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Paladins are everywhere on the ranked ladder these days, but every single one of them is playing a secret Paladin deck. Unfortunately secret Paladins don't have room for The Grand Tournament's Paladin legendary. If you've recently opened Eadric the Pure and want a deck to play him in,
The Pure Paladin is perfect for you.
![]() | This deck is a strict control-style deck. It's all about maximizing your late-game strength, answering everything your opponent throws out there, and draining them of all their resources with absurd lasting power. Almost every Paladin on the ranked ladder right now is a secret Paladin, and the rest are midrange Paladins, which means this deck will give you the advantage of surprise along with its unparalleled strength.
General Strategy
There's nothing too complicated about this deck's goals. You really just need to survive through the early-game, and then fate takes over. Of course surviving in the early-game will require a little work. You'll use Shielded Minibots, Wild Pyromancers, Aldor Peacekeeper, and Coghammer to answer opponent's early-game pressure. All those cards do different things, but each of them has a way to slow down different opposing threats.
If you've made it to turn 4 without totally collapsing, you can start to recover and stabilize using cards like Truesilver Champion, Consecration, Antique Healbot, and Sludge Belcher. All of those cards either give you health, help reset the board, or delay any sizable boards the enemy has assembled.
Early-game is survival, mid-game is recovery, and then there's the late-game! After turn 5 it's absurdly simple to play this deck. You just drop huge minion after huge minion, using clears as necessary. The only important thing is to save low-tempo cards like Nexus-Champion Saraad, Justicar Trueheart, and Ysera for later turns. Sylvanas Windrunner, Eadric the Pure, and Tirion Fordring have more immediate effects that are better on curve. |
If your mulligan is an absolute disaster with a Sludge Belcher, Dr. Boom, Ysera, and Lay on Hands, you have to play stupidly safe and keep the Sludge Belcher (or any other card that can help you stabilize and recover). Even against aggressive decks, having a strong turn 4 or turn 5 can be enough to turn it around thanks to your taunts and heals.
How to Win
This deck doesn't really have a defined win condition. You'll win a majority of your games in back-and-forths battles that bleed out your opponent, leaving you with a handful of cards and a few remaining legendaries. Then they concede or you just push for lethal. You can also win fatigue battles thanks to the extended value of Justicar Trueheart, Nexus-Champion Saraad, and Murloc Knight, as they all allow you to generate value "infinitely".
Matchups![]()
Control: This deck has countless answers to other control decks. You can nullify threats with Eadric the Pure, Aldor Peacekeeper, and Equality. You have ways to generate limitless cards and value for long slug-fests. You also have ample card draw to ensure that you don't fall behind in card advantage. When it comes to control, late-game Paladins like this one are really unchallenged. You'll only lose with a string of terrible draws or poor decisions. - Aggro: There's always a chance that face or aggro decks just run you over. This deck includes a few answers to help prevent that with Coghammer, Wild Pyromancer + Equality, Consecration, and the handful of taunts. Even Eadric the Pure is a decent answer to a board full of minions, often reducing total attack damage by 5 or more. As long as you don't have a dead hand, you should be able to survive, recover, and totally destroy them.
- Combo: It's always hard to predict how or when a Combo deck will kill you. Unfortunately for this deck it's quite slow, which does give your opponent a lot of time to draw cards and dig for their combo. Thankfully you should be able to mitigate face damage early, heal up, and stay out of reach of most combo kills. You also have taunts to drop at pivotal moments if necessary.
Card Replacements
You can't change this deck too much without it becoming a midrange Paladin with a lower curve. If you do that, Eadric the Pure doesn't fit nearly as well. But you can swap out a few cards depending on the meta game you're encountering. Tuskarr Jouster is a sometimes-better Antique Healbot. If you don't see much aggro on the ladder, its larger body better contests against slower decks while still giving you a strong chance of a heal.
Harrison Jones could be a great replacement if you're facing a lot of weapon classes. He is a big value swing when he hits, but falls flat in all other matchups. Take out Nexus-Champion Saraad for him if you think the meta suits the change. Finally, Emperor Thaurissan can help speed this deck up to a small extent, allowing you to play turn-7 Tirion Fordrings or squeeze out better combinations like Lay on Hands + Aldor Peacekeeper.
Summary
It can be fun playing heavy control decks like this one. They are totally dominant most of the time, and it's always enjoyable to squash opponents in a torrent of value and legendary cards. This deck also gives Eadric the Pure a place to call home. It's a pretty good card, but there haven't been many decks utilizing it so far, and
The Pure Paladin is here to change that.
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