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The Most Interesting Decks from Perils in Paradise Theorycrafting Event

By: Old Guardian - - Updated:

As usual, Blizzard arranged a theorycrafting event for content creators for the upcoming Perils in Paradise expansion. The name is perhaps a little misleading because the event is actually a pre-release marketing event where content creators play with the new cards before their official launch and stream their gameplay. I had a chance to participate in the event and played with the new cards for more than six hours. Playing with new cards is some of the most fun you can have in a card game because things are not yet fully figured out and there is room to play a wide variety of decks.

If you are worried that the theorycrafting event will ruin the full launch, fear not. The rules of the event force everyone to play with at least 10 new cards in each deck, which means that many powerful archetypes cannot be built at all, and you need to focus on archetypes that get the most support from the new expansion over decks that may become great with mostly old cards and just a couple of new tools that complete their gameplan. The event can give you some ideas, but the strongest decks are far from clear based on it.

Nonetheless, there are some lessons to be learned from the event and it is a little different to see the theorycrafted decks get a few games under their belt instead of remaining purely theoretical.

This time, I felt that the overall power level of the decks used in the event was quite low. Many people experimented with memes that will have no place on the real ladder, likely even failing on the first day. However, there were also some very, very scary archetypes that are up and coming in the new expansion, and the new Tourist cards that allow you to use a limited selection of cards from another class were at the center of it all. Even their real power level remains a mystery because the field was definitely not stacked: beating up a meme deck is not the same as taking on an aggressive Paladin deck.

With those caveats out of the way, let’s take a look at what Perils in Paradise has to offer!

BabyBear’s Pirate Demon Hunter

Blizzard invited some content creators to build the in-game deck recipes for Perils in Paradise, and this deck might be the strongest deck recipe that has ever been part of an expansion launch. It’s BabyBear’s Pirate Demon Hunter! I took one look at the list and decided not to build my own version. Instead, I took this out for a spin in the theorycrafting event and promptly went 4-0 with it. Pirate Demon Hunter is one of the top candidates for the premium aggro deck in the upcoming meta.

BabyBear’s Pirate Demon Hunter – Deck Recipe

Deck Import

Zilliax: Ticking Module + Pylon Module

This archetype feels wonderful to play. It is not just mindlessly going face. It is incredibly dangerous if it has a board, but it can also deal 20+ damage from hand later in the game. The big damage combos require multiple cards, correct sequencing, and locations, but they are not APM turns by any means, you are not just spamming and drawing cards.

You can get lots of Charge Pirates from Sigil of Skydiving and Dangerous Cliffside. You can buff them up with Treasure Distributor, Hozen Roughhouser, Southsea Captain, and Zilliax. You also have Adrenaline Fiend to give you more attack when Pirates attack, and Sock Puppet Slitherspear to grow when your attack grows.

If you can have Treasure Distributor or Sock Puppet Slitherspear survive for a turn, you have incredible damage potential because you can scale them up like crazy. Timing your refresh of the Dangerous Cliffside is important because you cannot attack again after re-opening it. Vast quantities of Charge Pirates that get buffed or buff something when they attack result in explosive turns.

Jambre’s Tourism OTK Paladin

In addition to Aggro Demon Hunter, OTK decks made a notable appearance in the theorycrafting event. Obviously, the low-power decks played at the event make for ideal targets for OTK decks as they are too slow to kill them first. Still, some of these OTK decks looked very scary. If it only wasn’t for those meddling tourists!

Jambre’s Tourism OTK Paladin

Deck Import

Sunsapper Lynessa is the heart of Jambre’s OTK Paladin. It enables Paladin to use Rogue cards from Perils in Paradise, and it also makes your cheap spells cast twice while she is on the board. You use Coins (hello Greedy Partner and Oh, Manager!) and Holy Glowsticks – many Holy Glowsticks thanks to Tidepool Pupil – to smash face. You can also prep your OTK on a previous turn with Holy Cowboy and Sea Shill to get it done earlier. With Lynessa on the board, each Holy Glowsticks is 8 damage, so blasting away is easy. Oh, and you can also tutor your Lynessa with Grillmaster, so finding your crucial Legendary card is easy.

Thanks to the Tourist, Paladin is the new Rogue. As it happens, I saw precious few Rogues in the event because people were playing OTK Paladin instead.

TicTac’s Tourism OTK Druid

Another Tourist OTK deck was TicTac’s Druid. Who could have guessed that giving Druid access to Mage cards just might break the game?

TicTac’s Tourism OTK Druid

Deck Import

This deck killed people as early as turn 5. You have the Druid location, Magical Dollhouse, that can give you Spell Damage. You can also get more Spell Damage from Chia Drake (or its mini version) and from Go with the Flow.

Concierge can make your 1-cost Mage cards free, so Spell Damage from Go with the Flow and the main damage from Seabreeze Chalice cost nothing. Tidepool Pupil is again used to make copies of the key damage spell, and you can prepare for your OTK turn with extra mana and discounts from Trail Mix and Lifebinder's Gift. Lots of mana cheating, copies of damage spells, and boom boom happens.

TicTac’s Zilliax Warrior

TicTac heard you like Zilliax Deluxe 3000, so he put some Zilliax Deluxe 3000 into your Zilliax Deluxe 3000.

TicTac’s Zilliax Warrior

Deck Import

Zilliax: Perfect Module + Virus Module

Any slower Warrior deck in Perils in Paradise is all but guaranteed to Tourist into Druid. Not only is Hamm, the Hungry a potentially useful tool in destroying combo pieces straight from the opponent’s deck, the Druid cards from the expansion are a wonderful match with Warrior.

Tictac’s Zilliax Warrior can ramp up with New Heights and summon many, many copies of Zilliax. You can tutor for Zilliax with All You Can Eat and summon the first copy with Chemical Spill. Then, you can resurrect multiple copies of Zilliax with Inventor Boom and twice more with Hydration Station. If you want to resurrect it more, you can make more copies of your resurrection cards with Photographer Fizzle.

Old Guardian’s Taunt Warrior

One of my most successful decks in the event was Taunt Warrior. I had a 9-4 record with it, although I suppose the real good decks hardly lost any games in the event meta.

Old Guardian's Taunt Warrior

Deck Import

Between Unlucky Powderman, Detonation Juggernaut, Blackrock 'n' Roll, and Therazane, you can make some BIG minions. The addition of Bouldering Buddy and Muensterosity to the game have really improved Therazane, especially if you like minions with more than 20 Attack and Health. Any damage will have a hard time trying to break the huge Elementals, but they are vulnerable to hard removal.

This kind of deck does not focus on resurrection because the buffed stats are not retained, but the Druid ramp cards are still a valuable addition, so tourism pays off with this one too.

FunkiMonki’s Astral Automaton Priest

Tourists add so many options to the game. If you have wondered how does a Priest benefit from having a Hunter Tourist card and adding Hunter cards to their deck, wonder no more. Here’s FunkiMonki’s Astral Automaton Priest that uses Hunter cards with 1-cost synergies.

FunkiMonki’s Astral Automaton Priest

Deck Import

Birdwatching and Trusty Fishing Rod add new tutors for Astral Automaton and Pet Parrot adds a new way to make copies of it. Given these synergies, the Hunter cards look more impactful in Priest than in Hunter itself!

Judge’s Aggro Priest

Hunter cards in Priest can also support aggressive Priest archetypes. We have seen many of these over the past years with Shadow and Undead Priests, and this time the new style is based on self-damage.

Judge’s Aggro Priest

Deck Import

Taking damage enables cards like Sauna Regular and the Hunter team of Catch of the Day, Pet Parrot, and Trusty Fishing Rod add more power to the early game to get the Priest to a position where it can use finishers, such as the Shadowtouched Kvaldir and Holy Springwater combo.

Blizzard’s A.F. Kay Shaman

A. F. Kay is an interesting new Legendary, albeit one with no clear breakthrough use case. However, it was apparently nerfed during Blizzard’s internal testing from giving a +3/+3 buff to minions that did not attack to a +2/+2 buff instead. Rarran had been given the unicorn A.F. Kay deck list from Blizzard, and it won some games in the theorycrafting event even in its nerfed state.

Blizzard's A.F. Kay Shaman

Deck Import

Zilliax: Ticking Module + Pylon Module

The trick is that A. F. Kay buffs minions on the turn they are summoned and unable to attack. Therefore, combining A.F. Kay with Carefree Cookie and Sigil of Skydiving can give you a nice board. Shaman can build wide token boards, and has multiple ways to make them scary that extend beyond A. F. Kay. Wave of Nostalgia can be a great card even if it is inconsistent, as sometimes it just wins the game on the spot, and A. F. Kay makes it even better!

D0nkey’s Elemental Shaman

Maybe, just maybe, a deck does not have to be fancy to be good. D0nkey went 6-0 with this Elemental Shaman list, just doing your regular Elemental Shaman things. Play Elementals. Every turn. Profit.

D0nkey’s Elemental Shaman

Deck Import

Elemental Shaman is getting some nice support in the new set with Meltemental protecting your other minions and Adaptive Amalgam ensuring endless Elementals to play. Incindius might not be the greatest threat in a deck that is not drawing very fast, but if it stays on the board for a while those Eruptions can really hurt – they hit all enemy minions and the hero, so they can both deliver lethal damage and clear the board to make room for an Elemental assault. Other decks may do complicated combos, but consistency and stats can also still get the job done, even in Perils in Paradise.

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

Check out Old Guardian on Twitter or on their Website!

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