by Parralelex

How would you like to play a deck that is heavily draw dependent, somewhat uninteractive in nature, has a combo that is RNG dependent, and isn’t great at beating hunters?

Well, look no further than Exodia Paladin!

Decklist:

Total Dust: 12140

Deck Code: AAECAZ8FCO0Fzwa5wQKO0wLj4wLD6gL9+wK9hgMLugH7AdwD9AX2B4jHAuPLAu3SAvjSAs+GA+yGAwA=

Proof of legend: https://imgur.com/NNU41fn

The goal of this deck is pretty simple: Play Uther of the Ebon Blade, then add 3 of the 4 horsemen to your hand via Zola and the Ancient Brewmasters. Aiding in this gameplan is a ridiculous draw engine courtesy of Call to Arms, enough healing to make Reno Jackson blush and the ability to even stall out some other combo decks due to Time Out!.

Card Choices

First off is the CtA package: 2x Righteous Protector, Bloodmage Thalnos, Crystalsmith Kangor, 2x Loot Hoarder, 2x Wild Pyromancer, and 2x CtA. Each 1-2 drop serves an important purpose: Righteous Protector stalls out the game with incredible efficiency at 1 mana, Thalnos and the Loot Hoarders (which is also the name of that new band playing at the local dive) cycle themselves, Crystalsmith Kangor is incredibly threatening to any deck that wants to actually reduce your health to 0 (and pairs quite nicely with Spikeridged Steed), and Equality is a card that exists so Wild Pyromancer is also in the deck. The power level of CtA in this deck can hardly be overstated. Mulligan for it very aggressively in nearly every matchup and play it as soon as you can, because it becomes worse the more 1-2 drops you draw naturally.

Now, for the actual combo itself: Uther of the Ebon Blade, Zola the Gorgon, 2x Ancient Brewmaster. As stated before, the goal is to get 3 unique horsemen into your hand, then to play all 3 and then hero power for the win. The way that Uther’s hero power works is that he will summon a random horseman that is currently not on your side of the field. This means that while the first bounce to your hand is guaranteed to be unique, the second hero power has a 33.33% chance of duplication and the third will duplicate half of the time. This means that it will take you an average of 4.5 turns to put 3 horsemen into your hand. This is the luck part of the combo, and there isn’t a whole lot you can do to mitigate it beyond putting yourself into a position where a few hero power whiffs won’t cost you (if possible). What makes this combo work regardless is often Uther’s weapon: an incredibly powerful tool that can often buy you multiple turns on its own while you’re busy doing nothing but adding horsemen to your hand. Don’t waste weapon charges frivolously on this weapon, especially if you don’t get max healing out of it.

As for the rest of the cards, most of them aren’t terribly exciting. Equality is there because this is a paladin deck that is not odd; Flash of Light is great for cycling, healing, and (sometimes) buffing Lynessa; Potion of Heroism is there to cycle and also buff Lynessa; Time Out! is paladin’s worse Ice Block (but a worse ice block is still fantastic); Consecration is there because this is a paladin deck that is not odd; Truesilverhelps control the board against mid-range creatures; Steed is there because this is a paladin deck that is not odd; Tarim is there because this is a paladin deck that is not odd (and also has great synergy with CtA); and Lynessaenters the battlefield emitting two brilliant Flashes of Light, glowing with twice as much Heroism as those around her, and riding two Spikeridged Steeds for some reason. You’d think one would be enough.

Oh yeah, and Shrivallah is a 0 mana kill nearly any minion, summon a 7/5 with lifesteal and heal for 7. It’s sickening how good she is.

Some cards to consider that I can’t find space for are a second Truesilver and a single copy of Aldor Peacekeeper. Aldor Peackeeper in particular is great against Odd Paladin as it can nearly nullify a buffed Frostwolf Warlord without using valuable removal you may not even have. I used Aldor instead of Lynessa when I didn’t have her, so if you don’t have or don’t like her Aldor would be my choice instead.

Some general tips:

1. If you aren’t playing Uther on turn 9, there better be a darn good reason. “I’ll die if I play him!” is a good enough reason. “I haven’t drawn him yet!” just means you need to get better at drawing cards in the right order.
2. The combo is not your only win condition. Common alternative ways to win are a wide board into Sunkeeper Tarim, and using Uther’s weapon to deal up to 15 face damage. In the case of SMOrcing with Uther (New York Times #1 bestseller!), you can use Time Out!’s offensively to give you the time needed to connect 3 times. It’s more of a desperation play, but sometimes it’s the clearest (or only) path to victory. Simply exhausting your opponent’s resources is another way to win, as they eventually won’t be able to deal with your horsemen anymore.
3. Every horseman on the field is a threat to the opponent. Horses on the board that match those in your hand increase the likelihood of rolling a unique horse, and unique horses on the field can lead to losing the old fashioned way when you simply summon all 4 a turn earlier than expected. Zola’s “bounce” is the only one of your bounces that also leaves the card on the field. Carefully consider when to use a Zola bounce verses a Brewmaster bounce (use Zola for when dealing with the 2/2 on board would be especially tricky for your opponent). Something you can do if you have a lot of leftover mana is Zola your first horse, then Brewmaster the Zola. This lets you use Zola twice, which leaves behind must-kill targets each time. (There’s nearly no point in doing it the third time, because by then you just have the combo, so you don’t care much if the third horse on board lives or dies)
4. Time Out! can be multipurpose. Its obvious use is to protect you during the final few turns when you’re bouncing cards into your hand. But it can be used to stall for a turn earlier in the game (if you’re either being greedy with your removal or desperately hoping to topdeck a piece of it) and also act as a heal when used before swinging a weapon. And as said before, it can be used offensively in protecting you while you SMOrc.
5. Healing a minion at full health instead of your face with Flash of Light is sometimes correct because it allows Lynessa to draw an additional card.

Unfortunately, I don’t use anything that tracks my stats, so I don’t know the percentages that I personally had with each decks. That said, I have a general feel for how these matchups go and, more importantly in my opinion, what to do in each matchup to win. I’ll be covering the most common matchups I saw on my way to Legend, so there might be a few relatively obscure ones I missed.

Matchups:

My rating for matchups is as follows:

1. Very Favored: “free win”, basically. Everything would have to go right for your opponent to even have a chance.
2. Favored: You have the clear advantage, but losses aren’t unheard of.
3. Slightly Favored: You’ll win more than you lose, but not a lot of things have to go wrong for your opponent to take the game from you.
4. Even: A coin flip. (Like all of hearthstone amirite)
5. Slightly Unfavored: You’re on the backfoot from the start, but a slight hiccup in their gameplan can turn the tide in your favor.
6. Unfavored: A lot has to go right for you to win this matchup.
7. Very Unfavored: Their deck counters yours.

When I say something like “Slightly Favored – Even”, it means I think the matchup is either Slightly Favored or Even for you, and not quite sure which.

Hunter

Hunter is nearly a third of the meta right now. Which means your chance of your opponent being Hunter is nearly equal to your chance of duplicating when creating your second horseman. And who says Statistics aren’t fun!

A tip for any Hunter matchup: play around Snipe if possible. Some hunter decks run a copy or two, and it can always be discovered off of Secret Plan or one of the random spells generated by Rhok’ledar. A smart hunter player will wait until you have all 3 horsemen in your hand, then play snipe. You can counter this by not playing a minion until they play snipe, then playing it first.

Spell Hunter:

Difficulty: Even – Somewhat Unfavored

Mulligan for: CtA, Uther, Sunkeeper Tarim if you have CtA

Don’t attack into secrets unless something is gained from doing so. They can have trouble dealing with a wide board of 1/1’s if they don’t draw candleshot. If a buffed spellstone comes down early, your possible answers are Tarim on a wide board, pyro/conc, pyro/equal, thalnos/conc. A super early Rexxar can be a little threatening but typically isn’t too bad because you aren’t trying to outvalue him usually, and the generated beasts are often too little too late. If he’s casted a lot of spells try to save a board wipe for Zul’jin. If you can play Uther in a relatively safe position, you’re probably going to win. Sometimes they candleshot into double secret into turn 5 spellstone and then you’re sad and also dead.

Beast Hunter:

Difficulty: Unfavored

Mulligan for: A guaranteed board wipe (pyro equality preferably), Truesilver, CtA, Uther

This matchup is entirely dependent on how they draw. If they have early game pressure and a Hyena, you’re in for a rough time. Staying alive is the number 1 priority, and if an early Scavenging Hyena gets buffed you need to kill it by nearly any means necessary. Springpaw will tear through your Righteous Protectors like tissue paper and are a great way for your opponent to supercharge their Hyena. If you’ve stabilized in the late game, congrats! Now you get to deal with Highmanes, Tundra Rhino’s and Dire Frenzy’d beasts (have fun with 2 mana 5/5 Hyena’s). That said, outlasting a beast hunter is not impossible and you can run them out of resources if they don’t draw Rexxar early enough, considering you survive that long.

Egg Hunter:

Difficulty: Very Unfavored

Mulligan for: CtA, Uther, a board wipe, a card that disables your opponent’s internet because honestly that’s your best shot at this point

The only real tip I can give you is to try and deny deathrattle value whenever possible. Equality combos are great at dealing with any board state… that doesn’t involve deathrattles. If you can limit or eliminate the deathrattles, you might have a chance. The problem is they have a LOT of fantastic cube targets (the Devilsaur that pops out of the egg, Zilliax to some extent, Witchwood Grizzly, Charged Devilsaur, King Krush), so if they can cube + play dead even ONE of those, you’re on the back foot fast. Also, Kathrena is a death sentence to your deck. I have won this matchup before, but only due to some quite bad draws from the opponent and an early Lynessa that had two steed’s on it slowing the game down BARELY enough for me to win. Also if I had gotten any duplicates from Uther’s hero power I would have lost.

Not a fun matchup for you.

Priest

Priests have Psychic Scream. Don’t let your 1/1 dudes get Psychic Screamed if you can avoid it. This may even mean not hero powering on some turns when you have the mana.

Zerek Priest

Difficulty: Unfavored

Mulligan for: CtA, Uther, Card Draw

They get their combo before you, usually. Not a lot you can do about it. Don’t get Psychic Scream’d too hard, which may involve killing off your own minions via Pyro and a spell. Casting CtA with a Pyro on board is often correct in order to kill off your cycle minions before they can get Scream’d. Sometimes they kill you on turn 9 when they Zerek into Radiant, Maly and Velen and have coins from gargoyles. Usually, they’ll kill you later though with an upgraded spellstone. Trying to be fancy with Time Out! won’t lead to any success because if they could kill you one turn they can kill you the next turn, too. Just use it on the second and third successful bounces of horsemen.

Dragon Priest

Difficulty: Even

Mulligan for: CtA, Uther, a board wipe

This matchup is very interesting. Their plan is to pressure you in the early game, then finish you with burst from mind blast’s and Anduin’s hero power. You will lose the early game, so you need a board wipe in order to take it back at some point. Clerics are threatening, don’t hero power against them. Just stay off the board until you can wipe the cleric’s out guaranteed.

The intersting part of the matchup comes after you’ve started your combo. Your goal here is to stay above their kill range using as few heals as possible to do so. Important damage numbers to keep in mind are 10 (two mind blasts), 15 (three mind blasts), 16 (two mind blasts with Anduin hero power) and 19 (three mind blasts with Aundin hero power). Also, Alextraza is in the deck and acts as a way to get you into kill range, so you have to save some heal for her (typically you can hold onto Shirvallah and get 1 extra point of damage in order to take Alex out and heal considerably). As long as you’re at 20 or above you’re probably safe, 17 or above if you know they don’t have a mind blast from Shadow Visions. Playing around 4 mind blasts is a bit tough and probably not worth it.

Warrior

Who would win: The previous ruler of the horde behind a veritable mountain of armor: Or, some horsey boys?

Odd Warrior

Difficulty: Very Favored

Mulligan for: CtA, Uther, a relaxing book

You would have to try to lose this matchup, and pretty hard. Odd warrior has no way of dealing any amount of pressure, and the only thing their armor gives them is the ability to wipe your board and yours with Reckless Fury, which you probably want because it’ll trigger deathrattle cycle. Be greedy with your board wipes, because typically their burst from hand is… 1, with Supercollider. Just keep the board relatively under control and you nearly can’t lose.

Odd Quest Warrior

Difficulty: Favored

Mulligan for: CtA, Uther

In theory, a properly aggressive quest warrior could look to finish their quest as early as possible and try and burst you down, giving them a much better shot than a pure Odd Warrior to beat you. In practice, the few times my opponents ever did this they still weren’t able to come up with enough actual pressure to stop the combo. This plays very similar to the Odd Warrior matchup except you have to be a bit more worried about their board, and you’re put on a bit of a clock when Sulfuras comes out.

Rush Warrior

Difficulty: Slightly Favored – Even

Mulligan for: CtA, Uther, Truesilver, A board wipe if you have one of two pieces

This is a warrior deck that can actually supply decent pressure. Unfortunately for them, rush minions can’t go face, which limits their potential burst. This plays out very similarly to most other decks in that your goal is to control their pressure and efficiently eliminate their threats. If they run Frothing that’s a must kill because Razor Blade can turn him massive in a hurry. Akali, the Rhino can create a massive threat late game so saving a board wipe for the minion drawn by him should be something to consider.

Paladin

Hey, now who’s this handsome devil?

Exodia Paladin (the mirror)

Difficulty: Unfavor-I mean, Even

Mulligan for: CtA, Uther (literally throw every single other card away if you know it’s the mirror)

The person who gets their combo first is, by default, the better Hearthstone player. Seriously though, just cycle like mad. 90% of the time neither of you can put up enough of a board state to threaten the other even if you wanted to.

Shirvallah Combo Paladin (I consider this any deck with a win condition of playing Shirvallah, shuffling it into your deck, using Holy Wrath to deal 25 damage, and then doing the same again. There is a variant of this deck that includes both this win condition and the Exodia win condition of playing 4 horsemen in one turn. From this deck’s perspective, both play out the same, so they’re both represented in this section)

Difficulty: Slightly Favored

Mulligan for: CtA, Uther, Shirvallah if you’re 100% sure of the matchup (but even then you typically draw her in time)

This matchup is very similar to the mirror in that the default way to win is to execute your combo before theirs. However, with proper planning you can actually outlast their Shirvallah combo. The key to surviving their Shirvallah combo is to outheal it with your own Shirvallah, using your bouncers not to bounce horsemen back to your hand but to bounce Shirvallah for repeated and massive heals. This, along with Time Out! played on the turn directly after being Wrath’d, can heal you enough that you’ll survive the second Holy Wrath. By then, if you can gain control of the board, you win as your opponent has most likely blown their only real shot at beating you, unless they ALSO run the exodia combo, in which case it ain’t over yet. The reason this matchup is slightly favored is that you have an alternate win condition (outlasting their win condition) along with your own combo that can’t be stopped by them.

Odd Paladin

Difficulty: Slightly Favored – Even

Mulligan for: CtA, Uther, Wild Pyromancer (even without a board wipe), Equality

The dudes are a lot less threatening on their own due to the Level Up! nerf, but they still have Frostwolf Warlord which can be quite dangerous if not dealt with. Don’t expect pyro to live more than one turn, because it’ll probably get shot down by a maul. That said, removing his 1/1’s right before a Warlord turn can significantly slow down the battle, so you have to weigh that with the option of using pyro with equality sometime later in the match. Spikeridged Steed is one way you can win back the board, especially if you can play Lynessa buffed with both Steed’s. Be wary of a potential Ironbeak Owl, I’m not sure how common they are in Odd Paladin but at least some people will run it and it could screw you over.

Mage

Typically on the slower end, giving you time to pull off your combo. Water Elementals can give you a bit of a headache when they freeze Uther’s weapon, so try to make Elemental generation difficult if they play Jania.

Spellemental Mage (That is, elemental mage that also runs spells, as opposed to the elemental mage variant that only runs Book of Specters. get it its a pun)

Difficulty: Favored

Mulligan for: CtA, Uther

A lot of this deck’s best cards (Meteor, Polymorph, Voodoo Doll, Dragon’s Fury, and Jania to some extent) are at their worst when going against you, primarily because they are mostly reactive, giving you plenty of time. These decks sometimes run a Pyroblast, so be wary of having your health dip too low, but as long as you can stay out of blast range you should be golden. Explosive Trap is a card that can theoretically screw you over if they play it the turn before you pull off your combo, but I don’t believe this deck in particular runs it very often, so it’s probably not worth playing around in most situations.

Pure elemental Mage (the variant that runs only Book of Specters)

Difficulty: Slightly Favored – Even

Mulligan for: CtA, Uther, Equality to deal with Mountain Giants (usually just equality will deal with a very early giant as you’ll probably have a dude on the board)

This decks’ pressure can be pretty good against you, and Blazecaller gives it non-trivial reach, but barring an early Mountain Giant or you not drawing a board wipe early enough, you can most likely survive the onslaught long enough to play Uther in a relatively safe situation. That and Shirvallah will probably provide enough healing and removal to keep them from threatening your life total, and then you just press the horsey button to victory.

Odd Mage

Difficulty: Slightly Unfavored (probably? I’m guessing here, haven’t faced them with this deck that much)

Mulligan for: CtA, Uther, Truesilver, a board wipe

The upgraded hero power isn’t the best against your already 1 health minions, but their consistent board presence at all stages of the game along with a hero power that can at any time do its best impression of Rexxar and start going face means that you’ll probably be struggling at any point in the game. Jan’alai is worrying enough, but add in the fact that by the time she comes down you’ve probably been forced to use your board wipes already, and she becomes a lot more threatening. Try to save a board wipe for her, as difficult as that may be in some games. Sometimes the run Jan’alai and Zola, which is bad because two Ragnaroses (Ragnaros’s? Ragnarosi?) but also means they have to wait until turn 10 to play their first one. You’re probably relatively glad to see them play Jania, as it not only cuts their potential reach but also keeps your horses on the board much safer. And remember, if a strange man breathing fire welcomes you to the show, politely decline.

Quest Mage

Difficulty: Unfavored – Very Unfavored

Mulligan for: CtA, Uther, card draw

They get their combo before you do most of the time. Also, they run double Research Project so you’ll also most likely mill a bunch of cards. The only real good news here is that Time Out! will actually stop their combo dead in its tracks, which may give you just enough turns to pull of your kill instead. Another potential way to win is to pressure them as much as possible, create a large board that threatens lethal and that they also can’t deal with, and then cast Time Out!. They won’t be able to kill you with their infinite fireballs, and so will be forced to play their combo to wipe your board instead. Then, you just have to wipe their board with pyro/equality or equality/conc. Probably easier said than done.

Warlock

Zoolock

Difficulty: Unfavored (probably, again not a common matchup)

Mulligan for: CtA, Uther, Truesilver Champion, a board wipe

This matchup depends more on how they draw than how you do. If they curve out well or have an early Keleseth you’ll be put on the back foot pretty quick and will need an early board wipe or Call to Arms in order to survive. They have a lot of potential reach with cards like Doomguard and Lifedrinker, so keeping yourself healthy is important. Playing a Time Out! early can be worth it to prevent damage and slow the game down. Your opponent probably won’t extend further cards into a Time Out! but every extra turn the game takes is a good thing for you. Steeds are a pain for them to get through if they don’t have owl, so try to set things up so you can get one turn 6. You win by stabilizing, not necessarily by pulling off the combo, which means in rare situations it might be appropriate to Zola or Brewmaster a Shirvallah in order to help wipe their board. Their self damage also means that if and when you win the board you can reverse lethal fairly quickly.

Mecha’thun lock

Difficulty: Very Unfavored

Mulligan for: CtA, Uther, Card draw

They will get their combo faster than you, and then win. You have to try to pressure their life total in order to slow them down, but even if they draw kind of well they will be able to shut that down quick. Your worst matchup, even worse than Egg hunter.

Rogue

Odd Rogue

Difficulty: Even – Slightly Unfavored

Mulligan for: CtA, Uther, Truesilver, a board wipe

Standard try and avoid their onslaught matchup. Truesilver is at its best here because it can chop down both Henchlan Thug and Vicious Fledgeling before they grow out of control. Try to keep the amount of minions on board to a minimum to play around Fungalmancer. If they ignore too many of your minions Tarim can be a blow out to them if you use it to trade. Careful about relying on Tarim’s taunt to prevent lethal: Vilespine Slayer can get through it quite easily, but has a much harder time with Steed. Either they kill you or you run them out of resources. Either way, the game will most likely end before the combo is played.

Pirate Rogue

Difficulty: Unfavored – Very Unfavored

Mulligan for: CtA, Uther, Truesilver, a board wipe

Like Odd Rogue, but Captain Hooktusk will nearly guarantee that they’ll almost never run out of steam. The deck provides too consistent pressure for too long for you to be able to keep up. You probably have to play as if they don’t draw Hooktusk at any point in the game. Keep in mind that if they have a Southsea Captain on board, pyro/equal is no longer a board wipe. You need either equal/conc or two pyro’s plus equality.

Shaman

Even Shaman

Difficulty: Even

Mulligan for: CtA, Uther, a board wipe

The key cards you have to worry about are Flametongue Totem, Corpsetaker, Al’akir and Mountain Giant. Of those, Corpsetaker is the only one that will survive your board wipes, so try to keep a minion alive before their turn 4 so that you can trade it into the Corpsetaker and make her a bit less threatening. The key here is to be just greedy enough with your board wipes: Too soon, and they’ll be able to simply flood the board again, but too late and you’ll be too susceptible to burst from Al’akir/Fire Elemental/Argent Commander.

Well, that’s it for this probably far too long deck guide. Hopefully you learned something, and maybe if you haven’t already you’ll give the deck a try and find it fun like I did.