Regionals Primer-Matchup Analysis Paladin

Well, we're just about at the end of the line here. Regionals is now just 2 days away, and our preparations are coming to a close. There's just one matter of business left, Paladin matchups. One thing to note, before I discuss the individual matchups is that the Paladin may have the most room for variation within the same general decklist, so a lot of the matchup will be affected by which cards you choose to include in the deck.

Hunter-This matchup can be a little rough when they go first. The key is obviously to stay alive for as long as possible. This can be a tricky matchup and my advice if you're playing a Paladin is to just test this one until you feel comfortable with it. There are a lot of decisions here. On turn three, do I Divine Shield or equip an armor. If I go armor, do I play Golem Skull Helm to soak up extra damage or Herod's Shoulder to get a weapon. Which weapon should I get, Flame Wrath or Wraith Scythe. There are so many close decisions in this matchup that it's easy to make the wrong one a few times. Since I simply don't have the time or space to go into great details on this matchup, I will summarize. In most instances (meaning there are exceptions, but they are few), your decisions for the first 5 turns should be the ones that will minimize the amount of damage you take in that time. Turn 6 is the perfect time to equip a Flame Wrath and use your last 2 resources for a Blessing of Protection. The Flame Wrath should wipe out their board in a couple of turns. After their board is cleared away you need to start healing yourself. Wraith Scythe and Seal of Light are both recurring sources of healing. Once you heal a few damage off yourself, you should be in the clear and it will just be a matter of finishing them off.

Shaman-This deck really plays into your strengths. It will try to be aggressive, but won't be aggressive enough. It will basically be forced to play one ally per turn while letting you set up your armor. It's important to get a Wraith Scythe and/or Seal of Light in this matchup due to the presence of Annihilator in their deck. If you don't have one of the recursive sources of healing, they will be able to kill you with their Annihilator. The beginning of this match goes pretty well for you. They won't do much to disrupt your plan of simply equipping armor and then swinging. By the time, they start playing potentially scary allies, you should be pretty well equipped to deal with them. This is one of your better matchups.

Warlock-This is another pretty good matchup. They will rarely if ever put enough pressure on you to force you out of your gameplan. The biggest threat posed by a Warlock is Medoc Spiritwarden + Moira Darkheart. Most Warlock decks won't run a very big protector suite, so you can usually get through to Medoc to kill him. Even if you can't do it right away, you can buy yourself a few turns using some tricks. Stronghold Gauntlets requires Moira to kill it before your weapon so having it in play will buy you one turn to swing. Sunken Treasure can get it back to buy you another turn. Hammer of Justice on Medoc will buy you a turn and a card. You can fight this combo for a little while, but you have to get to Medoc. If he stays in play, eventually he will cost you the game. The next big threat from the Warlock is Ancient Cornerstone Grimoire. Serving up free 1/1 protectors will make your life difficult. You can work through it with Girdle of Uther and/or Thrash Blade. If you really don't like this card you can always run Shattering Blow main. Infernal is a mild nuisance, but your armor should minimize the amount of damage he can deal. Jaina Proudmoore is just an overcosted 7/4 to you, and Flame Wrath makes Magni just a 6/8 protector. Lorekeeper Darian can pose a problem, but you should be able to kill him before he can kill you. Against a Horde Warlock, you do need to keep an eye on your health as they tend to be a little more aggressive than their Alliance counterparts and Radak's flip ability can usually do 6 with an Infernal.

Mage-This matchup is similar to the Warlock but they lose Infernal. Mages pose the same set of problems with the Medoc-Moira combo and ACG, but they can use Counterspell to protect Medoc from your Vanquishes. The matchup plays very similarly for the Paladin except that the Mage control decks have even less chance to go aggro than the Warlocks.

Warrior-This is a tough matchup. There are 2 keys to this matchup. The first is healing yourself, the second is drawing as many Divine Shields as possible. Healing yourself is important because it removes the chance for them to race you with weapon buffs and forces them to their backup plan of combo-ing you out. Your first order of business is equipping an Annihilator. This negates all of their armor. Then you'll want a Seal of Light so that you're winning the damage race. If your opponent doesn't have Lionheart Helm in play, you can start playing your armor as long as you leave yourself enough to strike with your weapon. Your armor is worthless against his Annihilator but can stop his Mortal Strikes as long as he doesn't play Lionheart Helm. After you get your Annihilator-Seal online, I usually start looking for the game ending equipment package...Lionheart Helm, Annihilator, Girdle of Uther, in that order. Once you can get ahead in the race, it's time to end it as fast as possible. With those three pieces of equipment you can swing for 10 a turn which should end it quickly. This matchup is very close and many times comes down to who has more Shield Bashes or Divine Shields at the end of the game. If your opponent doesn't play Lionheart Helm that swings the matchup more heavily in your favor since you can prevent his Mortal Strikes with BoP or your armor.

Well, this is it. Our last stop. I hope you've enjoyed reading this, and I hope you're more prepared for Regionals now than you were before. One last thing to remember this weekend. It's still a game so have fun. Good luck to everyone who goes to Regionals this weekend. I'll be back next week with a report from my own Regionals. See you on the other side.