Top4Paladin
- Last updated Sep 14, 2015 (TGT Launch)
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Wild
- 16 Minions
- 14 Spells
- Deck Type: Ranked Deck
- Deck Archetype: Unknown
- Crafting Cost: 2360
- Dust Needed: Loading Collection
- Created: 8/28/2015 (TGT Launch)
- muirhead01
- Registered User
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- 14
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Total Deck Rating
930
Hi I'm Muirhead who previously wrote a Top8Patron guide.
Here is my take on the recently popular secret paladin, which I piloted to rank 4 NA legend:
Proof:
I then proceeded to win five games in a row at rank 4 and then lose one all while staying at rank 4! I've never lost a game and maintained the same rank before.
I don't have anything as refined to say about this deck as I did for my patron list, because I only have 63 games recorded with this exact list! However, a few comments are in order.
Mulligans: Keep 1 and 2 mana minion drops and the mysterious challenger. Throw away all secrets, even if you have secret keeper. Keep divine favor only if you strongly suspect you are playing handlock or freeze mage. When playing against rogue, toss juggler in favor of a more sticky 2 drop. Depending on the MU and hand it is often good to keep muster as well.
This deck is very aggressive but has almost no reach, so it plays a lot like demonzoo. At some point you will have to try to rush face, usually after playing the 6 drop. Like demonzoo, when ahead on board it is important to play sticky minions against potential board clears.
The game plan is to flood the board in the early turns and get in some damage. If you draw shredder you can win just from this early aggression, but most of the time you will need to draw a divine favor or mysterious challenger by turn 6 or 7. Either of these cards will draw an immense amount of value, giving the reach you need to finish the game.
The challenger is both amazingly strong and it thins the bad draws from your deck. If possible, try to engineer maximum draw when you play the challenger: don't have a secret in play already that you can draw the second copy of from your deck.
The most unvaforable MU for the deck is face hunter with double explosive trap, which races you aggressively. Other unfavorable MUs include freeze mage and patron warrior. In my small sample size and testing I have a very good winrate vs all other decks.
Repentance is very key to play carefully in certain matchups. It is your #1 tool vs handlock and patron. On turns 5 and 6 patron might want to make a set of 4 patrons on an empty board to crush you, but he cannot play patron when repentance is up. Against handlock, if you set them below 10 HP when repentance is up they cannot play molten giant.
Edit: After a lot of playing and watching people play this deck I have some gameplay tips. I saw a lot of people losing against other paladins to consecration. Most of them were playing far too aggressively and not trading enough. Most paladins have no reach, so board control is much much more important than face damage in the matchup. My other tip is that a naked mysterious challenger is much weaker than a mysterious challenger supported by minions. If you have the choice between flooding the board effectively (i.e. using all your mana on sticky minions) and playing challenger it is sometimes correct to hold off on the challenger for one turn.
Possible tech choices: To improve the matchup against aggro and weaken it vs control, switch leper gnomes for squires. An early game leper gnome against a control deck often translates into about 4 more damage than an early game squire, and it's a much better topdeck late game vs control. However, in the mirror squires are better.
If you feel you are suffering for late game reach with this deck, consider switching one copy of competitive spirit for truesilver champion, a buff, or a big minion. The two weaker secrets in this style of deck are competitive spirit and redemption. If you do decide to run kings, squires become better.
My current version of the deck runs one less leper gnome, repentance, redemption, and competitive spirit. In their place I use coghammer, Loatheb, and 2x blessing of kings.
By request I've linked to some amazingly well-produced video guides to the deck. Not all of them showcase perfect play but they'll give good ideas of how the general gameplan works!
LOL THE SALT IS REAL
Haha, made my day
IIIIII'm gonna have to say that's a bold statement there Sire Salty. Let me just say that I do not think aggro decks are cancer, I prefer mid-range and control before you go freakin out that im a no skill s'MOrc, difference is I understand the purpose of these aggro decks and why they are in place, however your comments are interesting and humurous so I felt the need to retort:
Now, you are going to sit here and tell me that a deck, not even older than two weeks in playtime....is more cancerous than the insanely hated Huntard all of a sudden after how many seasons of him retaining that title? Cooome on lol. This is where self-proclaimed "anti-aggro" players piss me off because you have been bitching about Hunters for God knows how long, now there is a completely different aggro, class, and play-style brand new to the meta, it smokes you a couple times and its suddenly "nope thats it, most cancer in the world. So much cancer, I need kemo. More cancer than Huntard" like get over it lol.
There will always be aggro decks, and yes they will piss everyone in the game off at some point, but so will control and mid-range. This game is a grind, once a month we give up our hard earned ranks to start near the bottom of the ladder and repeat. Most people do not want to have the 45 minute grueling matches all the way back up to rank 4, its exhausting. Aggro decks like this or facetard are in place so they can quickly get back to where they were. Also, if you are a top 5 rank before and leading into legend, you should easily know thar aggro decks basicaly become non existent at those ranks. Its just a quick way to get back to your rightful spot, and then there are the noobs who will not have enough dust to craft a legend for a very long time. Cheap cards to maximize their skill and the few cards they own in a face to death style is the easiest and best way for noobs to learn the game. It is a necassary evil. Learn to live with it because it is not going anywhere no matter how much you biitch about it.
Heads up to everyone playing this deck:
Secretkeeper will NOT trigger when playing Mysterious Challenger.
Having played a variation of this deck for a couple of days straight with an extremely high winrate, I can tell you board clears are not as effective as they seem. I personally prefer the version of this deck that includes Argent Squire and Shielded Minibot over this one. They are sticky minions that benefit A LOT from the secrets. These minions survive board clears very often, and get extra value from buffs from Avenge or Blessing of Kings (should you choose to put it in the deck) simply due to the fact that their divine shield allows them to trade more while remaining alive.
Redemption also synergizes well with minions that are top priority to be eliminated such as Knife Juggler andSecretkeeper. A druid that wraths your Knife Juggler only to have it come back is devastating. Not to mention when your Shielded Minibot comes back with divine shield.
It is not an all-in deck due to the fact that the deck has multiple tools to win a game. Divine Favor makes sure you do not run out of steam, and if you don't get that, chances are that you drew Mysterious Challenger, which is even more devastating. If you somehow did not draw either by turn 6/7, it is probably god's will that you lose that game, it's not the deck's fault, you probably would've lost on any other deck with that crappy rng. That being said, it has never happened to me .
Decklist:
https://tempostorm.com/hearthstone/decks/rdu-secrets-paladin
You have great, vivid description of the power of these decks to survive AOE! The minions+secret are very sticky :).
This deck runs minibot as well and you can see I mention squires as a tech card. RDUs deck has the principal difference that it cuts both repentance and shredders for truesilvers+buffs. I personally prefer repentance and shredders. Of course if you run buffs you should run squires.
Yeah, that is another strength of the deck. The fact paladin has such strong tools that you can pick from, and just swap as you see fit.
I don't understand how this deck comes back from anything. It seems to require that your opponent never draws any board clears whatsoever. Am I missing something? If this deck loses board it's literally over. Moreover, it runs zero reach. How are you supposed to kill a handlock ar 3 health behind a taunt?
One of the weaknesses of the deck is the lack of reach. You will indeed lose if your opponent gets far ahead of you on board. However, if you play carefully you can often survive through several rounds of board clear because you run sticky minions/secrets. You can have the occasional comeback from knife juggler or your OP 6 drop.
Just tested this deck. Went 7-2. Works very well for me. In 3 games opponents concede after MYSTERIOUS turn 6. Lost 1 game to hunter with flare and 1 to dragon priest.
I am running something very similar to this deck... Its the start of the new season and I am already rank 8 with it..
I did a test of 50 wins on all these new decks.
1. Priest dragon
2. dragon warrior
3. totem shamman
patron warrior
4 secret pally.
Secret pally I went 46/4.... Does this deck speak volume to anyone? If not then I do not know what will. It is so broken and so stronk/.....
the people talking crap about this deck because they aren't winning every game by turn 6, ITS A GIMMICK DECK, ITS NOT GOING TO BE PERFECT EVERY SINGLE GAME.
Definitely NOT a Gimmick Deck...
I did -2 Redemption, -1 Divine Favor, +2 Ironbeak Owl, +1 Truesilver Champion. This has helped me out a bit dealing with Sludge Belchers and Taunt
the new cancer with madder scientist?
Good deck but actually is not the best version of secret paladin
And just what would the "best" version be?
I would agree. I think the more midrange versions of the deck are superior. What version are you referring to?
This one Secret Good Paladin
gonna swap out one DF for consecration myself.... this deck shifted the meta so ... mirrors are all over the place lol