Ramp Paladin Deck List & Guide – Darkmoon Faire – February 2021

Ramp Paladin Deck List & Guide – Darkmoon Faire – February 2021

Our Ramp Paladin deck list guide goes through the ins-and-outs of this new Paladin build from Darkmoon Races that has taken the meta by storm! This guide will teach you how to mulligan, pilot, and substitute cards for this archetype!

Introduction to Ramp Paladin

There had been plenty of attempts to make Paladin decks with big minions work, but none of them had found much success until the Darkmoon Races mini-set. It’s ironic, really, as the mini-set itself gave the deck some of its smallest minions, first and foremost the phenomenal Crabrider. I’m not even kidding. Crabrider with its Rush and Windfury is an excellent tool for swing turns, and that’s how it all came together and Ramp Paladin was born.

Ramp Paladin essentially consists of three parts: there are some big minions and ways to resurrect them, there are some Murlocs and Tip the Scales to summon them from the deck to both fight for the board early in the game and to thin your deck for better draws afterward, and there are Nozdormu the Timeless and High Abbess Alura to ramp up your mana and cheat out Tip the Scales early.

The deck can both push new threats for days and overpower opponents early with High Abbess Alura casting Tip the Scales. Therefore, it is capable of both contesting aggro decks and overpowering control decks.

In the early days of Darkmoon Races, Ramp Paladin has been the best deck in the game. This does not mean that it is invincible. Combo decks are the most difficult opponents for Ramp Paladin because they often get to ten mana against the deck and can pull off their combo. Aggro decks also have a chance, albeit a smaller one, to beat down Ramp Paladin before they stabilize, and I managed to lose to a control deck as Ramp Paladin too, once. Just too many Soul Mirrors in that game. Nonetheless, Ramp Paladin is a real deck, and a strong one.

Ramp Paladin Deck List


Deck Import

Check out alternative versions of this deck on our Ramp Paladin archetype page!

Ramp Paladin Mulligan Strategy & Guide

Vs Aggro Decks

Higher Priority (keep every time)

Lower Priority (keep only if certain conditions are met)

Vs Control Decks

Higher Priority (keep every time)

Lower Priority (keep only if certain conditions are met)

General Strategy

There are several ways to win the game with Ramp Paladin, and while the deck has some high-roll aspects to it, knowing when to use your tools can lead to improved success.

The easiest way to win the game is with High Abbess Alura, especially when you’re on the Coin. The only spell in the deck is Tip the Scales, so Alura’s Spellburst will always cast that and summon a boardful of Murlocs for you. At four or five mana, this is enough to beat almost every deck in the game, especially as Crabrider and Fishy Flyer provide some Rush power for you. If you’re not on the Coin, you need to find Wandmaker to give you a spell that you can use to activate Alura’s Spellburst.

Things get more complicated in the games where you do not have Alura.

Your ramp tool is Nozdormu the Timeless, and you have a fairly good chance to get it early either directly or from Redscale Dragontamer. Depending on the exact list that you use, Nozdormu is either the only dragon in the deck, or there may be some Circus Amalgams there as well, so Redscale Dragontamer is either a somewhat reliable or a guaranteed tutor for Nozdormu.

However, you need to be careful with Nozdormu the Timeless: it gives both players ten mana crystals, but the crystals start empty, so it is your opponent who gets the first ten-mana turn. It is not always correct to play Nozdormu even when you have it in your hand!

  • You can freely play Nozdormu the Timeless against passive control decks who are not able to be proactive regardless. There are not many of those in the meta, though.
  • Most of the time, you need a good follow-up to Nozdormu in your hand. For example, Tip the Scales or Scrapyard Colossus and Carnival Clown (that gets corrupted by the Colossus).
  • In the mirror, you should avoid playing Nozdormu, and instead make use of the opponent’s Nozdormu effect.
  • Against combo decks that run Gadgetzan Auctioneer, you should avoid playing Nozdormu because the opponent will likely draw their entire deck and have lethal damage before your follow-up has an impact. Mozaki OTK Mage is the most common such deck right now. In such games, you should aim for Murloc pressure instead.

The flexibility of the deck really shows in the scenarios where things are not working out for you. Sometimes you find neither High Abbess Alura nor Nozdormu the Timeless. Is it time to concede? No! You have a lot of Murlocs in the deck, and they can be enough to win the game on their own.

  • Crabrider‘s Rush and Windfury can give you some early board control or even threaten the opponent, especially in combination with Murloc Warleader.
  • Fishy Flyer gives you two Rush minions in one for some more board control.
  • Underlight Angling Rod helps you to control the board while generating additional resources, including synergy Murlocs from any class, such as Underbelly Angler.

Even when your Murlocs are unable to win the game, they may be able to stall the game long enough for you to get some of your big guns on the board.

If the game turns into a war of attrition, you have a lot of minions available. At this point, the Old Gods become significant:

  • Y'Shaarj, The Defiler gives you new copies of all Corrupted cards you have played during the game. Note that if you play any Corrupt cards without corrupting them, you will not get them back. The main use of Y'Shaarj, The Defiler is to give you more copies of Carnival Clown.
  • N'Zoth, God of the Deep resurrects a friendly minion of each minion type. Circus Amalgam is a minion of all types, but it will primarily fill in for any empty slots, such as Mech, instead of appearing over minions of specific tribes. Therefore, you can reliably resurrect tribes that you only have one copy of, such as Nozdormu the Timeless as a Dragon and Darkmoon Rabbit as a Beast. Darkmoon Rabbit from N’Zoth gives you a bunch of removal power at the same times as you get a strong board.

Note that Animated Broomstick can give any of your big minions Rush to help you fight for the board. You need room on the board for it, so you cannot combine it with Carnival Clown unless you have a minion on the board that you can trade off after summoning the Clowns. With Tip the Scales, you will get a Rush Murloc that you can trade off before playing Animated Broomstick to give your other Murlocs Rush.

One more note about Murlocs and Tip the Scales. Think carefully about what you want to do with Murgur Murgurgle. Much of the time, it is correct to play Murgur for tempo, but sometimes you may want to hold it back until you have played Tip the Scales so that do not accidentally pull the Prime and can get the Battlecry effect of Murgurgle Prime later in the game.

Vs Aggro Decks

In aggro matchups, you are under a lot of pressure early on until you can get some big swing turns and crush the face-hitters. Use your Armor VendorUnderlight Angling Rod, and any Murlocs you happen to get to fight for the board early on and try to survive until you can get your big minions on the board.

Tip the Scales from High Abbess Alura‘s Spellburst effect usually ends the game immediately, or if you can survive until Carnival Clowns, you’re also good.

Vs Control Decks

Against control decks, you are the beatdown. Play one threat after another until they crumble.

Against combo decks, it is much of the same, but you’re on a timer, and giving your opponent ten mana can be fatal to you. Try to get steady pressure on the combo deck and hopefully you can get there before they find their combo.

Ramp Paladin Card Substitutions

Unfortunately, Ramp Paladin is an expensive deck that is based on synergies between Epic and Legendary cards, so most of the deck cannot effectively be replaced.

Old Guardian

Ville "Old Guardian" Kilkku is a writer and video creator focused on analytic, educational Hearthstone, and building innovative Standard format decks. Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/OldGuardian Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/old_guardian

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Leave a Reply

11 Comments

  1. Irish Seadog
    February 5, 2021 at 3:31 PM

    Quite possibly one of the craziest things right now is that there is a 10 mana 1/1 in the best meta deck, and it wants to be played from hand, for the full cost…

  2. Loki777
    February 3, 2021 at 3:48 PM

    Actually kicking around the idea of trying to fit in Sathrovarr. The demon tag works with N’zoth, and getting the extra copies of a corrupted clown, Colossus, old gods or even just a corrupted strong man feels like it could be worth the cost.

  3. Skotony
    February 2, 2021 at 3:12 AM

    I often find myself with a Clown in hand, not corrupted, together with N’zoth as only way to corrupt. Is it better to play uncorrupted (therefore missing potential for Y’Sjaarj), or corrupting it (and therefore missing value from N’Zoth as not enough creatures have died yet)?

    • Irish Seadog
      February 2, 2021 at 8:06 AM

      Depends a lot on the specific matchup and board state in my experience, but I think it’s often worth playing the uncorrupted clown in that case, unless a few things (e.g. colossus + bunny at least if you need to remove their board, or similar value) have already stocked N’Zoth.

  4. Loki777
    February 1, 2021 at 8:39 PM

    It mentions no mechs but I have seen some run Carousel Griffin it corrupts easily enough and synergizes well with both of the old god cards.

  5. Nonagon4
    February 1, 2021 at 6:19 PM

    Why run Amalgams that will screw up your dragon tutor when you can run Strongman for free taunts after you play big stuff?

    • Stonekeep - Site Admin
      February 1, 2021 at 6:31 PM

      It’s a trade-off – Amalgams make Redscale Dragontamer and Y’Shaarj worse (compared to Strongman), but on the other hand improve your N’Zoth and more importantly Tip the Scales. For now both versions have basically the same win rate, but the deck is still obviously being optimized.

      • Nonagon4
        February 2, 2021 at 6:07 PM

        I guess so…I’ll admit I haven’t tried Amalgam at all, but in my experience my games hinge on drawing Noz as early as possible (so I run Sphere as well) and if I play Tip the Scales, the big attack rush stuff clears any board the opponent could have. And if I play it from hand it corrupts Strongman. I think that more than makes up for a hit to N’Zoth and isn’t at all necessary in Tip the Scales.