Cloning Galvadon

Kaleidosaurs are going extinct - Galvadon is the only one left. This week, we are going to save his species by cloning him! With the new Northshire Farmer, we can shuffle 6 more copies of him into the deck. This removes the main disappointment from playing Galvadon decks in the past, where if your first Galvadon is removed you generally just lose, or have to rely on other strategies. Thanks to Northshire Farmers, this deck can go all in on winning the game with Galvadon, while having a draw and removal shell to get to the Galvadon endgame more consistently. I finally crafted this quest this expansion after I realized Galvadon was a beast and worked with Northshire Farmers, and it's been really fun to be able to play multiple Galvadons per game, or see the opponent manage to remove the first three and finally have one stick and win.

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

Strategies

This deck is going to play The Last Kaleidosaur quest, then draw a lot while using buffs for quest completion and cheap mass board clears to stay alive.

Early Game - In the first couple of turns, you can play your quest and low cost minions while also drawing cards. The deck actually has a really low curve with 19 cards costing 1 or 2, so you should consistently have cards to play early on. You want to play cards like Aldor Attendant, Knight of Anointment, Questing Explorer, and Crystology. 

Midgame - In the midgame you are going to keep drawing cards, while trying to survive and play buffs on your minions.

Finisher - Starting at turn 8 or turn 7 with coin, you can play Galvadon and then shuffle in more copies into your deck with Northshire Farmer. Then, if he survives you can try to win by clearing taunts with a removal and doubling his attack with Blessed Champion. If the first one is removed or is not enough for lethal, you can keep playing Galvadons to get just one to stick. One really good card you can use with Galvadon to make him extra strong is Brann Bronzebeard to be able to adapt 10 times. This is both fun and powerful.

This deck is going to lose to combo decks that go off before turn 8, so just save yourself the time and concede. Games where you can really have fun with this are against slower control decks, but many board based aggro decks are winnable as well.

Mulligans

Keep The Last Kaleidosaur, Aldor Attendant, Crystology, Knight of Anointment, and Questing Explorer.

If you think you're against a board based aggro deck, you can try to mulligan for City Tax or Wild Pyromancer plus Equality or Lord Barov.

Gameplay

The key to playing the deck well is managing your removals. You have three 5 mana total board clears, and knowing when to use them is crucial to be able to survive to your Galvadon endgame. It's also important to manage card draw, drawing a lot but being careful about self milling.

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

Early Game Plays

You don't always want to play the quest on turn 1. Sometimes you have plays like Aldor Attendant turn 1, another Attendant and Crystology turn 2, and Acolyte of Pain turn 3. In such a scenario, you don't gain any quest progress anyway so there is no point in playing it turn 1. It's better to play it before you start using buff spells, and sometimes on turn 1 to enable a turn 2 Questing Explorer.

Something to keep in mind for the early game is using Libram of Wisdom and Hand of A'dal on your minions can actually help you maintain board control for a couple turns by letting you have favorable trades.

Board Clear Synergy

You have multiple ways to clear the board for only 5 mana.

Wild Pyromancer is one of your main board clear enablers. First, you can play Wild Pyromancer and Equality. You can also play Lord Barov, Wild Pyromancer, and any spell. You can also play Wild Pyromancer along with spells like Libram of Wisdom, Hand of A'dal, and Flash of Light which will keep it alive while dealing damage to all other minions.

Another board clear enabler is City Tax. It's a new card from Stormwind, and it replaces Consecration in the Equality Consecration combo that was a staple in control and combo paladins since classic. Compared to Consecration, City Tax costs 2 less, has lifesteal, is Tradeable, and is not a holy spell which allows Knight of Anointment to draw your card draw and buffs more often. You can play Equality into City Tax or Lord Barov into City Tax to clear the enemy board and also gain health.

Solemn Vigil is a one off in this deck, in certain matches it's going to be hard to lower its cost but you can often set it to 0 after a board clear or trades.

Acolyte of Pain Synergy

Acolyte of Pain is really good in this deck. First of all, if you play Wild Pyromancer to combo with it, you can easily draw multiple cards in a turn, especially if you play buffs on both.

You can also play buffs and healing on Acolyte of Pain to make him survive longer and draw more cards.

Be aware that the opponent may try to damage your Acolyte of Pain on purpose to make you overdraw, so don't buff him too much.

Quest Completion

Playing both Aldor Attendants will set the cost of your Libram of Wisdoms to 0. You can play Librams of Wisdom on minions that are going to be traded in, trade them in, then play them again on other minions and trade those in. In this way, you can have multiple ticks of quest completion in one turn just from Librams of Wisdom.

Your other cards to complete the quest are Hand of A'dal and Flash of Light. Since the quest requires 6 spells cast on your minions, and you have 6 spells for this purpose, you might need all of them to complete the quest if minions with Librams of Wisdom get silenced or devolved. However, in most cases you will get multiple uses from them and can use Flash of Light to heal face while still being able to complete the quest.

Finally, if you are against a deck that might play Dirty Rat, you can complete the quest in the same turn you play Galvadon to avoid it being ratted.

Galvadon Synergies

Brann Bronzebeard can be used with Galvadon to let him adapt 10 times. You can also use him to shuffle in more Galvadons into your deck with Northshire Farmers.

When you play your first Galvadon, you usually want to play Northshire Farmer to shuffle in 3 more copies into you deck. This way even if your first Galvadon is removed you still have a win condition. You can then shuffle in 3 more copies later with your second farmer. The exception to this is if you are in a desperate situation and need to win next turn or lose the game. In this case, use Brann with Galvadon.

Since you have multiple Galvadons, you can use your first one to try and make some big taunt that can't be targeted by hero powers if you are in danger of losing the game next turn. In general though, when setting up a Galvadon to go for a otk next turn, you don't want to adapt into can't be targeted by hero powers. This is because often, Galvadon will only adapt into being able to deal 15-20 damage in one turn so you will want to play any buff spells you have and Blessed Champion on him next turn to make winning with him more consistent.

The most important adapt when setting up a win next turn is Stealth. Some other key adapts you can look for are Windfury and +3 attack. Divine Shield is a decent option to make it harder to clear.

If your opponent plays taunts to block a Galvadon lethal, you can get past them by using one of your board clears. In case you're using Wild Pyromancer and not City Tax, you can avoid having your own Galvadon destroyed by either adapting divine shield for it earlier or playing a buff on Galvadon to get his hp up after setting his hp to 1.

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 purposes each card serves and what other cards in the deck have synergy with it or help achieve the same purpose. This section might also be useful if you're interested in the reasoning for why each card was included in the deck.

Quest Completion

These cards help you complete The Last Kaleidosaur. Your goal is to have it done by turn 8, due to all the card draw you have in the deck this can be done pretty often.

Card Draw

Card draw is important, you want to draw quickly to have a close to empty deck when you shuffle in Galvadons into it and it helps with the consistency of getting your quest completion, removal combos, and cards for the endgame with Galvadons. Some of these cards draw specific cards like holy spells or 1 attack minions, be aware what those are so you can try to plan on getting certain cards from them. City Tax is not really card draw, but in cases where you don't need it in hand trading it is almost as good.

Board Clears

These cards enable clearing the board for only 5 mana.

Holy Spell Cost Reduction

Cariel Roame is included because she is a good option to clear a minion turn 4, as well as reduce the cost of many cards in your hand as this deck has a lot of holy spells.

Galvadon Endgame

These cards are for the Galvadon endgame.

If you don't have the quest, don't craft it if you want a competitive deck. However, if you do have the quest or just want to have fun, this sort of Galvadon deck is a lot more enjoyable to play than Galvadon decks in previous expansions. Playing with seven Galvadons in one game and being able to adapt one of them 10 times with Brann is one of the most fun things I've done in wild, and if you like a control/combo survival midgame as well this deck may be fun for you too. If you have a question or comment, or are wondering about a card substitution, post below.