Secret Paladin, murloc Shaman, and midrange Hunter are all going to be strong, cheap decks in this upcoming expansion – which means they will be common. This more proactive version of the deck looks to combat that aggression early and can even curve out nicely itself. The potential to win the board earlier and start dealing damage in the midgame has the added bonus of making bomb damage scarier.
It sacrifices some value to do this. Time will tell which is more important.
Card choices:
I like Shield Block because it helps you dig for Booms and activates Shield Slam. Sources of armor gain are also important to keep Supercollider relevant. It’s possible that a better value card like Omega Assembly is necessary.
Weapons Project similar activates Shield Slam, and also synergizes with Harrison Jones to make a very powerful draw engine. All this weapon removal is also very powerful against burgle Rogue, which may not ultimately succeed, but will certainly have a place in the early meta.
Eternium Rover is a nice source of armor and early game tempo. Perhaps the rush package is enough for the latter, and this could be replaced by something like Omega Assembly to beef up the deck’s late game.
Woodcutter's Axe feels really good when you land it on a Militia Commander, but it doesn’t actually curve into it that well as you have to skip at least one turn of attacking. It goes with the early game tempo plan that we’re committing to, but is certainly not essential.