[Witchwood] Wild Hands (Handbuff Paladin)
- Last updated Apr 15, 2018 (Witchwood)
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Wild
- 26 Minions
- 2 Spells
- 1 Weapon
- Deck Type: Ranked Deck
- Deck Archetype: Handbuff Paladin
- Crafting Cost: 18240
- Dust Needed: Loading Collection
- Created: 2/28/2017 (Aggro Downfall)
- joey_jojo_48
- Registered User
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- 14
- 39
- 75
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Battle Tag:
JoeyJojo48#1451
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Region:
US
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Total Deck Rating
194
Hello Hearthpwn!
Here's my fifth deck (Handbuff Paladin). I've been playing the hell out of Handbuff Paladin ever since Mean Streets, and I even took it to legend in Un'Goro (proof below). And while it may not be allowed in Standard anymore, it'll live on in wild! It's fairly tricky to play and is definitely off-meta, but it's one of the most fun decks I've ever played. If you've got the cards I highly reccomend giving it a try. I'll do my best to keep this page updated with the most current decklist I am running. Cheers!
*APRIL 15th: The first Wild version of this deck is here! This is far from a final refined list given that I am not a wild main and that the wild card pool is so huge, but it's at least a solid starting point for anyone wanting to try out the archetype.
If you're interested in a "standard version" of the deck, feel free to check it out Piperbuff Paladin. While obviously not exactly the same, it plays very similar.
Also I made another standard deck, a Big Deathrattle Hunter, so feel free to check that out if you're into that kind of thing.
Best of luck in the Year of the Raven!*
~ General Strategy ~
The general strategy of the deck is fairly straightforward. Your goal is to use the handbuff cards (Smuggler's Run, Prince Keleseth, Grimestreet Enforcer, and Val'anyr) to make your hand very big, and then use those big cards to beat down your opponent. To help with this, this deck runs a ton of cards to disrupt/neutralize your opponent's threats (such as Aldor Peacekeeper. Ironbeak Owl, and Sunkeeper Tarim) as well as cards who scale very well with buffs (such as Chillblade Champion, Wickerflame Burnbristle, and Saronite Chain Gang). One of the nice things about a handbuff deck is you can run a decent number of tech cards, but since you can handbuff them they can still be useful in other matchups. It's a pretty tricky deck, but just be patient, think things through, and you can beat almost anything.
~ Mulligan Guide ~
Smuggler's Run |
Prince Keleseth |
Zola the Gorgon |
Paragon of Light |
Aldor Peacekeeper |
Wickerflame Burnbristle |
Coldlight Oracle |
Stonehill Defender |
Saronite Chain Gang |
~ Card Choices ~
The Handbuffers |
The purpose of these cards is to buff the cards in your hand (and deck). Smuggler's Run and Grimestreet Enforcer are core cards and the deck will not work without them. If you don't have Prince Keleseth you can use 2x Grimestreet Outfitter and the deck is still very powerful (and it also allows you to run other 2-cost cards like Hydrologist or Acidic Swamp Ooze). If you don't have Val'anyr don't rush to craft it yet unless you've got 1.6k dust lying around. It can easily be replaced with some of the suggestions below based on what you have.
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The Taunts |
Wickerflame Burnbristle |
Taunt cards scale very well with handbuffs, and these cards form the core defensive of the deck. There are lots of other taunt cards that could work in this deck, such as Soggoth the Slitherer, Grimestreet Protector, Corpsetaker, Stegodon, Dirty Rat, Righteous Protector, Spikeridged Steed, Tar Creeper, The Lich King, or Second-Rate Bruiser. Feel free to try them out!
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The Neutralizers |
Uther of the Ebon Blade |
These cards are all meant to mess with your opponent's gameplan so that your cards can shine. Pretty much all of the cards except Aldor Peacekeeper and Sunkeeper Tarim are replaceable. I expect this part of the decklist to shift a lot as the meta changes. Other good tech cards you could consider are Acidic Swamp Ooze, Ivory Knight, Gluttonous Ooze, Golakka Crawler, Lorewalker Cho, Harrison Jones, The Black Knight, Nerubian Unraveler, Hungry Crab, Dirty Rat, Skulking Geist, Stormwind Knight, Spellbreaker, Deathwing, Blackguard, Stampeding Kodo, Mind Control Tech, Truesilver Champion, and Mindbreaker.
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The Heals |
Wickerflame Burnbristle |
You need heals to keep yourself alive. From my experience these cards are often enough. Alternate cards you could consider are Alexstrasza, Benevolent Djinn, Earthen Ring Farseer, Truesilver Champion, Corpsetaker, Bloodworm, Ragnaros, Lightlord or Ivory Knight.
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The Main Event
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Wickerflame Burnbristle |
In handbuff decks, you obviously want to hit as many cards with your buffs as possible. But these cards in particular are the ones you really want to hit. They are either ones that have beneficial keywords, have card draw/pseudo card draw, and/or can squeeze extra value from the buffs. One package of note in here is "The Curator Package" (1x The Curator, 2x Primordial Drake, 2x Coldlight Oracle, and 2x Ironbeak Owl). This package gives a very reliable minion-based card draw engine to help keep your hand full and ready to buff.
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Let's play some Hearthstone together! JoeyJojo48#1451, Americas :)
Since I've updated the deck with Val'anyr you can more likely cut Uther of the Ebon Blade since you now have Benevolent Djinn as another activator for Blackguard. But regardless best of luck on ladder!
Reason for no removal? Curious because i run equality/consecrate in my handbuff deck and it seems to serve me well vs most decks.
The main reason is to minimize the number of non-minions in the deck to maximize the effectiveness of the handbuffs. Both Equality and Consecration are good, but I'd much rather a minion-based AoE than spell based ones (for example Primordial Drake which was in an older list of the deck). As for single target removal, the deck has options for that such as Chillblade Champion, Aldor Peacekeeper, Stampeding Kodo, Blackguard, Ashbringer, and Grave Vengeance. Sunkeeper Tarim is also great as both single and AoE removal.
Makes sense, gonna try it for myself. Thanks for response.
Great guide and i gonna try this deck just for that ( Also Look interesting )
I realy enjoying to play this Deck. Sadly i have no [card]Wickerflame Burnbristle[/card] so i replaced him with one [card]Grook Fu Master[/card] and the 2 [card]Tar Creeper[/card] with 2 [card]Righteous Protector[/card] to have better [card]Corpsetaker[/card]. But i feel like the two [card]Blackguard[/card] arent hitting often for me if at all. Any suggestions?
Hmm, Wickerflame Burnbristle is a pretty crucial piece of the deck and very important for ensuring Blackguard gets value. If you don't have him I'd add in a Bloodworm or cut the Blackguard for other tech options.
I'm glad you're interested in the deck! Those sound like reasonable substitutions. You might also want to consider Hydrologist since it works with The Curator and you aren't running Prince Keleseth. Best of luck on ladder!
Hey! Love the deck idea especially as it seems like a slower midrange deck, and was wondering how crucial ysera is to the deck? I don't have her, been considering getting her just for the sake of having her around in case she ends up being used in a non big-priest deck. Your deck really seems to focus on surviving through the early game and having big buffed value generators like the lich king, ysera and tirion.
Been playing kibler's version of the handbuff paladin, he's been playing a slightly faster midrange version and even there I feel that I get rolled by aggro decks unless I draw righteous protector > keleseth > tar creeper>corpsetaker. Usually once I get to the midgame with kiblers list, I can stabilize pretty easily and end up just outvaluing him with my buffed minions like tirion and the lich king.That being said, how do you survive the early game without righteous protectors. Granted aggro is getting worse with the upcoming patch nerfing PW and Aggro druid but still want to know.
Also, blackguard is a pretty cool idea! I shouldnt have dusted mine, but golden epic = tons of dust haha.
Hello! I'm glad you're interested in the deck. Ysera isn't critical, but she is doing a few functions in the deck. 1) She's a big late game threat to help close a game, 2) She generates resources/pseudo-draw with the dream cards, 3) Low attack/High health minions scale really well with buffs so 4/12 is a great statline, and 4) She's a dragon for The Curator. She is definitely replaceable, but these functions then need to be addressed with other cards (i.e. Adding in Cobalt Scalebane or another Primordial Drake for The Curator, adding in Acolyte of Pain or Ivory Knight to compensate for the loss in "card draw," etc.).
You're right about this deck's general strategy, that being survive then outvalue. Righteous Protector and Corpsetaker do help with that strategy and do help against aggro, but the deck does have lots of tools to fight aggression. I mean pretty much all of the 3 and 4 mana cards aim to do that (but most notably Wickerflame Burnbristle, Tar Creeper, Stonehill Defender, and Saronite Chain Gang are your first line of defense). Stampeding Kodo and Blackguard also help in the mid game because they are good at removing the leftover small minions that didn't die fighting through the taunts (Blackguard + Truesilver Champion is a combo I love that gives free healing and removal against small minions and is great against mid-game aggro). But all that being said I could realistically see Righteous Protector and/or Corpsetaker sneaking their way into the deck list after a few more interations.
Thanks. I try my best to keep the decklist updated. I personally really like Blackguard since it's hard to remove, it scales well with buffs, and there are a lot of healing effects that combo with it (especially Uther of the Ebon Blade, Chillblade Champion and Truesilver Champion, the last of which has a very cool interaction with Blackguard to let you get free heals if you attack a minion with 1-2 Health and it's the only one on the board). But if you don't have the dust for it I do not think it's a must-have card and could be easily replaced with some tech cards.
wickerflame and corpsetakers have been important in my version of this deck. my reason behind this is because of all the aggro decks around right now. ( corpse taker at turn 4 helps either clear a bit of board or set up for turn 5 grime street enforcer)
- still kinda new to the game so my terminology is bad so I apologize
No need to apologize it's totally fine :)
Wickerflame Burnbristle is critical for Handbuff Paladin in my opinion since it's so usedful against aggro and scales so well with buffs. Corpsetaker is a very strong card, but I personally don't love it because I've found it a bit inconsistent. I keep trying to figure out how to slot it in nicely but I found you need 3 Taunts, 3 Divine Shields, and 3 Lifesteal minions in the deck to get all three reliably and the deck is so starved for space it's hard to find the slot to fit the requirements. But I plan to keep testing and find a way to slot it in if I can.
I pretty much had no legendaries for this deck but I put in removal instead of those and it worked out really good.
I'm glad you found a way to make it work with your collection :)
I'll probably never be able to make this deck but I want to say how I really like the effort put into this deck. Props to you for making the meta bend to you instead of bending for the meta.
Thanks :)
hows this deck working for you now?
So far pretty good. I just flew back from Europe so I'm expecting to get a lot more time to play hearthstone now that I'm home so I'll be able to put the deck through more vigorous testing.
I'm just wondering but why don't you run Doppelgangster in this deck? since if you're able to get 1 or 2 buffs onto it it has massive value
apart from that thank you for the in - depth guide it helped a lot