Anyfinja Can Happen: Murloc Paladin Guide

Anyfin Can Happen is one of the most interesting cards that came out in Hearthstone. According to a developer interview, the Hearthstone team never intended for the card to be used as an OTK win condition. A few weeks after the release of Blackrock Mountain, some players figured out that with a specific combination of Murlocs, playing Anyfin on its own can be a win condition by getting a ton of charge damage. Initially the deck started off with playing 7 Murlocs and if you followed up with Anyfin, you would be able to get an OTK. Over time the deck got refined and people reduced the number of Murlocs that needed to be played and focused on playing 2 Anyfin Can Happen to get two waves of Charge damage.

This list was created by Spark (https://twitter.com/SparkazHS), who teched in several cards including Mistress of Mixtures, Humility, Eadric the Pure among many others. It works really well in the current meta and it is one of the better Anyfin lists available right now to counter the meta.

Old Murk-Eye got rotated out of Standard and the deck lived on nonetheless, with less damage output of course, because of the missing legendary Murloc that could deal a ton of damage. In the latest expansion Mean Streets of Gadgetzan, we got Finja, The Flying Star and people have been using it actively in Murloc Paladin decks. In such an aggressive meta, it’s good to have consistent and quick draw in your deck so that you have the answers when you need them. Even though you can potentially summon 2 copies of Finja from your second Anyfin, it is a fine tradeoff because of the consistency in draws you get. You can also get instant value on board when your Finja kills a minion. Wickerflame Burnbristle also makes an entry into the deck because of how efficiently he can handle early game minions in the current meta and also heal you up. There are plenty of anti-aggro cards and card draw in the deck and you should be able to counter the meta quite handily. Let’s break down the card choices and analyze how to play the deck on ladder. It is a very fun and satisfying deck to play and you’ll definitely enjoy it.

Card Choices

Forbidden Healing: One of the strongest healing spells in the game. It allows you to heal up for high amounts of HP at any point in the game. The flexibility of the card is what makes it a must-have in the deck because you can choose how much mana you want to invest based on how much heal you need.

Humility: Mostly used as a tech card to counter snowballing minions like Frothing Berserker or lategame minions in slow decks. Since we do not run Aldor Peacekeeper in the deck to possibly squeeze out more value from Barness, Humility takes his place in the deck for shutting down high attack minions.

Equality: Wild Pyromancer and Equality continues to be a strong combo against aggressive decks because you can wipe the floor as early as turn 4 and shut down the board presence of any deck. Equality also has synergy with your Finja, allowing him to get value from his effect. You can also use it with Consecration for a 6 mana board clear. The Paladin hero power also has synergy with the card since you can generate 1/1 tokens for clearing out the board once you use Equality.

Wickerflame Burnbristle: A well designed card that people have not experimented with enough. It is great for dealing with 1 and 2 mana minions and since Wickerflame will almost always take 2 hits from minions, you can heal for up 4 HP while also preventing face damage from your opponent’s minions.

Consecration: A very efficient AoE spell with so many 2 HP minions floating around in the current meta. Other than its generic usage you can combo it with Equality or Wild Pyromancer for better board clears.

Truesilver Champion: One of the best weapons from the Basic set and it fits into the deck nicely considering you want to get to the lategame to combo your opponent and seal the game. It works exceptionally well with Equality and AoE spells to kill off high HP minions. You can consider teching in Keeper of Uldaman in place of one Truesilver Champion if you bump into greedy decks very often during your climb.

Solemn Vigil: Do not let the mana cost of the card trick you into thinking the card is too slow for the value it offers! With Doomsayer or other board clears that you have access to in the deck, you will not be paying anything remotely close to 5 mana for the card draw. You can get very early value from the card using Dooomsayer because the effect triggers at the start of your turn, the spell will be discounted depending on how many minions died and you will be able to get to your combo pieces quite efficiently.

Eadric The Pure: Eadric serves as a tech card against lategame heavy decks and Jade decks because you can shut down their whole board and they will have a hard time getting their minions killed because of the low attack. However, if you are facing too many aggressive decks or do not happen to own the card you can safely skip the card for something like Aldor Peacekeeper.

Ragnaros, Lightlord: One of the strongest legendaries in the game and it can bring you back from the brink of death and can help you stage a comeback. You not only heal for 8 HP but force your opponent into trading or using removal spells, because they cannot ignore Lightlord and let you heal for 8 every single turn. Playing the card can get really tricky sometimes because you might have to skip some trades to avoid damaging your own minion and guaranteeing yourself heals.

Tirion Fordring: Tirion Fordring is the best class legendary in the game and it’s also very balanced because he is more of a meta call than just an auto-include legendary. The ability to stop minions from going face and then getting an insane weapon to wipe out enemy minions or simply put pressure on your opponent’s health pool is incredible. With Silence effects being heavily nerfed during the first Standard rotation, it is more than likely that you will get full value out of Tirion in any situation at all.

Anyfin Can Happen: The one card that the whole deck is built around. Being able to one shot your opponents with the second copy of the spell and in cases with the very first Anyfin if you put in enough pressure is quite satisfying. It is a really unique card and quite different from any other deck. The burst potential of the deck is pretty high even though we do not have some of the older powerhouse cards that we once had before the Standard Rotation. You will be able to win control matchups on the back of this card almost always and the massive amount of healing and removal you have in the deck should be enough to help you survive against aggressive decks until the point you get to play your Anyfin.

Mistress of Mixtures: Mistress of Mixtures is the new Zombie Chow for Standard and even though it does not have the same statline as its renowned predecessor, it does heal both players which makes it a compelling card to run in the deck. Being able to heal up for 4 HP while also developing a 2/2 on board for just 1 mana is incredibly good. The downside of your opponent getting healing is not even relevant because you will be able to one-shot them to death with your Anyfin anyway.

Bloodmage Thalnos: One of the best classic legendaries and its versatility makes it fit into a ton of decks. From aggressive decks that run a lot of burn spells to slower decks that need cycle, Bloodmage Thalnos is like the Swiss Army Knife of all legendaries because of how much he offers. Do not be fooled by the 1/1 stat line of the 2 mana card, being able to draw a card and get spell damage means you are effectively saving a card slot by getting one card that does two things at a very disposable mana cost.

Doomsayer:  It is one of the best ways to shut down your opponent’s early game that is run in aggressive decks that are so common in the current meta. Sometimes it serves as a 2 mana heal for 7 by forcing your opponent to deal with the minion. Planning your Doomsayer correctly is important and you do not want to be too greedy with it. While it can be a great early game drop to take out small minions, you can also use it as follow up after you clear the board to ensure your opponent does not have any initiative. You can also preemptively shut down key turns of your opponent which can block their strongest on-curve plays.

Bluegill Warrior: It is one of the combo pieces of the deck and its current value it quite high in the meta with the overloaded presence of 1 and 2 HP minons. It is a fairly okay minion on its own because you can just charge into something to remove a minion or use it with Equality to kill a high priority minion. It is better to make sure that it dies on the turn it is summoned to avoid people from doing anything about your win condition.

Wild Pyromancer: Wild Pyromancer has very good synergy with your spells and you can either use Equality to wipe the whole board, or you can choose to chain multiple spells to clear tokens without sacrificing your board state completely.

Acolyte of Pain: It is one of the few sources of card draw and with so many 1 HP minions floating around, you can easily squeeze out multiple draws out of the card. Since Paladin does not have access to cheap sources of draw for slow decks, we need to make do with neutral options for the most part.

Murloc Warleader: Murloc Warleader buffs your murlocs and allows your Bluegill Warriors to do a ton of damage. While it is safe to play this as a card against most decks, be wary of transformation spells like Hex and Polymorph that can ruin your day and disable your win condition to some extent.

Barnes: There are plenty of good targets that Barnes can bring out from the deck and you mostly want to pull out things that draw you cards or your Murloc pieces for maximum value. Having 1/1 copies of Tirion or Lightlord can swing the game as well.

Finja, The Flying Star: One of the new releases from Mean Streets of Gadgezan, it is a great card for any Murloc Paladin deck because you are able to get two draws out of the minion directly on the board. Equality is one of the biggest synergies Finja has in the deck because you are assured to get the draws off Finja with Equality no matter what. While the cards inclusion does hurt the second Anyfin Can Happen’s burst damage sometimes, it’s not a dealbreaker because you are most likely going to have sufficient damage to kill your opponent anyway.

Tips

Here are some effective tips that can help you play the deck better and make correct plays:

• Ordering your cards correctly is absolutely essential. A lot of people often play Wild Pyromancer into equality and follow up with a spell. It is not always correct as you miss out on developing a 3/1 by simply playing Equality first. This is one of the biggest mistakes people make when playing the deck. You should play Equality first, then drop the Pyromancer and follow up with a spell (unless you want to squeeze out Solemn Vigil value).

• If you are ahead on health versus a slow deck and do not have too many cards in hand, feel free to set up Pyromancer combos with Acolyte of Pain followed by spells to squeeze out extra cards. However, you need to be wary of your opponent milling your hand.
• Never be greedy with Doomsayer, shut down their early game as soon as possible instead of being greedy for getting the most out of the card because in this fast meta – Doomsayer is very unlikely to survive.

• You do not want your murlocs to be dealt with in slower matchups. Cards like Hex can hurt a lot and ruin your win condition if you do not take preemptive measures and bait out removal first. Even if it means dropping Murloc Warleader when using your Pyromancer and Equality to make sure it dies and you are able to pull the combo off. Or consider dropping Murlocs with Doomsayer on an empty board. If they use transformation spells or Entomb your murlocs your combos get a lot worse and it is advisable to seal your win condition instead of losing out on your burst damage and losing otherwise favorable games.

• Counting damage when the game goes as planned is easy but when your opponent drops a murloc of his own, things can go wrong. You need to take into consideration enemy murlocs too when you count your Anyfin damage.
• You should plan your turns during the mulligan stage, you want to have the maximum possible answers against your opponent and try to plan out your counters to the opponent’s deck’s plays. You might for a turn 2 Doomsayer and if it’s likely you will be able to wipe out two minions then your Solemn Vigil will cost 3 mana on Turn 3 and it’s worth keeping the card in your hand.

• In the mirror matchups (which rarely happens), your board clears may not necessarily clear the board due to Murloc buffs increasing the HP of 1 HP Murlocs when you play Equality. Make sure you know what you are doing when you are attempting to clear the board with a Warleader active.

• With so many aggressive decks out there are plenty of times when you have to choose between healing and removing minions and making the right calls are essential.

Mulligan

• Doomsayer
• Bloodmage Thalnos
• Wild Pyromancer + Equality
• Truesilver Champion (with coin)
• Consecration
• Acolyte of Pain
• Bluegill Warrior

Against slower decks you can also consider keeping Finja, The Flying Star. The above mulligans do not necessarily correspond to all matchups and cards like Bluegill Warrior are good in the early game in some matchups, while they aren’t as good in other matchups. You need to identify when you want to keep which card based on the decks you are facing and identifying your situation is also something you need to think about.

Conclusion

It is a deck that has stood the test of time and we have just a few months until we can play Murloc Paladin in Standard. With Anyfin Can Happen rotating out of the Standard game mode when the next content update comes out. However, if you are someone who is also open to playing Wild or already plays Wild then you have a lot of powerful additions that you can make to the deck in the format and most importantly, Wild has Old Murk-Eye, which is one of the most powerful cards in the Murloc Paladin arsenal.

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