[Witchwood] Wild Hands (Handbuff Paladin)
- Last updated Apr 15, 2018 (Witchwood)
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Wild
- 26 Minions
- 2 Spells
- 1 Weapon
- Deck Type: Ranked Deck
- Deck Archetype: Handbuff Paladin
- Crafting Cost: 18240
- Dust Needed: Loading Collection
- Created: 2/28/2017 (Aggro Downfall)
- joey_jojo_48
- Registered User
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- 14
- 39
- 75
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Battle Tag:
JoeyJojo48#1451
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Region:
US
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Total Deck Rating
194
Hello Hearthpwn!
Here's my fifth deck (Handbuff Paladin). I've been playing the hell out of Handbuff Paladin ever since Mean Streets, and I even took it to legend in Un'Goro (proof below). And while it may not be allowed in Standard anymore, it'll live on in wild! It's fairly tricky to play and is definitely off-meta, but it's one of the most fun decks I've ever played. If you've got the cards I highly reccomend giving it a try. I'll do my best to keep this page updated with the most current decklist I am running. Cheers!
*APRIL 15th: The first Wild version of this deck is here! This is far from a final refined list given that I am not a wild main and that the wild card pool is so huge, but it's at least a solid starting point for anyone wanting to try out the archetype.
If you're interested in a "standard version" of the deck, feel free to check it out Piperbuff Paladin. While obviously not exactly the same, it plays very similar.
Also I made another standard deck, a Big Deathrattle Hunter, so feel free to check that out if you're into that kind of thing.
Best of luck in the Year of the Raven!*
~ General Strategy ~
The general strategy of the deck is fairly straightforward. Your goal is to use the handbuff cards (Smuggler's Run, Prince Keleseth, Grimestreet Enforcer, and Val'anyr) to make your hand very big, and then use those big cards to beat down your opponent. To help with this, this deck runs a ton of cards to disrupt/neutralize your opponent's threats (such as Aldor Peacekeeper. Ironbeak Owl, and Sunkeeper Tarim) as well as cards who scale very well with buffs (such as Chillblade Champion, Wickerflame Burnbristle, and Saronite Chain Gang). One of the nice things about a handbuff deck is you can run a decent number of tech cards, but since you can handbuff them they can still be useful in other matchups. It's a pretty tricky deck, but just be patient, think things through, and you can beat almost anything.
~ Mulligan Guide ~
Smuggler's Run |
Prince Keleseth |
Zola the Gorgon |
Paragon of Light |
Aldor Peacekeeper |
Wickerflame Burnbristle |
Coldlight Oracle |
Stonehill Defender |
Saronite Chain Gang |
~ Card Choices ~
The Handbuffers |
The purpose of these cards is to buff the cards in your hand (and deck). Smuggler's Run and Grimestreet Enforcer are core cards and the deck will not work without them. If you don't have Prince Keleseth you can use 2x Grimestreet Outfitter and the deck is still very powerful (and it also allows you to run other 2-cost cards like Hydrologist or Acidic Swamp Ooze). If you don't have Val'anyr don't rush to craft it yet unless you've got 1.6k dust lying around. It can easily be replaced with some of the suggestions below based on what you have.
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The Taunts |
Wickerflame Burnbristle |
Taunt cards scale very well with handbuffs, and these cards form the core defensive of the deck. There are lots of other taunt cards that could work in this deck, such as Soggoth the Slitherer, Grimestreet Protector, Corpsetaker, Stegodon, Dirty Rat, Righteous Protector, Spikeridged Steed, Tar Creeper, The Lich King, or Second-Rate Bruiser. Feel free to try them out!
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The Neutralizers |
Uther of the Ebon Blade |
These cards are all meant to mess with your opponent's gameplan so that your cards can shine. Pretty much all of the cards except Aldor Peacekeeper and Sunkeeper Tarim are replaceable. I expect this part of the decklist to shift a lot as the meta changes. Other good tech cards you could consider are Acidic Swamp Ooze, Ivory Knight, Gluttonous Ooze, Golakka Crawler, Lorewalker Cho, Harrison Jones, The Black Knight, Nerubian Unraveler, Hungry Crab, Dirty Rat, Skulking Geist, Stormwind Knight, Spellbreaker, Deathwing, Blackguard, Stampeding Kodo, Mind Control Tech, Truesilver Champion, and Mindbreaker.
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The Heals |
Wickerflame Burnbristle |
You need heals to keep yourself alive. From my experience these cards are often enough. Alternate cards you could consider are Alexstrasza, Benevolent Djinn, Earthen Ring Farseer, Truesilver Champion, Corpsetaker, Bloodworm, Ragnaros, Lightlord or Ivory Knight.
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The Main Event
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Wickerflame Burnbristle |
In handbuff decks, you obviously want to hit as many cards with your buffs as possible. But these cards in particular are the ones you really want to hit. They are either ones that have beneficial keywords, have card draw/pseudo card draw, and/or can squeeze extra value from the buffs. One package of note in here is "The Curator Package" (1x The Curator, 2x Primordial Drake, 2x Coldlight Oracle, and 2x Ironbeak Owl). This package gives a very reliable minion-based card draw engine to help keep your hand full and ready to buff.
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Let's play some Hearthstone together! JoeyJojo48#1451, Americas :)
Hello! I'm personally not that big of a fan of Doppelgangster. Don't get me wrong, it scales very very well with handbuffs but I've found the pile of stats it creates to be underwhelming and the card is very weak without the buffs. I feel like Saronite Chain Gang is the better version of the card because 1) It scales almost as well, 2) It has Taunt which makes it impact the board when it is played and 3) It's not a bad card to play un-buffed. Which is why it basically takes the slot Doppelgangster would have had. That being said, Doppelgangster is still a good card and a solid substitution for some of the cards in the deck if you don't have them.
Thanks for the in depth explanation behind this deck, especially for including replacement suggestions! I've been wanting to up my game since coming back to Hearth, but I'm pretty sucky at making high synergy decks (i.e. a good deck). Any suggestion on how to deal with the lack of the Uther DK card (if it's possible since you list that card as one of the two MVPs here)? I have everything else but am about 800 dust short on crafting him at the moment.
Also, what are your thoughts on mixing a Drakkari Enchanter in here? My hope is to land her with Grimestreet Enforcer to squeeze more hand buffs out.
Thanks again!
Hey! I'm glad you enjoyed the write up. If you want to replace Uther of the Ebon Blade, you need to add in "heals with a punch," meaning a card that with help you survive but creates a threat. Ragnaros, Lightlord is the ideal choice, but if you're on a budget cheaper options would be Lay on Hands, Ivory Knight, or Bloodworm.
I haven't tried Drakkari Enchanter, but if you wanted it you'd probly want to make room for Ragnaros, Lightlord and/or The Lich King to give more heavy hitters to combo with it.
Best of luck on ladder!
I really would like your thoughts on a divine shield verision of your handbuff deck. With this deck I struggle early on against priests which for some reason I'm facing a lot of them at rank 15
Hmm, a divine shield handbuff would likely be pretty good since divine shield scales really well with buffs and it let's you add in Corpsetaker which is a bit too inconsistent in the current build of this deck to run. But you'd likely have to change a looooot of the deck in order to make it work and at that point it pretty much loses its spirit and becomes a different deck
yeah that's true. Corpse taker feels like a waste of dust because I can't get it to work for me in games.
also wanted to know how would you incorporate bovlar fireblood? with 1-2 hand buffs he becomes a strong asset
I haven't opened Bolvar, Fireblood and don't have enough spare dust to craft him yet, but he's on the list to test. My first instict is if you'd want to put him in you'd want a few more divine shield minions (i.e. 2x Righteous Protector) and that would also likely mean you could add in 2x Corpsetaker since they'd be consistent enough. But that's a lot of card changes so it's tough to say what to cut for it.
If you only wanted just Bolvar, Fireblood, you could likely cut 1x Stampeding Kodo, 1x Elise the Trailblazer, or 1x Blackguard for him but I'm not sure if it's worth it or not.
what about bonemare? i kinda want to find a way to fit him in this deck.
I haven't tried out Bonemare yet, but it's on the list to test. My gut is that you'd want to cut 1x Blackguard, 1x Elise the Trailblazer, or 1x Stampeding Kodo to make room but I'm not sure yet.
Nice deck...
i have thrown in a Bone Drake and N'Zoth...
How far has this gotten you this season???
I'm currently low-teens this season (~Rank 12), I think I started around Rank 22 since I pretty much only did arena last month. I'm experimenting and tinkering a lot right now and I'm going on a trip at the end of the month so I'm really not trying to ladder atm. I was planning to try to push next month with it if I have the time.
Hello! Thanks for your interest in the deck. Unfortunately I'm not really much of a video maker since I don't stream or make Youtube videos or stuff like that but if I get some free time I'll see what I can do.
I'm very glad you're enjoying the deck. Ivory Knight sounds like a great option to sub for Elise the Trailblazer since it still gives you resources and the heal can definitely be very helpful. Best of luck on ladder!
That's great news, I hope you can keep the climb going! Spellbreaker also works great against Sherazin, Corpse Flower since I've found Miracle Rogue really relies on that card's board presence. Dirty Rat + Truesilver Champion is also very useful to pulling and killing Gadgetzan Auctioneer before they can have their blowout turn. From my experience I've found Quest Rogue to be much harder, unless you hard mulligan for Dirty Rat to ruin their bounce combos.
Glad you think it's interesting, I hope you have fun with it! Sunkeeper Tarim is a solid card so I don't think you'll regret crafting it. Both Elise the Trailblazer and The Black Knight are replaceable as long as you add in some card draw/discover and another tech card respectively. Cheers!
Man, your deck is awesome, congratulations for it! I don't have the Black Knight and Lorewalker Cho, but the deck is great anyway. Dirty rat it's the best counter against quest Rogue, pulling the combo pieces from their hand, and against combo Mage too, when you pull Antonidas or a giant, it's game over for them. I'm at rank 10, and i'm going to try to get legend with it!
Thanks! I'm glad you like it. Best of luck to legend my friend! Both Lorewalker Cho and The Black Knight are replaceable if you slot in other tech cards based on what you're facing (like Acidic Swamp Ooze, Big Game Hunter, Primordial Drake, Mind Control Tech, Ivory Knight, etc.). Cheers!
Stonehill Defender man. You can discover Sunkeeper, Tirion, Wickerflame and Grimestreet protector. And he is a taunt himself.
Great suggestion! I was about to try him out.
Update: I swapped them in in place of the Second-Rate Bruiser and the change feels very good.