Hearthpwn

Hey Hearthpwn! I hit legend for the first time today using a divine shield oriented aggro paladin deck and I thought I'd share the list.

Proof: https://youtu.be/RQBe53s72Ns

Intro

At the game's start this is a highly tempo oriented deck.  You should be dropping lots of small minions early and trying to establish board control. Once you have made your board difficult for the opponent to remove, your goal changes to pushing as much damage to the enemy hero as possible whilst trying to minimize the board impact of their best answers. Finally, after you have damaged the opponent's hero enough you can usually ignore board control in favor of pushing face damage. This is due to the significant amount of damage you can do from hand in the form of weapons, charge, and buffs.

Mulligans

Having a perfect curve is very important regardless of whether you are going first or second. Fortunately this is very common due to the deck's abundance of 1 drops.  When going first you'll want to throw away all cards that cost 3 or more mana.  When going second you can keep 3 mana cards if they will give you a perfect 1-2-3 curve.

You will generally want to throw away all spells in favor of minions that develop the board. The one exception to this rule is Divine Strength if you already think you have a solid curve of minions.

Matchups

Druid (C'Thun)

I consider this matchup roughly even.  You have the tools to beat them in the form of raw aggression and well-timed Keeper of Uldamans, but they have the tool to put an end to your shenanigans with either a clutch Swipe or Innervate swings. My advice is to:

1. Always play around Swipe on turn 4.

2. Save Keeper of Uldaman for their big taunts if possible. You can also try teching in an Equality to improve this matchup.

3. Remember they struggle to deal with big minions like a buffed Blood Knight.

Paladin

There are a lot of different paladin decks going around right now so it's hard to write a comprehensive guide to playing the matchup.  The most common variant is probably N'Zoth, the Corruptor paladin.  Against this deck archetype you'll want to consider several things:

1. Try to use your divine shield and stat lines to play around Wild Pyromancer and turn 4 Consecration as much as possible.  

2. Respect the power of Forbidden Healing by always maintaining board control.

3. Doomsayer should rarely be a problem due to your buffs, weapons, and charge.

4. Play around Aldor Peacekeeper and Keeper of Uldaman by never overinvesting in a single minion.  

5. With Muster for Battle gone, the Paladin doesn't really have a strong turn 3 anymore.

Take all this into account and you should fare decently enough.

There are also some other more aggressive paladin lists like other divine shield paladins and murloc paladins, but you have the most tempo driven list so you should be favored in all of these matchups.

Priest (C'Thun)

This matchup plays out very similarly to Druid.  The difference is they trade turn 4 Swipe, ramp, and big taunts for the ability to contest turn 1 with Northshire Cleric.  This tradeoff is clearly not even however, and so long as the priest doesn't have a perfect curve you should have no issues pushing them off the board and rushing them down.  Other factors working to their disadvantage include their single card AoE coming one turn later than Druid and a lack of early game minions.  Overall, I consider this matchup quite favorable to the paladin player.

Rogue

Rogue has the tools to deal with your aggression quite well in the form of SI:7 Agent and Fan of Knives. Fortunately I have found that this is all they really have, especially since most rogue decks are very greedy right now.  On the surface their hero power appears to be good against our deck, removing many of our 1 drops for free, but the damage they take in the process of doing so should not be ignored.  Press this point for all it's worth, especially considering rogue's lack of healing options.  Play the matchup very aggressively, hitting face as much as reasonably possible.  Rogues will often hoard a lot of cards so your divine favors should get good value and allow you to find the weapons, chargers, and buffs you need to close out the game. I have found taking this approach puts the matchup in the paladin's favor.

Shaman

From what I can tell there are types of shamans out there; face shamans and more midrange shamans.  Against face shaman you are favored.  This is simply due to the way your early game minions will often trade into theirs. Divine Strength is excellent since it allows your 1 drops to trade with there Tunnel Trogg and Feral Spirits. Abusive Sergeant often creates good trades against Totem Golem.  Finally, your power 4-drop (Keeper of Uldaman) destroys their power 4-drop (Flamewreathed Faceless).  

The more midrange shamans I define as those running AoE and the totem synergy cards. In this matchup you are still favored, but not as much as against aggro shaman due to the board clears, and to a lesser extent Thing from Below.  The only difference in the way you play this matchup is that you should try to use your divine shield to play around Lightning Storm and Elemental Destruction if possible, especially on the turn 5 power play with Eternal Sentinel.

Warlock

Zoo is one of your 2 bad matchups that I'm aware of, and the only one that is popular as of the time of this writing.  It's a coinflip on who will win the early game war for board control, and if you lose this battle then you have little chance to recover.  Additionally, their hero power allows them to outlast you into the late game. You'll need either to get their hero power with Sir Finley Mrrgglton or get a good Divine Favor to compete with it, and the odds aren't in your favor for either of those working.  I recently teched in one Consecration to help the MU, and Sea Giant might be a viable option to consider as well.

If there's a silver lining, it's that you're favored by quite a bit against C'Thun Warlock decks in my opinion. Without Darkbomb, it's much harder for them to contest the board early.

Warrior

Warrior is your other unfavorable matchup, and one that I personally expect to get much more popular in the near future.   Fiery War Axe and Cruel Taskmaster can be mitigated with divine shield, but are still very strong against you. Armorsmith counters almost all your early game plays.  Finally, a plethora of whirlwind effects can work wonders against your board.  My advice is to be bold in this matchup. Try to make something big with divine shield, something warrior will struggle to remove without Big Game Hunter.

Hunter and Mage: 

I didn't play enough against these decks to really form any solid opinions on how to play against them. In the couple of times I did face these classes I think I usually won though. :) 

General Advice

1.  Against tempo and other aggro decks you'll want to trade until you win board or are in a position where you think you can burst them down.  

2.  If you have a large board advantage single threats can often be avoided, but only if you are confident they have no AoE or you are setting up lethal from hand.  

3. Don't over extend into AoE if it can be avoided and you don't have a strong chance of lethal in the next few turns. You should especially play around AoE when it is on curve.

4.  Consider what each class lost in standard when facing them.  Druid lost Big Game Hunter and can no longer cleanly remove big threats. Warlock lost Darkbomb so punching through a divine shield will be tough for them from an empty board. Rogue lost Blade Flurry so a stealthed Worgen Infiltrator is much more likely to live (especially if it has divine shield).

5. Try to get value from your buff cards as soon as you reasonably can.  You could lose control of the board at almost any time, and the pressure that they can provide will often be crucial to closing out the game.

6. Choose your divine shield targets wisely to play around each class's specific strengths.  This is actually what makes this deck one of the harder aggressive decks to play in my opinion.

Card Choices

Here I'll explain why I picked some of the cards I did.

Divine Strength

This is probably the most eye-brow raising card in the list.  The reason I found room for this card is because it allows your 2/1s to very easily trade into 1/3s and 2/3s on turn 2, which will give you a massive tempo upswing.  It shares an attribute of Velen's Chosen in that it provide 1 extra stat point for it's mana cost, and Velen's Chosen was a staple in priest. Finally, that 1 extra damage is sometimes all you need to find lethal.

Selfless Hero

The deck needed another solid 1 drop in my opinion to get consistent curves, and in my testing this was the one that performed the best.  The deathrattle might often fail, but when it works the board protection is often well worth it.

Sir Finley Mrrgglton

Your hero power as a paladin is already synergizes with you deck well, but the chance for an even better hunter or warlock hero power justifies this card's inclusion in my opinion. Additionally, the stat-line is super strong. To help mitigate whirlwind effects I think this deck would prefer a couple more 1 cost 1/2s or 1/3s if it could, but none of the effects of cards with that statline are worth it in my opinion.

Here is a guide to how I decide which new hero power to pick with this deck:

Life tap is always at the top against other tempo driven decks. Hunter is only following it vs control; vs aggro/tempo I'll usually prefer a ping. So then my priority is mage, druid, rogue. Shaman is next up. Half the totems don't really do anything, but they can still be a good target for buffs. I also might prioritize it over rogue if I already have weapons in hand. You should only ever pick priest or warrior if you really need to avoid being bursted down.

Worgen Infiltrator

This card is what makes Divine Strength playable.  It is super strong in this deck since it will survive a turn as a buff target more than any other minion. Also, don't underestimate the card's ability to turn a lot of dead cards in your hand into lethal if things start going south.  Finally, it's just a solid card for early pressure.

Argent Protector

Argent protector is good when played on curve and helps you play around AoE and protect important minions. He also helps fill in this deck's 2-drop curve gap.

Flame Juggler

I can't express how frustrating this card can be.  Still, I think it is blatantly the best neutral card in the 2-drop slot right now and a good juggle turn 2 can often win you the game. I'm almost certain more decks should be including this card.

Argent Horserider

The charge effect is really good for making dead buffs live. It also has divine shield, which is great considering this deck loves hard-to-remove minions.

Blood Knight

A lot of classes struggle to remove a huge blood knight. This allows the card to singlehandedly become a win condition in those matchups (think druid, control warlock, aggro shaman, etc.). I originally ran 2 but lowered it to 1 to make room for the second argent protector. You might be surprised with how often a divine shield has similar value to a +3/+3 buff.

Rallying Blade

Aggro decks have been known to run less than optimal weapons since they are so good for face pressure, and this weapon is no exception.  Once more, often times it will be quite good if the battlecry hits even one minion (but it by no means needs to).  I have found this weapon to be surprisingly good when coined since it gives you a tempo boost on turn 3 and allows you to Truesilver Champion on turn 4.

Seal of Champions

This is just a solid buff card that can help you find lethal or trade up.  I had removed one copy of it for a Consecration to help the warlock zoo matchup, but have since reverted that change.

Keeper of Uldaman

This card is insane in this deck. It allows you to neutralize big minions like Flamewreathed Faceless and Dark Arakkoa with ease.  Against decks with smaller threats you can get great value by simply buffing your own minions.  It even gives you lethal sometimes.  Last but not least, running this card makes running the often dead Equality unnecessary.

Cards That Didn't Make The Cut

Here I'll explain why I didn't pick some cards for the list.

Blessing of Kings

I never tried this card, but people who have run similar decks say it is quite strong. +4/+4 can make a minion pretty threatening, especially if it has divine shield.  My reservations regarding it concern that I think adding in more than 4 4-drops will make the curve worse and the divine favors more clunky, but it's definitely at the top of my list of cards I want to test.

Blessing of Wisdom

This is not a card most people think is very good.  I actually think it's okay to help fish for Divine Favor, and it's amazing when it draws multiple cards. You can even play it, Divine Favor, and then attack to help make the draw engines less clunky together.  That said, I think early game tempo is more important than card advantage, so Divine Strength occupies the slot I might have otherwise considered this card for.

Consecration

I specifically teched this in to have a counter to Zoo right before hitting legend.  I have since removed it because it's bad in almost every other matchup.  You'll just have board control so often on turn 4 that it will rarely get good value.   I can understand playing it if you're are running into a lot of Zoo though.

Dragon Egg

I wasn't made aware of this card until very recently.  I think it has a ton of potential in this deck!  It has great buff synergy and would probably provide the last bit of stickiness I think the deck needs.  If it doesn't  work out it will be because the pressure of playing a 2 attack 1 drop on turn 1 is just too important vs control decks.  In any case, I expect to be trying this one out soon.

Dire Wolf Alpha

I never actually tried it, but I don't think we spawn enough tokens to justify the card's inclusion.  It's also weak to board clears, but maybe could replace Argent Protector for improved burst potential.

Equality

This card is often just dead in hand in many matchups.  Additionally, Keeper of Uldaman provides most the utility of this card with a much higher amount of flexibility.  The card is great if you're looking to improve the druid matchup, however.

Eydis Darkbane

I actually didn't even consider this card until after I hit legend.  I think it might be strong.  It has a solid statline and Divine Strength might be enough to make it playable. That said, I'm inclined to think it's a bit too slow.  It also is rarely the best target to use buffs on if we don't consider the effect. The situation with Fjola Lightbane is similar.

King Mukla

This is a card someone suggested to me after I hit legend.  Although it's never really seen use in another competitive deck, it probably has more potential in this deck than any other. Since you will usually control the board early game the Bananas will often be useless cards for your opponent.  They also synergize with Divine Favor.  The 5/5 statline is a strong one that some decks will struggle to remove in the same vein as Blood Knight.  However, unlike Blood Knight King Mukla doesn't eat you divine shields.  Overall, this is a card that merits experimentation.  It has the potential to be a sleeper hit!

Knife Juggler

Same situation as Dire Wolf Alpha.   It might be good, but I think the immediate impact of Flame Juggler is probably just better.  Again it might be a viable Argent Protector replacement.

Leper Gnome

Even after his nerfs, Leper Gnome is still okay against control decks.  However, this deck already has great matchups against most control decks, and Leper Gnome's statline is no longer good enough to help in the closer tempo driven matchups.

Leeroy Jenkins

Leeroy seems like he might be good in this deck due to his burst potential.  However, I think almost every aggro list in the history of hearthstone has optimized the 5 mana version of this card out.  He also makes Divine Favor clunkier.

Sea Giant

I think this card might actually be really strong since it would be good in the zoo matchup and also against some of the slower decks that lack removal, but I'm not sure the deck spawns enough token to justify it. It will also make divine favor weaker, so perhaps 1 copy is the limit. Try experimenting with it though!

Steward of Darkshire

But how could you not include a card this awesome!?  I love the idea of this card, but truth be told I just don't think it's that good in aggressive lists. It's got mediocre stats, it does little when you're behind, and the earliest you can get decent guaranteed value from it ~turn 5.  The only time I was impressed by it in testing was after I had a great Divine Favor, and that's hardly guaranteed.  I do think it will likely find a niche at some point in a more midrange paladin list with 2x Stand Against Darkness.

Twisted Worgen

It's 1 more mana for 1 more statpoint over Worgen Infiltrator. It's not mana efficient.

Vilefin Inquisitor

I actually think this card might be playable just for its statline alone, given all the deck's buffs. The effect isn't really relevant though, aside from its interactions with Sir Finley Mrrgglton.

Wolfrider

I initially played Wolfrider, but it was a bad card when fighting for board control. With zoo and shaman so popular it naturally got cut.

Making Changes

If you are looking to experiment with some different cards I'd recommend taking out 1x Blessing of Might if the card is low on the mana curve.  This is because the card is generally bad if you draw both early.  

If the card is 3+ mana, Id recommend taking out either Seal of Champions or a Truesilver Champion.  Both of those cards are great, but Seal of Champions is the least important 3 drop in my opinion, and Truesilver Champion can sometimes create curve issues when Rallying Blade is played before it.  

Finally, if you want to try out another 1 drop like Dragon Egg, I'd recommend replacing Selfless Hero with it.  This is because the deathrattle of Selfless Hero often fails, making it the deck's weakest 1 drop in my opinion.  If you do choose to run Dragon Egg, I'd also advise you to run Blessing of Kings instead of Seal of Champions for the improved synergy.

Final Thoughts

Well I hope I've given you a decent idea of how to play this deck and how to go about building it as the meta progresses.  I personally think Blessing of Kings, Dragon Egg, Dire Wolf Alpha, Sea Giant, Eydis Darkbane and Fjola Lightbane all just might find a place in this deck in the future, but it's hard to say. Until next time, happy laddering!

Leave your comments and feedback below please, and let me know if you made any changes to the deck that are working for you. :)

 

edit: Removed a Consecration for a second Seal of Champions.  Consecration wasn't good enough in enough matchups imo.