Hearthpwn

Update: since the last nerfs dropped this deck is no longer viable, but have no fear my paladin players. I have made another guide, even paladin: https://www.hearthpwn.com/decks/1222828-200-legend-complete-even-paladin-guide  

Hello everyone, in this guide I will cover odd Paladin, and everything that you need to know about the deck.

For more of my decks and updates please follow me on twitter:

https://twitter.com/GoudhoutHS

To start of, I do not and will not anywhere claim that I am the inventor or creator of this deck/archetype. I also do not and will not claim the credits for it. I will refer to the decklist as “my decklist”, this is because this is the decklist that I use. I hope you guys can respect that and not criticize me for it in the comments.

In this guide I will cover:

1. Why you should listen to me
2. Introduction
3. Why we run this list
4. Per cards explanation of why we run it
5. Synergies between cards
6. Techs
7. Matchups
8. Strategies
9. Afterword

Now first of all why you should listen to me. Let me start by introducing myself, my name is Goudhout and I am a dutch player that has played since TGT so that is about 3 years I believe. I a player for TimeOut Esports, I hit legend every month, and I usually end high in legend every month. I predominantly play aggro, because control is just too boring and it has worked for me in every meta.

I have spend a lot of time grinding the ladder and tournaments with this odd paladin list and therefore I have great insight. I have reached top 500 legend with this list. proof:

An introduction to odd paladin

Odd paladin is a fairly aggressive deck that makes use of a powerful upgraded hero power from Baku the Mooneater. This hero power gives us the ability to quickly fill up the board and deal a lot of damage to the opponent. By the use of board wide buffs such as level up we can create insane board capable of killing the opponent very quickly. The only struggle of the deck is too play around AOE, but if this is mastered then you can hit top ranks with this deck! This strategy has shown to work really well in the current meta, especially now as some newer decks might still be less refined.

Why we run THIS list

In this section of the deck guide I would like to explain why I believe that my decklist is superior over other decklist. Therefore I would like to compare the decklist to a “standard decklist”. There is never really a way to tell what the standard decklist is, so in this case I will use HSreplay’s most popular paladin deck as the “standard decklist”. This deck can be found here:

https://hsreplay.net/decks/wsEA4huCdRblzBiNfbreWf/

So the first big difference that we can notice is that we use Saronite Taskmaster rather than Argent Squire. I really like this change, I think that Saronite Taskmaster adds a lot more to the deck. This card just contains a lot more stats which is way better against other aggressive decks as it can trade really well with their early minions. A 2/3 Is just really good at trading with 1 and 2 drops. So this card gives a really good early advantage against those decks, basically giving you the board for free. Then there is still one part of this card that we haven’t discussed, the downside of the card. When saronite taskmaster dies it gives the opponent a 0/3 taunt. However this is most of the times okay for us, a 0/3 is not tempo, it does help the opponent get the board a bit because he will have more to say about the trades that will be made. Against aggressive decks this downside is okay, considering the huge upside, the 0/3 will be annoying but the early advantage should be enough to pull you ahead on board and therefore win you the game. Against control however it is totally different, in this matchup the only thing that really matters is face damage as you will naturally get the board control. The 3 health they gain from the taunt might be quite significant at some times. But the card will still do some good damage itself, so most of the times that compensates. In general I do not think that the downside of a 0/3 taunt is enough to outweigh the insane 2/3 minion you get for 1 mana.

There was just one 1 drop that we needed to cut for this, and because we already have a 1/1 with divine shield I choose to cut the Argent Squire. On the other hand if you feel better with cutting firefly that can also be just as good in my opinion.

Now the second different card is that we do not run the Stonehill Defender but we run Ornery Tortoise. This is one that I wasn’t sold on myself in the beginning, but then it turns out that 3/5  is almost the perfect meta stat line. There are just a lot of 4 drops with 3 health, Saronite Chain Gang, life drinker, Corpsetaker, name it. A 3/5 is really strong against all of these minions, it really helps you get a good board advantage. Next to that against other decks it is still really hard to deal with the 3/5. The 5 damage to your own face almost never matters, the only times that it does matter are the times where you most likely lost already. Then I also need to explain why I do not run Stonehill Defender. Stonehill Defender is just really slow, you want to be quite aggressive with this deck, Stonehill Defender doesn't fit that playstyle. The only reason to play Stonehill Defender is to get Sunkeeper Tarim and Righteous Protector is also decent. There are still a lot of times where you do not get Sunkeeper Tarim and you are stuck with some crappy taunt in your hand.

The last change is that I run a second copy of Divine Favor rather than Stormwind Champion. Divine Favor can just be so insane. Divine Favor can save your late game way better than Stormwind Champion can in my opinion. Divine Favor usually provides you with enough steam to win. Against control decks, the matchup where the late game actually matters the extra cards will help you better than the Stormwind Champion. If you play Stormwind Champion, you get 1 strong board, then the opponent plays an AOE and it is gone. Divine Favor will provide you with probably 2 or 3 good boards and then your opponent needs a lot more in order to win. The card is better because it requires more answers from your opponent, this might lead to him running out of answers and therefore we win the game.

Per card explanation why we run it:

Archus veteran - This one drop has good stats and the buff is pretty nice. It helps you get an ealry lead on the board because you can trade a 1/1 with an actual minion which gives quite the advantage.

Blessing of Might - This card is really good in this deck as it can do 2 things. Either it can buff a 1/1 to trade with a bigger minion, this is really good as it provides quite the advantage if you can remove a 4 health minion with just a 1/1. The other option is of course to push face with this card. The card is quite good at this 3 damage is quite a lot of damage for 1 mana, and if the buffed minion sticks then you have a really good shot at winning. Also it can provide some surprise lethals with leeroy as a lot of people do not take that combo into consideration when playing.

Fire Fly - This is just a good 1 drop, it also gives you an additional 1 drop. So this card on its own can provide for a good turn 1 and a good turn 3, it also helps to build your board quite efficiently so you can set up your buffs.

Lost in the Jungle - This card is just really strong as it provides a good turn 1, and it is really good at setting up for your board buffs. Next to that, the card also provides quite a lot of stats for 1 mana. And the fact that it summons silver hand recruits makes it even better as it synergises with level up.

Righteous Protector - this is just a really good 1 drop. It is really annoying for the opponent as it is really good at protecting your board because it requires 2 attacks. This card really helps your board survive and therefore sets up for great buff turns again.

Saronite Taskmaster - I went over this card quite in depth before, so I will still quickly cover it here. The stats are insane for a 1 drop, and the downside isn’t as big as some people might think.

Divine Favor - I also covered this card before so will not go in suchs depths over here. It provides a lot of steam for a deck that can run out of steam quite quickly.

Ornery Tortoise - This card is also covered before, so very quickly. 3/5 of stats for 3 mana is perfect meta statline, and its downside also is off less importance most of your games.

Raid Leader - this card is very good in this deck because it gives a board wide buff. It allows for very good trades and can give you a really good board lead. Also it provides a lot of face damage and can help a full board of 1/1’s kill the opponent very quickly.

Unidentified Maul - This card provides with really good board wide buffs, the divine shield maul and the +1 attack maul can be insane and win you the game on its own. The maul that summons the 1/1’s is also really good as it still sets you up for a good level up or any other buff. The taunt maul is quite bad on the other hand, but that is only 25% of the times, all other times this maul will either be insane or really good. The maul also helps you kill the opponent's board without sacrificing minions.

Fungalmancer - This card is just really good in aggro decks in general, the buffs are really strong. This card doesn’t really need a lot of explanation I believe. It is just really strong in general.

Leeroy Jenkins - This card is really good at finishing games it provides a strong burst that the opponent might not expect because not every odd paladin runs leeroy. It can also be combined with blessing of might for even more burst damage.

Level Up! - The card is crazy. I will not explain this.

Corridor Creeper - This card is really good because we play a bunch of small minions. This card will often cost 2 or less mana. This just makes it a really good fit for this deck.

Vinecleaver - this card is good because it can save your late game, it can set up for really good level ups and push a lot of damage face, it can also be used to control the board really well.

Baku the Mooneater - This card makes the almost makes the name for the deck.

Synergies:

here I will quickly discuss the synergies in this deck. most of it speaks for itself though, so I will not go in depth a lot.

1. Lost in the Jungle + Level Up!
2. Vinecleaver + Level Up!
3. Hero power + any buff
4. Leeroy Jenkins + Blessing of Might

Techs

There are not really a lot of techs that can be included into this deck, it is pretty complete and there are not really good tech specific matchups in this metagame. If there is a tech you need, for a specific matchup or in order to counter a specific playstyle I would recommend cutting the second divine favor. The second divine favor is mainly there so you can consistently find the card, but you usually do not need 2 divine favors.

Matchups

First off all I would like to present you with a graph of the winrates. These winrates are the winrates as I believe they should be, this graph is based on stats but I included my own opinion in the graph:

I also want to quickly give some tips in each matchup, most of them come down to just playing around the AOE’s of the opponent.

Maly and togg druid:

I will discuss these two matchups together as they are really similar. The big problem in these 2 matchups is Spreading Plague. The challenge for us is to play around plague to the best of our ability and hope we can win. This is mostly done by making your boards bigger rather than wide. getting good value out of Fungalmancer and Level Up! is essential in this matchup. Next to plague another important card in this matchup is Swipe, because this can instantly remove a whole board of yours so it is important to play around it as well.

Token druid:

This matchup is almost the same as the maly and togg druid matchup. There is 1 very important difference however, you can never really let a board of theirs survive or else you are really dead. It is important to play this matchup with a calculator as you need to calculate how much damage he can do, and then decide how to play your turn.

Deathrattle hunter:

This matchup is really fun, if you play out your cards properly you should have no trouble in dealing with a deathrattle hunter. The only problematic card in this matchup isDeathstalker Rexxar, but that card only comes online turn 6, so you have the ability to easily play around it with Level Up! or with Fungalmancer.

Spell and sub 9 hunter:

These matchups are also really similar. This matchup is also very much the same as deathrattle hunter, but there is a difference which is the Explosive Trap. Usually it is pretty obvious when your opponent has played their explosive trap, so you can always play around it. Another problem is Unleash the Hounds, but if you play around it properly you should be fine.

Odd mage:

This matchup is really hard because they just have AOE’s in their deck. Just try to be really aggressive, and pray that it works out. Or you can pray that you draw a purifiers maul and they can’t kill your board. Usually in these matchups I try to play around the first 1-3 AOE’s and after that go all in, because if they have the 4th AOE then you will probably lose anyways so it doesn’t matter.

Even paladin:

This matchup is favored for us, as we are just better at making board. You should however take care in this matchup to kill his minions before turn 5 because with Sunkeeper Tarim or Spikeridged Steed your opponent can do some bad things.

OTK paladin and Control priest:

In this matchup the most important thing to do is play around his AOE’s like in almost every other matchup.

Ressurect priest:

In this matchup I like to be ultra aggressive, you need to kill them before they start doing some insane stuff. The only really important card to think about every turn is Spirit Lash, this card will crush your hopes and dreams if you do not play around it.

Odd rogue and Kingsbane rogue:

These matchups are really similar, only difference being that kingsbane rogue does have AOE’s. For the rest these matchups are really just all about playing for tempo. If you play for tempo properly, both of these matchups should be really easy.

Even shaman:

This matchup is not really different from any other matchup, just play for the tempo and you should be fine. In this matchup you might need to kill of his totems sometimes as with a Dire Wolf Alpha or with a Flametongue Totem these pesky totems can also clear your board.

Shudderwock shaman:

This matchup doesn’t really have anything special, only thing that you need to worry about is the Volcano, so either you play around it with a small board, or you play around it with a board that is too big. You have to make this decision yourself, I will always try to go above that 15 health because it puts you in a really good spot usually.

Zoo warlock:

This matchup is almost the same, but play for tempo, and set up to kill a Despicable Dreadlord on turn 5 because otherwise you lose.

Evenlock:

In this matchup you will just have to play around the AOE’s, it is just like any other matchup.

Odd warrior:

Bottom right buddy! Nah, just kidding, but this matchup contains a lot of praying. You have to play into turn 5 just correctly, if you board is too small then the Dyn-o-matic will clear it, and if it is too wide then you will not be left with steam after a Brawl or Reckless Flurry.

Mulligans

I usually include this into my guide, but not this time. Hsreplay provides you with really good stats on the mulligan for free, and as the mulligan doesn’t really change for the different classes it is no use for me to go over the mulligan in depth. What I will say tho, is that against control decks it might sometimes be recommended that you do keep on to that copy of Level Up!, as it means that a board of just 1/1’s can become very threatening all of a sudden.

Afterword

Well shiit, that took long to make, but I still hope all of you appreciate the effort that I put into this guide. I really hope that this helps you. But you do have to remember that Hearthstone doesn’t really have rules that you need to oblige to, because every situation is different and asks for something else.

If you liked the guide then please gimme a +1 on the top here, I would really appreciate that. Now if you don’t mind lemme just thank some people and put down some links.

If you would like to know more about me then consider following me or my team on social media:

https://twitter.com/GoudhoutHS

https://twitter.com/timeoutbe?lang=en

https://www.facebook.com/TimeOutEsportsBE/

 Videos:

I got an amazing video over here from Tommy Wave. Be sure to check this out is it great content and can help you with learning how to play odd paladin!

Next to that I also have a great video made by kiwiinbacon. If you want some more help on how to play the deck, definitely watch him play it.

Here I got another sick video, this one is made by Khristophesaurus Dinosaurus, I would recommend you guys check this out:

Another video, this time by Max Evo, too bad this deck got nerfed, but this video still deserves to be here: