Genn Greymane Even Control Paladin Deck List Guide – The Witchwood – April 2018

Our Even Genn Greymane Control Paladin deck list guide will go through the ins-and-outs of the potentially viable deck from the The Witchwood Expansion! This guide will teach you how to mulligan, pilot, and substitute cards for this archetype! For now the deck guide is theorycraft, but as soon as the expansion goes live we will start updating it right away!

Introduction to Even Control Paladin

Control Paladin was the original Jade Druid in a way, dominating the late-game in the Classic era with a slow trickle of endless 1/1 minions, outhealing and outvaluing even something like Priest in the fatigue period. It’s safe to say that it hasn’t aged well as incredibly sticky minions and multiple value-generation tools have gone against its strengths – and while the archetype hasn’t received particularly great cards in The Witchwood, the fact that most of Paladin’s Control-related goodies cost an even amount of mana means that it can take advantage of Genn Greymane’s ability without sacrificing a lot. (I’m sure there’s a pun or two that even I should be able to figure out…)

Even Control Paladin Card Choices

The classic Control archetype simply isn’t going to cut it anymore: since you can’t expect to just outlast your opponents with Paladin, the usual spine of Equality–Consecration–Truesilver Champion–Tirion Fordring needs some other approach in order to be able to finish off the games. Enter the dudes plus a bit of Corpsetaker synergy to shore up the faster matchups, and get ready for a long, drawn-out game!

Even Control Paladin Mulligan Strategy & Guide

VS Fast Decks

Higher Priority (Keep every time)

• Doomsayer – As a slower Paladin deck, you’ve got to shut down early aggression, especially considering how Consecration isn’t one hundred percent reliable as a board clear on turn 4 anymore. An on-curve Doomsayer also dodges the popular Silence options, and allows you to breathe and spam out a few more Recruits, if nothing else.
• Corpsetaker – Even with Wickerflame Burnbristle rotating out, you can reliably cobble together a pretty good Corpsetaker on turn 4 thanks to Crystal Lion and Chillblade Champion. It will generally at least two-for-one against minion-based aggro decks, and therefore will also grant you some decent healing as well.

Lower Priority (Keep only if certain conditions are met)

• Truesilver Champion – Good ol’ TC isn’t good enough anymore by itself to keep you alive against the aggressors, but it is excellent if the end just happens to be coming on turn 2 as a follow-up.
• Consecration – I would not recommend keeping the card behind Doomsayer as that would sacrifice way too much initiative, but if you don’t have the other premium anti-aggro options, you might want to consider sticking with it in order to avoid getting blown out completely.
• Acidic Swamp Ooze – It’s a cherry on top if you, again, happen to already have Doomsayer and are playing against a deck that uses a lot of weapons. It’s generally here for a very different matchup, but it still can work if you can already guarantee a peaceful early game.

VS Slow Decks

Higher Priority (Keep every time)

• Spellbreaker – Cubelock is a deck, Twilight Drakes are a real possibility in Druid, and Priest still has Inner Fire. Don’t get caught out by anything cheesy if you can avoid it.
• Truesilver Champion – Two-for one in the middlegame? Yes please. Even if your opponent’s minions have slightly higher health, the cheaper hero power means that you could quite easily still get a favorable trade.
• Lightfused Stegodon – A bit of a cheese potential with this one, as a really slow game might mean that you can set up an unexpectedly strong adaptation by turn 4 or 5 – if you can force a removal out of your opponent, it traded evenly with your card. The beauty of Control Paladin in a nutshell.

Lower Priority (Keep only if certain conditions are met)

• Acidic Swamp Ooze – Medivh, the Guardian is gone, so it’s mostly Cubelock that could likely cause problems for you that get solved by this card, otherwise you’ll likely have better options to mulligan for.
• Doomsayer – Doomsayers can be very useful in delaying the Equality – If you have at least two of the must-have cards, this is a nice fail-safe to round out your opening hand. Again, even the Recruits can potentially be good enough to trigger it in the mid-game.

Even Control Paladin Play Strategy

VS Aggro Decks

This has never been the strong suit of Control Paladin: you really only have two board clears to work with and will have to rely heavily on your taunts. Doomsayer, Corpsetaker and Spikeridged Steed will be key for you, and the cheaper hero power should help you get slightly more board presence in the early turn. (Crucially, you can also get the fabled Un’goro spell down a turn earlier with it!) Don’t get too creative with Baleful Banker: this isn’t the kind of game they’re meant to shine in, and your draw options are quite limited in the deck.

VS Control Decks

These games are going to be all about card advantage – create as much extra value with your hero power as possible, and try to trade at least evenly until you get to the late-game. You have a powerful board clear option on turn 10 with Equality and The Lich King. If you do have to push aggressively, you do have 23 points of weapon damage and 6 more from Chillblade Champion to rely on.

Even Control Paladin Card Substitutions

• Wild Pyromancer – A second copy of the minion could work instead of the second Primordial Drake if you want to have a more reliable board wipe on turn 4, but the reload capabilities of aggro decks plus the lack of other cheap spells in the deck make me feel like it wouldn’t necessarily help that much in those match-ups.
• Drygulch Jailor – I like the idea of having a little bit more support for the Recruit synergies in the deck, but something like a second Aldor Peacekeeper – An excellent minion that unfortunately doesn’t with Mr. Genn Greymane’s idea of an ideal Hearthstone deck.
• Cathedral Gargoyle – There just aren’t enough good even-costed dragons to include the “Deathwing, Twilight Drake and Bone Drake could be featured in a build that doesn’t try to make use of the Recruit synergies – but why would you restrict yourself to even-cost cards in the first place in that case?