Hearthpwn

This is a deck that I've been experimenting with that has been doing fairly well so far. The idea of the deck is to generate enough value to mitigate early game aggro decks while being able to develop a board state robust enough to handle Old God control decks and turn the game around for the win.

Card Choices

Nerubian Prophet: This card is an excellent source of value and tempo. You should always be happy to see this in your opening hand because a 3-mana 4/4 is excellent for establishing board control. The statline is difficult to deal with early, baiting your opponents to burn premium removal on the Prophet instead of your later value cards. Even if you don't draw the Prophet early, 4/4 is still a sizeable body and is great at re-establishing tempo at a discount when you have to board clear later on.

Disciple of C'Thun: This card is great value even without playing a C'thun deck. Mulligan for this if you need early removal and board presence.

Spellbreaker: With the nerf to Owl, this is our most reasonable Silence option.

A Light in the Darkness: The Discover mechanic plays into the toolbox nature of our deck. Use this if you have free mana or need an answer that your current hand doesn't provide.

Selfless Hero: A more offensive version of the old 1-mana stand-in, Argent Squire, Selfless Hero is also better at generating value if you can stick it while another minion is on the board. It is often the incorrect play to drop this on the board on turn 1, because its value is just so high when it can stick the deathrattle effect.

Sword of Justice: While weak as a tempo weapon, the SoJ functions excellently as a value generator. Drop this before playing your Disciple, Hero or Keeper to get back early game board control easily.

Stand Against Darkness: While clearly no replacement for the old Muster for Battle, Stand Against Darkness has performed fairly well in Standard testing. Dropping it demands your opponent to burn AoE removal to get rid of all the bodies or risk your dudes getting buffed or bubbled, which is pretty good. It also is one of your ways of instantly generating a large board after a wipe.

Big Game Hunter: Yup, it's nerfed. Yup, it's still good.

Bolf Ramshield: Finally, this guy has a purpose! Bolf serves as a proactive Reno versus C'thun battlecries and fatigue/mill decks. Your hero will be entirely protected from C'thun damage while Bolf is on the field, making it a much simpler task to have the fun in your sights if your opponent still decides to play the C'thun without getting rid of Bolf first.

Scaled Nightmare: With its large amount of health, this guy can typically survive two turns, which is more than enough to threaten lethality with Kings/Champion and the like. You can also protect it fairly well with the other cards in the deck.

Kodorider: This card is one of your late game value threats. Use this to bait removal or re-establish board presence.

Ragnaros, Lightlord: While the good Doctor might no longer be with us, we have Ragnaros's twisted counterpart to keep us company in his place. Even better, the new Ragnaros plays better with Faceless Manipulator. Dropping this when you need the health will make you resilient against Old God lethals. Also, three Ragnaros's on the board is pretty difficult to deal with, especially with Lightbomb out of the picture. 

Mulligan Guide

In general, you should be fine just hero powering on turn 2 because of your suite of midgame removal. However, you can usually drop an early Ooze or Farseer if you must. No matter the matchup, you should always try to keep Nerubian Prophet in your starting hand, as an early Prophet can set the board tempo in your direction and keep it that way. As usual, try to mulligan based on your opponent's class--a warrior will demand less of an immediate board presence from you than a shaman or hunter and your mulligan choices should reflect that.

 

Notable Replacements

The Black Knight: The answer you need in a Vek'lor dominated meta.

Sylvanas Windrunner: Always good in control matchups. Likely replacement: Kodorider.

Cult Master/Acolyte of Pain/Solemn Vigil: Your draw options. As a paladin, lots of your gameplay revolves around your minions, making Cult Master and Vigil particularly attractive. Likely replacement: Farseer/Argus.

Mind Control Tech: Vs. aggressive game states.  Likely replacement: Farseer/Argus.

Hogger, Doom of Elwynn: Can replace Bolf as your tech against C'thun battlecry. Does not perform as well as Bolf against fatigue/mill matchups.

Nexus-Champion Saraad: Your alternative for generating long term value, particularly if you feel the deck needs more utility options rather than board presence. Likely replacement: Kodorider.

Faceless Shambler/Cyclopian Horror/Sen'jin Shieldmasta/Psych-o-Tron: Your midrange taunt options. Psych-o-Tron in particular seems to perform pretty similarly to Sludge Belcher despite the 1 less health.

Refreshment Vendor/Cult Apothecary: Your additional healing options.

 

I hope you enjoy this deck! Let me know what you think in the comments below.