Hello and Merry Christmas! This year Santa Fireflyer has brought you a fun deck to try out, especially if you’ve got the Murloc quest. It’s Murloc Aggro! With the new addition of effects that buff minions in your hand for the Grimy Goons gang which Paladin is luckily a part of and the new cards that Paladin received which allow you to draw lots of small minions into your hand with Small-Time Recruits, a few decks have emerged that abuse small minions which become huge with the Grimy Goons effect. There are a few versions already including one that Blizzard has supplied as a “pre-constructed” deck if you choose to make a new deck with Paladin called “The Mean Market”. It uses mostly the same idea of Smuggler’s Run and Grimestreet Outfitter but misses out on having fun with Murlocs like Grimescale Chum who also do the same effect and cost 1 which is perfect for Small-Time Recruits.
This deck is fun and has already given me a few wins in Ranked at Rank 10-9 since it actually holds its own against some of the other top tier decks if you can get the ball rolling. This deck guide is going to be a short one but I hope to at least give you enough information on how to build it and run it on your own.
What is Murloc Aggro?
Aggro decks are probably the easiest to play. You don’t need to wait for combos and you don’t need to really hold stuff in your hand for a “better” situation. Most of the time you’re going to play as much stuff as you can which is actually great for Divine Favor. Don’t be tempted to keep cards in your hand all because you have Grimestreet Outfitter. Play him early and buff as many minions as you can and then start unleashing, you’ll refill your hand plenty with Divine favor, Coldlight Oracle and Small-Time Recruits.
The main thing you need to focus on is playing your Grimy Goons buff early. As long as you start snowballing those buffs on to your later creatures, you’ll end up overwhelming them by Turn 4-5 when they all start to come into play. You’ll also want to play Murloc Tidecaller early to get its buff going too. Curve out slowly with your basic Murlocs like Vilefin Inquisitor, Bilefin Tidehunter and Grimscale Chum.
Around turn 4-5 is when you’ll start unleashing your bigger threats like Murloc Warleader, Grimscale Oracle and Coldlight Seer. These minions will buff your small basic ones into bigger ones that can either trade with your opponent’s annoying minions like anything with Taunt and then go face. It’s better to trade a little and ensure things like Murloc Warleader and Grimscale Oracle can survive that way you can keep applying pressure with your buffed minions. Good thing is that by now they should have something like +2/+2 or +3/+3 on them and that should keep them alive enough.
I don’t like to play Coldlight Oracle too early against my opponent unless they’re playing a heavy control deck like Reno Warlock and they’re already drawing cards. If you need to curve out with one that’s okay but I usually reserve them for only if I’ve got the upper hand on the field.
Here’s a little taste of what you can expect with this deck. (The 5 cards in my hand all had +3/+3 on them as well.)
Decklist: Firebat’s Murloc Aggro ft. Finja
I couldn’t think of any changes I wanted to make to this deck version so I kept it just like it is. Credits go to professional player Firebat as I saw his decklist online and loved it.
Murloc Army
Grimscale Chum: This combines Murlocs with the new Grimy Goons buff. Dropping this guy early is nice but it’s also sometimes good to drop another 1-drop instead and try to pump a better Murloc such as Murloc Warleader. This is one of your good early-game minions since it helps you snowball into bigger cheap minions later.
Grimscale Oracle: This is not one of the Murlocs that you drop early and go aggressive with. You’re better off holding this in hand so it gets bigger and has better survivability while also setting you up to be tricky by pumping all of your Murlocs in one turn so you can either trade good with a Taunt minion or something, or go for lethal if you have a lot of Murlocs and just need an extra 4-6 damage. Don’t play this one early unless you NEED to trade with something important like maybe a Brann Bronzebeard or something.
Murloc Tidecaller: This is a good early game aggro Murloc since it can survive a ping from a Mage hero power or a Rogue hero power and also gets real big when you start snowballing out Murlocs. I prefer dropping a 1/3 if possible but if your opponent has nothing in play and you have an opening, drop him down so you can start getting his pump ability going.
Sir Finley Mrrgglton: Early Murloc with lots of health that also gives you a good hero power like the Warlock power so you can draw into more Murlocs. Don’t hesitate to play him early and grab a random hero power because Vilefin Inquisitor will be able to change it back into the Paladin power with a Murloc bonus.
Vilefin Inquisitor: One of my favorite Murlocs to drop early since it will change your hero power to make Murlocs. It’s also great to play late-game because you can hero power before playing this card and then it’ll reset your hero power so you can use it again for a 1/1 Murloc.
Bilefin Tidehunter: Just a standard Murloc that gives you a Taunt distraction. One of the weakest Murlocs in the deck but it still provides a good utility with a decent sized body.
Bluegill Warrior: Awesome Murloc because of the Charge ability. These are great to save while you pump them up with things like Smuggler’s Run so you can use them as a cheap Leeroy Jenkins at the end of the game. Also pairs well with Murloc Warleader so you can have a 4/2 Charge that trades well with Taunt minions. Do not play this early and start going face, let it build up.
Coldlight Oracle: I don’t like playing this too early unless it’s your only option and it’s also okay against decks that draw a lot like Reno Warlock or even Reno Mage. I actually think the deck has enough draw with the other “Draw Engine” cards in the section below, so I’m tempted to take these out and try to put more aggressive cheaper Murlocs in, like Murloc Tidehunter.
Coldlight Seer: Great card to hold in your hand and make bigger with your Grimy Goons buffs. Once you have an army of like 4-6 Murlocs in play, drop this guy down and you won’t have to worry about much board clearing anymore.
Murloc Warleader: Another card to hold in your hand for Grimy Goon buffs until you’re ready to pump your Murloc army for either a winning push or really good trades. If your opponent plays something like Flamewreathed Faceless go ahead and drop him down and maybe trade a couple Murlocs in since they get such a huge buff.
Finja, the Flying Star: Another fun card to get buffs on, it’s best played early so you can try to get a kill with him and summon more Murlocs on to the field. It’s best to get his trigger off so try to set it up.
Draw Engine
Meanstreet Marshal: IMPORTANT: This guy needs to be buffed with Smuggler’s Run or Grimestreet Outfitter so if you’re holding him in your hand on Turn 1, make sure you have something to buff him with. Other than missing the buff sometimes, he’s a great minion that trades and draws you more cards to keep the engine going. If you don’t have the buff you might as well hold on to him until you do because without it, he’s really bad.
Divine Favor: This is the best card draw for a really cheap aggressive deck like this one. This is the reason I want to get rid of Coldlight Oracle because it ends up drawing you cards for your opponent but also limiting how much you get to draw as well with Divine Favor. Because of this card, don’t worry about running out of things to cast, keep dropping down Murloc after Murloc and once you get this card, you’ll have a fresh new hand to keep aggroing with.
Small-Time Recruits: Another great card draw that guarantees to fill your hand with a bunch of small minions. If you have one of the buff cards like Smuggler’s Run[card] or [card]Grimestreet Outfitter, wait to play those until after you’ve used this, it will be insane.
Grimy Goons Buffs
Smuggler’s Run: This is best played early to pump your hand full of minions. Also can be saved if you have Small-time Recruits in hand and want to hold back a little and fill up a huge hand of minions. I prefer to snowball and play it Turn 1 so my Turn 2 is huge and pumps into a bigger Turn 3. I like to mulligan pretty hard for this.
Grimestreet Outfitter: If I have this in hand and I’m going first, I’ll hold on to 1 drops just to make them a little bigger. He’s great played early so drop him as early as possible, pump your hand, and then dump your small cheap minions after.
Mulligan Guide: BUFF BUFF
The main goal of this deck is to curve out while buffing your hand so the main pieces you want to try and mulligan for are:
Priority 1: Smuggler’s Run, Grimestreet Outfitter
These are your main buff pieces. While Grimscale Chum seems like he fits in with that plan, since it only buffs one card it’s not in the same tier as these other two. With a healthy hand of minions you can really get that Murloc snowball going. If you have one of these in hand already focus more on filling it with small minions like Meanstreet Marshal since you know you’ve got the buff already.
Priority 2: Vilefin Inquisitor, Murloc Tidecaller, Sir Finley Mrrgglton, Grimscale Chum
These are your most efficient 1 drops that don’t die immediately to Mage hero power and things like Wrath. This is how your snowball starts so you need to make sure you get a good curve of some strong 1 mana minions.
Don’t Prioritize: Divine Favor, Small-Time Recruits
These spells won’t be buffed by your Grimy Goon effects so you want to draw into them. You have a good chance of getting into one and any one of these is good enough to fill your hand back up and get you rolling again. DO NOT keep these or else it will ruin your Grimy Goon buffs.
Also Don’t Prioritize: Finja, the Flying Star, Coldlight Oracle, Coldlight Seer, Murloc Warleader
While getting these buffed is nice, you’ll draw into one or two of these later and possibly get them buffed anyways. It’s better to draw into these rather than have them taking up spots in your opening hand where you need to be dumping 1 mana and 2 mana minions so you can refill with Divine Favor and draw INTO these bigger minions that come out later anyways. Drop these and go for the cheap ones.
Conclusion: Merry Murlocs
HAPPY HOLIDAYS! I hope you enjoyed my little gift of a fun Murloc deck to try out (if you haven’t seen it already) and enjoy your winter vacation or your holiday pay from work. As always you can follow me on Twitch at Twitch.tv/ItsFireflyer or on Twitter @HS_Fireflyer.
Leave me some comments below and let me ask you this, would you replace Coldlight Oracle and if so, what Murloc would you replace it with, or maybe a non-Murloc? Let me know below and I try my best to respond to all comments if I get notified of them.
Have a safe winter and drive safe during the holidays, I’ll see you all next time!
