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Aggro Paladin deck list guide - Rise of Shadows - Hearthstone (April 2019)

How to climb the Rise of Shadows ladder using the latest incarnation of Aggro Paladin.

Aggro Paladin is a Hearthstone deck type that's built around the strategy of getting minor minions out onto the board as quickly as possible, then transforming them into game-winning powerhouses using various buffing effects.

In our Aggro Paladin guide we've highlighted a pretty well established version of this deck, and also outlined some of the strategy involved behind playing it. After that we've got a few tips for making it through the Mulligan stage, before we highlight all of the many combos and synergies that you can use to destroy your opponent.

Struggling with any aspect of this deck? Let us know what's tripping you up in the comments and we'll do our best to help you out!

UPDATE - RISE OF SHADOWS LAUNCH

Aggro Paladin is making a return in Rise of Shadows, and we wanted to bring you an early version of the deck that makes use of the new cards! This version was created for launch by DisguisedToast:

Rise of Shadows Aggro Paladin Deck List

PaladinNeutral
2 x Autodefense Matrix2 x Argent Squire
2 x Blessing of Might2 x Secretkeeper
2 x Never Surrender2 x Knife Juggler
2 x Noble Sacrifice2 x Sunreaver Spy
2 x Redemption2 x Masked Contender
2 x Mysterious Blade1 x Leeroy Jenkins
1 x Commander Rhyssa
2 x Bellringer Sentry
2 x Blessing of Kings
2 x Truesilver Champion

Select and copy the long ID string below, then create a deck in Hearthstone to export this deck into your game.

Deck Import ID: AAECAZ8FAgCvBA4AAABGjAGeAcgE9QXPBq8HsQit8gLY/gL1iQMA

More great Paladin guides:

Note that the rest of this article refers to an earlier version of the deck. It’ll take us a while to get the whole site up to speed with all the changes, but you should still find the general advice useful!

Aggro Paladin deck list and strategy

Here's a version of Aggro Paladin that's proving pretty potent at this late stage of the Kobolds meta. The creator of this deck is unknown.

PaladinNeutral
2 x Blessing of Might2 x Argent Squire
2 x Lost in the Jungle2 x Dire Mole
2 x Righteous Protector2 x Dire Wolf Alpha
2 x Divine Favor2 x Knife Juggler
2 x Rallying Blade2 x Stubborn Gastropod
2 x Unidentified Maul2 x Spellbreaker
2 x Blessing of Kings1 x Leeroy Jenkins
2 x Call to Arms
1 x Sunkeeper Tarim

Select and copy the long ID string below, then create a deck in Hearthstone to export this deck into your game.

Deck Import ID: AAECAZ8FAq8EucECDkanBfIF9QWvB9kHsQjZrgLmwgK4xwLjywL40gKL5QLW5QIA

You'll find the bulk of our advice for playing Aggro Paladin in the tips and combos section towards the bottom of this page. Once you've a solid understanding of the many synergies that exist in this deck, you'll have much of the information you need for taking it to the ladder.

We will outline a few important points right here though.

  • As an aggro deck it is absolutely vital that you get an early presence on the board so you can start applying pressure immediately.
  • With that said, it's still important that you make any value trades against the opponent's minions which will ultimately leave you in charge of the board.
  • You may need to do some minion trading, so always watch how you position Dire Wolf Alpha. You may want the buff to cycle between multiple minions as they're sacrificed, after all. Keep big stuff on the left, and little stuff on the right.
  • Understand your opponent's possible upcoming AOE effects and be ready to hold stuff back. You do want to tease those spells out though, so start piling throwaway Hero Power minions onto the board.
  • Silencing and hard removal spells are going to be a think in the Kobolds meta. For that reason you should spread the love when it comes to buffs, and aim to boost up a varied board instead of going all-in on one minion.
  • Keep doing the maths about the damage potential in your hand, as you must choose the right moment to switch all of your damage to the opponent's health pool. If you have lots of slow answers in your hand, keep controlling a little. If you've nothing but damage output though, push to the finishing line and let the opponent worry about the board.

Aggro Paladin Mulligan guide

The old advice applies in the new version of Aggro Paladin: look to curve out neatly with your smallest minions, and if you get a Divine Shield-heavy start place greater value on Rallying Blade.

In this context, Righteous Protector and Argent Squire are amazing keeps, and Lost in the Jungle will give you an immediate fast start on the board. Dire Mole's another great keep as is Call to Arms, but only if you've something to play on the earlier turns.

Aggro Paladin tips, combos and synergies

Let's run through all of the combos you have to play with in the Kobolds and Catacombs version of Aggro Paladin. These should be all the tips you need to get started with the deck.

- Try to empty your hand as much as possible before playing Divine Favor, especially against slower opponents. This will ensure you get a much fatter re-fuelling of your hand!

- All minions with Divine Shield will gain a bonus +1 / +1 of stats when you play Rallying Blade. Cards like Righteous Protector and Argent Squire have immediate synergy here.

- You have a lot of two-Mana minions in this deck, and Call to Arms will grab three such minions left in your deck and pull them onto the board right away.

- Watch your positioning of Dire Wolf Alpha. You may need to send multiple minions into a problematic target, and you'll want to cycle the buff onto a new minion that's sacrificing themselves for the cause.

- With Knife Juggler on the board, every subsequently summoned minion will cause a randomly target single point of damage to be thrown either at any enemy minion or the opponent's Health pool.

- Here are the bonus effects it's possible for Unidentified Maul to acquire as it passes from your deck list and into your hand:

  • Purifier's Maul - Give your minions Divine Shield.
  • Sacred Maul - Give your minions Taunt.
  • Champion's Maul - Summon two 1 / 1 Silver Hand Recruits.
  • Blessed Maul - Give your minions +1 Attack.

- Sunkeeper Tarim sets the Health and Attack stats of every minion - your own and your opponent's - to 3. If your minions are bubbled, this obviously provides a huge opportunity to clear the enemy's board down, but do watch out for AOE effects on the opponent's next turn.

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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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