Even Paladin Deck List Guide – Witchwood – May 2018

We are still in the process of updating our deck guides! The guide below might reference cards that are no longer in the current version of the deck that is listed above. Credit to Cocosasa for the current list being featured above.

Even Paladin Card Choices

There are many good cards available for Even Paladin, and in this section I will discuss the more common choices and their main uses. The particular cards that make the cut depend on the prevalent meta and player preference.

First, there is the two-drop package. This is an important part of Even Paladin strategy, as they are the cards that can be summoned to the board from Call to Arms. Generally, Battlecry minions are avoided, because of poor compatibility with Call to Arms, but in some cases even those may make the cut: not every two-drop is summoned on the board with a spell after all, you always also draw and play some from hand.

Even Paladin decks generally use four or five different two-cost minions (two copies of each), mostly from the following alternatives:

• Drygulch Jailor provides Even Paladin the means to play multiple Silver Hand Recruits in a single turn. The one-cost Hero Power already fills in gaps in the mana curve, but building a wide board with that alone is not possible, and Even Paladin cannot use Lost in the Jungle or Vinecleaver to summon additional minions.
• Knife Juggler has great synergy with Call to Arms, often getting in a knife or two when summoned. It can also be combined with other low-cost minions and the Hero Power to take a few shots at the opponent’s board or Hero.
• Plated Beetle may seem like a control deck card, and to an extent it is, but it is also a solid 2/3 body that is often able to trade favorably in the early game. In an aggressive meta, it is one of the most powerful two-drops for a midrange build such as Even Paladin.
• Vicious Scalehide has great synergy with many of the cards used in Even Paladin decks. It is a solid minion to trade with in the early game, and can provide significant Health gain later in the game, when combined with a buff from Sunkeeper Tarim or Blessing of Kings. Vicious Scalehide can also replenish the Divine Shield on The Glass Knight.
• Dire Wolf Alpha is a good card in token decks. If you have a wide board available, you can play Dire Wolf Alpha and trade away one minion after another, getting the attack buff on each one of them.
• Loot Hoarder has a weak statline at 2/1, but its Deathrattle can draw you an additional card and keep your machine running. Even Paladin has no access to Divine Favor, so it does not have a lot of card draw.
• Stubborn Gastropod is a Poisonous Taunt minion that can stop a larger foe in its tracks.
• Wild Pyromancer is better known as a Control Paladin card for its board-clearing combo with Equality, but it can also fit in an Even Paladin list: buffing Wild Pyromancer is a great way to deal with opponent’s tokens.

The exact package chosen for each list depends on the goals of that particular list and other included synergy cards.

In addition to the minion package, the two-mana slot provides access to two spells that can be used to control the board:

• Equality can be combined with Wild Pyromancer for a full board clear or with Consecration to clear the opponent’s board but leave yours alive – albeit at mere one Health. It is most commonly seen in Control Paladin, but is sometimes used in Even Paladin as well.
• Dark Conviction sets a minion’s stats to 3/3. It is not as widely effective as Equality, but it has multiple precision uses: reducing a major threat to a small minion so that is can be removed with a minion or weapon, or buffing up one of your own minions, whether a Silver Hand Recruit for trade or lethal or a Vicious Scalehide to trade away a threat. The advantage of Dark Conviction over Equality is that it can also be used as a buff in a more proactive game plan.

The four-mana slot is a traditional powerhouse for Paladin, and the current home to perhaps the most powerful card in the game, Call to Arms:

• Call to Arms is the alpha and the omega. The be-all and end-all. It is a card you keep in the mulligan in every single matchup, and it swings and wins games by itself. Drawing and summoning three two-drops (in case of Even Paladin that has no one-drops) for four mana is incredibly powerful.
• Blessing of Kings is a solid buff card. With a one-cost Hero Power, you can easily create targets for buffs. Blessing of Kings also goes nicely with Vicious Scalehide for a big heal and removal.
• Consecration is a great card against token decks, such as Odd Paladin. It can also be combined with Equality for a board clear or with Wild Pyromancer for three damage to all opponent’s minions (and one to all of your own).
• Truesilver Champion is a solid weapon, and the healing effect can provide nice synergy with The Glass Knight.
• The Glass Knight is a powerful mid-game minion. 4/3 with Divine Shield for four mana is decent by itself, and any healing effects, such as Vicious Scalehide and Truesilver Champion can replenish that Divine Shield – as long as your Hero has taken damage that actually gets healed, as overhealing does not count. Technically, you could also heal your minions to get The Glass Knight‘s Divine Shield back, but in practice Even Paladin lacks the means to do that.
• Lightfused Stegodon buffs your Silver Hand Recruits from Hero Power and Drygulch Jailor. It is great for lethal, trading, and additional survivability.

And that was just the Paladin class card selection for four mana! There are even more good options in the Neutral cards:

• Spellbreaker is one of the most popular tech cards. Silence effects can be good to have, and Spellbreaker is the most all-around neutral silence card.
• Saronite Chain Gang can be a good defensive tool, although it really shines with Val'anyr and mostly sees play in Paladin in lists that choose to include the Legendary weapon.
• Corpsetaker is an interesting option, as the deck can easily be fitted with Taunt, Lifesteal, and Divine Shield minions. It requires specific deck construction and choosing the options that support it, but it can also be a powerful addition.

Six-mana slot houses yet another pair of must-includes:

• Genn Greymane is perhaps the lowest win rate card in the deck when played, but you need it for the effect. Without it, it’s not really Even Paladin anymore, now is it.
• Sunkeeper Tarim, on the other hand, is one of the most powerful cards in the game. Turn your tokens into threats, make your opponent’s big minions much smaller, get some sweet trades with Vicious Scalehide or a value trade with the Divine Shield of Crystal Lion. You want it, Tarim has it.

Other than those, there are various options for six mana:

• Spikeridged Steed is as close to a staple as it gets without literally being in every list. A great buff card, and with the one-cost Hero Power, you have a guaranteed target for it for one mana.
• Crystal Lion is a powerful minion that gets cheaper as you build a board of Silver Hand Recruits. Even Paladin cannot that easily play a ton of Silver Hand Recruits though, so you may also consider using Sea Giant, which is less picky when it comes to the minions it works with.
• Avenging Wrath can give the deck surprising amounts of burst for Paladin. It is also useful for wiping out token boards.
• Val'anyr can provide near-infinite value. The buff goes on and on, and if you can get the buff to land on a Saronite Chain Gang, a single Silence effect cannot take it away from you.

There are a few end-game options for Even Paladin. Some lists use them heavily, others do not use any of them. You can build the deck to be a bit faster or a bit more value-oriented, depending on the meta you are facing and the cards you have available:

• Silver Sword is a value engine that buffs your board and can give you some additional reach to surprise the opponent.
• Tirion Fordring is a classic. It’s been around for a long time, and keeps coming up in Paladin decks from one meta to another. A 6/6 body with Divine Shield and a Deathrattle to give you a big weapon is never out of style.
• The Lich King wants to compete with Tirion. It too offers a Taunt, and it offers powerful generated cards. A strong end-game minion for any class, including Paladin.
• Primordial Drake is a more conservative option that can be used against token decks to defend thanks to its area-of-effect damage Battlecry.

As you can see, some of the cards go naturally together, so when building an Even Paladin deck, you get to pick and choose from multiple packages of cards to build a deck that has good internal synergies.

Even Paladin Mulligan Strategy & Guide

VS Fast Decks

Higher Priority (Keep every time)

• Call to Arms – The tempo swing is worth it in every matchup.
• A two-drop. Preferred ones are Plated Beetle and Vicious Scalehide.

Lower Priority (Keep only if certain conditions are met)

• Consecration – Keep against token decks, such as Odd Paladin.

VS Slow Decks

Higher Priority (Keep every time)

• Call to Arms – The tempo swing is worth it in every matchup. It really is.
• Sunkeeper Tarim – Against slow decks you have time to develop, and Tarim is your strongest win condition.
• The Glass Knight – A mid-game value engine that can get a lot of work done against control decks.

Slower end game cards are not worth keeping even if they are good in the matchup, but The Glass Knight hits a sweet spot at four mana and Sunkeeper Tarim is simply too good to pass up on.

Even Paladin Win Rates

Winrate stats are currently unavailable for this deck at the moment!

Even Paladin Play Strategy

Even Paladin almost always starts the game by pressing Hero Power, and keeps weaving in those Hero Powers to its odd mana turns. Sometimes you are able to build a nice board of tokens for Lightfused Stegodon, Sunkeeper Tarim, or Silver Sword to buff, and sometimes you just use the tokens to help your trades and deal the face damage with your bigger minions, such as Sea Giant or Crystal Lion. Whether you want to preserve your tokens or use them to trade depends on your hand and the opponent’s ability to clear boards: go wide against opponents who lack tools to deal with wide boards, and sacrifice tokens for trades against opponents who struggle to clear individual big minions.

VS Aggro Decks

You are the control deck in aggro matchups: your goal is to control the board and remove the opponent’s minions until you gain board control and can move on to the attack, often aided by a swing from Sea Giant or Crystal Lion.

The type of aggro deck affects your strategy. Against aggro decks with a lot of reach, such as Mage, you want to maximize your healing: for example, Vicious Scalehide is best used with a buff card to restore a good chunk of health at once and keep it alive to potentially heal more. Against aggro decks that go wide and need a board to deal damage, you want to limit their board size: for example, Vicious Scalehide early to start trading away tokens from an Odd Paladin can be extremely valuable in the long run.

Be careful with your Taunt minions and Taunt buffs. There are lots of Silence effects in the meta, so you need to consider whether hitting face while you have a Taunt minion alive to put the aggro deck on a clock or whether clearing the board even with a Taunt minion alive is the better path to victory. You have some reach of your own, so if you can build a board behind a Taunt minion and then buff up all those minions, you may be able to end the game surprisingly quickly.

VS Control Decks

You are the beatdown deck in control matchups: your goal is to be the aggressor and end the game. It all starts with the mulligan where you seek your threats, and carries over to the game itself. Trade when you have something to gain from it: protecting key minions on board or preventing setups for Defile, Hellfire, or Duskbreaker. Otherwise, hit face to deal damage.

Depending on the opponent, use your resources carefully. If you already have a good board that is weak to area-of-effect damage and you have Call to Arms in hand, it may be better to hold onto it to repopulate the board after a potential clear. On the other hand, sometimes you need to go all in, and making the call on whether to hold something back or go all in is one of the most difficult decisions in control matchups. You are not playing a face deck. You do not have to always go all in. Your resources are also limited, there’s no Divine Favor to bail you out if you spend all your cards. You can always commit more resources that the opponent cannot effectively answer: Drygulch Jailor, for example, is a fine card to play on a board that is weak to area-of-effect damage. Even if your opponent clears the board, you get a bunch of tokens back to repopulate it again.

Even Paladin Card Substitutions

Ranging from approximately 7,000 to 11,000 dust, Even Paladin is either a mid-cost or an expensive deck, depending on the exact build.

The deck has one mandatory Legendary card in it, Genn Greymane. It cannot be replaced under any circumstances, because it is the build-around card that changes the cost of your Hero Power. Other than that, it is extremely inadvisable to replace Sunkeeper Tarim (Legendary) or Call to Arms (Epic, two copies), as they are the most powerful cards in the deck and replacing them would have a clear and immediate effect on your win rate.

There are several other Legendary and Epic cards that can see play in Even Paladin, but all of them are replaceable in some way.

• The Lich King, Tirion Fordring, and Primordial Drake – There are no cheap, big end-game minions in the game right now and this trio also exhausts the pool of suitable even-cost big minions altogether. If you do not have them, you need to play a version with a lower mana curve. If you still want some power, you can use both Crystal Lions and Sea Giants together.
• Sea Giant – You can use Crystal Lion instead.
• Avenging Wrath – I assume you already have Consecration in the deck anyway, so there is nothing quite similar. Primordial Drake may do, or perhaps Equality.
• Val'anyr – Silver Sword has a somewhat similar effect.
• The Glass Knight – There is no direct replacement, but the Knight is not strictly necessary either. Spellbreaker is a tech card that fits in the same mana slot.