[Legend] Screw-Your-Secrets Midrange Paladin (G...
- Last updated Sep 11, 2016 (Karazhan)
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Wild
- 22 Minions
- 6 Spells
- 2 Weapons
- Deck Type: Ranked Deck
- Deck Archetype: N'Zoth Paladin
- Crafting Cost: 10460
- Dust Needed: Loading Collection
- Created: 8/30/2016 (Karazhan)
- RichardBlow
- Registered User
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Well met! I'm toasty-fresh legend player Richard Blow (Proof) who, after some requests have decided to share the decklist I used to climb the gauntlet of secret paladins, hunters and tempo mages that is the wild ladder.
I'll keep it short and sweet as far as the vital information to piloting the deck goes. Dump everything in the mulligan stage that isn't Muster for Battle or a minion of lower mana cost. Aldor Peacekeeper or Keeper of Uldaman are keeps against Shaman, Justicar Trueheart is a keep against priest. Don't be afraid to play Quartermaster on just one recruit against non-control decks.
The basic game plan is fairly simple. You aim to get ahead on the board as quickly as possible, and once you are ahead, you make plays to stay ahead. The win-more nature of Paladin and the disgusting levels of value that can come out of the deck will carry you through from there. If you have the choice of playing a 2 drop or hero powering from turn six or so onward, you will generally want to hero power, and for the most part you will want to hero power every turn from the tail-end of the mid game onward. Your opponent's health total doesn't matter unless they're a combo deck or N'Zoth rogue, since you win by dominating the board. If there's no trades that will get you further ahead on the board, go face.
Matchups:
Control Warrior: Your best matchup. Just use Aldor Peacekeeper and Keeper of Uldaman to deal with his giant minions, and heavily favor hero powering over playing cards from turn 5 onwards to avoid getting destroyed by Brawl. Once you play Justicar Trueheart you will be able to slowly overwhelm him as he will eventually run out of ways to kill the swarm. Be mindful of Grommash Hellscream and it should be nigh-impossible to lose. Keep Equality in case it's Patron Warrior.
Control Priest: Hell to play but perfectly winnable. You need two things to happen in order to beat priest: You need to take control of the board early, and you need to draw Justicar Trueheart. If those happen you will be able to stop playing cards altogether, use Aldor and Keeper of Uldaman to deal with the limited threats he does have and just maul him to death with your hero power. Tirion should never, ever be played under any circumstances until both Entombs have been used. Be wary of your own Sludge Belcher being stolen by Shrinkmeister+Cabal Shadow Priest. Expect this game to go to fatigue.
Tempo Mage: Hard but winnable. This matchup is luck/tempo based, as if they do Tempo Mage things and wipe your board for free while playing ridiculous minions you'll have a hard time, but if you can get a solid foothold on the board they will have difficulty shaking you. Consecration is perfect for dealing with all the 3/2s they play and you can neuter their Shredder with Aldor, so it mostly comes down to draws. Eater of Secrets is a champ here, able to ruin Mirror Entity. Doomsayer can also be used when Mirror Entity is up as an unstoppable board wipe if you need it as well. Loatheb can make Flamewaker useless and stop them from swinging the board back in their favor once you have it.Their main win condition is doing enough damage early and bursting you so be careful with your health (or force them to use burn on your minions). Basically play for tempo as hard as you can.
Freeze Mage: Hell on Earth. There's really not much to say here because there isn't much you can do. Just channel Face Hunter and SMOrc as hard as you can. Eater of Secrets is to be used when you have lethal to pull their Ice Block out from under them. Loatheb should be saved for when you can pop their Ice Block OR for when they play Alexstrasza. If you're lucky you'll be able to kill them before they can kill you, and your heals or anti-mage cards will show up. If you're not, you lose. Your second worst matchup.
Murloc Paladin: Freeze Mage with healing.
Patron Warrior: If you don't have Equality by the time you realize it's Patron Warrior, just concede. You just aren't going to win, simple as that. There's literally nothing you can do outside of pray. Your worst matchup. If you run into a lot of these you can tech in a second Equality- in that case the matchup is perfectly winnable, if a little scary. Standard Paladin game plan applies.
Aggro Shaman: Try to take the board from them as soon as you possibly can, then go face. Your goal here is to outrace them before they can play Doomhammer and bullshit their way to a win with 20 damage from hand. The matchup is perfectly winnable but extremely annoying. If you're facing a lot of them you can replace Eater of Secrets with Harrison Jones.
Pirate Warrior: See Aggro Shaman, except against Pirate Warrior you can taunt up and be completely safe.
Aggro Paladin: See Pirate Warrior.
Midrange Hunter: Another case of the race-off! This matchup can be difficult as the Hunter can just rush you down before you can get anything substantial going, but if the game goes long and you're above 10 HP you are heavily favored. Eater of Secrets should be used whenever it can eat a secret that you would otherwise be forced to pop... Or just whenever it can eat a secret. This is a tempo matchup for the most part. If you get the board early you will probably run away with it, but it's possible to squeak a win out from behind... Just tricky. Use Loatheb on 7 to block Call of the Wild unless you have lethal with him. Play around Unleash the Hounds. If all goes well they should be dead on turn 8 or 9. Try not to play slow. You need to be in the driver's seat. Good luck!
Zoolock: Win board, win game. Once they have no minions on the board they will never, ever be able to take the board back from you. You'll want to use Consecration to swing tempo ideally.
Renolock: Play big shit and Justicar. They only have one Siphon Soul as hard removal and they're screwed after that. Hope they don't get too lucky, and make sure you can refill the board if he Renos and then clears. A difficult matchup, but doable.
Midrange Paladin: Win board, win game more or less. You both have the same tools and you are both rather win-more, so whoever gets a substantial lead first often wins. Try to kill them before they N'Zoth.
Dragon Priest: It's sort of like Midrange Paladin! Honestly not much unique in how you square off against both decks other than try to REALLY keep this one's minions killed. That hero power is gross when it heals its own minions.
Secret Paladin: You thought I forgot about this one, didn't you? Fear not friend, for you are decently favored against Lord Cancer of Wildton Prior! This one is super tempo-based. You will crush them with your deck's superior value if you have the board so focus on getting ahead as soon as possible. Try to pop Heroic Sacrifice with a 1/1 or Light's Justice, and if there's multiple minions on the board either have a way to instantly kill the minion buffed by Avenge or just go face. Make sure you have either Eater of Secrets or a minimum of two minions on the board (for the popping of Heroic Sacrifice) on turn 5 so when they drop Dr. 6 you can pop the secret train and then neuter him with Aldor or Keeper of Uldaman. Do that and you'll probably win since your deck is heavier. Good luck!
If I missed a deck feel free to mention in the comments. If I have any experience against it I'll add it to the list. :)
Replacements:
Coghammer: Argent Horserider, Rallying Blade
Lay on Hands: Divine Favor (recommended to craft LoH though, there's no true replacement.)
Loatheb: Quartermaster
Quartermaster: Harrison Jones, Mukla's Champion (no, really), Murloc Knight
N'Zoth: Ragnaros the Firelord
Doomsayer: Knife Juggler, Quartermaster (against Control)
Justicar Trueheart: Sylvanas Windrunner, Murloc Knight
Ragnaros, Lightlord: Forbidden Healing, Antique Healbot
Edit: Minor change for those with too much money- Forbidden Healing replaced with Ragnaros, Lightlord. Looking pretty good so far! Also, three thousand views! I'm... Slightly shocked. Thank you for the eyeballs! Guide added!
why is justicar in the deck? surly sylvanas is better i know you are going for quarter master combo but c`mon deathrattle deck gotta have sylvanas and how about wicker flameburnbrisle?
Oh! Apologies for the long delay. I tried out Wickerflame for a while and found that he just didn't stall long enough to stop aggro. What a world. Coghammer keeps its place. Sylvanas and justicar I answered in response to other questions below. TL/DR: Justicar is the only way to beat Priest, Sylv is more anti-control in what's already tons of anti-control. Anti-aggro more important. In the upcoming expansion with Zombie Chow likely able to be replaced w/ Lost in the Jungle, you can cut something like Doomsayer in the list above for Sylv, since she isn't as likely to get shoved out by Boom Bots or similar.
ty for reply :)
Sylvanas is an anti-control card in a deck that already smashes control decks. On top of that the deck has so many deathrattle minions you often end up having them jostling for space and shoving each out when N'Zoth drops. As such you often won't even resurrect Sylvanas if you include her, and you'd be cutting something important just to up your win rate against control decks that you're already heavily favored against. I would not cut healing in this deck: the main way you lose as Midrange Paladin is your opponent getting you juuust low enough that they can nuke you down before you can take full control. If you really, REALLY want to put her in you can use her to replace Knife Juggler, Doomsayer/Forbidden Healing, or as a straight substitute for Justicar Trueheart if you happen to not have her.
Good midrange list but I agree with the other commenters that the doomsayer is questionable. You're not hard mulling for it given all of the other early drops so you're probably not going to have it on turn 2 much. For emergency clear that you can control, I'd replace with a Wild Pyro, which again isn't ideal because you'll likely have board with this deck. Otherwise, stewart, sylvanas, light rag or even something like a creeper for more early game seems better. Also, why Justicar? It's pretty much a control warrior tech from the pre-N'zoth days. Does it really do much in any of your other matchups, besides maybe priest?
Greetings! When I was doing my climb I would mulligan for it (and really any minion I could play before turn 4) and it was there to essentially up the odds that I got a 2-drop (three possible cards to draw for turn 2 instead of just two. 50% increase in happiness chances!) and could thus start the Paladin snowball earlier and more consistently. This season I found that aggro decks (which is what Doomsayer was a tech against) can just kill Doomsayer effortlessly because doing more than seven damage on turn two is the world we live in now, and so I dropped it for Forbidden Healing, because there can truly never be enough health gain. If you want a cheaper option you can go with a second Knife Juggler instead and be happy.
To the second point: Justicar is completely insane. The second you get her you no longer need to even play cards, you can just hit the button and overwhelm almost every deck from that alone if they can't kill you fast enough. Against Priest drowning them underneath a sea of 1/1s is the only way to win (and there are quite a few priests so Justicar is worth it on that alone) and will eventually crush every deck that can't burn you down without exception. If you end up in topdeck mode against another deck (which can happen as your only card draw is Lay On Hands) the Swarm will rip your opponent to shreds. She and N'zoth are the main reasons the only control deck that can beat Midrange Paladin is N'Zoth Rogue, and the main reason to play Midrange Paladin over its retarded cousin with the secrets.
TL/DR: Justicar Good! Insta-Win if you HP three or more times after she drops. Good craft! Zero regrets!
great deck.. got me to rank 5.. did you update the deck list? Thanks!
i know this may sound stupid but ... is there any replacement for quarter master ?
While the deck will suffer quite a bit (I really would recommend crafting one over say, Coghammer)... Tuskarr Jouster, Harrison Jones, Mukla's Champion (no, really), Murloc Knight, Blessing of Kings, Sylvanas Windrunner.
thanks alot .. i'm using a heal bot and a murloc knight instead of rag and quarter master and the deck seems to be working pretty well :D
Rag Lightlord is a huge card in this deck and will just straight up win you a lot more games than you might think. Craft ASAP!
Hey bro, solid deck!
I was wondering why you didn't put a second Quartermaster as it's the core of midrange pally.
Peace out.
I actually did up until rank 4! As I mentioned further down I swapped one out for Eater of Secrets to make the deck better against hunters and mages. That it dumps on Mysterious Challenger is a nice bonus.
Any replemecment?
Loatheb, Doomsayer and Eater of Secrets are tech cards that can be shuffled around depending on the meta (though Loatheb is insanely good and likely just a straight keep.) They can be replaced with Harrison Jones, a second Equality, a second Quartermaster, more healing, Sylvanas, Ivory Knight... I personally just got my mitts on Rag Lightlord and swapped out Forbidden Healing for him. So far so promising!
You can replace N'Zoth with Ragnaros the Firelord though the card is so good that I would recommend crafting it. Justicar Trueheart can be replaced with Sylvanas but in long games not having her will make you sad. Good luck!
Hey! Sadly I'm NA, but I do stream intermittently. I'll plop a link if I ever make it a routine.
For the doomsayer: It used to be a second knife juggler before the Standard nerfs, but now the sub-par body is generally used as a combo piece for muster, and I don't like having more than one of a combo card. Why the second juggler became doomsayer in particular: because of the infinite value that Justicar brings, the way Quartermaster can turn a board of recruits into a horde of game winning 3/3s and N'zoth, this deck is incredibly favored against every control deck except for N'Zoth rogue (and I only encountered five from rank 15 to legend.) As a result, what I want is to tech against aggro without carving out large sections of the deck for it. In addition the deck is disgusting when you get ahead before turn 4 but minibot sometimes just doesn't come. Now, what card can be played on 2 and will instantly give me the board when it's played? A-ha! That it can be played behind a Belcher against Paladins to force extreme answers or wipe their board turned out to be a handy bonus. You can even ruin Mirror Entity!
The Eater of Secrets replaced a second Quartermaster some time around rank 4 to tilt the matchup against Hunters and Mages. Before Hunters and Tempo mage were almost perfect 50/50 splits, and freeze mage is the deck's worst matchup. Turns out that eating Freezing Trap really is enough to swing the hunter matchup heavily in favor of the paladin. That it can also take a secret Paladin's hail mary Dr. 6 and completely ruin it is just icing on the cake. If you do not see any hunters or mages in EU you are free to replace it with Harrison Jones or a second Quartermaster. Hope I was helpful!
Thanks for the answer.
After playing a bit I noticed the utility of both cards and your answers do help even more. Especially Eater of secrets turned out to be pretty useful.
At the moment the deck is working really well for me and I climbed from 19 to 13 with only one unlucky lose so far. Rang 8 2* after the first day.
Update: I am legend now. Used your deck till like rank 7 and sometimes in between on my way to legend. 51-26 w/l in the end. Thanks for the list.
Heyho. Im really interested in your deck since I really liked the old mr pala. Im about to swap back to wild and I guess I'll try to get legend with your list next season.
A few quick questions:
1. which server are you playing on? If you're on Europe is there a chance to add you in order to spectate you a few games?
2. Why the doomsayer? Wouldn't a second knife juggler perform better?
3. Is the Eater of secret that necessary? So much secret palas?
would be cool to get the answers. Anyways +1. cheers mate
@point 3: About 20% is secret paladin usually. But Eater of Secrets is very useful against hunter and mage aswell. You just have to learn how to use it vs hunter and mage.
Vs Hunter hold it till you can get value from it, not just to take his secret on turn 4 but when you're about to activate the secret (or more) is better.
Vs Mage just save it when you're about to hit his iceblock. The mage will feel safe, but you'll make him cry when you save it for the money shot and kill him.