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Grimestreet Outfitter full

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Hand Buff Paladin (also known as Grimy Goons Paladin, or just Goons Paladin) is a Paladin deck type. It is a variant of Midrange Paladin that carries a focus on Grimy Goons "hand buff" cards from the Mean Streets of Gadgetzan expansion. The archetype was originally created with the release of Mean Streets of Gadgetzan, but saw little success due to the inherently slow nature of hand buff cards in an aggressive meta. With the release of Journey to Un'Goro and the Elemental tribe being fleshed out, Hand Buff Paladin gained some new life, with Elementals such as Journey to Un'GoroFire Fly having excellent synergy with hand buffs. Knights of the Frozen Throne reinvigorated Hand Buff Paladin, introducing a huge swing card in Knights of the Frozen ThronePrince Keleseth as well as a few minions with good hand buff synergy such as Knights of the Frozen ThroneChillblade Champion and Knights of the Frozen ThroneRighteous Protector.

Overview

Hand Buff Paladin decks make heavy use of "Give all minions in your hand +1/+1" effects to "hand buff" their minions before playing them, allowing minions in hand to be overvalued. For example, The Grand TournamentArgent Horserider normally costs 3 mana with 2/1, and its stats alone are worth 1 mana. When buffed twice, it turns into a 4/3, having stats well worth its cost on top of having Charge and Divine Shield. Unlike similar Hunter and Warrior cards, Paladin's hand buffing cards target all minions in hand, which not only makes it very efficient for decks with many minions, but puts it at a much lower risk of bad RNG, a core issue with Hunter and Warrior hand buff decks.

The deck's key strength is the ability to create a huge tempo swing by playing several low-cost minions with much higher stats, making them much harder to remove with AoE and forcing opponents to use single-target removal in a much less efficient way. The deck is not limited to hand buffs and also uses active buffs like Journey to Un'GoroSpikeridged Steed and Knights of the Frozen ThroneBonemare to secure and close out the game.

Common cards

Wild iconThis section concerns content exclusive to Wild format.

The following cards are usually in the deck.

Core cards

The following cards are played in most or all versions of the deck:

Righteous Protector
Smuggler's Run
Shielded Minibot
Aldor Peacekeeper
Argent Horserider
Stonehill Defender
Seal of Champions
Wickerflame Burnbristle
Keeper of Uldaman
Chillblade Champion
Grimestreet Enforcer
Spikeridged Steed
Sunkeeper Tarim
Bonemare
Tirion Fordring

Optional cards

The following cards are played more than occasionally, but not always:

Avenge
Argent Squire
Fire Fly
Meanstreet Marshal
Argent Protector
Grimestreet Outfitter
Annoy-o-Tron
Volatile Elemental
Hydrologist
Echoing Ooze
Grimestreet Informant
Crazed Alchemist
Drygulch Jailor
Prince Keleseth
Acolyte of Pain
Igneous Elemental
Tar Creeper
Coghammer
Rallying Blade
Small-Time Recruits
Brann Bronzebeard
Drakkari Enchanter
Truesilver Champion
Blessing of Kings
Consecration
Fire Plume Phoenix
Tol'vir Stoneshaper
Saronite Chain Gang
Corpsetaker
Call to Arms
Cobalt Scalebane
Servant of Kalimos
Doppelgangster
Elise the Trailblazer
Hemet, Jungle Hunter
Val'anyr
Grimestreet Protector
Blazecaller
Dr
Don Han'Cho
Primordial Drake
Ragnaros, Lightlord
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