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Hearthstone deck guide: Reno Jackson Paladin - January 2016

How to play our preferred Reno Jackson Paladin deck.

Right after the release of the first wing of the League of Explorers, the community wasted no time seeing how they might fashion experimental decks around the new Legendary card, Reno Jackson. If you've nothing but unique cards in your pile when Reno's put out on the board, he'll top your health all the way back up to maximum. Bad news for Face Hunters? We'll see.

We reckon Trump's Reno Paladin is the one to mess around with right now, thanks to the Hero's fantastic selection of class cards at every stage of the game, along with a Hero Power that's great for filling gaps in your Mana curve. Expect plenty of tweaks in the weeks to come, and don't forget to share you favourite versions of this deck in the comments section.

Editor's note: January 2016 - No one's pretending that the Reno Jackson Paladin is the most consistently powerful deck in the current metagame, but it is hands-down the most fun we've had in Hearthstone in a long time. Given our general philosophy that you will always go further with a deck you love to play than a boring one declared the best by others, we urge you to at least give this real gem of a deck a go. It might just end up being your new favourite.

Reno Jackson Paladin strategy guide - January 2016

When playing Trump's Reno Jackson Paladin, you really want to just play your cards out in as smooth and steady a curve as possible, controlling the board and pushing for Hero damage whenever you have the spare attacking power. You've got a wide variety of options at each stage of the game (see our combo section below), and so it should come as no surprise to learn that mastering this deck revolves around making smart trades as you snowball your threat on the board.

Your emergency heal for getting back into even the toughest of games is Reno Jackson himself, although you'll obviously need more than this character in your back-pocket if you're to actually win. You need to choose your moment to play this card very carefully. Go too soon and you'll waste healing potential and possibly have too small a hand to finish the job. Leave it too late though, and you might find yourself eating lethal damage instead.

Reno Jackson Paladin Mulligan - January 2016

The most important aspect of playing out this deck is ensuring that you have as smooth an opening as possible. Even though you can't rely on getting lucky and getting a second chance of a specific card with this deck, you have plenty of amazing early-game options.

Cards like Zombie Chow, Annoy-o-Tron, Knife Juggler and Shielded Minibot are all great to hold onto. Depending on which ones you get, you then need to look a little further ahead to see how your subsequent turns are going to play out, based on what you've got.

Reno Jackson Paladin combos and synergies - January 2016

Given the sheer variety of cards that exist in this deck by necessity, it shouldn't come as a surprise to learn that there are significantly more combos to consider than you might be used to. Here are the most important to keep in mind as you play out Trump's Reno Jackson Paladin.

- Muster for Battle and Quartermaster is the ultimate mid-game combo for this deck. If you've played Midrange Paladin in the past, you'll know exactly how devastating this play can be.

- Knife Juggler can be combined with cards like Muster for Battle and Equality to create absolute chaos on the board. You'll need a little luck on your side, but it's a great little play.

- Equality combined with Consecration is your most reliable board clear, and it'll bring even the biggest enemy minions down to size in no time.

- Don't forget that you can feed Quartermaster even more recruits, thanks to the bonus power of Silver Hand Regent.

- If you've got lots of little guys on the board, they can be very useful for empowering Cult Master's fantastic card-drawing ability. Try to protect her behind a Taunt whenever possible, and always avoid playing her onto an empty board.

- To really mess with your opponent's mind, consider using Defender of Argus to Taunt up your Sylvanas Windrunner - if they've no direct spellpower to remove her from the board, you may force a very problematic trade on them. Coghammer can also be used to grant the Taunt.

- Aldor Peacekeeper and Youthful Brewmaster can work together very well in the later stages of a game. Simply neutralise one threat, bounce back the Aldor Peacekeeper, then reapply if you have the Mana to spare. You can – more rarely - achieve a similar effect with the stat-boosting benefits of Quartermaster.

- Don't forget that Knife Juggler will fling out an extra dagger if you trigger the summoning effect of Silver Hand Regent or Murloc Knight. Garrison Commander can also help you bring bonus bodies onto the board.

More great decks:

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John Bedford avatar

John Bedford

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John is Metabomb's Editor in Chief and looks after the day to day running of the site when he's not writing about Hearthstone.

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