Mech Paladin decks looked like one of the more potent aggressive options before the release of The Boomsday Project, and even though the upgraded hero power and consistency of Odd Paladin eventually pushed the archetype out of contention, it might just have a new lease on life post-rotation thanks to some of the tantalizing midrange-y tools made available to the already impressive shell in the Rise of Shadows expansion.
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Unlike the Mech decks of the GvG era, the post-Boomsday archetypes trying to make use of these synergies struggled to establish a consistent-enough early game board presence. Simply put, there weren’t enough things to magnetize and it was tough to generate initiative against the decks with upgraded hero powers. However, the arrival of interesting midrange Mech cards in the neutral category plus the reduced post-rotation power level could very well herald the arrival of this kind of a build. The rotation of the Death Knights also makes a midrange strategy much more viable than it has ever been during the Year of the Raven.
Safeguard, A New Challenger..., a single copy of Defender of Argus, Annoy-o-Module and the omnipresent Zilliax provide the anti-aggro foundation of this deck, while Wargear, Mechano-Egg and Kangor's Endless Army are meant to be the source of tempo and value required against slower opponents. A single copy of Hecklebot is included as combo disruption and an optional tool against aggression, adding further flexibility to the build.
Just like previous iterations of Mech Paladin, this one is also not going to be able to generate large attacking capabilities in the first few turns as its synergistic cards all have one attack to start out with. However, Call to Adventure will often buff a Glow-Tron, which more than makes up for this deficiency. Card like Hecklebot, Replicating Menace and Safeguard will practically guarantee a Mech on the board at any stage of the game, something else the early Boomsday versions of this deck struggled with.
Beyond the Magnetic cards, a Defender of Argus and a Silver Sword are also included as potential activators for Mechano-Egg. The board-buffing weapon finally gained some much-needed breathing space with the rotation of Vinecleaver and could potentially find a home in a deck like this one. Loot Hoarder and Cult Master provide some card draw for the slower matchups: the tokens from Mecharoo, Replicating Menace and Safeguard can be traded in for a decent reload with the latter.
Potential replacements include an extra copy of Loot Hoarder or Defender of Argus for the experimental Never Surrender! secrets. Since Paladin board clears now come in at five and six mana respectively (Shrink Ray and Equality+Wild Pyromancer), they didn’t warrant inclusion in this kind of a build. While A New Challenger... seems like a great way to protect an existing board, two copies of Blessing of Kings can take the deck into a more aggressive direction. For laddering purposes, one copy of Spellbreaker is the only tech card included, but a slightly faster version could also opt for Mojomaster Zihi and a second Hecklebot, especially for the Specialist format.
Yellorambo
Luci Kelemen is an avid strategy gamer and writer who has been following Hearthstone ever since its inception. His content has previously appeared on HearthstonePlayers and Tempo/Storm's site.
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Now that Genn and Baku are gone.. Can we Paladin players have our 2-Cost Equality back pease?
-A new challenger was bad last expansion and got worse (safeguard beeing the best target which already has taunt, if you realy want it jsut play it directly instead; meanwhile some of the better outcomes rotate out), the only reason you’d ever play it is cause you desperately need it for shyrvalla.
-call to adventure is a bad carddraw unless you manage to synergise well with the buff or the tutor. this deck does neither of those, so why play it?
-you literally slapped some of the worst mechs of the last expansion in this deck. Why would framebot or menace be good now?
– the only secret that ever was viable without secretsynergies in pala was avenge. why would you put never surrender in a deck that has no synergies with secrets? this deck doesn’t even fill the board enough that you’d need that “extra stickiness vs boardclears”.
I don’t know man, I usually think the promoted decks here are usually at least fine, often beeing quite okish to good, but this? Sorry to be harsh and all, but this looks like “I’mma slam all mechs in a deck and add alittle all over the place” to it.
I dig the gist of it. Mechano-Egg is a really scary card that was just barely eked out by the Year of the Raven’s power level. We’ll have to see if tokens and Kangor’s are incompatible, is my concern with this particular build.
Thoughts on Crystology instead of the Loot Hoarder/Call to Adventure?
I considered it but it didn’t feel like it had enough strong targets: for a midrange-y archetype, it doesn’t do anything against either aggro or control, which is a bit meh.
I wouldn´t play Mecharoo and Replicating Menace with Kangors endless Army.
With bad luck you could revive 3 1/1 mech tokens..
The stickiness of those cards could lead into more magnetic upgrades but you do have a fair point. They aren’t useless however as you can buff them with the likes of never surrender and sliver sword potentially in which case you wouldn’t need Kangor’s Army. I would keep them in but the one card i would take out is call to adventure. I just think it’s too slow but i do recognise its uses in creating a more sticky boi and improving consistency, so maybe you could just take out one and replace it with a more defensive like Bronze Gatekeeper