Pure Prelate Paladin

Wild Hearthstone has thousands of cards, and a wide variety of possible decks. This incredible deck diversity is sometimes lost when only looking at the few decks common in the highest ranks. Wildest of Days is a series aiming to highlight a different off-meta deck each week with an in-depth guide into its strategy and gameplay. The decks are selected for having interesting synergies and using rarely seen cards.

This is the 50th Wild deck guide article. Thanks for everyone’s support in getting the series this far! Hopefully, one day there will be 100 of these.

Immortal Prelate has one of the most unique effects in Hearthstone, and Pure Prelate Paladin is a deck I've been playing for years and has become one of my top 3 personal favorites. The stars of the deck are Immortal Prelates, which keep growing and getting stronger with buffs. They are truly immortal, as whenever they are destroyed, they shuffle themselves into the deck instead of dying and keep any enchantments. The deck has a lot of card draw to quickly find buffed prelates after they get shuffled back, as well as Call to Arms to Recruit them. In addition to the prelates themselves, Pure Prelate Paladin is a full-on buff deck that has loads of added synergy including Sunwing Squawkers, Lady Liadrin, Lynessa Sunsorrow, and the new Kotori Lightblade.

The deck is made up of Paladin cards only, making it a Pure deck, and runs High Exarch Yrel as a powerful comeback enabler. Overall, this allows you to have games with exciting board battles with all your buff spells and minions which synergize with them, as well as Immortal Prelates that keep coming back and growing larger with buffs each time. In the endgame, you can have 2 Immortal Prelates that will keep being drawn and played whenever they are destroyed, eventually growing to truly awesome proportions while having Taunt as well.

Now, let's get into the guide on playing the deck itself. It's going to go through major overarching strategies to keep in mind, how to mulligan, gameplay tips on key synergies, and card choices.

Deck Ratings

Strategies

Pure Prelate Paladin can win through buffs and contesting the board in the early to midgame, Prelates, and powerful endgame finishers.

Buffs - The deck can take over the board through various buffs. Buffs allow you to have favorable trades that the opponent didn't plan for - and since you can control which minion your spells land on, you have the advantage when it comes to trading on your turn. Many of your minions (such as Divine Shield minions and Kotori Lightblade) have extra synergy with these buffs. Sunwing Squawkers can be played afterwards to form powerful midgame threats. So, just by utilizing the buffs you can win board control from all the stacking value, make favorable trades and push face to win the game from there.

Prelates - Immortal Prelates are the stars of this deck. After they die, they keep any buffs and shuffle themselves into your deck. When you find them again, you can play a huge prelate with multiple buffs on it for just 2 mana. This can happen quite often due to all the card draw in this deck. In addition, you have Call to Arms to Recruit them either early to start the buffing process, or after they have become larger by bringing them into play again. Besides offering pure stats, Spikeridged Steed is special as it gives Taunt. By the endgame - once you are in fatigue or close to it - you may have Immortal Prelates with large stats, often over 30/30, and Taunt. This means they are a must-remove obstacle for your opponent that their own minions can't pass through. If they do manage to destroy these mega-prelates, you'll just draw them again, taking no fatigue damage, and repeat the cycle. In this way, aside from providing a lot of extra tempo in the midgame, prelates can absolutely dominate the late game.

Finishers - In addition to prelates, the deck has powerful finisher minions. Murgur Murgurgle, on top of having Divine Shield and thus being a good buff target that can also be pulled out with Call to Arms, shuffles Murgurgle Prime into your deck. This can make for a very strong and sticky board of Divine Shield minions. Lady Liadrin can refill your hand with buffs for your prelates and other minions. Finally, Lynessa Sunsorrow is an epic finisher who will repeat every single buff spell you ever cast during the game on herself. Especially after you take into account the extra spells generated by Lady Liadrin, Lynessa can be an absolute game winner against decks without silence or hard removal, as she can easily get over 30/30 in stats and sometimes be even 50/50 or higher.

You can combine these strategies, as prelates can help you win in the midgame before your finishers are even ready - just through the sheer tempo from a big buffed prelate coming into play multiple times. In general, you have quite a lot of buffs and Lady Liadrin can give more, so don't be afraid to cast many spells on non-prelate minions for tempo if you don't have prelates already in play, or if using a buff on another minion would be better for a trade.

Mulligans

• Keep one Righteous Protector.
• Keep one Hand of A'dal if you have a Righteous Protector and are going first. Keep a Ring of Courage instead if against a deck that can generate a wide board early - 3 or more minions in the first 2 turns.
• If you don't have a Righteous Protector, keep Murgur Murgurgle or Shielded Minibot, prioritizing Shielded Minibot if you have both.
• Keep an Immortal Prelate, but only if you think it's possible to have the minion on board by turn 1 or 2 without it being easily removed by your opponent the turn after.
• Keep Stonehearth Vindicators.
• If you have no Stonehearth Vindicators or found only one, keep one Salhet's Pride.
• Keep one Call to Arms.

Gameplay

The key to playing this deck well is to balance buffing your Immortal Prelates versus buffing your other minions. 

Below are gameplay tips regarding many of the synergies in this deck and how to use them effectively.

Buff Synergies

Against Aggro decks, you don't need Immortal Prelates to be especially large, so you can focus on getting the best short-term tempo. This is also the case against Combo. In these matchups, you can of course use buffs on prelates when there is a good opportunity to do so, but don't hold them for too long if it causes you to lose tempo on any turn. Against Midrange and Control decks, you can still use many spells on non-prelate minions, but you should be sure to save ample buffs for a potential prelate endgame.

Your Divine Shield minions (Righteous Protector, Murgur Murgurgle, Murgurgle Prime from Murgur, Shielded Minibot, and High Exarch Yrel) are all extra good targets for buffs.

Most of your spells provide stats, and these stats can let you push face damage or make favorable trades.

Spikeridged Steed provides Taunt, and while the other buffs are interchangeable and can be played on any minion, it's crucial to save at least one Spikeridged Steed for an Immortal Prelate (keeping in mind that Lady Liadrin can add 2 more to your hand).

You can play Holy spells (Hand of A'dal, Blessing of Kings, and Blessing of Authority) on Kotori Lightblade and have him repeat those spells on other minions.

You can attack face with a minion and only play Blessing of Authority on it afterwards if you don't want to trade with it that turn.

A great combo with Kotori Lightblade to get his effect early is to play him along with a Stonehearth Vindicator (on turn 4 with the coin, or turn 5 without) and play the spell that gets drawn, which will cost 0 that turn, on Kotori. He will have Stonehearth Vindicator as a target on which to repeat it.

You can use Righteous Protectors to protect a key minion like a prelate or Kotori, so that it can survive and be buffed the following turn.

Immortal Prelate Synergy

The most important card in this deck, try to buff both Immortal Prelates as much as you can. The reason it's usually better to split the enchantments between your two prelates is to hedge against silence. However, do not hoard your spells, and if a good tempo situation arises from buffing other minions, do it. You will have plenty for your prelates based on the plethora of buffs in the deck and Lady Liadrin returning even more spells to the hand.

Over the course of the game you will be able to replay your Immortal Prelates with buffs multiple times, due to all the card draw in this deck. In addition, Call to Arms can be used to pull them out of your deck and put into play.

The key buff to get onto a prelate is Spikeridged Steed for the Taunt. Big stat boosts will be helpful as well, so that they can be larger threats each time they return.

Don't play an Immortal Prelate if you don't have a Righteous Protector to protect it or if you can't buff it immediately , unless you think your opponent won't be able to remove it next turn. The exception is if you have nothing else to play and are desperate against Aggro.

Getting to fatigue is good in this deck, because once you are there you can guarantee that any destroyed prelates will be drawn the following turn. Therefore, if you have buffs in hand, you can use them for tempo, but other than that don't be afraid to draw really quickly - especially if your prelates are highly buffed. The lower your deck size, the higher the chance you can draw your prelates again and again and get more value out of them. This also helps you find both copies of Call to Arms faster, which will in turn also put your prelates into play.

Draw Synergy

Stonehearth Vindicator draws either Hand of A'dal or Ring of Courage. If you drew all of these, you can Trade a Ring of Courage into your deck.

You may not want to play Stonehearth Vindicator as soon as you can if your opponent has no minions and you have both Ring of Courages in the deck. If you have other 3 drops, play those - as Ring of Courage is only good if your opponent has at least 1 minion in play.

If you want to increase the chance of hitting a Ring of Courage with Stonehearth Vindicator instead of Hand of A'dal, Trade it into your deck.

Salhet's Pride draws Righteous Protector, Murgur Murgurgle, Alliance Bannerman, Stonehearth Vindicator, the other Salhet's Pride, and Lynessa Sunsorrow.

If you need extra card draw, you may want to use Sunwing Squawkers to repeat Hand of A'dal.

Lynessa Sunsorrow can draw cards based on the number of Hand of A'dals you've played, so you can use her in the midgame as a hand refill. Make sure to avoid milling yourself; if you've also played 2 more Hand of A'dals from Lady Liadrin, that's 4 cards to be drawn.

Finisher Synergy

You can use Lady Liadrin before having played all the spells in your deck. In fact, if you play everything first they probably won't fit in your hand anyway. Against a Control deck you may want to maximize her value, but against Aggro or Midrange getting a few high quality spells is already quite powerful, especially if your hand is running out of buffs.

The same applies to Lynessa Sunsorrow - don't wait too long to use her against Aggro, as she can win you the game with only a few buff spells; especially if she has Taunt from Spikeridged Steed. Against slower decks you can maximize her value by playing as many spells from your deck as you can, getting more from Lady Liadrin, playing those, and only then playing Lynessa. However, don't delay it too much as the card draw from Hand of A'dal may cause you to take fatigue damage if your deck is almost empty.

Apart from these and Murgurgle Prime, your key finisher is Immortal Prelate. You should have either one or two of them buffed up and with Taunt, and you can keep drawing and playing them when your deck is empty whenever they get destroyed. If you got to that point, this strategy will often be able to win.

You have a lot of powerful finishers in your deck, so don't worry if some of them get silenced. You can try to bait a silence effect with Lynessa or with buffs on a non-prelate minion, so that at least one prelate can be silence-free for the endgame. Even if all your finishers are silenced, you can still win with tempo from your minions and buffs, and keep doing the tempo strategy with extra spells from Liadrin.

Card Choices

This section is going to go through the main packages of cards in the deck. Each package has cards that help the deck with a specific goal. When playing the deck, it's useful to know what purpose each card serves and what other cards in the deck have synergy with it or help achieve the same condition. This section might also be useful if you're interested in the reasoning as to why each card was included in the deck.

Buff Spells

These spells are crucial for the deck to function, as most of your minions are those that synergize with buffs. Hand of A'dal is a generally good buff that also draws a card. Ring of Courage is situational, but is very good if your opponent has 2 or more minions in play. Blessing of Kings is an always useful stat boost, while Blessing of Authority provides a lot of stats for the cost with a minor downside. Finally, Spikeridged Steed provides Taunt and a Deathrattle to summon a 2/6 Taunt Stegodon. Overall, these buffs provide a lot of stats and Taunt. The Taunt part is crucial as it makes it difficult to ignore your large minions and attack past them.

On Board Buff Synergy

These cards synergize with buffs cast on them while they are on the board. Righteous Protector, Murgur Murgurgle, and Shielded Minibot benefit extra from buffs due to having Divine Shield. Kotori Lightblade repeats Holy spells on other minions, letting you get double the value from them. The Holy spells he can repeat are Hand of A'dal, Blessing of Kings, and Blessing of Authority, any of which are great to double.

Immortal Prelates will save buffs and shuffle themselves into your deck with those buffs when destroyed, letting you keep getting value from the initial buffs as the prelates consistently return. Finally, High Exarch Yrel gets extra value from buffs due to having Rush, Lifesteal, and Divine Shield.

Off Board Buff Synergy

These cards synergize with buffs too, but don't have to be on the board to do so. Stonehearth Vindicators draw either Ring of Courage or Hand of A'dal and set their costs to 0 for the turn, getting a buff into play. Sunwing Squawkers allow you to repeat the last buff you played on them, and this can lead to a 4 mana 8/12 with Blessing of Authority or a 4 mana 5/10 Taunt with Deathrattle summoning a Stegodon with Spikeridged Steed. It can be great with all the other buffs as well, and is a very potent midgame threat. Lady Liadrin adds all buffs cast during the game back to your hand, while Lynessa Sunsorrow casts them all on herself.

Call to Arms

Call to Arms is very powerful. It often provides a 3 minion board that is hard to fully remove, as Righteous Protector, Murgur Murgurgle, and Shielded Minibot have Divine Shield. It can also Recruit Immortal Prelates which you can then buff, and also pulls out already buffed Immortal Prelates that have shuffled themselves into your deck. In addition, it can pull out Kotori Lightblade.

Righteous Protector is the key minion for Call to Arms, as it protects both Immortal Prelates and Kotori Lightblade from destruction and can enable you to play a powerful spell like Blessing of Authority the following turn. Finally, Call to Arms has extra value for this deck, because it makes the deck size smaller and thus makes it more likely you will draw buffed Immortal Prelates.

Finishers

Murgurgle Prime, from Murgur Murgurgle, is 5 Divine Shield minions on the board which you can then buff. Lady Liadrin provides finisher value from filling your hand with copies of all the buff spells you played during the game. Lynessa Sunsorrow becomes a huge game ending threat by playing those spells on herself. Finally, Immortal Prelate is a finisher as well - as once you reach the endgame and are in fatigue, one or both prelates should be highly stated minions with Taunt that can keep being drawn and replayed if removed.

Card Draw

Card draw is very important for this deck, more than in most. You want to be able to draw quickly to get to buffed Immortal Prelates awaiting in your deck, as well as keep up the pressure in a midgame tempo offensive. This means the more card draw you have, the more value you can get from your Immortal Prelates (Call to Arms isn't card draw, but the deck thinning effect it provides helps with this as well). Hand of A'dal draws a card, and you can repeat it to draw more cards if needed with Kotori Lightblade, Sunwing Squawkers and Lynessa Sunsorrow.

Lynessa can actually draw up to 4 cards if you have played 2 Hands of A'dal and 2 more from Lady Liadrin. Stonehearth Vindicator is targeted draw that gets either Ring of Courage or Hand of A'dal, and you can always Trade Ring of Courage back into your deck if it runs out of targets. Salhet's Pride draws 1 health minions, which can include Righteous Protector, Murgur Murgurgle, Alliance Bannerman, the other Salhet's Pride, Stonehearth Vindicator, and, crucially, Lynessa Sunsorrow. Finally, Alliance Bannerman draws a minion and provides a 1/1 buff to minions in hand.

Pure Prelate Paladin is a deck built around the Paladin buff spells, using minions that synergize with them, with the star of the deck being Immortal Prelates. It is probably the best deck to play if you like the buffing gameplay, where you start getting value and tempo from buffs in the early game and then lead up to an unstoppable lategame with Lady Liadrin, Lynessa Sunsorrow, and prelates. If you have a question or a comment, or are wondering about a card substitution, post below.

What are your favorite wild decks? Which off meta decks have you been playing? Share them via our deckbuilder and let us know in the comments below!