You dragon paladin deck for next week?

[Gourmandise]

I'm super excited paladin got a good dragon synergy card. I almost exclusively play paladin and will always be excited for new ways to play.

I made a deck that tries to get value™ from the dragon cards!
Although I am still thinking about it

When you first think of the dragon deck you try to squeeze every card that's dragon type or that interacts with dragon type. That's a terrible idea, even without adding Deathwing (of which there is no space to)!
<Full Dragon deck>
You'll soon realize there are a few problems:

• It's kinda top-heavy
• Cheap cards might not be good enough to protect you until late game
• Not all dragons are good (due to deck size)

Some problems can be solved.

• There are no spells
  
  • Remove Malygos
  • Remove Dragonkin Sorcerer
  • Azure Drake is still ok without the Spell Damage (tentatively keep)
• Nozdormu and Dragon Egg suck (for this deck)
  
  • Remove Nozdormu and Dragon Egg
  Twilight Drake and Drakonid Crusher are cards I have mixed feeling about
  
  • Remove Twilight Drake and Drakonid Crusher (tentatively)

There are now 20 cards in this deck, 15 of which are Dragon type.
The first thing to do is to make sure you can survive, maybe even control, the early game.
<Deck I ended up with>

• 2-Mana cards
  
  • Annoy-o-Tron / Shielded Minibot
    
    • Both of these cards are sticky and potentially buy you time.

• 3-Mana cards
  
  • Aldor Peacekeeper / Muster for Battle
    
    • Aldor is excellent at any point in the game for survivability
      Muster for Battle is a decent card on its own. In addition, it could work well with Volcanic Drake.

• 4-Mana cards
  
  • Truesilver Champion / Consecration
    
    • Weapons are always good for keeping the board clear!
      Consecration is especially well for the early game sometimes, with a potential +Spell Damage from the already good Azure Drake.

• Emperor Thaurissan
  
  • Emperor is potentially good in a deck with so many high-cost cards.
    This card is hit or miss in half the decks (tentative add)

The deck now has 33 cards and is too big!
I removed Alexstrasza, Rend Blackhand and Onyxia
I've never been a fan of Alexstrasza and Rend is a tech card.
Onyxia and Chromaggus are tied I currently think (Onyxia's whelps could help bring cheap/free Volcanic Drakes out), so it's a coin toss for which one I would keep atm.


The deck seems ok now, but still doesn't feel like it would work in the real world. It's missing important cards like: Equality, Taunts, Heals, Tirion and/or Bolvar, and many other tech cards.
Keep in mind 13/30 cards are Dragon type, with 6/30 interacting with the dragon type.
~1/3rd dragon cards in the deck to make 1/5th the cards in your deck better might be too high, and I can see some dragon cards being taken out to put in these needed staples of paladin and general decks.
Definitely a tough choice in my mind, as there are a lot of cards that could be added. Tirion, Equality, Black Knight, Harrison, Lay on Hands, Belcher, Rend, Loatheb, Malygos+spells...

What do you think!
Feel free to post your own deck. Don't forget to tell us all why you put in the cards you did, and I hope you're having fun thinking of new deck ideas as much as myself!

- - - Updated - - -

Ohhhh noooo, there's a typo in my title!

I'm such a fool! I wish I could change it : /

[BicycleMafioso]

I made my own Dragon Paladin deck.
Only card I'm not too sure of yet is Sylvanas. Does it really need to be there? I could possibly add another Guardian of Kings.
Today's patch gave me Hungry Dragon to replace Azure Drakes and Chromaggus to replace Dr Boom.
Running as many Dragons as you are and NOT running Rend must be an oversight. It's a fantastic card.

- - - Updated - - -

Card by card:
Zombie Chow is fantastic when you get it.
Equality and Owl as one-offs because of space.
Minibot is decent and you can force a few trades with it.
Coghammer is without a doubt Paladin's most versatile and best weapon.
Technician is an autoinclude.
Hungry Dragon is a beast. I was worried about the drawback, but it honestly isn't one.
Shredder and Healbot for value.
Consort is a given.
Thaurissan is so broken it's not even funny. It's by far the most overpowered card printed so far.
Sylvanas is meh and a silence-bait
Rend is so good. Since you will be forced to use your owl early versus a Priest, using your Rend when they drop your thoughtstolen Tirion is cake. They can't come back from that. I once faced a Priest where I owled the first Tirion he played and Rend the second one.
Chromaggus draws removal, so that's good.
If they let Tirion do his thing, they lose
Ysera is Ysera.

[Deleted]

I will wait a bit and see how viable it is. Ysera is nice to have but most of the decks that I use doesn't really need her. So I will wait before maybe crafting her. She probably is a must have in a paladin dragon deck.

She is the last legendary dragon I don't have, I most got 2 copy of every other legendary dragons.

[Ryme]

I don't see it being viable enough, it's just gonna get crushed by the fast decks.

[shammypie]

I don't see it being viable enough, it's just gonna get crushed by the fast decks.

fast decks crush most decks and if you build it right you will have some counterplay such as equality/consecration/muster.

[Ryme]

fast decks crush most decks and if you build it right you will have some counterplay such as equality/consecration/muster.

I'm prepared to eat my words, but I just don't see a dragon deck working at all outside of the same kind of gimmick pick up that Grim Patron saw. There's so end game, no counter to rush, you're building around a gimmick that isn't there.

[BicycleMafioso]

I'm prepared to eat my words, but I just don't see a dragon deck working at all outside of the same kind of gimmick pick up that Grim Patron saw. There's so end game, no counter to rush, you're building around a gimmick that isn't there.

I have had surprisingly little difficulty thus far.
The only real brick wall I've faced was a mech mage. Not mech mages in general, just a single one, because I spent about 5 turns of that match frozen and couldn't use my weapons. That made me lose that game. That is something that I know I simply cannot overcome.
Face hunters have been surprisingly easy given how absurd a Zombie Chow -> Coin+Coghammer start can be. Or just a Blackwing Technician on curve.

Rush is cute but doesn't really work in this meta, or so I feel. People have been talking about zoo this season but I just don't see it. I've had bad draws against them, but your early game is strong (but bad luck happens of course).

But hey, the sample size is too small still. But constantly having bigger minions than your opponents on curve is filthy, filthy, filthy.
These are my personal experiences thus far. Have I lost game? For sure! But outside of extraordinarily poor draws or poor piloting (eg, me doing misplays) I have not really encountered anything that I feel really is a brick wall - apart from being permafrozen of course.

[Mormolyce]

Thaurissan is so broken it's not even funny. It's by far the most overpowered card printed so far.

That's not how you spell Dr Boom!

[r3d3mpt10n]

Mine doesn't consist of all the dragons, and curves decently too.. even better when ive played Thaurissan, the only problem for me in mine is lack of Draw.

http://www.hearthpwn.com/deckbuilder...452:2;14454:1;

I can honestly say, I haven't lost with the deck yet, either. after about 10 games on Ladder

[BicycleMafioso]

That's not how you spell Dr Boom!

I'm still not impressed by Dr Meh. Especially not in this deck, it's quite underwhelming. Thaurissan is broken in every deck.

[Simulacrum]

I'm still not impressed by Dr Meh. Especially not in this deck, it's quite underwhelming. Thaurissan is broken in every deck.

Maybe if by "every deck" you mean control decks. Thaurissan just gives you tempo (very late in the game) or empowers your combo. If you can't do anything with the tempo at that point (or you don't want to play all your threats at the same time, or you don't even have enough cards to play), or you don't have a combo, then he doesn't do much.

Should still put doom in your dragon deck, because you should put boom in every deck. Guy is better than most 8-9 drops and he only costs 7; showing up 1 turn after Thaurissan to do probably three times the work. He's likely to 1:1 rend after rend kills him, a card he's so much better than that it's almost a joke to put rend in but not boom.

[BicycleMafioso]

Maybe if by "every deck" you mean control decks. Thaurissan just gives you tempo (very late in the game) or empowers your combo. If you can't do anything with the tempo at that point (or you don't want to play all your threats at the same time, or you don't even have enough cards to play), or you don't have a combo, then he doesn't do much.

Should still put doom in your dragon deck, because you should put boom in every deck. Guy is better than most 8-9 drops and he only costs 7; showing up 1 turn after Thaurissan to do probably three times the work. He's likely to 1:1 rend after rend kills him, a card he's so much better than that it's almost a joke to put rend in but not boom.

Control decks? Calling Oil Rogue, Dragon Paladin, Warlock-OTK et c control decks is a very wide definition of the word.
I definitely think that Thaurissan is good in more decks than Dr Boom. Apart from Face Hunters, I would say he slots into every deck.
Dr Boom? Hardly bad. But if you think it's even part-way as broken as Thaurissan is, I have to question a lot about what you are saying. If you think turn 6 is "very late game", I have no idea what to tell you; even my Face Warrior games last until then.
Facing Face hunter usually goes to turn 7-10 most often.
Giving you a permanent built-in coin for every card is disgusting. I don't know what to tell you. Honestly.
I've lost more games to Thaurissan already than I ever have lost a game due to Dr Boom. People are too good at dealing with it. I can see it replacing Sylvanas, but I would still rather have a Guardian of Kings over either.

[Deleted]

Dr. Boom can go to much more decks reliably than Emperor. Only deck in my opinion that can't or shouldn't run Dr. Boom is face hunter. Emperor obviously is better when you have bunch of cards in your hand which means that decks that empty their hands regularly wont get much value out of him. So in my opinion it's straight up pointless to run one in like zoo or midrange hunter. Decks that are bit borderline in my opinion include Paladin and Oil rogue.


Paladin because generally your only card draw is Lay on hands and i guess nowadays Chromaggus if you choose to play it. If you play Chromaggus in paladin then i can kinda see Emperor doing work in some games but if Lay on hands is the only draw mechanic then i would re-consider putting Emperor in the deck because in long games you will empty your hand. Oil rogue is actually similar (again in my opinion) because it's super easy to empty your hand and you will have a gap where you are stuck with couple of cards before you can get a sprint off. So in that sense i think Emperor can be inconsistent.

The other strength that Dr. Boom has compared to Emperor is that it's always a massive threat immediately. It's a 7/7 that alone can take down many minions or push for damage and as we all know the reason why this card is ridiculous are the boom bots. If you can get the bombs hit anything other face when it's needed they are just free removal (which is really nice is in Paladin by the way). These are really extreme examples but i'll give you two cases where these boom bots alone were just fucking ridiculous: i killed an full health ancient of war with two bombs. I have also killed an full health ragnaros with two bombs.

[Gourmandise]

Running as many Dragons as you are and NOT running Rend must be an oversight. It's a fantastic card.

I left out all techy cards. He's the least tech of them all but still nichey
I have to think about what to remove after making the deck proper

[Simulacrum]

Control decks? Calling Oil Rogue, Dragon Paladin, Warlock-OTK et c control decks is a very wide definition of the word.
I definitely think that Thaurissan is good in more decks than Dr Boom. Apart from Face Hunters, I would say he slots into every deck.
Dr Boom? Hardly bad. But if you think it's even part-way as broken as Thaurissan is, I have to question a lot about what you are saying. If you think turn 6 is "very late game", I have no idea what to tell you; even my Face Warrior games last until then.
Facing Face hunter usually goes to turn 7-10 most often.
Giving you a permanent built-in coin for every card is disgusting. I don't know what to tell you. Honestly.
I've lost more games to Thaurissan already than I ever have lost a game due to Dr Boom. People are too good at dealing with it. I can see it replacing Sylvanas, but I would still rather have a Guardian of Kings over either.

What? Warlock OTK is pure control, right up to the combo... dragon paladin has a curve almost as heavy as control warrior, and oil rogues never play anything, except reactively, until turn 4+. These are very heavy control decks. Actually, here's a good heuristic for you man: If you have enough cards in hand by turn 6 for Thaurissan to actually do something, you're probably a control deck.

A permanent built-in coin for every card? By which you mean the ones you had in hand at the time that you cast him, which - unless you're heavy control - won't be many, and if you're not against heavy control yourself often loses you huge tempo as you play your 6 drop that does nothing while they do 13 damage to your face. Then you maybe remove 1 minion with Thaurissan and play your amazing 7 mana tyrion, which they silence before finishing you off.

Boom, however, doesn't give a fuck about anything. The number of cards in your hand? Your board position? The enemy's board position? None of this shit matters to boom. Here's the dr. boom checklist: Is it turn 7 (or 6 and you have coin)? Do you have dr boom in your hand? If yes to both, play dr. boom. Then, he clears up to 5 (!!!) minions the next turn, all by himself, and probably another the turn after that as well, or he just does 9+ damage to the opponent's face (maybe while clearing his board, 'cuz that's just how amazing boom is).

Basically, boom is always amazing. He requires no special circumstance to be so, beyond having enough mana to cast him. To play Thaurissan, however, you first need to be in a very safe board and/or health position (so that you can afford to play a 6 drop that initially does nothing and will at best only clear 1 minion the next turn, instead of the many other things that you could do with 6 mana, like belcher/healbot/sylvanas/consecrate+hero power/etc.), and you need to have a bunch of cards in hand that benefit from the mana cost discount. After all, if you the next turn play one card and end it at 1/7, he didn't actually do anything.

I really like Thaurissan too, but he's nowhere close to in the same league as dr. boom. Yes, he can situationally be better, but it's rare, and - again - situational. Dr boom is always good. Always. This is a very big difference.

[PPN]

I don't see it being viable enough, it's just gonna get crushed by the fast decks.

I was working on my pala-dragon deck a lot. And im currently sitting on rank 11. However i get raped hard from basicly all facehunters no matter how i change my deck.

Its just sad that such a zeroskiller deck has so much succes, it destroys the game. Why make 100s of cards when 80% are useless because of a broken deck...

[Ryme]

Double consecrate, equality and pyromancer and pray

[Korlok]

2 Equality
2 Annoy O Tron
2 Faerie Dragons
1 Owl
2 BW Technicians
2 Aldor Peacekeepers
2 Earthen Ring Farseers
2 Truesilvers
2 Consecration
2 Hungry Dragon
1 Azure Drake
2 Dragon Consort
1 Loatheb
2 Sludge Belchers
1 Thaurissan
1 Dr Boom
1 Lay on Hands
1 Alexstrazsa
1 Ysera

Still tinkering with it, but this deck plays like the standard heavy control paladin, but minus the heals. Use the tempo beaters to control the board until the bombs come out. I threw the farseers in there just to supplement some healing power, as I don't have the guardians from my old healadin control deck, and wound up keeping them as they are just FAR too useful when you eat something small with your technician or hungry dragon early, and then heal it back up to full with one of those, also giving you that nice 3/3 body. So far it's been fun, and seems to be about a 60% win ratio. Still trying to work on it some.

[shammypie]

I was working on my pala-dragon deck a lot. And im currently sitting on rank 11. However i get raped hard from basicly all facehunters no matter how i change my deck.

Its just sad that such a zeroskiller deck has so much succes, it destroys the game. Why make 100s of cards when 80% are useless because of a broken deck...

consecration, equality, zombies, mini bots, owls, and kezans will do wonders

[Korlok]

They also hate a technician on curve, followed by a hungry dragon on curve right after it. Facehunters don't like it when you out beef them too early.