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Hearthstone Deck Guide: Murloc Paladin [Updated for The Witchwood]

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Hearthstone Deck Guide: Murloc Paladin [Updated for The Witchwood]

Blizzard's mighty nerf-hammer has just fallen on a bunch of cards. Fortunately, there are several decks which have escaped largely unscathed. While we wait for things to settle, here's one for your enjoyment: the Murloc Paladin.

There's been an association between paladins and the amphibious critters since the launch of the game. But it took until the Journey to Un'Goro expansion to get all the pieces to field a whole deck of them.

Be sure to check out other great decks for the current meta in our comprehensive Hearthstone guide.

At that point the deck became so popular and powerful that one of the cards, Murloc Warleader, got nerfed. It's remained viable, however.

And the good news is that while it's got a lot of expensive Epic cards, Murlocs synergise so well that budget players have plenty of alternatives.

Cards

The core of the deck is, unsurprisingly, a ton of Murlocs. Here are the ones every player should be able to afford.

  • 2 x Lost in the Jungle
  • 2 x Righteous Protector
  • 2 x Hydrologist
  • 2 x Divine Favour
  • 2 x Unidentified Maul
  • 1 x Blessing of Kings
  • 1 x Vinecleaver
  • 2 x Murloc Tidecaller
  • 2 x Knife Juggler
  • 2 x Rockpool Hunter
  • 1 x Coldlight Seer
  • 1 x Spellbreaker
  • 1 x Fungalmancer

In the most powerful builds, the remainder of the deck gets packed with the following Epic and Legendary cards.

  • 2 x Call to Arms
  • 1 x Sunkeeper Tarim
  • 2 x Murloc Warleader
  • 2 x Nightmare Amalgam
  • 2 x Gentle Megasaur

Deck code:

Ideally, you'll have access to at least some of these cards. Gentle Megasaur and Murlock Warleader are particularly important. Indeed the latter is worth crafting if you don't have it since, as a classic card, it'll never go out of rotation.

Hearthstone Deck Guide: Murloc Paladin Screenshot 1

The full set is not essential to run this deck. There are plenty of cheap Murloc cards you can use to fill gaps. Many of them have Battlecry effects so you need be wary of using too many alongside one or both Call to Arms cards. Minions summoned via Call to Arms don't activate their Battlecries.

Grimscale Oracle doesn't have a Battlecry, and is a great choice, especially in place of the Warleader. Bluegill Warrior is another good option.

There are plenty of non-Murloc cards that fit, too, but don't use too many. Options include Tar Creeper, Bittertide Hydra and Cobalt Scalebane. You can also double up on some single cards from the deck: an extra Spellbreaker or Fungalmancer is particularly useful.

Mulligan

Your top keepers are Murloc Tidecaller and Rockpool Hunter. The former can snowball into a huge early threat and will often draw a removal spell from your opponent. The latter represents great stat value.

Hearthstone Deck Guide: Murloc Paladin Screenshot 2

Beyond that, what you keep depends on what you think you're facing. Against aggressive decks, Righteous Protector is a fine opening card. It might not be a Murloc, but it'll keep you safe for a turn or two while you get Murlocs on the board.

If you're unlucky enough to miss all these options, there are other cards worth considering keeping. Hydrologist and Call to Arms can both be good early game plays.

Play Style

Murloc Paladin looks like quite an aggressive deck, and that's how to start out. Spam the board with cheap Murloc cards and hit your opponent's face.

Make value trades where you can. This is especially important against other aggressive decks, where it's critical to keep board control.

Against more defensive decks, explode as fast as you can, flooding out your Murlocs and hitting hard. Although there are cards that can provide late-game pressure, long games aren't your strength. You want to kill the game off as hard and as fast as you can.

Hearthstone Deck Guide: Murloc Paladin Screenshot 3

There's a couple of effects in this deck which present you with extra in-play options. From Hydrologist, the top choice is Getaway Kodo because it allows you to bounce your powerful Battlecry cards. Eye for an Eye is a good early game pick, whereas Repentance is better later on.

Your choices for Gentle Megasaur are a lot more situational -watch the board state closely. +3 Attack and Windfury can win often win you the game if you do the maths.

+3 Health and Divine Shield can ensure you keep minions on the board, ready to close out the game next turn. Taunt offers an instant defensive wall.

Timing

One of the fun things about playing this deck is that timing your plays is far more critical than a lot of aggressive builds.

Your biggest weakness is cheap board clear spells like the Warlock's Hellfire. Be very wary against classes and builds that run such spells.

You still need to get a few minions on the board, but keep something in reserve and use your hero power a lot. Watch for buffs that increase the health values of your minions beyond 3, where they'll be safe.

Gentle Megasaur is a tricky card to time. Opponents know your deck relies on Murloc synergies, and they'll target your minions to try and keep your board clear.

It's unlikely, then, that you'll be fortunate enough to drop it on a full board. It's a similar story with the buffs supplied by Unidentified Maul.

Instead, it's fine to play these cards with only one or two other Murlocs on the board and use the power for the element of surprise. Imagine you're facing down a minion you need to kill, fast, like a Cobalt Scalebane, but you've not got the attack power to take it out.

Using Adapt for +3 attack, poisonous or even +1/+1 could save the situation. Same goes for many other Adapt effects -use them to save your bacon in an awkward spot.

The other card you need to time carefully is Sunkeeper Tarim. At first glance this it looks an easy card to use. It buffs your weak minions into 3/3, so you want to play it on a full board. But it affects your opponent's minions too, which means it can be a surprisingly defensive play.

So if you've only got a feeble 1/1 Murloc on your board but your opponent has an 8/8 giant, Tarim offers a massive swing in your favour.

Check out Matt's guide from last week, about the Cubelock deck, by clicking right here

Matt Thrower
Matt Thrower
Matt is a freelance arranger of words concerning boardgames and video games. He's appeared on IGN, PC Gamer, Gamezebo, and others.