Hello!
Derrick is on the show this week
Topic: The Power Paladin deck
Reasons to be happy this week
Happy Hearthstone’s one-year anniversary!
What is a Deck Battle?
Once a month, a guest host brings their favorite deck onto the show to battle the current reigning champion deck for control of the Happy Hearthstone Deck Battle Throne!
If the challenger wins the best-of-3 series, their deck becomes the new Reigning Champion Deck and will fight off future challengers until it loses, or until it’s earned its place in the Hap...
Hello!
- Derrick is on the show this week
- Topic: The Power Paladin deck
- Reasons to be happy this week
- Happy Hearthstone’s one-year anniversary!
What is a Deck Battle?
Once a month, a guest host brings their favorite deck onto the show to battle the current reigning champion deck for control of the Happy Hearthstone Deck Battle Throne!
If the challenger wins the best-of-3 series, their deck becomes the new Reigning Champion Deck and will fight off future challengers until it loses, or until it’s earned its place in the Happy Hearthstone Hall of Fame!
View the Deck Battle Archive + The Happy Hearthstone Hall of Fame
The Deck
- The Power Paladin: Use the potential of strong buffs and dangerous minions to force the opponent to play reactively.
- How it wins: Puts too many dangerous minions on the board, consistently, for the opponent to rely on removal. If they let even one stick on the board, you can buff it up and end the game quickly.
Five Key Cards
- Blessing of Kings: Strong buffs that can add surprise value to high-threat minions.
- Faceless Manipulator: We’re going to be adding a lot of buffs to our minions, which gives us plenty of good targets for this guy.
- Sword of Justice: An amazing card in every Paladin deck.
- Windfury Harpy: A minion like this has innate threat that can snowball into a bomb, with or without buffs added onto it.
- Guardian of Kings: This guy sits with your monstrous curve-toppers at the top of the deck list to help secure the win at the end.
Full Deck List
You can get more insight into the deck by reading Derrick’s guide, which goes through every single card with full explanation and advice, but here’s the simple deck list with no commentary (ordered by mana cost), if you’d rather just try it out yourself.
Creatures
- 1x Acidic Swamp Ooze (2 mana)
- 1x Argent Protector (2 mana)
- 1x Dire Wolf Alpha (2 mana)
- 1x Ironbeak Owl (2 mana)
- 1x Acolyte of Pain (3 mana)
- 1x Demolisher (3 mana)
- 1x Flesheating Ghoul (3 mana)
- 1x Harvest Golem (3 mana)
- 2x Ironfur Grizzly (3 mana)
- 1x Razorfen Hunter (3 mana)
- 1x Shattered Sun Cleric (3 mana)
- 1x Silverback Patriarch (3 mana)
- 1x Chillwind Yeti (4 mana)
- 1x Spellbreaker (4 mana)
- 1x Faceless Manipulator (5 mana)
- 1x Venture Co. Mercenary (5 mana)
- 1x Windfury Harpy (6 mana)
- 1x Guardian of Kings (7 mana)
- 1x Ysera (9 mana)
- 1x Deathwing (10 mana)
Spells
- 1x Blessing of Might (1 mana)
- 1x Blessing of Wisdom (1 mana)
- 1x Sword of Justice (3 mana)
- 2x Blessing of Kings (4 mana)
- 1x Consecration (4 mana)
- 2x Hammer of Wrath (4 mana)
- 1x Avenging Wrath (6 mana)
Sideboard
In case you don’t have some of the ideal cards, here are some quality back ups and alterations you can make that keep with the same theme and strengths of the deck.
- 1x War Golem (7 mana)
- 1x Stormwind Champion (7 mana)
- 1x Ravenholdt Assassin (7 mana)
- 1x Truesilver Champion (4 mana)
The Defending Champion Deck
Dan’s Hunter Beastmaster Deck, which relies on lots of Beast minions and solid removal spells to rush the opponent down.
The Beastmaster Deck has reigned supreme for 5 months, and has beaten 3 other decks before this episode.
Post-Duel Commentary
- Who won
- Obligatory bragging session
- Challenger Deck: How well did it perform?
- Defending Deck: How well did it perform?
- Best moments in the matches
- The Happy Hearthstone Champion Ceremony(tm)
Community
- Richard: “What is your favorite card to use that is not considered ‘cool’ in the current or previous meta?”
- iTunes Review: Gaxx78, BlackEntropy
Card of the Week
Farewell
- Follow Derrick on Twitter
- What you want to see in future episodes
- What hosts you want to visit the show
DECK GUIDE:
The Paladin Power Deck
The goal of this deck is to build up not out. I find lots of value minions that have intrinsic power that I can seek to exploit, which can get huge on their own. Buff spells help you get even more value out of those minions, and protection spells help keep them on the board. With so many power threats in the deck, we’re counting on at least one of them sticking on the board to get momentum in your favor.
Let’s get straight into the cards I used in my deck for the mighty showdown with Josh. You can find a completely plain deck list on the podcast episode. Here, I’ll provide additional commentary where I feel it’s helpful or necessary.
1x Acidic Swamp Ooze
The 2 mana 3/2 minions are all pretty good. Take your pick. This one has the outside chance of killing a weapon (pure upside, but mainly this is my vanilla 2 mana 3/2.
1x Argent Protector
This guy’s bubble is a cheap way to get my power cards to stick around an extra turn.
1x Dire Wolf Alpha
One of the ways this deck solves the classic “if only I had one more damage” problem. Never play it on an empty board if you can avoid it.
1x Ironbeak Owl
Nearly every deck needs silence of some sort. This one is cheap and fits into my curve, nicely, in the mid game. Timing is key. I usually mulligan this card if it’s in my opening hand. I don’t want to play it on turn unless I have to.
1x Acolyte of Pain
Early-game, this keeps me refilling my hand as I spend cards. If I get him late game, I don’t hesitate to slap Blessing of Kings on him and just going off.
1x Demolisher
Another great target for Blessing of Kings. A free 2 damage to open each turn demands respect. Helps keep their board clear and also gets in for good damage.
1x Flesheating Ghoul
One of my favorite minions. This card allows me to create an early threat so that my opponent panics and either makes unprofitable trades or, even better, wastes premium removal.
1x Harvest Golem
This card goes in pretty much every deck. Works nicely through AoE effects. Even if he milks a silence out of my enemy, I feel good.
2x Ironfur Grizzly
My optimal way to cut off early game. If I have one of these in my opening hand, my chances of winning go way up. Shuts down Clerics hailing from Northshire and Wyrms smothered in mana.
1x Razorfen Hunter
This card just helps me establish a board presence. For 3 mana I get two minions which gives me more targets for buffs and blessings. Also helps me take out X/1 targets and still have an attacker.
1x Shattered Sun Cleric
Another one of the cards in my deck that fixes the “if only I could deal one more damage” problem. Also the +1 HP can sometimes turn trades into profitable attacks.
1x Silverback Patriarch
My deck wanted another taunt to deal with early-game threats. I also don’t mind putting Blessing of Kings on this dude. A 5/8 minion with taunt on turn 4 can be nasty, especially if you have another minion on the board.
1x Chillwind Yeti
One of the best vanilla beaters. A medium threat early-game and helps me curve out. Even off the top in late game, this guy doesn’t suck.
1x Spellbreaker
My other chance to silence. But at 4 attack, I actually prefer this guy to come down behind protection so that I can start taking chunks out of my opponent’s HP.
1x Faceless Manipulator
The build-around-me card of the deck. I’m designed to assemble some sort of mega-threat. Then if I happen to top deck Faceless Manipulator, I duplicate that mega-threat and make my opponent sweat.
1x Venture Co. Mercenary
Super efficient beater. Makes your other minions expensive but who cares if I have 7 attack on the board. Every swing with this minion is almost a fourth of their starting life total. I’m not afraid to burn my silence on this minion either if it makes sense.
1x Windfury Harpy
My deck needs threats like these that become great targets for my blessings and/or Faceless Manipulator.
1x Guardian of Kings
Designed to help dig me out of a small jam, top-decking this card helps me stabilize a bit. Both the heal and the size of this creature contribute to that end.
1x Ysera
When I build a deck I want two or three curve-toppers that, if I’ve leeched enough removal from my opponent’s deck along the way, will kill them outright because their deck is out of steam. Ysera not only puts down a creature with 12 HP, but also does 4 damage per turn, while giving me card advantage with powerful OP cards.
1x Deathwing
This card cheats. So I play it. Again, i’m hoping to lure out my opponent’s removal throughout the game, giving Daddy Dragon plenty of chance to survive that first turn by my opponent.
1x Blessing of Might
Cheap Cheap! This is like removal against an X/4 when I play it on a 1/1 (which the pally deck makes all the time). Also targets Windfury Harpy nicely. But I’d say I use it to help remove big threat minons 70% of the time.
1x Blessing of Wisdom
Cheap Cheap! We’ve talked about on this show whether or not we would play a card that says “Pay 1 mana and draw a card.” I know I would. And any draws beyond one is just gravy for me. The quicker I get to any of my bombs, the more likely my chances are of winning.
1x Sword of Justice
This will carry me through the mid-game. Giving the next 5 minions +1/+1 instantly makes my mid-game better than yours.
2x Blessing of Kings
Another build-around-me card in this deck. It’s the swiss army knife. I have plenty of great options to target with it, and if I’m absolutely desperate, it serves as a desperate removal card.
1x Consecration
My one and only shot at solving the lack of AoE in this deck. You gotta make it count when you use it.
2x Hammer of Wrath
This is the straight removal of the deck. It’s more expensive but draws me a card. Helps with tempo and card advantage.
1x Avenging Wrath
The flavor text on this one, says it all: “Wham! Wham! Wham! Wham! Wham! Wham! Wham! Wham!”
Possible Additions
This deck has a few key cornerstone epics, which don’t really have great replacements. However there are plenty of big beaters and an alternative weapon you could use in the interim, all of which play just fine in this deck.
1x War Golem
If you need a curve topper, this card can fill in a gap.
1x Stormwind Champion
Another neutral minion that is commonly seen in Paladin decks. He must be dealt with or can overturn a game.
1x Ravenholdt Assassin
Without taunt, your opponent is taking 7 damage. Even more if you can protect him on the follow up turn. Great target for Blessing of Kings.
1x Truesilver Champion
Every time my opponent plays it against me, I groan. That means it’s good. I wanted this in my deck, but I just couldn’t fit it into the 30-card limit. But it’s worth jamming into every Paladin deck and can work as a stop-gap solution until you get a Sword of Justice.
Final Thoughts
Are you tired of Mages Flamestriking you to death? Try making your minions so big and nasty that those Mages simply blink away in fright! Try out this Paladin deck and feel the power. Get those noobs complaining on the forums that Blizzard should once again, nerf Paladins.
