Fade2Karma Deck of the Week: Midrange Paladin

by JR Cook - 8 years ago     show comments

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Written by @F2K_Chalk

Every week the pros from team Fade2Karma break down the “Deck of the Week.” These decks are seeing a lot of play either in constructed ladder or tournaments. Team F2K explain the deck lists and how to play them. View past Deck Lists of the Week.

Why Mid Pal?

A few weeks ago every Pal we were seeing was the secret variant, but over the last few weeks Midrange Pal has started to emerge as a top ladder deck, with good match-ups vs many of the most played ladder decks and some especially hard counts like aggro druid and control warrior. Paladin also gained Keeper of Uldaman in the last wing of the expansion a flexible card that can act as either removal for a threat or like a hound-master on your recruits giving you tempo when dropped on curve. The deck is also very fun to play as almost everything you do involves minion interaction.

With only two days of playing I was able to pilot this deck on stream all the way to Leg being seeded right into #8 on the EU server never falling back a rank. (http://www.twitch.tv/cipherhs/v/23939056)

Win Conditions

When first looking at this deck, it is very hard to see a clear plan towards ending a game. There’s no chargers into burn for finish or an Alex+Grom combo. That’s because this is a control deck–you win by denying your opponents win condition, and then build a board state they can no longer deal with and beat them down.

Vs Aggro

The trick to dealing with aggro is using you super-efficient early game minion such as Chow, Minibot, Muster for Battle and Coghammer to trade early on. These minions will often leave you ahead on board by turn 3-4, at which point you can put up a taunt to protect your life total and ride out the game to victory.

Vs Control

Control is harder to deal with as this deck is very susceptible to board wipes, like Brawl and Shadowflame. Luckily this deck has a few ways to re-flood the board such as Murloc knight+heropower and Muster+Quartermaster. The most important thing to keep in mind when playing control is what threats do you need to deal with, save your Peacekeeps for Giants, Equality for Ysera, etc. Apart from that, you want to be putting on pressure without overextending. This deck had little card draw so use your minions wisely, sometimes a Heropower is better than a Minibot in the lategame.

Deck Lists

The first list is designed to have a good win rate vs aggro

The second list is for countering handlock/CW

The third list is an all-round list I used to climb ladder

NOTE***: Since this article will come out post-Adventure, it’s worth noting you should be playing two of the new paladin four drop (Keeper of Uldaman) over Argus/Lotheb/Murloc-Knight. I haven’t had time to test what best to cut, so experiment on your own.

Match-up’s

• Face Hunter – Unfavoured
• Mid Hunter – Even
• Secret Pal – Dlightly Unfavoured
• Control War – Favoured
• Patron warrior – Unfavoured
• Druid – Favoured
• Aggro Druid – Favoured
• Dragon priest – Even
• Tempo Mage – Unflavoured
• Freezemage – Unflavoured
• Zoo – Favoured
• Handlock – Even

Final Thoughts

I highly suggest trying this deck if you’re looking for an around ladder deck. Midrange Pal has the tools to deal with both control and aggro, and with experience can bring you to the top of the ladder. Furthermore, with the correct deck choices it’s possible to make the deck favoured vs just about anything in the game. If all you’re playing is face hunter, simply add two Healbots, vs Handlock add two Equality’s, etc.

Follow me on Twitter (@F2K_Cipher) and Twitch (twitch.tv/CipherHS)

Shout outs to my team Fade2Karma (@Fade2Karma)