Hearthpwn

Hello guys, I am sharing this midrange paladin Deck which have helped me crush those cancer deck such as Secretdin, Huntard, Tempo Mage, zoolock. It is also great against control warrior, totemic shaman.

Deck Gameplan

This deck have a good balance between offense and defense. To play this deck optimally, you must know the 6 aspect of this deck.

• [Tempo Card] Shieldbot, Muster for Battle, aldor peacekeeper, Coghammer, Dr. boom.
  These are the card that you rely on to gain board control. If you are behind, dropping these card might force enemy to react to your board rather than to play the on-curve card.
  
  
• [Removal] Consecrate, Truesilver, Equality.  Aldor.
  Remember that you only have 2 consecrate. Always try to find a way to dealt with board without consecration, and only play it if you must.
  
  
• [Threat] Sylvanas, Dr.boom, Tirion, QuarterMaster, Murloc Knight.
  You only have a few threat with 2 of them weak to silence, and 1 dies to bgh. This is why you have to bait enemy silence to other minion. Dropping a knife juggler + recruit on druid's turn 4 is a good play to bait their keeper (their keeper can be dealt effortlessly with truesilver anyway). Murloc Knight is a card that can win you the game by itself, only drop it at turn 6 to trigger its inspire. However against face deck, you might want to drop it naked at turn 4 to safe yourself 4 life (force Huffer to kill it)
  
  
• [Defense] Coghammer, Belcher, Argus, Tirion.
  You have 6 taunt in this deck, always remember that. Coghammer works greatly against aggro to gain huge tempo swing, or during lategame. Even coghammering a recruit sometimes a good play to waste 2 attack from enemy.
  
  
• [Heal] Lay of Hands, Healbot, Truesilver.
  You have 24 point of heal. Using muster and coghammer early game will cost your life a lot. However, you shouldn't panic and rush to heal yourself . Sometimes its better to drop taunt and keep your life barely over lethal range. Against secret paladin, they do not have a means to instantly dealt 8 damage in a turn. So if you still have over 8 health, prioritize board control over life. Against druid, you are better of dropping 1 or 2 taunt when your hp is below 14 hp. Remember you have 6 taunt, and they only have 2 keeper. If you constantly have taunt, they cannot use their combo.
  
  
• [Flood] Muster for Battle, Shredder, Murloc Knight, Dr. boom
  Flooding is the bread and butter of this deck. You keep flooding the board with recruit, murloc, and deathrattle. Most deck only have 2 or 3 board clear (brawl, flamestrike, consec, hellfire). You have 6 flood card, which you should always play only one at the time. One murloc knight can sometimes force enemy to use hard removal on it. Mage usually give up their turn 6 to fireball murloc knight. That means you can drop Boom next turn.
  
  
• [Win Condition] Tirion, Murloc Knight, QuarterMaster
  This deck wins through overpowering enemy with board control and minion flood. Quartermaster and Murloc Knight is an amazing tool to achieve that. Tirion have different approach. Tirion win by killing 2 mid-drop and proceed to deal 15 damage to enemy face, or remove 3 more enemy. At that time, usually a 15 damage to the face is better, unless you face control warrior.

Mulligan and Matchup

[Warrior] : Outvalue them, flood board without overcommit

Warrior have a very hard time dealing with divine shield. They can clear wave of 1/1 easily, and against patron warrior, a recruit is almost always a liability. Wasting 2 mana doing nothing is sometimes better than hero powering against patron. Control warrior have 1 or 2 brawl on their deck, and only 1 minion worth silencing, Sylvanas. Warrior have a limited resources to handle you (both patron and control). Your winning gameplan is to outvalue them.

To beat warrior, the step-by step is :

1. Mulligan aggresively for Shieldbot and Truesilver (very important to deal with armorsmith & acolyte of pain).
   Always throw away Aldor, Owl, Equality, bgh, murloc knight.
   Keep muster and shredder. Warrior have a bit trouble handling shredder, and he doesn't have early drop to contest shredder (Only waraxe). 
2. Detect whether you are against Patron or Control warrior.
   if they drop loot hoarder, inner rage, gnomish inventor, its Patron.
   If they drop shieldmaiden, bash, shield slam, brawl, its Control.
3. Play the first few turns stingy, until you know which deck you face. Do not overcommit the board, unless the control warrior already use both of his brawl. Shieldbot, zombie chow, shredder and muster is good to force him to dealt with it. 
4. Never rush to lethal. Warrior have a lot of way to add armor. You will not beat them by rushing to lethal. But by outvaluing them. If they spend resources to handle your flood, they will lost inevitably. Patron can only win by flood with patron or OTK with frothing. Be hesitant to spawn token, and drop minion with more than 3 attack. Patron have a huge trouble dealt with shredder. Sometimes they are low enough before turn 8. And you dropping tirion seals the game.
5. Flood the board, but do not overcommit. This means that only use at most 2 card to flood the board. Knife Juggler + muster, or Shredder + hero power. Murloc Knight + hero power. Those card will make enemy aoe feels like it clear a lot of minion, but actually only dealt with at most 2 of your card.
6. Keep lay of hands and healbot to use it after they alextraszza your hero.
7. Secret tips : against Control warrior, a coghammered recruit is a nightmare for them.

[Druid] : aldor their big guy, taunt up from combo, bait keeper.

Druid strength comes from Innervate, Wild growth, and Darnassus Aspirant. And after turn 9 they have 14 damage combo from fon (3x 4/2 treant and 2 attack hero). They have 2 keeper for silence and 1 bgh.

To beat druid, the step by step is :

1. Mulligan aggresively for Zombie Chow, Shieldbot, Muster, Knife juggler.
   Keep aldor to counter innervate play.
2. Remove darnassus as quickly as possible.
3. Save aldor and equality to regain board control. Best target is  druid of claw 7 ancient lore
4. Play around swipe. Use muster to bait swipe (better when he use it at turn 5 for fearing turn 5 QM) if you can follow up with murloc knight + hero power.
5. Bait out their keeper. Sacrifice juggler if you have to. Without keeper, tirion became your strongest win condition. 
6. After turn 9, always think if enemy have combo (fon + roar). taunt up to protect yourself while keeping board control.

[Paladin] : bully secret pally, murloc knight for the win.

Secret Paladin is an easy task for this deck because of the fact that you can flood the board quickly and waste their secret efficiently. You also happen to have low curve to empty your hand quickly so they cannot get draw from divine favor. Against mirror match, bait out their consecrate before dropping murloc knight. Paladin cannot deal with murloc knight hiding behind taunt.

1. Mulligan aggresively for Zombie chow, shieldbot, knife jugggler, muster for battle.
   Throw away everything else, your win/lose is decided on the first 3 turn.
2. Whether you got first or second, always try to get initiative. Initiative is gained when you drop minion that cannot be handled by enemy.
3. Against secret pally, drop your hand as quickly as possible, flood the board, and remove their minion. Muster for battle and consecration is nightmare for secret pally. You however should never keep consecration during mulligan. You want to be the agressor, force them to defend. A turn 4 murloc knight is a good play against their token. It forces them to trade their whole board for it.
4. When mysterious challenger appear on turn 6. If you have BGH, aldor, or equality, you win the game. Attack with weapon (muster/coghammer), that will trigger noble sacrifice, revenge, and resurrect the 2/1. Proceed to aldor/bgh/equality buffed mysterious challenger.
5. Secret paladin lack finisher, even on low health, you shouldn't use lay of hands to prevent them for profitting with divine favor. Truesilver to enemy face sometimes is good enough heal.
6. Keep owl for tirion against mirror match.

[Mage] : silence mad scientist, force awkward flamestrike, overpower with board.

There are 5 type of Mage you usually find. MechMage, TempoMage, FreezeMage, GiantMage, DragonMage. Against MechMage, TempoMage, and DragonMage you should prioritize on board control. Freeze Mage can be handled easily since you have healbot and lay of hands to heal of alextrasza.

1. Mulligan for Zombie chow, Shieldbot, Muster, Knife Juggler, Ironbeak owl. Silence mad scientist, and pressure board.
   Keep aldor if you have no other early drop. Use it for mana wyrm/apprentice if you have to. This deck relies on tempo so much, never let you play from behind.
2. Against MechMage, always clear the mech warper first, and beware of turn 4 Goblin Blastmage which can decimate your muster dudes.
3. Murloc knight or tirion for the win. Mage is an easy matchup due to how strong your tempo card is. They cannot dealt with shieldbot muster and aldor.
4. Against Dragon Mage, keep silence for Chillmaw, truesilver for corruptor, azure, or guardian.

[Hunter] : silence mad scientist, aldor savannah. proc freezing with healbot.

Hunter is easy matchup due to many taunt and heal this deck use. Savannah can be dealth easily with aldor. The only way you can lost is when enemy got lucky with ram wrangler (or you got bad draw against face hunter. But even then you can still win).

1. Mulligan for early drop (shieldbot, juggler, muster). Keep coghammer and aldor. Coghammer is super important card to dealt with early agression. Keep healbot if you have early drop, even if you don't it might still reasonable to hold him.
2. Owl mad scientist.
3. If they have freezing trap, try to make freezing bounce healbot back. Or at least force them to trade into healbot.
4. Aldor their misha if you have no way to quickly kill it.
5. Pray their ram wrangler doesn't result in super strong beast. Getting a 4 mana beast is still okay-ish.
6. DO NOT play around unleash the hound. You have to flood the board, and they only have 2 unleash anyway. The only reason you want to play around it is if you have low health and avoiding lethal.

[Warlock] : clear zoolock, equality handlock

Warlock is a bit hard to dealt with, because they have a lot of threat, and they flood quicker than us. Voidcaller is very hard to dealt with without aldor or bgh. 

1. Mulligan for standard drop (chow, shieldbot, muster, juggler).
   Always Keep aldor and owl. Against handlock owl is important to get rid of twilight drake. Against aggro, owl is important to prevent void caller from dropping doomguard.
2. Against handlock, save equality for double molten + taunt. Only drop their health to below 13 if you already have equality in hand.
3. Against handlock, be stingy of your resource to prevent hellfire clear. Murloc knight however can survive hellfire, and can give trouble to handlock.
4. Jaraxxus is your weakness, because you don't have any weapon removal, you have to taunt up and rush his face to render his weapon useless.
5. If they drop void caller and you doesn't have owl, aldor, or bgh in hand, do not play minion with more than 3 attack. make sure you kill voidcaller on your turn, not on enemy turn.

[Shaman] : clear totem, keep minion over 3 health.

Shaman is an easy matchup for this deck, unless they summon totem golem from tuskarr totemic, you should be fine.

1. Mulligan for standard drop.
2. Play around lightning storm and fire elemental.
3. Priotitize killing totem before enemy weak drop when you are after turn 7.
4. doomhammer can be easily dealt with taunt with 3 or more health. Argus minion which will force 2 weapon charge on a single minion.
5. Al-akir is equivalent to insect against this deck. Just ignore him.

[Rogue] : play around sap, argus and coghammer is your mvp.

Rogue is a good matchup for this deck if you know what you are doing. Oil Rogue only have 1 win condition against this deck. Oil combo + blade flurry. Because rogue only have 2 blade flurry, if you can force her to use one of it during early game or midgame (to clear shredder or murloc knight), you are bound to win.

Your winning gameplan is to flood repeatedly that rogue have a hard time clearing you. While at the same time always keep yourself from comboed by oil + flurry. This can be done by putting 2 small taunt, medium taunt which eats 2 hit.

1. Standard Mulligan.
   Throw away aldor and bgh. You will ned aldor later on.
   Keep shredder, because rogue have a hard time dealing with it.
2. Bait out their blade flurry, with shredder, murloc knight, buffed recruit. Without blade flurry he can't win. You have a LOT of way to flood the board while rogue only have 2 board clear (4 with fan of knives, but fok is weak).
3. Flood the board, but always ready to re-flood it when wiped. After using her first blade flurry, if you flood board again, rogue is almost guaranted to lost.
4. Watch out for Turn2 coin + SI-agent. Do not drop your juggler naked on turn 2. 
5. Aldor their loatheb or azure drake.
6. Play around sap. You are better of taunting 2 medium minion than 1 big one. coghammer is a pain for rogue to dealt with, so does argusing 2 minion. That way she cannot oil + hit your face and flurry, she is forced to flurry your minion only.
7. Only play tirion after he use both sap, or he have no way to do combo. You can sometimes drop tirion to force her use sap when you have upper board (you already have another taunt, dropping tirion is okay.)
8. Sylvanas is less valuable here, do not hold her too long. Play it just for the body is okay.

[Priest] : early Coghammer play, or equality clear.

Priest is the hardest matchup for this deck, especially Dragon priest. A velen-ed wyrmrest agent or twilight guardian is pretty much your lost. Against Dragon Priest, your best bet is coghammer your early game.

1. Mulligan hard for chow, shieldbot, coghammer.
   Keep equality, shredder and truesilver in your hand.
   Throw away muster for battle
2. Against priest, the game is winnable through 2 way : first, is by coghammer your shieldbot (after lost its shield), chow, and removing their wyrmrest agent, twilight whelp, or cleric. The second way is by letting him play on curve their minion and then equality consec at turn 6. (Priest doesnt have burst damage and you have 2 heal, so letting him hit you is okay. Ofc you need to throw some minion to reduce damage)
3. During lategame, play around shrinkmeister + cabal. It is harder to say than to do. Never drop belcher without an answer to stolen belcher. 
4. After turn 6, do not drop your shieldbot without argusing it. A stolen shieldbot spells big trouble.
5. Pray you got good draw. This matchup is very hard to win.

Card Replacement

The deck have some epic and legendary, so you might need to replace few of them. Below are a guide to replace card in here. Note that you should replace card with another card with similar purpose.

• Lay on Hands : its role in this deck is as both heal and draw, which no other card can fulfill. The most suitable replacement is Guardian of Kings for more heal.
  However if you find draw is more important than heal, you can instead replace it with Solemn Vigil. Getting 0 mana 2 card draw is amazing value. And with a lot of token, its not that hard to achieve.
  
  
• Coghammer : its role in this deck is a protection. You can replace it with second Defender of Argus. With second argus you can freely taunt up yup muster dude at turn 4.
  
  
• Big Game Hunter : his role is removal. so its replacement is of course second Equality
  
  
• Quartermaster : well, he is a unique card, and nothing can actually replace him. However Defender of Argus or Warhorse Trainer is a suitable replacement.
  
  
• Sylvanas Windrunner : also another important card. Sylvanas is a tool to fight warrior and druid. You can replace it with Loatheb for druid, or Harrison Jones for warrior. Other suitable replacement is Justicar Trueheart only if you bring along quartermaster, otherwise a second Equality or Eadric the Pure is also fine. Mind Control Tech can be a budget replacement, although your playstyle will be very different.
  
  
• Dr. Boom : Boom is not a must in this deck. It is here for tempo, and because it have goo synergy to knife juggler and equality. You can replace it with Justicar Trueheart or second Quartermaster

• Tirion Fordring : Without tirion you didn't have a solid win condition. However, you can play Sunwalker instead. Note that the lack of 5/3 weapon is a very big deal. If you want a stronger option and feels that sunwalker is bad, you can replace it with Kel'Thuzad only IF you play 2 belcher along (if you replace one belcher, do not play kel). With kelthuzad in your deck, you will want to drop it with either belcher or murloc knight alive on board (Note : belcher is more important to resurrect because of double taunt). 

Adapting to Meta

If you face a lot of aggro, you might want to consider. +1 Zombie chow, +1 coghammer, -1 murloc knight, -1 bgh/sludge belcher.

If you face a lot of control, you might want to consider. +1 Equality, -1 Knife Juggler

 If you face a lot of face deck, you might want to consider. +1healbot, -1 sylvanas (also with change for aggro)

Frequently Asked Question (FAQ)

• Why use healbot when you can use Tuskarr Jouster instead?
  I have tried tuskarr jouster during the initial testing process, and found out that his heal is unreliable because this dekc runs a lot of low cost minion too. And given the fact that we will take a lot of face damage for using muster and coghammer, the heal is important even against control deck. So I switch it back to healbot.
  
  If you find tuskarr jouster working for you, then go ahead. It is a better but risky healbot.
  
  
• Why only use 1 zombie chow, isn't playing 2 chow better?
  This deck is very tight, given that we need to handle both aggro, midrange, and control. Paying 2 chow will make drawing it during early game more consistent. However it weakens midrange and control matchup so much, that you will miss a lot of lethal because of it.
  Another reason is because this deck can still work even without chow, due to how powerful shieldbot and muster for battle is. Even when you didn't get chow in-time, you won't lose terribly.
  
  
• Why only use 1 equality ?
  This is what troubles me currently. I really want to play a second equality. However, there is simply no slot that can be sacrificed for it. Holding equality in your hand means you play responsive, which you should not do with this deck. You should be the one who hold the initiative and keep pressuring enemy, not responding enemy threat.
  But still, equality is that good and I still find a way to fit it into this deck. But currently there is no slot for the second equality.
  
  
• I need more card draw. Lay of Hands alone is not enough for me.
  This deck have less draw compared to other deck (druid, warrior, mage). However, Lay of Hands alone is enough as card draw. This is because you have so much resources with few cards. Murloc Knight is at minimum two body. Muster is 3 body. Shieldbot is considered as 2 body (divine shield eats one), shredder is 2 body.
  
  As long as you try to hero power often, and not let more than 2 of your card get Aoe-ed, you should have enough card to fight enemy. If things get hard, do not trade 3 of your minion into enemy 1. Let them trade your dude and spent their turn to do so for fear of QM while you chip away their health. There is always an exception, for example when you suicide 3 dude into knife juggler, because otherwise it would get juggled for free.
  
  However, against enemy shredder, hitting their face usually is a better play, because even a 1/1 dude give small threat in a form of next turn Quartermaster
  
  

Update

• Changes 18-Sep-2015 : -1 BGH, +1 equality. I find that bgh is a dead card against aggro, priest, and druid. It is good against handlock and warrior. But against those, equality is far better (so you can clear twice). And equality is a key to fight priest.
  
  
• Changes 5-Des-2015 : -1 Equality, -1 Sylvanas, -1 Defender of Argus, -1 Knife Juggler, +2 keeper of uldaman, +1 Justicar trueheart, +1 quartermaster. Keeper of  uldaman is a great card, it make us no longer reliant on second equality. Also with the meta slowing down, argus is no longer needed. And justicar proves to be better than sylvanas, as your win condition. With justicar added, a second quartermaster is also required.