For me the problem with Paladin is that everything is good against it. For example: BGH is amazing against control decks because it giives you a lot of tempo if you find a target for it, but it is useless against aggro because you are going to get 0 value from him most of the times (4/2 body sucks). The point Im trying to make is, EVERYTHING is really good against Paladin (AOE, big removals, small removals, mind control, shadow madness, sylvanas, loatheb, mind control tech, BGH, silence, burst), Most of those things are good against most characters, but there is only one which suffers from everything: Paladin.
BGH typically doesn't work against Paladin unless they use Boom, which the latest dragon decks seem to drop. The most used dragons don't have 7 attack.
Aoe doesn't work THAT well against paladin. Aoeing down a muster for battle vs a dragon deck really isn't THAT great since they no longer NEED quartermaster to win. Dragon cards, meanwhile, have too much health for most AoE. Loat also isn't THAT great against dragon decks since they are minion based, not spell based. MCT is also...messy. Most of the time it's because of the 1/1 but you stand a good chance of getting said 1/1 instead with MCT. Burst is also tricky since paladins carry heal still keeping their health above burst range.
So if the deck works, it'll be a Tempo deck. Not a TON of minions on the field but constant threats. If you spend all day killing the threats you run yourself dry and die. If the theory works in practice then it would be a strong deck to most control features and have some means of dealing with aggro, especially if it's not pure face.
The question is whether the practice matches the theory.
3
Interesting to see Grinder Mage in the mix for sure.
2
Let's look at core-rager. a 4 mana 7/7 on empty hand, and jeeves which is a 4 mana 1/4 that draws you 3 cards on an empty hand. Blizzard has made it abundantly clear that if you can successfully dump your hand you can get a cookie.
Either way, all examples are of drawbacks being mitigated/nullified.
2
Wrong. Auchenai makes zombie chow's heal a mindblast.
Arcane golem doesn't give a mana crystal if your opponent is at 9 mana already.
blademaster if resurrected enters as a 4/7.
Millhouse Manastorm's drawback can be countered by Loatheb.
Brawl can leave your own minion alive and kill all enemy minions.
Costs not getting paid is not something unique to Doomguard or Warlock for that matter.
3
Is Voidcaller OP? IMHO it is a crazy card, but then again every other class has crazy cards. Paladin has Aldor Peacekeeper, which for 0.5 mana can remove 3.5 mana worth of stats from a giant. Don't even get me started on Equality. Shaman has Hex, the strongest hard removal card in the game. Druid has Wild Growth and Innervate, the strongest mana acceleration cards in the game. Also, Ancient of Lore anyone? Warrior has overheal of all things in addition to stupidly good cards like Brawl. Mage has the biggest single-card AoE in the game (Flamestrike) and the best burn spells (Frostbolt + Fireball). Hunter has the only deck sieve in the game (Tracking), plus it has Savannah Highmane as a RARE. Priest stomps aggro, how many AoEs do you priests need? Light bomb, Wild Pyro shenanigans, Auchenai + Circle, and Holy Nova. Also, Cabal Shadow Priest just adds insult to injury. And Rogue? Blade Flurry singlehandedly keeps the combo Rogues in business. It also have faux-mana acceleration through the combo effect which makes stuff like SI7 and eviscerate so good.
Also, Doomguard is overpriced. Each discard being worth 2 mana, a full cost Doomguard is 9 mana converted mana cost. A 5/6 is worth less than 6 mana, and assuming charge cost is equal to attack (5 statpoints), Doomguard has 17 statpoints. The vanilla test states that a minion's stat points should be at least equivalent to ( 2*(mana cost) ) + 1. This means Doomguard is an 8 mana creature, that with full discard people are paying 9 mana for! If you only discard one card (which happens frequently actually) you're only underpaying by 1 mana! Not as crazy as you're making it out to be.
The fact that you can play around drawbacks is also NOT exclusive to warlocks. Priest can turn zombie chow's drawback into a free Mind Blast with Auchenai. Paladin can get around equality with wailing soul. Priest can play around Lightbomb by running low attack minions. Heck, priest has resurrect, a card that can pull back cards like sylvanas, belcher, and a 4/7 blademaster for only TWO mana!
This is a TCG, learning to mitigate drawbacks is part of the game. Every Rogue card with Combo has a drawback and an advantage. Learn to build decks that handle what frustrates you, instead of complaining about strong cards that aren't breaking anything.
PS, I run only Doomguard in my Zoo, Doomguard is no where near as troublesome as something like Bladeflurry, a card that singlehandedly make Flurry Rogue viable. I win at least half my games without even DRAWING my doomguard.
2
10
1
Way OP, 4-5 mana is better. Remember Dr. Boom spawns 2 minions with deathrattle. Deathrattle hunter could have this out on turn 4 against slow opponents.
3
I'd drop a Wolfrider to make room.
3
I tested this deck to rank 10, won't have the highest winrate but that's okay since the games are fast.
1
*slow clap*
3
1. Assassin's Blade is really your only way to beat Warrior and Priest, it's also a fast killer against decks without weapon removal.
2. Ironbeak owl is in there as it's better than Sap against taunters in the early game, later game you use Sap to destroy your opponent's tempo and/or remove taunts. Turn 5 I'd rather silence a belcher instead of sapping it.
3. Conceal deals zero damage and is useless against AoE. Sap is only in this deck since taunts exist, if they didn't I'd drop Sap in a heartbeat (at least one) as they don't deal damage.