Legend Mid-Range Paladin Guide: I am Murloc!

Mid-Range Paladin was one of the most consistent decks in Hearthstone in the past when Goblins vs Gnomes cards were around and with the Standard rotation kicking in for the first time in 2016, the deck lost a lot of early game power and the class as a whole kept struggling. With Jounrey to Un’goro kicking in, Mid Range Paladin is alive and kicking once again with Murlocs and lategame minions coming together in a very interesting deck. The deck is incredibly fun to play and can win you games really quickly while also maintaining the ability to grind out in the lategame against slower decks through high value cards.

Let’s take a look what the deck packs and how the deck plays out.

Card Choices

Murloc Package: We have a total of 17 murlocs in the deck with some new inclusions from Un’goro as well. Hydrologist is one of the new inclusions into the Murloc army. It is a very high value card and even though Paladin secrets are known to be not particularly good compared to Hunter or Mage secrets, being able to draw them outside of your deck makes the card a lot more valuable since you do not have to put in secrets into your deck and take up valuable card slots. Being able to play 1 mana cards and fill up your mana curve is great value by itself and secrets like Redemption landing on minions like Tirion Fordring can offer great value.

Vilefin Inquisitor is also another high value 1 drop that brings together a lot of synergy with cards like Murloc Warleader and Rockpool Hunter. It is also very good against the swarm of 1 HP minions that many aggressive decks run these days and can often go 2 for 1 in terms of trading. finja-the-flying-star is a great inclusion in the deck as well allowing

Divine Favor: With an extremely aggressive curve in the early game, you do tend to run out of cards and Divine Favor is a good way to refill your hand to get more cards. Being able to draw more than 2 cards is good enough value and you should take it without being too greedy. Against control decks the card can generate a lot more value compared to aggro decks where you might not get too much out of the card.

Gentle Megasaur: Gentle Megasaur is a must pick in any Murloc deck because of the mid-game and late game swings it can offer with a decent board of murlocs already in place on your side. Being able to buff stats or giving them effects that can turn the tides in your favor makes Gentle Megasaur a great pick in the deck.

Removals and Buffs: We have access to trusty Truesilver Champion and Consecration for removals along with one copy of Stampeding Kodo. With plenty of 2 HP or lower targets in the current meta, Stampeding Kodo is extremely powerful right now and can take out stealth minions as well like Finja, which seems to be making it into several decks at the moment.

Spikeridged Steed and Blessing of Kings are solid buffs to have in the deck and can allow you to make great trades on the board. Since the deck does not have access to burn damage or burst damage from board you need to rely on slow buff effects to get value off and get sustained damage every turn.

Sunkeeper Tarim: Sunkeeper Tarim was undervalued by a lot of people upon its reveal but after playtesting the card the opinions of the community shifted to a more positive direction. It is a very strong minion that can buff up your board and debuff your opponent’s board as well. In a deck that tries to maintain as much board presence as possible with small minions you can get some insane value out of the card and have lategame board swings. The added taunt effect makes it so that your opponent will have to run in some minions into him or use hard removal to push face damage or make trades.

Tirion Fordring: One of the most consistent and powerful class legendaries, there’s nothing better than hearing Tirion’s voiceline and knowing that he can save the day by soaking in a substantial amount of damage while also handing you the mighty Ashbringer.

Conclusion

The deck is very powerful in the current meta and Mid Range/Murloc Paladin is being rated as a top tier deck by many meta reports. It does very well against most decks in the current meta and you can tweak the deck to your liking based on popular matchups as well. You can cut out some aggressiveness and put in ragnaros-lightlord and two copies of Stonehill Defender for a slower approach as well. People have also been trying Control Murloc Paladin which seems to be doing fairly well, but not as consistent as its mid range or aggro variants. You should definitely give the deck a shot because of how fresh the playstyle is and it’s a ton of fun to play as well!