Basic + Adventures Token Paladin (LoE Edition)

Editor’s Note: With the new Standard Format in 2016 for Hearthstone, we highly recommend going for cards in the Classic set and Whispers of the Old Gods (Standard Format). Here are budget guides, also from Sheng, to get you started!

• Budget Standard Standard C’Thun Druid
• Budget Standard Midrange Hunter
• Budget Standard C’Thun Mage
• Budget Standard  Aggro Paladin
• Budget Standard C’Thun Priest
• Budget Standard C’Thun Rogue
• Budget Standard Midrange Shaman
• Budget Standard Zoo Warlock 
• Budget Standard Combo Warrior

Introduction

Greetings, I’m Sheng, a Legend rank constructed and 7.5 win-average arena player. I run HearthstoneCoaching.com where our coaches have helped students around the world reach many of these same achievements.

If you’re new to Hearthstone, or just have a limited collection of cards—I feel your pain. It is often difficult to find cheap but viable decks to play on the Hearthstone ladder. Given this dilemma, I’ve set out to help those of you with a limited collection by creating budget decks for each class.

Requirements

1. Reach Level 10 to unlock all of the Basic cards for this class.
2. Complete the Naxxramas, Blackrock Mountain, and League of Explorers expansions.

Deck Playstyle

• Token Paladin is a deck that focuses on putting many minions on the board in order to fuel a large frostwolf-warlord or to provide targets for buff spells and minions. While this deck is susceptible to board clear, when left alone, these small minions can quickly overwhelm a slower deck.

Minions – 22

1x sir-finley-mrrgglton — New!

• While Sir Finley might not seem like much. 1 mana for a 1/3 is mana efficient and can trade against 2/1s and 2/2 quite effectively. However, this isn’t the reason why we include him into our deck. Primarily, Sir Finley is used to provide us with a more tempo-oriented or aggressive Hero Power, which we can use to our advantage. With more aggressive decks, selecting a Hero Power like Hunter’s Steady Shot can win us games on its own.

2x stonetusk-boar

• A cheap token minion with charge to buff frostwolf-warlord or to become a target for our buff spells or minions on the same turn. Stonetusk Boar is a card best kept in your hand until you can benefit from its synergy with other cards in our deck, as it’s usually not worth it to play just to deal 1 damage to your opponent.

2x haunted-creeper

• This spider is our counter to aggressive decks that like to drop multitudes of 1 health minions. He’s a mini harvest-golem that spawns two 1/1 tokens instead of a single 2/1 token. The spawned tokens become nice targets for buffs.

2x jeweled-scarab — New!

• Jeweled Scarab is a good way for our deck to discover cards that are outside of the adventure card sets. This class has many good 3 mana minions and spells so it’s a good inclusion to our limited deck.

1x brann-bronzebeard — New!

• Brann is a card that is best used in decks that have many Battlecry minions. Don’t be afraid to play him on turn 3. Many players tend to hold onto him for too long, and try to play him on the same turn as a Battlecry minion to ensure they gain value from his passive, but sometimes tempo is just more important.

2x razorfen-hunter

• Razorfen Hunter provides a 2/3 body and a 1/1 for 3 mana. This is mana efficient, but what we care most about is the fact that we get 2 creatures out of a single card. This further synergizes with frostwolf-warlord and keeper-of-uldaman.

2x shattered-sun-cleric

• 3 mana for 3/2 isn’t mana efficient, but the battlecry more than makes up for it. The downside is that if you don’t have a minion on the board, this card suffers.
• The ideal scenario is to play this on the same turn a minion you control can trade with something equal in value and survive, or can trade up to kill something more expensive.

2x keeper-of-uldaman — New!

• Keeper of Uldaman’s battlecry is extremely flexible, and can turn one of our 1/1 minions into a 3/3 or turn our opponent’s win condition into a 3/3 that we can kill or safely ignore.

2x sludge-belcher

• sludge-belcher is basically a senjin-shieldmasta combined with a goldshire-footman. The great thing is that the 1/2 token with taunt spawns immediately after he dies, forcing your opponent to use at least one more minion to get rid of it. This is especially good against other Hunters who like to unleash-the-hounds.

2x frostwolf-warlord

• A primary win condition for our deck. Playing him with one minion on the board on turn 5 is fine, but you’ll want to avoid throwing him onto an empty board alone. Remember to play him last after all your other minions on the same turn.

1x loatheb

• Loatheb is an amazing card… when played correctly. 5 mana for a 5/5 is fair, but it’s Loatheb’s ability to shutdown opponent’s spells that makes him so valuable. Play Loatheb on turn 6 before a mage can cast flamestrike on turn 7 and he’ll win you the game.

2x stormwind-champion

• The stormwind-champion is an incredibly key card in our deck. He’ll make our 1/1s into 2/2s, and as Paladin you’ll usually be able to buff multiple targets with his ability the turn he comes out into play. As a 6/6, he’s also a threat opponents can’t ignore.

1x kelthuzad

• Kel’Thuzad is probably the best win condition in our deck. If you have any semblance of a board going into turn 8, he has a good chance of winning the game for you. His value only goes up when you have deathrattle minions on the board that spawn more minions.

Spells – 6

2x blessing-of-might

• Serves both as reach and removal. Works well with our cheap token minions in this deck.

2x blessing-of-kings

• An amazing card that will turn your 1/1 into a 5/5. You’ll want to use this to buff a smaller minion to trade against a much bigger one.

2x consecration

• One of Paladin’s primary board clearing spells. Especially useful against aggressive decks. With board control, your cheaper minions can clean up whatever consecration wasn’t able to eliminate outright.

Weapons – 2

2x truesilver-champion

• blessing-of-kings, consecration, and truesilver-champion are all incredibly valuable Paladin cards that cost 4 mana to play. truesilver-champion may be the best of the bunch though. Often-times it’s 8 damage for 4 mana which incredibly valuable. It’ll eliminate up to two mid-game threats.

Mulligan Guide

In general, you want to mulligan to setup your first three or four turns. Please note that there is a distinction between going first and going second in Hearthstone, and this should factor into your mulligan choices.

When going first, your advantage is the ability to play first. In addition, you gain mana crystals before your opponent. To take advantage of this, you want to be aggressive in your mulligan to put minions on the board.

When going second, your advantage is mainly the-coin, which gives you tempo over your opponent for a single turn, and also an extra card. Depending on the nature of your deck, whether it’s Aggro, Midrange, or Control, you’ll be looking for different things.

• When playing an aggro deck, you’ll be looking for the same cards going second as you would going first. The objective is to quickly populate the board and bring down your opponent’s life total.
• When playing a midrange deck, you’ll also be looking to get onto the board early, with the caveat that you can keep a single copy of a situational minion or spell that you think may be useful to counter an opponent. This spell might be something like a kezan-mystic to counter classes with Secrets or removal like frostbolt.
• When playing a control deck, you’re looking to save the coin until much later in the game, generally when you can bring out a large late-game threat earlier than usual.

While I won’t make an exhaustive list, these are some of the cards you should consider keeping in your opening hand when playing this deck. In general, your goal with this deck is to get onto the board as soon as possible. It’s important to dig for an early 1 or 2 mana minion to play so you can begin to pressure your opponent’s life total.

Minions

• 1 Mana: sir-finley-mrrgglton
• 2 Mana: haunted-creeper, jeweled-scarab
• 3 Mana: brann-bronzebeard, razorfen-hunter, shattered-sun-cleric

Gameplay Video

Upgrades

Here are some substitutions that will improve this budget deck. If you’re looking to craft cards to play this class, it’s best to start with the “Key Substitutions” first before working your way to the “Nice-to-Have” Substitutions. Unless stated otherwise, you can substitute a single copy of an upgrade card instead of two if you don’t have both.

Key Substitutions

• 2x jeweled-scarab ? 2x knife-juggler
• 2x razorfen-hunter ? 2x muster-for-battle
• 1x sir-finley-mrrgglton ? 1x shielded-minibot
• 1x brann-bronzebeard ? 1x shielded-minibot

Nice-to-Have Substitutions

• 1x blessing-of-might ? 1x coghammer
• 1x blessing-of-might ? 1x equality
• 2x haunted-creeper ? 2x piloted-shredder
• 2x frostwolf-warlord ? 2x quartermaster
• 1x stormwind-champion ? 1x dr-boom
• 1x stormwind-champion ? 1x tirion-fordring

Personal Preference

• 2x stonetusk-boar ? 2x zombie-chow
• 2x shattered-sun-cleric ? 2x aldor-peacekeeper

Conclusion

I hope you enjoyed this guide! If you have questions, feel free to use the comment sections below. Our team at HearthstonePlayers would be happy to answer them.

Coaching Lessons

If you’re interested in reaching Legend rank, or earning unlimited gold from arena, my team at HearthstoneCoaching.com would love to help! We’ve provided over a thousand hours of excellent coaching to students around the world. 

Want to Become Better at Other Games?

I also run RankOneCoaching.com, where our top coaches will develop a personal plan for you to achieve your dreams in other games. Personal lessons are an in-depth experience and most students improve significantly after just one full session!

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