Top4Paladin
- Last updated Sep 14, 2015 (TGT Launch)
- Edit
- |
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
-
- 5
- 7
- 14
-
Battle Tag:
N/A
-
Region:
N/A
-
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!
I enjoy control paladin and it's probably my favorite deck to run so far. In comparison, how much more fun is Secret paladin in comparison to control paladin?
I think that depends on your personality and play style. I personally mostly play control or midrange decks, but i also enjoy some aggro decks. The ones that can lose specifically (fuck you face hunter) and i find this to be a great deal of fun compared to control, which is also a lot of fun. I wouldn't say its like way more fun or anything, but if you have an interest in the deck i would definitely recommend it.
Have to register to thank you. This deck was awesome . I'm running with +1 truesilver champion for -1 repentance. It worked very well with dragon priest.
Thanks for letting me know the deck is working for you :). Slay many priests with your truesilver!
Same deck is same deck.
Everyone has a secret pally deck. Still waiting for someone to make legend without the current FOTM OP deck of the day
Any more adjustments you currently run other than -1 Competetive Spirit +1 Truesilver?
Your initial post had a sample size of 63 games. How much have you played now? Can you say more to the match-ups and how to play them?
Oh and would you ever consider keeping shredder? When I don't expect a good early game (or want to gamble) keeping it didn't seem so bad.
I now consider it a good idea to use 1 coghammer and 1 loatheb instead of competitive spirit and leper gnome. I like to keep shredder only if I have a lot of early minions/weapons already in my hand. I've played another 100 or so games but I still don't feel I understand the matchups perfectly. The deck is much simpler than patron in that most of the difficult decisions involve playing around AOE. I've also found it possible to put the opponent in positions where any move they make is bad against a certain secret and they are left guessing which secret you have up.
This deck is godlike. I can't stress how fun it is to just rack in wins due to all the secrets there are in this deck that synergize so well with eachother. Thank you so much for uploading this deck.
Glad you enjoy the deck :)
Repentance should be quite good vs priest I think. I think the current deck is tuned pretty well vs priest actually, except -1 competitive spirit +1 truesilver. It is an OK matchup I think (I have a 60% winrate), but tough if the priest gets a perfect early curve.
So true. But some control priest with his lots of removals is pretty challenging.
If you HAD to remove the Repentances, what non-secret cards would you replace them with?
Argent Squire
Removing both repentances will make you strong vs aggro but weaker vs midrange and control decks. If you remove them you may need an owl or equality to make up for it. You could try truesilver, coghammer, or kings.
I guess one plan would be to ignore the control MUs completely and try to win vs aggro. In that case I would:
1. Switch leper gnomes for squires, cut both repentances and a competitive spirit.
2. Add a coghammer and 2 blessing of kings.
I would add 1 Consecration against aggro decks.
Having a tough time with this one. Any videos you could post of it in play? Maybe I'm just doing it wrong (actually thats likely the reason)
Sorry to hear it's not working so well for you. I don't have any videos of myself playing but I will post some by others. Most of them aren't showcasing perfect plays though :(. If you have a specific video of yourself playing or a turn you are confused by I can offer comments.
this deck is lol, faceroll to legend
I agree repentance is weakest in the mirror if that's the only deck you're concerned with facing. Competitive spirit is also pretty bad in the mirror and worse in most other matchups as well. IGood luck with your tinkering!
Loving this deck so far, only trouble I've had is with Hunters, which is to be expected really. Made a deck spotlight video to add to my ongoing series, I hope you like it!