Deck List: ZenStyle Paladin Control

by JR Cook - 10 years ago     show comments

This is not a new deck list, per se. It actually dates back to November of last year, when I first threw together a Paladin control deck.

The point of this deck is relatively simple: survive. If you survive long enough and make intelligent trades, you’ll leave a frustrated, card starved opponent ripe for the picking through cards like Ragnaros, Tirion Fordring, Avenging Wrath, et cetera. The deck 100% relies on you drawing equality. If you don’t, you’ll likely lose. However, with clutch Equality plays and extreme patience, my Paladin control deck can beat out a lot of really tough opponents.

Why run this deck?

Paladin is not a favored class right now on the ladder. It hasn’t been for a while. Top players believe it’s too slow to deal with aggro, and while it can be, that appraisal’s also a bit dated, as I’ll discuss below. It’s also super reliant on combos, making it less than a sure thing when going against popular control decks such as Handlock. Despite these perceived issues, this deck can, and very much works at a high level of play, largely because it’s not factored into expectations, and players often don’t know what to do when they see a Paladin. This causes them to often misplay and that’s where you capitalize. In metagames where Paladins are not featured, take advantage of this deck.

Card List

ZenStyle Controladin by ZenStyle

Class: Paladin

Cards sorted by Low Cost

Paladin (17)

• Equality x2
• Holy Light x2
• Aldor Peacekeeper x2
• Truesilver Champion x2
• Consecration x2
• Hammer of Wrath
• Avenging Wrath x2
• Guardian of Kings x2
• Lay on Hands
• Tirion Fordring

Neutral (13)

• Acidic Swamp Ooze
• Wild Pyromancer x2
• Big Game Hunter
• Sen’jin Shieldmasta x2
• Spellbreaker
• Azure Drake x2
• Faceless Manipulator
• Sunwalker
• The Black Knight
• Ragnaros the Firelord

Early Game

Similar to Miracle Rogue, the early game is all about finding your combo pieces and establishing a board presence where possible. Never, ever, ever coin into your hero power, even against Zoo. Under no circumstances do it. This deck needs to get to turn four as quickly as possible. That’s where Sen’jins, Truesilvers, Consecrations and Spellbreaker become available. Save the coin for that. Aldor Peacekeeper is a neat card in here because it’s good in a lot of circumstances. Against Handlocks, Aldor Peacekeeper is great on Twilight Drakes, because silencing them doesn’t help the owner much. Aldor Peacekeeper is great in Zoo against Flame Imps, Doomguards, et cetera. Since we’re not running Stampeding Kodos in this iteration, go nuts. Peacekeeper wherever it helps you stay alive. Pyromancers need to be held on to to combo with Equality or Consecration. Acidic Swamp Ooze can be thrown on the board early on to pressure opponents, assuming you know they won’t have weapons. Big Game Hunter is there for Handlock, basically, or a Druid who Marks of the Wild something, or the errant Ragnaros in Trump’s F2P Mage deck.

In the early game, just try and survive. Holy Light where you have to, make tokens, don’t waste valuable commodities removing early game threats. Your ideal opening hand depends a lot on your matchup, but in general, keep Equalities, Truesilver Champions and Consecrations. Don’t hold on to the big end game stuff, unless it’s Handlock, then feel free to keep an Avenging Wrath.

Example of a Good Hand

I drew this opening hand against a Warlock, and it’s great for Handlock or Zoo. Equality gives me a bail out option. Consecration lets me do a lot of board clearing come turn four. Both can be combined on turn six to take out bigger threats. Big Game Hunter assures me an answer to a turn four Mountain Giant, and Aldor Peacekeeper is incredibly flexible all over. A+ hand.

Midgame

Azure Drake is in this deck for a couple of reasons. The included Spell Damage is solid for Consecration, Hammer of Wrath and even Avenging Wrath. Control Paladins have issues with card draw. More importantly though, it’s something you can throw on the board in order to develop position. Control deck are full of answers, but it also needs to have a couple of questions in them. The question marks here are Sen’jin Shieldmasta, Azure Drake, Sunwalker, Guadian of Kings, Ragnaros and Tirion. When the board’s clear, drop one of these creatures and force your opponent to react. All of these minions are fairly beefy and will require attention.

Always try and keep the board clear, but don’t throw cards away to do it. Be as intelligent as possible. If you’re facing a Shaman and all that Shaman has is totems, don’t waste a board clear. Shamans are not running Bloodlust at present, so those totems are not super dangerous. Be aware that a Flametongue Totem or Defender of Argus can change that, but don’t go overboard. Your goal here is to whittle them down while keeping yourself topped off.

Late Game

Upon hitting turn eight, you have enough mana for the Equality/Avenging Wrath combo. It’s brutal, and can single-handedly win you games, especially against Handlock. Try and set yourself up in a position to have a decent board so that you can combo and then swing with Guardian of Kings, Azure Drakes and tokens. This is how you’ll win the majority of your games. Ragnaros is always a win condition, and a dead Tirion can give you just the weapon you need to make short work of your foe. Faceless Manipulator is a nice feather in your hat when it comes to neutralizing a Ragnaros, Baron Geddon, et cetera. Again, the name of the game is to get as much value as possible out of your large supply of board clears.

Favorable Matchups

• Midrange (Shaman, Druid, Mage)
• Creature Heavy Miracle Rogue
• Control Warrior

Questionable Matchups

• Druid tokens
• Miracle Rogue
• Handlock
• Zoo Warlock

Bad Matchups

• Priest
• Paladin Aggro