Hearthpwn

Intro

Who am I? Kill -9! I finally hit legend this season with this deck for the first time. I have been playing since beta. I played this deck all the way from rank 12 with some tweaking. First I have to thank my mentor HermiesL for his guidance and support. The credit of the deck goes to Jayt0nic. I got the original deck list from his Twitch channel: www.twitch.tv/jayt0nic

Proof of Legend

 Deck History

I started off using the aggro secret paladin. The problem I had is that it relied too much on getting the divine favors once you run out of steam. Most aggro versions lack weapon removal and reach. This deck is more consistent and doesn’t rely on draw. With the release of the new expansion, people are still having difficulty playing around paladin secrets. The best way of learning how to deal with a secret paladin is to play one. Now is the time to take advantage of the meta.

The key to playing this deck successfully is knowing when to control the board and knowing when to go face. It plays a lot like midrange hunter. If you haven’t read “How to hit Legend in Hearthstone Guide by Zhandaly” I would strongly recommend doing so.

Initially the list had had two Haunted Creeper, two Coghammer and one Truesilver Champion. I only had one Coghammer and replaced it for a second Truesilver Champion. In many cases I found a second Haunted Creeper being not so good late game. I replaced one with a Divine Favor. The problem with all the aggro is it wasn't worth it for the draw and only good in some cases when you're really behind in control match ups. Very rarely did this card win the game for me. At rank 1, I was encountering a lot of weapon classes and removed the Divine Favor for Acidic Swamp Ooze. In non-weapon classes it's still a 3/2 body and combos great with Avenge. However, destroying your opponent's  weapon early on can give you the advantage to win.

How to play this deck

Regardless of the match up I always kept Mysterious Challenger (Dr. Six) on the mulligan. You want to play him on turn six preferably with at least one minion on the field. You want to control the board and not over extend. Depending on the match up you want to bait your opponent into using AOE and removal. This way they will have a tougher time trying to remove Dr. Six and your buffed minions. If you have coin and board control it's perfectly fine to drop Dr. Six on turn five. The important thing is to use weapons mainly for face damage when you know that you can push lethal in one to two turns or if there is no other better play. You almost always want to use your weapons to remove your opponent's minions to keep yours alive. In some cases you may need to go face with a Truesilver Champion to gain life to stay above lethal.

Having board control doesn't necessarily mean you need to clear every single minion. Be careful with dragon priest and paladin as they can buff up their minions quickly to get back board control. At some point mid game you need to go face with your buffed minions. When you're ahead, make your opponent trade. Sometimes this happens early on and other times not until mid game. However, you need to thoroughly think and make sure your opponent has a small chance each turn to gain board control.  Much of the time you will run low or out of cards. This is fine as long as you have control and it plays around Divine Favor and punishes other secret paladin decks. However, if you have lost board control and run out of cards, in most cases you have lost the match. I have won a lot of games by top decking a Blessing of Kings or Truesilver Champion. That's because I was positioned with board control and pushing lethal.  With every turn, you want to constantly be thinking about how you can push for lethal while maintaining board control. You can look at HearthStats to see what I faced in my climb.

Gameplay video by Khristophesaurus

Key Card Explanations

Why only one Competitive Spirit? A second one is often a dead card and you mainly get value from having 2+ minions on the board.

Why only one Repentance and Redemption? There is no room for a second one. However, playing Repentance at the right time can get you through a big taunt to a remove a high stat minion.

Secretkeeper can quickly spiral out of control and prevent your opponent from playing secrets. She is often the MVP of this deck. Even if you don't have any secrets to play with her on the board, the threat alone will draw out removal.

Mysterious Challenger aka Dr. Six is a key card to wining match ups. Not only does your opponent have to play around the secrets, he is a solid 6/6 body. He is not replaceable and is a key card to this deck. You need two of them for the chance of getting one by turn six.

Loatheb is great to protect your board from AOE. Get a sticky minion on the field before turn six or to stop a mage from lethal. He is not replaceable and most of the time no one suspects you of running it.

Tirion Fordring has won me so many games. He is not replaceable and if you're serious about playing paladin, he is a staple in many paladin decks. He is needed to regain board control and some times push lethal for the late game. Most of the time no one suspects that you're running him.

Why only one Consecration? When you need it, it can help you win aggro match ups.  It is not good most of the time for VS control. Having a second one can be a dead card most of the time. This is the same reason no Equality is in the deck.

Knife Juggler Never play him alone if you can help it, unless you have two of them in your hand. Always try to get value even if it's just one juggle.

Dr. Boom Used to gain board control, push for lethal, or crush while you're ahead. He is not replaceable and I have won many games with him alone.

 Mulligan Guide

Always keep Mysterious Challenger, any 1-2 drops and one Muster for Battler. If you have 2 drop or Secretkeeper keep Avenge or Nobile Sacrefice. Never be greedy and keep more than one secret. If they remove your Secretkeeper and you have invested all other cards into secrets, you will lose the game. I also almost always keepCoghammer as long as I had another 1-2 drop minion.

Versus aggro, you want to keep Consecration. Always keep one Muster for Battle as this is often how to get board control and bait out an AOE.

Versus Control, you want to get a 1-2 drop, weapon or Blessing of Kings or even a Piloted Shredder. You always want to be thinking of how to get through their taunts. When facing a weapon class, I always keep Acidic Swamp Ooze.