Secret Paladin
This Deck of the Week looks at a completely new type of deck that was simply not possible before the release of The Grand Tournament. Using a new card, the Mysterious Challenger, this paladin deck can play every secret in the deck at once! Hence the name, Secret Paladin.
As is usually the case with a brand new type of deck, there are several versions floating around. Some use every secret a paladin has. This deck only uses the strongest of the secrets and has a few more midrange minions than other decks. I got my version from icy-veins.com.
The Basics
This deck is basically a tempo Paladin with an extremely powerful gimmick. Unfortunately, paladins have some of the weakest secret effects in the game, with Avenge being the only secret most people usually worry about. That’s why decks like this never surfaced with the Mad Scientist; you only save 1 mana from his deathrattle, and Avenge by itself isn’t enough to keep tempo. With the Mysterious Challenger, you not only get one of every secret left in your deck, but you also get a sturdy 6/6 body, giving you quite a power swing.
In the early game, you want to look for strong minions like Shielded Minibot or the amazing Muster for Battle spell. These will help you keep board presence going into turn 4, when you can equip a Truesilver Champion or play a Piloted Shredder. If you happen to get a secret in your hand (which you will at some point), make sure you are able to get some value out of it before playing it. For example, on turn 5, playing Piloted Shredder and Redemption can get you the powerful deathrattle twice, unless your opponent uses a removal like Hex or Sheep on it. This is also acceptable since that saves one of your bigger threats from the spell later on.
It’s not just a secret, it’s ALL secrets
Going into turns 6 and 7, with any luck, you will have a Mysterious Challenger in your hand. While a 6/6 is a fair minion to put on the board for 6 mana, you usually want to have at least one or two other minions on the board so that you can get all the value from your secrets. Avenge for instance will only trigger if you have at least one more minion on the board when the first minion dies. Competitive Spirit will always trigger at the start of your next turn, so you want to hit more than just the Mysterious Challenger with it. That isn’t always possible though, which is why this deck only runs one copy of that secret.
Another thing to be careful of with this deck is minion positioning. Redemption will resurrect the left most minion if you lose several at once to an AOE removal spell. Make sure you put minions that will give you high value from that secret on the left. The Murloc Knight is a good example of this. This card uses the new Inspire mechanic to summon a random murloc every time you use your hero power. So on turn 6, you can easily fill up your side of the board with Murloc Knight plus your hero power. Because this represents a huge threat, many opponents will trade into it with a low value minion and use AOE to clear your board. As long as you kept the Murloc Knight on the left side, he will resurrect with 1 health and let you Inspire for another murloc on your next turn.
Finishing the Game
Because this is a tempo deck, most of your wins will come from maintaining board control and using a big minion at the end to finish off your opponent. This deck includes Dr. Boom and usually Tirion Fordring for that purpose. I don’t own Tirion unfortunately, so I substituted him with Sylvanas Windrunner, who’s deathrattle is also a big swing in momentum. If you have Tirion though, I would recommend putting him in the deck. The 15 possible damage from Ashbringer is simply too good to pass up.
If you haven’t drawn into one of your heavy hitters, another option is Blessing of Kings. It gives a friendly minion +4/+4 and is extremely flexible. Playing that on your Mysterious Challenger can often get you an 11/11 minion. If you have a Shielded Minibot with its Divine Shield still up later in the game, that becomes an excellent Blessing of Kings target. Even a Murloc Knight is a good option provided he has survived at least one round. This makes him even harder to remove and gives you more value from your hero power.
Playing this deck right now also carries with it the surprise factor. While most experienced players have seen it already, many opponents will be quite surprised when your hero portrait lights up like a Christmas tree. Don’t get too confident however. Simply playing Mysterious Challenger is not enough to secure a win. You need to then make plays that will bait your opponent into triggering your secrets when you want them to. That’s how you will win with this deck.
With the Archon Team League Championship concluding recently, there are several great decks built by some of the best players in Hearthstone. I plan on bringing you a few of the most interesting ones in the next few weeks, like the dragon priest. If you have a deck you’d like to see, let me know in the comments or on Twitter @AGRitterific, and I’ll be sure to check it out!
