Hearthpwn

http://imgur.com/a/DgZ3M

In general, we want to see in our first hand creatures with low mana cost, such as:

- Hungry Crab (especially vs other paladins);

- Vilefin Inquisitor;

- Hydrologist;

- Golakka Crawler (especially vs deck with pirates);

- Wild Pyromancer.

With coin we can also keep the following cards:

- Wickerflame Burnbristle;

- Stonehill Defender;

- Murloc Warleader (if we have the 1 mana and 2 mana murloc in hand);

- Truesilver Champion (ok in matchups in which there are specific minions that we want to kill immediately, such as Northshire Cleric for Priest, Frothing Berserker for warrior and so on);

- Consecration (especially vs token druid/midrange hunter).

There are 2 principal kinds of warrior decks in the actual meta: pirate warriors and taunt quest warriors.

Againts pirates you need to efficiently control the board, trying to kill every pirate the opponent puts on the board and to resist with taunts and heal cards. Try to mulligan low mana cost minions (and obliously keep Golakka Crawler). With coin you can also keep Wild Pyromancer.

Against taunt warrior try to play around Brawl and the removals that the warrior could use. Important things are:

- save Ragnaros, Lightlord and Forbidden Healingfor when the warrior begins to deal 8 random damage every turn;

- take Eye for an Eye secret from Hydrologist to use when you are sure to receive 8 damage in the face (in many case this could bring you to win the match);

- try to use N'Zoth, the Corruptor when the brawls are gone!

The rogue has 2 types of meta decks too: quest rogue and miracle rogue.

Againts quest rogue, as already said, we need to be very fast to fill the board and deal damage, in order to win the match before the situation becomes unsustainable. Use carefully the Consecration before the rogue quest is completed. It's of course an hard matchup, but with a bit of lucky it is feasible.

Against miracle rogue, try to mulligan for the Golakka Crawler, use carefully Aldor Peacekeeper and the combos with Equality to clean the board.

 

Against priest, try to kill as fast as possible Northshire Cleric (if this card remains too long on the board, the disadvantage of cards compared to the opponent could become irreparable). Use carefully the Loot Hoarder, because there is always the risk of Potion of Madness... Try to take advantage of your minions with 4 attack, that are Priest's Achilles heel.

The most popular deck of druid is token druid. You need to limit the opponent presence on the board as fast as you can, because of the great aoe buffs that druid could use. Consecration is a very useful card vs token druid (especially vs Living Mana).

Other forms of druid are jade druid and ramp druid. Against jade druid you need to mantain control of the board and deal face damage when you are protected by taunts. You have to use carefully Aldor Peacekeeper and the Equality combos. You need to wisely take advantage of the fact that druid have no more great removal card (like Mulch). Another way to deal with big jade creatures are the secrets from Hydrologist. You have to choose, when possible, the secret that brings the life of the new summoned minion of the opponent to 1 (Repentance). The same tips are good for the ramp druid too.

The most popular warlock deck is the discard zoo lock. In this case, like vs whatever aggro deck you need to maintain control of the board and limit the taken damage. Try to wisely use your taunts, your heals and your aoe/single damage clears.

Most of mage decks aim to take control freezing opponent minions and winning using damage spell in combo (for this they use cards like Alexstrasza, Medivh, the Guardian, Archmage Antonidas or Hemet, Jungle Hunter). The main features of mages are to use secrets in order to resist and close the match when they have enough damage spells to bring your life to 0 in few turns. So, as paladin, you need to be aggressive and try to make the Ice Block secret proc as quick as possible. Very important are the healing cards. For example, the use of Ragnaros, Lightlord after the mage used Alexstrasza may make the opponent's remaining cards insufficient to win the match.

Also in this case, you need to control the board, trying to kill hunter beasts before he can adapt them or make combos with them. The very big problem you might meet is when your opponent take advantage of his Scavenging Hyena and you can't remove it. Apart from this situation, it is a very good matchup.

This is a matchup when the use of a control list like this become fundamental. Shaman has the ability to easily clear board with big aoe speels/effects, to make minions useless with Hex or Devolve. So an aggro murloc paladin with a not optimal beginning has very low chance to win against an elemental or control shaman. With this N'zoth pala you have instead good chance against it, because you have a very strong late game and the ability to clean the classic full board of shaman. Try to use your Cairne and Tyrion wisely because there is always the possibility of Hex around the corner!

 Mirror matches are not easy. An aggro murloc paladin with perfect start could be a problem if we don't have immediate answers (having Hungry Crab, but also low mana minions/Consecration/weapon in the first hand helps a lot in this sense). At the same time, a midrange/control paladin could be a problem too, if he start better than you. In the first case you need as always to take control of the board and limit the taken damage. In the second case, N'Zoth, the Corruptor could give you a good advantage in late game.