Hearthpwn

Hey guys, strudel (EU strudel#2996) here. I wanted to share my current Ashmore paladin decklist with the community because not everyone likes to play odd-paladin/murloc-paladin and after many games/changes it seems that I found a sweet spot for my deck. In my opinion paladin always had some great tools for a midrange deck and I tried to find a decklist which can beat a wide range of the current meta decks. I ended up with some "strange" cards like Ashmore Countess, Spellshifter, Blessed Champion, Glass Knight...

Here is the current list I'm running + deck stats with the latest version (27-12) / older versions. Overall I played 300+ games @ legend ranks with midrange decks based around Countess Ashmore + Val'anyr + rush/charge lifesteal minions. Sometimes more late game oriented with Lich King/Tirion or more control cards like Aldor Peacekeeper/Tar Creeper/MC-Tech. The list I'm sharing with you guys seems to be the best for the current meta and atm I am sitting at 27-12 stats (69% wr) and it has the most aggressive attempt from all versions I tried.

 

 

How the deck works:

Main goal is to thin the deck as soon as possible via Call to Arms/Countess Ashmore to enable combo/value topdecks. People expect odd-paladin and they get surprised by the burst potential this deck has. (20-4 charge minion, most of the time 7-4 charge is enough)

vs aggro/tempo: due to our slow opening it is almost impossible to dictate the early trades and we try to survive and rely on Pyromancer + Equality , Spellshifter + Consecration, weapons + buffed lifesteal rush/charge minions to make our comeback. after the first or 2nd board clear we can most likely dictate the trades and close the game with weapons/lifesteal minions/tarim

vs control: The opening of my deck is hardly a threat for the opponent. Righteous Protector or Vicious Scalehide on turn 1 or 2 are no threat but Blessing of Might or Blessing of Wisdom are and they change the whole game plan for our opponents. Suddenly they have to use removals early on or lose too much health. Sometimes a turn 2 played 4/1 Spellshifter is creating some weard plays too. Those early turns don't win or lose us the game because Equality+Pyromance is always a option to come back in the game but it helps staying on the board early on which can lead into great Call to Arms / Sunkeeper Tarim turns and most of the time we can dictate the trades. The deck begins to shine after playing Call to Arms / Countess of Ashmore which leads into Val'anyr + charge/rush minions in your hand and we increase our chance of drawing the missing parts of consecration/euqality/avenging wrath or blessing of might + blessed champion combos to finish them off. If we find our self in a bad situation were we hardly can win with our combo then Azalina Soulthief begins to shine. Azalina played after UI or vs combo priest/controllock/big mage before they play their DK's can win you the game.

Note on some cards:

Spellshifter: This guy is a beast. 1/4 statline is hard to beat if he gets pulled via Call to Arms, which often can lead into a 3*dmg Consecration the next turn. Sometimes I play him as a 4/1 on turn2 and just hit the face or make some value trades in certain matchups. First I played him to avoid Bloodmage Thalnos + Ashmore synergies but even after testing Thalnos in some of my lists I sticked with Spellshifter as well, he won me many games.

Glass Knight: I was not impressed with this card during witchwood card reveals but turns out people struggle to remove him efficently and Truesilver/Vicious Scalehide/Chillblade Champion make the "infinite divine shield" possible. Truesilver + Glass Knight killed many Mountain Giants in my games.

Countess Ashmore: She is my new love. The value she gives to this deck is insane. I don't have the exact stats but playing her almost automatically leads to a win in many matchups. Most of the time she draws 2+ cards which can help to stabilize if you need the health or settung up the combo for the next 1-2 turns. Thinning the deck of minions/weapons via Call to Arms + Countness Ashmore makes drawing the needed spells (equality/Consec/blessed champion) very easy

Azalina Soulthief: Maybe it is just my own thing but I like her in almost any paladin deck. Some matchups are just hard to win without the extra value she can generate. If I see that I can not win with my usual matchplan I start thinking which cards might help me. Maybe a Naturalize/Mind Blast/ Weapon Poison is enough to close the game or sometimes copying a malygos-druid hand for the extra armor/dmg cards is also a win. Becoming DK Guldan is nice too. Copying Shudderwock results in infinite Azalina value. Sometimes it is also great to know the hand cards from your opponent to make better calls

Blessing of Wisdom: The deck lacks card-draw and after cutting Bloodmage Thalnos and Aldor Peacekeeper I strated using Blessing of Wisdom. Sometimes I use it on my opponent's minions. Most of them will stop attacking which helps for surviving. Playing it on turn 1/2 on my own minions forces them into using removals otherwise it generates too much value. The use of Rush/Charge minions also increases the value of this card. Akolyte of Pain is in my opinion too slow and a bad topdeck. Divine Favor sucks vs aggro and sometimes Pyromancer + 1 mana spell is great too

Blessing of Might: Great card to enable good trades early on with Vicious Scalehide/Stonehill Defender/Glass Knight/Righteous Protector or just as combo piece with Pyromancer or with Blessed Champion. I tend to use it early on to avoid losing it to Geist and creating creating a new threat and sometimes staying on the board is more important than the 20-4 combo potential with Val'anyr + Blessed Champion.

Note on some cards I stopped playing:

Aldor Peacekeeper: Mountain Giants are a great target but in any other matchup he felt underwhelming and a lose of tempo. All the aggressive/tempoish decks can rebuff/silence their minions and against control decks he was a bad Val'aynr target and therfor I started cutting those kind of "tech-minions" who sit in your hand vs slow combo decks and are not got vs aggro who play Funglmancer/ Flame Totem/ Scalebane/ Cold Blood.

Bloodmage Thalnos: Drawing a card + spelldmg seems great for a midrange/controlish pala deck which plays Call to Arms to thin the deck but I did not like the the Countess Ashmore "synergy". If I need Val'anyr to start putting pressure on my opponent I don't want to draw this dude and sometimes a 1/1 body is too weak to survive after CtA turn. Spellshifter does a better job in my opinion.

Tirion Fordring: Too slow, too many weapon swings needed to get value out of him. I like swinging Truesilvers/Val'anyr > Ashbringer

Lich King: Great card and won me many games in some older decklists. Magic Shield + Lifesteal minions is great, Army of dead got worse an worse after including more and more 1 mana spells and he sometimes felt too slow when I could have played Val'anyr/Countess instead of him to win faster. I don't regret cutting him and sometimes Stonehill Defender brings Lich King back to shine.

Tar Creeper/MC-Tech: I like both minions but MC-T felt too rng for me and I don't want to lose board control in the first place.. waiting for my opponent to have 4+ minions makes no sense for my gameplan. Tar Creeper is a good devensive tool and with blessing of might maybe a threat vs control but overall it was too weak vs aggro which value trade vs those kind of taunts vs control it is too slow without buffing it.

Blessing of Kings: In theory a great card with low attack/high health minions but Blessing of Might does the the same job for me with less mana needed and I can combo Blessing of Might + Chillblade Champion + Blessed Champion in the same turn.

Cpt Greenskin: Tried him few times because I thought 5/3 Truesilver / Val'anyr feels great but in the end I regreted buffing Val'anyr because I want the deathrattle-value and Truesilver into Cpt Greenskin Turn4/5 is too hardly ever the case.

Flex cards:

Atm my gameplan is build around Val'anyr + charge/rush lifesteal minions. Playing a slower version still got me to 50-60% wr @ legend ranking and therfor I think the spell-package for the final burst and extra value via Zola is free to be replaced but I had most success with the current aggressive decklist.

1x Zola of Gorgon

1x Blessed Champion

1x Avenging Wrath

2x Blessing of Might

1x Blessing of Wisdom

1x Glass Knight

General Mulligan Advice:

Always keep 1x Call to Arms, 1x Righteous Protector, Stonehill Defender and sometimes Equality/Truesilver depending on the matchup. Playing something on turn1/2 is great with our 1 mana buffs, Stonehill Defender into discovering Tarim or cheaper defensive taunt minions helps surviving/increasing the early dmg as well. Call to Arms is needed to thin our deck and sometimes a wall of Righteous Protector or rush 1/3 minions is the perfect answer vs aggressive decks. Even though Val'anyr/ Countness Ashmore are our win-condition in most of the games I would not recommend keeping those cards in your starting hand because they tend to be too slow. Only if you are 100% sure your opponent plays a slow deck you might wanna take the risk.

Different Matchups:

Druid: They ramp, they ramp, they play unfair. Atm there are 3 different kinds of druid decks I face. Taunt, Token and Malygos druid. Call to Arms + Tarim + Equality/Consec + weapon/charger/board minions are the way to beat taunt druid before they can trigger Hadronox 2-3x times. Equality is one of the rare cards that is able to break those walls and have be used wisely to get the dmg through. Call to Arms vs malygos/token druid is more tricky because they most likely answer it with Plague. Vs both of those decks it is more important to survive / making their turns difficult. Depending on my hand size and board situation I wait for their UI and play Azalina to win from there on. Most of this games go to fatigue and knowing their decklist is the only way to predict if they have lethal which needs to be declined via lifesteal/armoring up/taunt minions/several board clears.

Hunter: Aggro/Spellhunter have trouble vs lifesteal minions. Spellshifter/Pyromancer + consec are great combos to deal with spellstones and Sunkeeper Tarim + board minions is almost an autowin because they can not deal with 3 health minions. Truesilver/Val'anyr are great stated weapons to deal with all the Huffers,Leoks etc...Azalina comes to shine if they play Rhok'delar or start farming Zombeast in their hand. DK Rexxar is good but without Rush+Lifesteal zombeasts it is difficult for hunters to keep up with Val'anyr dmg into their face. Equality+ Spells break all passive minion walls. The current rise of recruit/deathrattle hunters is a problem. Recruit hunter can be beaten with Call to Arms / Tarim plays and sometimes smorcing in the end to get them offguard with blessed champion. Deathrattle hunter is hard to beat because my decklist does not include silence cards and the only way to beat their deck is if you can kill the deathrattle minions / taunt Grizzly before they start cubing/triggering the effects. Equality+Pyro/consec and Tarim sometimes give their eggs more value and are not as easy to use as in other games. They most likely don't know our decklist and therfor blessed champion is always a win condition. Azalina + Play Dead can also win some games because we can trigger our Val'anyr buffed minions.

Mage: Against aggro mage it is all about surviving and getting some life back via Chillblade Champion/ killing off their minions in the early game. After the early turns it is a run who can put more dmg into the opponents face. Azalina sometimes helps getting some neat spells but most of the time lifesteal minions are the key to win this matchup. Big spell mage is only winable if we can kill him early on which is difficult due their armoring up / removals. Playing Valanyr buffed minions on the board leads into polymorph and therfor I try to kill them by myself during the same turn via trading/equality + pyro to get the weapon equipped asap. If I am too slow to win before he reaches turn9 ( DK jaina) I hope I can play Azalina and copy his hand cards. Being DK Jaina + Equality is great :)

Paladin: Having the coin is great against odd-paladin. A Consecration on turn4 into Call to Arms wins games. Most likely you have to clear the board several times but Pyromancer + 1 mana spells help achieving that goal. As soon as we get our Val'anyr + lifesteal combo going it is a win. Stonehill Defender, Vicious Scalehide, 1/4 Spellshifter are MVPs in this matchup.. besides pyromancer. Spellshifter + Consec is great to kill the 3/3 taunt walls. Sunkeeper Tarim sometimes feels useless in this matchup but due our better value trades we can set up a board were he hardly has any dudes on the board left. VS OTK pala we are screwed. No silence in the deck makes it difficult to beat Lynessa walls but maybe Azalina can help us winning this matchup.

Priest: Blessing of Might helps us killing their Northshire Cleric. Their Pyromancer can screw up our Call to Arm plays and we have to think about their Psychic Scream turns to avoid filling our deck with "useless" junk when we want to draw Countess/Azalina. Val Anyr is helpful in this matchup but we can not put buffed minions on the board without taking the risk of losing the minion via Scream/Silence/Kabal Priest and therfor I try to hold the buffed minion back in my hand for burst dmg during the later turns or trade my buffed rushed/charge minions via Tarim/Equality and start swinging his face with our hero. Lifesteal minions help surviving long enough vs their "OTK" set up. Playing Azalina for their Mind Blasts/Heals is also a nice way to finish them off. If a non rush/charge minion gets the buff I try to kill it off with equality/pyro but most of the time we can dump our non charge minions beforehand to redcude the risk of that scenario.

Rogue: Even though I have 1-2 result vs odd/miracle rogue with this decklist I think my deck is favored in this matchup due the experience I gained from the 25+ games against rogues with similar decklists. Truesilver is a great weapon to kill their turn 3/4 minions and helps setting up Call to Arms / Tarim turns. As soon as they lose board control it is hard for them to come back due to our charge/rush lifesteal minions and Equality/Pyro/Consec can clear any rogue-board if they overextend.

Shaman: Only faced shudderwock shaman with the current decklist and it is the worst matchup. Their heal/board clears/hex/silence makes it almost impossible to win fast enough. Sometimes Azalina is the only way to win if we can get their combo pieces and start playing shudderwock-paladin or we rely on their bad rng that they screw up their combo. Even Shaman is winable but if they get their DK it gets tricky. In the early turns they lack spells and only stay on the board via trading. A wide spread board, buffed via Tarim is difficult for them kill without Kalimos or DK battlecry. Shaman is not the class to beat with this deck.

Warlock: Zoolock/Even Lock/Cube Lock.. the most difficult part is to guess the right matchup and therfor I try to counter all of them at once.. keeping Equality and early drops is the best way to mulligan. Equality + Pyro/Consec is needed vs Zoolock or as emergency board clear vs Even Lock. Zoolock is just about surviving and sometimes our lifesteal/Truesilver backfires vs Lightwarden but most of the time I get the board back @ turn4/5 and after that it is all about killing their minions and householding with board clears. Even Lock and Cubelock tend to underestimate the burst of my decklist. They hide behind 7/7 taunts or any other minion based wall and stay at 10-20 life total - an equipped weapon + equality/avenging wrath/buffed charge minions is too much burst for those decks. Someitmes I avoid attacking vs Even Warlock to deny their 7/7 taunts and sometimes Azalina is a nice extra tool to get DK Guldan/board clears if I can't burst them before turn10. My winrate vs warlocks is promising and I think it is the best matchup for my current decklist.

Warrior: Quest warrior is slow and predictable. If they finish their quest too early and equip the weapon it becomes tricky but they also lose their hero power for extra armor. Equality is great to kill their walls and playing Azalina to get their Quest reward is funny too. Dead mans Hand warrior are a pain in the ass to play against, without Azalina getting the dead mans hand combo it is almost impossible to fin wast enough but I hardly face warriors atm @ ladder but I would say warrior is slightly favored because of their extra armor tools.

Thanks for reading :) Feel free to test/discuss the deck and I will be answering questions asap.