Welcome to the Messiah's series of articles that examine popular, powerful, or just plain different Hearthstone deck builds.  This week's looks at one of the decks that helped Firebat win the Pinnacle tournament over the holidays.  This one is a new twist on the Paladin class.

Paladin – Tournament Deck

This deck was made to be competitive in a tournament environment, and therefore it’s viability in the ladders is not guaranteed since it would face a far greater variety of decks.  It is however still a very interesting deck and well worth looking at.

The deck is very expensive to craft having 5 legendaries and 8 epics in it, but has a lot of power and versatility because of those cards.  It also features many of the newer Goblins Vs Gnomes cards to shake up the status quo.

Here is the version of the deck that was used by Firebat to win Pinnacle:

Deck List:

• Paladin Cards:
  • 1x Equality
  • 2x Shielded Minibot
  • 1x Aldor Peacekeeper
  • 1x Coghammer
  • 2x Muster for Battle
  • 2x Consecration
  • 2x Truesilver Champion
  • 2x Quartermaster
  • 1x Lay on Hands
  • 1x Tirion Fordring
• Neutral Cards
  • 1x Ironbeak Owl
  • 2x Annoy-o-Tron
  • 1x Doomsayer
  • 1x Big Game Hunter
  • 2x Blood Knight
  • 1x Antique Healbot
  • 2x Piloted Shedder
  • 1x Sludge Belcher
  • 1x Loatheb
  • 1x Cairne Bloodhoof
  • 1x Sylvanas Windrinner
  • 1x Dr. Boom

KEY CARDS

This deck works in two ways, firstly it provides solid beat down options with multiple buffs to its own minions, and secondly it has clearing methods to help remove opponents minions.

Doomsayer – A solid removal card, if you opponent ever gets ahead of you on board control, the Doomsayer can quickly even the playing field.

Equality and Consecration – A solid time test removal option for Paladins.  Make all minions 1 health then kill them all with a consecration.  No reason to mess with perfection.

Annoy-o-Tron – This minion is fast becoming a staple early defense card in many decks.  For only 2 mana you get a minion that is 1/2 with both taunt and divine shield.  This makes it very hard to deal with in the early game.

Quartermaster and Muster for Battle and Hero Power – This is one of those beat down options that I mentioned.  Quartermaster buffs all Silver Hand Recruits with +2/+2 making all of the 1/1’s you summoned with your hero power or with Muster for Battle much more imposing 3/3’s.  Since you can use both cards for 8 mana it means that on turn 8 you could summon a 2/5 and 3 3/3 minions which applies a lot of board pressure late game.

Blood Knight  - Another beat down option in the deck.  Since there are 6 different minions with or ways to get divine shields in the deck, plus the possibility that your opponent will have a few divine shielded minions, these Blood Knights can grow very quickly and then beat on your opponent.

Antique Healbot – This card provides a lot of recovery for very little mana.  When you end up facing off against an agro deck that gets a few good draws at the beginning of the game, you will be extremely happy to draw this card.

Lay on Hands – An awesome late game card that will provide a card advantage and some healing to keep you in the game.

Tirion Fordring – A late game win card.  Unless your opponent has a silence or a conversion card (like hex or polymorph) this minion can spell the end of their game.  Being a large minion helps, but the weapon granted as a deathrattle is what really seals the deal.   With two rounds attacking (thanks to the divine shield) and then 3 swings with the weapon that he grants on death, he can provide 27 damage for only 8 mana!

IDEAL OPENING HAND CARDS

This deck is short on turn one cards but has many ways to catch up later on or to clear the board of weak minions by turn four.

Your ideal starting hand varies a little based on who you are facing, but I like to try and get: Annoy-o-Tron, Shielded Minibot, and Muster for Battle.  If you are facing a deck with some early strong start possibilities (like Druids or Handlocks) then keeping cards like Aldor Peacekeeper, Doomsayer, or Equality are viable options.

STRATEGY

This deck plays to get the board advantage by doing strong minion trades and board clears.  If you can setup the early game by keeping control of the board (or clearing it) you will then have a strong chance to win in the late game due to the number of beat down options that you have available to you.

Blood Knight has always been a favourite minion of mine, and having a few new options to team him up with is pure win in my eyes.  Annoy-o-Tron offers strong early game options by itself, but with Blood Knights in the deck it also provides strong late game options as well.

Also cards like Tirion Fordring, Dr. Boom, Sylvanas Windrunner, Ironbeak Owl, Equality, Cairne Bloodhoof, and Aldor Peacekeeper all provide ways to deal with the enemy late game win options.  Over all it makes for a very strong deck.

OPTIONAL CARDS

This deck is meant for the tournament scene and as such is really strong (obviously) as listed.   Here are a few changes I would suggest to make it a little more ladder ready and cheaper to create.

Sludge Belcher – This is an amazing card that provides some serious defensive ability, I would swap out the Dr. Boom.  This gives you mode mid-game defense.

Equality – A second Equality would let you ensure that the board stays clear throughout the fight.  I would pull Loatheb as he only really helps against control decks which are getting rarer on the lower levels of the ladder.

Aldor Peacekeeper – A second peacekeeper would really help with both removal and providing additional minions.  I would pull the Doomsayer to put him in.

COMMENTS

This deck is extremely strong and can take on most other decks with at least an even chance to win, due to the number of options it has in it for dealing with the opponents minions.

If you have comments on this deck, how you would change it, how you have been doing with it, make your thoughts known in the comment section below.