[Legend] Reno + N’Zoth, Best Buds

So, this is a fun deck that I’ve had some good  success with (currently Legend 1874). It’s a Reno Jackson variation of N’Zoth Paladin, and there are a few key card differences that I’ve worked out through playing it a lot that make it work but might look weird at first. These few changes are basically to mess up the first few turns against aggro, which is the traditional N’Zoth’s biggest weakness.

1. Board clearers – Equality is Paladin’s biggest board clearing trigger, so we keep two of them. It’s fine in a Reno deck to have two of one card, especially since we have so many other heals. To make up for the fact that there’s only one Consecration and one Wild Pyromancer, I added Avenging Wrath and Baron Geddon. This give us the same amount of equality board clears. 2 Equalities, 4 ways to follow up and clear the board. Equality / Baron Geddon can be especially nasty and can straight up win the game sometimes. And Avenging Wrath can be great on it’s own for one or two low health minions, and it also gets around things like divine shield.

2. No Solemn Vigil? – I’ve swapped out Solemn Vigil for Blessing of Wisdom. This is basically to counter aggro. There are frustrating times against aggro where you don’t draw a board clear and you just die before you can even get the card draw. With Blessing of Wisdom you are basically using your health as a resource. Pop it on an early aggro minion, and they either draw cards for you in trade for health (which get you to your board clears and heals), or they don’t even attack with that minion at all, which I will gladly accept as well. If a 3 attack minion doesn’t attack for three turns, that’s essentially 9 health of healing that you’ve paid one mana for. So you are basically drawing a few cards for one mana and health, or you’re saving 6-9 health if they don’t attack. This strategy also plays along well with cards like Mind Control Tech or Cult Apothecary. On the flip side, against control you can choose your own minion that can get a few turns of attack pretty easily, or you can just choose to get one card instead, if you are fine on cards and want to let them fatigue first. One card for one mana is perfectly fine. Solemn Vigil always makes you draw 2, which might not be what you want.

3. No Cairne???? – Let’s face it, Cairne is pretty good against control, but he’s really slow against aggro. There’s just no time on turn 6 to play a minion that is not going to stop you from dying the next turn. I’d much rather topdeck a Senjin Shieldmasta in that situation. Plus, Cairne isn’t an auto-win against control either. Trust me, when N’Zoth brings back one (or even two) Sylvanas, Tirion, and an Infested Tauren, you’ll be just fine without Cairne.

4. 4 Drops – Turn 4 is a really bad one for Paladin. You have some removal but no minions. I added a few beefy neutral so that you can fight for the board just enough to get you to the late game. Twilight Drake, Sen'jin Shieldmasta , and Refreshment Vendor all have good bodies that can usually kill off a couple of 2 or 3 drops, or even force removal, which is great for your legendaries later on. Most other N’Zoth decks have also already dropped cards like Twilight summoner, because you just can’t drop a 1/1 on turn 4, even if it spawns a 5/5 when it dies, wouldn’t you rather just drop a 4/8 or 4/9 Drake that turn?

5. Faceless Manipulator – Faceless Manipulator adds a nice element of surprise to this deck. It’s a card that nobody really expects to see unless it’s a handlock deck. Faceless on either Ragnaros can be an auto-win, but it’s also very handy in other situations. It can get you out of sticky situations (Druid plays a huger taunt, make a copy of it). Or, for example, a Priest entombs your Tirion (annoying). Well, when he plays it, you can get your copy back which will also come back again when you play N’Zoth. There also have been a few times against control decks that I haven’t needed to use the coin all game, and I can play double Sylvanas Windrunner on turn 10. After N’zoth that’s 4 Sylvanas’s. How’s that for anti control?

That’s about it, hope this gave you some cool ideas and have fun out there!