Legend Even 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.

Crabrider has been unnerfed, and one great deck to play him in is Even Paladin. In fact, it's so strong that in testing it it went 15-3 to Legend from rank 4 1 star. Even Paladin uses Genn Greymane to have a 1 mana hero power to allow it to have a minion on turn 1 consistently which it can then buff on turn 2, and in addition to have a cheap generator for minions throughout the game. It has plenty of buffs and comeback mechanisms. It is a board based Aggro deck that can take control of the board through its board generation and buff cards, as well as Rush minions. Overall, if you want to play a strong deck with the unnerfed Crabrider and enjoy buff based play styles and Divine Shields, give Even Paladin a try!

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 is an aggressive deck with potential to comeback even if it loses the board.

Aggro - You can build boards with Call to Arms, one of your key cards, as well as just playing minions and hero powering. Dun Baldar Bridge will help your boards be stronger. In addition, you have plenty of buffs to increase minion damage and make for favorable trades.

Anti Aggro - You have Taunts such as Annoy-o-Tron and the recruits from Air Raid. These become even stronger with buffs. In addition, you have Crabrider and Blademaster Samuro as Rush minions which both benefit from buffs. Ring of Courage in particular is especially strong to comeback when you are facing a wide minion board when used on a Rush or Taunt minion.

Even Paladin, despite being an Aggro deck itself, has quite a lot of defense against other Aggro decks. This makes its Aggro matchup quite good, and having this aspect is part of what makes it so powerful. You should go full-on Aggro to rush down Combo and Control decks but keep in mind the Anti Aggro strategy against other Aggro, especially Hyper Aggro like Shadow Priest where you may lose the board early. 

Mulligans

• Keep a Nerub'ar Weblord against Pirate Warriors and Freeze Shamans. It's the key card to win these matchups.
• Keep a Dun Baldar Bridge and one or two Call to Arms - two if against a slower deck.
• Keep a Crabrider if you already have a Call to Arms and a Dun Baldar Bunker.

Gameplay

The key to playing this deck well is to time your buffs for the best impact balancing value and tempo, and play them on the right minion.

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

Ring of Courage

Try to recognize the opponent's deck, and think of how wide their board can get and play Ring of Courage at the right time when their board is large enough to get a good buff out of it. You should play it on a Crabrider or Blademaster Samuro if possible. If the opponent is a Combo or Control deck that barely plays minions, you can trade it if you have spare mana. Don't wait too long though against decks with burst damage like Shadow Priest, it's better to use it earlier to avoid taking too much damage in the first few turns even if it's less of a buff. Of course, you can use something like Hand of A'dal or Noble Mount if you have those and Ring of Courage will not be better.

Using Ring of Courage on Blademaster Samuro can give you a clear while using it on a Crabrider can give you surprise lethal.

Neru'bar Weblord

[Hearthstone Card (Neru'bar Weblord) Not Found] is so key against many decks such as Pirate Warrior, Freeze Shaman, and many Reno decks that you should protect it at all costs in those matchups. It will make 1 cost Battlecry pirates cost 3 while delaying the Firemancer Flurgl Toxfin combo and Snowfall Guardian by 2 turns.

The Importance of Stickiness

A lot of your minions have Divine Shield, and Nerubian Egg and Noble Mount provide an added stickiness to your boards. Against decks with board clears, this stickiness is key to being able to have a board to buff on the following turn with either regular buffs or Conviction (Rank 1). This is very important to beating slower decks and you should prioritize getting a lot of sticky minions on the board if you are against a Control deck or one that has clears.

In addition, you should note that the Nerubian from Nerubian Egg and the Cariel's Warhorse from Noble Mount will get a +2/+2 buff from Dun Baldar Bridge if it's still up. You may want to use this to your advantage and prioritize playing and trading in these cards while you have Dun Baldar Bridge, or even play Noble Mount on a Taunt minion to force the opponent to either not trade into your board or give you a 3/3 Warhorse with Divine Shield.

Something to note against Druids is that Poison Seeds makes all the treants you summon be 4/4s if you have Dun Baldar Bridge active.

Dun Baldar Bridge and Call to Arms Synergy

One of your most powerful cards is Dun Baldar Bridge. You can use it and then any minions you summon will get +2/+2.

An especially great followup to this is Call to Arms, but it is also great with Air Raid, Blademaster Samuro, and in general provides extra value from any minions you play and your 1 mana hero power.

If you're going first an ideal game might have Dun Baldar Bridge turn 4 and Call to Arms and hero power turn 5, while if going second you should save the coin for either Dun Baldar Bridge or Call to Arms on turn 3 if you don't have it to be able to play the bridge turn 3 and Call to Arms turn 4.

Don't want to play the bridge until you have Call to Arms, it's so powerful that you should generally play it as fast as you can even if you have something like Air Raid or good minions for it in hand. If you see that you have Dun Baldar Bridge you may want to play other things and save Air Raid for after it.

Conviction Tips

You can control what Conviction (Rank 1) hits by trading other minions first and trying to maximize the chance it hits a high value target like Crabrider.

A turn 5 Conviction will affect two minions and can be a very powerful followup to a turn 4 Call to Arms. At turn 10 it affects three and can provide 9 damage burst for only 2 mana.

Knife Juggler Synergy

Knife Juggler works if summoned as the first or second minion from Call to Arms to deal damage from the remaining minions summoned. He is also great with Air Raid and your cheap hero power.

Hero Power

Don't underestimate the value of having a 1 mana hero power. It means you always have a minion available on turn 1, threatening a turn 2 buff, and in general weaving it in every other turn or so helps make your boards wider and harder to fully clear, again helping at least one minion survive to be buffed.

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.

Sticky Minions

These minions are sticky as they take multiple hits to remove from the board. This makes it easier to have minions surviving to your turns to buff. Nerub'ar Weblord doesn't take multiple hits but he often sticks by delaying opponent's Battlecry minion development.

Comeback Minions

These minions help you comeback - Crabrider by having Rush and Windfury to trade into 2 minions, but also being a large threat as buffs will let it attack face twice with those attack buffs next turn. Knife Juggler deals damage. Blademaster Samuro is a one sided board clear when buffed.

Board Generation

These cards generate boards. The hero power being 1 mana allows your hero power to be a good source of minions as well.

Buffs

These buffs are especially good with Divine Shield minions and Nerubian Eggs and help you trade well, maintain board control, and create big finisher minions. They're great with Crabrider and Blademaster Samuro for taking board control if you lost it.

Even Paladin is a powerful buff based deck that has a high amount of strong board generation as well. If you enjoy board based decks and want to play one with a newly unnerfed card, give this one a try. If you have a question or comment, or are wondering about a card substitution, post below.

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