Hail to our great Shockadin Legends! If you want to join them, check the guide and read about their experiences here. They give us feedback and very important hints and tips to play this deck at it's full potential. Have a nice reading =)
BoilerUp (TheChad)
"So, if you're looking through Hearthpwn, trying to find a deck to hit Legend with, & you're asking yourself "Can I REALLY hit legend with that deck?" look no further. "
I tried hitting legend with Zoo Lock and honestly, I wasn't good enough to. I was stuck at level 5. Then I switched to this exact Shockadin deck (no variations) and after a short while, I finally hit Legend. Honestly, things got much easier after level 4 with this deck due to the meta. Just build this deck, play it aggressively, and you'll hit legend. It seemed like the more aggressive I was, the more the other player would panic due to their low health and make bad plays. I also don't think many of the people you'll face know how to play against this deck since the whole time I climbed the ladder, I only faced 3 other Shockadins (1 of which was Holyrock himself.) Due to the fact it's a rush deck & it has such a high win percentage I can't imagine a deck that would get you to legend rank faster. It's really not that expensive to craft either. One more note, I almost always kept Divine Favor at the beginning when it came up. Thanks to HolyRock for creating the best (and most fun) deck I've ever played with! I took out my phone to record the moment:
When climbing the ladder I had some frustrating losses, but I could normally attribute it to card draw or a play style mistake on my part (too fast/ too slow). You also have to keep in mind you'll win over half your games, so eventually you'll get there. Even if you lose back to back games. Also, if you lose to someone you don't think you would beat in a rematch, wait 30 seconds or so before you play again. If you beat someone easily, click that next game button ASAP. There were a decent amount of times I got easy rematches that way. I'd emphasize that Divine Favor is your best friend in this deck. Make the most out of it & keep it if you get it to start. Also, play aggressive unless you know your going against another aggro deck. Then go board control and you'll win with patience. I only faced 2 Aggro mages, so no advice there, sorry. If you'd replace any one card, for me, it would be the Southsea Deckhand. I don't know what I'd switch it with, maybe an owl for emergencies, but it didn't do much for me. Awesome deck though.
Sina_
"When I swapped to this build I’ve been rank5 with 0 stars, so overall I needed 26 stars to hit legend, I did that in 61 wins. The vast majority of my losses were to druids and a significant percentage to Zoo. When I started the climb ppl started to be already aware of this build and as a result I've spent half of the climb hovering at rank1 often hitting a wall of druids."
2x Avenging wrath: I think having only 1 is really big hit to this build, I wouldn't recommend it.
Southsea Deckhand: I hated playing with the 2 traps, drawing them at the same time was pretty bad for divine favour too not to mention not having something much more useful instead. 2 elven archers didn't work for me since I wanted something that I can play on turn one & this card works as a finisher too if you have Truesilver and you can buff it with Blessing of might or Abusive.
2x Wolfrider: When I started out I played with Arcane golems, but I felt that they are sitting in my hand wasting space most of the time. Playing them on turn 3 obviously wasn’t an option, not to mention their lack of synergy with Divine Favour. Seriously you don’t want to ramp up a miracle rogue, or anything really. You can pop a Wolfrider on turn 3, if it dies to dagger or druid hero power that’s fantastic, if it gets mage pinged, or shiv-d that’s not that big of a loss either. It did dmg, the opponent lost some tempo it’s all good.
0x Ironbeak Owl: I tried to run one, I felt its only useful in the druid matchup, which is by far the worse regardless if you have the owl or not, it’s better to perform better in other matchups. You need to do amazingly well to beat a druid that knows your deck, Owl maybe improves the matchup by 2%.
Matchups:
Zoo: It’s a 50/50 matchup, now that this build is not a novelty anymore the zoo warriors are playing much more cautiously against it. I don’t recommend going for the face until you are sure you have lethal next turn without a high chance of dying. I like clearing minions with Truesilver. Ideally you can clear a big board by around turn 5 with consecration (if they have 3 health minions that’s too bad) followed by avenging wrath on turn 6, if they don’t do any crazy plays you can swap to face around turn 7-8. If they do a Flame imp+ Voidwalker opening with coin that’s often an auto loss, not to mention every second Zoo running Blood Knight, I strongly suggest popping all shields ASAP.
Druids: It’s by far the hardest matchup. To win you need possibly multiple equalities & them drawing badly, if they play one taunt/turn it’s usually a loss. When I started running Shockadin I beat almost every druid, with them taking 90s / turn trying to decide what I am and how to play against me. Now they play superfast, healing themselves instead of drawing cards, sequencing their taunts etc. nigh impossible to win. Tokens is just as bad, you will need to waste a lot of tempo to kill their minions & when it finally seems that you are stabilized and you have lethal next turn they just roar your face, sometimes innervate double roar, leaving a single minion up is usually enough to lose by turn 7. To have a chance against tokens you need preferably 2 Avenging wraths in your top 1/3 of the deck, but as I said it’s pretty hopeless.
Control Warrior: I have a really good win rate against these guys, about 80%. I think it’s important to run 2x avenging wrath in this matchup, since the games often drag out and you do need the highest possible dmg output. The Wolfriders make a lot of difference, especially if they clear them with Fiery war axe, even in a worst case scenario them dying to Cruel Taskmaster or whirlwind is an acceptable loss. Try to Mulligan for Divine Favour. Kill the Armorsmith on sight, it is worth a truesilver charge, or a one drop dying with a blessing of might on it even. When the war has 2 Krokron elites on his board, Avenging Wrath will very often kill them both. (Obviously only with no other minions on his/her side)
Shaman: About 75% win rate for me. I played shaman a lot this season (up to rank4) so I could predict their plays pretty well. If the shaman plays 2x wulfe() early on you could be in trouble, but usually you can beat them. He will play earth shocks & stuff to remove your minions, but it’s easy to force reactive plays and if you get to draw divine favour things are golden. A single 1 drop can deal with most of his totems, yes I suggest clearing them unless you need to push for lethal at the risk of dying from Al’akir, or whatever combo he has. I suggest clearing the Mana Tide too, since it’s not a good idea to give him too many options, unless you really need to push for a bigger Divine Favour. (that’s rare)
Handlock: Extremely good matchup for the Shockadin. During my climb I was literally farming these guys. I always Mulligan for Zoo, because every time I thought it’s a handlock and kept equality etc., it turned out to be a Zoo. If you draw equality it’s a nearly certain victory, if you don’t it’s still good. It’s often a good idea to use Leeroy to bring them down to like 2-3, since even if the lock taunts up, Avenging wrath, Consecration, or Hammer of Wrath can finish the job at a high percentage of the time. Anyhow in order to lose to a handlock with an average hand the lock has to play in a very specific way & I don’t think they faced enough Shockadins for figuring that out just yet. Often they don’t draw a taunter and you can kill them so quickly it’s not even funny… for them! I usually just ignore Drakes & Watchers.
Face hunter: Good matchup, I only faced them 5 times, only lost once. Simply put you just kill faster than the hunter. You can feed his weapons suiciding minions into his explosive traps it’s not a big deal. Truesilver is op, the healing really puts you ahead in the race & Huffer vs. Avenging Wrath is pretty funny as well. Usually clearing their minions is not needed, as far as I can tell based on my admittedly very little sample.
Mirracle Rogue: Well, on paper we are extremely favoured in this matchup. The problem is if the rogue knows your build very well you are in for a rocky ride. Rogue Mulliganing for Edwin + Fan of Knives’ can rlly cause serious problems. A turn2 6/6 Edwin is nearly an auto loss, even if you can clear it with equality the tempo loss is just too hard to come back from. Not to mention some plays with Earthen Ring healers+ saps on Leper Gnomes, it can be a pain. If you cannot finish them off by turn 8 it’s often a loss, turn 5-6 concealed Gadgetzan can be sniped with avenging wrath, but if they know the build the odds of them playing a gadgetzan + conceal without mana to draw their deck is lower.
Yolo mage: It’s a balanced matchup. If the mage has the Knife Juggler + Mirror combo you can only win if you can clear his board extremely quickly. If he doesn’t have the combo you can easily deal a ton of dmg early on & the mage will spend half of his tempo with fireblasting dudes and Wolfriders.
Control healadin, Priest: If they play correctly it’s almost hopeless, thankfully they are super rare.
Zdra
"...play a turn ahead, ... doing damage calculations a turn ahead can win you the game. If you see a chance to get them to 3hp or under but dont currently have a card to finish in your hand. GOT FOR IT!. Between Hammers, AW, Conc to get past taunts and all the charge you will top deck a finisher. Just play around your opponents kill condition and its easy to win most games..."
Best moment with the deck?.... hmm would have to be late game against a handlock using AW and equality against giant's he then replays molten giants the next turn and did the exact same thing twice to win the game :) Hardest matchup by FAR was the druid, not token but ramp/Standard type druid. If they play multiple big taunts in the deck and are smart by not playing them all at once late game you have no way to take them out, and early game if they ramp your behind a few turns.
Easiest matchup? Could be a couple of them, but i would say Handlock they just dont have any way to deal with turn 1-4 pressure and by then DF and Equality destroy any hope of the giant's with taunt. Usually i can beat them by turn 5 or 6.
All i would add is to play a turn ahead, I know it sounds weird but doing damage calculations a turn ahead can win you the game. If you see a chance to get them to 3hp or under but dont currently have a card to finish in your hand.. GOT FOR IT. Between Hammers, AW, Conc to get past taunts and all the charge you will top deck a finisher. Just play around your opponents kill condition and its easy to win most games. try and keep a small mental track of what cards you have played and it can help you when you make choices. Obviously i have my own strats for each class but that would be a large portion of writing
I run the old deck without the ironbeak, I never had a problem against zoo between mulligans and Conc, if you can get to turn 6 or late your pretty much the winner but i can see how it would help some players
LMZAR22m
"This deck is amazing.I became legend from rank 6 in 2 days.It's great in this meta only problem might be warrior control if u don;t get divine favour.Only diference i made to deck is changed 1 avenging wrath for ironbeak owl.It helps a lot especialy against agro decks and druids(lots of taunts).Alsto against rogue,van cleef is usless or even auctioner if can;t be kiled that turn. Great job,thank you for the deck,LAWW."
Priest is very easy for this deck. All we need is aggression and a little luck from the topdeck. Even without DF this can be win, of course always keep it in our hand or try to mulligan for it. And try to build up as much dmg as you can before turn 5. Board control is not important.
Arcane golem, I have to mention it, because it's important to know what to expect from your opponent. For example against a priest don't play it if he gets 5 mana that's holy nova cost. Against warrior control and warlock with giants don't give 9 mana for alexstrasza. Druid as well (don't give him 9mana), or else he combo with force of nature+savage.This doesn't apply if u can finish it for sure next turn.
Druid is the toughest opponent, because I never know what kind of deck it will be. Token druid or watcher. In both situations try to go for Divine Favor, and 1 mana drops. Don't worry about your minions, just let them die, all that matters is doing dmg to the face. If u don't get divine favor, then all you need to do is battle for board control, and try to keep as many cards as you can in your hand. In this case use hero power as mush as possible. Remember, Druid always has Swipe at turn 4. Ironbeak owl is always kept for taunts, and if possible in for a combo with a charger.
Same rules applies for Warrior. It may sounds tough, but after 10-20 games you will start to fell how you should play it. Against this opponent without DF until turn 7, pretty much you will lose.
Warlock Zoo decks, my favorite opponents, easy win. My win rate is 80%+. The point is simple. DF is useless. Most important card is consecration. That is your win condition. Don't play 1 minion drop that can be killed in the first turn with mortal coil. Keep it for turn 2, because if it dies then, the opponent lost an opportunity for a 2 mana drop. Cards you want as first drops are: Worgen infiltrator, argent square, noble sacrifice. And a Truesilver Champion, don't use the 2 charges for killing minions. Just do dmg(FACE!) and heal yourself while doing that. The Paladin hero power is more dangerous remember that! Basically, fight the first 2 turns for board control, in this moment u should have more life, because of the flame imp. Even if you don't (have more life) it's not important. All that matters is to start attacking his life. Shockadin can wipe his side of the board, warlocks can't.
Rogue is a joke against this deck, because they are full with cards and don't fight for board control, is the best match up.
Hunters are weak now,so it's waste to lose time writing about it.
The beauty of this deck is the power to maneuver from aggressive aggro to board control deck, while waiting for the right moment to strike. Holyrock's advice on how to play this deck works. Only difference, I will say again, is Avenging Wrath. Two of them is too much in this deck, 50% of the games are against druids with taunts. Equality and consecration won't be enough. Because there is always a new taunt. Best case scenario, first silence and in next turn he drops another taunt, we combo equality consecration and kill them both.
Giddran
"This deck is insanely overpowered in the current meta. Never played paladin in ranked before and i decided to test it out the deck without changing anything. Took me 5-6 hours to play 86 games starting from rank 5 or 6 with 61 wins and 36 losses leaving me a 59% win chance and made me reach the legend rank without any effort at all. (Europe server by the way) Thanks and big ups for this deck :)"
I had most wins against Hunters and Mages who played both face and control. Since Mage was my first class with most games played i'm pretty familiar with their playstyles. If i'm not wrong i never lost a single matchup against those two classes.
I'm not sure about my coolest moment as i almost played a hundred games, however i was alittle disappointed on reaching Legendary because it felt so effortless, never the less it was a satisfying feeling as i just wanted the card back. I'm the guy that usually prefer to beat all odds being the underdog pulling out some amazing stuff. But the most exciting thing is probably when i'm facing Rouges and Zoo where i pray that they dont have the perfect draw for lethal. The thing that made me check out the paladin was caused by the recent lack of hunters and an astonishing event that litterly gave me tears. I was playing a token druid at turn 4 where i had the game in my hands when he pulled out the 5 mana 20dmg card draw spell straight on my face. I also faced a bunch of aggro paladins on the ladder that made me realize how hard it is to stop the zerging combined with a Divine Favour as dealing with thoose usually left me a bunch of high mana cards in my hands allowing him to refill quickly, hence why i try to keep my card amount as low as possible.
In general in the mulligan process i always remove Truesilver champion as i feel that it will most of the time issues in the early game, especially versus control warriors as i think its better to hope to get one as every pawns is essential in order to keep some units on the board. When i face Shamans or Control Warriors i usually consider to keep a Divine Favour in my starting hand. I try really hard to never play an Abusive Sergeant by himself. The second thing i'm devoiding from is your advice with no zerging without a Divine Favour in your hand. I have lost some games due horrible card draws but i find it essential to keep a low card amount as possible in order to get most of the card draw features which is one of the primary game winners. So having a 1 mana card in your hand while trying to play out the more costly cards (Exception: Wrath, Concecration). Sometimes i also tend to use an early Equality if i feel i can benefit from it. I tend to combo with my buffing cards early or with chargers if i'm certain i can get a single hit on either an important minion or their face. Saving theese up to make a suprise doesnt make it up for ruining the Divine favour draws. I'm trying to hold on my Arcane golems as long as possible as i'm hoping not to play them before turn 5.
My general Mulligan: I tend to keep Blessing of Might if i have another 1 mana creature or Coin + Murloc. Those Worgen and Argent Squires are golden when it comes to early game. However i think you should consider having Noble Sacrifice as one of the main early mulligans to look for. If i got one i never mulligan it away, if i have 2x i'm only discarding one of them if i lack a 1 or 2 mana minion. I tend to use this at the first or second turn against most of the classes, especially Rouge or Druid.(That is: Using them as early as possible and not to block their OTK comboes)
Hunters: Early game, i always remove their minions, if its to big i tend to leave one by swarming around it with max 3 tokens on the board. I tend to keep my chargers behind if i expect them placing a trap. But i want to remove my card amount due divine favour so its a walk of balance. Warlocks: One of my biggest misstakes have been when i kept my Divine Favour and got totally recked because just lacking one card to regain control of the game.Against Zoo i tend to keep some semi-control over the board killing off a few minions while using most of the stuff on his face or taunts/knife jugglers. Dealing with the first void walker is extremely important as it will make the warlock much more careful with going on your face and that is a good thing. I also tend to setup their health to around 2/remove divine shields to setup a concecration to get some breathing space and face hitting. When my health is starting to drop around 15 i tend to increase my board controll while waiting for some small combos to cause him some serious damage. Against Handlock i tend to keep going on his face, using equallity on taunts and killing off his 1-2 hp minions. Taunt Druids: The reason why i sometimes keep Divine favour in my hand as thoose taunts can cause a mess. Sometimes i use Arcane golems/Truesilver Champion/Hammer of wrath on their taunts to clear up cards and not letting them get up the lethal setup.
Control Shamans: I tend to save Equality and Concecration to clear their board to hit them in their face. I hate to get early/mid Arcane Golems as they mess up the Divine Favour. Sometimes when he got wolfs out and i can use my tokens to get them down to 2 health i'l consider using a single Concecration. Around the mulligan process i never keep both Equality and Concecration, but i tend to keep the first if i dont get the later as that combo is usually essential to pull off mid-game.
Rogues: I tend to never let Rouges get more than 1 minion on the board or anything over 4hp, then one of my main focuses is to remove the threat untill i proceed.. Noble Sacrifice and Blessing of Might are some insane cards here, preferably at turn 1-2 and not to block thier OTK."
"I knew I had potentiel to get legend, so I decided to try really hard. So I played handlock for 100 games around grade 2-3 noting results from every matchup... I noticed I lost 3 times to paladin rush, and seeing how they wrecked through my giants, I decided to give it a go. I tried it out and went straight to legend from grade 4 with only 3 loses (of which none was in grade 2-legend)."
Woohoo Legend! Let me tell you about my journey ending with this deck. http://puu.sh/91iz2.jpg (Rank screenshot) I knew I had potentiel to get legend, so I decided to try really hard. So I played handlock for 100 games around grade 2-3 noting results from every matchup. I ended up seeing that the most classes played was shaman, druid, handlock and zoo. I noticed I lost 3 times to paladin rush, and seeing how they wrecked through my giants, i decided to give it a go. I tried it out and went straight to legend from grade 4 with only 3 loses (of which none was in grade 2-legend). Zoo is very similar, but with no removal which is why it looses to this deck, basically just don't trade unless knife juggler or really favourable. Shaman and Handlock gets really punished from their big hand, and their responses to rush isn't that great, especially hexes and lightning storm seems really bad. Druids throwing outtaunt and swipes is the biggest challenge. I defeated grade 1 Hunter with my health being at 30 hp in the end, warrior even though he Alexstrasza at 2 hp. Just keep going for face and use your removal to take care of his board if necessary, an you'll be in good shape. Miracle rogues were forced to use eviscerate and what not, to stop small leper gnomes, they simply couldn't deal with the tempo. So, thank you a lot for this deck, I will try to spam it some more and become even better :) Really strong deck, and look forward to climb the legend ladder with it. I see the reasons why some think it is inconsistent, but so is zoo imo. I just find this a lot better considering the removal. The deck have so many 1 drops, that a good starting hand is very likely. The inconsistency discussion probably arise from the odds of drawing divine favor, which in my oppinion isn't really necesarry in many matches anyway. Biggest advice: So basically I believe the most important aspect to emphasize is the following: I don't care if he has a 4/3 and I have 3x 2/1, with me having removals comming up, he has to clear the board being the 'control' deck. This is really important, if you start playing as if it was a control deck and trade your dudes into bigger stuff you lose tempo (knife juggler, frothing berserker and amani berserker is exception). Only do efficient trades (1/1 into 2/1, that would otherwise kill your 3/1). A thing I believe people might be inclined to do wrong is not using hero power, over a 1 drop in round 2. If you play hero power and next turn hero power 1 drop, is so much stronger. Especially abusive shouldn't be played in round 1, if you have another 1 drop. Don't coin it and waste battlecry, better to coin it next round with minion on board. Totally agree with might on argent squire, so annoying for them to remove. Also, if you have a 2/1 and a 1/1, give might on 1/1, don't throw all eggs in one basket. Thank you so much, look forward to see whether I can get even higher on the legend ladder with this deck :) - Layzington
jscaliseok
"Every memorable win I've ever had came from strategically planning my cards two or three turns ahead in order to get the most cards off Divine Favor, which is so awesome and the most fun part of the deck. I can't count the number of times I drew five or more cards (and my most being eight)."
Well Holyrock, you can put another one on the board. Just hit legend using this deck (currently Legend 584 I think). My only regret is that I didn't know about this one sooner. You got yourself a winner here and I plan to exclusively use this list to grind up next season (want to hit top 16 for the qualifier). I used the updated list (I had been wolfriders over golems since day one) with two exceptions. I played a Blood Knight (or a Caballero de Sangre as my game calls it) over an Avenging Wrath and I played an Ironbeak Owl over the Southsea Deckhand. On that note, in terms of strategy I have two things to say. You could not pay me to play two Avenging Wraths in this list. It's bad enough drawing one in the first six turns of the game, but if I ever got two I think I would flip a table. Also, they are really hard to push damage through with. Blood Knight is great against so much of the meta (Argent Squire's are everywhere) and sometimes you get to live the dream. In terms of the Owl, I just love having a silence. I cannot tell you the number of cards I've silenced throughout my climb but off the top of my head, all the druid taunts, Sunwalkers, anything with a Shield of Argus, Armorsmiths, Acolyte's of Pain, Barron Geddon, Cairne Bloodhoof, buffed minions, all the zoo taunters, Flametongue totem and Edwin Vancleef. And that's just a short list. The versatility of the owl is huge and I would not recommend taking it out of this deck for another derpy one drop. Overall this is a blast to play and I would reccomend it to anyone. Also, before I go I wanted to ask, could I do a write up on this? I feel like this is a tricky deck to play, it's not a straight aggro rush deck, and knowing how to operate cards and look for openings is huge. I am a writer for hearthstoneplayers.com (Joseph Scalise or jscaliseok on HS) and I would love to talk about the deck more in depth and maybe bring it more into the main light (I would credit you of course). Let me know what you think and thank you so much for the deck. The dream is real and I will always have faith in the light.
As a lover of aggro this is an insanely fun deck. Every memorable win I've ever had came from strategically planning my cards two or three turns ahead in order to get the most cards off Divine Favor, which is so awesome and the most fun part of the deck. I can't count the number of times I drew five or more cards (and my most being eight). The hardest part of leaning how to play this deck is absolutely, without a doubt planning ahead. Yes, turn two it may be easy to play a Bluegill, but you need to already be thinking about turn four and five if you're going to win. Each turn is important, but the turn after it is even more important. I made the climb relatively quickly, and honestly think I did so because of this strategy. Also, trading away guys vs. going for face is always important. My prime example was silencing and then using a hammer or wrath on a leper gnome just incase my opponent had double fireball in hand (which he did) and that move kept me alive for one more turn and allowed me to topdeck Leeroy. That's the beauty of this deck, you constantly have to be on your toes and thinking about what your opponent might have, not just this turn but the next. The hardest matchup by far is Ramp Druid. How did I deal with it? Mulligan for Equality or pray. Lol, seriously my win rate had to be in the thirty percent and those wins only came off of bad draws on the Druids part of me getting equality. Divine Favor came in handy, but mainly because it drew into Equalities. My piece of advice...I think the most important thing I would tell anyone is never, ever, ever mulligan away Divine Favor in any match up other than against other Paladins and Warlocks. Divine Favor is the best card in this deck, it's what makes the deck work and can bring you back against any non-aggro deck and even some aggro ones (Face Mage loves to draw cards). I think that is the most important thing, always keep Divine Favor and always set up your future turns, be on your toes, and constantly try and figure out what your opponent has.
spl219
"My last game vs miracle rogue, she had 4 of life, I had to kill her that turn otherwise I was dead, only had the hammer of wrath in my hand so I was still missing 1 damage... I used my only card on her face and oohh surprise!!! Topdeck elven alcher FTW XD"
How much fun you had playing this deck? Any memorable win?
is super fun, all games were memorable, but the last game vs rougue miracle, she had 4 of life, i had to kill her that turn otherwise i loss, only had the hammer of wrath in my hand so i miss 1 damage... i use my only card on her face and oohh sorprice!!! i topdeck elven alcher FTW xDD
What is was the hardest part about learning how to play this deck?
this is not brainless rush deck, you realy need to know who are fights against, to make good decisions is not always go for face, sometimes you have to kill his minions and have board control.
What is the current hardest match-up and how did you deal with it? ill say zoo and druid... its like 50/50 you need the right cards in the right momment for win.
What is your advice for the people still trying to grind that legend rank? just keep trying, once you understand how to play the deck is extremely strong, like i say, i climb for rank 6 to leyend in 2 days with 70%-75%win rate
srry for the shitty writing and ty for help me to climb to legend :)
Rosarch
"As far as grinding out legend don't be afraid to tweak your deck but don't get too far away from the general principals of the deck."
I ran Light's justice x2 instead of blessing of might. This allows for 8 points of damge to be spread out for 2 mana. verses Blessing of might damage 2 mana for 6 or less. Noble Sacrifice was too much of a gamble so i yanked it. BloodMage i put in really helped as a cantrip to draw cards and bit of extra damage. Also the knife jugglers were huge for establishing board control and killing off small taunters from zoo.
Its a fun deck to play it can generate so much damage fast especially when you divine favor. Don't get greedy with divine favor if you can get 3 or more cards net go for it. against zoo you will be lucky to get 1 card.
Hardest part of playing this deck is learning each facet of the deck and what to do against each type of deck.
Mage and Druid are the toughest matchups going for big divine favors are best ways to win.
As far as grinding out legend don't be afraid to tweak your deck but don't get too far away from the general principals of the deck.
Rosarch
Ribald86
"your current variant this deck is just good enough to hit legend rather easily and I played most of the time with it."
I started my adventure with HS when this game was still in closed beta so I'm pretty experienced player but I could not reach The Legend Rank until today. With your deck it took me something about 120 games from rank 6. Should be less but I've never played ranked matches with Paladin before and I lost few games by my own obvious mistakes. I have tried many different versions of the deck. With Arcane Golem, Wolfriders, 1/2 Noble Sacrifice, 1/2 Avenging Wrath, Blood Knight or even Loot Hoarder. It all depends on the opponent of course but in my opinion your current variant this deck is just good enough to hits legend rather easily and I played most of the time with it. Maybe I will try to write something more about my experiences tomorrow but now only two nice links. Proof (EU server): http://minus.com/i/baYzJ2E8mSjQ6 and small curio - my final battle before legend. http://minus.com/i/dr8MrO4KZzSk You said that Shockadin is weak against Control Warrior and I admit you are right. But sometimes we can hit really nice exception to the rule :) Anyway, thanks a lot for your idea and your time. You did great job. Keep it up! I must say that I play usually with control decks and I really enjoy long games. Despite this, I had a lot of fun and several memorable moments with your Shockadin. Aside my final "flawless victory" I remember all the long unfavorable games which I won. Of course it's awesome to win in 6 turns (pretty common I would say) but to be honest with lucky draw this deck is a sure win. Really satisfying for me, however, is the feeling when you beat a control warrior or a ramp druid in the late game or when you destroy Lord Jaraxxus (I did it once!). I don't know if this is currently the best aggro deck in the early game, but it is certainly better than others if match pass to the late phase. The hardest part about learning how to play this deck is definitely making decisions - should we go for the face or clear the board - and planning ahead. In first few games I lacked courage :) Like I said I'm control type player and I usually like to have board control. With Shockadin I've learned very fast that this is maybe decent way to play, but not good enough to reach legend. Sometimes we just have to have faith in the Light ;) Naturally some trades are obvious, but if I doubt what to do I always go for face. We have a lot of cards which can kill board so save our minions and hope for good top deck aren't in my opinion truly bad strategy. And it's always better when your opponent starts play defensively and he's the one who is forced to trade.
The hardest match-up by far is Ramp Druid. Seriously I have above 50% win rate against all classes except this one. Even Control Warrior is easiest for me because he is more predictable. First I tried play around Swipe but it just don't work for me. Hero power destroys your early board easily if you're too scared to play more minions. And if the game reaches the late phase it's almost sure we will lose. After 7 turn big taunts and healings counteract our deck really hard. So what I do is yolo play this match-up and I'm trying win as soon as possible. If Druid has Swipe in hand and I don't have Divine Favor the game's over, but if we are playing too passively, it will be lost anyway, so why don't try. For me this is best way to deal with druid but still my win rate against them is not better than 40%, so I'm not a person who should teach others how to play against this class ;)
My advice to people who still trying reach the legend? Hmm... Think twice what you do in mulligan phase. It's really important part of every game and you shouldn't underestimate it (not only with this deck but in general). Hints from Holyrock are really useful here, I have to say. I want also say that Shockadin is quite random deck imo and we can't do nothing with that. For example in few match-up it's very dependent from Divine Favor and sometimes bad/good Avenging Wrath can lose/win the game. All I want to say is we can't rage quit after few games with bad luck. And I know something about that. I lost 5 games in a row all against Ramp Druid in rank 1. Another time I lost 3 games in a row in which my opponents had 1-2 hp at the end. Yes, it is frustrating and taking a small break (go for the walk or just make some tea) is always a good idea, but if we want to succeed we must keep trying. And last but not least - if you want play this (or any other) deck only because some people hit legend with it and you don't enjoy it... don't do it. In current meta there's a lot of viable decks and everyone can find something for themselves.
Once again, thank you Holyrock and good luck with others decks in next seasons!
Ribald.
antiguy24
" My advice to anyone playing this deck is to play 2 turns ahead of whats going on. Picture the damage you can do and if you can kill them or not with your current hand and board. Id say to go with your gut on weather to go for the face to rush him or to trade."
What's the version that you used to grind? the version with the owl and 1 avenging and the one with wolfriders and 2 avenging then my own keeping wolfriders with loot hoarder over southsea deckhand What was the hardest match-up? Id think druid of any kind there were always a pain but i eventually came up with a way to beat them more often. Did you face too many aggro mages? How did you deal with them? I only fought like maybe 8 mages all together and maybe 6 of them were aggro. Id try to bait there board into a better consecrate than just pulling it right away and going for the face when i could. Also trade as best as you can use anything even if its bad since our deck will come through if we can survive. How was the zoo match-up for you? What's your approach? The zoo well it was good and bad. If i didn't draw consecrate it was a tough fight and sometimes id still lose even with an early advantage. My approach to zoo was to get some one drops and try to get consecrate in the opening hand. If for some reason i drew into divine favor i would try to make it work if the zoo took it slow and taped id divine favor to gain an advantage later on. Id also would bait doomguards for equality consecrate by not playing it the turn before even if i needed it. The way i saw it if it stops a doomguard or another big drop its worth it this is of course i had enough health say like 15 to 20
Anything else you would like to add to the guide to help other people use this deck? This deck was awesome i got to legend in only 3 days of playing with surprisingly the hardest part was geting past rank 4 for some reason it took me only like 20 games to get from rank 3 to legend were i think it took like 30 just for rank 4 :(. My advice to anyone playing this deck is to play 2 turns ahead of whats going on. Picture the damage you can do and if you can kill them or not with your current hand and board. Id say to go with your gut on weather to go for the face to rush him or to trade. Since i realize the rush isnt always the way to win against some classes since we have alot of damage in our deck at least 60 damage that more than enough to kill anyone even with them healing. Best of luck with anyone using this deck any form of it works really well just switch to wait u need the most at the current time.
Night_xd
"Hit fast and hit hard. in most cases you can ignore the board in favor of face dmg if you have eq+consecration in your hand. Let them fill up their board and watch their big minions get cleansed by the light. 'Trust in the heart of the cards' And i mean that seriously, There are tons of outs in the deck and almost half of the deck is direct damage."
I played a variant of the original deck, check it http://i.imgur.com/H5256gT.png. Despite the drawback it has a bit more punch. Also playing with only 1Avenging Wrath and an Owl. Since AW is such a high cost card it a dead card in most hands + the owl is nice vs Edwin VanCleef and taunts
.-As mentioned, Blood Knight for a 2nd Noble Sac. There are about ~4 classes that play Argent Squire. TempoRogues, TokenDruids, most Shamans and most important Zoolocks. ( Also you have 2 yourself ) Its most important vs zoo, since that match is a coinflip an early buffed up BK wins you the game most of the time. ( best moments turn 2-3 6/6 or 9/9 Blood Knight and an immediate rage quit from the opponent.)
- The easy matches: Handlock, 100% wiin. tons of dmg early + equality for any giants. Shaman & druid is alright as well. sometimes depends on luck.
Most common matches atm were Miracle rogue and Zoo. While miracle was a good 2/3 for me zoo is a 50/50 Vs Miracle its a race and vs zoo you just have to get the upper hand early or a nice divine shield steal with out Blood Knight friend.
Only bad matchups were Controll Warri, Priest and tempo rogue, Admittedly I havent played them very often but Lots of 1hp remove hurt alot.
VS other Shocks i have only played 3 times (2/3wins) so i cant say much about it rather than its all about who can deal the most dmg .
<colgroup><col /><col /><col /></colgroup>
Shockadin
Win Loss
Huntard
1
1
Hunter, Mid
Warlock, Hand
8
0
Warlock, Zoo
11
11
Warlock, Murloc
1
0
Druid, Ramp
6
2
Druid, Roar
2
3
Druid, Token
2
3
Warrior, Control
3
5
Warrior, Aggro
1
1
Priest
1
3
Mage
2
1
Paladin
0
1
Paladin, Aggro
2
1
Shaman
8
3
Rogue, Miracle
12
6
Rogue, Tempo
1
3
Hope that helps,
Night
Ujigami
"Thanks for sharing this deck, it is/was quite fun to play. Wanted to make legend this season because i have enough time to play this month. Just made legend now on EU and i wanted to share some statistics with you, i think they will say a bit."
I was playing with the originial deck, i.e. 2 AW and arcane golems.
I started recording those stats at rank 4. Playing this deck at around rank 8-5 it was really hard and got often stomped, but this may have been just bad luck and/or inexperience, whereas I dont think my playstyle changed that much. As you can see, hardest match ups were druid and priest, but i had luck not to meet many of them. Since hunters are gone, shamans are spread everywhere and i could farm them really well. Warlock matchups are quite good as well, but it still mostly felt like a flip coin who wins. Facing 3 mirror matches with Shockadin, the rest were aggro and giants pala. No real statement to warriors and hunters. Rogues and Mages are about 50:50.
It's not that much data, but at least a bit. Sometimes it was really cursed, having a win streak of 5+, and then suddenly lose streak begins, losing 4 or more in a row. Yesterday I was already Rank 1 with 1 Star, got back to rank 3, continued today and lost first 2 matches, already wanted to stop and wait for another time with better matchups, and then the 12 win streak kicked in^^
Haven't said much about strategy yet. I'm not writing down everything now, because you have to decide everywhere, but you can ask me and i try to answer. In general: you always want your 1 and 2 drops. If I played against control type decks (like shamans) I also kept DF in hand. Look ahead for your plays, sometimes it's good playing Abusive on turn 1 (for example shamans) if you dont have another 1 drop. If they can remove it with hero power, abusive + murloc on turn 2 with coin is better. It's hard to describe, but you have to use your mana very efficient and looking out for their removal.
Guess that's the most for now
So thanks again for sharing, it was fun^^ ----
Vs rogues: I faced 3 or 4 tempo rogues, where I only lost 1 game i think, the rest was miracle. I don't really know, they often had the right answers for the board and maybe I played it to slow, clearing some minions because you cant allow them to deal to much dmg or you get closer to the combo. Just now i played against miracle, turn 4 he could get 8/8 vancleef and had 7/1 si:agent out, I didnt had equality and lost, even though my start was very good. Stuff like that, early backstabs, si:agents and fan of knifes made me lose a lot. Even with DF it's hard to comeback.
Shamans really were the easiest matchups. Like always, go for 1 and 2 drops, maybe DF, keep attacking face, use mana and cards efficiently if you dont have DF. Maybe keep Abusive to be able to remove wolves early if they have it.
Warriors: Faced 2 face and 1 control warrior
Arcane golem: I mostly used arcane golem in late turns (7+) and didnt had drawback most of the times, seldomly early for clearing a big threat. I have to agree, sometimes it felt like a dead card until the 1 mana wouldn't do much anymore, so the wolfrider may be a good replacement. However, there were often games where 1 dmg was needed to win the game or lose next turn.
About 40% Handlock and 60% Zoo
Playing against mirror: go face if you have consecration, otherwise smartly watch the board and probably clear board. Again, use mana and cards efficient, try to heropower a lot, but dont get to much cards so they get a good DF. One Shockadin I faced played golem on Turn 3 or 4, which hurt him a lot and I easily won. Other aggro paladin decks are the same. One giant pala stomped me extremely, nothing I could have done there, especially without equality. This deck suffers a lot if the enemy can heal.
Nothing more to add to the guide, it's really good and I'm very bad at describing^^
You're doing a great job here. Very eager and friendly, it's really nice :)
"Thank you for this deck list. Using the one you listed I just hit legend. Played it from rank 6 on through."
Thank you for this deck list. Using the one you listed I just hit legend. Played it from rank 6 on through. Started Thursday night and hit legend about 10 min ago. Once again, thank you for the deck! worst matchup for me was zoo. It always came down to who went first. If I did, I won. If not, I lost. Only advice would be to grind it out. And, for warrior control, go slow. Use your hero ability and grind at their armor. Trade to keep board clear, and save up a large burst in your hand. I only lost to warrior control once, and that was the time I tried to rush him down and ignore his board.
Methedras
"It's not a mindless face deck like Huntard. You have to play smart, protect your better minions and like any sensible deck, you need to know your opponent."
Add another NA legend (Methedras). 132 wins from 5 to legend. Got to 1.4 twice before getting knocked down to rank 2 or 3. My biggest hurdle (unsurprisingly) is watcher druid. And at the top ranks they're smart enough to not drop another big tauntuntil the first one is dead so even if you get both Equality in hand, it's still a tough slog. Token druids can often be handled if you keep their board clear. Need some luck for that. Maybe 50%. Control warriors are also a PITA. I once went through my entire deck (thanks to Divine Favor) and got him to 0 health with my last point of damage. Zoo is as described. You have to be smart and control their board as best you can. Consecration certainly helps.
I'm just shy of 3000 total wins and most of those are with control warrior and watcher druid but it was just too slow. I needed something fast for the legend push and this was the ticket. I had used the old Arcane Golem version a couple seasons ago with decent results and I refuse to play zoo so this fit the bill. It's not a mindless face deck like Huntard. You have to play smart, protect your better minions and like any sensible deck, you need to know your opponent. If you have a couple minions on the board, expect AOE board clears, especially from rogues and warriors, so rather than play that Wolfrider, hold it for a turn and use hero power instead. You absolutely want to hang on to elven archer unless it's for lethal. That Equality isn't any use if they clear your board and you can't kill that giant. The second Avenging Wrath is a must. It's probably your best card against rogues. And Blessing of Might is handy to hold for Leeroy Jenkins sometimes.
I'm probably going back to warrior now that I've hit legend, but this is a great deck for laddering. Thanks!
VAULT2912 is our first Shockadin Legend in Season3! Big kudos to him for reaching Legend june 6th! Last update he was #20. Down bellow you can find his comment about his climb and how to aproach some especific decks:
Thanks dude for posting that deck, it's really amazing. I started playing it last season after hitting legend and tried it this time right from the beginning. I think I lost my first game at rank 10. So, now after playing less than a week, I hit legend with it!! Here's the link: http://imgur.com/2Lpi7kQ
I didn't change anything, I just used the original list on this site. My experience with the different matchups are as follows:
Strong:
Warlock (Zoo, Handlock, Eroms 16hp
Rogue (Miracle, Tempo)
Druid (Token)
Hunter (Aggro, Midrange)
Warrior (Aggro)
Mage (Giants)
Fair:
Druid (Ramp)
Priest
Mage (Freeze)
Weak:
Warrior (Control)
Mage (Aggro)
Shaman
Paladin (Control)
So, thanks again and keep creating such amazing decks!
How much time (total hours) took you to became Legend S3?
I didn't count, but I started sunday noon and had to work monday till friday until 4 p.m. each day. So I would guess, about 30 hours.
Did you save some statistics to show us?
Unfortunately no. I didn't run any program to do that and did not count myself.
How did you deal with Zoo? Seems like many ppl are mostly 50/50 vs them.
In my oppinion Zoo is not really hard. You just gotta keep board control early and hit face later on. It's not a super easy matchup, but I'd say at least 60/40.
Some people say this deck is highly dependent on Top Decking, what can you tell them?
I rarely depend on topdecking. Sometimes yes, but not more often than with other decks. It might seem that you win becaus of a topdeck, but most times you need only some damage to finish your opponent and 50% of the cards in your deck would provide that damage.
Besides the new matchup ratings (I will update it soon), what other changes can we do in our detailed matchup strategy section?
Here are some tips, I promised. If you want more tell me :D And of course you can add me ingame (VAULT#2912):
General: - Always try to save the coin. A turn 3 Truesilver Champion or a turn 6 avenging wrath is VERY strong. I only use the coin early against zoo, when I have no consecration in my hand or when I can make a very strong early dvine favor play (which is very rare). - Argent Squire + Blessing of Might is extremely strong. Against druids I even coin it in turn 1 sometimes, so that the druid has to attack the squire twice to kill it (if he has no Wrath, and even if he has it, he has to attack it at least once and you can still attack). - Try to keep one charger in your hand to combo with (exept for turn 2 bluegill or turn 3 wolfrider, if there are no other options). Sometimes that means that you can only use your hero ability. - Don't play your Elven Archer to hit face. Use it to kill minions, either with or without Equality (strong combo) - Don't save your Divine Favor for an empty hand. If you get at least 3 cards, you can play it early, especially if you don't have a good alternative in that turn. - Try to use your physical attacks before your spells in control matchups to avoid taunts.
Mulligan: - Argent Squire (Best one drop) - Divine Favor (Don't keep it, if the rest of your hand is shit or when playing against aggro decks) - Truesilver Champion (I almost always keep it in my starting hand. There is no better card to gain tempo with in turn 3 or 4) - Any other 1 drop (If you already have Argent Squire in your hand, then try to get Blessing of Might or Abusive Seargent) - Noble sacrifice isn't good in the early game most of the time. Only use it against rogues and druids to protect your 1 drops.
Warlock: - Try to mulligan for equality, consecration and some low drops. Don't keep divine favor as it is a dead card against zoo. Equality on the other hand is a winning condition against handlock and not that useless against zoo. For example you can play it on his voidwalker in turn two to oneshot it with your argent squire. Consecration is very strong against zoo and can be comboed with Equality in a Handlock machtup.
Handlock: - Don't bring him to low health, if you don't have an Equality combo or enough spell damage in your hand. Keep in mind that he could kill your leper gnomes to summon his molten giants. - If you have many spells, try to use your minions and weapons first to avoid taunts (Hammer of Wrath is a good finisher).
Zoo: - Try to get board control, don't hit face!! Knife Juggler has to die! - You only switch to hitting face, when you are really sure that you can employ so much aggression that he can't keep up. - Consecration really saves your ass! - Don't save your equalitiy for Doomguard, if you can make a good play with it. The early game is much more important.
Mage: - There are 3 popular decks at the moment: otter pops freeze mage, giant mage and aggro mage. Try to remember which one runs some key cards like Alexstrasza. - Mulligan for 1-drops, Ironbeak Owl, Divine Favor
Freeze Mage: - Beat him down like you mean it. Ignore all of his removal and try to pop that iecblock as early as possible. Even if that means using Leeroy to make that happen. - Divine Favor is your best friend in this matchup, it will give you a shitload of cards. Try to make good use of it. - Save your Ironbeak Owl for his Doomsayer! - Be aware of Alexstrasza! When he reaches turn 9 and plays her, he will finish you next turn. Make him use her on himself and finish her with Equalitiy.
Giant Mage: - They look like normal freeze mages, but most times they run low drop minions like sorcerer's apprentie and coldlight oracles. - Same tactics as with freeze mages, beause they run Iceblock and Alexstrasza as well, but try to get a strong Equality combo, when you get him to low life.
Aggro Mage: - You are really screwed now... If he has a good opening, you will just die. Fortunately this matchup is very rare right now.
Hall of Fame
Hail to our great Shockadin Legends! If you want to join them, check the guide and read about their experiences here. They give us feedback and very important hints and tips to play this deck at it's full potential. Have a nice reading =)
BoilerUp (TheChad)
"So, if you're looking through Hearthpwn, trying to find a deck to hit Legend with, & you're asking yourself "Can I REALLY hit legend with that deck?" look no further. "
I tried hitting legend with Zoo Lock and honestly, I wasn't good enough to. I was stuck at level 5. Then I switched to this exact Shockadin deck (no variations) and after a short while, I finally hit Legend. Honestly, things got much easier after level 4 with this deck due to the meta. Just build this deck, play it aggressively, and you'll hit legend. It seemed like the more aggressive I was, the more the other player would panic due to their low health and make bad plays. I also don't think many of the people you'll face know how to play against this deck since the whole time I climbed the ladder, I only faced 3 other Shockadins (1 of which was Holyrock himself.) Due to the fact it's a rush deck & it has such a high win percentage I can't imagine a deck that would get you to legend rank faster. It's really not that expensive to craft either. One more note, I almost always kept Divine Favor at the beginning when it came up. Thanks to HolyRock for creating the best (and most fun) deck I've ever played with! I took out my phone to record the moment:
When climbing the ladder I had some frustrating losses, but I could normally attribute it to card draw or a play style mistake on my part (too fast/ too slow). You also have to keep in mind you'll win over half your games, so eventually you'll get there. Even if you lose back to back games. Also, if you lose to someone you don't think you would beat in a rematch, wait 30 seconds or so before you play again. If you beat someone easily, click that next game button ASAP. There were a decent amount of times I got easy rematches that way. I'd emphasize that Divine Favor is your best friend in this deck. Make the most out of it & keep it if you get it to start. Also, play aggressive unless you know your going against another aggro deck. Then go board control and you'll win with patience. I only faced 2 Aggro mages, so no advice there, sorry. If you'd replace any one card, for me, it would be the Southsea Deckhand. I don't know what I'd switch it with, maybe an owl for emergencies, but it didn't do much for me. Awesome deck though.
Sina_
"When I swapped to this build I’ve been rank5 with 0 stars, so overall I needed 26 stars to hit legend, I did that in 61 wins. The vast majority of my losses were to druids and a significant percentage to Zoo. When I started the climb ppl started to be already aware of this build and as a result I've spent half of the climb hovering at rank1 often hitting a wall of druids."
From his reddit post: http://www.reddit.com/r/hearthstone/comments/2687l5/yet_an_other_legend_shockadin_eu/
Card choices:
2x Avenging wrath: I think having only 1 is really big hit to this build, I wouldn't recommend it.
Southsea Deckhand: I hated playing with the 2 traps, drawing them at the same time was pretty bad for divine favour too not to mention not having something much more useful instead. 2 elven archers didn't work for me since I wanted something that I can play on turn one & this card works as a finisher too if you have Truesilver and you can buff it with Blessing of might or Abusive.
2x Wolfrider: When I started out I played with Arcane golems, but I felt that they are sitting in my hand wasting space most of the time. Playing them on turn 3 obviously wasn’t an option, not to mention their lack of synergy with Divine Favour. Seriously you don’t want to ramp up a miracle rogue, or anything really. You can pop a Wolfrider on turn 3, if it dies to dagger or druid hero power that’s fantastic, if it gets mage pinged, or shiv-d that’s not that big of a loss either. It did dmg, the opponent lost some tempo it’s all good.
0x Ironbeak Owl: I tried to run one, I felt its only useful in the druid matchup, which is by far the worse regardless if you have the owl or not, it’s better to perform better in other matchups. You need to do amazingly well to beat a druid that knows your deck, Owl maybe improves the matchup by 2%.
Matchups:
Zoo: It’s a 50/50 matchup, now that this build is not a novelty anymore the zoo warriors are playing much more cautiously against it. I don’t recommend going for the face until you are sure you have lethal next turn without a high chance of dying. I like clearing minions with Truesilver. Ideally you can clear a big board by around turn 5 with consecration (if they have 3 health minions that’s too bad) followed by avenging wrath on turn 6, if they don’t do any crazy plays you can swap to face around turn 7-8. If they do a Flame imp+ Voidwalker opening with coin that’s often an auto loss, not to mention every second Zoo running Blood Knight, I strongly suggest popping all shields ASAP.
Druids: It’s by far the hardest matchup. To win you need possibly multiple equalities & them drawing badly, if they play one taunt/turn it’s usually a loss. When I started running Shockadin I beat almost every druid, with them taking 90s / turn trying to decide what I am and how to play against me. Now they play superfast, healing themselves instead of drawing cards, sequencing their taunts etc. nigh impossible to win. Tokens is just as bad, you will need to waste a lot of tempo to kill their minions & when it finally seems that you are stabilized and you have lethal next turn they just roar your face, sometimes innervate double roar, leaving a single minion up is usually enough to lose by turn 7. To have a chance against tokens you need preferably 2 Avenging wraths in your top 1/3 of the deck, but as I said it’s pretty hopeless.
Control Warrior: I have a really good win rate against these guys, about 80%. I think it’s important to run 2x avenging wrath in this matchup, since the games often drag out and you do need the highest possible dmg output. The Wolfriders make a lot of difference, especially if they clear them with Fiery war axe, even in a worst case scenario them dying to Cruel Taskmaster or whirlwind is an acceptable loss. Try to Mulligan for Divine Favour. Kill the Armorsmith on sight, it is worth a truesilver charge, or a one drop dying with a blessing of might on it even. When the war has 2 Krokron elites on his board, Avenging Wrath will very often kill them both. (Obviously only with no other minions on his/her side)
Shaman: About 75% win rate for me. I played shaman a lot this season (up to rank4) so I could predict their plays pretty well. If the shaman plays 2x wulfe() early on you could be in trouble, but usually you can beat them. He will play earth shocks & stuff to remove your minions, but it’s easy to force reactive plays and if you get to draw divine favour things are golden. A single 1 drop can deal with most of his totems, yes I suggest clearing them unless you need to push for lethal at the risk of dying from Al’akir, or whatever combo he has. I suggest clearing the Mana Tide too, since it’s not a good idea to give him too many options, unless you really need to push for a bigger Divine Favour. (that’s rare)
Handlock: Extremely good matchup for the Shockadin. During my climb I was literally farming these guys. I always Mulligan for Zoo, because every time I thought it’s a handlock and kept equality etc., it turned out to be a Zoo. If you draw equality it’s a nearly certain victory, if you don’t it’s still good. It’s often a good idea to use Leeroy to bring them down to like 2-3, since even if the lock taunts up, Avenging wrath, Consecration, or Hammer of Wrath can finish the job at a high percentage of the time. Anyhow in order to lose to a handlock with an average hand the lock has to play in a very specific way & I don’t think they faced enough Shockadins for figuring that out just yet. Often they don’t draw a taunter and you can kill them so quickly it’s not even funny… for them! I usually just ignore Drakes & Watchers.
Face hunter: Good matchup, I only faced them 5 times, only lost once. Simply put you just kill faster than the hunter. You can feed his weapons suiciding minions into his explosive traps it’s not a big deal. Truesilver is op, the healing really puts you ahead in the race & Huffer vs. Avenging Wrath is pretty funny as well. Usually clearing their minions is not needed, as far as I can tell based on my admittedly very little sample.
Mirracle Rogue: Well, on paper we are extremely favoured in this matchup. The problem is if the rogue knows your build very well you are in for a rocky ride. Rogue Mulliganing for Edwin + Fan of Knives’ can rlly cause serious problems. A turn2 6/6 Edwin is nearly an auto loss, even if you can clear it with equality the tempo loss is just too hard to come back from. Not to mention some plays with Earthen Ring healers+ saps on Leper Gnomes, it can be a pain. If you cannot finish them off by turn 8 it’s often a loss, turn 5-6 concealed Gadgetzan can be sniped with avenging wrath, but if they know the build the odds of them playing a gadgetzan + conceal without mana to draw their deck is lower.
Yolo mage: It’s a balanced matchup. If the mage has the Knife Juggler + Mirror combo you can only win if you can clear his board extremely quickly. If he doesn’t have the combo you can easily deal a ton of dmg early on & the mage will spend half of his tempo with fireblasting dudes and Wolfriders.
Control healadin, Priest: If they play correctly it’s almost hopeless, thankfully they are super rare.
Zdra
"...play a turn ahead, ... doing damage calculations a turn ahead can win you the game. If you see a chance to get them to 3hp or under but dont currently have a card to finish in your hand. GOT FOR IT!. Between Hammers, AW, Conc to get past taunts and all the charge you will top deck a finisher. Just play around your opponents kill condition and its easy to win most games..."
Best moment with the deck?.... hmm would have to be late game against a handlock using AW and equality against giant's he then replays molten giants the next turn and did the exact same thing twice to win the game :)
Hardest matchup by FAR was the druid, not token but ramp/Standard type druid. If they play multiple big taunts in the deck and are smart by not playing them all at once late game you have no way to take them out, and early game if they ramp your behind a few turns.
Easiest matchup? Could be a couple of them, but i would say Handlock they just dont have any way to deal with turn 1-4 pressure and by then DF and Equality destroy any hope of the giant's with taunt. Usually i can beat them by turn 5 or 6.
All i would add is to play a turn ahead, I know it sounds weird but doing damage calculations a turn ahead can win you the game. If you see a chance to get them to 3hp or under but dont currently have a card to finish in your hand.. GOT FOR IT. Between Hammers, AW, Conc to get past taunts and all the charge you will top deck a finisher. Just play around your opponents kill condition and its easy to win most games. try and keep a small mental track of what cards you have played and it can help you when you make choices. Obviously i have my own strats for each class but that would be a large portion of writing
I run the old deck without the ironbeak, I never had a problem against zoo between mulligans and Conc, if you can get to turn 6 or late your pretty much the winner but i can see how it would help some players
LMZAR22m
"This deck is amazing.I became legend from rank 6 in 2 days.It's great in this meta only problem might be warrior control if u don;t get divine favour.Only diference i made to deck is changed 1 avenging wrath for ironbeak owl.It helps a lot especialy against agro decks and druids(lots of taunts).Alsto against rogue,van cleef is usless or even auctioner if can;t be kiled that turn. Great job,thank you for the deck,LAWW."
Priest is very easy for this deck. All we need is aggression and a little luck from the topdeck. Even without DF this can be win, of course always keep it in our hand or try to mulligan for it. And try to build up as much dmg as you can before turn 5. Board control is not important.
Arcane golem, I have to mention it, because it's important to know what to expect from your opponent. For example against a priest don't play it if he gets 5 mana that's holy nova cost. Against warrior control and warlock with giants don't give 9 mana for alexstrasza. Druid as well (don't give him 9mana), or else he combo with force of nature+savage.This doesn't apply if u can finish it for sure next turn.
Druid is the toughest opponent, because I never know what kind of deck it will be. Token druid or watcher. In both situations try to go for Divine Favor, and 1 mana drops. Don't worry about your minions, just let them die, all that matters is doing dmg to the face. If u don't get divine favor, then all you need to do is battle for board control, and try to keep as many cards as you can in your hand. In this case use hero power as mush as possible. Remember, Druid always has Swipe at turn 4. Ironbeak owl is always kept for taunts, and if possible in for a combo with a charger.
Same rules applies for Warrior. It may sounds tough, but after 10-20 games you will start to fell how you should play it. Against this opponent without DF until turn 7, pretty much you will lose.
Warlock Zoo decks, my favorite opponents, easy win. My win rate is 80%+. The point is simple. DF is useless. Most important card is consecration. That is your win condition. Don't play 1 minion drop that can be killed in the first turn with mortal coil. Keep it for turn 2, because if it dies then, the opponent lost an opportunity for a 2 mana drop. Cards you want as first drops are: Worgen infiltrator, argent square, noble sacrifice. And a Truesilver Champion, don't use the 2 charges for killing minions. Just do dmg(FACE!) and heal yourself while doing that. The Paladin hero power is more dangerous remember that! Basically, fight the first 2 turns for board control, in this moment u should have more life, because of the flame imp. Even if you don't (have more life) it's not important. All that matters is to start attacking his life. Shockadin can wipe his side of the board, warlocks can't.
Rogue is a joke against this deck, because they are full with cards and don't fight for board control, is the best match up.
Hunters are weak now,so it's waste to lose time writing about it.
The beauty of this deck is the power to maneuver from aggressive aggro to board control deck, while waiting for the right moment to strike. Holyrock's advice on how to play this deck works. Only difference, I will say again, is Avenging Wrath. Two of them is too much in this deck, 50% of the games are against druids with taunts. Equality and consecration won't be enough. Because there is always a new taunt. Best case scenario, first silence and in next turn he drops another taunt, we combo equality consecration and kill them both.
Giddran
"This deck is insanely overpowered in the current meta. Never played paladin in ranked before and i decided to test it out the deck without changing anything. Took me 5-6 hours to play 86 games starting from rank 5 or 6 with 61 wins and 36 losses leaving me a 59% win chance and made me reach the legend rank without any effort at all. (Europe server by the way) Thanks and big ups for this deck :)"
I had most wins against Hunters and Mages who played both face and control. Since Mage was my first class with most games played i'm pretty familiar with their playstyles. If i'm not wrong i never lost a single matchup against those two classes.
I'm not sure about my coolest moment as i almost played a hundred games, however i was alittle disappointed on reaching Legendary because it felt so effortless, never the less it was a satisfying feeling as i just wanted the card back. I'm the guy that usually prefer to beat all odds being the underdog pulling out some amazing stuff. But the most exciting thing is probably when i'm facing Rouges and Zoo where i pray that they dont have the perfect draw for lethal. The thing that made me check out the paladin was caused by the recent lack of hunters and an astonishing event that litterly gave me tears. I was playing a token druid at turn 4 where i had the game in my hands when he pulled out the 5 mana 20dmg card draw spell straight on my face. I also faced a bunch of aggro paladins on the ladder that made me realize how hard it is to stop the zerging combined with a Divine Favour as dealing with thoose usually left me a bunch of high mana cards in my hands allowing him to refill quickly, hence why i try to keep my card amount as low as possible.
In general in the mulligan process i always remove Truesilver champion as i feel that it will most of the time issues in the early game, especially versus control warriors as i think its better to hope to get one as every pawns is essential in order to keep some units on the board. When i face Shamans or Control Warriors i usually consider to keep a Divine Favour in my starting hand. I try really hard to never play an Abusive Sergeant by himself. The second thing i'm devoiding from is your advice with no zerging without a Divine Favour in your hand. I have lost some games due horrible card draws but i find it essential to keep a low card amount as possible in order to get most of the card draw features which is one of the primary game winners. So having a 1 mana card in your hand while trying to play out the more costly cards (Exception: Wrath, Concecration). Sometimes i also tend to use an early Equality if i feel i can benefit from it. I tend to combo with my buffing cards early or with chargers if i'm certain i can get a single hit on either an important minion or their face. Saving theese up to make a suprise doesnt make it up for ruining the Divine favour draws. I'm trying to hold on my Arcane golems as long as possible as i'm hoping not to play them before turn 5.
My general Mulligan: I tend to keep Blessing of Might if i have another 1 mana creature or Coin + Murloc. Those Worgen and Argent Squires are golden when it comes to early game. However i think you should consider having Noble Sacrifice as one of the main early mulligans to look for. If i got one i never mulligan it away, if i have 2x i'm only discarding one of them if i lack a 1 or 2 mana minion. I tend to use this at the first or second turn against most of the classes, especially Rouge or Druid.(That is: Using them as early as possible and not to block their OTK comboes)
Hunters: Early game, i always remove their minions, if its to big i tend to leave one by swarming around it with max 3 tokens on the board. I tend to keep my chargers behind if i expect them placing a trap. But i want to remove my card amount due divine favour so its a walk of balance.
Warlocks: One of my biggest misstakes have been when i kept my Divine Favour and got totally recked because just lacking one card to regain control of the game.Against Zoo i tend to keep some semi-control over the board killing off a few minions while using most of the stuff on his face or taunts/knife jugglers. Dealing with the first void walker is extremely important as it will make the warlock much more careful with going on your face and that is a good thing. I also tend to setup their health to around 2/remove divine shields to setup a concecration to get some breathing space and face hitting. When my health is starting to drop around 15 i tend to increase my board controll while waiting for some small combos to cause him some serious damage. Against Handlock i tend to keep going on his face, using equallity on taunts and killing off his 1-2 hp minions.
Taunt Druids: The reason why i sometimes keep Divine favour in my hand as thoose taunts can cause a mess. Sometimes i use Arcane golems/Truesilver Champion/Hammer of wrath on their taunts to clear up cards and not letting them get up the lethal setup.
Control Shamans: I tend to save Equality and Concecration to clear their board to hit them in their face. I hate to get early/mid Arcane Golems as they mess up the Divine Favour. Sometimes when he got wolfs out and i can use my tokens to get them down to 2 health i'l consider using a single Concecration. Around the mulligan process i never keep both Equality and Concecration, but i tend to keep the first if i dont get the later as that combo is usually essential to pull off mid-game.
Rogues: I tend to never let Rouges get more than 1 minion on the board or anything over 4hp, then one of my main focuses is to remove the threat untill i proceed.. Noble Sacrifice and Blessing of Might are some insane cards here, preferably at turn 1-2 and not to block thier OTK."
Layzington
"I knew I had potentiel to get legend, so I decided to try really hard. So I played handlock for 100 games around grade 2-3 noting results from every matchup... I noticed I lost 3 times to paladin rush, and seeing how they wrecked through my giants, I decided to give it a go. I tried it out and went straight to legend from grade 4 with only 3 loses (of which none was in grade 2-legend)."
Woohoo Legend! Let me tell you about my journey ending with this deck.
http://puu.sh/91iz2.jpg (Rank screenshot)
I knew I had potentiel to get legend, so I decided to try really hard. So I played handlock for 100 games around grade 2-3 noting results from every matchup. I ended up seeing that the most classes played was shaman, druid, handlock and zoo. I noticed I lost 3 times to paladin rush, and seeing how they wrecked through my giants, i decided to give it a go. I tried it out and went straight to legend from grade 4 with only 3 loses (of which none was in grade 2-legend). Zoo is very similar, but with no removal which is why it looses to this deck, basically just don't trade unless knife juggler or really favourable. Shaman and Handlock gets really punished from their big hand, and their responses to rush isn't that great, especially hexes and lightning storm seems really bad. Druids throwing outtaunt and swipes is the biggest challenge.
I defeated grade 1 Hunter with my health being at 30 hp in the end, warrior even though he Alexstrasza at 2 hp. Just keep going for face and use your removal to take care of his board if necessary, an you'll be in good shape. Miracle rogues were forced to use eviscerate and what not, to stop small leper gnomes, they simply couldn't deal with the tempo.
So, thank you a lot for this deck, I will try to spam it some more and become even better :)
Really strong deck, and look forward to climb the legend ladder with it.
I see the reasons why some think it is inconsistent, but so is zoo imo. I just find this a lot better considering the removal. The deck have so many 1 drops, that a good starting hand is very likely. The inconsistency discussion probably arise from the odds of drawing divine favor, which in my oppinion isn't really necesarry in many matches anyway.
Biggest advice:
So basically I believe the most important aspect to emphasize is the following: I don't care if he has a 4/3 and I have 3x 2/1, with me having removals comming up, he has to clear the board being the 'control' deck. This is really important, if you start playing as if it was a control deck and trade your dudes into bigger stuff you lose tempo (knife juggler, frothing berserker and amani berserker is exception). Only do efficient trades (1/1 into 2/1, that would otherwise kill your 3/1).
A thing I believe people might be inclined to do wrong is not using hero power, over a 1 drop in round 2. If you play hero power and next turn hero power 1 drop, is so much stronger. Especially abusive shouldn't be played in round 1, if you have another 1 drop. Don't coin it and waste battlecry, better to coin it next round with minion on board.
Totally agree with might on argent squire, so annoying for them to remove.
Also, if you have a 2/1 and a 1/1, give might on 1/1, don't throw all eggs in one basket.
Thank you so much, look forward to see whether I can get even higher on the legend ladder with this deck :)
- Layzington
jscaliseok
"Every memorable win I've ever had came from strategically planning my cards two or three turns ahead in order to get the most cards off Divine Favor, which is so awesome and the most fun part of the deck. I can't count the number of times I drew five or more cards (and my most being eight)."
Well Holyrock, you can put another one on the board. Just hit legend using this deck (currently Legend 584 I think). My only regret is that I didn't know about this one sooner. You got yourself a winner here and I plan to exclusively use this list to grind up next season (want to hit top 16 for the qualifier). I used the updated list (I had been wolfriders over golems since day one) with two exceptions. I played a Blood Knight (or a Caballero de Sangre as my game calls it) over an Avenging Wrath and I played an Ironbeak Owl over the Southsea Deckhand. On that note, in terms of strategy I have two things to say. You could not pay me to play two Avenging Wraths in this list. It's bad enough drawing one in the first six turns of the game, but if I ever got two I think I would flip a table. Also, they are really hard to push damage through with. Blood Knight is great against so much of the meta (Argent Squire's are everywhere) and sometimes you get to live the dream. In terms of the Owl, I just love having a silence. I cannot tell you the number of cards I've silenced throughout my climb but off the top of my head, all the druid taunts, Sunwalkers, anything with a Shield of Argus, Armorsmiths, Acolyte's of Pain, Barron Geddon, Cairne Bloodhoof, buffed minions, all the zoo taunters, Flametongue totem and Edwin Vancleef. And that's just a short list. The versatility of the owl is huge and I would not recommend taking it out of this deck for another derpy one drop. Overall this is a blast to play and I would reccomend it to anyone. Also, before I go I wanted to ask, could I do a write up on this? I feel like this is a tricky deck to play, it's not a straight aggro rush deck, and knowing how to operate cards and look for openings is huge. I am a writer for hearthstoneplayers.com (Joseph Scalise or jscaliseok on HS) and I would love to talk about the deck more in depth and maybe bring it more into the main light (I would credit you of course). Let me know what you think and thank you so much for the deck. The dream is real and I will always have faith in the light.
As a lover of aggro this is an insanely fun deck. Every memorable win I've ever had came from strategically planning my cards two or three turns ahead in order to get the most cards off Divine Favor, which is so awesome and the most fun part of the deck. I can't count the number of times I drew five or more cards (and my most being eight). The hardest part of leaning how to play this deck is absolutely, without a doubt planning ahead. Yes, turn two it may be easy to play a Bluegill, but you need to already be thinking about turn four and five if you're going to win. Each turn is important, but the turn after it is even more important. I made the climb relatively quickly, and honestly think I did so because of this strategy. Also, trading away guys vs. going for face is always important. My prime example was silencing and then using a hammer or wrath on a leper gnome just incase my opponent had double fireball in hand (which he did) and that move kept me alive for one more turn and allowed me to topdeck Leeroy. That's the beauty of this deck, you constantly have to be on your toes and thinking about what your opponent might have, not just this turn but the next. The hardest matchup by far is Ramp Druid. How did I deal with it? Mulligan for Equality or pray. Lol, seriously my win rate had to be in the thirty percent and those wins only came off of bad draws on the Druids part of me getting equality. Divine Favor came in handy, but mainly because it drew into Equalities. My piece of advice...I think the most important thing I would tell anyone is never, ever, ever mulligan away Divine Favor in any match up other than against other Paladins and Warlocks. Divine Favor is the best card in this deck, it's what makes the deck work and can bring you back against any non-aggro deck and even some aggro ones (Face Mage loves to draw cards). I think that is the most important thing, always keep Divine Favor and always set up your future turns, be on your toes, and constantly try and figure out what your opponent has.
spl219
"My last game vs miracle rogue, she had 4 of life, I had to kill her that turn otherwise I was dead, only had the hammer of wrath in my hand so I was still missing 1 damage... I used my only card on her face and oohh surprise!!! Topdeck elven alcher FTW XD"
How much fun you had playing this deck? Any memorable win?
is super fun, all games were memorable, but the last game vs rougue miracle, she had 4 of life, i had to kill her that turn otherwise i loss, only had the hammer of wrath in my hand so i miss 1 damage... i use my only card on her face and oohh sorprice!!! i topdeck elven alcher FTW xDD
What is was the hardest part about learning how to play this deck?
this is not brainless rush deck, you realy need to know who are fights against, to make good decisions is not always go for face, sometimes you have to kill his minions and have board control.
What is the current hardest match-up and how did you deal with it? ill say zoo and druid... its like 50/50 you need the right cards in the right momment for win.
What is your advice for the people still trying to grind that legend rank? just keep trying, once you understand how to play the deck is extremely strong, like i say, i climb for rank 6 to leyend in 2 days with 70%-75%win rate
srry for the shitty writing and ty for help me to climb to legend :)
Rosarch
"As far as grinding out legend don't be afraid to tweak your deck but don't get too far away from the general principals of the deck."
http://i.imgur.com/GCNKQ2b.jpg
I ran Light's justice x2 instead of blessing of might. This allows for 8 points of damge to be spread out for 2 mana. verses Blessing of might damage 2 mana for 6 or less. Noble Sacrifice was too much of a gamble so i yanked it. BloodMage i put in really helped as a cantrip to draw cards and bit of extra damage. Also the knife jugglers were huge for establishing board control and killing off small taunters from zoo.
Its a fun deck to play it can generate so much damage fast especially when you divine favor. Don't get greedy with divine favor if you can get 3 or more cards net go for it. against zoo you will be lucky to get 1 card.
Hardest part of playing this deck is learning each facet of the deck and what to do against each type of deck.
Mage and Druid are the toughest matchups going for big divine favors are best ways to win.
As far as grinding out legend don't be afraid to tweak your deck but don't get too far away from the general principals of the deck.
Rosarch
Ribald86
"your current variant this deck is just good enough to hit legend rather easily and I played most of the time with it."
I started my adventure with HS when this game was still in closed beta so I'm pretty experienced player but I could not reach The Legend Rank until today. With your deck it took me something about 120 games from rank 6. Should be less but I've never played ranked matches with Paladin before and I lost few games by my own obvious mistakes. I have tried many different versions of the deck. With Arcane Golem, Wolfriders, 1/2 Noble Sacrifice, 1/2 Avenging Wrath, Blood Knight or even Loot Hoarder. It all depends on the opponent of course but in my opinion your current variant this deck is just good enough to hits legend rather easily and I played most of the time with it. Maybe I will try to write something more about my experiences tomorrow but now only two nice links. Proof (EU server):
http://minus.com/i/baYzJ2E8mSjQ6
and small curio - my final battle before legend.
http://minus.com/i/dr8MrO4KZzSk
You said that Shockadin is weak against Control Warrior and I admit you are right. But sometimes we can hit really nice exception to the rule :) Anyway, thanks a lot for your idea and your time. You did great job. Keep it up!
I must say that I play usually with control decks and I really enjoy long games. Despite this, I had a lot of fun and several memorable moments with your Shockadin. Aside my final "flawless victory" I remember all the long unfavorable games which I won. Of course it's awesome to win in 6 turns (pretty common I would say) but to be honest with lucky draw this deck is a sure win. Really satisfying for me, however, is the feeling when you beat a control warrior or a ramp druid in the late game or when you destroy Lord Jaraxxus (I did it once!). I don't know if this is currently the best aggro deck in the early game, but it is certainly better than others if match pass to the late phase.
The hardest part about learning how to play this deck is definitely making decisions - should we go for the face or clear the board - and planning ahead. In first few games I lacked courage :) Like I said I'm control type player and I usually like to have board control. With Shockadin I've learned very fast that this is maybe decent way to play, but not good enough to reach legend. Sometimes we just have to have faith in the Light ;) Naturally some trades are obvious, but if I doubt what to do I always go for face. We have a lot of cards which can kill board so save our minions and hope for good top deck aren't in my opinion truly bad strategy. And it's always better when your opponent starts play defensively and he's the one who is forced to trade.
The hardest match-up by far is Ramp Druid. Seriously I have above 50% win rate against all classes except this one. Even Control Warrior is easiest for me because he is more predictable. First I tried play around Swipe but it just don't work for me. Hero power destroys your early board easily if you're too scared to play more minions. And if the game reaches the late phase it's almost sure we will lose. After 7 turn big taunts and healings counteract our deck really hard. So what I do is yolo play this match-up and I'm trying win as soon as possible. If Druid has Swipe in hand and I don't have Divine Favor the game's over, but if we are playing too passively, it will be lost anyway, so why don't try. For me this is best way to deal with druid but still my win rate against them is not better than 40%, so I'm not a person who should teach others how to play against this class ;)
My advice to people who still trying reach the legend? Hmm... Think twice what you do in mulligan phase. It's really important part of every game and you shouldn't underestimate it (not only with this deck but in general). Hints from Holyrock are really useful here, I have to say. I want also say that Shockadin is quite random deck imo and we can't do nothing with that. For example in few match-up it's very dependent from Divine Favor and sometimes bad/good Avenging Wrath can lose/win the game. All I want to say is we can't rage quit after few games with bad luck. And I know something about that. I lost 5 games in a row all against Ramp Druid in rank 1. Another time I lost 3 games in a row in which my opponents had 1-2 hp at the end. Yes, it is frustrating and taking a small break (go for the walk or just make some tea) is always a good idea, but if we want to succeed we must keep trying. And last but not least - if you want play this (or any other) deck only because some people hit legend with it and you don't enjoy it... don't do it. In current meta there's a lot of viable decks and everyone can find something for themselves.
Once again, thank you Holyrock and good luck with others decks in next seasons!
Ribald.
antiguy24
" My advice to anyone playing this deck is to play 2 turns ahead of whats going on. Picture the damage you can do and if you can kill them or not with your current hand and board. Id say to go with your gut on weather to go for the face to rush him or to trade."
What's the version that you used to grind? the version with the owl and 1 avenging and the one with wolfriders and 2 avenging then my own keeping wolfriders with loot hoarder over southsea deckhand
What was the hardest match-up? Id think druid of any kind there were always a pain but i eventually came up with a way to beat them more often.
Did you face too many aggro mages? How did you deal with them? I only fought like maybe 8 mages all together and maybe 6 of them were aggro. Id try to bait there board into a better consecrate than just pulling it right away and going for the face when i could. Also trade as best as you can use anything even if its bad since our deck will come through if we can survive.
How was the zoo match-up for you? What's your approach? The zoo well it was good and bad. If i didn't draw consecrate it was a tough fight and sometimes id still lose even with an early advantage. My approach to zoo was to get some one drops and try to get consecrate in the opening hand. If for some reason i drew into divine favor i would try to make it work if the zoo took it slow and taped id divine favor to gain an advantage later on. Id also would bait doomguards for equality consecrate by not playing it the turn before even if i needed it. The way i saw it if it stops a doomguard or another big drop its worth it this is of course i had enough health say like 15 to 20
Anything else you would like to add to the guide to help other people use this deck? This deck was awesome i got to legend in only 3 days of playing with surprisingly the hardest part was geting past rank 4 for some reason it took me only like 20 games to get from rank 3 to legend were i think it took like 30 just for rank 4 :(. My advice to anyone playing this deck is to play 2 turns ahead of whats going on. Picture the damage you can do and if you can kill them or not with your current hand and board. Id say to go with your gut on weather to go for the face to rush him or to trade. Since i realize the rush isnt always the way to win against some classes since we have alot of damage in our deck at least 60 damage that more than enough to kill anyone even with them healing. Best of luck with anyone using this deck any form of it works really well just switch to wait u need the most at the current time.
Night_xd
"Hit fast and hit hard. in most cases you can ignore the board in favor of face dmg if you have eq+consecration in your hand. Let them fill up their board and watch their big minions get cleansed by the light. 'Trust in the heart of the cards' And i mean that seriously, There are tons of outs in the deck and almost half of the deck is direct damage."
I played a variant of the original deck, check it http://i.imgur.com/H5256gT.png. Despite the drawback it has a bit more punch. Also playing with only 1Avenging Wrath and an Owl. Since AW is such a high cost card it a dead card in most hands + the owl is nice vs Edwin VanCleef and taunts
.-As mentioned, Blood Knight for a 2nd Noble Sac. There are about ~4 classes that play Argent Squire. TempoRogues, TokenDruids, most Shamans and most important Zoolocks. ( Also you have 2 yourself ) Its most important vs zoo, since that match is a coinflip an early buffed up BK wins you the game most of the time. ( best moments turn 2-3 6/6 or 9/9 Blood Knight and an immediate rage quit from the opponent.)
- The easy matches: Handlock, 100% wiin. tons of dmg early + equality for any giants. Shaman & druid is alright as well. sometimes depends on luck.
Most common matches atm were Miracle rogue and Zoo. While miracle was a good 2/3 for me zoo is a 50/50 Vs Miracle its a race and vs zoo you just have to get the upper hand early or a nice divine shield steal with out Blood Knight friend.
Only bad matchups were Controll Warri, Priest and tempo rogue, Admittedly I havent played them very often but Lots of 1hp remove hurt alot.
VS other Shocks i have only played 3 times (2/3wins) so i cant say much about it rather than its all about who can deal the most dmg .
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Hope that helps,
Night
Ujigami
"Thanks for sharing this deck, it is/was quite fun to play. Wanted to make legend this season because i have enough time to play this month. Just made legend now on EU and i wanted to share some statistics with you, i think they will say a bit."
I was playing with the originial deck, i.e. 2 AW and arcane golems.
Pic may be a bit small: here the link http://imgur.com/tZByPBv
I started recording those stats at rank 4. Playing this deck at around rank 8-5 it was really hard and got often stomped, but this may have been just bad luck and/or inexperience, whereas I dont think my playstyle changed that much. As you can see, hardest match ups were druid and priest, but i had luck not to meet many of them. Since hunters are gone, shamans are spread everywhere and i could farm them really well. Warlock matchups are quite good as well, but it still mostly felt like a flip coin who wins. Facing 3 mirror matches with Shockadin, the rest were aggro and giants pala. No real statement to warriors and hunters. Rogues and Mages are about 50:50.
It's not that much data, but at least a bit. Sometimes it was really cursed, having a win streak of 5+, and then suddenly lose streak begins, losing 4 or more in a row. Yesterday I was already Rank 1 with 1 Star, got back to rank 3, continued today and lost first 2 matches, already wanted to stop and wait for another time with better matchups, and then the 12 win streak kicked in^^
Haven't said much about strategy yet. I'm not writing down everything now, because you have to decide everywhere, but you can ask me and i try to answer. In general: you always want your 1 and 2 drops. If I played against control type decks (like shamans) I also kept DF in hand. Look ahead for your plays, sometimes it's good playing Abusive on turn 1 (for example shamans) if you dont have another 1 drop. If they can remove it with hero power, abusive + murloc on turn 2 with coin is better. It's hard to describe, but you have to use your mana very efficient and looking out for their removal.
Guess that's the most for now
So thanks again for sharing, it was fun^^
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Vs rogues: I faced 3 or 4 tempo rogues, where I only lost 1 game i think, the rest was miracle. I don't really know, they often had the right answers for the board and maybe I played it to slow, clearing some minions because you cant allow them to deal to much dmg or you get closer to the combo. Just now i played against miracle, turn 4 he could get 8/8 vancleef and had 7/1 si:agent out, I didnt had equality and lost, even though my start was very good. Stuff like that, early backstabs, si:agents and fan of knifes made me lose a lot. Even with DF it's hard to comeback.
Shamans really were the easiest matchups. Like always, go for 1 and 2 drops, maybe DF, keep attacking face, use mana and cards efficiently if you dont have DF. Maybe keep Abusive to be able to remove wolves early if they have it.
Warriors: Faced 2 face and 1 control warrior
Arcane golem: I mostly used arcane golem in late turns (7+) and didnt had drawback most of the times, seldomly early for clearing a big threat. I have to agree, sometimes it felt like a dead card until the 1 mana wouldn't do much anymore, so the wolfrider may be a good replacement. However, there were often games where 1 dmg was needed to win the game or lose next turn.
About 40% Handlock and 60% Zoo
Playing against mirror: go face if you have consecration, otherwise smartly watch the board and probably clear board. Again, use mana and cards efficient, try to heropower a lot, but dont get to much cards so they get a good DF. One Shockadin I faced played golem on Turn 3 or 4, which hurt him a lot and I easily won. Other aggro paladin decks are the same. One giant pala stomped me extremely, nothing I could have done there, especially without equality. This deck suffers a lot if the enemy can heal.
Nothing more to add to the guide, it's really good and I'm very bad at describing^^
You're doing a great job here. Very eager and friendly, it's really nice :)
Ebonwolfe
"Thank you for this deck list. Using the one you listed I just hit legend. Played it from rank 6 on through."
Thank you for this deck list. Using the one you listed I just hit legend. Played it from rank 6 on through. Started Thursday night and hit legend about 10 min ago. Once again, thank you for the deck!
worst matchup for me was zoo. It always came down to who went first. If I did, I won. If not, I lost.
Only advice would be to grind it out. And, for warrior control, go slow. Use your hero ability and grind at their armor. Trade to keep board clear, and save up a large burst in your hand. I only lost to warrior control once, and that was the time I tried to rush him down and ignore his board.
Methedras
"It's not a mindless face deck like Huntard. You have to play smart, protect your better minions and like any sensible deck, you need to know your opponent."
Add another NA legend (Methedras). 132 wins from 5 to legend. Got to 1.4 twice before getting knocked down to rank 2 or 3. My biggest hurdle (unsurprisingly) is watcher druid. And at the top ranks they're smart enough to not drop another big tauntuntil the first one is dead so even if you get both Equality in hand, it's still a tough slog. Token druids can often be handled if you keep their board clear. Need some luck for that. Maybe 50%. Control warriors are also a PITA. I once went through my entire deck (thanks to Divine Favor) and got him to 0 health with my last point of damage. Zoo is as described. You have to be smart and control their board as best you can. Consecration certainly helps.
I'm just shy of 3000 total wins and most of those are with control warrior and watcher druid but it was just too slow. I needed something fast for the legend push and this was the ticket. I had used the old Arcane Golem version a couple seasons ago with decent results and I refuse to play zoo so this fit the bill. It's not a mindless face deck like Huntard. You have to play smart, protect your better minions and like any sensible deck, you need to know your opponent. If you have a couple minions on the board, expect AOE board clears, especially from rogues and warriors, so rather than play that Wolfrider, hold it for a turn and use hero power instead. You absolutely want to hang on to elven archer unless it's for lethal. That Equality isn't any use if they clear your board and you can't kill that giant. The second Avenging Wrath is a must. It's probably your best card against rogues. And Blessing of Might is handy to hold for Leeroy Jenkins sometimes.
I'm probably going back to warrior now that I've hit legend, but this is a great deck for laddering. Thanks!
Season 3
VAULT2912
VAULT2912 is our first Shockadin Legend in Season3! Big kudos to him for reaching Legend june 6th! Last update he was #20. Down bellow you can find his comment about his climb and how to aproach some especific decks:
Thanks dude for posting that deck, it's really amazing. I started playing it last season after hitting legend and tried it this time right from the beginning. I think I lost my first game at rank 10. So, now after playing less than a week, I hit legend with it!! Here's the link: http://imgur.com/2Lpi7kQ
I didn't change anything, I just used the original list on this site. My experience with the different matchups are as follows:
Strong:
Warlock (Zoo, Handlock, Eroms 16hp
Rogue (Miracle, Tempo)
Druid (Token)
Hunter (Aggro, Midrange)
Fair:
Weak:
So, thanks again and keep creating such amazing decks!
I didn't count, but I started sunday noon and had to work monday till friday until 4 p.m. each day. So I would guess, about 30 hours.
Unfortunately no. I didn't run any program to do that and did not count myself.
In my oppinion Zoo is not really hard. You just gotta keep board control early and hit face later on. It's not a super easy matchup, but I'd say at least 60/40.
I rarely depend on topdecking. Sometimes yes, but not more often than with other decks. It might seem that you win becaus of a topdeck, but most times you need only some damage to finish your opponent and 50% of the cards in your deck would provide that damage.
Here are some tips, I promised. If you want more tell me :D And of course you can add me ingame (VAULT#2912):
General:
- Always try to save the coin. A turn 3 Truesilver Champion or a turn 6 avenging wrath is VERY strong. I only use the coin early against zoo, when I have no consecration in my hand or when I can make a very strong early dvine favor play (which is very rare).
- Argent Squire + Blessing of Might is extremely strong. Against druids I even coin it in turn 1 sometimes, so that the druid has to attack the squire twice to kill it (if he has no Wrath, and even if he has it, he has to attack it at least once and you can still attack).
- Try to keep one charger in your hand to combo with (exept for turn 2 bluegill or turn 3 wolfrider, if there are no other options). Sometimes that means that you can only use your hero ability.
- Don't play your Elven Archer to hit face. Use it to kill minions, either with or without Equality (strong combo)
- Don't save your Divine Favor for an empty hand. If you get at least 3 cards, you can play it early, especially if you don't have a good alternative in that turn.
- Try to use your physical attacks before your spells in control matchups to avoid taunts.
Mulligan:
- Argent Squire (Best one drop)
- Divine Favor (Don't keep it, if the rest of your hand is shit or when playing against aggro decks)
- Truesilver Champion (I almost always keep it in my starting hand. There is no better card to gain tempo with in turn 3 or 4)
- Any other 1 drop (If you already have Argent Squire in your hand, then try to get Blessing of Might or Abusive Seargent)
- Noble sacrifice isn't good in the early game most of the time. Only use it against rogues and druids to protect your 1 drops.
Warlock:
- Try to mulligan for equality, consecration and some low drops. Don't keep divine favor as it is a dead card against zoo. Equality on the other hand is a winning condition against handlock and not that useless against zoo. For example you can play it on his voidwalker in turn two to oneshot it with your argent squire. Consecration is very strong against zoo and can be comboed with Equality in a Handlock machtup.
Handlock:
- Don't bring him to low health, if you don't have an Equality combo or enough spell damage in your hand. Keep in mind that he could kill your leper gnomes to summon his molten giants.
- If you have many spells, try to use your minions and weapons first to avoid taunts (Hammer of Wrath is a good finisher).
Zoo:
- Try to get board control, don't hit face!! Knife Juggler has to die!
- You only switch to hitting face, when you are really sure that you can employ so much aggression that he can't keep up.
- Consecration really saves your ass!
- Don't save your equalitiy for Doomguard, if you can make a good play with it. The early game is much more important.
Mage:
- There are 3 popular decks at the moment: otter pops freeze mage, giant mage and aggro mage. Try to remember which one runs some key cards like Alexstrasza.
- Mulligan for 1-drops, Ironbeak Owl, Divine Favor
Freeze Mage:
- Beat him down like you mean it. Ignore all of his removal and try to pop that iecblock as early as possible. Even if that means using Leeroy to make that happen.
- Divine Favor is your best friend in this matchup, it will give you a shitload of cards. Try to make good use of it.
- Save your Ironbeak Owl for his Doomsayer!
- Be aware of Alexstrasza! When he reaches turn 9 and plays her, he will finish you next turn. Make him use her on himself and finish her with Equalitiy.
Giant Mage:
- They look like normal freeze mages, but most times they run low drop minions like sorcerer's apprentie and coldlight oracles.
- Same tactics as with freeze mages, beause they run Iceblock and Alexstrasza as well, but try to get a strong Equality combo, when you get him to low life.
Aggro Mage:
- You are really screwed now... If he has a good opening, you will just die. Fortunately this matchup is very rare right now.
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My VERY 1st Game with this AMAZING Deck Was a Close Win But It Is AWESOME IMO