Hearthpwn

INTRODUCTION

Hello everyone, my name is Goudhout and here I will be presenting my dude paladin list, going with the list is a complete guide. This guide will cover the following

1. Which cards do we play, and why?
2. How is my deck different from the standard dude paladin and why I think it is better.
3. The mulligan
4. The strategies and the matchups

Why you should listen to me, let me start by saying that I am not a pro player (yet). But this is the deck I used to hit top 200 legend this season, unfortunatly I couldnt keep the top 200 till the end of the season. NOTE: I do not claim nor state anywhere in this guide that this is my own idea, the dude paladin list was already fairly popular before I even touched it, also do I not claim that I am the first one to run this specific dude paladin.

Which cards do we play, and why?

Argent Squire - This card is a core card in the dude paladin, it is just a good 1 drop, it has synergy with Rallying Blade and it can get pulled of Call to Arms.

Lost in the Jungle - Also a core card, 2 1/1's for 1 mana is already decent, but it also has synergy with almost all of your deck. 

Righteous Protector - Also a core card, it has the same explanation as Argent Squire. But on top of that, this card also has taunt, this means it can protect your Knife Juggler and Dire Wolf Alpha.

Dire Wolf Alpha - Another core card. This card is good at buffing you minions, it can do 2 things, either push more face or help clear minions. This card makes the deck harder to play, because you need to be carefull of your positioning, if you position your minions correctly you can make the buff go over to another minion once the first dies. This means that you want to play your dudes in the middle of the board and the bigger minions or the divine shield minions at the edges.

Equality - this is not a core card, but still really good in my opinion, since you deck also plays with divine shields a lot. This card can make you clear the opponents board without losing a single minion sometimes.

Knife Juggler - This is also a core card, because of his obvious synergy with Call to Arms and Stand Against Darkness. Also this card can be insane with Equality.

Divine Favor - This card is amazing, you can not replace this card, it has the ability to turn whole games around because you can refill you complete hand against control for just 3 mana. This means that you can get 2 or 3 refills from 1 card.

Rallying Blade - This card is also a core card, the weapon itself is decent, the ability to clear 2 of you opponents minions for 3 mana can change the complete game. The ability on the weapon makes it better, like I mentioned before your deck plays with a lot of divine shields. buffing 1 divine shield minion is already great, buffing 2 or more will probably win you the game outright.

Steward of Darkshire - This card can be cut from the list. Let me make it clear that even though it costs 3 mana, it is not an early game card. in tempo matchups you cannot wait a turn to get the value out of her because she will be gone, in control matchups this card can be insane and game winning, but it can also be slow and doesn't do anything.

Unidentified Maul - Even though the weapon itself is not too good, this is still a core card. The reason is that the ability can be insane. Divine shields = gg, blessed maul can be insane, dude maul = more dudes, which is just good. sacred maul is the only bad on, but with a bit of creativity in order you might be ably to do something with the effect, but sacred maul is just bad.

Call to Arms - One of the strongest cards in the game.

Lightfused Stegodon - This is definatly a core card in the deck, reason being is that 1-2 adapts is just good, 3-4 adapts is insane, 5-6 adapt = your opponent can rage quit. Almost always can you ensure at least 1 dude to survive a turn and get the adapt.

Level Up! - this card can serve as a second Sunkeeper Tarim, it can be inconsistend at times because sometimes you cannot get you dudes to stick. But it can also win you the game ez.

Crystal Lion - this is also a core card, the synergy with the deck in general is really good, always make sure you do your calculations on board space and dudes. for 4 mana or less thiss guy can just win games, for 5 mana or more it is kinda bad.

Sunkeeper Tarim - This guy needs no explanation, just really really strong.

Vinecleaver - this card is played because it can do 2 things at the same time, build a board, clear a board, it is a really good board refill and the dudes have synergy with the other cards in the deck.

How is my deck different from the standard dude paladin and why I think it is better.

For this section I will put Muzzy's list in as the standard list. The only change from this is the Drygulch Jailor which I changed into Unidentified Maul. Now there are 2 reason I did this. The first reason is Defile. By not running Drygulch Jailor I can ensure that if I play Call to Arms that my board will not die to Defile unless my opponent already has a minion to trade a divine shield. My second reason is that 3 of the mauls are insane in this deck, while only 1 isn't. This means tha 75% of the time you will have a really good card.

The mulligan.

The mulligan is one of the most skillfull parts of any game, this part allows you to decide which cards are and aren't in your hand. This means that a good mulligan is essential to playing any game of hearthstone. There are a few thing I will mention, first of all, never keep 2 weapons, secondly never keepKnife Juggler or Dire Wolf Alpha If you can not benefit from their effects.

Against Warlock: Righteous Protector, Argent Squire, Lost in the Jungle, Unidentified Maul, Knife Juggler, Dire Wolf Alpha, Rallying Blade, Call to Arms. Do not keep 2 one-drops against warlock.

Against Mage: Righteous Protector, Argent Squire, Lost in the Jungle, Unidentified Maul, Dire Wolf Alpha, Rallying Blade, Call to Arms. You can consider keeping 2 one-drops against mage.

Against Priest: Righteous Protector, Argent Squire, Lost in the Jungle, Unidentified Maul, Rallying Blade, Call to Arms. Do not keep 2 one-drops against priest.

Against Hunter: Righteous Protector, Argent Squire, Lost in the Jungle, Unidentified Maul, Knife Juggler, Dire Wolf Alpha, Rallying Blade, Call to Arms. You can consider keeping 2 one-drops against hunter.

Against Paladin: Righteous Protector, Argent Squire, Lost in the Jungle, Unidentified Maul, Knife Juggler, Dire Wolf Alpha, Rallying Blade, Call to Arms.

Against all the other classes: Righteous Protector, Argent Squire, Lost in the Jungle, Unidentified Maul, Knife Juggler, Dire Wolf Alpha, Rallying Blade, Call to Arms.

The strategies and the matchups.

 

 

 Secret mage - Against secret mage you want to control the board, if your opponent has the board then they can push through to much face damage and durn you out of the game. This means that you need to trade most of his minions.

Combo priest - against combo priest you also play for board, you do not need to trade everything against the priest, but do make sure that he cannot combo you. Also make sure to play around Duskbreaker.

Dragon priest - Dragon priest, or spitefull works the same as combo priest, but you can leave a bit more minions up if you are going for lethal. Still make sure to play around Duskbreaker.

 Big priest - Step 1. Pray your opponent doesn't have Barnes, Step 2. Play around AOE, step 3. ez win.

Murloc paladin - A straigt battle for board, trade a lot to play around his buffs, if you are really far ahead you can push for lethal., generally the early game divine shields will carry you.

Control warlock and Cube warlock - these matchups play out the same, since you do not run silence it is really hard to win. The only way to win sometimes is to go All-in and pray.

Zoo warlock - Also a battle for the board, one thing to keep in mind is that you need to kill him, because he will have DK in the late game. In most of the matches you will start by battleing for board, after you won the board you can go face, but still make the good trades if you can.

Spell hunter - I do not have a lot of experience in this matchup, but what you need to do is kill him kinda fast, you do not need to make trades a lot because he has little ways to punish you, but be carefull for his spellstone.

End

I want to finish off by saying that hearthstone is a complex game, following my advice will not instantly boost you to the tops of the legend ranks. 

I am starting to stream more and more so please check out my stream sometime: Twitch.tv/goudhout, I can answer all of your questions and help you with climbing and becoming a better hearthstone player and stuff. 

You can also check out my friend's stream: Twitch.tv/rexXHS 

 Also Zalea recently made a really good video that discusses when to trade and how to attack in general: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ywC44Or-OFI I really suggest you check it out, it really helped me along the way.

Here is an amazing video made by Jeleniowatyy, it is also in the comments, I suggest you check it out!

I got another amazing video from Kiwiinbacon, be sure to check it out, for newer players it can really help if they see other players play the deck and make decisions:

 What I got here is another great video made by games4dayz, he has gotten closer, to pronouncing my username like it is supposed to be pronounced than anyone else who is not dutch!!!