Hearthstone Paladin F2P Legendary Rank Deck

Hearthstone Paladin F2P Legendary Rank Deck by 4321pickle

Decklist – http://imgur.com/3B98Sbc

Abusive Sergeant x 2
Argent Squire x 2
Leper Gnome x 2
Worgen Infiltrator
Equality x 2
Argent Protector x 2
Bluegill Warrior x 2
Faerie Dragon x 2
Ironbeak Owl
Knife Juggler x 2
Divine Favor x 2
Jungle Panther x 2
Wolfrider x 2
Truesilver Champion x 2
Consecration x 2
Leeroy Jenkins
Avenging Wrath

Rank 420 – http://imgur.com/FhvHuGy

Well met!

Last season, I achieved the rank of legend 420(blazeit!) using aggro paladin (aka shockadin, aka the cancer that is killing hearthstone). This is a very inexpensive deck that I think just about anyone can afford to build, and so I thought I’d share my take on it with you guys. I know right now some of you are saying “Hey, what about that Leeroy? This isn’t f2p!”, and to that I will just say that leeroy is far from essential in this deck, and I’m actually considering removing him. More on that after the decklist.

Cards

Abusive Sergeant – Often better than a bluegill for 1 if you have a minion ready to attack, don’t hesitate to drop him turn 1 if you have nothing better.

Argent Squire – A solid one-drop. Synergy with abusive and blood knight if you choose to run him.

Leper Gnome – When you need to kill someone as fast as possible, leper gnome is your man.

Worgen Infiltrator – Stealth is good. See below.

Equality – One of the strongest cards in the game

Argent Protector – Put a bubble on a faerie dragon and win the game.

Bluegill Warrior – MRGRLGLGLRGLRGL

Faerie Dragon – MVP vs control.

Ironbeak Owl – I teched this in to fight freeze mages (doomsayer), but it turned out to be fairly useful in a lot of matchups to get past taunts. This is definitely a flex slot, and I don’t think I’d run it at lower ranks.

Knife Juggler – I don’t think this requires explanation.

Divine Favor – Draw 7 cards for 3 mana and watch your opponent concede.

Jungle Panther – See below about stealth.

Wolfrider – Charge

Truesilver Champion – This is basically your doomguard.

Consecrate – Your only chance against the zoo. Combo with equality to kill anything and everything.

Leeroy – Finisher. Not required. It’s sometimes possible to combo him with consecrate.

Avenging Wrath – PEW PEW PEW PEW PEW PEW PEW PEW

Stealth

I personally think stealth is undervalued by most of the community, at least in aggro decks. If you think about charge, the reason you include it is because the minion will almost always do some face damage, and then the opponent will trade a card/hero power for it. Stealth generally achieves the same thing, weaker against aoe but stronger vs taunts. Since they’re so similar, if a 3/1 charge for 3 is good then a 4/2 stealth for 3 is amazing. That’s just logic, folks.

Substitutes

All the charge and stealth minions are pretty flexible. More charge/stealth will make you better vs control, while tougher minions like scarlet crusader and harvest golem will make you stronger against zoo. Adjust the deck based on what you’re currently seeing at your rank.

Leeroy is a card I have mixed opinions on. He seems to win a lot of games for me as a finisher, but in others he will just sit in my hand forever. Dead cards are bad in any deck, but because of divine favor, 1 dead card is really worth 2 since that’s also 1 less card that you draw. Suitable replacements would be something like an argent commander, or possibly a dark iron dwarf.

Ironbeak Owl is another situational card, if you find yourself without many targets for it you should consider swapping it with something like blood knight.

General strategy

Rush face as hard as you can. This is not a zoo deck, you don’t care about board control. The goal is to send your minions to the face during your turn, and force the opponent to trade during his turn. Even if you get sub-optimal trades, card advantage doesn’t really matter in this deck. The existence of divine favor in the deck means that card advantage is sort of turned on its head. It’s sort of like every card you play before it gets cycled, so you need to get rid of them as fast as you can as though you’re playing spells into an auctioneer. You also want the opponent to keep lots of cards in his hand, so try to get him to use his hero power as much as you can. Just spoon-feed him value while doing face damage and you should have him below half health in around 4-5 turns. From there he will need to start playing very defensively due to fear of your charge minions, so just keep the pressure up and it will be hard to lose. Try to play divine favor on turn 5 with a 2-drop if you can. Playing DF on turn 3 is generally pretty bad.

Trading

In general, you should almost never trade. The big exception to this is your 3/2s. Faerie dragon and knife juggler can do an incredible amount of work if they are kept alive, so try to protect them at almost all costs. These are the main targets you want to shield with the Argent Protectors. Another important thing is to go to face with the Truesilver Champions. It can be very very tempting to hit a big creature and save your minions, but this is usually the wrong move. Each sword is better than a 4 attack charge minion, and the heal is very important to allow you to keep ignoring the enemy minions. I generally hit face with 3/4 of my weapon charges, and I often regret it when I attack minions. Taunt minions are an exception, especially druid of the claw.

Mulligans

Against control decks, try to mulligan for a faerie dragon and the protector, while against aggro decks you want to look for consecrate. You’ll also need something to play on turn 1 no matter what you’re facing. Against druid or handlock, it can be OK to keep equality. NEVER keep divine favor.

Matchups

Warlock – zoo: 50%. Consecrate is a must here. Try to be as greedy with it as you can without dying. Warlock – handlock: 90%. Set them to 10 as soon as you have equality and you’ll never lose (unless you don’t draw it). Miracle – 55%. You need to finish the game before turn 9. Faerie dragon is your friend here, but watch out for coin+toast. Druid – 50%. Plays out similar to handlock. Innervate + keeper will ruin your day, as will the healing from Ancient of Lore or Healing Touch Shaman – 50%. This is the one matchup where I try to keep the board clear. Watch out for lightning storm.

Thanks for your time, I hope you found this guide to be helpful. This is the first guide I’ve ever written, hopefully it’s somewhat coherent :)

I also just started streaming, so if you would like to see how I play or just ask for some general tips, you can follow me over at twitch.tv/4321pickle.