Secret Shields Paladin [Legend]
- Last updated Oct 12, 2016 (Yogg Nerf)
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Wild
- 19 Minions
- 7 Spells
- 4 Weapons
- Deck Type: Ranked Deck
- Deck Archetype: Secret Paladin
- Crafting Cost: 6580
- Dust Needed: Loading Collection
- Created: 7/30/2016 (Old Gods)
- Jambre
- Pro Player
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Country:
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Tournament Decks:
4
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Ladder Decks:
46
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Submitted By:
A fresh rendition of the secret paladin for competitive play. Piloted to top 10 (July) and top 5 (August/September/October) legend in Standard by Jambre! Proof: https://twitter.com/TPG_Jambre/status/766774473685078016, https://twitter.com/TPG_Jambre/status/775370331590713344
Deck Changes: Updated to Jambre's September deck list. For his October list, simply replace Defender of Argus with a 2nd Argent Commander. Remember you can substitute Leeroy with Stranglethorn Tiger.
Meta Update: This deck is still a winner, coming in at a win rate of 55% post-nerf according to metastats (http://metastats.net/deck/af09f99d-8974-47ce-aad1-75b4bdb1fab9/week/).
For my update to Jackker's Steward of Darkshire based secret paladin featuring Barnes and Moroes see http://www.hearthpwn.com/decks/582009-secret-steward-paladin-legend.
For a Wild version of this deck see: http://www.hearthpwn.com/decks/584095-secret-paladin-wild
For my latest ladder decks see:
http://www.hearthpwn.com/decks/613816-barnes-secret-hunter
http://www.hearthpwn.com/decks/639616-vlpss-curator-secret-hunter-legend
http://www.hearthpwn.com/decks/525655-totem-superiority-easy-rank-5-midrange-shaman
http://www.hearthpwn.com/decks/626899-sjows-1-legend-disco-lock
This deck list differs from recent secret paladin lists. It has fewer secrets (just 3) and still takes advantage of Rallying Blade synergy, but instead of depending on Steward of Darkshire to create shielded minions or tokens, it includes several already shielded minions. 6 of them (2 each of Argent Squire, Argent Horserider and Silent Knight) cost 3 or less mana and serve as our opening plays. This leads to many high value trades and often buffing at least one minion with the blade. We finish our opponent with a string of high value minions including the most famous of shielded paladins, Tirion Fordring.
Trade for great value, but sometimes the strategy is to smash your opponent's face and let him stress about how to deal with your awkward array of shielded minions and a few secrets.
Consider how your opponent will tilt when Redemption brings back your Argent Horserider, shield intact.
Use your weapons to clear opponent minions and preserve shields until needed. Use Dragon Egg wisely. The eggs are great targets for all your buff cards (including Blessing of Kings, Defender of Argus, and Keeper of Uldaman) and good protection against AOE. Your other buffs should go to shielded minions where possible.
MULLIGANS
There are no 2 mana cards in this deck. Do not keep secrets in your opening hand. In a perfect world they are all summoned by Mysterious Challenger on turn 6. If we do not have coin, we will play a 1 mana card followed by two others next turn, especially if we get stuck with an early secret. We can also start with a 1 drop and then hero power on turn 2, but this is less desirable, so mulligan hard for 1 mana minions if you are going first.
If we have the coin, we can play a 1 drop, then coin out a 3 drop on turn 2, and then play another 3 drop on turn 3. Keep in mind that your sneaky opener of Argent Squire on turn 1 and then Silent Knight on turn 2 can be foiled if the warrior plays Ravaging Ghoul on his turn 3 before you can equip your Rallying Blade on your turn 3. [I still won that game, by the way, as my weapon killed his ghoul and both my minions lived due to their shields. It just wasn't as sweet as I had hoped for. I had dreams of buffing both minions! Too greedy?]
Always keep:
Argent Squire
Dragon Egg
Additionally, with at least one of the above keep Abusive Sergeant or possibly Rallying Blade
Keep with coin:
Rallying Blade
Argent Horserider or Silent Knight
SUBSTITUTIONS
+ Stranglethorn Tiger
+/- Argent Commander
- Consecration
+/- Defender of Argus
+ Divine Favor
+ Silvermoon Portal
+ Psych-o-Tron
- Leeroy Jenkins
+ Ragnaros the Firelord
CLASS MATCHUPS
*** Win/loss data includes 3 versions of this deck list. 65% win rate overall after 75 games. Finished with a 15-3 streak. ***
Warrior - Favored (10-3). This is your match to win. Shields reduce value from weapons so don't waste them lightly. Be aggressive but make good trades. Have buffs ready to contend with 6 health taunts. Remember you can also use Keeper of Uldaman on opponent cards. Expect to see Ravaging Ghoul twice. Sometimes you should trade rather than leave a lot of unshielded 2/1's on the board.
Shaman - Worthy opponent (7-5). Fight for a stable board. Try to keep shields and eggs intact to protect against Lightning Storm, but you will also need to use shields in trades. Have buffs ready so you can kill Mr. 7/7 for free with a shielded minion. Watch your health and expect burst damage to face. Can't afford to leave opponent minions up in this fight if your health drops below 20.
Warlock - Worthy opponent (3-5). Zoo is the worst match up for this deck. Cheap minions to pop your shields and more ways to buff minions. Get good value from Consecration (mulligan for it) and hope for a decisive board swing right before turn 6. The 2nd Consecration helps on this fight. Against Reno, you are favored, keep the pressure on but be smart about board clears. Good luck!
Hunter - Favored (7-4). Hunter has a hard time dealing 1 damage so you can out value him with trades or win the face race. Eaglehorn Bow and Unleash the Hounds value is diminished by your shields so keep the pressure on and shields up. Go for quality minions not quantity and keep the board clear with weapons. Try to close out on turn 7, but you can still win late. Watch for Freezing Trap.
Druid - Favored (6-1). Be ready to kill his 5 health minions Violet Teacher and Fandral Staghelm. If you can use a buffed, shielded minion to do it for free, the game might be over. Save Consecration for a group of tokens. Watch for Swipe.
Mage - Favored (7-3). Don't let tempo mage out tempo you. Kill Flamewaker quickly so he doesn't eat up your shields. Pressure freeze mage and you should win easily.
Rogue - Favored (4-1). Focus on smart trades and face damage. Similar to druid. Spread your buffs since minions will get removed. Expect Sap. Good matchup.
Paladin - Worthy Opponent (2-3). Pressure control and hope you can get him down before a big heal. Have fun on the mirror match.
Priest - Favored (3-1). Keep up the pressure and preserve shields/eggs to guard against his board clears. He should run out of answers if you play smart. Good matchup.
Please share your experiences, corrections, and suggestions in the comments below.
even if you don't need 2 for that reason like you said, doubling down more or less increases the odds that you will pull a mysterious challenger.
well it got me to rank 6-7 so far, and for others they even managed to get legend. so it works regardless ;x
Some have suggested cutting to 1. Here's why you might want to keep both.
Odds of drawing at least 1 Mysterious Challenger in first 10 cards with 2 in deck: 56.3%
Odds of drawing at least 1 Mysterious Challenger in first 10 cards with 1 in deck: 33.3%
Used ten cards which is the number you draw by turn 6 going 2nd.
Mysterious Challenger is only going to play the secrets you haven't drawn yet (avg around 2), but that's 2 cards drawn plus NO chance of getting a weak secret card after turn 6. And since drawing a 6/6 is never that bad, I say keep them both for the +23%, but that's up to you.
Good question. I found that Leeroy was sometimes a dead card but I could always play tiger immediately to impact the board or go face the next turn. The tigers were in Boar Control's secret pally list and I like the sub. The stealth is almost as good as a shield. And I only have 1 commander, so 2 tigers works well for me. Too many 6 drops imo, so having 2 decent 5's smooths the curve.
yeah i rarely got stealth tigers removed unless a warrior brawls or a rogue removes all minions back to hand. but more often than not a tiger stealth and even silent knight shield/stealth will usually last to the next turn for any follow up action.
shielded minibot only cost 2 for a 2/2 when it got phased out. but the silent knight is a 2/2 with shield/stealth, so more chance of the shield surviving to the next turn for combo with a rallying blade. but relies more on using the coin for being able to set it up on turn 2 before using rallying blade on turn 3 from what i noticed.
I played a few games so far. And even my win-rate is just 50% atm, i have a lot of fun, just because how the deck works.
Could you please explain why do you use Barnes in this deck?
I played 12 games and went 10-2 but i really don't think Barnes have really good synergy with this deck.
It was Jambre's decision and he got to #5 legend with it so it seemed to work out pretty well!
I kept him in because we have a decent chance (two-thirds) to get a 3/4 plus a value 1/1 minion (shielded or stealthed or egg) for 4 mana. Maybe even Tirion!
barnes pulling a 1/1 tirion is awesome, but what are the chances of that? The other options would mostly be a 1/1 shielded minion which may lead to a setup for using rallying blade for buffing it next turn. or even a 1/1 egg which you can maybe buff the next turn or a 2/1 creep if it dies at worse. But thats about all barnes offers :x but is it enuff for him to be included in deck? certainly if he can pull out a dupe for tirion but other than that i'm doubtful :/
*typo. i meant barnes not moroes my bad xd.
I look at it this way. The comparable options are Truesilver, Consecration, and Defender of Argus. Let's compare to the latter.
Defender: 2/3 body and up to +2/+2 buffs, plus taunt(s)
Barnes: 3/4 body and 1/1 body, plus minion effect
Seems pretty even. Either way you get 4/5 in stats and some bonus. If you are an aggressive deck and plan to use your shields offensively, maybe getting the shield or a 2/1 on damage is better than the taunts. Also, unlike Defender, you get full value even when you don't have 2 minions already on board.
I don't think Barnes is auto-include, but it seems to be a solid choice for the slot, even if Tirion never shows.
truesilver is nice, but in the deck we already make use of rallying blade and tirion. so truesilver seems like over the top, so i can feel comfortable not using it in this build.
consecration is nice, but probably only room for 1 at most.
defender of argus works nice for adding taunts especially on shielded minions or the eggs.
barnes i'd compare it closer to a keeper of uldaman which can soft debuff, or buff. Is more guaranteed, compared to barnes which is more rng. you get more milleage from barnes in decks that utilize spell effects or death rattle minions. So my point was in this deck we are a bit light weight on having enuff of those types of cards for barnes to get a higher % chance of pulling something useful to make it a better alternative than a keeper of uldaman which is more stable and good value.
Keeping my expectations to a minimum, i'd used a barnes straight after a darkshire was already on board, at least i'd get a 1/1 shielded minion which can be combo'd with rallying blade on same turn or the turn after. is that better value than keeper of uldaman :x ?
That said barnes is fun card, needs further testing, but i'm not sure i like his pull odds in this deck :}
PS: yes if your keeping the comparison strictly between the 4cost cards you mentioned (-keeper of uldaman), then yes barnes is definitely more or less same value.
What about Moroes as an exchange for Dragon Egg?
You could, but he fits much better in the Steward of Darkshire version of this deck.
Thx! I think that i'll have to craft Dragon Egg anyway...
You could also try Arcane Anomaly but he needs more spells in the deck to be truly dangerous. Still, just one stray secret gives you a 2/2... not bad.
i posted a video in that darkshire build demonstrating when barnes pulls a darkshire, which can then be combo'd with moroes which then gets shielded from aoes. But you'd of course have to get lucky with barnes pulling a darkshire to begin with, and also sufficient time to then follow up by spaming the board with as many 1 health minions to get the most out of darkshire before she gets killed off, especially considering she has 1 health.
PS: in my video my board was already filled to the brim. But if there was some space, moroes would at the end of your turn start summoning 1/1 and those would have been shielded by darkshire's effect. And furthermore, if lucky, next turn you would be able to use a rallying blade to buff up all those shielded minions assuming the opponent doesn't aoe you before then.
So thats the potential barnes under more ideal conditions would be able to offer. Other option is pulling out a tirion fording :]
Why would you ever run Silent Knight, seriously guys. If you want to play secret paladin play wild.
Any replacement for Dragon Egg ?
Tough one. We need value out of every minion, and there aren't many good neutral 1 drops. If you may be better off doing the aggro style deck with more secrets. Then you could try Secretkeeper as an opener, or play Knife Juggler as a 2 drop. Just isn't much synergy for those in this deck, though they may draw out removal.
crap deck got stomped by shaman, rogue, warrior and the list goes on...
srsly got to turn 8 without anything in my hand, no divine favor how do you expect to come back from a board clear? nearly the worst deck ive played in a long time