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.
you just could have recorded another Game?
Possible to replace a Truesilver Champion with an Acolyte of Pain?
The Truesilvers are nice, but I'm not sure they are totally necessary and they take up minion slots. I'm exploring whether it's worth replacing them with something else. Based on the decklist posted here, the most replacable cards are Truesilver and Enforcer.
I'm playing right at 15 with you, too. I like the idea of the informants. Sucks to get unbuffable secrets.
I played a few rounds today with Informants in place of Hyrdologists and didn't care for the results. Maybe it was just a run of bad luck but I rarely wound up getting a card that synergized with my deck better than the Getaway Kodo secret.
I've had good luck with enforcers I don't understand why people are saying remove theme.
I believe the thought behind removing them is that they're slow.
Personally, I LOVE them. If you can hide them behind a taunt or two you can often get them to snowball and then it's game over. Their inclusion also puts less pressure on you to draw Smuggler's Run or Grimestreet Outfitter, meaning you can include cards that are more useful than the deck digging Loot Hoarder.
I did not have wicker flame but did pull an ozruk so tried him out was having some luck but was on a loosing streak so switched the loot hoarders to stonehills and I'm still stuck at rank 18
I'm testing out some versions of the deck that leave out the Truesilvers and the Enforcers in favor of more discover and card draw. Specifically, I'm trying out Grimestreet Informant and Loot Hoarder. This pushes the mana curve way back toward the low end, which makes the deck a bit more capable of being aggressive.
sine I didn't have wicker I put ozruk in and he has worked a few times when I can play the 1/2 elementals on turn 8 then him. I find trues inverted is our biggest threat remover and I with remov I Nguyen enforcers our only buff is smugglers run kinda seems lackluster in the buffing department
I made a few changes to this deck. Took out both hydrologists, as I figure that this is a minion heavy deck and needed card-draw, instead adding 2 loot hoarders. Continuing that theme, I took out the Peace Keepers and instead added in Acolytes of Pain, as they really synergise with this deck, and I've been running into more aggro than control lately. I also took out both grime street protectors and added in 2 fight promoters, because this deck works best with a full hand, and with card-draw in the early game it becomes much easier to buff a minion above 6 (usually the fight promoter themselves). Finally, I replaced Tirion with Don Han'Cho, as I was consistently discovering him with the Stonehill Defenders, and Don Han'cho is an insane card against control. With a few buffs he's a massive threat by himself, and any card buffed by him automatically becomes incredibly high value. Not only that, he usually baits out the hard removal (when buffed) with his high statline. Also synergises with quite a few of the cards in this deck.
Let me know what you guys think, I might be steering the deck too hard in the buff direction.
As a side note, I'm having a lot of success with this. Being able to grow your hand in the very early game means you can pull off those powerful combos this deck so desperately wants to achieve. It's tough against quest rogue, but any other deck aside from pure aggro has a bad time applying enough pressure to stop the train. 10-10 blazecaller? Yep! 8-8 Wickerflame? Yep! 5-7 Acolyte? Yep! Satisfying stuff.
My two cents. I think, with the removal of Grimestreet Enforcer, you almost have to put in the Fight Promoters because digging for the buffs becomes more important. That's one reason I like the Grimesteet Enforcers, they're two more options for buffing your entire hand. Not a bad trade, however, if that's how you prefer to play.
Don Han'Cho for Tirion is an interesting idea. I discover Fordring a lot, too, with Stonehill Defender but giving up THE preeminent Paladin legendary card? That's a lot to ask.
Loot Hoarders for Hydrologists is something I've been going back and forth on myself. But I've rarely found myself lacking for buffs and I use Hydrologist a lot to discover Getaway Kodo, which also puts cards in my hand. Well, back in my hand at any rate.
I feel like Hydrologist is such a value card it's almost overkill in this deck, which is greedy by nature. Loot hoarders are great tempo, which allows you to get out better value in by itself.
Also, 2 Tirions constantly felt like diminishing returns. His 5/3 weapon is great, but if you've already got one I'd rather the +5-5 buff. With my modifications I often ended up drawing most of my deck by the late game. Honestly, you can discover such awesome cards that even Don Han'cho might be overkill. You get all the lategame you need from Stonehill and the elemental.
There are ways to deal with that. Your Aldor Peacekeepers for one. Or throw in a Sunkeeper Tarim, Edric The Pure or Frost Elementals if that's an issue for you. The cool thing about the elemental/buff deck is that, beyond the core cards there's a lot of room for flexibility.
Aldor peacekeeper? Blazecaller?
It would be tough to lose the Truesilver Champions BUT, I suppose you could pull those and the Hydrologists for +2 Equality, +2 Wild Pyromancer. Trouble is you blow up your own side as well. I wouldn't do it but if you're having that big an issue with large health minions that's one possible answer.
Thanks for the Deck!
I only have one blazecaller, so i put in an Acolyte of Pain
You can definately replace them with Grimestreet Protector. Although one copy would be good...
Look fine but people plz.... Stop adding enforcerers into your buffadin decks. Card is too slow and dont fight for the board too well. After turn 2 as buffadin you want to gain tempo not lose it in favour of value.