deck your opponent may be playing. You have so much late game that warriors and priests just run out of removal. Now here is the kicker, in the matches I have played so far I managed to have a positrive win rate against allmost all agro decks including: zoo, huntards, miracle and agro druid.

This deck was designed to have counter shaman, controll warrior and priest while having a fair matchup against the other classes. The strenght of the deck and of the paladin class in general is that this deck is really versatile and is able to surving most meta's if you just swap out some cards. for more on this see the Card Swap Section(This part is not done jet).

 I know alot of you have been asking for me to proof I reached legend witht this deck but for the love of god I cant figure out how to put a screenshot of mine in here. I can say that this deck peaked arround legend 350.

 

Matchup strategy:

Druid:

This is a pretty easy match up against almost any kind of druid. For the Mulligan strategy: keep Aldor Peacekeeper(very important against their Innervate plays), Shade of Naxxramas and your Truesilver Champion I would also keep the Wild Pyromancer Equality combo or the Equality Consecration combo if you happen to draw both and keep a blacknight if the rest of hand is really good (since its almost guaranteed to get value vs druid).

Game plan: Basically our plan is to outlast the druid while playing arround his Savage Roar force of nature combo. Try to always have a taunt up the moment he reaches 9 mana. don't be afraid to concercrate when he only has one Shade of Naxxramas on the board those things can turn into a big problem and are best to deal with immediately. Don't reveal your Shade of Naxxramas to hit his face unless you are setting up for lethal. Try to kill a big minion with it and have him be forced to remove it afterwards. Try to bait out blacknight by playing a Sunwalker or a Sludge Belcher before playing Tirion Fordring.

Burst Damage:

If you have the combo in hand don't be afraid to let him over extend since we win the game if he does and we can clear. Unless he is threatening to kill you keep in mind his max damage is normally 14+whatever is on the board+ 2* how many creatures there are on board, But with a innervate he can deal 15 dame cause he can hero power and if he is holding onto 3-4 cards late game be afraid of a Force of Nature,Savage Roar,Innervate, Savage Roar. Which is (22+4*however many minions there are on the board) burst damage (You will rarely see this though). 

Once you can stop his aggression and come into the late game you should be fine.

Mage:

This match up is really draw dependant for us assuming they cant get insane value from their Duplicate value. As for the mulligan guide: keep Aldor Peacekeeper, Shade of Naxxramas,Consecration,Sen'jin Shieldmasta,Spellbreaker(great card against both freeze and agro mage) and your Truesilver Champion I would also keep the Wild Pyromancer Equality combo or the Equality if concercration is also in your hand. If you have no coin and two 4 drops throw its fine to throw a Consecration back. If you are seeing alot of agro mage keep the Consecration and keep a Mind Control Tech.

Game plan:

Depending on whether they are Freeze mage, Agro mage or secrets mage our plans change quite a bit. (though I know sometimes they mix it up a bit)

Freeze mage: 

You will most likely figure out your playing one with in the fist 3 turns since they just fire blast and pass alot and occasionally play a Loot Hoarder, a Doomsayer or a Acolyte of Pain. we want to really pressure them this is the only matchup where I would advise for you to go face with your Shade of Naxxramas the turn after you play it and maybe force them to play a Frostbolt.We can use our Ragnaros for this and even our Ysera since it will allow us to draw burst. If we cant out pressure them before the alexdraza us we need to kill the dragon and play either a Loatheb into Truesilver Champion and hit face and Lay on Hands next turn which would be the best play healing us for 12 life points. If you don't have those cards just heal up as much as you can using your Truesilver Champion and Guardian of Kings. ALWAYS Keep atleast one charge on your weapon son you can use it to heal for when the alexdraza.

Agro mage:

You will know they are agro mage if they play Undertaker, Mana Wyrm or Knife Juggler. We need to survive the early game against this deck really the only first 3-4 turns are scary dont be affraid to use a equallity, Consecration/ Equality, Wild Pyromancer a Mana Wyrm, Knife Juggler and double Mirror Image. the second we stop them hitting our face we basically win. Though you always wanna try to keep your health as high as possible in case of crazy burst.

Secrect Mage:

You will know you are facing a secret mage if you see them play Kirin Tor Mage, Mad Scientist (though most agro mages play this too) and just alot of secrets in general. This machups really favours us though it does require more thought than most do. Always play your smallest minion first if there is a secret in play(in case of Mirror Entity), not playing anything cause your only other options is something you cant deal with your self like Ragnaros the Firelord or Ysera is completely fine. if they play a secret turn 3 and follow up with a water elemental or some other creature you don't want them to get 2 of its fine to just ignore it and go face instead most of the time.

Burst damage:

Their max one turn burst is Bloodmage Thalnos,Fireball,Frostbolt,Ice Lance,Ice Lance=> 7+4+5+5=21 though you rarely have to play around this if your not facing freeze mage unless they are holding unto 4 cards all game. Generally I like playing around double Fireball, Frostbolt=> 15 damage unless they are freeze mage in which case expect them to be holding on to all of their spells at turn 10.

 

 

Warlock: 

When you see a warlock in ranked assume they are handlock when they throw their entire hand away if they don't assume they are zoo. This is normally a fine match up for us either way. If you are seeing a lot of handlock put in a Big Game Hunter for more changes see the replacement section. 

Game plan:

In general I would assume I am facing zoo mulligan for Aldor Peacekeeper, Shade of Naxxramas,Consecration,Sen'jin Shieldmasta,Spellbreaker, Wild Pyromancer, Mind Control Tech and your Truesilver Champion I would also keep the Wild Pyromancer Equality combo or the Equality if concercration is also in your hand. 

If for some reason you think its very likely you are facing a handlock mulligan for: Aldor Peacekeeper, Shade of Naxxramas,Consecration,Sen'jin Shieldmasta,Spellbreaker, Mind Control Tech(if you dont draw into your combo), Truesilver Champion, Wild Pyromancer(if you havent drawn a concercration) and your Equality.

Zoo:

If you have the Truesilver Champion on turn 4 play it and start clearing minions, you can play your other 4 drops next trun. If your opponent plays a Nerubian Egg its good to silence it as fast as possible. Try to hold of on attacking a 3/2 if your Shade of Naxxramas is still a 3/3 its better to attack in when it can stay on the board after clearing a minion so attack next turn if possible. Using a Aldor Peacekeeper on a 3/2 on turn 3 is completely fine we are just trying to reduce their board presence early game.  save your Defender of Argus for late game where you can taunt a big guy. I am not a big fan of playing your the blacknight naked in this match up since I have killed tons of taunted up dark iron drarf with it. Mind Control Tech can completely turn tempo around against zoo see if you can see some weak minions if your opponent has more than 4 before you play it.

Handlock:

 You will know your opponent is playing handlock instead of zoo 90% of the time if they tapp on turn 2. If its zoo and they don't have a turn 1&2 play you just win. if you are holding on to a Spellbreaker or equallity just dude up the first couple of turns until they play a Twilight Drake of a Mountain Giant and then kill it. don't coin Shade of Naxxramas into another Shade of Naxxramas since the will helfire you. Try not having to many minions with less then 3 health on the field on turn 3 and 4 on turn 6 try not having to many 4 health minions on the board at the same time. Just try not to overextend against handlock in general. The mind controll tech is great in this match up if played correctly it can basically function like another board clear when you take a important minion from them and since he is only 3 mana you almost always have a follow up play. There are almost no circumstances where playing him without using his battle cry is correct unless he threatens lethal or you are setting up lethal. try holding onto your The Black Knight for a taunted giant instead of using it on a Sludge Belcher. after you Aldor Peacekeeper a giant be sure to hit it with you minions since he can just silence it if you don't. Keep pressure on the board from turn 9 on out since we want him to be to afraid to play Jarraxuss.

Burst damage:

zoo has 9 burst damage in the form of Soulfire or Power Overwhelming+Doomguard. unless they are holding onto alot of cards this is all they should have.

handlock's burst damage is really dependant on their deck some play the Arcane Golem Power Overwhelming combo but since I haven't really seen that around for a long time I suggest you dont worry about it. Their maximum burst on a empty board is 16: Ragnaros+Soulfire+Soulfire. on a empty board can actually be 14: Hellfire+Hellfire +Soulfire+Soulfire but 11 is more likely since most people run double [deck]shadowflame[/deck] instead of double Hellfire.

Hunter: (work in progress)

This match up is really draw dependant for both of us if he has a incredible start we probably wont be able to stabilize but if we draw the Wild Pyromancer equallity combo the game is probably over before it has even started. If you are playing against alot of hunter I would suggest putting in a Ironbeak Owl and a acidic swap ooze. Mulligan  for Aldor Peacekeeper, Shade of Naxxramas,Consecration,Sen'jin Shieldmasta,Spellbreaker, Wild Pyromancer, Mind Control Tech,Harrison Jones and your Truesilver Champion I would also keep the Wild Pyromancer Equality combo or the Equality if concercration is also in your hand.  

gameplan

 

Our plan against hunter is to basically out taunt them or clear their board every turn in the mid-late game. We want to focus on reducing their damage early game until we can drop our taunters and have them empty their hands dealing with our threats. The real trick in this match up is to guess how much burst they are holding onto and heal at the right time. for example if you are holding onto a alexdraza let him get you as low as you can before using him. Ragnaros the Firelord,concercration and Harrison Jones are ways for us to turn the aggression around and wrap up the game.

Warrior:

Paladin:

Shaman:

Rogue:

Priest:

 

Basic muligan stategie: always try to get a truesilver champion and a shade of naxxramus in your opening hand.

vs Druid: look for your aldor peacekeepers and if your hand allowes for it keep your blacknight.

vs Zoo: look for your mindcontroll tech, concercration and a shieldmasta or sludge belcher.

vs Huntard: look for your ooze (drawing your ooze greatly increases your chances of winning), concercration, spell breaker and taunts.

vs Priest: look for a piecekeeper and a spellbreaker.

vs Warrior: look for your ooze and spellbreaker.