Odd vs Even: What is the most effective path for Paladins?

The Witchwood expansion is officially out and with it the rotation in Standard. Despite the new expansion’s impact on the meta, Paladin continues to hold the top spot. Many of the key Murloc Paladin cards are now out of Standard and this deck is almost completely gone. But that wasn’t enough to stop George “BoarControl” Webb from taking his Murloc Paladin deck to high Legend.

With the departure of the outdated Murloc and Aggro decks, the new Even and Odd decks are dominating the meta right now. According to HSReplay, only Spiteful Druid can go head to head with them for a place in tier 1.

But which is the better choice? BoarControl replied to Dot Esports that he thinks Even Paladin is a better choice. Although it lacks a bit of the “hardness” of Odd Paladin and some cards are out of the Standard, it can completely dominate the game. Odd Paladin will be more effective against decks that lack control.
HSReplay’s data has recorded that the Even deck has a win rate of 59.83%, slightly better than the Odd deck with a 58.85% win rate of nearly 1%.

This is a Midrange deck, so the first thing you notice is the significant amount of 8 mana cards. It also has the familiar Equality/ Consecration combo, allowing you to clear even the toughest of boards.
The large amount of 2 mana cards plus “discounted” hero power keeps you from skipping the first turns and can put pressure on your opponents pretty quickly.

Most of Paladin’s strongest cards have even mana, including Call To Arms, Sunkeeper Tarim, and Tirion Fordring. Strong early game, good table cleaning, can heal, and even draw cards, with that many advantages, maybe Even Paladin will not easily disappear from the top of the meta in the near future.

The list below is the most commonly used version recently, according to HSReplay data. It maintains a win rate of over 60%, and its only really hard bet is Warlock.

Odd Paladin is a lot tougher, with tons of early game minions plus the ability to constantly fill the table with Silver Hand Recruits. Relying on the ability to buff small minions into big threats, your opponent will have to constantly clear the table every turn or accept the risk that the opponent can buff into a large table at any time. Try to protect your Silver Hand Recruit army until turn 5 to get the most out of Level Up!.

Perhaps the biggest surprise of this deck is the return of Stormwind Champion, Raid Leader, and in some decks even Light’s Justice. A lot of these haven’t been around for years, so it’ll be interesting to see them back in strong decks. However, in the next expansions, if there are more quality odd mana cards, they will most likely be removed from the deck.

Source: Dotesports