After the core set announcement I was quite hyped for the support that Dude Pally got, but after some experimentation I'm very disappointed. Everything for that archetype feels way too slow to be working efficiently. I've tried different approaches, Secrets, low curve stuff and Rally!, some more controllish lists with cards like the watchposts or Equality, but nothing seems to work really. Against aggro I'm always losing hard, against Control it tends to work if I draw Lothraxion the Redeemed early (or Taelan Fordring for that matter), but if not it still doesn't look good.
The dude cards look so weak when you compare them to the token stuff Druids can do. Like Stand Against Darkness vs. Arbor Up. That's pretty much a joke in comparison. I wonder if they are worried so much about Odd Pally in wild that they're holding back on the power level of Dude support for standard.
So, the question is: Has anyone been able to make a decklist for standard yet that's at least somewhat competitive? Or any tips what I could try out?
I was playing around with Dudeadin earlier today, actually. I've only played 9 games with it so far, so it's far too early to say whether it's any good, but I am 6 and 3, one of the losses being to an absolutely godly Celestial Druid draw that any deck would've lost to. It's a bit of a janky hybrid build which runs all of the Dude synergy available in Standard (2 Pursuit of Justice, 2 Balloon Merchants, 2 Carnival Barker, one Warhorse Trainer, Lothraxxion). I thought it'd do badly against aggro so I included a copy each of Barov and Equality, 2 Consecrations, a Snack Run for heal, and 2 Hammer of the Naru for big taunts and some damage to point at their face late game. Then I noticed I was running a Demon in Lothraxxion and Elementals from the hammers, so I jammed Murgur Murgurgle and the new Alexstrasza so I could include N'Zoth (a card I have an unhealthy obsession with) to hopefully win longer games against control - I have beaten a Tickatus Warlock this way, but they sort of wasted their AoE on unthreatening dude boards since I guess they didn't expect I had the tools to make big boards. Alestraxsza has also won me several games - the deck seems to start falling behind hard when the enemy gets to about 10 HP, so having that bit of burst is invaluable, and people don't expect Paladin to be able to do 8 from hand through taunts. The rest is just generically good Paladin stuff (Righteous Protector, Knight of Annointment, Hand of A'dal, that sort of stuff). Oh, and one copy of Acidic Swamp Ooze, which turned one of my losses against a Secret Paladin from a stomp into a close match - not sure if it's worth.
As I said, I've not exactly played a lot with the deck, so I don't know how good it is, but so far it's performed pretty well and felt pretty powerful. It seems hard to stop early game Paladin buffing shenanigans if you're running enough Divine Shields, and late game your Hero Power often summons 2/1 or 3/1 dudes with Divine Shield, which can be pretty overwhelming on top of your Carnival Barker + Stand Against Darkness/Day at the Faire power turns.
Thanks for the interesting input. I currently don't have the Hammer, but I consider crafting it anyway, since I might use it in other Paladin decks. The other thing I would be missing is N'Zoth and that's kind of a tough one, since I don't think I have a lot of support for him in other decks, so I probably won't want to craft him.
I was also considering mixing the Dude stuff with the Librams but I haven't tried this out yet. Might go quite well together? The librams giving you mid game survivability through heals and taunts, plus buffs for your Recruits.
Now I like to also add Taelan Fordring because he will always give me Lothraxion the Redeemed guaranteed, in case he is buried to deep in my deck to be useful.
probably just needs 1 or 2 more pieces to have some level of viability, paladin has always had the problem of excess. There are too many good things so some of the less good ideas never get fleshed out. Look at last meta, it took noz 2 years before it was a deck staple.
Try my deck if you like dude paladin/aggro. ive been having a blast wrecking fools with this deck, and it has been successful vs most decks in meta. NOBODY expects it until lothraxion (or a silver hand combo drops) https//www.hearthpwn.com/decks/1385629-high-win-rate-dude-pure-rallydin
Brief description below, way more detail on combos, synergies, and strategies in link I posted. Would love your feedback!
Dude paladin was viable to hit legend with during DMF, but took a big hit by losing Lightforged zealot and air raid for barrens year. Not as strong as last rotation but still a great aggro deck. We did gain some other synergy for dude. A problem with dude paladin is people try to be too greedy with it and have a whole synergy deck (multiple carnival barkers, multiple soldier caravan, multiple pursuit of justice). When you get too greedy with dude synergy you end up with a hand full of synergy/combo cards you can't play. You need other cards to set up synergy.
This deck plays like standard aggro pally. Murgle, goody two shields, first day of school, hand of adal, imprisoned sungill, underlight angling rod, rally, conviction.. In the first four or five turns the enemy will have no idea this is dude paladin. They will think it's either standard rallydin, secret, or libram. Lots of good opening options so rare to have bad starting hand...
After the core set announcement I was quite hyped for the support that Dude Pally got, but after some experimentation I'm very disappointed. Everything for that archetype feels way too slow to be working efficiently. I've tried different approaches, Secrets, low curve stuff and Rally!, some more controllish lists with cards like the watchposts or Equality, but nothing seems to work really. Against aggro I'm always losing hard, against Control it tends to work if I draw Lothraxion the Redeemed early (or Taelan Fordring for that matter), but if not it still doesn't look good.
The dude cards look so weak when you compare them to the token stuff Druids can do. Like Stand Against Darkness vs. Arbor Up. That's pretty much a joke in comparison. I wonder if they are worried so much about Odd Pally in wild that they're holding back on the power level of Dude support for standard.
So, the question is: Has anyone been able to make a decklist for standard yet that's at least somewhat competitive? Or any tips what I could try out?
Ceterum censeo classum magi esse delendam.
I was playing around with Dudeadin earlier today, actually. I've only played 9 games with it so far, so it's far too early to say whether it's any good, but I am 6 and 3, one of the losses being to an absolutely godly Celestial Druid draw that any deck would've lost to. It's a bit of a janky hybrid build which runs all of the Dude synergy available in Standard (2 Pursuit of Justice, 2 Balloon Merchants, 2 Carnival Barker, one Warhorse Trainer, Lothraxxion). I thought it'd do badly against aggro so I included a copy each of Barov and Equality, 2 Consecrations, a Snack Run for heal, and 2 Hammer of the Naru for big taunts and some damage to point at their face late game. Then I noticed I was running a Demon in Lothraxxion and Elementals from the hammers, so I jammed Murgur Murgurgle and the new Alexstrasza so I could include N'Zoth (a card I have an unhealthy obsession with) to hopefully win longer games against control - I have beaten a Tickatus Warlock this way, but they sort of wasted their AoE on unthreatening dude boards since I guess they didn't expect I had the tools to make big boards. Alestraxsza has also won me several games - the deck seems to start falling behind hard when the enemy gets to about 10 HP, so having that bit of burst is invaluable, and people don't expect Paladin to be able to do 8 from hand through taunts. The rest is just generically good Paladin stuff (Righteous Protector, Knight of Annointment, Hand of A'dal, that sort of stuff). Oh, and one copy of Acidic Swamp Ooze, which turned one of my losses against a Secret Paladin from a stomp into a close match - not sure if it's worth.
As I said, I've not exactly played a lot with the deck, so I don't know how good it is, but so far it's performed pretty well and felt pretty powerful. It seems hard to stop early game Paladin buffing shenanigans if you're running enough Divine Shields, and late game your Hero Power often summons 2/1 or 3/1 dudes with Divine Shield, which can be pretty overwhelming on top of your Carnival Barker + Stand Against Darkness/Day at the Faire power turns.
Thanks for the interesting input. I currently don't have the Hammer, but I consider crafting it anyway, since I might use it in other Paladin decks. The other thing I would be missing is N'Zoth and that's kind of a tough one, since I don't think I have a lot of support for him in other decks, so I probably won't want to craft him.
I was also considering mixing the Dude stuff with the Librams but I haven't tried this out yet. Might go quite well together? The librams giving you mid game survivability through heals and taunts, plus buffs for your Recruits.
Ceterum censeo classum magi esse delendam.
You definitely need Pursuit of Justice, Soldier's Caravan, Day at the Faire, Carnival Barker, Imprisoned Celestial (so you can combo-play Stand Against Darkness on turn 5 with it), Warhorse Trainer, Lothraxion the Redeemed, Balloon Merchant (if those are not already in your deck that is). Also you need more card draw, I believe I also added Hand of A'dal to this (works great with Righteous Protector). I'm not exactly sure now what else I added but just fill the gaps with cards that make sense to get a good curve. It is actually a combo deck so it's normal that it loses to aggro but is good vs. control (because you actually drain your opponents board clears, especially because of the divine shields, which make normal board clears useless and you are able to constantly fill the board). Oh I also added Divine Rager because he is great after a Carnival Barker.
Now I like to also add Taelan Fordring because he will always give me Lothraxion the Redeemed guaranteed, in case he is buried to deep in my deck to be useful.
probably just needs 1 or 2 more pieces to have some level of viability, paladin has always had the problem of excess. There are too many good things so some of the less good ideas never get fleshed out. Look at last meta, it took noz 2 years before it was a deck staple.
Silver Hand Decks require too many combo pieces to flourish and have very little card draw to be consistent and make it happen.
Try my deck if you like dude paladin/aggro. ive been having a blast wrecking fools with this deck, and it has been successful vs most decks in meta. NOBODY expects it until lothraxion (or a silver hand combo drops) https//www.hearthpwn.com/decks/1385629-high-win-rate-dude-pure-rallydin
Brief description below, way more detail on combos, synergies, and strategies in link I posted. Would love your feedback!
Dude paladin was viable to hit legend with during DMF, but took a big hit by losing Lightforged zealot and air raid for barrens year. Not as strong as last rotation but still a great aggro deck. We did gain some other synergy for dude. A problem with dude paladin is people try to be too greedy with it and have a whole synergy deck (multiple carnival barkers, multiple soldier caravan, multiple pursuit of justice). When you get too greedy with dude synergy you end up with a hand full of synergy/combo cards you can't play. You need other cards to set up synergy.
This deck plays like standard aggro pally. Murgle, goody two shields, first day of school, hand of adal, imprisoned sungill, underlight angling rod, rally, conviction.. In the first four or five turns the enemy will have no idea this is dude paladin. They will think it's either standard rallydin, secret, or libram. Lots of good opening options so rare to have bad starting hand...