Hearthpwn

Intro

Tired of playing either control or aggro Paladin and nothing in between? The loss of the traditional Midrange Paladin early game meant that times had to change, but new cards and old cards in the new light of Old Gods mean that a new Midrange Paladin is possible. Take the strongest weapons of aggro Paladin and control Paladin and use them to create a viable midrange deck that starts fast, can compete in the late game and ends with a bang.

Strategy

This Midrange Paladin list revolves around tempo.

• Use sticky deathrattle and divine shield minions like Argent Squire and Harvest Golem to quickly seize the board
• Trade up your recruits, divine shields and deathrattle tokens with cards like Abusive Sergeant and Selfless Hero
• Weapons like Truesilver Champion and Rallying Blade can help maintain tempo into the midgame
• Curve into mid and late game minions like Corrupted Healbot, Cairne Bloodhoof and Tirion Fordring to pressurise decks that can deal with your early game
• If you haven't already overwhelmed your opponent, N'Zoth, the Corruptor will bring back an aggressive board at almost any point in the game. Unlike control Paladin you're not waiting until you have played all your highest value deathrattle minions, in this deck, a N'zoth on curve is still likely to bring back enough early and midgame minions to seal the game, and against control it's likely you will have those late game bombs too.

Mulligan

The mulligan is the same against all deck types, prioritise the following:

• Selfless Hero
• Argent Squire
• Flame Juggler
• Abusive Sergeant

• Rallying Blade if you have Argent Squire
• Aldor Peacekeeper if you already have any of the above

Against Zoo, keep Consecration. Against Druid prioritise Aldor Peacekeeper.

Selfless Hero

• There is often some confusion regarding how and when to play Selfless Hero. In this deck, early aggression and board control is key, so it is right to play it onto an empty board even against a hero that can ping, particularly if you have a good follow up. You can always get that added value back later when resummoning with N'zoth.
• One of the strongest early game plays in the deck is buffing a Selfless Hero with an Abusive Sergeant, dealing 4 damage and leaving a 2/1 with divine shield on the board is particularly strong against classes like Shaman.
• In the midgame however, you do want to be picky about when your use your Selfless Hero. The divine shield it gives should be used to maintain tempo and a sticky board. Obviously the higher the stats of a minion the more a divine shield is worth but it is very easy to be too greedy with this card. Only consider trading off minions to ensure your shield procs on a specific minion if it will enable a particularly strong tempo play on that turn, otherwise it may be right to make trades as normal and simply allow the shield to go where it may, even if it's onto a 1/1 recruit.

Sideboard

Forbidden Healing is the tech spot in this deck. If you are facing mostly aggressive decks this card can be invaluable. Remember that due to the way it works, it is a heal without loss of tempo in most cases, meaning it is the ideal healing card for a midrange tempo deck. That said, there are better options if you are facing midrange or control metas:

• If you are facing mainly midrange decks, consider Divine Strength, Blessing of Kings or Stampeding Kodo
• If you are facing mainly control decks, consider Justicar Trueheart or Ragnaros the Firelord