Hand Buff Elemental Paladin
- Last updated May 24, 2017 (Un'Goro Launch)
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Wild
- 27 Minions
- 3 Spells
- Deck Type: Ranked Deck
- Deck Archetype: Handbuff Paladin
- Crafting Cost: 7680
- Dust Needed: Loading Collection
- Created: 4/4/2017 (Un'Goro Prepatch)
- TheScot
- Registered User
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- 5
- 16
- 44
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Battle Tag:
N/A
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Region:
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Total Deck Rating
202
Giving this deck (which I originally posted before Un'Goro Launch) another chance this season. Made a few substitutions. I'll keep it updated if I find something else needs to change.
Core cards of this deck type: Smuggler's Run, Grimestreet Outfitter, Fire Fly, Tol'vir Stoneshaper, Servant of Kalimos, Blazecaller, Fire Plume Phoenix, Tar Creeper, Aldor Peacekeeper. These cards are mostly necessary if you are running this type of deck.
Very strong cards: Tirion Fordring, Wickerflame Burnbristle, Stonehill Defender.
Beyond the cards listed above, there is room to experiment, and you can even try switching out the cards listed above for others, if you really want to.
Cautionary note: The handbuff playstyle takes practice. If you have not tried a handbuff deck before, I'd suggest either not trying this variation, or else having patience with the necessary learning curve to discover how to play it well. This is NOT intended to be an easy win deck. You will have to make some pretty hard calls at times.
Mulligan Advice: ALWAYS keep Fire Fly and Grimestreet Outfitter. Always play Fire Fly turn 1 if you have it. Smuggler's Run is usually good to keep, but don't necessarily play it turn 1, and don't necessarily play Grimestreet Outfitter on turn 2. Sometimes it's better to save the hand buffs so they buff more cards. If you are running Loot Hoarder it's a good early card. If you run Hydrologists, they are also good early on. It's really important to have at least one elemental that costs 3 or less very early in the game, because they are needed on the prior turn to activate the Tol'vir Stoneshaper and the Servant of Kalimos.
Tar Creeper is also great to have in your opening hand, if you have some smaller stuff also. If you have the coin, and if you have the curve to activate it on turn 4, then keep a Tol'vir Stoneshaper as it is one of the strongest cards in the deck, especially if it gets a handbuff or 2. If you get Wickerflame Burnbristle on your opening hand and you think you are facing an aggro deck (or if you have a handbuff card also) you could keep it.
Do not keep Aldor Peacekeeper as it will almost never be used on curve. Obviously, don't keep big minions in your mulligan.
Specific pointers: Only use your Grimestreet Outfitter and Smuggler's Run if you can buff at least 3 minions with them. Plan ahead and make sure you play an elemental on the turn prior to wanting to play a card that requires being activated by an elemental on the previous turn. Loot Hoarder and Fire Fly can easily be played unbuffed for early board presence and "card draw." Igneous Elemental is also fine to play unbuffed. Make sure to only play the Servant of Kalimos and the Tol'vir Stoneshaper if they are activated by an elemental on the previous turn.
Use Fire Plume Phoenix for reach, to help remove minions that need removal, or to help finish off the enemy hero if s/he is low health. Same for Blazecaller. It should be obvious, but save Aldor Peacekeeper for any big, menacing minions, especially quest rewards (I'm looking at you: Megafin, Amara, Queen Carnassa).
Substitution Notes: If you do not have Tirion Fordring, you could maybe do Primordial Drake or possibly Baron Geddon, or something else that creates strong pressure for late game. If you lack Wickerflame Burnbristle, nothing else at low cost has as much value as it, so I'm not sure I have any solid advice on replacing that one.
See the comments below for variations that others are finding successful.
Editing Notes: If you want to see the many different cards I've included in the deck throughout it's history, feel free to look through the revision notes tab.
Gameplay videos: These are two videos, one submitted by a player named Kadakk using this deck. Kadakk Elemental Paladin, and the other submitted by TheSynch Versus Murloc Shaman. These matches are fairly representative of the sorts of decisions that you have to make when you play this kind of deck. They are both, admittedly, rather one-sided matches, but they do show some basic aspects of the gameplay for this deck.
Ownership note: I posted this deck before the launch of Un'goro and before any pro player tried using Paladin Elemental Handbuff on their streams. This was my own idea, based on some success I had with Handbuff Paladin in MSoG expac. Here is the original discussion thread that I created on April 4 to hash out the idea with other users, whose pointers were really important to building a successful deck: Elemental Handbuff Discussion Thread.
Wow no Igneous anymore? I thought that was the card that has more synergies with hand buff. You should probably remove it from the v strong card list
I like the recent changes. If you're going to run a deck like this, go all in with the Enforcers. The Equality/Pyro combo won't pan out most of the time with only one copy of each, but having a single Equality is worthwhile in other situations as well.
Nice job.
The deck is capable of some seriously amazing plays. And it's fun to play, even when losing. Definitely not a top level deck, but it gets some wins.
what can i replace Sunkeeper Tarim with
As weird as it sounds, maybe a Stampeding Kodo. It's a great tech card these days. Lots of low attack minions it can hit (especially doomsayer).
oh well it sounds good thanks
Could i replace loot hoarder or igneous elemental with the curator since im running stampeding Kodo it could draw stampeding and primordial on curve
Yeah, that would be a good substitution for sure. Probably loot hoarder. Igneous can be REALLY good on curve.
should i then put an igneous in instead of tarim since its gone now :)
LoL, just try things out and see what works. Igneous is good, but it's a bit slow. But it's really good for activating the elemental synergies as well ... if you find yourself lacking elementals to trigger synergies, put one in.
well now i dont need to replace him anymore Just packed him :)
Have you tried this in a non-handbuff version? Probably adding Equality/Doomsayer or any of the tech Crabs?
I did do a non-handbuff version of elemental paladin. It worked pretty well in the rank 13 area of the meta ... about 2 weeks ago. But I didn't nail down exactly which tech cards were the best options to fill in the handbuff portion of the deck. About the same time, I happened on Midrange Hunter, which worked really well ... so I shelved this idea for a while because I was having a hard time nailing down what needed to change to really make it competitive. But I think there IS a version of Elemental Paladin that would kick serious butt. Just not sure what it is yet exactly.
EDIT: Probably something along these lines, but I don't think this is quite right.
EDIT 2: I'm using this deck right now, and it's going quite well. 5 wins, 2 losses at rank 15.
Just played a game with this list at rank 15 ... dominated a miracle rogue pretty hardcore. Two Tirions, Rag lightlord from Servant, equality consecrate ... didn't even need the lightlord.
Hey guys!
I decided to try out this deck even though I was missing few cards I crafted them :o free 2 play guy right here.
I made a video with an interesting game versus a quest rogue where I managed to win quite easily. I did not expect so much fun from this deck but I guess paladin is all about fun.
So check it out! Hope you will like it =)
Thank you for watching and if you liked the video please consider liking the video or subscribe to my channel keeps me going. Also every feedback is appreciated.
E: Sorry for the bigger camera, it some cards were not visible because of that. Wont happen again :X
So i got the deck to rank 5 and it has been a lot of fun. Not sure about the rest of you but have I faced alot of taunt warrior so I have teched in double stampeding kodo and it destroys their2/6s and 2/7s.
When I pushed past level 15 I started having trouble with bigger minions, so I swapped out a Blazecaller for Sunkeeper Tarim. That seemed to do the job as my winning streak resumed. I may add a Primordial Drake, too, as this deck is in need of a way to clear low heath minions.
I know there is no tier 1 paladin deck out there, but this deck also pretty bad.
The guy in the video, played against a Q.Rouge who wasn't been able to do the quest till rank 9 . Seriously ?
I got outvalued by every control class or rushed down by P.Warriors :)
Only played 20 games with the deck 9-11 at legend 800+ .
45% winrate does count as an unsuccessful deck, but not utterly terrible. I wonder if some aoe would make the needed difference? I'm going against my own theory and putting in two extra spells, because aoe is just too necessary in the meta right now (quest rogue, pirate warrior, murloc shaman, hunter of any sort ...)
I'm doing slightly better than 50% myself. Other decks are refining their decklists, and having better answers for this style. I'm thinking, as much as I don't like it, I probably need the 2 consecrates in here.
And yeah, the video is only useful to see how you can play the cards. I included it due to demonstrating the gameplay in general, not due to being actually an interesting match.