[Rastakhan] Piperbuff Paladin!
- Last updated Apr 21, 2019 (Rise of Shadows)
- Edit
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Wild
- 28 Minions
- 1 Weapon
- Deck Type: Ranked Deck
- Deck Archetype: Control Paladin
- Crafting Cost: 22200
- Dust Needed: Loading Collection
- Created: 4/13/2018 (Witchwood)
- joey_jojo_48
- Registered User
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- 14
- 39
- 75
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Battle Tag:
JoeyJojo48#1451
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Region:
US
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Total Deck Rating
194
Hello Hearthpwn!
So with the rotation of Mean Streets of Gadgetzan, I lost the ability to play one of my favourite decks in standard: Handbuff Paladin. I mained Handbuff Paladin all through Year of the Kraken, even taking it to legend in Un'Goro. And while that deck may be gone, I took what I learned from it and made a very similar style of deck for Standard. So I present to you...Piperbuff Paladin! It's definitely off-meta, but it's been a lot of fun to play so far and I even took it to legend (proof below). If you've got the cards I reccomend giving it a try. I'll do my best to keep this page updated with the most current decklist I am running. Cheers!
*April 5th Update: THE SHADOWS ARE RISING! Since I don't main wild I'm going to just kinda leave this deck here for now, but I'm working on a new standard Handbuff Paladin! You can find it here: https://www.hearthpwn.com/decks/1247387. Cheers and best of luck in the new year!
~ General Strategy ~
The core synergy of the deck is to use Witchwood Piper to pull Prince Keleseth consistently in order to get the deck buff. Thanks to Boomsday we also have Glowstone Technician to buff your hand. The rest of the deck is strong minions that capitalize on the buffs (such as Zilliax, Chillblade Champion, and Ghostly Charger), and cards to disrupt/neutralize your opponent's threats (such as Aldor Peacekeeper. Spellbreaker, and Sunkeeper Tarim). The deck also uses a powerful draw engine with Countess Ashmore, which most of the time draws you 3 very useful (and often buffed) cards. Also worth mentioning is that after you've played Prince Keleseth, Witchwood Piper is still very useful since most of your 3-mana minions are tech cards (i.e. Aldor Peacekeeper, Gluttonous Ooze, Mind Control Tech, or High Priest Thekal) so it's nice to consistently draw them when you need them.
~ Win Conditions ~
The deck has 3 main win conditions. Which one you go for depends on the matchup:
1) Survive: Against aggro, you have plenty of Taunts and Lifesteals to survive through their aggression. Eventually they run out of steam and concede.
2) Burst/Board Pressure: This is for the midrange-y/control-y matchups and the most common way you win games. There are a few different ways to burst damage, but it usually involves a combination of Ashbringer, Grave Vengeance, Val'anyr, Glowstone Technician, Sunkeeper Tarim, and/or Chillblade Champion. Otherwise, since your minions are on average stronger than your opponent's minions, you eventually out-value them.
3) Uther of the Ebon Blade: It's a very inconsistent win condition, but it is still there for the grindy matchups where you can hide the Horsemen behind some taunts.
~ Mulligan Guide ~
Witchwood Piper |
Prince Keleseth |
High Priest Thekal |
Corpsetaker |
Aldor Peacekeeper |
Gluttonous Ooze |
Zola the Gorgon |
Stonehill Defender |
Mind Control Tech |
~ Key Cards ~
The Buffs |
Zola the Gorgon |
The core of the deck is using Witchwood Piper to pull Prince Keleseth early and consistently to buff up your deck. Glowstone Technician takes those buffed minions and turns them into game-ending threats. Zola the Gorgon is here mostly to double up on either of the buffers. Prince Keleseth, Witchwood Piper, and Glowstone Technician are core and the deck will not work without them. The others can be replaced if you're on a budget. Other buffs you can consider are Spikeridged Steed, Arena Fanatic, Farraki Battleaxe, or Blessing of Kings.
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The Taunts |
Sunkeeper Tarim |
Taunt cards scale very well with buffs, and these cards form the core defensive of the deck. There are a ton of other taunts you can consider if you're on a budget, such as Tar Creeper, Spikeridged Steed, Sen'jin Shieldmasta, Amani War Bear, or Primordial Drake. Feel free to experiment!
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The Neutralizers |
Uther of the Ebon Blade |
These cards are all meant to mess with your opponent's gameplan so that your cards can shine. Zola the Gorgon also lets you get extra copies of your tech cards as needed. Feel free to change these cards based on your budget and what you're facing. Cards to consider are Stampeding Kodo, Harrison Jones, Chief Inspector, Mojomaster Zihi, Stormwind Knight, Amani War Bear, The Black Knight, Mossy Horror, Leeroy Jenkins, Skulking Geist, or Primordial Drake.
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The Heals |
Uther of the Ebon Blade |
You need heals to keep yourself alive. These cards should be enough to help you stabilize through most aggression. Shirvallah, the Tiger, High Priest Thekal, and Uther of the Ebon Blade are the easiest ones to cut on this list. More/substitute cards you can use include Paragon of Light or Benevolent Djinn.
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The "Card Draw"
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Shirvallah, the Tiger |
These cards either draw cards, are drawn by other cards, or generate cards. The main powerful draw engine for the deck is "The Countess Package" (1x Countess Ashmore, 2x Chillblade Champion, 2x Ghostly Charger, 1x Zilliax, 1x Val'anyr, and 1x Tirion Fordring). This package gives a very reliable minion-based card draw engine to pull your removal and win-condition.
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~RIP Handbuff. I'll never forget you. ~
Let's play some Hearthstone together! JoeyJojo48#1451, Americas :)
With both blessings of kings and spikeridged steeds, I'm even tempted to add Lynessa to this. Not sure anything would be less useful than her in the deck though :(
I think you need to put clears into the deck
I've been thinking a similar thing given the abundance of swarmy decks on ladder. Currently working on slotting that in.
Prince Keleseth decks are some of my favorite so I am really interested in giving this a try. The only cards I don't have are the Glass Knight, which seems pretty optional, and Zola. You list Zola as mandatory, but then rightly point out that she's really just there for an extra Keleseth buff if you get lucky. While I understand the power of that possibility, being rather RNG based, it doesn't seem mandatory and I can't really afford to craft her right now. Could you comment on this? I'll experiment with substitutions. Any advice is welcome. Cheers and good work!
Getaway Kodo would be awfully situational but it might be an okay substitute to try to get a second Kelly buff... Hrmm.
Edit: Nvm. It's wild now. :(
Hey! So The Glass Knight is definitely optional and could be replaced no problem. Zola the Gorgon is really nice since she has some excellent targets in the deck, specifically Prince Keleseth, Sunkeeper Tarim, and Tirion Fordring. She also lets you use cards like Spellbreaker and Aldor Peacekeeper more liberally since you can make more, she lets you copy extra healing or taunts like Paragon of Light, Chillblade Champion, or Saronite Chain Gang if you're in a pinch, and she can combo with The Four Horsemen/Blackwald Pixie if you need to finish the game with Uther of the Ebon Blade. Because of that high flexibility I personally think she's valuable in the deck. HOWEVER, if you don't have her I definitely think the deck can work without her since she isn't nearly as essential as the cards you want her to copy.
Thanks for the reply! I will eventually have some dust, but I'm waiting to see how the meta settles and what nerfs might be coming in the future before I dust all my extra cards. The ones that seem kinda overpowered, I have kept my extra copies of just in case. Maybe I can afford to craft her eventually. I know there are some other decent decks she's used in, some rogue ones in particular. Rogue being the other class that uses Keleseth in a lot of decks, conveniently. Having her to help with the DK wincon is nice since that can be hard to pull off.
Wow! I like this deck rly much, and im thinking about crafting it. Though call since it would cost me more than 8k dust :P Could You please tell me how is the w/r of this deck looking right now? I'm really curious since except having nice and fun deck id like to have some results too :D
Hey I'm glad you're interested in the deck! In terms of stats I'm currently 31-19 (62%) at Rank 7. Best matchups are Shaman and Hunter, worst matchup is Paladin. If you're worried about losing a lot of dust (which I totally understand this deck is pricey) you can consider waiting a week or two to see if/how the meta stabilizes before making the call.