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Secret Paladin has been a sneaky good deck that has floated around the ladder in Standard. SpaceMonkey got to Legend for the first time with this list, and has been kind enough to allow us to re-host this guide! Check out his Twitch and Twitter!
Overview
Over the last 2 seasons I’ve put in about 400 games with varying versions of this deck. This deck is a blast to play. The general gameplan is to have control over the board with your sticky minions, weapons, and spells and then find a win condition. You win by aggro-ing out, Tirion Fordring, Avenging Wrath surprise face burst, Leeroy Jenkins, weapons-to-face, or Blessing+chargers. Some games I even won by casting 2 Consecrations for the final 4 damage to face. The deck is generally 50/50 even against its worst matchups, which makes it less volatile than something like Hunter (some great matchups, some awful matchups). This deck always has a chance to win and if you lose you can oftentimes easily pinpoint where you made a mistake or what cards you should have played around.
Proof of Legend: http://imgur.com/kpgUkHr
Synergies
- Argent Squire + The Coin + Rallying Blade is pretty much your strongest opener.
- Rallying Blade + Argent Squire/Argent Horserider/Silent Knight are pretty silly together. In a lot of matchups you want to keep your divine shields intact to make your opponent’s life harder and you want your minions to have more than 1 hp quite often.
- Dragon Egg + Abusive Sergeant is a great opener if you expect your opponent is likely to have a 1 drop
- Dragon Egg + Abusive Sergeant/Keeper of Uldaman/Blessing of Kings/Competitive Spirit can be degenerate. It invalidates a lot of your opponent’s removal plans (Ravaging Ghoul, Swipe, Lightning Storm, Maelstrom Portal, Fan of Knives). Dragon Egg has been a house largely by preventing your opponent from using their cards optimally. I’m pretty sure a lot of people get too focused on the egg and misplay around it.
- Redemption + Divine Shield Minions/the Barnes copy. If you sadly draw redemption you can still find creative uses for it. Playing it (or Comp. Spirit for that matter) alone will make your opponent make bad plays thinking they’re playing around Noble Sacrifice. Redemption is also very strong if you can force your opponent to have to kill one of your divine shield minions (make it a threat with blessing, etc). It should also be noted that if Barnes pulls a 1/1 mysterious challenger for instance that if redemption triggers off that guy dying he will return as a 6/1.
- Leeroy Jenkins + Consecration is a hilarious play that you can make if the game actually reaches this point. Pretty much the only time I’ve ever been able to attack twice with Leeroy.
- Leeroy Jenkins + Blessing of Kings is a pretty gnarly 10 damage burst. Generally if I draw Leeroy I don’t really want to play him until the turn I’m going to win. Blessing I would normally have already used, so this situation only really comes up if the game is going late and I’m trying to rely on surprise.
Mulligans
Always keep Argent Squire, Dragon Egg, and Rallying Blade. Keep Abusive Sergeant without another 1 drop if you need it in the matchup (Hunter, Shaman) where you need to guarantee that you’re proactive on the board. You can consider keeping Consecration against Druid or Zoo.
Card Choices
- Consecration – 2 of these feels really necessary in the current meta. And it turns a bunch of your matchups from unfavored to 50/50 or 50/50 to favored. I’ve tried versions without Consecration and it feels like without them you don’t have a very effective comeback gameplan. Consecration can blow out so many games if used effectively.
- Avenging Wrath – Versatile and sexy. Can be used as another board wipe or for lethal face damage. Using this card effectively has won me a lot of games. You can make what seem like strange trades into your opponent’s board to prep this card for maximum efficiency. Coincidentally this is also the card that I played to get lethal to win my final match to Legend. I tried using Ivory Knight in this slot, but it seemed slow and when I hit turn 6 I’m looking at my decklist for things that will help me push the last bit of damage. Ivory Knight was versatile and could help come back, but Avenging Wrath seemed to fit better.
- Barnes – He brings out 2 bodies and decent stats no matter what. This is beneficial at it’s core because you want creatures to buff and play with. If he grabs a divine shield minion, then awesome, if he grabs a charger, then awesome. I only pulled t4 Tirion Fordring one time – I won that game needless to say.
- Noble Sacrifice – I run 2 because I actually find the tempo from playing one to backup a divine shield minion can be really useful, especially since you need your creatures to survive. Also counters things like Raging Worgen, Leeroy Jenkins, and Call of the Wild. I also sometimes have 2 Challengers in hand to play and having the second MC actually pull a secret can be overwhelming. It should also be noted that this card can be a “soft” counter to a big single drop like Savannah Highmane or 4 mana 7/7 onto an empty board. It essentially just invalidates it for a turn while your dudes run past it.
Other Card Options
I’ve tried playing Defender of Argus, Selfless Hero, Argent Commander, Silvermoon Portal, Aldor Peacekeeper, Ivory Knight, Divine Favor, Repentance, Steward of Darkshire, and even Bilefin Tidehunter. These are all good cards and good options that pull the deck in different directions. I had a lot of success with a version that was a lot more aggressive with Selfless, Bilefin, Steward, and Divine Favor together. Defender of Argus felt bad a lot of the time because if you lose board presence then he’s basically completely dead in hand. Aldor Peacekeeper can be a really good card, but very matchup dependent. Ivory Knight seemed good, but slow. If someone tried to slow the deck down to be more control-oriented, then I could see his spot be validated. Silvermoon Portal actually seemed to be really good, but oftentimes I would wind up with a hand that had multiple buffs in it and no creatures (defender of argus problem), and it can’t replace Blessing. Argent Commander is the only card that I couldn’t get to work for me – I know Jambre is a big fan of this card. It seemed worse than Avenging Wrath in most situations. Maybe he’s better now because of Barnes?
Stats from Rank 5 to Legend vs.
Druid = 9-4 (69%)
Consecration and Avenging Wrath are really good in this matchup. Kill Violet Teachers and Fandral Staghelm on sight. Try to have a diverse board with >1 hp minions and prioritize keeping divine shields. Druids are also awful at handling 1 large threat, so if you Blessings an early drop and start going face they seem to panic and start digging for mulch. If they burn Mulch early then Tirion wins. The deck is good at having consistent threats to play out that druid can’t deal with effectively (unless you play directly into swipe).
Hunter = 15-4 (79%)
Both decks want to have sticky creatures (us=divine shield/egg, them=deathrattle) and play secrets and then have powerful midgame plays. Ours are just better in the head-to-head. Dragon Egg also loves Fiery Bat, Huge Toad, and Flame Juggler (though most lists I’m seeing are only running the Bat these days). Effectively play around the more common Hunter secrets is key. Argent Horserider is a great creature to sniff out Snipe, Explosive Trap, Freezing Trap. Weapons and effective use of Consecration are the MVP of this matchup.
Mage = 2-4
Freeze mage is actually a pretty good matchup. The volume of chargers, weapons, and Avenging Wrath can lead to cheeky wins.
Tempo mage is really bad for us. Mirror Image, Arcane Missiles, and Flamewaker can blow us out and if they get off to a good start then it is hard to come back, as most of our removal is hitting creatures with our face, which brings us into burn range. The only healing we have is Truesilver Champion.
Paladin = 2-2
Mostly played against N’Zoth and Anyfin control variants. Generally kept up divine shields and went face like crazy. Didn’t see much of these near the top.
Priest = 3-0
Feast decks. One match I had to kill 6 Priest of the Feasts. The decklist seems like it runs out of stall at some point and you can push through the last damage. Egg is surprisingly good here because with Blessing it gets to the magical 4 attack threshold. If a Priest is entombing a Dragon Egg you’re probably going to win.
Rogue = 5-2
Miracle seemed 50/50, but surprisingly I mostly saw a couple other random aggro and C'Thun variants around Rank 1 and just completely blew them out.
Shaman = 8-7
Aggro/Midrange Shaman is a tight matchup and largely hangs on what totem Tuskarr Totemic brings to the party. Using Weapons and Consecrations effectively is key. Also getting one of your 2-3 best openers is important (Squire + Rallying Blade, Squire + Abusive, Egg + Abusive). Be mindful of his tempo clears (Maelstrom Portal, Lightning Storm) and make effective trades.
Concede Shaman seems favorable as you can aggro out fast enough that they become super reactive. They don’t really have good ways to pop your divine shields to open up their damage sweepers to be effective.
Warlock = 4-2
Reno is favored. Aggro out and keep divine shields. Hard for them to react adequately in time. If the game goes late I think you could still get it as well.
Zoo is tight. Consecration is bonkers in this matchup, but you have to be putting pressure on as well, otherwise they’ll just vomit their hand onto the board over and over regardless of how many times you clear. One of the more intricate trading:face matchups to play.
Warrior = 5-4
I played all kinds of warriors. This new-fangled spell warrior with Patrons/Giants can be rough as Wild Pyromancer can blow you out. C'Thun seems beatable, as does Dragon. Again, prioritize divine shields, don’t buff already damaged minions, once both executes are baited out Tirion should just win.
tl;dr The deck thrashes Hunters and wins hard against Druid – and there were a lot of those on ladder for some reason this week. Tempo Mage is the worst matchup.
first two games and two zoo locks..could not see 7th turn both times.. i guess just screwed matchups. ohh..3rd zoo lock appeared here..i could break apart my laptop.
Hi, very good deck I ve been using along with a mix of this and Jambre’s version. I went to add minor changes. What would be a good change of abusive sargents since they got nerfed?
I tried to keep them, but they are really not as good as they were. Now I m testing with knifes jugglers instead.
Any suggestions?
I’ve been looking into this as well. There are a couple possibilities. Either A) it’s still fine as is, B) you can swap him for something like selfless hero, or C) you trade out the abusive/egg suite for something else. Without Abusive Sergeant the eggs feel less good, which makes me want to keep the abusives in, but a 1/1 is kinda meh. I’ll do some testing and let you know how it goes.
Alright so I found a list that seems to be working for me while maintaining the core of the list.
Here are the changes:
-1 Abusive Sergeant
-2 Dragon Egg
-2 Silent Knight
-1 Barnes
-1 Keeper of Uldaman
+2 Selfless Hero
+1 Sir Finley Mrrgglton
+2 Acidic Swamp Ooze
+2 Argent Protector
In the current meta I was seeing that the deck was too susceptible to Shaman in particular, and even Secret Hunter was becoming obnoxious. I moved the deck away from trying to be overly sticky, as their was simply no way to hold the board against all the AoE and spell damage and weapons from the Shaman deck. I doubled down on the early game plan, which is still vulnerable, but is a little more proactive, teched in Ooze (great in this meta), and lowered the curve.
The good news is that after 50 games with this version the winrate is 70% overall. Sadly the winrate against Shaman is 30%. So it basically crushes the entire field except for Shaman, and then against Shaman it is just about as futile as every other deck right now. So there you go.
I’ve been playing this deck for a couple of days now, and loving it. Can’t argue too much when I’m winning. Competitive spirit and Dragon’s Egg have really come through a few times.
That being said, I’m not getting much mileage out of either Barnes or Redemption, beyond having another body on the board. I have tended to draw Barnes early, before Blessing of Kings comes out. Barnes seems to be suited better to decks with deathrattle power. Redemption, too, doesn’t seem to help me much beyond the six shielded minions. Very often, I’m playing Mysterious Challenger, popping Noble Sacrifice, then getting him back – not a big bang for the buck.
That is very true. It is true that Noble Sac into Redemption is one of the worst, but most common, outcomes for the Redemption. The thing is though that it is still great tempo and it is part of what makes MC so powerful as a t6 play. With the deck as is, MC’s battlecry is basically, at worst “Negate the next attack your opponent makes and deal 2 damage to that target. Summon a 2/1 minion” Not leaving behind the 2/1 isn’t awful honestly, and it trims an extra card out of your deck, which makes your draws more efficient.
Redemption and Barnes are pretty valuable with the divine shield minions. I can see an argument for cutting Barnes, for sure. There are many solid cards that he could become (1x Aldor Peacekeeper, 1x Steward of Darkshire, 1x Silvermoon Portal, 1x Defender of Argus, etc). I would definitely not recommend cutting the Redemption though, as the value you can gain off of getting back a divine shield minion, or tirion, is very high. If you ran Defender of Argus then you could more clearly dictate which minion you could get back honestly.
The deck, at it’s core, it all about high value plays, and MC is one of the highest value. While turning a “Get Down!” into and “I Live!” is not the highest value outcome, it is still a high value outcome compared to not having the 2/1 live. The deck needs minions to buff and attack with.
Thanks for the response! Excellent deck and great instruction to go with it. I’m still enjoying playing it.
I have to agree with PewHS. I’m 10-1 with this deck on ladder so far. Awesome deck and guide!
Thanks Bobby! Glad it’s working out!
Well, been trying this deck for 10 games now and only lost once due to amazing draws from the opponent reno frost mage and utterly shit draws for me. Needless to say, this deck works wonders. Keep up the good work.
Thanks! Hope it keeps working out for you 🙂
Its perhaps good for very high ranks. Do not play it from 20 to 5 lets say….
why not?
I understand what you mean. The deck mix is different at lower rungs on the ladder. The competition is less predictable. That being said, I am low on the ladder, and today I have gone 11-5 with this deck.
There seems to be a problem with priest xD…
According to the text paladin’s only form of healing is priest of the feast
Hey Evident, mind reading over the ‘Mage’ section? Am I seeing things? SpaceMonkey starts talking about the bad matchup vs Tempo Mage, then decides to add Priest of the Feast to his Paladin deck, and then starts taking about a Priest opponent not being able to use Shadow Word on a Kings’d Dragon Egg. What happened exactly?
I believe I fixed it, let me know if it’s still there! Sorry about that, it was my fault.