Legend Reno N’Zoth 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 Wednesdays 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.

We're getting a new expansion reveal this Tuesday, and with that usually comes a new Legendary minion added to the game. Therefore, this Wednesday's deck will be an off meta deck using whatever that Legendary is. Today, here is a deck that is both really fun to play and is strong enough to be able to climb. Reno N'Zoth Paladin is a deck that has been helped immensely by Alterac and the miniset, mostly with the power of the new hero Lightforged Cariel but also with Lokholar the Ice Lord and Ring of Courage.

Reno N'Zoth Paladin is not your typical Reno deck. Instead of just controlling the board until the late game, it has plenty of powerful minions to continuously apply board pressure and N'Zoth, God of the Deep as a finisher option. It has Nozdormu the Timeless to ramp up to 10 mana early on, where this deck may have an advantage. It uses the Reno tools for survival and board pressure, while having various combo disruption cards to be able to beat combo. Overall, Reno N'Zoth Paladin is a very well rounded deck that can have a chance against anything.

I got to Legend with this deck from rank 5 Diamond in under 5 hours with about a 64% win rate, so if you want to play with an off meta deck that's actually Legend viable you may want to try this one out!

This deck was inspired by the Reno Paladin from nhlnjfan1.

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

You use board pressure and removal to win against aggro decks, board pressure and disruption to win against control decks, and mainly just disruption to beat combo.

Control - You have multiple removal combos that give you full clears to be able to remove boards and beat aggro (for specifics see the gameplay section). As a Reno deck, Zephrys the Great and Reno Jackson are excellent tools to beat aggro as well.

Board Pressure - You have a lot of powerful minions and buffs, and you can use those along with N'Zoth, God of the Deep as a finisher to generate a lot of board pressure.

Combo Disruption - Not much to say here, just use your Dirty Rat, Mutanus the Devourer, and Loatheb combined with Brann Bronzebeard and Zola the Gorgon to try and disrupt combos. Blademaster Okani is good for this too. You can also use Lightforged Cariel along with High Priest Thekal and Reno Jackson to get to a very high health total that only takes half damage to stall against damage combos.

This deck is very well balanced, and can do well against any deck. It doesn't really have any polarizing matchups, although aggro and control are better matchups for it than combo.

Mulligans

• Keep Crystology, Knight of Anointment, Sir Finley of the Sands, Zephrys the Great, and High Priest Thekal.
• If you have High Priest Thekal, keep Molten Giant and Lokholar the Ice Lord.
• If you are against aggro, keep Reno Jackson and Lord Barov (and City Tax or Animated Broomstick if you have him).
• If you have Nozdormu the Timeless, keep him. If not keep Redscale Dragontamer, and if you are keeping Redscale Dragontamer you should keep Dragonqueen Alexstrasza as well unless you're against aggro and the rest of your hand doesn't have any low cost cards. If you have either Nozdormu or Redscale Dragontamer and Dragonqueen Alexstrasza, then you can also keep generally powerful high cost cards like Varian, King of Stormwind.
• Keep Dirty Rat and Mutanus the Devourer if against combo that has rattable pieces. Keep Lightforged Cariel if against damage dealing combo like Quest Hunter and Loatheb if against any spell-based combo.

Gameplay

The key to playing this deck well is using Nozdormu the Timeless for Ramp effectively, as well as being able to adapt your gameplan based on each individual matchup.

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

Survival Combos

Lord Barov + City Tax is a full clear.

Lord Barov + Animated Broomstick is a full clear.

Lord Barov + Blademaster Samuro is a full clear.

Lord Barov + Lightforged Cariel is a full clear.

Blademaster Samuro + Ring of Courage is a clear that also leaves behind a big body depending on the size of the enemy board.

High Priest Thekal lets you play Molten Giant for 0 mana. You can get more copies of it with Zola the Gorgon.

High Priest Thekal also sets the cost of Lokholar the Ice Lord to 5.

High Priest Thekal and Reno Jackson allow you to have 59 health + armor, but removes the discounts. If you then play Lightforged Cariel you will be very hard to destroy by damage.

Use Zola the Gorgon well - it's really flexible. If you need pressure use it on a big minion, if you need removal Lord Barov, Samuro, or Zephrys the Great, and combo disrupting cards if against combo.

Nozdormu

You should usually ramp with Nozdormu the Timeless as soon as possible. Your deck will have an advantage against most aggro and combo decks in this way and be able to either use powerful big minions to take over the board or disrupt combo faster.

If you are winning on the board with an early High Priest Thekal - Molten Giant combo or against a Big deck, then don't ramp.

Redscale Dragontamer draws either Nozdormu or Dragonqueen Alexstrasza.

Tutor Cards

In general, you have a lot of tutor cards and when playing you should try to predict what they will draw.

For example, Knight of Anointment draws either Hand of A'dal or Righteous Defense.

Crystology can get Animated Broomstick, Knight of Anointment, Crystalsmith Kangor, or Blademaster Samuro.

Varian, King of Stormwind gets all 3 bonuses if he draws only Zilliax and no other minions. In general, for Rush he has Animated Broomstick, Blademaster Samuro, Zilliax, and Lokholar the Ice Lord; for Taunt Dirty Rat and Zilliax; and for Divine Shield Crystalsmith Kangor, The Leviathan, and Zilliax.

For N'Zoth, God of the Deep you want to have Mutanus the Devourer as the murloc, but sometimes you'll get Redscale Dragontamer. For elemental you want to get a Molten Giant or Lokholar the Ice Lord, but have to be prepared to get Zephrys the Great if you played him beforehand. For dragons, you have Nozdormu the Timeless, Dragonqueen Alexstrasza, and any dragons you get from her. For mechs, you have Zilliax, The Leviathan, and The Leviathan's Claw. 

How to Play This Deck Well

In general, you have to adapt to the specific matchup you are facing to do well with this deck. The deck has a lot of tools for different scenarios and you have to adapt your gameplan based on the matchup. For example, against Freeze Shaman, don't flood the board with a lot of small minions and focus on disruption to hit their Shudderwock. Against Mecha'Thun Warlock, don't just play Dirty Rat because they will later have Tamsin's Phylactery to counteract that if you later kill Mecha'thun. You have to rat only if you have Zephrys the Great to be able to give you Hex or use Mutanus the Devourer. Against something like Pirate Warrior, you have to time your removals well, and then take over the board. Sometimes you can bait them into getting a larger board to later take over with Blademaster Samuro + Ring of Courage or a clear into a cheap minion using the power of Thekal. Overall, for each matchup just think about its strengths and weaknesses and mulligan for the predicted matchup and use your resources (especially value generators like Zola the Gorgon and Brann Bronzebeard) wisely to maximize your cards that work well against that specific matchup.

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.

N'Zoth Package

These cards are of different tribes and are your key targets to be resurrected by N'Zoth, God of the Deep. A few other smaller cards may be resurrected sometimes but you can try to manage this.

Thekal Package

After you play High Priest Thekal, you will be able to play Molten Giant for 0 mana and Lokholar the Ice Lord for 5.

Buff Package

These cards buff or handbuff.

Removals

These cards help you remove enemy boards.

Healing

These cards let you heal.

Card Draw

Card draw is great to keep the pressure going, and many of these cards draw conditionally so you can predict what you will draw.

Combo Disruption

These cards let you have a chance against combos. Use them with Zola the Gorgon and Brann Bronzebeard if you can.

Value Generation

These cards are generally good and help you generate more value from your other cards or hero power.

Reno N'Zoth Paladin is a really fun deck if you like Reno decks or midrange decks with control elements in them. In addition, being able to get to 10 mana on turn 3 is pretty cool. Being competitive in this current meta is an added bonus, but you should keep in mind that it's harder to play a Reno deck like this well than a meta tier 1 deck. If you have a question or 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!