Mulligans
General Mulligans
Generally, Hydrologist is a huge mulligan. Noble sac is good against aggro, redemption plus a taunt minion is good agains aggro and midrange, and getaway kodo is good against just about anything.
Aggro Mulligans
Pray to RNGesus for board clears and or taunts. Hydrologist can provide stall in the form of noble sac, or if you're lucky, redemption + a taunt minion, hopefully wickerflame.
Midrange Mulligans
This is basically the same set up as against aggro. A well timed board clear can be critical.
Combo Mulligans
How you mulligan really depends on how fast your opponent's combo is. If it's quest rogue fast, try to mulligan for board clears like equality and pyromancer. If it's Miracle Rogue fast, try to mulligan to get the combo as quickly as possible.Control Mulligans
There's no rush against control decks. Mulligan for card draw and try to draw your deck. Play big minions to try and draw out the opponent's removal. Once you think they have no defense against the stalker, deploy the cat of doom.
This is a fun budget deck I came up with. It aims to kill your opponent by using the two Blessed Champions on the Sabretooth Stalker and dealing at least 32 damage. Unreliable? Yes. Fun? Absolutely.
Overall Playerstyle:
This deck is essentially a control deck that aims on stalling until the eventual drawing the combo. Play taunts, clear boards with equality and wild pyromancer, and heal using the various heal cards to stay alive.
Win Conditions:
The most obvious and main win condition is the Sabretooth Stalker two-turn kill. However, you can also just overrun your opponent with minions. Though the deck is certainly not aggressive, there are a lot of minions in it and, if needed, the deck can switch gears and become a really crappy aggro deck. Similarly, it can also stall until fatigue kills you opponent.
Key Cards:
- Sabretooth Stalker and the Blessed Champions: Obviously, these cards are pretty important as they are the main win condition. Knowing when to deploy the cat of doom is essential; too early, and you may get board cleared; too late, and you may be dead. If your cat does die, don’t lose hope; you still have a huge amount of fuel in Elise’s pack and stall with all the taunts.
- Equality (and, by extension, Wild Pyromancer): Not having equality in this deck is like eating fast food without getting diabetes: it’s just not the same. Equality is this deck’s main form of board clear. Pyromancer will be the main combo piece here, but I’ve also comboed the card with consecrate and primordial drake before.
- Hydrologist: I gave this card crap when I first saw it as it seemed useless and low-power level. Boy was I wrong. The utility from Getaway Kodo alone makes this card worthwhile. Almost every card in this deck likes being bounced and played again. Even without the Kodo, there is much value to be found in those pesky secrets. Redemption can be used to res taunts to stall even more. Getting Tirion off Stonehill Defender is also quite common, so hang on to that Redemption!
- Aldor Peacekeeper: This is the deck’s only single-target removal, if you can call it that. That said, it’s absolutely vital to the deck’s survival. It’s also one of your few defenses against those few Jade druids on ladder.
- Elise: When the cat has fallen and all appears lost, Elise is one other way you can try to win. Shuffling the pack delays fatigue and drawing the pack grants a huge burst in fuel and opens the door to potential combos you would’ve never thought of.
- Stonehill Defender: Paladins actually have some juicy taunts. Almost all their standard legendaries have taunt and all are very strong. Tirion is a classic late game card that offers stall and a powerful weapon. Wickerflame is simply great stall. And finally, Sunkeeper Tarim is a great “board clear”. I’d actually consider running Tarim in this deck if I had him. Even if you don’t get one of those options, getting a another Primordial Drake or Stonehill Defender is perfectly acceptable too. Stonehill Defender is simply a great taunt that also offers great card generation.
- Tar Creeper: This is easily one of my favorite cards from Un’Goro. The stall you get with this thing is simply amazing.
Tech Cards:
- Spellbreaker: Being able to cancel out a deathrattle or destroy a spikeridged steed is pretty sweet. Ever since the nerf of Ironbeak Owl, I feel like people have forgotten about the power of silences. Silencing a card like Lyra the Sunshard is almost the same thing as killing the minion.
- Eater of Secrets: In a world where just about every Paladin and Mage has secrets, this card is almost always better than a 4 3/5. Also, as it turns out, playing just a 4 2/4 in a slow deck isn’t even that bad.
Deck Counters:
- Jade Druid: This is a rare deck but it does pop up every now and then. Your success against jade druid is directly proportional to how fast you draw the combo and inversely proportional to how fast your opponent draws the auctioneer and jade idol combo. You generally want to play as aggressively as possible against jade druid and hit face as much as possible. You may even have to play Sabretooth Stalker with no Blessed Champions in hand.
- Quest Rogue: Not going lie, there is almost no way to beat quest rogue. Like with Jade Druid, you can try to kill them faster than they can kill you. When they do complete the quest, use equality as efficiently as possible to clear as much as possible. It is possible to win, but it usually requires some bad luck on your opponent’s end.
How does this deck go?
I think I am going to try this out. I like something a little different. Standard decks get so boring…