"What the Heck is Monkey Paladin?" And more THL decks you wouldn't believe

By Geranium Battle

Cahnew's Monkey lineup. Link: https://tinyurl.com/2th8545f

In April 2022, Voyage to the Sunken City released and brought the new Core Set with the normal yearly rotation. In that updated Core, Elise Starseeker returned and was free for any interested players. Blizzard did not anticipate just how many players would be interested, as THL’s Turtle put out a tweet advertising his new Monkey Paladin that carried him to high legend. Well, actually, it was THL’s Damon that made the deck, and THL’s A2Battleship that provided the 47 Legend screenshot, and one could notice the screenshot reaching that rank was played on a different class, if any scrutiny was used. 
Scrutiny avoided this tweet like the plague, and soon the HS ladder was swarmed with thousands of Monkey Paladins. Turtle’s responses would soon also be swarmed with scorned pilots, as the win rate of the deck sank and sank to a lowly 15%. This legendary bait would even receive recognition from Team 5 members like Myntyphresh and RidiculousHat. 

But would this scourge find any success in THL? In that season, Turtle and Damon were already on a Legacy team called “I’m a Legacy 3 seed :)”. The vibe on the team back then was very different, and the players weren’t particularly interested in trying to dominate as much as make each other laugh. That’s why this full Monkey lineup was brought by Cahnew the whole season long, and ended with a commanding 7% win rate.

​If I just featured decks with no tether to reality, this would be a sad article. Instead, this will be a collection of strange brews that found some level of success. We will celebrate the weird, the TechW, and the Wild side of THL.

Pokeniner's Hero Power Mage (S5 Wild)

Pokeniner's Ping Mage. Link: https://tinyurl.com/2sse8fnb

​THL’s Wild series was a who’s who of top Legend grinders. Many of the players were well known and their pet decks were similarly studied. That’s why, in Season 5, this who’s who all cried out “who did what?” when Pokeniner started posting about beating his opponents with Hero Power Mage. No one respected the deck, and copypastas started to form. “Which noob lost to Hero Power Mage?” would be asked for weeks, as the list of victims grew. Pokeniner wasn’t winning all of his matches, but he was winning his Ping Mage games. The damage upon damage upon damage of the deck with freezing stalls was able to race his aggressive opponents, and people started to quiet down. While he didn’t have a winning record that season, Pokeniner was able to cement a winning record with this THL meme, and that should be applauded. Which Team Hearth Legends lost to Hero Power Mage? The answer is more than you think.
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AlwaysJustinTime’s Tax Season (S26 Legacy Week 6)

​AlwaysJustinTime didn’t have a particular deck to target, but rather a particular player. He had a good idea that his opponent would be bringing combo decks that would be decimated by a tax on their mana. Seeing Druid across the table and knowing Thaddius Druid was a possibility, Cult Neophyte has the opportunity to completely ruin the combo turn. If all odd spells get discounted and Neophyte makes them even, there’s no way for that strategy to win. Well, if Neophyte is so strong in this matchup, why not bring 8? 12? 16?​

AlwaysJustinTime's "Tax Season" Lineup. Link: https://tinyurl.com/2p9ttn9h

Cult Neophyte #1 was here, alongside Saloon Brewmaster or Shadowstep as Neophyte #2, and don’t forget Forensic Duster as Neophyte #3 and Speaker Stomper as Neophyte #4. Anti-Combo No. 5 would be a mixture of Pozzik, Zola, and Breakdance. He brought Zola, Dusta, Brewmasta, and Speaka, and as the game went on, the lists kept looking sweeter (uh). In the actual match, however, the techs proved unnecessary. The only disruption Justin played was a single Cult Neophyte at the ends of game 1 and 4 to try and lock up the game, not to prevent any specific combo. His opponent actually played the same amount of disruption, discovering Cult Neophyte off of a Cactus Construct. Justin would find his wins by putting tempo on the board and with a 1 in 5 snipe with Dirty Rat in game 2. Without that snipe it’s certainly possible that he would have lost that game, as his opponent had 10 mana and the full combo ready for turn 7. However, what THL history will remember is this lineup retiring on a 100% win rate.

Heatshock's Moonfang Priest (S8 Pro Week 8)

​Heatshock could have an entire article to himself in deck cuisine. The Washed Tapper himself gave me some of his time to ask away on his Pro brings, so I’ll be quoting him throughout this section. Here you’ll see his favorite strategy, Moonfang Priest. Heatshock “always loved the Priest class because the gameplay is so focused on the board.” Moonfang “had so much synergy with the priest class and it got [him] a lot of wins.” The strategy is clear, buffing and copying Moonfang while it eats every minion your opponent tries to stick on the board. It also develops quickly, finding pieces with Insight’s high consistency and lowering the cost of all of your cards to take control early. 

Heatshock's Moonfang lineup. Link: https://tinyurl.com/584u8bub

Moonfang made an appearance in all of Heatshock’s decks this week, paired with numerous buffs. In Paladin, Blessing of Authority on Moonfang or Saidan would spell doom for his opponent, and Druid had the board-wide buffs to pair with Irondeep Trogg. Before anyone gets angry at Heatshock for bringing Irondeep Trogg, this is actually a full month after Trogg’s nerf wiped it off of the competitive map. This lineup seemed to match up as poorly as possible into his opponent, but a single Showstopper in Seedlock and a single Spammy Arcanist in Overgrowth Druid were not going to stop the flood. Seedlock and Garrote Rogue could stay off the board and send damage over the top, but Battlegrounds Battlemaster and Arbor Up were threatening to win that race. Moonfang Priest had a destructive matchup versus Overgrowth Druid, and Heatshock enjoyed a 3-1 victory for No Prose Here.
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Speaking of No Prose Here (the S8 iteration of Washed Tappers), Heatshock credits them a lot with helping his building process: 

“Playing with MMW, Oofrick, Cmac (an honorary Wash U team member) and Valdus in pro series season 6 was the most fun I’ve ever had gaming. Every Wednesday night we would hop on and I’d have one or more completely outrageous concepts I that I thought were the nuts. I’d then subject Oofrick and Valdus to them for a few hours (the voices of reason for the team), and they would talk a sliver of sense into me. Then Thursday, we would all scrim a bit and fine tune the lineup, making something innovative into something competitive. The best example is probably the season 6 finals where we all brought 4 decks that exclusively played AOEs to farm aggro druid. I’ve never put in the level of effort again that I did that season (winning the series as the Shed Apes), but the 4 of us played from season 3 to 11 together and enjoyed that dynamic. I can make insane concepts but they believed in me and helped make them successful.”

MediOger Warlock (Wild S5 Weeks 9, 10, & 11)

Oger Warlock. Link: https://tinyurl.com/3wkjre9z

​MediOger (the artist formerly known as KingOger) was a high legend grinder in Wild who graced THL with some decks only he would dare bring. The most infamous of these (and the one that got its own classification on the THL website) was Oger Warlock. This deck actually shares a lot of cards with the current Warlock deck from Whizbang the Wonderful, and that has a very high win rate on ladder. But the Whizbang deck also has 10 fewer cards to start, and a softer field to play against than Wild. This version of Oger Warlock, with Neeru’s own infinite portal, wouldn’t be brought in future seasons, but it’s the only version Oger managed to find success with in THL. In Wild Season 5, MediOger was able to find wins with it in weeks 9, 10, and 11 to get it immortalized in this list. 

CmaccompH's Murlock (Hero S18 Finals)
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This match was discussed in the Hero Dynasty article I wrote last week. As the losing player in this exchange, I do not mind applauding Cmac’s gall in bringing this lineup. In preparing for the match, I recognized that Murloc Shaman was a fringe aggro deck that didn’t have great stats, but I had it covered with my Mage and Hunter. Cmac’s plan was to overload my defenses with a deck I hadn’t considered: Murloc Warlock. After banning my Mage, Cmac would simply have to split up his two aggressive tribal decks, and my Mage would lose in the middle of the match to Mech Paladin. Even if Mage was the leading deck, because it was Last Hero Standing, Cmac would only need to beat it once and then it would be unable to hamper his finned friends. If you watch the VOD of the match, this strategy played just as planned. Murloc Shaman came out strong, baiting the Control Mage, setting up the Mech Paladin, and clearing the way for Murloc Warlock. 

But how strange was Murloc Warlock? Compared to Murloc Shaman, a fringe deck with few stats, Murloc Warlock had no stats. It had the synergies to board building like other Murloc decks, but with a handbuff element to rebuild after the first amphibians were washed away. With no other deck like it that season, it was a huge risk to bring a novel idea to the final match of the final week. Cmac was the kind to take risks though. Murloc Warlock was the perfect storm to win Hero Season 18, and Cmac was the perfect player to find it.

Edelweiss' where’s Ilgy? (Pro S6 Week 9)

In Pro Season 6, Edelweiss was not the only player bringing unorthodox decks, but she may have been the only one to bring Il’gynoth OTK (hold the Il’gy). This “Outcast DH” looks like a caustic brew, with a huge gap in the middle of the mana curve. Without finding exactly Kazakus on 4, it mostly is. But, with so much anti-aggro packed into one shell, it has the time to reach the green Ragnaros that is Illidari Inquisitor. It’s a stretch, but that sort of idea is also mirrored in the Cliff Dive DH of today. 2 mana Mo’arg Artificer or Talented Arcanist pairs with the Cycle of Hatred to swap board states with your opponent, and Magehunter was a fine inclusion against the Handbuffing Rush Warriors. 
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Edelweiss' Il'gynoth-less lineup. Link: https://tinyurl.com/2wu2kaut

But OTK-less DH wasn’t the only interesting list Edelweiss brought to her week 9 match. Aegwynn Mage was a niche pick. Other than fellow lineup chef Heatshock, no one was interested in chaining together spell damage. The deck had great removal with boosted Shooting Star, and incredible draw with Cram Session. Add that to the extensive burn suite of Runed Orb, Fireball, and Mask of C’thun, and this deck could take games out of nowhere. Nowhere is where it returned after this match, as the most mention I found of this archetype was Vicious Syndicate saying it was a bad idea for ladder. Considering the Mage expert for the website at the time was Heatshock, it’s safe to say he knew what he was talking about.

Geranium's Secret Piles (Pro S11 Week 4)

In terms of TechW, this lineup is overflowing with it. Prince Renathal completely changed the game during his stay in Standard, and people looking at these decks would say it was for the worse. The idea of the lineup was to target S’theno Combo DH. The opponent would play S’theno followed by a minion that buffs its attack and then obliterate the enemy hero with cheap spells that would also deal damage or buff S’theno. Secrets interact with that first step, playing S’theno. Explosive Runes and Objection kill it before it has the chance to be buffed, Reckoning kills it once it attacks with that buff, and Kidnap stuffs it into a 0/4 Deathrattle minion that the DH has no way of using proactively. Sketchy Stranger has the opportunity to pull most of these Secrets, and then the decks’ general greed keep them from losing to any alternate strategies usually found alongside the OTK.
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Geranium's Secret Piles. Link: https://tinyurl.com/5f3rj7k7

The opponent did not bring OTK DH. Because of the greed of these lists, the lineup Geranium found across from them was potentially the worst possible: hyper-aggro with plenty of burn. I would say that this lineup had a 25% chance to win that match. In the match, the power of Secrets made up the difference, and bluffing a relevant Paladin Secret kept a 7/12 Slitherspear from ending the match early. It was a razor-thin 3-2 victory, and a lesson to this writer to not hard-target without certainty that the lineup will hit its mark.

I only mentioned the 3 Secret lists here—Druid has its own backstory to cover, as Beetle Druid was created by another prolific builder…

DankestDad Beetle Druid (Legacy S23 Week 3)
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DankestDad is known for many hard-target lineups throughout his time in THL. I could show you Popsicooler Warlock, or his lineups taking advantage of do-nothing Warrior, or many more examples of exemplary shenanigans. However, the most famous list he’s built is Beetle Druid. This was from the same meta as Geranium’s Secret piles, and had plans of bullying S’theno OTK DH. As you can see, Beetle Druid made its way into Geranium’s lineup just as the Secret Paladin transformed into a similar deck in Dankest’s lineup. Beetle Druid had plans of countering the DH by way of gaining so much life that they couldn’t kill before Topior locked the entire game down. The real heart and soul of the deck was Pathmaker, who was disgusting when paired with Beetlemancy or Nourish. On turn 6, after having played Beetlemancy for 3/3 taunts, Brann + Pathmaker (or just double Pathmaker) gained 24 armor while playing minions. Pathmaker could also act as a draw 3, 1 mana ramp 2, or even a board of 3/3 beetles.

Beetle Druid had the powerful plays to stay competitive. But why was it famous? It’s all about who DankestDad was facing. In Week 3 of Legacy, he brought this against RHat. I try not to feature who’s losing, but it’s important to know that the people facing Beetle Druid were high-profile in THL, and on teams with other well-established players. DankestDad was subbing in for Standard THL Degenerates, and DoctorBOMD was another vocal player behind the scenes. Regardless, in the first half of Season 23, players knew to fear Beetle Druid (or at least laugh at how much health their opponent was gaining)

DankestDad's Beetle Druid (link in previous image)

Maxiebon1234's Illucia Priest (Wild S3 Week 8)

Maxiebon1234's Illucia Priest lineup. Link: https://tinyurl.com/5hxe48yj

Everyone knows Maxie for his Masters Tour success these days, but he’s been a staple in THL for years before becoming a household name in the Hearthstone community. One of his most notable brings was this novel deck: Illucia Priest. The gameplan was to steal everything and anything from the opponent while denying them of any agency the entire game. Thanks to Raise Dead, one could play Illucia multiple times in a single game, denying all possible plays over and over again. Dirty rat was also included to further counter combo decks.

It’s an annoying playstyle, but one that doesn’t actually scream “win condition.” Beauty is in the eyes of the beholder though. Maxie was able to get an easy win with this, proving well before his rise to fame that he was a top player to watch.

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​There are many off-meta brews that THLers have brought that perform much better than the bait they appear to be. With a class and a direction, it’s amazing what you can put together to dismantle the competition. As for Monkey Paladin itself? Heatshock put it best when he responded to my questions: “Praying for random legendaries to save you isn’t really a gameplan unfortunately. Just ask Viper.”