ding, legend
Not my first time getting legend, but certainly my proudest for two reasons
1. It's quite early in a season where an expansion was dropped so everyone has to think of new decks and probably less than 100 people have made legend NA yet.
2. It is a paladin deck of entirely my own design. I didn't take any ideas or basic framework from anyone else and I haven't seen anyone else running a deck like this yet. 1/3 of the deck is built with gvg cards.
The deck:
It is an aggressive midrange deck that seeks to steal board control on turns 3-5 and then be unrelenting in board control while using buffs to push a lot of damage in to close out the game quickly. Though it has openings that can kill by turn 6, those are rare and this isn't a hyper aggro deck like shockadin or hunter. It seeks to be highly threatening but contain enough mid and late game power to continue fighting in a long control game unlike hyper aggro decks that just run out of steam.
Because this deck aggressively controls the board, the paladin buffs become playable. Normally the problem with blessings is that they are dead cards if you don't have any creatures on board and before gvg that was simply just too likely of situation. But now because paladin has shielded mini-bot, muster for battle, and coghammer, the odds of sticking creatures to the board has sky-rocketed.
And because the buffs are playable, nerubian egg is playable. The egg is one of the most powerful 2 drops in the game but most decks can't play it because it requires activators that you just can't afford to put in your deck. Zoo can run it because it runs around 10 activators without comprising its overall strategy. This decks runs 8 activators (blessing of might, kings, coghammer, purifier). And like zoo, the egg's uses as an anti-aoe card are very strong as well.
In addition, everyone is really hesitant to silence eggs because unlike zoo, they know they have to deal with Tirion at some point. And silencing the egg doesn't even achieve that much because the deck still runs 4 buff cards that you can use the body for and then they have silence it again.
The MVP of the deck is coghammer. You use it primarily for the bubble to make just insane trades. The way to really read this card is: 3 mana: deal 3-7 damage to an enemy minion and give one of your minions taunt. And equip a 2/3 weapon I guess because why not.
When gvg was first previewed I was luke warm on coghammer. It seemed good, but clunky given the amount of weapons that paladin now has access to and because it doesn't curve into truesilver. But have now played with it a ton it is my favorite new paladin card and is the strongest card in the deck because of how much surprise board presence it gives you. Your opponent is going to play minions onto the board that they feel trades in their favor and then coghammer just ruins all their dreams one divine shield at a time.
In fact you'll notice I run only 1 truesilver. Originally I ran two but was running into 'weapon clunk' where between coghammer, truesilver, and muster I just had too many weapons but because coghammer was simply too good to cut, I cut a truesilver and never regretted it.
Scarlet Purifier is fairly good 3-drop that can really help steal board control in the early game. A lot of people only play deathrattle minions in the early game either because they play undertaker or because they want annoying resilient minions. I have destroyed so many hunters with this card where it kills a leper gnome and mad scientiest and then gets turned into a sunwalker via coghammer.
Bomb Lobber is in because he is just an extremely strong board control minion. And because this deck expects to maintain board presence, the random bomb is highly controllable. This guy is basically a better argent commander with a 1 mana discount. A very strong card.
Quartermaster represents a late game threat and comeback mechanic. Due to the aggressive nature of this deck, you often get your opponent to under 15 health in the early/mid-game. And if the game goes long, your opponent is forced to expend resources clearing 1/1 recruits or this guy just kills them. In games where you do lose board presence, I hold him until I can play muster + hero power + quarter master to just instantly storm back onto the field.
Avenging wrath is in the deck to help close out the games. I found against handlock, control warrior, and priest I was struggling to get just that last little bit of damage. For example when playing against handlock I was originally losing to Jaraxxus. Now I hold this until they slam Jaraxxus and avenging wrath just kills them.
Like most paladin decks, I started out with 1 lay on hands. But over time I bumped it up to 2. The reason I feel this works is because this deck's aggression comes in waves. If you lose board control in the late game you really, really want a lay on hands to play so that you can refuel on all your resources and then equality combo away whatever tempo your opponent was gaining. You can then play down eggs, muster for battle, and shielded mini-bots that your opponent's late game cards aren't going to be able to efficiently handle and then use blessings, quarter master, and weapons to re-take board control.
I don't stream or record my matches but you can get a brief glimpse of the deck in action in this vod:
http://www.twitch.tv/strifecro/v/3603559 starting at 1:51:00 where I played a match against StrifeCro. Unfortunately he got disconnected so we didn't get to finish our game but it demonstrates the power of Purifier and Coghammer. Especially noteworthy is that I fight through triple water elemental without losing card advantage.
Anyway. I hope this helps inspire people to experiment and innovate with aggressive board control paladin instead of just falling back to the old hyper-aggro shockadin or slow ass fatigue control pally.
