Divine Aggro (84% WR to legend)
- Last updated May 4, 2016 (Old Gods)
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Wild
- 18 Minions
- 8 Spells
- 4 Weapons
- Deck Type: Ranked Deck
- Deck Archetype: Aggro Paladin
- Crafting Cost: 1880
- Dust Needed: Loading Collection
- Created: 4/28/2016 (Old Gods)
- sixenm
- Registered User
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- 5
- 7
- 22
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Battle Tag:
sixenm#1730
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Region:
US
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Total Deck Rating
876
Introduction:
This is at the core an aggessive oriented paladin deck revolving around the cards Steward of Darkshire and Rallying Blade. It very much plays out similar to a zoo deck using efficient spells and reloading with Divine Favor.
The name of the deck may be divine aggro (as i was uncreative originally) but the deck is all about board control (like zoo is) if you're able to seize the board, you can easily win in a turn or two with the buffs.
How to Play:
The key to playing this deck successfully is to always keep board control utilizing the buffs such as Abusive Sergeant along with with divine shield minions such as Argent Squire and Argent Protector to get amazing trades vs opponents early minions. When the opponent is within range of a 2 turn lethal, its best to switch to face and only deal with the more annoying minions while ignoring large minions that cant do much on their own.
The hugest tempo swings come in the form of using buffs like Blessing of Kings and Keeper of Uldaman on divine shield minions and trading while maintaining the new large bodied minion. Rallying Blade played on a board of a few divine shield minions also spells game over for non-rouge opponents as the weapon itself serves to protect the divine shields so damage-based board clears have little effect.
If you have multiple weapons in hand don't be afraid to play one on an empty board and go face (Truesilver Champion should be played over Rallying Blade in this scenario). During the late-game it is important to note that your cards cost 5 or less and the only important card you could theoretically top-deck is a divine favor, so you should hold onto your weapons to surprise them until you need to push damage or kill a minion.
This deck can come from behind just as well as it can play from in front. If your first few turns are spent hero powering and the board remains empty you are in a very good position. Forcing out resources from opponents for your low cost minions and transitioning into aggro can be done within a turn. Any of your small minions can become large threats that your opponent must deal with at any point which is the hidden power behind the deck (I've had priest players using Shadow Word: Death on a 5/1 Selfless Hero).
(Disclaimer: this is quite a rushed video in my point of view playing out the deck, i realize the sound quality is quite poor during gameplay and i do tend to ramble on when it comes to some of the decision making, even over-thinking at times, but if anything this does show how sub-optimal hands can win games and the staying power of the deck in general. Sorry no stomps recorded)
The Mulligan:
Always mulligan for your 1 drop minions, it is the most important part of the deck to play either an Argent Squire or a Selfless Hero on turn one, if you can't mull into those, playing a naked Abusive Sergeant isn't the end of the world. By playing these minions on turn one you can abuse the Argent Protector and Abusive Sergeant fully to gain board control and to begin to spiral out of control.
The mulligan and guides for all the classes:
Druid: Keep one Keeper of Uldaman if your hand already has other one drop minions and a curve as the card provides the largest tempo swing later in the game vs druids. Try not to over extend with 1 health minions into Swipe, trading them off where appropriate. If you see early wraths, playing a Steward of Darkshire that is unanswered forces the druid to commit too many resources to your board, which should see you out the game. Added one Equality to help improve this match-up slightly, try to save it to deal with multiple big treats such as Twin Emperor Vek'lor or Klaxxi Amber-Weaver. Druids have insanely hard time dealing with an early Blood Knight and Blessing of Kings, so keep that in mind when playing the match-up.
Shaman: You need the Abusive Sergeant to deal with Tunnel Trogg after that the match-up is one of the easiest. Feral Spirit are easy to deal with Rallying Blade and you should be ahead in board and life by the time the Doomhammer comes out (providing an early Tunnel Trogg didn't survive). If you're able to Aldor Peacekeeper the Flamewreathed Faceless you basically win the game.
Paladin: It is super important to keep or mulligan for Argent Squire specifically as it usually dictates the early board game. If faced with a N'Zoth, the Corruptor Paladin the match-up is unfavorable due to the infinite board clears and healing, try to make a few large minions as opposed to lots of small ones and sandbag Blood Knight for the tirion if it gets to that stage.
Mage: Same mulligan for shaman if its a Tempo Mage deck, if you can deal with their early Mana Wyrm the match-up becomes much easier. Yes there are going to be insane Flamewaker turns where the opponent wipes the board while using 3/4 cards, but the waker is easily dealt with weapons and your opponent would have committed multiple cards to kill multiple dudes. Against Freeze Mage, keep Divine Favor as it usually draws 5+ cards and swings the game back into your favor when they play the Frost Nova and Doomsayer turn.
Warrior: Try to mulligan for Argent Squire and Bilefin Tidehunter as the main form that the warrior is going to try and deal with your minions early game is weapons. Also do not over extend yourself into whirlwind situations, its best to prioritize keeping the divine shields on 1-health minions. Save Blessing of Kings and Keeper of Uldaman to deal with big taunts and DO NOT prioritize divine shielding damaged minions compared to an undamaged minion. Patron warrior has proven to be the worst match-up overall for the deck, having 4+ Whirlwinds, Armorsmith and a lot of cheap 1 damage spells, but the match-up is winnable with correctly timed use of both Blessing of Kings and your weapons
Hunter: Another easy matchup, Argent Squire and Selfless Hero trade very well early, don't overthink when playing into Fiery Bat and Huge Toad as the board is usually in your favor. Truesilver Champion is mainly used to go face in this match-up, while it is best to start ignoring the Savannah Highmane by either telling it to follow the rules (Aldor Peacekeeper) or flooding.
Priest: Most current priest decks are too slow to deal with your decent draws, mulligan to the cards listed in the overall mulligan and around turn 4/5 start to prioritize divine shields and 3/4+ health on minions as Holy Nova and Excavated Evil become a thing. A lot of questions were asked in the case of dragon priest and their early 2/4 taunt. Trading into a 2/4 on turn 2 isn't the hardest thing for the deck to accomplish, having a 2/1 minion stick on turn 1 and using Abusive Sergeant gets past almost all of these scenarios, and if that isn't a possibility then using a coin or on curve weapon deals with the problem easily too.
Warlock: Whether it is C'Thun or zoo, it is important to have a body on turn 1 to trade profitably into the Voidwalker or a coin turn 2 Imp Gang Boss. If your hand allows you to keep Consecration do so as it clears the Forbidden Ritual and Knife Juggler. To deal with an early Darkshire Councilman play your 3 mana minions early even if they don't provide huge value, getting damage on it early turns it from a huge threat to a 3/2.
Rouge: One of the harder match-ups if its a Yogg-Saron, Hope's End /Miracle Rouge as the tempo generated by their Backstab and SI:7 Agent paired with Fan of Knives (which is by far the best clear vs this deck as the board is not usually set until turn 4) is quite hard to come back from. Try to mulligan for Argent Protector and don't be scared to play a Selfless Hero or Abusive Sergeant turn 1 on the play, as them wasting a coin to hero power limits their combo potential greatly. If it is a C'Thun rouge then the match-up is still not favored but much more winnable.
The Power Plays:
This deck offers a few power play situations that start the snowball going which make it super difficult for the opponent to come back from given their class, I've listed the main power plays below:
Selfless Hero: Choosing the divine shield target for selfless hero comes up not too often but can be a big deal. If you're able to land it on a Steward of Darkshire on turn 3 it creates a huge tempo swing in your favor as the opponent needs to remove that card unless they want to be dealing with 2 new divine shield minions next turn.
Steward of Darkshire + Bilefin Tidehunter: If the board presents itself for this opportunity on turn 4/5, you can gain a lot of stability and sticky minions on the board that can protect the steward leading to more degenerate things next turn.
Rallying Blade: The thing with this card is that it is good on its own, 3 attack weapons are in a decent spot since the expansion, taking out Beckoner of Evil, Feral Spirit, SI:7 Agent, Acolyte of Pain and many more. When able to be combed with one or even 2 divine shields (turn 6 with Argent Horserider or turn 3 prior to an Argent Protector) is a game winning play.
Keeper of Uldaman: As we should all be familiar with, Uldaman taking a bunch of stats of a Dark Arakkoa or any other large minion, or even buffing an Argent Squire is enough to throw up a little at the value generated.
The Card Choices:
Consecration: The reason there is such a reactive card in the list is it is so good against certain match-ups that playing it in a timely manner is usually the match. It also does 2 points of damage to the face if you need those last few points of reach. Also allows your buff-less divine shield minions to make profitable trades on clogged boards.
Blood Knight: Since there are little to no silences running around and against the mirror this card gets the nod, playing it against a druid early usually translates to a lot of face damage and taking off opposing shields from the likes of C'Thun's Chosen usually is a game winning tempo swing.
Aldor Peacekeeper: The reason that one is in the deck is against taunt-less large minions, at this stage its better to ignore those large minions and transition to face, providing a large tempo swing that allows you to close out the game in a timely manner. Also the main reason for this is against shaman's Flamewreathed Faceless as many people were asking, as well as providing a lot of long game value.
Stand Against Darkness: One copy is in the deck for the sick interaction with Steward of Darkshire. Usually played after the oppoent has used a board clear to again challenge their life total, and if played with the stweard, makes Rallying Blade a game ending play. This is the control winning card, as it provides too many bodies for a control deck to deal with so you can play your stranded buff cards.
Seal of Champions: One seal is in the deck to gain tempo and board control early as well as providing a bit of burst towards the end of the game. Using this against Warriors, Priests and Shamans is dirty as they then are forced into a position to trade their premium removal on a 4/1 dude.
Notable Omissions:
Cult Master: I tried the card out and it proved to be too slow or do nothing when the board was just wiped. Drawing cards is nice but usually your minions aren't trading because of your divine shields and buffs.
Worgen Infiltrator and Twisted Worgen: These cards only really have synergy with Steward of Darkshire which isn't enough as alone they make poor trades and the steward isn't usually played early.
Wolfrider: Again alone it only has synergy with Steward of Darkshire so i opted to go for the Argent Horserider as having divine shield itself has a lot more synergy with Rallying Blade and Blessing of Kings toward the late game.
Knife Juggler: All the minions in the deck that are 1 or 2 drops either have/give divine shields or buffs or have multiple bodies. The key to this deck is sticking a body or 2 on the board to abuse the extra buffs and shields when it reaches midgame.
Sea Giant and Gormok the Impaler: There was a variation of the deck that tried out these cards but during the game play, i found that keeping divine shields on minions and trading off smaller bodies that don't have divine shield lead to more snowball opportunities, thus i cut the two cards and the deck was more fluid.
Leeroy Jenkins: This deck does close out games well, but that is not exactly what the deck is looking for. With the staying power, if you were able to run multiples of this card comparable to Doomguard then the card would go up in value so much. As it stands it is too inconsistent vs the whole field to really warrant a spot, as well as being dead in the hand for Divine Favor most of the time.
Currently under consideration:
Justicar Trueheart: The card is insane vs any midrange and control but folds to aggro, not sure how to fit this card in at the moment but moving things around to see how they go.
Tirion Fordring: In the same place as Justicar, but has a different angle of attack in attempts of closing out a game, would rank this second at the moment to Justicar.
My record with the deck:
I played with variations of this deck originally around rank 5 but took this card of card list from rank 4 to rank 1 with a score of 15-0 destroying all the face shamans and c'thun decks.
then on from rank 1 to legend with a score of 11-5 along the way facing 4 rouges but still winning 2 of them. Also currently 5-1 with the deck at legend, surprisingly the deck has a lot of play vs Freeze Mage and have only lost to the mirror. (overall 31-6 84%). Since this i have gone 10-3 in legend ranks bringing the overall score to 41-9 which is a total of 82%.
Final thoughts:
This deck is very good in the current meta of C'thun Druid/Priest/Warrior and the Aggro Warlocks and Shamans having good match-ups with all those decks. The deck is very enjoyable to play and it took within a day to push from rank 5 to legend without any burnout. And yes i created a hearthpwn account just to share with you all this amazing deck that i have played. Please leave comments and feedbacks on the deck as you see fit, it is a relativity cheap deck to craft and play while being extremely competetive.
Find me on youtube at: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCIG60eDpTWrIj42ON9_QKuA for more guides similar to this one
P.S. I'm sorry if this becomes the next Cancer Paladin on ladder. Check out my new Mage deck at: http://www.hearthpwn.com/decks/526025-sixenm-reno-x-cthun-mage-standard
P.S.S Please check out a competitive deck building guide that i have created in hopes of giving you guys the thought process being making strong decks that can perfrom:
*edit: added reasons for Knife Juggler, Sea Giant and Gormok the Impaler
**edit #2: added more detailed mulligans and guides for some classes and added power plays.
***edit #3: swapped one Consecration for one Equality, granted more play vs big minions, usually played out similarly to Consecration against zoo decks too while having the ability to reach and deal with Sea Giant as well as Houndmaster taunted beasts in hunter.
****edit #4: added in even more detailed match-ups and mulligans as well as a video guide, along with cards being looked at for current tweaking of the deck and more reasons for other left out cards.
I was considering adding a Tirion Fordring simply because it's just always been an insanely good card for me regardless of the deck. I'm wondering what card you would recommend I replace to include that? Also, have you ever considered adding a second Blood Knight?
If you want to put in a Tirion Fordring i would suggest you swap out a Truesilver Champion or one of the flex 3 drops. As for the second Blood Knight, i had it in the deck originally but i found it to underperform in multiples, having one gives you enough flexibility and a huge tempo boost but drawing 2 never feels good.
Awesome thanks, not sure if I will add Tirion Fordring or not since it could screw up the amazing ability this deck gives of being able to seemingly always play cards. but I still wanted to know just in case since it does provide so much freaking value and could possibly save your butt in a late game situation. By the way thanks for the awesome deck, seriously! I just climbed from rank 15 to 10 with this deck with no losses and I would have kept climbing even higher if it wasn't for the fact the season just reset (just hit midnight here). I've never gone for Legend before but this deck is so insane that I might have to! Once again thanks and congratulations on being the one to come up with the next meta-breaking deck!
Loving it so far but holy shit is it bad against evolve shaman!
I beat a freeze mage with this. Mind = Blown.
Divine Favor is one hell of a card
I just crafted this except I don't have blood knight so I put in a blessing of wisdom for some card draw instead. I've gone 4-0 so far but that's from rank 15 no stars to rank 14 so I don't have much to say about how it affects the current meta. I have beaten a beast druid, agro shaman, and c'thun warlock tho (cant remember the other deck I played against) I will say its a lot about that mulligan for a turn 1 and divine favor draws and I was lucky enough those 4 games to have turn ones and divine favors in first 10 cards
"84% winrate" lol
More like 35%
Pretty bad deck if you cant curve out well. Especially vs any class that has heal or armor
Priest has tons of trouble dealing with divine shield though. If you get any sort of board versus priest they are just done for
That 10 heal from that Twilight darkmender helps them come back a bit, I lost a game where a priest has turn 6 and turn 7 mender and no equality to help me clear board ><
beat a Warrior who got up to 30+23 armor at one point. so that not really an issue here.
I tried it out and had to make a few change due to not having the cards to play it as is.. My biggest card lack is the 2 Keeper of Uldaman. Without them.. this deck does not play very well. Those seem to be essential.. but despite that.. I also have to still give it bad marks because for a aggro deck it plays very slowly and it's too hard to control the table.
I admit I am missing important pieces to removal.. but even without that. I don't think it plays that well since you don't have a lot of removal or taunt. again I don't have all the cards I need... but I went 2-4 and both the twos quit on round 1 or 2. :-(
This is a board control deck that can turn aggro when you seize the board enough. This is not a flat out SMOrc deck that wants to go face. You want to keep the board, you want your minions to stick. The moment the tempo swings you are able to close the game out very quickly.
This deck controls the board VERY well, the point of not needing taunts and hard removal is that your minions serve as both. If the board is clear why do you need to taunt? If your minions are bigger why do you need flat removal etc. I think you're approaching this deck at the wrong angle and it doesn't help that you're missing the literal best card in the deck.
This deck is winning machine! Btw is there going to be any replacements with tirion or justicar?
I For whatever reason don't have very good card draw. Infact I'm not very fortunate when it come to RNG and there is days I just log off without victory at all because my RNG is off. Today might be another one of those days.... I might of just ended up playing 5 people today that instantly recognized I was trying to play a bubble factory deck and countered hard against it.
Second removal is not a problem on the opponent's end, but even if it is.. you playing so many weak cards that you will something be forced to remove yourself. It seems like everyone gets it when you are playing a paladin you should keep the board clear of any 1/1s because of Blessing of Kings or Seal of Champions. And even if you did manage to keep your board alive...
Next Steward of Darkshire is a very important card to this deck. It's the bubble factory.. and when people see it come out, they single it out. Any hard removal they might of been hoarding is played on it.. and having your bubble factory killed is depressing. This is not why I say you need more taunt.. but the bubble factory is going to die.
Most C'Thun at turn 10 clears the board relatively well, and can dumps a lot of damage to your face. This was the annoying thing to me. By turn 10 those decks, could build up 15 or 20 points of damage and clear out anything I might of had on the board and dump a lot of damage to the face. A Lot of this has to do with Crazed Worshipper all the C'thun decks I ran into today had this card. and it basically cleared the way to victory for them because it was a easy 3 or 4 additional damage for the C'thun.
All in all I like the idea, and the gimmick is a great idea I want to try and make work.. but holding control of the table top is very difficult. I am still trying to understand why myself.. my experience with it today was terrible, but I am going to give it another shot.
I replaced bloodknight with justicar. I don't think tirion fits in very well though.
Justicar with steward is pretty good though and justicar on her own can help you win games with super value
Out of dust for now but i will try it tnx for reply
5-0 so far. FeelsGoodMan