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Mulligans
General Mulligans
In general, these are the cards you are looking for. You will have to make a conscious decision every time you want to mulligan the quest to try to grind out the opponent instead of looking for the OTK. Other than that, all of these cards are incredibly good and provide board control easily. You will also want to mulligan away Wickerflame Burnbristle 99% of the time, so that way you can get more value off of your Corpsetakers.
Aggro Mulligans
Against aggro, there is no point in going for the quest. Your goal is to survive and hope you can play Uther of the Ebon Blade in time to heal yourself, which isn't nearly as hard as it seems. If you are able to curve any of these 2 drops into any of these 3 drops and then curve it into a corpsetaker, you can almost always win. If you go second, do not value the coin as a combo piece, and instead use it when necessary in order to combat the aggro player.
Midrange Mulligans
The midrange matchup is interesting. If you gain significant board control at any point, you can almost always win, either by grind or OTK. This is why you want to go for any two drop you can so you can avoid hero powering on turn two. Then try to hit a three drop if you can, however, your main goal should be setting up for an Equality play on turn 4 or 6. You are welcome to keep The Last Kaleidosaur if you feel comfortable enough, and you can potentially save the coin if you really, really want the OTK. However, more often than not you'll end up using it.
Combo Mulligans
If for some reason you know you're going against another combo deck, then you should start looking for your combo pieces immediately. You shouldn't have to worry about board control very much, as a simple doomsayer or any weapon can easily take care of it. Your main priority should be drawing and gathering combo pieces ASAP so you can kill your opponent sooner. Definitely keep The Last Kaleidosaur, every time.
Control Mulligans
The control matchup is free for this deck. You can beat jade druid because they don't really have board control in the early game, so your Burgly Bullys are more than likely to resolve. Any other control deck isn't really worth mentioning, except maybe priest due to their bursting potential, but it's nothing a couple of swings from Uther of the Ebon Blade can't fix. The idea is to keep your hand size at 9 at all times and make sure that you are sifting through your deck for combo pieces whenever possible. The first 5 cards in the list are ideal for an opening hand, however Auctionmaster Beardo, Burgly Bully, and Uther of the Ebon Blade can be kept as a greedy option.
Time is money friend
With the addition of Marin the Fox, OTK paladin just became a lot more consistent. Could this be the next big thing?
What is OTK paladin? The goal is to press hero power 4 times in one turn with Uther. How does one go about this? Well, the method is simple. You want the following conditions to be met: 10 mana, Uther as a hero, 5 spaces on the board, 2 coins in your hand, a 0 or 1-cost spell in your hand, and Auctionmaster Beardo in your hand. Sounds pretty rough, but it’s actually pretty easy to do. The process to preform the OTK is as follows:
1. Play Beardo (7 mana remaining)
2. Hero power (5 mana remaining)
3. Coin (6 mana remaining)
4. HP (4 mana remaining)
5. Coin (5 mana remaining)
6. HP (3 mana remaining)
7. 1-cost spell (2 mana remaining)
8. HP (0 mana remaining, 0 opponent remaining)
In this section, I’ll cover my unique card choices, as well as cards which I am considering or had considered adding to the deck.
The Last Kaleidosaur
You may think it’s a strange choice, but it’s actually one of the most important cards in the deck. The reason being: It starts in your hand, and it’s a one-cost spell. Against every control deck, this is what wins. The ability to fulfill one piece of your win condition before the opponent immediately, while also thinning your deck of a bad draw is incredible. It is also safe to mulligan, due to the sheer number of low-cost cards in the deck. You’re more than likely to get a suitable replacement for this card on a mulligan.
Hydrologist
While this card is commonly seen in the paladin decks of the current meta due to it’s sheer value, it’s also very critical to this deck. Due to it’s ability to generate 1-cost secrets, it is a requirement in the deck. It also plays around a very specific card which has the potential to ruin the combo: Skulking Geist. If your opponent plays a Skulking Geist while you had The Last Kaleidosaur in your hand, normally that would be it, as the deck doesn’t play any other 1-cost spells. However, due to Hydrologist, you can dodge the Skulking Geist and still have a 1-cost ready for the combo. This card is also incredibly strong against aggro, due to it’s value body, ability to block attacks, return taunts to the hand, revive taunts with divine shield, and/or shrink healthy minions your opponent plays.
Burgly Bully and The Coin
The Coin and Burgly Bully are critical to the OTK. If you go second against a control deck, you are almost guaranteed victory because of having both The Coin and The Last Kaleidosaur in your hand to start, putting you extremely close to the OTK from the very start. However, you still need to resolve Burgly Bully’s effect enough times to get 2 coins in your hand. Because of this, you will need to make sure that your opponent HAS to play spells in order to remove it from the board. You cannot let your opponent gain board control before playing Burgly Bully. Luckily, the deck comes with some nice workarounds. Wild Pyromancer + Equality on turn 9 is a common play and can get you board instantaneously. Doomsayer + taunt minion clears the board and gives you advantage on the next turn. Of course, you can always risk playing a taunt and a Burgly Bully, then hope your opponent doesn’t have a way to get rid of it without using spells, but it’s a stretch. It is also important to mention that Burgly Bully will add a coin to your hand as soon as the spell is played, and before the effect of the spell occurs. For example, if your opponent tries to Polymorph your Burgly Bully, you will get The Coin added to your hand before it becomes a sheep. Lastly, it is important you don’t overdraw in this deck, as it may lead to inconsistency in the combo, so keep track of how many spells your opponent could play and your hand size to make sure you don’t overdraw.
Sunkeeper Tarim
While the effect does seem detrimental against an aggro deck, this card opens up several plays involving lethals, board swings and walling. it’s too good to be left out of the list. Should the meta shift towards that of an aggro one during the next set, it may be replaced with something else, like a Consecration or Spellbreaker. For now though, it’s staying.
Marin The Fox
What a weird card to include in this deck. Why would this be any good? Well, 3 out of the 4 treasures greatly benefit OTK Paladin. We’ll start with the “bad” treasure, which is Tolin’s Goblet. It draws a card, then fills your hand with copies of that card. Against any aggro deck, drawing a taunt like Stonehill Defender or Wickerflame Burnbristle should win the game with ease. However, when trying to get the OTK, it is unlikely you’ll be drawing into anything incredibly useful, and will more than likely cause you to overdraw. Next is Wonderous Wand. This is the best treasure by far, as drawing any of the spells opens up for some crazy plays and OTKs that wouldn’t be possible before. If you have the hand room, being able to play 3 cards from your deck for free is incredible, no matter what kind of deck you’re facing. The next two treasures can be good, if you get lucky. To start is Zarog’s Crown. It lets you discover a legenary minion and summon two copies of it. Lo and behold, Auctionmaster Beardo is a legendary minion (I know it’s preposterous to actually get Auctionmaster Beardo off of Zarog’s Crown, but it actually happened to me the first time I played Marin and I was able to OTK on the next turn lol). Finally is the Golden Kobold. This one is also pretty bad, because if you’ve been collecting combo pieces in your hand to prepare for the OTK, this card becomes unplayable, as it replaces your hand with random legendary minions. However, against aggro, this card can win games easily, due to it’s insane value and ability to improve your hand. What are some ways to break the treasure chest though? If you have Uther of the Ebon Blade or Tirion Fordring’s weapon, that’s an easy 5 damage on the same turn you play Marin the Fox, meaning you’re only off by three damage. The three damage can be fulfilled by a rallying blade or just board control of any kind. You can also play Marin the Fox and Doomsayer on turn 10 to apply crazy pressure to the opponent. It forces them to choose between giving you a treasure for free, or spending resources to remove the Doomsayer, delay the inevitable breaking of the treasure chest, and you will still have a 6/6 on board.
Concept Cards
Blessing of Wisdom
For those of you who don’t know, Blessing of Wisdom is a 1-cost spell that lets you choose a minion, and whenever it attacks, draw a card. This card could have been consistent in the deck, however, The Last Kaleidosaur was more consistent, after testing. It also led to some overdraw scenarios and was essentially not beneficial the majority of the time.
Hemet, Jungle Hunter
After collecting all the low-cost combo pieces, wouldn’t it be nice to just get rid of the rest of your deck and more consistently draw into Uther of the Ebon Blade or Burgly Bully? Yes, in theory, that could work. However, there are two problems with this. Firstly, the decklist is pretty tight as is. All of the cards compliment each other very well, and the only card I could honestly consider removing is Sunkeeper Tarim, but removing that would also remove OTK Paladin’s ability to board swing and potentially result in lost games. Secondly, the number of times this card could be a dead draw is more than the number it could be useful. If Auctionmaster Beardo, The Last Kaleidosaur, or Hydrologist is still left in your deck and you need them for the OTK, you will have to fully commit to actually beating your opponent with whatever late-game is still left in your deck before you can play Hemet, Jungle Hunter. Also, against aggro, you lose a lot of versatility when it comes to the number of good cards you can draw into. The majority of the anti-aggro cards in the deck are 3-cost or lower, so it could be an issue.
I play this deck without any of the legendary taunt paladin minions- I’ll still get by discovering them off of stone hills- deck still works
Also have blessing of wisdom instead of kaleidasoar
Stonehill defender is really good lol. If you’re wondering why I use the last kaleidasoar instead of blessing of wisdom, read my comment on Ribbuster’s response. Thanks!
Why put the Last Kaleidosaur in the deck when you can put any other 1 cost spell such as blessing of wisdom? Blessing of Wisdom can at least be used if you need it to be.
In regards to blessing of wisdom, the card does seem good on paper. However, the consistency of the card is the problem. While it is incredibly likely that you will get a 1 cost spell in your hand, either from hydrologist of by drawing blessing of wisdom, there still is an off chance that you wont ever draw into it and you won’t be able to pull off the otk. On the other hand, the last kaleidasoar will be in your hand 100% of the time, and can be easily mulliganed away. Minimizing the possibility of failing the otk is extremely important in this deck, which is why I go for the last kaleidasoar. If you don’t have the quest though, blessing of wisdom is the best choice.
Hm hm I think you just forgot you only have 2 spells that can target your minions… and eventually Lay on Hands but that’s the kind of heal you want to keep for your hero. Obviously you try to fit the quest in this archetype but honestly it is not a good idea, you could use it in a different style, for example a Keleseth deck which would be kind of a midrange Paladinbased on buffing your minions and using synergies like the epic on turn one that draws a card if it has at least 2 attack. I play the OTK paladin and paladin in general since the beginning of Hearthstone so I know what i’m saying. Maybe you could adapt the deck to be more efficient with the quest, but here there’s no way you can achieve it.
If you can read mate then read the whole text. The quest is NOT for fullfillment but for pulling off the Exodia Stuff more consistent because you have one combo piece in hand from the very start…
The Last Kaleidosaur
You may think it’s a strange choice, but it’s actually one of the most important cards in the deck. The reason being: It starts in your hand, and it’s a one-cost spell. Against every control deck, this is what wins. The ability to fulfill one piece of your win condition before the opponent immediately, while also thinning your deck of a bad draw is incredible. It is also safe to mulligan, due to the sheer number of low-cost cards in the deck. You’re more than likely to get a suitable replacement for this card on a mulligan.
Ok I got it, gonna check this out!
My bad I didn’t understand at first
Me neither buddy. Double checked first the decklist and thought: WTF?
After reading it was fully clear.
BTW to the author: How viable is this deck at this meta running around with Tempo Rogues, Aggro Druid and Hunter as well.
And is it faster than Quest Mage and Highlander Gatling Gun Priest?
The deck is viable of course, I played for a long time. There are a lot of removal but here one consecration was cut maybe for the quest or Marin so maybe it’s a little weak. I mean having equality – pyromancer or equality – consecration is a necessity, when you don’t have it you always lose. That’s the big problem of control paladin you’re so dependant of this combo
QUEST OTK PALADIN lol
How is the deck viable? Frankly, with a semi-decent hand, it can still lose to aggro. But that’s the case with every control deck in the format currently, so I’d say its on-par or slightly below some of the current control decks. Of course, if you can tempo out a curve against aggro you’re likely to have a better shot, and with wild pyromancer and equality you can get an easy board clear. To be frank, marin is kinda a meme pick, so if you take that out and replace it with consecration you’ll have a better time. As for specific matchups, I personally haven’t had any trouble against hunter, aggro druid or tempo rougues in particular, because I never expect any of those classes to be running a control variant. Because of this, I mulligan for early game and make it to turn 10 pretty often. Whether or not they have steam on turn 10 is the big issue. As for quest mage and gatling gun preist, it can be faster than them. The same scenario applies for those classes, that being neither of them have meta aggro variants right now. So, you can expect control, keep the quest, and mulligan for burgly bully and go from there. This is a luck based game, but if you can stick a burgly bully on an empty board or one you have control over, you’re in a good spot. I hope this helps!