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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- 5
- 7
- 14
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Battle Tag:
N/A
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Region:
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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!
Thanks and congrats :)
Plays on NA, compared to EU a BIG difference to gain ranks/maintain them.
Hope you make it even further for those ranked rewards :o
Do you play Abusive on turn 1 if only playable minion? Do you use him later to trade Dudes or to go face?
Is Leper Gnome strong / sticky enough? What about either Argent Squire or Harvest Golem? Or do you really need the 2 guaranteed face damage? Argent Squire is even summoned again with the shield.
Yes play abusive on turn 1 if it's the only playable minion. In some cases a secret may be OK to play instead but rarely.
Leper gnome is stronger vs control because of both the early two attack and the deathrattle. I did a lot of testing with squire in place of leper gnome but settled on the gnome. Squire is better vs aggro and much better if you run buff cards like kings.
Went from rank 7 to 12 :S might be bad luck or just me playing bad but couldn't get it to work for me
Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU! I've been playing since just after beta and was disheartened when I could never reach legend. Highest I had gotten was 1 star into rank 2. I played this deck from 4 stars into rank 5 and played it all the way to legend losing no more than 6 games, that's not an exaggeration. This deck is so strong but I suggest playing the crap out of it now before people pick up on counters.
Pic of legend
Congrats!! I will be interested to see how the meta shifts: I can think of few decks that do well against secret paladin and patron at the same time.
I dont any have secret keepers for some reason...
what could i sub out? truesilver champ or dr boom with Gormok or murloc knight or warhorse trainer?
thanks. and i agree secretdins feel better more aggro based
Unfortuanately I think only slower midrange secretdins make sense without secretkeeper.
This deck is good!
Went from rank 8 to 7 under 30 min, most decks just cant handle it and when they have the answer the secrets just stop them in their tracks. Only time I've lost is with a bad mulligan draw where i could never get started. Great deck
30 minutes from rank 8 to 7? Yesterday with other secret pally I went from 9 to 5 in ~40min
Hope you keep up the winrate :)
Hey there! I used your Patron list to hit legend, and I'm not surprised by how great this deck is too! I've been reading up on a lot of different ideas for the Secretdin over from /r/CompetitiveHS and I think that an aggressive list like this fits the deck best since the deck is filled with cheap secrets and Divine Favor.
+1 from me and I hope this deck gets more refined as time goes!
Thanks! I also look forward to seeing how the secret paladin lists shift with time :)
Great deck! I really enjoy the more aggro style of play with this deck. :)
I also enjoy the aggro feeling :)