Beginner Hearthstone Deck Tech: Basic Paladin

Editor’s Note: You can find this deck guide updated over at our partner site – Disguised Toast.

If you’re looking to expand your collection, highly recommend going for the Classic set and Whispers of the Old Gods (Standard Format). And here are budget guides, also from Sheng, to get you started!

• Budget C’Thun Druid
• Budget Midrange Hunter
• Budget C’Thun Mage
• Budget Aggro Paladin
• Budget C’Thun Priest
• Budget C’Thun Rogue
• Budget Midrange Shaman
• Budget Zoo Warlock 
• Budget 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 many students reach the same goals.

Welcome to my introduction to the Paladin class. In this guide, I will share with you a deck constructed completely from Basic cards — meaning these cards are all available to you after leveling your Paladin class to level 10. It requires no dust or crafting to build.

The basicHearthstone Deck strategy of this deck is to overwhelm your opponent with cheap token minions — minions that are spawned from an ability or as part of a battlecry. While the 1/1 silver-hand-recruits generated from Paladin’s Hero Power are weak, they gain much more value with the inclusion of minions like raid-leader, frostwolf-warlord, and stormwind-champion. Because we’ll always have the ability to put a minion on the board, spells like blessing-of-might and blessing-of-kings perform dual duty, giving us the ability to trade a cheap token for a much more valuable card (i.e. a 5/1 for a 4/5), or giving us the reach to finish off an opponent that is low on health.

Minions – 22

2x stonetusk-boar

• A simple 1/1, but with an important attribute for this deck — charge.
• He’ll combo with blessing-of-might, blessing-of-kings, raid-leader, and stormwind-champion on the turn he comes into play.
• Be sure to use him only when you can buff and/or trade with him.

2x acidic-swamp-ooze

• The best 2 mana minion in the Basic card set. Not only does he destroy weapons, but with 3 attack he’ll also trade evenly with most 3 mana minions.

2x bloodfen-raptor

• A plain 2 mana for a 3/2. He’s chosen over other 2 mana minions in the Basic set because 3 attack allows him to kill most 3 mana minions.

2x raid-leader

• 3 mana for a 2/2 is a terrible stat-line. This is a card that doesn’t do well when he’s thrown onto an empty board. However, he’s extremely valuable once you have two or more minions on the board, and will have impact on the turn he’s played.
• raid-leader is primarily used to buff our tokens to trade up against more valuable minions.

2x razorfen-hunter

• 3 mana for a 2/3 and a 1/1 is fair, but the fact that the Razorfen Hunter spawns two minions is important. The 1/1 boar is another potential minion we can buff.

2x shattered-sun-cleric

• An amazing card for tempo if you can utilize her battlecry to buff a smaller minion to trade against a larger one, or when you can increase the health on a minion so it doesn’t die in what would have been an even trade.
• As a Paladin, you’ll almost always have something to target with her battlecry.

2x chillwind-yeti

• The best 4 mana minion in the Basic card set. While he doesn’t have any special abilities, his 4/5 base stats allow him to trade with two 2 or 3 mana minions.

2x senjin-shieldmasta

• 4 mana for a 3/5 with taunt is pretty good value. He also protects our smaller minions.

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.

2x boulderfist-ogre

• A plain 6 mana for 6/7. This is exactly what we want at this slot. A big guy who will trade with two other big guys. He’ll trade with two 6/6 minions, and is out of big-game-hunter and fireball range.

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.

Spells – 6

2x blessing-of-might

• A utility card to buff our 1/1 minions to trade up against 4 health minions. Also allows us to do a bit more damage if we’re close to lethal damage against our opponent.

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

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

Equipment – 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 for a set of cards that will allow you to play on curve and gain board control as soon as possible.

Good cards to keep:

• 1 Mana: blessing-of-might
• 2 Mana: acidic-swamp-ooze, bloodfen-raptor
• 3 Mana: razorfen-hunter, shattered-sun-card
• 4 Mana: truesilver-champion
• Situational: consecration against Warlock and Shaman to counter very aggressive starts.

How to Play

This is a mid-range deck, not a fully aggressive deck. This means that board control is key to its success. You want to trade your minions as efficiently as possible, utilizing buffs from cards like blessing-of-might, blessing-of-kings, raid-leader, and stormwind-champion when you can. It’s very important to plan your entire turn before you play your cards, because you’ll want to count up how much damage you can do with all your buffs. This deck is somewhat similar to our Basic Bloodlust Shaman deck, but lacks the burst from bloodlust. It’s a slower deck, making board control even more important.

frostwolf-warlord and stormwind-champion are your keys to victory.

Key Tips

• Be extremely mindful of your opponent’s ability to clear your board. Common board clear cards to watch out for are: fan-of-knives, swipe, consecration, holy-nova, and flamestrike.
• If you’re way ahead of your opponent, resist the urge to dump your hand onto the board. This deck doesn’t have the ability to refresh a hand when tempo is lost.

Combos

blessing-of-might + Minion

• Use this to buff a cheaper minion to trade up to kill something more valuable. You generally want to save this card until you can use it in this manner, as using it to just deal 3 more damage to your opponent (unless you have lethal of course), isn’t worth it, if your buffed minion dies due to a spell. Its 1 mana casting cost is cheap, making it playable in many situations.

blessing-of-kings + Minion

• A tempo swinging card on turn 4. It’ll buff one of your minions, allowing it to eliminate another threat from the board, while still staying alive. Much better than blessing-of-might but more expensive to cast as well.

raid-leader or stormwind-champion + Minion

• These minions will give your other minions much more value. With two of these on the board, your puny 1/1 silver-hand-recruits become 3/x, and very formidable.

Gameplay Videos

Be sure to checkout these gameplay videos to see how you can effectively use this deck. There’s a video for each class. If there’s anything specific you’d like clarified, please feel free to ask in the comments section of this guide!

Versus Druid

Versus Hunter

Versus Mage

Versus Paladin

Versus Priest

Versus Rogue

Versus Shaman

Versus Warlock

Versus Warrior

How to Upgrade Your Deck

Over time, you’ll collect more and more cards from opening Hearthstone packs. Please follow the guide below before reading the upgrade card list to understand how to incorporate new cards successfully into your deck.

Which Cards Should I Upgrade?

• Before you start, go through your deck and look at each card and understand its role and function.
• The easiest cards to upgrade are minions that have counterparts that are complete upgrades. I define a complete upgrade as a card with the same or better stat distribution and a better ability for the same mana cost. A knife-juggler would be a complete upgrade over a bloodfen-raptor. A spider-tank would not be.
• Replace situational minions or spells that will often stay glued in your hand until the right moment arises with more verstile minions or spells. You can easily replace kobold-geomancer and gnomish-inventor in your deck with azure-drake instead. While azure-drake isn’t a complete upgrade over either card, the fact that it has a better stat distribution, draws a card, and gives you spell-power makes it a card that isn’t situational.
• After making a list of cards that are potentially upgradeable from the list above, you can move on to the next section!

How Do I Actually Upgrade My Deck?

• Don’t rush the process! Deckbuilding takes time. Each and every card in this Basic deck was chosen for a purpose, and fills an important function in this deck. You would be surprised how much time it took me to think of each of these decks, and how long the process of tuning them took.
• Generally, you don’t want to make more than one or two changes to your deck at a time. Swap out cards one or two at a time, and play your deck with the changes. Each time you draw into your “upgraded” card, ask yourself whether or not you wish it was the card you had previously in your deck. If you consistently say yes to this question over several games, then the “upgraded” card belongs.
• Repeat the testing process with more upgrades until you’re fully satisfied you have the best deck you can make with the cards you have.

Respect Your Mana Curve!

• While it’s tempting to throw a bunch of late game minions into your deck, it’s a bad idea because you’ll find that without an early game, you’ll never get to late game before your opponent kills you. You want to be able to play on curve, and not have to skip a turn without having something to play.
• While this isn’t a golden rule for all decks, this is what a general mana curve should look like for a midrange deck. Please keep this in mind as you swap in your shiny new cards.
  • 0-2 One Mana Minions
  • 4-6 Two Mana Minions
  • 4-5 Three Mana Minions
  • 4-6 Four Mana Minions
  • 2-4 Five Mana Minions
  • 2-4 Six+ Mana Minions

Potential Upgrades List — November 2015

Here are a few simple substitutions that will make this budget deck even stronger.

Minions

• 2x stonetusk-boar ? 2x leper-gnome
• 2x bloodfen-raptor ? 2x shielded-minibot
• 2x acidic-swamp-ooze ? 2x knife-juggler
• 2x razorfen-hunter ? 2x haunted-creeper
• 2x raid-leader ? 2x muster-for-battle
• 2x chillwind-yeti ? 2x piloted-shredder
• 2x senjin-shieldmasta ? 2x defender-of-argus
• 2x frostwolf-warlord ? 2x quartermaster
• 2x boulderfist-ogre ? 1x dr-boom + 1x tirion-fordring
• 2x stormwind-champion ? 1x justicar-trueheart + 1x murloc-knight

Conclusion

Paladin is a class that focuses heavily on minion interaction. I hope this was a fun introduction to the class, which showcases some of the cool things you can do with the class specific cards available in Paladin’s Basic set. Over time, you’ll be able to include better Expert cards and cards from Hearthstone’s Naxxramas expansion.

For a more in-depth view into the Paladin class, I’d recommend checking out our site’s excellent Paladin section.

As always, questions, comments, and constructive criticism are all welcome. I’ll be happy to answer your questions as best as I can.

Editor’s Note: Be sure to check out the New Players section, other Beginner Decks, and our most popular section – Monthly Top Meta Decks.

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. 

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