12-Win Paladin Arena Deck: Goblins vs Gnomes Edition

It's been a while since I reported on a 12-win Arena deck, so when I put together my first full-value run since Goblins vs Gnomes dropped, I figured I should tell my readers all about it.

Oh yeah!

Picture a good Paladin deck. It probably has a pair of Consecrations and at least as many Truesilvers Champion. But this deck had none of either. Weird, right? The last 12-win Paladin run I wrote about was similar. It had a bunch of natural two-for-ones, only one Truesilver Champion and no Consecrations. This time, I got a tremendous tempo deck that provided bountiful two-for-ones, good stats for the mana, and actually not that many tricks.

Twelve win mage deck

I had a great run as a mage recently. Here's the list: 

Great curve, good mass removal, only a few weak spots, namely Ice Lance, Mana Wraith, Tauren Warrior, Archmage and Frost Elemental.

Even those weak cards are pretty decent with the Mage abilitiy and unique class cards.

I lost to Druid and Warrior, while beating 3x Paladin, 3x Druid, 2x Rogue, 2x Mage, Warrior, and Warlock.

Mage with enrage cards (and Gurubashi Berserker) is pretty sweet. It is like an option that is always available to you if you need the extra punch or if you opponent can't deal with the original stats. I also played the 2/3 taunter as a 5/2 taunter for 5 one time, which was pretty sweet against a yeti or whatever other large nonsense was across the table.

12-win Hunter deck breakdown

I used to think I knew what was good and what was bad in Hearthstone Arena. But then I drafted what I thought was an unexciting Hunter deck and as you already knew from the title of this post, cruised to a 12-2 record.

Let the Hunt Begin! For your consideration, here is the decklist:

Not that good-looking, right?

Even now, looking at the list, I can't figure out why it won. I have seven hunter-class cards, no beast theme, and plenty of chaff. Going in, I decided to skip out on all but the best Hunter cards and stick to beefy neutral guys.

I chose Hunter over Druid and Warrior because I had two daily quests for that class and I am all about killing two birds with one stone. Early on in the draft, I passed up on Scavenging Hyena and then immediately following that, skipped a Starving Buzzard. Those guys can be conditionally great and if I already had a couple Unleash the Hounds, then I would be all for it (don't play one in game without the other if you can). But early in the draft, I picked solid neutral minions instead.

Cards that were crap most of the time:

• Young Priestess - So much worse than Blood Imp. She was up against Master Swordsmith and Alarm-o-bot, and I'm not in love with extra power, so I tried her out. I thought I might get some taunt to protect her, but that never happened.
• Leper Gnome - This ugly little guy feels better than the priestess, but he's actually just worse, right? I think since he has no big upside I don't mind trading him off early, even for a hero power because it gains me tempo.
• Explosive Trap - The way I play, I don't leave a bunch of 2-toughness dudes on the other side of the board. This was great against one shaman and I set it up with my warrior opponent on 2, but otherwise it was a sometimes one-for-one.
• Questing Adventurer - One time he got big and dominated, but otherwise he just sat in my hand until I played him and one other card late in the game. In Rogue he can be sweet early.

Hunter cards that stood out as good value:

• Unleash the Hounds - The current version is strong to very strong. Once I picked up my second one, I started looking for beast and neutral combos. I only found one Cult Master and one Stormwind Champion, but they made this good spell backbreaking.
• Deadly Shot - Since I play for board control, this is a real sweet removal spell. I did not cast it one time where the Random Number Generator came into play. It likes to take out real big dudes that can't be dealt with otherwise and usually at a mana advantage.
• Eaglehorn Bow - Number of times the secret trigger happened: 0. Number of times I cared: 0. If Fiery War Axe cost 3, I would still run it ALL DAY LONG.
• Beast Command - If you don't already know, this thing can turn up one of three beasts that are all really good for 3 mana, but you have no control over which you get: 4/4 taunt, 4/2 charge, or 2/4 with the Raid Leader ability. 
• Savannah Highmane - Is this a nod to Savannah Lion? I hope not; it is much stronger, obviously. Maybe Blizzard is poking fun at MtG because a lion should be so much stronger than a 2/1.

Otherwise I had a bunch of strong neutral minions: see 2x Yeti, 3x 3/3s for 3 with upside, Stormwind Champion, Frostwolf Warlord, Acidic Swamp Ooze, 2x two-mana card drawers and two pandas. My style is to play a Wolf Rider or a Swamp Ooze or a Novice Enigneer, then immediately Panda it back to keep it from being vulnerable.

Memorable plays:

• In round 11 against a shaman, Villain had a 2-power weapon, a cult master, and a shielded Argent Commander against my lone fresh Savannah Highmane. He attacked my face and left me at 6. On my turn, I got a 6/6 for three, taking the divine shield away, Oozed his weapon, and Unleashed two Hounds to kill his weapon, the Cult Master, and the Commander, leaving me with a 6/1 lion and a 6/6 knight, I didn't have enough mana to Cult Master also, but it was in my hand.
• In round 13, Instead of controlling the board, I got a warrior down to 2 with an Explosive Trap set but had burned through almost all of my cards in hand and the Villain had a big board presence. This may have been wrong. He saw the trap for what it was and did not attack, but he was locked unless he could gain some more life since his ability of gain two life cancels out my deal two to his face. I just needed to draw a hasty creature or weapon. The charge minion could be negated by taunters, but I got beast command and got the right guy to face him. 
• In round 14, my paladin opponent cast t1 Abusive Sergeant, t2 Blessing of Wisdom. I did the only thing in my power, which was to Unleash a single Hound on my t2 to trade one-for-one, since Villain already drew a card. Villain got me down to 2 life and thought he had it won, but I stabilized with a timely Dark Iron buff and my weapon and I won at 2.

Cult Master plus Unleash the Hounds won several matches on the back of raw card advantage. Unleash also plays good board control when things start to get out of hand, usually if a Villain gets some tasty trades that leave him with high-power, low-toughness minions.

I won 3x warrior, 3x shaman, 2x paladin, warlock, priest, mage, and rogue. I lost against a druid and a paladin. 330 gold loot drop, plus 100 gold from quests makes for a successful run.

Successful Paladin Decks - Hearthstone Arena

So I've been fiddling around in the closed Hearthstone beta, which has caused a lack of Magic: the Gathering content. I find that many Magic skills translate over to the Arena (Hearthstone limited), namely card advantage, board control, and mana curve.

I will fight with honor.

I've had particular success with the paladin class, which has a hero power of creating a 1/1. I will share a couple decklists and go over some play decisions.

When I'm drafting, I look for efficient, certain two-for-ones first, then inefficient or potential two-for-ones, then minions with solid stats. When putting together a control deck premium taunt minions and divine shield are usually high picks. Sometimes the Arena throws you a curveball of three terrible choices, but most of the time, there is at least a usable pick to be made.

I call this my divine shield theme deck:

Divine Shield guys/abilities
Argent Protector x2
Scarlet Crusader x3
Argent Commander x4

• My weakest cards were: Murloc Tidehunter, Booty Bay Bodyguard, and Blessing of Kings
• Obvious strong cards include Truesilver Champion, Dark Iron Dwarf, Spellbreaker and Kodo.
• The Argent Protectors and Commanders were amazing (even after the health was nerfed to 2 on the commander)
• Three Shieldmastas locked down the Villain's choices completely.

Check out this board state and try to imagine losing from here:

Boom-booms incoming!

I could care less that Rogue villain has a hand full of cards. I have a hand full of hasty two-for-ones at the least. And it is only my turn 4!

The Divine Shield deck went 9-3, losing to mage, shaman, and the mirror. We bested two shamen, two rogues, druid, priest, hunter, mage and warrior.

A few days later, I went back to the paladin and had quite the draft. I was VERY pleased with this deck. Again there was a theme, but not divine shield. This time, nearly every single card was a straight two-for-one or at least enabled easy two-for-ones in the right situation.

Zero Consecration in two drafts!

All of the one-drop spells outperformed expectations.

• Blessing of Wisdom enchants your guys into Ophidians. This means if they attack once, it cycles for 1. If it lives to attack again <cough, divine shield, cough>, you are in the money.
• Hand of Protection turns a trade boardstate into a one-mana removal spell. 
• Think of Noble Sacrifice as super taunt. Villain cannot remove the secret blocker, so in most cases they are powerless, even if they correctly identify its nature. It can protect lethal on-board damage or a minion or two that only has one or two health remaining. 

Powerful neutral minions:

• Acidic Swamp Ooze
• Faerie Dragon
• Shattered Sun Cleric
• Dark Iron Dwarf
• Gnomish Inventor
• Spellbreaker
• Silver Hand Knight
• Boulderfist Ogre

Hammer of Wrath is great in the late game. Kill a guy, draw a card, profit!
Don't sleep on Boulderfist. He's like a super-sized Chillwind Yeti. It's a natural two-for-one because it will usually take two decent-sized dudes to take him down.
See above for thoughts on Argent Commander.

The only taunt I had in the deck was Sunfury Protector and Noble Sacrifice. I usually don't leave home without Shieldmasta, but it was no problem, since the various Battle Cry effects kept a strong grip on board control.

How did we do?

Arena ends after 3 losses or 12 wins, whichever comes first. Yay!

We beat mage, hunter, druid, then lost to shaman and mage, then rolled off nine straight wins against 2x hunter, 2x mage, 2x paladin, rogue, warrior and warlock.

And now the loot drop (WoW nerds, am I saying that correctly?)

Ka-ching!

All that and a gold Dire Wolf (ah-oooooo!) I am really digging this game. Time to jump back into the arena!