The Secret Paladin Deck - Episode 66

Hello!

• Kevin is on the show this week
• Topic: Deck battle!
• Reasons to be happy this week
• News: We updated our show notes for the previous episode

What is a Deck Battle?

Once a month, a guest host brings their favorite deck onto the show to battle the current reigning champion deck for control of the Happy Hearthstone Deck Battle Throne!

If the challenger wins the best-of-3 series, their deck becomes the new Reigning Champion Deck and will fight off future challengers until it loses, or until it’s earned its place in the Happy Hearthstone Hall of Fame!

View the Deck Battle Archive + The Happy Hearthstone Hall of Fame

Defending Deck: Andrew’s Warlock Demon Zoo deck has reigned supreme for 8 months, and has beaten 6 decks before this episode.

Challenger Deck: Kevin’s Secret Paladin deck relies on flooding the board with sercets and minions for a sudden mid-game kill.

The Deck

Creatures

• 2x Secret Kepper
• 1x Haunted Creeper
• 1x Ironbeak Owl
• 2x Knife Juggler
• 2x Shielded Minibot
• 2x Murloc Knight
• 2x Mysterious Challenger
• 1x Dr. Boom
• 1x Eadric The Pure

Spells

• 2x Avenge
• 2x Competitive Spirit
• 2x Noble Sacrifice
• 1x Redemption
• 1x Repentance
• 1x Coghammer
• 1x Divine Favor
• 2x Muster for Battle
• 2x Blessing of Kings
• 1x Consecration
• 1x Truesilver Champion

Sideboard

In case you don’t have some of the ideal cards, here are some quality back ups and alterations you can make that keep with the same theme and strengths of the deck.

• 2x Stormwind Champion
• 2x Mukla’s Champion
• 2x Grand Crusader
• 2x Raid Leader

The Duel

Community

• Question: None this week!
• iTunes Reviews

Donations

• None

Card of the Week

Farewell

• Contact Kevin on Twitter and listen to his WoW podcast Darkmoon Herald
• What you want to see in future episodes
• What hosts you want to visit the show

DECK GUIDE:

You’ve seen it. You’ve hated it. You may have even played it. Kevin’s own take on the infamous Secret Paladin deck makes some interesting changes to keep it fresh and add a few other threats to the deck. But the core of the deck — that wonderful Christmas-tree-building Mysterious Challenger — is still here and ready to rock.

Check out how this deck did in our deck battle on our latest episode of Happy Hearthstone!

Note from Josh: The rest of this article was written by Kevin. Thanks!

Secret Paladin

The Secret Paladin is a low-cost, low-skill-cap deck that’s incredibly diverse in its win conditions and ability to counter many popular deck on the ladder. It’s not a “cheater” deck like everyone on the forums would like you to believe and it’s been used at the World Championship levels of gameplay. It’s a fun and fast deck to play and there are some mind games involved in getting your opponent to waste cards in bad trades because of what you might have in your hand.

Let’s get straight into the cards I used in my deck for the mighty showdown with Josh. You can find a completely plain deck list on the podcast episode. Here, I’ll provide additional commentary where I feel it’s helpful or necessary.

Minions

2x Secret Keeper

This card is a great opener and is the main defense to early aggro aggression. Drop this card and watch it attract top-tier removal from the enemy’s hand. If they don’t remove it, it can be buffed significantly by the secrets.

1x Haunted Creeper

Tough little minion that likes to stick around and make your opponent make bad decisions on how to clear it.

1x Iron Beak

Iron beak owl is a great card to have in your pocket. You never know when you might need a Silence effect.

2x Knife Juggler

A staple for most paladin decks. It helps with board control and combos with many other cards like Muster for Battle, Noble Sacrifice, and Murloc Knight.

2x Shielded Minibot

Best two drop for Paladins with plenty of staying power, which means it’ll stay on the board for awhile to buy you time.

2x Murloc Knight

Murloc isn’t the theme of the deck, but this card plays two big parts in our strategy. It will either: 1) Fill your board with minions and you win the game. or 2) Be a lightning rod for your opponent to use all of their removal on and clear the way for more powerful cards like Dr. Boom or Mysterious Challenger to remain unscathed.

2x Mysterious Challenger

One of the greatest (but not the only) win condition to this deck. If you have 2-3 minions on the board and drop this card on turn 5-6 you will most likely win the game.

1x Eadric the Pure

I love the lore and WoW-reference with this Legendary. If three or more minions are affected by Eadric’s battle cry you got value from it (his own stats are 5 below the Vanilla test, so you want to reduce enemy minions by at least that many). There’s also the fun of playing this card at a face to face tournament and seeing their reaction, since it’s so unexpected.

1x Dr. Boom

Need I say more?! He’s just awesome!

Spells + Weapons

2x Avenge

The strongest of the Paladin secrets, this is used to make your opponent think about who they must kill and in what order and anything it lands on, even a 1/1, becomes a real threat.

2x Competitive Spirit

This secret takes your minions from good to great! As long as you have more than one minion on the board when this secret activates you get your value for it. It’s important to note that if you don’t have any minions on the board, the secret will not activate — so it will never be wasted.

2x Noble Sacrifice

This secret lets you keep the most precious minions and yourself alive. Drop this secret with a Murloc Knight or Knife Juggler to keep them on the board and get a combo or two off.

1x Repentance

This secret is a late-game game-changer. When their Dr. Boom turns into an 7/1 and is killed by a silver hand recruit, you get your value!

1x Redemption

This secret is the best for backing up your value minions, Dr. Boom, Murloc Knight, and Mysterious Challenger

1x Coghammer

Gives you a decent amount of board control and minion buffing early on.

1x Divine Favor

Can be incredibly powerful when playing against a Handlock deck. Use in early game if the opportunity presents itself to try to get Mysterious Challenger in hand by Turn 5/6.

2x Muster for Battle

The greatest anti-aggro card out there (besides Consecrate). You can combo with Competitive Spirit to get 2/2s on the board or Knife Juggler to deal 3 bonus damage right away.

1x Truesilver Champion

The gold standard in Paladin weapons, must include one in every deck 

2x Blessing of Kings

A huge buff to a small minion = huge board presence. If you can get your opponent to trade 4 or 5 mana worth of cards to get rid of it, it has value.

1x Consecrate

Another amazing Paladin card that helps you handle early aggression decks

Possible Additions

There are many win conditions with this deck which is what makes it a strong ladder deck. You can build it on the cheap cheap or throw in your strongest Paladin or Neutral Legendary Cards. Even Hogger has a home in this deck!

Mukla’s Champion

This card is a fantastic minion buffer and lightning rod all in one. Plus it’s common quality but gives you epic-level value.

Stormwind Champion

Since the main purpose of the deck is to gain board control, Stormwind Champion is a perfect substitute card. It’s a major body on the board and makes your hero power, Muster for Battle, and Murloc Knights way, way more powerful

Final Thoughts

Secret Paladin is a easy to learn, cheap (cost) deck to build and is very competitive in the current ladder whether you have the legendaries or not. It is fun to make your opponent play around your secrets that you are almost guaranteed value from. An excellent staple deck for anyone’s library!