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Fade2Karma Deck of the Week: The Secret Paladin Destroyer

by - 8 years ago

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Written by @F2K_Dethelor

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.

Introduction

patron-win-percent

November 2015 win-rates: 31-7 vs. Secret Paladin

patron-deck-list-vs-secrets

Generic Mulligan

Against Aggro:
Unstable Ghoul and the Weapons are the best cards here. Keep these, as well as Armorsmiths and Acolytes. Playing a t2 Ghoul into t3 Acolyte is often enough to give you an advantage heading into the mid-game.

Against Midrange Decks:
Weapons + Acolyte of Pain should be the key cards here. If you are playing second against a deck such as Midrange Druid, it is correct to keep Death’s Bite, Inner Rage and Patron if you have these 3.

Against Control:
Acolyte of Pain, Death’s Bite and sometimes Patrons

Tech Choices

Cruel Taskmaster and the 2nd Shield Block can be replaced. Gnomish Inventor suits the deck really well especially in slower metas. Tried Fierce Monkey and it performed pretty well. I wouldn’t play Loatheb or Shredder in this deck since this list is all about consistency and survivability.

Matchups

Secret Paladin – Extremely Favorable

This is our bread and butter match-up. DO NOT trigger secrets unless you can punish them in the same turn. The 2 key aspects are board presence and tempo. You can easily turn a game around because we don’t play any situational/bad cards for the matchup such as Shredder or Loatheb. Turn 2 Ghoul into turn 3 Acolyte/Frothing is huge. Save Executes for Doctor 6/7/8 and punish them with Patrons as early as possible. You will be usually able to do insane tempo plays at turns 5-9 and singlehandedly win the game.

Control Warrior – Unfavorable

Control Warrior is our hardest match-up but I’ve still managed to win around 35% of the games by forcing them to Brawl early. More often than not you can beat them if they don’t get the early Justicar. You need to draw your deck quickly in this matchup so don’t armor up or play Shield Block (except if you really have to) before you take any damage.

Patron Warrior

The mirror match is now simpler than ever since you can’t comeback with Warsong+Frothing anymore. The first player to swarm the board with Patrons wins almost every single time. Your best bet to comeback is to clear your opponents Patrons while developing yours, abusing the fact that no extra ones will spawn if the board is full.

Zoolock – Favorable

We are defensive and should win here. It’s even easier than before since Warsong Commander wasn’t a good card for the match-up anyways.

Malylock / Renolock / Control Warlocks in general – Unfavorable

Taking calculated risks here is our best bet of winning the game. Pressure constantly and play aggressively as you can’t outlast them.

Oil Rogue – Fair

Weapons are the key to success here. They deal with all the Rogue’s minions and pressure their hp pool in the same time. Play aggressively and don’t trade if you are safe to Oil plays. You can’t win the long game unless your Patrons get unanswered.

Midrange Paladin – Favorable

Midrange Paladin has no burst except QM (which you can deal easily with) and barely any pressure. Don’t go all-in if you except equality and just try to swarm the board with Patrons at turns 5-7. Be mindful of Tirion.

Control Priest – Favorable

They may have plenty of board clears but they won’t have it all the time. Even if they clear 1 wave of Patrons you can basically dictate the pace of the game since they cannot pressure you. Playing around Lightbomb is the key. A board filled with Patrons and a 3 / 4 Frothing can usually put them into a lot of trouble. Be very mindful of attack and health totals in general and don’t allow them to play Cabal if you don’t have a decent answer.

Burst Shaman – Slightly Favorable

If they start well and we don’t find weapons we lose. Play as defensive as possible and remember that you can come back at any time.

Tempo Mage – Favorable

Try to survive as long as possible. Flamewaker is bad against our minions so try to get board presence quickly. You can punish them by playing Unstable Ghoul into Mirror Entity – Armorsmith is also decent against it. Be mindful of Flamestrike – if they run it.

Freeze Mage – Favorable but can be hard if they play perfectly

This is an extremely hard to play and complicated matchup since most Freeze Mages will expect Shredder, Loatheb or even Boom for us. Mulligan for Armorsmiths, Weapons and Execute, which is the key card here. Fatigue should be your win condition most of the times so try to get maximum Armorsmith value in the process. Sometimes you need to draw cards to find Execute or an Armorsmith so don’t be sold on never drawing cards. Don’t expect them to play perfectly because more often they will not, and try to capitalize on their mistakes.

Hybrid Hunter – Fair to Favorable

Play in a similar way explained in the most aggressive matchups. We do much better against faster Hunters since we can afford to use our combo pieces defensively. A midrange Hunter with a good curve can be much tougher than a faster one.

Combo / Aggro Druid  – Fair

Swarm the board with Patrons against both types of Druid. Aggro Druid should be probably easier with this kind of build. Keep an execute against the aggressive variant for Reavers and Innervate plays. Sometimes you will not afford to play around combo so just pray they don’t have it and try to get out of reach in further turns with Taunts and Armorsmiths.

Parting Words

Thanks for reading the guide! I will be definitely playing more Warlock in the following days and I will try to include the new cards in the deck. I would like to read your feedback. Don’t hesitate to tweet me at @F2K_Dethelor. I will be also streaming Warlock among other decks on twitch.tv/Dethelor.


JR Cook

JR has been writing for fan sites since 2000 and has been involved with Blizzard Exclusive fansites since 2003. JR was also a co-host for 6 years on the Hearthstone podcast Well Met! He helped co-found BlizzPro in 2013.


0 responses to “Fade2Karma Deck of the Week: The Secret Paladin Destroyer”

  1. Abyss says:

    31-7 against only secret paladin?