Deck of the Week: Standard Secret Paladin (by F2K Cipher)
by OtakuMZ - 8 years ago show comments
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Written by Cipher
Secret Paladin making a comeback?
It’s been a few months since we have seen this version of paladin on ladder, with avenge gone the power Mysterious Challenger has seems too low to be worth playing. Yet some players are climbing to Top 100 on EU with this deck, let’s take a look why.
Why has it re-appeared now?
Incredibly favoured matchup vs Dragon Warrior. Dragon Warrior has been the most common deck on ladder for a few weeks now so it’s not surprising counter decks are starting to appear. Paladin is so favoured against this warrior archetype due to how badly Fiery War Axe and Execute match up with the paladins curve. Secret Paladin literally doesn’t run a 2-drop, so it can’t lose tempo vs Fiery War Axe and all its late game threats Tirion Fordring, Mysterious Challenger and Stranglethorn Tiger don’t suffer too much to being executed. On top of that Rallying Blade plus Keeper of Uldaman is a way to keep pushing tempo vs the highly stated minions dragon warrior plays.
The other thing that help this deck is the lack of silence cards being run in this meta, 20/30 cards in the deck can be hurt somewhat by silence.
How the deck funtions
This is a straight up tempo deck, you want to drop sticky minions in the early game, then use buffs and weapons in the mid-game to trade efficiently, pushing you further on board, then when Mysterious Challenger or Tirion is dropped the board state should be too hard to deal with, and you can close out the game quickly.
What about after “One Night in Karazhan”?
Currently there no way of know how the meta will shape up, though it seems likely warrior and shaman will stay top dogs of the meta. Cards that will give this deck a push are: a good secret, strong early game minions (RIP minibot) or strong burn cards, the latter is something paladin has never had. Somehow I doubt Blizzard will let this archetype rise to the top again after the long period of domination it had. It will likely remain a niche counter deck for warrior and druid.
Meta matchups
Very favoured
Yogg-Saron /C’Thun Druids – Keeper of Uldaman is a keep, using it on Ancient of War is an easy way to win games!
Dragon Warrior – Keeping weapons often helps you here.
Favoured
Midrange Hunter – Your 6-drop beats theirs, keep freezing trap and Unleash the Hounds in mind as you play against the hunter.
Rogue – Weapons + chargers and go face, treat this matchup like a race never give them time.
Even
Zoo – Them playing into Consecration is your ticket to a win here, hard to fight them on board.
Midrange Shaman – Try to get a good early game and snowball, long games don’t favour you here.
Control Warrior– Kill them fast, don’t hero power if it make their brawl stronger, they struggle to deal with buffed minions in divine shield.
Tempo Mage – Whoever wins is decided on how crazy the mages hand is, Dragon Egg is great vs Flamewakers
One-Turn-Kill Warrior – Try to keep 1 taunt for the turn you think they will kill you with combo. Often this is just a case of beating them down ASAP.
Unfavored
Freeze Mage – Not much you can do, apart from hoping they draw badly.
RenoLock – Whether you win or not is up to their hand, Keeper of Uldaman is needed is they have Twilight Drake, just try to curve a strongly as possible and not play too much around their removal.
N’Zoth Paladin – Very hard to beat, just hoping they don’t have equality combo is often your best bet as its difficult to refill the board after a clear, try to preserve you divine shields.
Aggro Shaman – Curve out strongly in early game into weapons in the midgame is the goal here.
