Hearthpwn

Hey Guys, it's the 25.12.2014 and I reached Legend again with only playing 1 specific Paladindeck from Rank12 - Legend#124. I didn't took a screenshot every time but can give you one as proof.

1. Pic Beating Theude (mostly everyone knows who follows competitive HS)

2. Pic was today after falling in ladder by using other decks

But enough for the unbeliever guys who complain abaout ranks, here we go with  the decklist, the idea behind the deck and playing the matchups.

The general idea was to be able to beat the enemy in Lategame, but still being able to handle Aggro with enough Heals and Aggrominions aswell. This deck is capable of beating every matchup without a significiant disadvantage expect vs Mech-Mage wich is our worst matchup. But the Winrate vs Handlock is enormously high. But stattracking comes later in the matchup part. You have enough Earlycards to handle Aggrodecks and also have a lot of Legendarys who will win you the Lategame what you want to stall for normaly.

Cards

2 Equality / Consecration/ Truesilver Champion :  Just solid good cards, we want 2 times in the deck.

Knife Juggler: Combos very nice with Muster for Battle or Argent Protector early on. Also it's a 2-drop enemys are forced to trade their Undertaker in which is very important against aggrodecks. I mostly play him always on turn 2, forcing a reaction out of my enemy so that he can't develop board. If he can't deal with it immediately I often snowballed out of control and had starts like an aggrodeck (some games I was able to finish at turn 6-8 but thats not the rule).

Shielded Minibot: Probably the best 2-Drop GvG added. This guys trades so much earlygame mostly for 2 cards or 1 Card and 1 Heroability. ALWAYS keep him on starting hand in every matchup. If you play him later in the Game he is able to make a big trade if you combine his Divine Shield with Blessing of Kings and still have a 6/6 in play.

Argent Protector: This card is maybe the most underrated guy in this deck but he fucking won me so much games, I craftet a golden one because of his performance. He is very nice to combine early on with Knife Juggler or later to give a strong minion a free trade vs an other strong minion. Keep him with other 2 drops. Normaly we dont want to play him on Turn 2 without his battlecry. I'd rather just heroability. 

Wild Pyromancer: I only run one because I only want to trigger a global boarddestroyer with Equality once per game. The other Equality I use with Consecration or a lot of cheap Silver Hand Recruit. The reason behind this is that you destroy your own board aswell. And I'm not willing to threw away my board 2 times. Or use 2x 2 cards for boardclear. Ok as 2 drop vs Zoo. Also nice for 3 dmg with Consecration. Keep in mind his ANTI-synergy with Muster for Battle, you will destroy your Recruits with it.

Aldor Peacekeeper: Best 3-Drop ingame. Nice against Giants, Dr. Boom or even Aggro were you can turn any 3 Attack minion in a 1/2 shit. Vs aggro he trades at least for 1,5 Cards (buff from other cards count as 0,5 cards like Abusive Sergeant). But i reccommend him to save up for Doomguard if you have the option. But before losing the whole board just feel free to play him. Mountain Giant or Molten Giant are reduced to Heroability killers. 

Big Game Hunter: Every deck runs Dr. Boom so I always have a target for it. Also nice against Ragnaros the Firelord or other big guys like giants.

Blessing of Kings: Yeah, I play that card and it worked surprisingly well. It has so much variance you can use it. You can make a Silver Hand Recruit a 5/5, use it for the 1/2 Slime after Sludge Belcher gets killed and have an even stronger Taunt up also combine it with Shielded Minibot for free 6 Dmg on an important minion. It's usage is completely variable and always of use, i never ever wished another card in the deck for it, it gave me so much surpriseburst enemys never thought I have.

Antique Healbot: Well, one of the strongest GvG commons if not Neutral Cards. That card is key vs Hunter, Zoo or Alexstrasza from Warrior. VS Hunter you try to profit as much from it by attacking into Freezing Trap and gain the heal again. There is no replacement for that card, it's way to strong. I really recommend playing this card.

Loatheb:  Still very strong. I play him because i don't have Harrison Jones. Don't know if I would ever replace him but when, then with Harrison. 

Cairne Bloodhoof / Sylvanas Windrunner: Typical strong Control minions. If you face a lot of Priests you can replace Cairne Bloodhoof with Piloted Sky Golem that he can't steal your Cairne with Cabal Shadow Priest + Shrinkmeister Combo.

Sludge Belcher: Key vs Aggro and also protecting important stuff vs Control opponents. Only matchup were this card is not good is Priest who can easily overtake it with cards like Shadow Madness or Cabal Shadow Priest + Shrinkmeister Combo.

Dr. Boom: Well, doesn't need any explanation. Just too strong to not play.

Guardian of Kings: Wanted one of him because it's a strong minion and also has a Heal. This overall package is nice to have and I never regret playing him. He often won me games vs Aggrodecks running out of steam. I just don't wanted a second Antique Healbot or a other Legendary because we already run enough. He is a hybrid of Heal and strong stats. That's why I chose him. 

Lay on Hands: Heal + Carddraw is always important either vs Aggro or Control. 

Ragnaros the Firelord / Tirion Fordring: They are our Lategamewinners. Luckily I'm a guy who often benefits from Rag RNG or maybe just play so that either face or minionhit is fine. Anyway would neither switch out anybody of these two.

Sneed's Old Shredder: Yeah, this card. It's amazing. Trust me. This cards is not a gamewinner. It's the ultimate bait. You play this card as soon as possible and hope that your opponent uses important removal for him. He is the bait to protect our real Stuff (Cairne Bloodhoof, Sylvanas Windrunner, Ragnaros the Firelord, Tirion Fordring). It's totally fine if he gets Silenced, hexed, or even killed by Execute/Shield Slam. Often Warriors waste their important removals for the Shredder AND the Legendary jumping out. Don't you dare to hope you will get a good Legendary out of it. I don't use it for the small chance of getting out. He still is just a removal-bait. Well sometimes I even ended up with him popping out a 2nd Sylvanas Windrunner or Tirion Fordring followed by a instant concede from the enemy or a Malygos who made me a 7 Dmg Consecration. Also he is very strong vs. Warrior cause he baits 2 Removals and overlives Brawl.

Weaknesses of the deck:

I don't run any Silence, Zombie Chows or have Carddraw. This deck relies on getting a decent start and profits a lot from heroabilitys. Sylvanas Windrunner often annoys me because of the missing Silence. But I often just trade board in it or flood the board that she will just get Recruits or 2 Drops. She really has hard times to steal something good from this deck, cause we often have 1 strong guy out and 5x 1/1. Otherwise we just go with the 1/1 guys in her and she can't steal shit. From there on we just build up board again. Carddraw is missing because I don't run Harrison Jones (which I don't have) or Acolyte of Pain. But I think Acolyte of Pain is way to slow vs Aggro and is not that good vs Control. We could try to use it with Blessing of Kings.  Also my opinion for Zombie Chow is: Nice vs Aggro, works very good with our Earlygame cards like Knife Juggler, Argent Protector. Even with Blessing of Kings he is good because he is out of Big Game Hunter Range and a Silence would also negate the +5 Heal. If you face a lot of Aggro decks or are missing Carddraw, feel free to replace any cards with cards you are missing. I just liked my deck and it worked but your variation can work aswell. To reach Legend you don't need a Deck from someone. You need a deck you know EVERY card and the reason why you play it to counter what you planned.  

WHY not run....?

Avenge with all that 1/1 dieing: You will find no card worth it to replace it with. I don't want an aggro deck and I think Avenge is more for Aggro. Of course you can try it.

Quartermaster: Well, I don't have him and I also don't like cards you need to combo with other ones. The funny thing is, Nearly everyone thinks  I use Quartermaster and uses way too much removal for my Recruits because he fears the Quartermaster next turn. I sometimes had a turn 4 Swipe to the Face, cause I played Muster for Battles. This removal for Recruits help us to gain boardcontrol with our real big guys, he now has no removal for. Well if you want to run him in your deck, just do it. I don't say he is bad. I just don't like it.

Sword of Justice: Often times we don't have the free turn to establish that card without losing whole boardcontrol. Also most of our cheap guys die to any kind of AoE even if they have 2 HP like Hellfire, Blizzard / Flamestrike. 

Divine Favor: Well mostly I have a more cards or are just 1 card less than my opponent (using my heroability as much as possible rather than play a 2drop). So you will often end up with a dead card in your hand especially against Aggro.

Avenging Wrath: Too expensive and random for the high cost. It mostly takes your whole turn and you can't rely on the damage who will be dealt. 

Hammer of Wrath: Bad Dmg for the 4 cost the carddraw can't evening-up. Truesilver Champion is way stronger for it's cost.

Scarlet Purifier: He may be good in Aggropala because of it's Stats but I think Aldor Peacekeeper is the better 3drop. If you play vs a lot of Aggro-Deathrattle you may replace one Aldor Peacekeeper with one Scarlet Purifier. But vs handlock and Control he won't have any use.

Defender of Argus: Yeah, we lack taunts but it's not really necessary to Taunt things up. We have enough to fight for Boardcontrol or even clear it. So for myself i find it hard to replace something for it. But definitely an option because we have a lot of big guys we can taunt up.

Troggzor the Earthinator: Was in my original deck but don't really liked it for the costs. You may put it in for Guardian of Kings

Kel'Thuzad: Never tried it even if it's my favourite card. Should be great to gain back all our cheap stuff we are trading in and also immune to Big Game Hunter.

Ysera: Cabal Shadow Priest + Shrinkmeister Combo are autodefeat. Also to slow to profit from it.

MATCHUP and Mulligans:

First of all I tracked my stats and here we go, I even seperated Warlock in Zoo and Handlock, Mage in Freeze and Mechaggro, Druid in Mech/Token and Ramp, Priest in Deathrattle and Normal. Iplayed 92 games from Rank 12 - Legend#562 (wich was my entry Rank for Legend) and 15 on Legend (swing between 450- 124 which was my best) it ended in Win/Los = 69/38:

Zoolock: (12-6): This matchup is the most emotionally stressfull matchup because of their Doomguard draws. I keep every 2 Drop like Shielded Minibot or Knife Juggler even Muster for Battle and Aldor Peacekeeper. If you have  The Coin you can keep Truesilver Champion orConsecration. Normally we can stall through the game and get back with board presence or heal. But as Zoo is, we can't do shit when they have lucky Doomguard discards or get both in the top 12 cards of the deck.  Stats might be misleading, it's our hardest matchup after Mech-Mage. Add Zombie Chow if you face them permanently.

Handlock: (13-3) Surprisingly this deck has found his master. I was embossed from my other decks that I have to fear Handlock. But this matchup is nearly a freewin. You just play Aggro as shit and always go for face. DON'T waste Aldor Peacekeeper for Twilight Drake. Always hold them for Giants. Also a nice hint is to hit Twilight Drake with your Truesilver Champion and go for face with your board. The drake can only kill 1 Minion and you can finish the Drake later with your 2nd Truesilver Charge. Keep Equality as long as you can afford. Rather use an Aldor Peacekepper or Sludge Belcher to buy time. If you can get 2 Giants with 1 Euqality you make so much profit. The tactic in this matchup is to be the aggresor and push him fast to 15 Health or below and negate his threats. Because of your big board and nearly Death he will often overcommit and plays his free Molten Giant to taunt them up. With Equality you now can easily trade with you Recruits or cheap Drops. You can only lose, if you draw very bad or he the Warlock gets out early his Lord Jaraxxus. We can't win vs the 6/6 every turn and run out of answers. So just play aggressively until turn 9 so that he can't waste a turn to play him.

Hunter: (11-4) This matchup is far more relaxing than zoo but still dangerous. But in most cases you are able to handle aggro plays with Consecration and hide behind Sludge Belcher and Heal up with Antique Healbot or Guardian of Kings. Try to waste his secrets on Recruits or Minions with Heal to profit again from the Heal. If you are able to get an Antique Healbot back from Freezing Trap you often times win automatically, cause you will get so much health back to stall for your other Heals.

Paladin Mirror: (3:3) Here we are behind because we don't run Quartermaster and by this we are in a real disadvantage. I hate playing vs Paladin and this matchup is based on experience and carddraw and RNG from their Legendarys.

Warrior: (10-4) This matchup is mostly relatively comfortable cause of your heropower, use it as often as you can. He will use cards like Whirlwind, Cruel Taskmaster or Death's Bite to clear Recruits or Lowdrops. On long terms your Heropower will outstand his Armorgaining, because your Dmg is permanently increasing and his Armor steady on 2. Don't overcommit to much legendarys on the Board until he used Brawl. If this card is out and we have enough Legendarys in the deck, we mostly have the game in the bag. The best card vs Warrior is Sneed's Old Shredder He will often times use so much cards to remove him (Execute, Shield Block + Shield Slam, Brawl) and for what. That you get another Legendary he needs removal for. Just see it ingame, this card is nuts vs Warriors. Also keep your Healing tools afterAlexstrasza. If you still have all your 3 healing cards after Alexstrasza was played he wont have the Damage to kill you afterwards.

Mech-Mage: (2-7) Well our worst matchup. Our only hope is to gain Shielded Minibot and Boardclearing cards who stop them from getting tempo. Also be happy if they don't have The Coin to snowball out already in turn 1. If you can prevent them from getting Board you can Heal back. But also kill Jeeves cause otherwise he will just spam you to death.

Priest: (3-5) Second worst matchup after Aggrodecks because he can just take so much Minions from us withMindcontrol, Sylvanas Windrunner + Shadow Word:  Death[/card, [card]Shadow Madness + Recocombulator and Shadow Madness or Cabal Shadow Priest + Shrinkmeister. just play your Legendarys when you can handle them after they got taken over Otherwise just spam your Heroability and hunt him down.

Shaman: (4-1) Not really a big threat cause you can simply counter everything they have. If they don't get an amazingly good start with Taunts and Flametongue Totem or insanely high burst in lategame they won't stand a chance. We have enough Legendarys and big guys who are out of his Hexpotential. So he is forced to nuke them down with his Spells like (Crackle or Lightning Bolt which leads that he has no more damage for our face. Big Guys from him are of a manageable amount our Aldor Peacekeeper and Equalitycan deal with.

Ramp-Druid: (4-0) Well just mulligan like you play vs Zoo, because of his Innervate plays. Otherwise you can slowly build up board and trade for your favour. Lategamethreats we have are difficult to remove for Druid so just spam your Legendarys out. If you are in Savage Roar + Force of Nature reach, Taunt and heal up. Never had problems with it. 

MEch-Druid: (3-3) Can snowball heavily out of control nearly as strong as Mechmage. It's a hard matchup where you need your early draws and remove every Mech as soon as possible.

Rogue: (4-2) Hard matchup because of his potentially high amount of burst. Also you dont know what they run I saw Rogues playing Alexstrasza, Ragnaros the Firelord or Trade Prince Gallywix. Make sure he will use every Nuke he can possibly use for Face like Eviscerate for minions. Also spam ur board as early as possible so he uses a low Attack Weapon with Blade Flurry. If you allow him tostack up the Dmg on his Weapon he will deal sometimes around 14 Dmg with Hit and Blade Flurry also whiping your whole Board. Kill +1 Spelldamage as soon as you can. You can't allow him to get free damage out of it.