Hearthstone Guide: Menagerie Paladin is the Best Aggro Deck in the Format!

In April, Hearthstone introduced the first balance changes after the year of the Raptor started and the new set, Into the Emerald Dream, came along. As a result, the meta got a breath of fresh air, and six decks were considered tier-1 lists according to HSReplay (accessed on April 4th, 2025). Menagerie Paladin was the best-positioned list, with an incredible 61.89% win rate.

Besides strong, Menagerie Paladin is quite fun and plays a few new cards from Into the Emerald Dream. As such, we, at Cards Realm, decided to bring you a guide and tell you everything about this deck - its cards, mulligan, win condition, and much more. Check it out!

Menagerie Paladin is basically a "zoo" list, so it fills the board with many low-cost minions. AoE buffs are also more efficient in this type of list - particularly Menagerie Jug, the card that named this deck.

Check out how this card can decide matches. Two of them made my board nearly unbeatable.

The idea is to build a tough board with many beefy minions. Let's go through each card and see how we'll do this.

Cards

Like any great aggro list, this deck plays many turn-1 minions, such as Scarab Keychain, Righteous Protector, Murmy, and Fire Fly. Because the main strategy is keeping the board full, all of them have effects like Divine Shield and Reborn. So, they'll either stay alive on the board, or create cards in your hand.

This list also plays Wisp, which doesn't cost any mana.

Please note that all these cards have 1 attack, and that's on purpose. We want to get the most out of Busy-Bot with them.

Fast lists are a lot weaker when they can't play anything on the first three turns. So, this one plays Creature of Madness. This minion not only solves this problem but also gives you a buffed minion with a Dark Gift.

Mother Duck, Muster for Battle, and Vacation Planning will fill your board incredibly fast. The two spells, in particular, will also give you a weapon, life, or draw cards.

To make the board even stronger, besides the aforementioned Busy-Bot, this list also plays Flash Sale, Crusader Aura, and the main star, Menagerie Jug.

Hand of A'dal and Toy Captain Tarim are also buffs, but only for one minion in particular.

Finally, this list plays one legendary minion from the new set, Toreth the Unbreaking. It is not only strong by itself, as its Divine Shield can take three attacks, but also goes really well with Righteous Protector and Flash Sale.

Your board will be well-protected with this minion. In the image below, I managed to get four Divine Shields with Toreth the Unbreaking's effect. My opponent would have to attack 12 times to break them all!!

Though Menagerie Jug named this list, it isn't the main or the only win condition in it. There are many ways to build a huge board in it, so just focus on that.

The mulligan is quite simple. Look for a 1-cost card for turn 1, Creature of Madness for the following turn, and Muster for Battle for turn 3. This way, you'll have a big board in just three turns.

I don't recommend you get Busy-Bot early on because, even though it is cheap, it is a lot more efficient when you already control many minions with 1 attack. Using it on turn 2 is a waste of resources.

Aggro

Against other Aggro lists, I highly recommend you save a few of your resources and try to remove enemy minions instead. Cards like Muster for Battle and Vacation Planning will be useful, so you can even keep them in your opening hand. The armor and life they give you will be critical to survive pressure early on.

Control

Follow the standard game plan almost step by step. Just be careful not to play all your resources at once. Control lists are known for their board wipes, and you don't want to make your opponent's life easier by letting them wipe all your minions at once.

Menagerie Paladin is, currently, one of the best decks in Hearthstone. Enjoy how powerful and fun it is!

If you'd like to see other great lists for this season, check out this article!

What did you think of this list? Tell us your thoughts in our comment section below.

Thank you for reading, and see you next time!