Hearthpwn

Greetings friends!
My name is Max and i'm from Sweden!
I reached legendary for the first time last season and now i managed to do it again. Both time with paladin as the main class from around rank 7 - legendary.
I know there are lots of midrange paladin decks and all of them are quite similar but since there is an overall impression that midrange paladin is weak i still decided to share the deck that i have used. I will try to write about my thoughts on cards and playstyle etc. Hope you enjoy!

Proof:
S13:

S14:

Overall playstyle:

The first thing that i have noticed about midrange paladin is that tempo and board control is two key elements in being successful. When Paladin falls behind it is often really hard to regain the control and even if you use your Equality+Consecration combo it will take most of your turn and the opponent will get the chance to once again take initiative.  

By using cards like Shielded Minibot, Coghammer and Muster for Battle you have the opportunity to make lots of value trades to gain tempo in the early game. Truesilver Champion is another card that can help greatly with this in certain match-ups.

By gaining tempo, and in return board control, you have the ability to stall the game, often you want to keep your board at maximum 3 minions+recruits. By doing this you can start to save up your hand(since paladin lacks good card draw). Use your weapons to kill of minions while pressuring them with your early minions such as Silver Hand Recruit, Piloted Shredder, Aldor Peacekeeper, Shielded Minibot, etc and force them to use their board clears. When they do this you can once again fill up the board with a few minions and put on pressure. This kind of stalling tactics will often let you draw into answers like Big Game Hunter to counter their big minions when they are played.

Another thing that helped me a lot is realizing the important of patience, often i decided to go with a play on a certain turn to quickly. Especially when going for board clears, i would see it as a effective way to solve the problem at hand but often you can, with some thinking, solve the situation in another way. I made it into a mini-game too try and be as resourceful in my plays as possible and save my Consecration for as long as possible. I think this has improved my gameplay greatly. Especially vs decks like zoolock, before I lost every game to zoolock but now i think it's one of the better match-ups in the game. 

How to tech cards properly is another thing that pushed me to the next level. When people talk about tech-cards, it's often simply a card you insert to help against whatever is the most popular deck atm. "The Black Knight is so good against this meta" What you often forget is that most decks are naturally better vs a couple of other arch-types. For example mid range paladin is super strong vs tempo-mage. When i met lots of tempo-mage on the ladder i added Loatheb and Kezan Mystic. I did win almost all games vs tempo-mage but lost vs other decks where these two aren't nearly as useful. What i realized is that even without Loatheb and Kezan Mystic i can almost beat every tempo-mage. So i effectively gimped my deck vs other weaker match-ups to make a already strong one stronger. My point is the importance of considering the strengths and weaknesses of your deck before teching in cards.

Reasoning behind certain cards:

I think most of the cards explain themselves and, since this overall is a standard midrange pala, doesn't need any further reasoning but feel free to ask!

Second Equality
Most people use only one equality in paladin but personally i prefer 2. I tried using only one for a long time but i found myself never having it when i needed it. With 2 i am more or less guaranteed to draw into one and it's almost never a dead card. If i have one in hand and draw into a second one i can use one without hesitation and clear a  semi-big minion like Druid of the Claw who otherwise would cause me trouble and might end up making me loose the tempo and board control. Even if i don't have 2 in hand i can use one more freely to ascertain control in the early-mid game since i know there is another one in the deck waiting for me. Also most people lately doesn't play around 2 Equality which in itself is an valid argument for running it.

Coghammer
Coghammer is in my opinion an amazing card! This card alone can win you games, the tempo and value it can provide is insane. If you drop it on turn 3 and hit a Zombie Chow, Knife Juggler or Shielded Minibot(after killing something with it!) the value can be insane. The card is often a 3-4 for 1. You shouldn't hesitate dropping it on a empty board at turn 3 or only hitting a 1/1 with it if you lack another play. The weapon itself can be worth it just to remove the opponents early minions allowing your own to stick. The card is also extremely useful in the mid-late game allowing you to make valuable trades.

Azure Drake
This is a card i ran 2 of last season to counter all the grim patron decks. It also filled a second purpose of being a minion that is hard to deal with for priest. Both priest and grim patron warrior is the biggest weakness for this deck from my experience and having this one card that helps the match-up vs both those classes is great. It's also a overall good card, it gets you a 4/4 body, draws a card(which paladin always needs) and it enables you to cast 3 dmg consecrate which most people never see coming. Atm one is enough since i haven't faced that many patrons.

The Black Knight
This spot is actually a tech spot and right now it is occupied by TBK. I teched this card in recently since almost every deck use taunt. Even the hybrid-hunter that infects the ladder atm often run a Sludge Belcher. This combined with a owl in the deck often gives you a good way to get past a final taunt and ending the game also. A problem midrange pala often face is not being able to deal the final 3-4 dmg. Otherwise i often keep a Harrison Jones, Kezan Mystic or even Kel'Thuzad vs control-heavy meta.


Thanks for reading so far! Will keep writing more if people seem interested :) And give me a +1/leave a comment if you enjoyed it! It's greatly appreciated!