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The deck is based on Jambre’s Secret Paladin deck, with a few changes and budget cuts. It was still hard to get it in the 2k budget, but I think that it’s worth it – I was playing a similar deck on my alt account with a pretty good success.
Even though the deck is called Secret Paladin, Secrets are only a small part of it. As it turns out, Mysterious Challenger doesn’t need a lot of Secrets to work well. It pulling out 2-3 Secrets is already a very strong tempo play.
Besides that, the deck is based around Divine Shields and buffs. Those two combo together really well. The deck plays like a pretty aggressive Midrange deck, so you’re not going all-in and try to rush your opponent down, but make the efficient trade by abusing the Divine Shields & Buff combos and then make a big tempo push with Challenger.
Budget Secret Paladin Card Replacements
High Priority Replacements
1x Argent Protector => Tirion Fordring – Tirion is really important in any Midrange and Control Paladin list. It’s one of the strongest Legendaries in the game, good in nearly every matchup.
Low Priority Replacements
1x Blessing of Kings => 1x Defender of Argus – I think that second Argus is stronger in the current meta, but I couldn’t fit it in the 2k budget.
2x Selfless Hero => 2x Dragon Egg – Selfless Hero is a pretty solid card, but Dragon Egg works much better in this deck and in this meta. T1 Hero might die before you play another minion to use its effect, while Dragon Egg is a great minion to buff and it has a chance to stick to the board, because people don’t really want to proc it themselves.
Stranglethorn Tiger => Keeper of Uldaman – Tiger is nice at filling the 5-drop slot, but Uldaman makes way more sense in this deck – you can either buff your small minions or debuff big stuff your opponent might play.
Even after those replacements, Secret Paladin is not the strongest meta deck right now. If you’re looking for an alternative, try Control N’Zoth Paladin (warning – it’s MUCH more expensive).
Budget Secret Paladin Mulligan Tips
High Priority (Always Keep)
- Argent Squire OR Selfless Hero – You really want to open up with a 1-drop. Squire is a solid 1-drop, should most likely stick to the board so you can buff it next turn or even a turn after. Hero is worse by itself, but it might be better if you have a turn 2 follow-up. It might turn your Flame Juggler or Ooze into a better Shielded Minibot.
- Flame Juggler – Great 2-drop in the current meta, with so many 1 health early game minions running around (Patches…). Better than Hero Powering on turn 2.
- Rallying Blade – Great tool to keep the board control in the early game. Gets extra value if you happen to have some Divine Shield minions, which is possible.
Low Priority (Situationally Keep)
- Abusive Sergeant – Keep with Argent Squire.
- Acidic Swamp Ooze – Keep against weapon matchups.
- Argent Horserider OR Silent Knight – Keep in slower matchups, keep with smooth curve in faster matchups.
Extra note: Don’t keep the Secrets in your opening hand, you prefer to get them from Challenger. You can potentially keep Noble Sacrifice to protect your early game minions, but only in the matchups that can’t deal with it easily.
Budget Secret Paladin Strategy Tips
- Board control is your #1 priority. A lot of your cards are insane when you have the right board state, but useless if you don’t. Try to make efficient trades, use weapons to kill stuff, DON’T rush the face, because it’s pointless. If you establish early game board control and then you start buffing your minions in the late game, it will be really hard to stop you.
- You often prefer to trade off your minions without Divine Shields instead of saving the minions and popping shields on the others. Keeping Divine Shields “alive” makes your buffs way stronger and your board more resilient vs AoE.
- Stranglethorn Tiger is a budget card, but it’s still pretty interesting in this deck. Since it’s a rather big minion in Stealth, it’s nearly guaranteed that it will survive until your turn. It makes it an amazing Argent Protector target and also a good way to guarantee that you will have something to buff next turn (e.g. if you play him on turn 5, you can drop a 2-drop + Argus on turn 6).
- Be wise about the Redemption. Don’t play it just like that or you will get a 1/1 back more often than not. For example, after you trade your Tiger into something and leave it at 1 or 2 health, that’s a great time to play Redemption. Your opponent will likely kill it and then it’s back as 5/1 in Stealth (1 mana Shadow Rager!). It’s also good with minions like Selfless Hero + Divine Shields (Squire, Horserider, Silent Knight).
