"Put your faith in the Light, and all is possible!" - Lord Byron (British Poet)

Deck is outdated.

Don't play it.

You have been warned.

WELL MET

I have really enjoyed aggro paladin since the early days of beta, the archetype always fascinated me, and playing as Shockadin in WoW was my true inspiration for naming this deck. There have been plenty of aggro paladin decks since back in the day, but I believe mine is unique, mostly because nobody likes the Worgen Infiltrator, Hammer of Wrath or double Avenging Wrath. I run a total of 12 spells and 16 minions in this deck.

I hit Legend on May 16th (link) with this deck (link), so I decided to share this amazing, underrated aggro deck with all of you. I dare you to prove that Shockadin is not fun to play with!

Note: It's amazing how much attention this deck has atm. There have been so many positive replies so far! Thank you so much!

Season 3 Legend count: 6

june 6th: VAULT2912 is our 1st Season 3 Legend EU! What an amazing achievement! Check his guide for Season 3 in the Hall of Fame!

june 18th: RealDumar is our newest Season 3 Legend! Congratulations!

youromega hit Legend US! Well done, friend!

june19th: Barrabbas hit legend! Nicelly done =)

june 22th: Nightdew89 hit legend EU! Good job!

june 25th: Qhay hit legend! Yaay ^^

Season 2 Legend Count: 46

Hail to our great Shockadin Legends! They all deserve Kudos for their amazing achievement! Check the Hall of Fame for more info about them. They give their strategies, their personal builds and tell us how to play Shockadin most effectively.

May 18th: Giddran EU Legend (link), original deck.

May 20th: LMZAR22m EU Legend (link), variant deck.

May 21th: zdra NA Legend (link), original deck. Follow his stream: http://www.twitch.tv/zdra

May 22th: Sina_ EU Legend (link), variant deck.

May 23th: Ujigami EU Legend (link), original deck. Night_xd EU Legend (link), variant deck.

May 24th: antiguy24 NA Legend (link), variant deck. BoilerUp (TheChad) US Legend (link), variant deck.

May 25th: spl219 NA Legend (link), variant deck. Rosarch NA Legend (link), variant deck. Ribald86 EU Legend (link), variant deck. jscaliseok16 NA Legend(link), variant deck. Ebonwolfe NA Legend!

May 26th: Layzington EU Legend (link), variant deck. Ultre. Mateusss, sulemain. DaaAd1.

May 27th: jorj95. FlandersLa.

May 28th: Sharok, Mistrtickles, Greenei, Moonprayerrr123, Elelish, Faldoe, cougflo, Methedras(SalsaShark)

May 29th: Paloman (without Leeroy link), check his budged deck. Derzkiy1, Incu, Shelower, Waspeon, slantz

May 30th: Acrostic, KrullHD (Krull), Gelu, The_Force

May 31th: Ephemerality, futhead_Ibangyourmom, Natetradamus, Leafweir, youromega, HarmedCheese, zephimir.

[OLD version] 1min intro video (credits to Tales of Lumin ):

You don't have much time to read this wall of text? No problem, check the video (cards outdated):







Strategy

The main strategy of this deck is to zerg the board in the early game and overwhelm your opponent. The initial wound should be big enough for your higher mana cost cards to finish the job. Most of the time you should go for your opponent's face, unless you're up against another aggro deck; in that case you should prioritize board control, but don't forget to aim or check for lethal. When I say aim/check for lethal I mean try to plan and organize the plays in your head for the next two-three turns. Most players tend to focus too much on the current turn and completely forget the upcoming turns.

The Cards

FAQ

Question 1: Why not put a Sword of Justice on it?

Turn 3 is a really important one in this deck, and using it to equip SoJ just makes it too slow to be effective in this deck. Instead of SoJ we should be zerging/buffing the board hard, making them go defensive and force some unfavorable plays/trades on his side. Question 2: I don't have 1 (2) Avenging Wrath, how can I replace it? This is hard do to, Avenging Wrath is a very unique spell and there is no card like it, besides Arcane Missiles(mage only) and Mad Bomber(no! don't even think about it in here). You can try to replace it with an Argent Commander (or a Reckless Rocketeer if you're that short on dust) or try to emulate it's effect by adding some Knife Juggler in it. TL;DR craft AW asap. Question 3: Where are the Argent Protectors?

Argent protectors used to be in the deck, but got removed by noble sacrifice, mostly to handle giants and Grommash Hellscream, besides that it protects our board and may hit face for 2dmg . Feel free to place em in if you want, really strong card but just a bit slow. Question 4: I don't have Leeroy Jenkins, what to do?

As pointed out by our beloved friends in the comments (and the hearthpwn adm <3) Argent Commander is the perfect card to fill Leeroy's place.

Arcane Golem is the perfect choice. - credits to Paloman. He got legend without Leeroy(deck).

Question 5: Why not King Mukla?

Mukla was in the deck in it's early stages, and it really shines at turn3 or turn2+coin, and when you can combo it with divine favor, but usually the stars just don't line up and we have much more important combos to look for in this deck. Yes, it is viable in the deck, but it feels clunky sometimes and without it in the deck it just got much more stable. Feel free to place him in. Again, I have no clue what to take out.

The Match-ups

Strong vs: Miracle Rogue, Hand lock, Face / Mid-range Hunter, Face Warrior, Frost Mage.

Fair vs: Zoo / Murloc warlock, Token Druid, Paladin, mid-range rogue, Priest.

Weak vs: Control / Ramp Druid, Control Warrior, Control Shaman, Aggro mage.

Keep in mind that being "Strong" doesn't mean an auto-win, or being "Weak" means an auto-loss. It really depends on your draws/plays and your opponent draws/plays as well. Down below we're going to show some simple combo burst and explain the detailed meta match-ups

FINISH HIM:

This is not a combo deck, but sometimes it's best to save cheap dmg in hand if you can, and save that power for the finishing blow:

12 damage: 6 mana - Leeroy + 2x BoM

9 damage: 7 mana - 2x Wolfrider + 1BoM

10 damage: 6 mana - Leeroy + 2x abusive sergeant

9 damage: 7 mana - Leeroy + Wolfrider

There are many more combos, the surprise damage potential in this deck is outrageous for a paladin.



Gameplay Videos:

Check zdra videos on his twitch.tv profile here: http://www.twitch.tv/zdra/profile/pastBroadcasts

A lot of videos showing his climb with the original deck and some new ones using the updated deck as well!

SotsiHS also made a gameplay video of it, jump to 9:30 for the action (cards outdated):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F9rG-89UH4s

Dennis showed us how effective the deck is versus a control mid-range paladin, featuring Kripparian:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9WmpebEYgNA

Force deck spotligh and gameplay, not the perfect pilot, but fun to watch:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VJxlApt79Hg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0DWr5Z9song



Fuzzle Bukkit made a video about it, his play is not flawless but still good commentary and gameplay:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z1Xyvo7aALQ

GenerationHollow posted a cool video explaining the Shockadin name with some good gameplay:

Detailed Match-up Strategy

Miracle Rogue

Mulligan phase: Look for argent squire, worgen, 1mana minions, drop everything that's not 1/2mana. Could keep divine favor in hand if you have two+ 1mana minions in hand, if not, drop it for the sake of 1mana minions)

The Shockadin shines versus them, and it's a very simple match, play smart around his dagger and fan of knives, if you already have a divine favor in your hand go nuts on the board, if not, use your hero power more, force some early backstabs, feel free to buff BoM early, and depending on how much pressure you apply early game we can even force an eviscerate, conservative rogues will try to save as many cards as they can till they get to turn5, but we all know how powerful Divine favor is. SI:7 agent can be dealt with many ways, use your own judgment on this matter, trade, hammer, truesilver, secret, ignore it, look for all alternatives, there's always a good one. Van Cleef can be an issue but usually we will have answers for it (think equality+elven archer), main issue is that he may spend a lot of cards to make it big, making our DF less valuable. The game gets very dangerous if you haven't damaged him enough until turn5, make sure you save your equality for the Gadgetzan Auctioneer, then go for the kill (check FINISH HIM section, you're saving leeroy and chargers, right?), they should not run taunts so our finishers do a great job here. Keep in mind that our secret may disrupt their "OTK" Leeroy combo turn8 a bit, making it 2mana slower (to equip dagger, if he already have a dagger equipped, it still prevent it's damage), making that combo only really dangerous after turn9-10, by that time he should be dead. Don't worry if he gets lucky and everything favors him that game, in most of this matches it's usually our brute force that overwhelm his luck.

Hand Lock

Mulligan phase: If you are 100% sure that this is a hand lock, not zoo, look for equality, divine favor and 1drop minions, if you don't know if it's zoo or hand lock, look for argent squire, worgen and 1/2 mana minions, consecration is good, keep it cause it counters perfectly zoo (you still don't know if he's hand lock or zoo, remember?).

After turn1 you know that's a hand lock, sweet, we're favored in this one! Do you have divine favor in your hand? Great, populate that board and use as many cards as you can. Divine favor not in hand yet? Use your hero power more and keep populating the board effectively, if possible try to dodge his mortal coil turn 1 by playing worgen or ancient squire. Turn 2 he should not waste his soulfire yet. Even if he does we have much more minions on the board and hand. When divine favor gets in your hands go nuts and drop the rest of the zerg, doing tons of damage early game. Ancient watcher may be an issue, ignore him until he gets a taunt. Do not waste your equality here, try your best to clear it out of the way without using equality when it gets taunt. If he silences it and start trading, ignore it and keep building dmg. Try to disrupt his shadowflame play for turn4 killing effectively his turn3 drop (probably a desperate sunfury protector, a farseer both easy to kill), or go for face a bit more if you can. By turn 4 the hand lock's going to have a drake or a mountain giant on board, and by that time you should be calculating how much will it cost him to drop Molten Giants. Make sure to dmg him perfectly so that he can at max only drop one Molten Giant without a taunt giver, do not forget to include the coin in that calculation. Do more dmg if you're still far from the molten giants point and ignore the big guys, good time to GET DOWN! and let the Giant/Drake eat dust, it's a risk to lose your board now for a shadowflame/hellfire so think ahead with the cards you have in hand, do not use your equality yet, wait until he start taunting you, turn5+ you will have a lot of dmg in hand/board, only pass the Molten Giant mark if you have equality or equality/consecration for turn6, if not, play it safe and keep building your hand for the burst. He did taunt his Giants/drakes, pretty sure you can deal with that with the dmg you built in the board/hand or equality. If you did everything right, you should be able to finish him before turn9 (JARAXXUS point), if you passed turn 9, be careful not to waste your burst and risk all that dmg getting healed, so play smart and keep building your hand, saving the burst cards for the final show and keep dropping the slow dmg ones. Divine favor feels like cheating in this match specially if the hand lock is greedy, you have potential to draw 9 cards from it(the dream), but getting 3 or more is totally fine. This match proves that size doesn't matters, its all about the numbers.

Zoo Warlock

Mulligan phase: If you are 100% sure that this is a Zoo lock, look for consecration and 1/2drop minion, get rid of that divine favor, it's a dead card in this match-up, if you don't know if it's zoo or hand lock, look for worgen, argent squire, 1mana drops or noble sacrifice, keep consecration case you have it in your starting hand.

This match-up is a 50/50 according to Sina_ and most Shockadin legends. But it's a 80%win according to LMZAR22m, this is his strategy: the point is simple. DF is useless. Most important card is consecration. That is your win condition. All that matters is to start attacking his life. Bad games vs zoo can happen sometimes, but MOST OF THE TIME (cheer up!) the opposite happens. Don't play a 1 minion drop that can be killed in the first turn with mortal coil. Keep it for turn 2, because if it dies then, the opponent lost an opportunity for a 2 mana drop. The first 2 turns fight for board control, think ahead and play your best to keep the early game as safe as possible. Ironbeak owl (LMZAR22m runs it) should silence that stupid shieldbear or the Void walker. At turn 4 you should have a consecration and the game should look good, now it's our time to shine! Do not fear to leeroy or arcane golem early(GO FACE!). Use hammer on his face to prevent 1.5 draw and draw a card yourself. The Truesilver Champion charges are not for killing minions, just do dmg(FACE!) and heal yourself while doing that. The Paladin hero power is more dangerous then the lock's hero power, remember that! You can wipe his side of the board, warlocks can't sweep yours. Save your equality for that nasty 5/7 charge, you will need it. Argent commander will get easily dealt with Avenging Wrath or simply ignore it, cause we're racing! Never forget that you have the upper-hand if you manage to pass the early game, go aggressive(FACE!) and force him to play defensive in the mid/end game. A lot of times it can come down to the wire, but as I said at the start, it's a 50/50 match-up. it's an easy match according to our Legend LMZAR22m.

Mur-lock

Mulligan the same as zoo: worgen, argent squire, 1mana drops or noble sacrifice, keep consecration case you have it in your starting hand. Very rare but sometimes you will face them, I feel like we're slightly favored in this one. The main card again is consecration and equality. A simple mantra for this match-up: "never let any murloc survive", unless you have a very clear advantage. Their main cards are Murloc Warleader, Coldlight Seer and Old Murk-Eye. A key piece in our deck is bluegill warrior, it's the perfect answer for a warleader, because it gets buffed to 4/2, save it for the right time to use it. Another answer for warleader is our hammer of wrath, save it for it if you can. The reason why we can't let any murloc survive is Coldlight Seer and old murk-eye, both buff or gets buff from murlocs in play, making this deck extremely dangerous if murlocs survive the initial turns. Equality is the perfect answer for the coldlight seer buff. Pretty simple match if you ever played murloc, we have answers for everything. We lose if they get the perfect initial combination of cards and we win if we manage to hold them early game.

Druid

Mulligan phase: Get that argent squire, worgen and 1mana minions.

We're slightly favored if it's token druid, but unfavored if it's a ramp/control druid. Worst case scenario is facing a druid that uses innervate early, it really screw us both sides, dropping something big in the board and turning their hands smaller. Best case scenario is when they don't have that early innervate and big minions in hand, use that time to build up your board and set up a greedy divine favor. Swipe is always(90% of the time) in his hand turn4. Play slow and save your 1/2mana minions in your hand if you don't have divine favor, or go nuts zerg mode if you have it. The dmg you're going to build this early is essential to win the game. After that first swipe try your best to populate the board again and get ready to hammer/truesilver that druid of the claw and trade without using any equality (most of the time). The keeper of the groove should show up as well and it's a perfect target for a truesilver, but wait, sometimes you would like to hit it on his face, so calculate and check if it's worth it. When the 2nd druid of the claw appears or some big taunts show up always try your best to pass it without using equality (sometimes we have to, use your own judgement) .You can also try to bait him into a crazy turn6 equality/consecrate combo, if you don't have it in hand try you best to not use equality till the right time comes, board presence is very delicate in this game so you need to play smart around swipe and never kamikaze and commit yourself without divine favor in hand. If you see an early power of the wild, a violet teacher or a gadgetzan auctioneer, that tells you it's a token druid and the only taunt they run are druids of the claw, so feel free to equality early it if that's the case. Keep in mind the combo force of nature+savage roar costs 9 mana and does 14 dmg +2 extra dmg for each minion on the board, keep calculating to make your decisions when it's safe to hit face or when it's time to trade, try your best to get out of that danger zone without losing an eye on lethal. You should have a good chance if you manage to deal a lot of dmg at the start and followed the guide.

Hunter

Mulligan phase: Look for argent squire, 1mana drops and truesilver. If possible, just keep one/two 1mana minion and look for bigger cards.

The mid-range Hunter used to be a lot more dominant pre-nerf UTH but there are still some people playing it, or it's variant: the face hunter. We're favored in this match if you play it right, good old rule of thumb: never place more then 2 minions on the board, even if it's two 1/1's. They will wait for you to fill the board when they realize you're the zerg type and that will give us time to buff 'em and use our spells at his face. But you can say, what if we zerg and they UTH combo to get a bunch of cards we can always DF and get a bunch of cards ourselves, right? Yes, it is possible to play like this but it's a shot in our own foot, they will have the initiative and the dmg will be so big in your face that it will be almost impossible to comeback in this game. Keep the board controlled trading in a way that you always keep 1/2 minions on the board. Don't worry bout losing your secret to a flair or giving an extra charge to his weapon, it's preventing dmg or making him waste 1 mana for that flair. Truesilver is huge in this match-up since it will heal you, seems little, but it does make a difference in the end (8 extra hp), never hit your weapon on a minion unless it's the last option. Try to save abusive sergeant/BoM to make some efficient trades with his 4/5hp minions and make sure you save your equality for that taunted Savannah highmane, kill it with a token/charge or consecrate and place 1/2 minions on the board. Traps are no problem as well, since it is so easy to place 2 minions on the board and misdirection doesn't hurt that much, your minions should not be that big. Kodo may be an issue and it's a possible target for an arcane golem+token, a truesilver+token or an equality+token. Avenging wrath on an empty board is pretty common in this match-up, feel free to blast his face, same as hammer. Sometimes they will UTH just to clear your minions, if he makes the mistake of using both of them for clearing purposes, unleash the zerg yourself and release that bunch of minions stuck on your hand. Really fun match to play and should not give much headaches if played right. Finish him with any nasty combo or with spells.

Control Shaman

Mulligan phase: You want Worgen, argent squire and leper gnome.

An unfavored match-up but not an impossible one, earth shocks, lightning Storm and feral spirits are really painful for us, but hold your ground and play smart. Best 1mana drop in this match-up is worgen, that's the only 1mana drop immune to earth shocks turn1, if you only have a leper gnome and an argent squire, try to bait that earth shock on your squire. Board presence is key in this match-up and so does the dmg to the face, so try to balance it around with the cards you have in hand. Got a consecration for the next turn? Forget those totems in this turn and go face. You don't? Better clear those totems. Hammer get's it's value killing a flametongue totem or a mana tide totem behind the taunts or can kill one wolf. The danger of a lightning storm is always there, so play slow if you don't have a divine favor, but even if you have it in hand it may not get that useful, since they will waste their hand to get rid of your board. So always try to find spots to dmg his face. Save equality (if possible) for that fire elemental and the occasional earth elemental, and try to dive in as many chargers (carefull with the arcane golems drawback) whenever there's no taunt, save your spells to clear the board and finish him, the game usually is won by spells in this game since they have so many taunters in the deck. Hard match but with the right combination of cards and playing smart around their deck it's possible to win.

Priest

Mulligan phase: worgen, argent squire and a BoM.

The priest match is a 50/50. Making your argent squire 4 attack with BoM will make Amaz roll this eyes all over the screen. If they drop an early wildpyro with cheap spells we are trully screwed, but their deck usually are clunky and combo dependent and you will have many opportunities to do dmg to his face. Cards to watch for are: Wild pyro, shadow madness, auchenai priest, holy nova and Cabal priest. You can't slow play and expect every single one of them. You keep checking, if they have it, fine we populate the board again, if they don't have it, awesome lets place some more stuff . Try to Make sure you check the FINISH HIM section and save as much burst for that final blow.

Mage

Mulligan phase: Worgen, Argent squire and abusive Sergeant, bluegill or consecrate is fine.

Seems like we're favored in this one according to our first Shockadin EU Legend that managed to pull a 100% win rate over them. I personally didn't face any mage in my climb at all, but they seems to be back into the meta. They have so many different archetypes that we don't know what to expect here, After playing a few games yesterday(05/19) I was able to identify 2 types of mage (there may be more, help me with this if you can): The frost mage using freeze aoe spells to stall the game and the aggro mage that uses offensive spells to get control of the board and push for fast dmg. Versus the frost mage we have the advantage for having much more board presence and early game damage. Versus the aggro mage we are unfavored because they run cheap spells to easily clear our board. The aggro-mage key cards are: pyromancer , knife juggler, mirror image, arcane missiles, arcane explosion , mana wyrm and cone of cold . The only card we can play around is cone of cold (freeze mage) placing the worgen in the middle of your 3+ zerg. All the rest can't be played around, We just rush em like we usually do and repopulate the board asap and hope we don't get sweep. It's a good thing if they ping our stuff with her hero power (sounds weird,right?), mostly because they have wasted 2 mana to remove 1 mana creature, we probably going to have more then 1 anytime in the game, and besides that, they've kept a card in hand making our DF even more valuable. Play aggressive and save consecration for the mirror images. Hammer could be used on face or on minons if you're fighting for board presence, use your judgment in this. Water elemental is the perfect target for equality. TL:DR Just dps 'em hard, hope for the best and by the time we get to turn7-8 he should be dead.

Face Warrior

Mulligan phase: Worgen, Abusive Sergeant and argent squire, BoM or Get Down is fine.

If you're matched vs a face warrior, take a big breath of relief. We're favored in this one and should not be a big problem. We are much faster and have much more dmg then he has. I's a straight forward face race and we have better minions and better weapons, for instance our truesilver cost 4mana, heals+2 and dmg +4, opening a 6 difference in hp vs their 5mana 5dmg weapon. Our secret comes handy to hold his weapon/charge minions, keep in mind you must trade smart. Equality early game is usually a good option. Hammer that 4/3 charge. Divine favor is a dead card in this match but all the other cards may cause a big headache to our fellow aggro warrior. Have fun on this one and maximize your dps asap forcing him going defensive first. If he starts using his weapon and minions to clear your board, the game is pretty much yours already.

Control Warrior

Mulligan phase: Worgen, Abusive Sergeant and argent squire, BoM or Get Down is fine.

Unfavored match-up but if played correctly you may have an ok chance to win. Control warriors are by far the one class you don't want to see, I recommend taking a break from this deck if you see too many of them, they have so many ways to ping and deal with your minions that's not even fun to zerg the board early game. Only drop a minion if it is a worgen followed by an abusive sergeant or an argent squire followed by a BoM to kill that armorsmith, if you don't have that exact combination, don't even use your hero power until turn 3. Fake control. You can use your hero power at turn 3 only if you have the truesilver in hand, if not, you have no choice but start placing a few minions on the board, showing that we are in fact a zerg paladin, make sure you play slowly, you don't want to lose all steam that fast in this match. Play fast as usual, be aggressive and down his hp the best way you can. Trading effectively vs his early game is key in this match-up. Truesilver is a perfect play to get rid of the Frothing Berserker or the armorsmith, make sure you save equality at all costs, it's only going to be used for an emergency. Acolyte of pain could help you out to get more value from Divine Favor, but it's wiser to prevent the draw of 2 or more cards from it, their cards have much more value then yours. Try to use your secret only if you are bellow 12 dmg and have the feeling they are going to finish you. Best bet is to save as much burst as you can (check FINISH HIM section) and dps him whenever you have a chance, that's the only way to get into lethal range. Turn 5 he may use a brawl, careful with that. Turn6 have a potential Cain, you will ignore it and go face. But be careful with his turn7 Baron play, you should not commit too much for that turn. Turn8 a Ragnaros may appear, equality is the answer, turn 9 he may heal himself or lower your hp to 15 with Alex so be wise again with your burst, I hope you have your 2nd equality in case you already used it on Rag to get rid of that Alex. After that you don't want to see an Ysera and you should be ready to unleash your combo to kill him. Wish you the best luck in this match, it's considered a direct counter for us, let me know if you could defeat a control warrior with this deck, I will give you an achievement point and kudos.

Paladin

Mulligan for argent squire, 1mana creatures, consecration and elven archer. This is a 50/50 in all types of paladin, may be harder vs the so called "healadin". The key card for both sides are consecration, truesilver and avenging wrath. You need to be smart to zerg the board properly and play around consecrate turn4. If you feel they don't have consecrate in hand go for it and unleash the zerg on the board. Be carefull with Blood knight, if they are second and didn't use the coin vs your argent squire after dropping another argent squire in the board, it may be the indication that he runs a blood knight and wants to coin it on the next turn, make sure to break that divine shield before he runs over you with a nasty 9/9 on the board. Use Trusilver to heal and do dmg to his face, most of the time. Play smart and consider an avenging wrath comming to your face turn 6. By then you should have enough damage in hand/board and should race for lethal. Try to use your Divine Favor asap vs a shockadin, even if you draw 1 card it's better then sitting in your hand doing nothing the entire game. Vs a mid-range/control paladin do your best to get a good Divine Favor, that card will decide your game.

THANK YOU

I have to thank you for taking your time to read everything I could write about this deck. I also hope you are all hype to shake the meta as much as I am. If possible vote up and comment, it's highly appreciated.

Many thanks to the all the Shockadin Legends for adding more depth to the guide.

Special thanks to kuato2 for helping me write the intro and the strategy section.

Huge thanks to Lumin, zdra, SotisiHS, Kripp and Force for making videos with the Shockadin.

Feel free to ask questions and add me Holyrock#1646



"Remember, heroes, fear is your greatest enemy in these befouled halls. Steel your heart and your soul will shine brighter than a thousand suns. The enemy will falter at the sight of you. They will fall as the light of righteousness envelops them!" - Tirion Fordring

Shockadin Hall of Fame

VAULT2912 is our first Shockadin Legend in Season3! Big kudos to him for reaching Legend june 6th! His highest rank was #5. Down bellow you can find his comment about his climb and how to aproach some especific decks:

Thanks dude for posting that deck, it's really amazing. I started playing it last season after hitting legend and tried it this time right from the beginning. I think I lost my first game at rank 10. So, now after playing less than a week, I hit legend with it!! Here's the link: http://imgur.com/2Lpi7kQ



I didn't change anything, I just used the original list on this site. My experience with the different matchups are as follows:



Strong: Warlock (Zoo, Handlock, Eroms 16hp

Rogue (Miracle, Tempo)

Druid (Token)

Hunter (Aggro, Midrange)

Warrior (Aggro)

Mage (Giants) Fair: Druid (Ramp)

Priest

Mage ( Freeze ) Weak: Warrior (Control)

Mage (Aggro)

Shaman

Paladin (Control) So, thanks again and keep creating such amazing decks! How much time (total hours) took you to became Legend S3? I didn't count, but I started sunday noon and had to work monday till friday until 4 p.m. each day. So I would guess, about 30 hours. Did you save some statistics to show us? Unfortunately no. I didn't run any program to do that and did not count myself. How did you deal with Zoo? Seems like many ppl are mostly 50/50 vs them. In my oppinion Zoo is not really hard. You just gotta keep board control early and hit face later on. It's not a super easy matchup, but I'd say at least 60/40. Some people say this deck is highly dependent on Top Decking, what can you tell them? I rarely depend on topdecking. Sometimes yes, but not more often than with other decks. It might seem that you win becaus of a topdeck, but most times you need only some damage to finish your opponent and 50% of the cards in your deck would provide that damage. Besides the new matchup ratings (I will update it soon), what other changes can we do in our detailed matchup strategy section? Here are some tips, I promised. If you want more tell me :D And of course you can add me ingame (VAULT#2912): General:

- Always try to save the coin. A turn 3 Truesilver Champion or a turn 6 avenging wrath is VERY strong. I only use the coin early against zoo, when I have no consecration in my hand or when I can make a very strong early dvine favor play (which is very rare).

- Argent Squire + Blessing of Might is extremely strong. Against druids I even coin it in turn 1 sometimes, so that the druid has to attack the squire twice to kill it (if he has no Wrath, and even if he has it, he has to attack it at least once and you can still attack).

- Try to keep one charger in your hand to combo with (exept for turn 2 bluegill or turn 3 wolfrider, if there are no other options). Sometimes that means that you can only use your hero ability.

- Don't play your Elven Archer to hit face. Use it to kill minions, either with or without Equality (strong combo)

- Don't save your Divine Favor for an empty hand. If you get at least 3 cards, you can play it early, especially if you don't have a good alternative in that turn.

- Try to use your physical attacks before your spells in control matchups to avoid taunts.



Mulligan:

- Argent Squire (Best one drop)

- Divine Favor (Don't keep it, if the rest of your hand is shit or when playing against aggro decks)

- Truesilver Champion (I almost always keep it in my starting hand. There is no better card to gain tempo with in turn 3 or 4)

- Any other 1 drop (If you already have Argent Squire in your hand, then try to get Blessing of Might or Abusive Seargent)

- Noble sacrifice isn't good in the early game most of the time. Only use it against rogues and druids to protect your 1 drops.



Warlock:

- Try to mulligan for equality, consecration and some low drops. Don't keep divine favor as it is a dead card against zoo. Equality on the other hand is a winning condition against handlock and not that useless against zoo. For example you can play it on his voidwalker in turn two to oneshot it with your argent squire. Consecration is very strong against zoo and can be comboed with Equality in a Handlock machtup. Handlock:

- Don't bring him to low health, if you don't have an Equality combo or enough spell damage in your hand. Keep in mind that he could kill your leper gnomes to summon his molten giants.

- If you have many spells, try to use your minions and weapons first to avoid taunts (Hammer of Wrath is a good finisher).



Zoo:

- Try to get board control, don't hit face!! Knife Juggler has to die!

- You only switch to hitting face, when you are really sure that you can employ so much aggression that he can't keep up.

- Consecration really saves your ass!

- Don't save your equalitiy for Doomguard, if you can make a good play with it. The early game is much more important.



Mage:

- There are 3 popular decks at the moment: otter pops freeze mage, giant mage and aggro mage. Try to remember which one runs some key cards like Alexstrasza.

- Mulligan for 1-drops, Ironbeak Owl, Divine Favor Freeze Mage:

- Beat him down like you mean it. Ignore all of his removal and try to pop that iecblock as early as possible. Even if that means using Leeroy to make that happen.

- Divine Favor is your best friend in this matchup, it will give you a shitload of cards. Try to make good use of it.

- Save your Ironbeak Owl for his Doomsayer!

- Be aware of Alexstrasza! When he reaches turn 9 and plays her, he will finish you next turn. Make him use her on himself and finish her with Equalitiy.



Giant Mage:

- They look like normal freeze mages, but most times they run low drop minions like sorcerer's apprentie and coldlight oracles.

- Same tactics as with freeze mages, beause they run Iceblock and Alexstrasza as well, but try to get a strong Equality combo, when you get him to low life.



Aggro Mage:

- You are really screwed now... If he has a good opening, you will just die. Fortunately this matchup is very rare right now.

Meet the Season 2 Legends! Read it all if you want to know more about the shockadin world. Let me know if you make to legend as well. We will let the world of hearthstone know about your achievement:

http://www.hearthpwn.com/forums/class-discussion/paladin/11357-shockadin-hall-of-fame

Last Words



"Warriors of light are not perfect. Their beauty lies in accepting this fact and still desiring to grow and to learn." Paulo Coelho - Warrior of the Light