Umbra can be somewhat reliably replaced with Spellbreaker. The card really improves some combos, but it’s not necessary.

As for the Lord Godfrey, in this specific list I’d just run a second Doomsayer (since it uses only one). Other solid replacements are e.g. Acidic Swamp Ooze/Gluttonous Ooze, Plated Beetle or Stonehill Defender. Twisting Nether might also be a replacement, but only if you face more slow decks and not Aggro. Nether is often too slow vs Aggro, and you’d rather have some more solid early game instead.

When it comes to common ladder decks, Tempo Mage is probably the best one against Cube Warlock. Odd Rogue should also be fine. Those decks should be about 60/40 vs Cube Warlock.

Odd Control Warrior and Control Priest are also favorable, but those decks are much more difficult – if you haven’t played them in the past you will most likely lose against Cube Warlocks, because the matchup is hard to play. However, if you master them, they should also be around 60/40 or at least 55/45 against Cube Warlock.

The best counter would probably be Odd Face Hunter – the deck is like 70/30 vs Cube Warlock, which is a very good counter. But then again, it’s bad against so many other common decks, such as all kinds of Paladin or Spiteful Druid.

It might get better, you’re right. I would never think that Even Paladin will be so strong before the expansion, and I believe that Odd/Even decks will still surprise us in the upcoming expansions.

After playtesting the deck (Odd Mage) earlier into the expansion, it just wasn’t performing too well for me. I tested it in Legend during the first days of The Witchwood with a negative win rate. Maybe the meta has changed a bit and it’s better right now, though, I’ll give it another try soon, or at least after the nerfs 🙂

I actually use BGH in Odd Control Warrior, mostly thanks to the Spiteful Summoner & Cube Warlocks (Mountain Giants).

But I don’t really see it being a common tech card. It’s just a dead/nearly dead card in so many matchups…

Cube is one of my favorite cards from Kobolds & Catacombs too! I think that it’s a stronger side, but I wouldn’t call it overpowered. It’s really interesting and promotes some very cool strategies. It would be sad if they nerfed it just because of the CubeLock.

I think that he was asking for a deck list 😀

I think you underestimate the power level of those cards/decks if you think that those nerf are too punishing. For example, Call to Arms at 5 would still be a powerful card (obviously, no longer usable in Even Paladin, but no one says that you NEED to build it as even – more classic Aggro or even Murloc Paladin would still be using it), or a 3/6 or 2/7 Tarim would be slightly easier to get rid of, but basically just as strong.

Keep in mind that I’m not saying that ALL of those nerfs should happen at once. For example, just changing Lackey’s cost to 6 and Librarian’s damage to 3 (an example set of two nerfs) would not kill Cube Warlock, the deck would still be strong.

Meta doesn’t work that way. When those decks get nerfed, it’s not like they will live a gap in the meta. Other decks will take their place and be considered best decks. Now Tier 2-3 decks would take the Tier 1 places, and now off-meta builds such as Rush Warrior, Combo Priest, Token Druid or whatever might be playable as Tier 2-3 decks. Then some new decks might pop out that were held back by the top meta decks.

We would never be back to “hearthstone classic 1.0” as you’re saying, from my long experience with the game I can definitely say that the nerfs only make the game more interesting, not vice versa. Especially if they’re handled well and the nerfed decks aren’t completely killed off.

I wouldn’t say that the state of the game is poor – the problem this time around was that The Witchwood’s power level was pretty low across the board, relatively to the Year of the Mammooth expansions. We had three sets in a row with high power level cards – Un’Goro, Frozen Throne and especially Kobolds & Catacombs. And now The Witchwood has… mediocre cards mostly.

Which means that the decks relying on the 2017 cards, such as Cube Warlock or Paladin builds, weren’t affected by the rotation very hard, while no new archetypes have risen to counter them, since The Witchwood didn’t have strong enough cards.

It’s a hard nut to crack. Going around and nerfing lots of 2017 cards is not a great way to handle that (especially with two more 2018 expansion in mind, which might have a slightly higher power level than Witchwood), but waiting for new cards to come in order to counter them is also a poor option.

Tarim is the second strongest Paladin card after CtA and one of the strongest card in the entire game, he is definitely overpowered.

But he’s not as oppressive as CtA, because he comes later and can be played around, at least to a certain extent. I like Tarim, because he makes playing against Paladin more skillful, in a way that how well you play around it often wins or loses you the game. CtA – you can’t really play around most of the time, if comes down on T4 and floods the board, that’s it.

Honestly, Tarim is also a good nerf candidate. I’m 100% sure that it would still be great at 7 mana, or with worse stats.

Sorry for the late reply, I’ve been busy in the last few days.

There are LOTS of ways to build Even Paladin. And I’m not arguing whether Tirion is the best one or not (it’s still hard to say – played decks with and without him and both were good), but if you look at HSReplay, he’s played in many decks. The best build hasn’t been found yet, but Tirion really might be in it.

If you sort by popularity, he’s in the #1 most popular Even Paladin build in The Witchwood. If you sort by the win rate, he’s in most of the highest win rate builds across all ranks: https://i.imgur.com/wBVu27K.jpg

So no, it’s not the case of “I randomly put him into the list because some player played him in Even Paladin”.

Generally, he’s a GREAT fit into Even Paladin, and the only thing that’s keeping him behind right now is the amount of Silence cards in the meta. You’d rather get your Lich King silenced, because he got one card anyway + he’s leaving an 8/8 body instead of a 6/6.

I assume that he’s talking about the Mind Blast Control Priest: http://www.hearthstonetopdecks.com/decks/zetalots-1-legend-mind-blast-priest-ft-squashling-may-2018/

I feel like there are too many Paladins for Miracle to be good.

That said, Miracle Rogue will always be a great weapon in the hands of a skilled Rogue player. But I wouldn’t recommend it to the “average player”.

You might be right that I could put him into Good instead of Best, but he’s played in one of the best (and most popular) Even Paladin builds right now.

Plus he’s definitely more popular than Antonidas. Proof: https://i.imgur.com/oVuAmP8.png

The only deck Antonidas was relevant in the last year was Quest Mage, and it was always a Tier 3/4 deck.

To be completely honest, I never read the card flavor texts and never liked Metroid series that much, so I probably wouldn’t draw any connection even if I read it. I was more of a Contra (and Castlevania) guy.

Oh, sorry, I meant to put it into Good cards from Classic! I cut it from the “Best” (since Murloc Paladin is no longer as popular as it was), and forgot to add it to the good ones. Silly me.

I agree that the list might be incomplete, but it’s better to not recommend something than recommend something that might not see any play! I will update it again a few weeks from now once the meta settles down more.

I finished it yesterday, but we’ve been busy with the Monster Hunt coverage. It’s now updated!

Would you mind posting a deck list? I haven’t see that yet.

It makes some sense, although the Druid minion seems like a better fit into such a deck than Mage minions. Most of the Mage minions require some sort of Spell synergy to really work well, which isn’t the case for Druid.

I think that the deck might be viable, but it would just be a worse version of Spiteful Druid.

Sorry for the late reply. We wanted to give meta ~2 weeks to settle down a bit. Legendary crafting guide should be updated tomorrow, and the Epic one on Friday 🙂

Thank you, and I hope you will enjoy the decks you try out!