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It’s Disco Time! Theorycrafted Paladin Decks For Festival of Legends Hearthstone Expansion

By: yellorambo - - Updated:

Paladin players will get to experience a whole new world in the Year of the Wolf as the class’ entire Secret package rotates out while some classics like Muster for Battle and Hand of A'dal make a triumphant return. Though Lightforged Cariel is no longer with us, some of the heavy-hitters from the previous Standard year will remain – but that hasn’t entirely saved the class from its usual fate where the devs seem to abandon archetypes from expansion to expansion, offering zero support for Dragon synergy builds, forcing us to look elsewhere…

Divine Shield Aggro Paladin

The glowing yellow bubbles have always been a strong tool for aggressive archetypes (just think back to Argent Horserider, if nothing else), and especially so in Paladin, a class that can take advantage of aggressive minion buffs either to push face damage or to make disgusting value trades in the battle for board control.

Now that there is actual keyword-ish synergy at play, the cards should be even more relevant in aggressive decks, and it’s easy to see the contours of something nice relying on a combination of old and new cards to do some real (face) damage. Just make sure to never stop never stopping.

yellorambo's Divine Shield Aggro Paladin – Festival of Legends Theorycrafting

Deck Import

Mech Paladin, 2023 Edition

Is that the sound of unity, precision and perfection that I’m hearing? While the aggressive shell of Mech decks remained intact, some of the best-ever tribal cards from the past are returning to the Core set for some added boost in flexibility and power level. You’re still going for tempo plays and shields and buffs, but now you’re perhaps even less sad if you end up tangled into the vines of a longer game.

Don’t underestimate the impact of the stat buffs on the Magnetic minions. Bronze Gatekeeper is now looking like an excellent choice, and Replicating Menace is at least worthy of experimentation. Wargear still feels too expensive, though, especially with Seal of Blood as a competing alternative. You could toss in Truesilver Champions, but I preferred the flexibility and the delay potential of Muckborn Servant for this build.

Zilliax, of course, is the star of the show.

yellorambo's Mech Paladin – Festival of Legends Theorycrafting

Deck Import

New-look Dudeadin

I don’t understand why no one else is calling the archetype Dudeadin, but I digress. Muster for Battle used to be one of the strongest cards in the entire game at the time of its release, and it still offers some great synergies for a Silver Hand Recruit-oriented deck. Go fast and buff things, like the Silicon Valley companies did, and see where it gets you. Hopefully to a couple of extra ranked stars.

Truesilver Champion can easily clash with the weapon from Muster for Battle, so Blessing of Kings takes its slot in the featured build.

yellorambo's Dude Paladin – Festival of Legends Theorycrafting

Deck Import

Big Pure Paladin

Shenanigans with Blood Crusader and The Countess are still very much on the table, with Starlight Groove offering some much-needed survivability after the rotation of Lightforged Cariel. There’s even the small benefit where Order in the Court now immediately draws you the free-Legendary-generating menace if that’s the direction you’re going in. Whisper it, but this archetype isn’t actually losing all that much heading into the new rotation – and the multiple ways to cheat out Annoy-o-Troupe can be back-breaking to face.

This build goes all-in on the cheese, also featuring two copies of Spotlight as a convenient Tradable card with real upside once you managed to cheat out your big boys, and Service Bell to ease your path towards finding them.

yellorambo's Pure Paladin – Festival of Legends Theorycrafting

Deck Import

Control Paladin (because I can’t give up the dream)

Long-time readers of my Hearthstone-related ramblings know that one of my all-time favorite decks from the Classic era was Healadin, and I’ve been hoping to see the return to the same sort of removal- and exhaustion-based Paladin decks the devs have consciously leaned away from across the years. The whole memer thing with The Jailer wasn’t my cup of tea, but it still remains the most viable approach we can work with if we want to try and keep the (long since zombified) spirit alive. This time, we’re going for Horsemen.

(I know the answer. It’s not viable. There are superior alternatives. Control Paladin is no more, has ceased to be, it’s bereft of life, it rests in peace, it is an ex-archetype. Still, I must keep on trying as long as there is a semblance of a win condition to work with.)

yellorambo's Control Paladin – Festival of Legends Theorycraftingpaladin

Deck Import

Menagerie Paladin…?

Because there is absolutely no Dragon synergy to speak of in the new rotation, I guess messing around with Menagerie is another way to try and engineer a tempo shell for the class.

yellorambo's Menagerie Paladin – Festival of Legends Theorycrafting

Deck Import

Summary

There’s plenty of power and lots of memes to enjoy for Paladin players, with an impressively high power level and a semi-cohesive package to start out the new Hearthstone year. You’ll get the most out of the experience if you enjoy ANNOYing your opponents, but even without that personality flaw, Festival of Legends promises to bring bucketloads of fun.

Yellorambo

Luci Kelemen is an avid strategy gamer and writer who has been following Hearthstone ever since its inception. His content has previously appeared on HearthstonePlayers and Tempo/Storm's site.

Check out Yellorambo on Twitter!

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