[Top 100] Control Paladin - with video guide!
- Last updated Aug 21, 2015 (Blackrock Launch)
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Wild
- 20 Minions
- 8 Spells
- 2 Weapons
- Deck Type: Ranked Deck
- Deck Archetype: Unknown
- Crafting Cost: 6940
- Dust Needed: Loading Collection
- Created: 8/18/2015 (Blackrock Launch)
- user-12462522
- Registered User
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Battle Tag:
N/A
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Total Deck Rating
1095
Introduction:
Hi guys Steef here with another legend deck! You might remember me from my other decks, Illidan Mech Mage, Top 25 Midrange Shaman, Counterspell mage. If you like the deck please give a +1.
This wasn't the deck I reached legend with (that was standard combo druid) but after I got there I put this list together and managed to climb to rank 59. Though I will be pushing for higher on twitch: http://twitch.tv/steef_plays, so come watch if you'd like :)
EDit: Streaming live now come join me for some fun :P (21/01/2015 12:25pm GMT)
The goal of this deck is to win through attrition, a lot of the games can go really long, so if that isn't for you this may not be a good fit. A second way to win is massive KT value if they can't deal with him. I have a positive winrate against every class bar priest. Unfortunately I don't have the proper stats this time as I wasn't tracking. I'll be sure to post some soon. Difficulty of matchup will be discussed in the matchup guide section.
Video Deck Tech and Games:
Below is a video of me playing the deck starting with a deck tech explaining card choices etc. I play six games starting from about 10 minutes into the video against zoolock, patron warrior, freeze mage, midrange paladin, mech mage and control warrior. Warning some of the games get a bit crazy with Shredder drops.....!!
Youtube link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZuoOIJrtXgo
More gameplay should be uploaded soon or catch me on twitch tomorrow.
Card Choices:
Anti Aggro Cards - Zombie Chow, Shielded Minibot, Muster for Battle.
These are the cards you keep in virtually any matchup but they are key in aggro matchups providing 2 for 1 or more trades with early aggressive creatures. Not much to say about them - they're just superb value. Everyone is scared of a muster Quartermaster combo and clears accordingly. Sometimes you'll wish you had one but it's often a dead card. Using muster to threaten opponents into using whirlwind or brawl early can win you the game.
Board Clear - Equality, Wild Pyromancer, Consecration.
Double Equality is something I feel is necessary in this meta, working especially well against Grim Patron warrior and allowing easy clears of high health minions and boards in other decks. I have one pyro for consistency and feel 2 is overkill when the deck runs virtually no other spells to combo his effect with. I tend to keep Wild Pyromancer in mulligans vs aggro - especially with the coin - if just for the early body. Consecration is good on it's own for board clear, don't be afraid to use these cards without the combo.
Value minions - Aldor Peacekeeper, Piloted Shredder, Sludge Belcher.
Aldor Peacekeeper is useful as an early minion that usually trades 2 for 1 along with the other eary cards. There are some match ups where you want to keep him for specific late game minions but those are mentioned in the matchup guide. Piloted Shredder is literally one of the most OP minions for it's cost and works so much better than a sen'jin shieldmasta, especially at sticking to the board and with KT. Sludge Belcher is two taunts in one body, so good against aggro and again great with KT.
Tech choices - Ironbeak Owl, Big Game Hunter, Harrison Jones, Sylvanas Windrunner
A one of silence is almost mandatory, wins games sometimes against zoo by silencing an egg or buffed up terror, stops sylvanas getting your Tirion etc. etc. You can also use silence to take away the effect of equality and heal your own minion to full hp, rarely used but don't be silly, forget and silence an equalitied highmane... not that I did that... yesterday. BGH is again almost mandatory for giants or Dr.Boom - pretty much every deck bar face hunter gives this guy something to kill. Harrison is pretty standard now too amongst the patron warrior meta and gives the deck additional draw which is always nice. Sylvanas is actually the one card i'm thinking of changing most, whiles she is fantastic against something like druid with all it's 5 hp creatures she isn't that great vs others mainly because we don't have a way to damage her ourselves and set up trades in our favour. The useful thing is she's often a silence target that allows your tirion to proc safely. I'm currently testing Piloted Sky Golem in it's place.
Healing - Truesilver Champion, Antique Healbot, Guardian of Kings, Lay on Hands.
What control paladin deck doesn't have an abundance of healing? Truesilver Champion is just a fantastic card, trading well against many 4 health minions like imp gang boss. Antique Healbot can get it's affect off earlier than most and is a valuable card against face hunter. Guardian and LoH are late game cards, one provides a big body that trades favourably with many 5/5s and the other gives you three card draws - what's not to love?
Fatties - Dr. Boom, Kel'Thuzad, Tirion Fordring.
Dr.Boom is as always OP so included, fantastic when followed a turn later by Kel'thuzad for infinite bombs. KT works so well with the amount of sticky minions and board control we have with our clears. It's rare that you'll be forced to play him on an empty board and he can win games on his own when your opponent has no answer. Tirion is one of the strongest legendaries, it's hard to think most classes wouldn't run him if they could. Taunt, shield and a huge weapon on death. His only downside is the Harrison Jones meta at the moment - but they've probably used that on your previous weapons anyway! (oh and against priests ofc)
Because it doesn't fit anywhere else - Solemn Vigil.
Card draw that can usually get a discount with your many board clears or with muster for battle - usually played for 0 cost. 1 is good, 2 is too much - if you draw too much you tend to lose control battles to fatigue!
Matchup Guides with Mulligans:
Here I'll go through the main decks you're likely to see on ladder, give them a difficulty rating, explain what to mulligan for and give general tactics for play.
Hunter:
Difficulty: Medium Mulligan: Zombie Chow, Shielded Minibot, Muster for Battle, Ironbeak Owl - If you have these or are on coin Wild Pyromancer and Truesilver Champion.
The only difference between Face Hunter and Midrange Hunter is really what traps to play around (Freezing Trap/Snake Trap for mid, explosive for face). Try to set up boards in such a way that these traps wont punish you, and remember Freezing Trap can be used to return and reuse things like antique healbot! The plan is to stop as much face damage as possible, kill off minions efficiently, use taunts and heal up when necessary. If against midrange try to save an aldor peacekeeper for Savannah Highmane or Loatheb. Oh and don't get caught out by a turn 5 Knife Juggler -> Unleash the Hounds, trade off your dudes early if you have the option. Your healing should be enough to win you the fight in the lategame, though sometimes no one can stop a trun 3 huffer pain train.
Warrior:
Patron: Difficulty: Hard Mulligan: Equality, Harrison Jones, Zombie Chow, Shielded Minibot, Muster for Battle, - on coin Truesilver Champion.
Always keep one equality for Grim Patron - even withoutConsecration or pyro it shuts down reproduction! Try to limit their card draw as much as possible. Silence or kill in one the acolyte of pain and don't leave injured minions alive in case of Battle Rage. Don't worry too much about flooding the board early game, having a whirlwind used on muster is good it means less combo damage later. As you get towards turn 8 try to have fewer small minions on the board. Leaving one as patron bait is sometimes correct - we can clear a full board of patrons easily, we can't stop a 1 turn frothing kill late game. Basic plan is get through the early game, board clear for the patrons, rush them down before they get another combo opportunity and hide behind tirion.
Control: Difficulty: Easy Mulligan: Harrison Jones, Zombie Chow, Shielded Minibot, Muster for Battle, Piloted Shredder.
Play slow. Really.... really.... slowwww. Sometimes hero power pass on turn 8 is correct. They can't deal with all your dudes efficiently for a whole game. You can force a brawl with a muster from the threat of quartermaster alone. Most warriors now are running two brawls so don't over extend after the first. You have enough removal for all their creatures, but always be aware of your life total being in Grommash Hellscream range. Save some healing cards for after Alexstrasza. Sometimes it's best not to use your card draw effects as you will mainly win by fatigue. Oh and most control warriors are playing Baron Geddon so beware that!
Warlock:
Zoolock: Difficulty: Easy Mulligan: Zombie Chow, Shielded Minibot, Muster for Battle, Ironbeak Owl, Consecration, - on coin keep Truesilver Champion.
Your early game stuff trades very effectively for theirs so unless you get a brick hand this should be an easy game. Out value them in the early game and save Aldor Peacekeeper for things like Void Terror or Doomguardand if possible wait for implosion before consecrating. You should win after a board wipe and getting KT down afterwards is almost impossible for them to deal with.
Handlock/demonhandlock/dragonlock etc.: Difficulty: Easy Mulligan: Big Game Hunter, Ironbeak Owl, Zombie Chow, Shielded Minibot, Muster for Battle.
Don't over extend into hellfire/shadowflame and you should be fine. We have multiple ways to shut down giants and drakes, with owl, bhg, aldors and equality. Don't bring them into easy molten giant range unless you have an equality to break them next turn. Generally one of the easiest matchups. The same thing goes for any slower variant, play to outlast dragon lock - they don't play Lord Jaraxxus and your healing should be enough to avoid dieing to malygos combos.
Druid:
Difficulty: Easy-Medium Mulligan: Zombie Chow, Shielded Minibot, Muster for Battle, Piloted Shredder, Aldor Peacekeeper.
Again we don't worry about muster being swiped away since we don't have quartermaster, but don't set up a great swipe turn if you can help it. Like with handlock we have great ways of dealing with big creatures and they have limited board clear. Try to kill off their creatures to stop a savage roar combo and stay above 14 hp (or even 22 if you can help it). Using a Consecration to kill a single stealthed shade is fine. as usually equality alone with your board minions is enough for clears later.
Mage:
Mech Mage: Difficulty: Easy-Medium Mulligan: Zombie Chow, Shielded Minibot, Muster for Battle, - on coin Truesilver Champion.
Harder than zoo due to your creatures trading much better against 2hp minions than the mechs 3. There's also the potential for snowchugger to completely lock you out of weapon use. Generally though with the lack of deathrattles our board clears are much more effective so you can usually win from there by out-healing any burst from spells and slowly beating them down. Even antonidas + stealth spare part can't escape an equality combo! Most aren't running secrets now. Oh - and if they run Fel Reaver using Aldor Peacekeeper usually gets you a short victory via concede :D.
Tempo Mage: Difficulty: Medium Mulligan: Zombie Chow, Shielded Minibot, Muster for Battle, Truesilver Champion on coin.
Secrets make this a harder matchup, play around them accordingly - it's usually Mirror Entity but be aware of Counterspell! Kill the flamewaker asap by any means necessary, you only usually die if you can't deal with it. Truesilver is great for this but sometimes those Mirror Image get in the way. Heal yourself out of Fireball [/card]range and be aware they usually run one [card]flamestrike so don't extend into it.
Freeze Mage: Difficulty: Hard Mulligan: Zombie Chow, Shielded Minibot, Muster for Battle, Piloted Shredder.
This is one of the hardest matchups. We have no burst and all our damage comes from having minions on board which freeze mage has an easy time dealing with. Save your heals for after Alexstrasza and you may have a chance. Save Ironbeak Owl or Equality+a weapon charge for the doomsayers. Tirion is usually more useful dead so throw him out there and get that sweet weapon. KT also works really well if they run out of freeze effects as they can no longer Flamestrike your board. As you see in the video I only won because of a certain shredder pilot!
Paladin:
Aggro Paladin: Difficulty: Easy Mulligan: Zombie Chow, Shielded Minibot, Muster for Battle, Consecration.
An easy matchup, we have enough board clear an healing to outlast their damage. Trade off for all their minions where possible - this stops cards like Abusive Sergeant, and Blessing of Might/Blessing of Kings being useful. Try to keep a low hand count due to divine favour - sometimes best not to use Solemn Vigil and use Harrison Jones on Truesilver Champion instead of a high durability Light's Justice.
Midrange Pally: Difficulty: Easy-Medium Mulligan: Zombie Chow, Shielded Minibot, Muster for Battle, Consecration - on coin Truesilver Champion.
Not really a 50/50 since you have more board clears and big creatures than they will just play around Equality/Consecration and you have the upper hand with the amount of healing. Not too much to say really just trade efficiently, kill their creatures and grind them down. Beware quartermaster plays so kill off silverhand recruits and save light's justice charges for them instead of going face.
Priest:
Difficulty: Very Hard Mulligan: Zombie Chow, Shielded Minibot, Muster for Battle, Truesilver Champion, Equality.
This is our toughest matchup but thankfully there aren't too many - though I did meet a rank 6 priest today so maybe there should be... Having loads of good lategame creatures sucks because thoughtsteal is a thing, they can steal your small creatures, have plenty of board clear and often run harrison jones and/or acidic swap ooze - not a small advantage then :(. Try to play around the board clear and sometimes you can win the long long grind.
Rogue:
Difficulty: Medium Mulligan: Zombie Chow, Shielded Minibot, Muster for Battle, Truesilver Champion, Piloted Shredder, Harrison Jones.
Surprisingly while thought to be one of the tougher matchups I am 6-1 against rogues. The amount of healing you have is usually enough to outlast them and you can usually clear up their board after they do so to yours. Keep minions off the board to prevent Tinker's Sharpsword Oil from being useful and you should be fine, they really struggle to deal with boom/KT. Beware that sap is a thing, if you haven't seen any played yet perhaps play Sludge Belcher + Shielded Minibot over a Tirion Fordring. Force them to use their damage to clear your minions instead of on your face and you'll grind them out.
Shaman:
Mech shaman: Difficulty: Easy Mulligan: Zombie Chow, Shielded Minibot, Muster for Battle, Truesilver Champion, Aldor Peacekeeper.
Just stop the rush and you'll be golden. Generally you can trade well with the early minions with Truesilver Champion and our board clear is very effective due to the low amount of death rattles. As with mech mage an Aldor Peacekeeper on a Fel Reaver usually gets a concede :).
Midrange Shaman: Difficulty: Easy-Medium Mulligan: Zombie Chow, Shielded Minibot, Muster for Battle, Ironbeak Owl, Piloted Shredder, Consecration.
You have the tools to outlast the shaman. Basically 1/1s beat 0/2s for board presence. Play around lightning storms and turn 6 fire elementals and keep your life total out of range of a sudden Doomhammer/Al'Akir the Windlord burst. Try to play tirion after Hex/Earth Shock have been used and just trade efficiently, you'll win in the long run.
Thanks for reading I hope you liked the guide (if you did a +1 would be awesome :P). If you have any questions or comments please ask away - I'm always looking for improvement suggestions! You can find me streaming on twitch: twitch.tv/steef_plays 11-6 GMT.
Is this deck still viable this meta?
-_-
This ain't control Pally. This is midrange Paladin.
Yeah somehow. It looks somehow like a hybridish type of pally.
Hello Steef. Will you be making a new 'Control Paladin with a deck list in the near future?
Yeah, i had great success with it and something happened with the meta. Hoping for a updated and new control paly soon :)
Paladin already have many clear-the-board mechanics with less mana, but you can try to give it a hook.
Murloc Knight is being used a lot in most of Paladins decks, there's a lot of synergy between it and Paladin cards, and between it and its drops.
Good Harrison Jones replacement? Maybe Acidic Swamp Ooze, or rotation Sylvanas back in?
Ive had pretty decent luck with this deck. I climbed from rank 5 to rank 2, im sure if I played more games I could get to legend with this.
I swapped Solemn Vigil for coghammer(I dont have that BRM wing unlocked) and its been okay. Im considering replacing it with Seal of light or Holy Light because most of my games lost are to face hunters with good draw (they ALWAYS ALWAYS have owls for belchers lol).
I tried swapping healbot for the new pally card Tuskarr Jouster. I have had INCREDIBLY BAD LUCK with this card. More than half of the time I would have my zombie chow show up to joust. I've lost games to hunters because of my joust failing. I really wouldnt recommend using it unless you are a lucky person. I swapped back to healbot because its just more reliable and when you are facing these aggro decks, getting that heal is really crucial.
The classes I've had trouble with this deck were face hunter(only if they draw good), freeze mage, oil rouge, and greedy mind control priests.
Facehunter seems to be my only problem too. God damn i hate em.
I am playing Tuskarr tho, i might swap back like you did. But i like Tuskarr, really nice body with a good heal.
Did you do better against facehunters?
I agree...Tuskarr failed me too many times to be reliable....went back to healbot
How come Sylvanas over Thaurissan here? Which one is better for this deck?
You don't actually need Emperor Thaurissan in this deck because you only have 3 high mana drops and they're used in 3 very different moments in the game. You don't need to drop many cards at once.
Replacements for Harrison and Tirion?
Acidic Swamp Ooze and Guardian of Kings
OK I made an account just so that I could post about this deck. I tend to play pally the most, with a control style being my favorite, but hadnt ever found a truly strong control pally deck - UNTIL NOW. WOW. This deck is OP (caveat being that I am confident I played this deck very well, so if you are less familiar with pally play style AKA when to use that aldor peacekeeper and when to hold back, when to equality+consecrate and when to save it, etc you may have less success, but that isn't the decks fault).
I have only *tried* to reach legend one other season, many months ago, and hit rank 3 as my best but didnt have the time or patience to grind to legend.. After that I mostly played arena, brawls once they came out, and the occasional game of ranked just to try new decks out or for fun.
This freaking deck tho.... I was at rank 13, and I went down to rank 5 with THREE losses, and 2 of them were due to misplays on my part (like the second after you play you go OH NO!! Bad plays). I beat every type of match up - mech mage, tempo mage, freeze mage, control warrior, patron warrior, face hunter, mid range hunter, zoolock, handlock, aggrodin, ramp/combo druid, a couple mirror matches, etc.
I played the EXACT deck order (as was listed then - I see he has switched sylvannas for a quartermaster, and I wouldnt say Sylvannas was crucial to my wins, but she did bait out a few silences which was nice, so I stuck with her) and followed all mulligan advice to the tee. Its on point, as is this deck.
After hitting rank 5, I had a stretch where I won 6 and lost 4, moving me just a couple stars up into rank 5. Took a break, came back, and went from 3 stars into rank 5 straight through to legendary with TWO more losses! First time legend thanks to this deck, and went from rank 13 to legend with a grand total of 9 losses. Pretty solid.
Of course tGT is going to switch things up, and actually the day that I pushed in to legend I put the 5/5 that heals for 7 if you win a joust in instead of a healbot - ABOSLUTELY a great addition. Just OP compared to healbot. For the matches that the health *really* matters (aggro), you pretty much guaranteed win, and for the other matches (mid/control), the 5/5 body is SO much better then 3/3
Cannot recommend this deck enough :)
this is my first comment to say you it fuking works.meybe better than top decks.my pala was like 13 lvl.i never played paladin but i opened golden Tirion and found this deck
thank you so much
So i'm going to try this deck, but replaced guardian of king and healbot with 2 tuskar jouster, replaced 2 zombie chows with 2 gadgetan jouster and replaced harrison for trueheart
interesting to try gadgetan jouster, thinking about having just one tuskar and adding eadric instead.