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[Legend S12] Holier than Thou

  • Last updated Mar 21, 2015 (Undertaker Nerf)
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Wild

  • 21 Minions
  • 7 Spells
  • 2 Weapons
  • Deck Type: Ranked Deck
  • Deck Archetype: Unknown
  • Crafting Cost: 8560
  • Dust Needed: Loading Collection
  • Created: 3/18/2015 (Undertaker Nerf)
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  • Battle Tag:

    LeChuck#21794

  • Region:

    EU

  • Total Deck Rating

    67

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1. Win Ratio and Matchups

In general you can keep a positive win ratio with this. Its better matchup is by far against Control Warrior, while its worst matchup is against Oil Rogue. The rest of the matchups are 50-50 and getting better with the experience you get with the deck. It’s a board control deck, and it relies on minions to do the work, this means that you have to practice good board trading and expect stuff from your opponent.

Laddering can be frustrating with this, since most games are longer than 10 minutes, and you can randomly lose by explosive starts or bad hands. Definitely such lists work better in rank 5 and up where there are no winning streak bonuses and you just go game by game, needing a solid list that can always perform.

2. Strategy-Mulligans

Druid:

Keep Aldor Peacekeeper, Truesilver Champion , Earthen Ring Farseer. Muster for Battle is perfectly acceptable early to fish for a Swipe. Your plan is to end the game late, after stabilizing the board and staying above 14.Guardian of Kings, unlike healbots can't be dealt from boardless Druids so use them wisely.

Hunter:

One of the most popular decks around. The matchup is slightly favorable depending on the amount of early Huffers that you are going to get hit by. In general relying on Muster for battle is bad news, because a Juggler + Unleash the hounds is usually overwhelming afterwards. Try to keep a clean board, and taunt up before you Muster. Face oriented variants run Explosive traps, midrange variants run Freezing traps. Take advantage of the latter and return Farseers/Guardians to your hand. It's a good matchup and the reason that midrange-control Paladin is so popular right now. Of course expect sometimes to get facerolled by the amount of damage they are able to put up initially. Accept it and move to the next game.

 Mage (Mech):

All early drops are fine. You have to contest him up to turn 3. If you manage to leave NO mech on turn 3 then you pretty much won. Don't drop Zombie Chow after turn 3, instead wait for the Mirror Image. If you fail to avoid Blastmage on 4, then you need a hard reset and back to back taunts to keep people away from your life total.

Mage (Frost):

Keep track of the early removal, namely Frostbolts. Your win conditions here are your weapons, so keep track of your life total and know that he can't deal 30 points of damage if Archmage Antonidas is not involved in the equation. Pressure early and ask aggressively for the right cards, if he fails to find Frost Nova/Doomsayer or Fireblast then it's in your favor. Also, if you get caught in a nova/Doomsayer situation with Tirion Fordring in hand, I'd suggest throwing him in, in order to get the Ashbringer...otherwise you're probably feeding his Polymorphs.

Rogue:

Mulligan for a good-mana-curve hand. Don't just throw Juggler out in turn 2, it's better to leave him for an equality/Muster clear. Shielded Minibots,Earthen Ring Farseers and Recruits are enough to keep him busy early on. You need to get to the midgame and bring stuff that he can't deal in other way but Sapping. That's the most difficult matchup, but with a bit of training you won't be facing an autoloss. Needless to say that Shieldmasters over Shredders shine here. I used to have Loatheb over Ragnaros, and although Loatheb can be sealing a game against Rogue I found a Ragnaros more effective against the rest of the matchups. Feel free to add Loatheb back if you think it's better. Keep in mind that he has an easy time dealing with early stuff, but he needs board and cards to deal with bigger people. 

Shaman:

Mulligan for early drops and Consecration and keep the flow of Recruits constant. Shamans struggle against such lists because the Lightning storm isn't always enough to deal with your board. In general it's a favorable matchup, but you have to play the board-trading game flawlessly. More techy Shamans include Harrison Jones for the Paladin matchup, so have this in mind...Usually if you deny them their board with a Consecration or Equality shenanigans they hardly have anything to threat you with. 

 

Paladin:

The mirror is quite easy to understand. It's as easy as 'the one that utilises their Recruits better, wins'. Keep early Muster, Consecrations, Minibots, Chows, Jugglers....you name it. This list runs more healing (and more equalities) than the typical list so if you lose board control, you must aim for the reset and go Guardian+big people. It's a total coin-flip and whoever gets the best draws wins.

 

Priest:

That's a tough matchup for the paladin, due to the number of ways that the priest can clear the board, along with the dreaded Northshire Cleric start. Try to get a Juggler, Farseer or Truesilver at hand just to counter the cleric 1st turn. It's perfectly acceptable to throw a Peacekeeper to Injured Blademaster's face just to keep up with the board. Needless to say that this matchup is won by a timely Equality Consecration and most of the times I've won, I've gone in the fatique zone. Certainly NOT a matchup that you want to run in the ladder.

Warrior:

By far the best matchup, and fortunately you will be seeing more and more of them in the ladder. My win ratio against Warriors is almost flawless, and the only way you can lose is by getting a horrible hand, or him getting super lucky with early drops and chain damage ending with a Grommash to the face for the win. In general ignore their armor, even if it means you tank Armorsmiths for the whole early game, and focus on stopping their late game threats. Keep a heal and Aldor/BGH for Alexstasza's turn. Usually if you manage to go through Alexstraszas's turn with 20+ health and a dead dragon, you just won.

 

Warlock (Handlock):

They are rare those days but they are always around. When I was running Ironbeak Owl, the matchup was easier due to negating early Twilight Drakes and late taunts, but generally 2 Equalities, 2 Aldors, Sylvanas and a BGH are enough. Keep the pressure up, and always check their life total. At 15, pause for a while and check if you can deal with a chain Giant/Taunt play. If you can go face, if you can't stall for a bit until you draw Equalities and such.

Warlock (Zoo):

 You got all the right tools to battle this. It's a fairly straightforward matchup that it can only get bad if they hit you with a lucky Implosion+Juggler, or if you are dealt with a horrible hand. Other than that, you got Taunts and heals to keep in the board trading game, and you can seal the game by turn 6 and on if you manage to gain board control. Sometimes your hands are good enough to be faster than the Zoo especially if you deny them early presence. 

 

3. On budget?

Probably if you are on a budget lists like this or Warrior Control seem like dust heavy (and they can get even heavier). Since we are talking about control, most of its firepower comes from the big hitters. Some of the 6 drops can be replaced by Sunwalkers, but don’t search for replacement for Tirion or Dr. Boom. My point of view is that if you run on a budget or you are f2p player focus on faster lists (Aggro paladin is amazing fun) or budget decks (there are many, strong decks in the low budget range). 

4. Substitutions and additions

  •  Loatheb is obviously amazing. He goes in and out of my deck a lot, and he has won some games on its own. But then again almost any of the Legendaries can do this. Loatheb’s slot is now taken from Ragnaros the Firelord, and I will keep running him for the future games since he has performed rather well.
  • A second Quartermaster is also working. It means that you are looking for ending a game with QuarterMustering, which is fine. However keep in mind that you are in for some really bad hands if two Quartermasters get stuck. I’ve ran the list with 2 Quartermasters and it was OK, but dropping one didn’t seem to hurt the performance.
  • I ran rank 16 to legend with a single Ironbeak Owl. It was fine, obviously because you will always find a target, preferably Sylvanas. I swapped the Ironbeak for a 2nd Equality and I don’t miss it.
  • Antique Healbot vs Guardian of Kings. It’s a tough one. I am in favour of the Guardian though, due to the huge body difference. +8 health 2 turns earlier is amazing, but a 3/3 is very weak. I went for Guardian and I also included Earthen Ring Farseers for the earlier heal and board presence, kind of making up for the loss of Healbot. Guardian of Kings after a board reset or full trade IS a real threat.

Future plans include the testing of Seal of Light, because I find it TOO important to be able to clear Violet Teacher with just one blow of Truesilver Champion. So I'd probably find some room for it and see how it goes. I will be revisiting the list with the inclusion of a Silence if I see that I totally miss it. 

 

Thanks for reading.