Hearthpwn

So first off, you need to understand that I hate the Paladin Quest. So much work for a reward that's basically RNG dino-ified. That being said, I actually really enjoy playing this deck.

To quote a friend "The Paladin Quest is really powerful, people are just building the deck wrong." 

Well, I took up the challenge and this is the best performing deck out of all my tests thus far. So let's go over some of the more unusual card inclusions/exclusions.

A quick preface: I played the premade version of this deck to get a feel for how Blizzard thinks the deck should be built/played, and I quickly understood the problem the deck had. Board Control. You lose it, you lose the game because getting back against 90% of the field is next to impossible. Relying on just the likes of Equality Consecrate and Poison Pyro as board clears alone is foolish. So with that in mind:

Doomsayers: What? Doomsayers? Isn't this Quest Paladin supposed to be an Aggro deck? Technically speaking? Not really. Consider how you're completing the Quest, buffing up minions. But if you never develop a board, you can't do that. Remember how I said that this deck had a major problem with Board control? This was a solution. With Doomsayer on T2 following the Quest, against most decks you guarantee that you have board control on T3, which is huge. You can develop either a 2 cost minion like Hydrologist and play the Secret immediately, coin a Truesilver to help keep board control going into turn 4, or play one of the 3 drop minions in the deck that absolutely love to be buffed: Wickerflame, Acolyte of Pain or Stonehill Defender, all of whom are fantastic cards for Paladin to play as a proactive t3.

Dirty Rat: I love Dirty Rat in this deck, it does much the same as Doomsayer in certain matchups, locking down the board on t2, but it's also a great anti-quest card against Warrior, Mage, Rogue and Shaman. All their Quests suffer from having this card played before or after. Not to mention the 6 health body is really difficult to shift unless the minion it pulls is absolutely ridiculous, so it makes a prime target for buffs. Obviously you have to read the match up and things can go terribly wrong playing a Rat on t2, so play at your own peril. At the very least, Aldor, Truesilver and Adaptation can give you some leeway if it hits the fan.

Mukla, Tyrant of the Vale: Drawn off Curator and also cuts your dependency on those horrible 1 mana buff spells that usually do nothing but empty your hand, decent body for the stats, completes a third of the Quest on his own, solid include.

Primordial Drake: Drawn off Curator, effectively says 4 mana 4/8 and Consecration number 3, solid inclusion at the top end.

Blessing of Wisdom: I knew right from the start that I didn't want to depend on Divine Favor for card draw since it's wholly dependant on what your opponent plays. I also knew that I need a bare minimum of the buffs spells. So even though I think most of the 1 mana buff spells are terrible, this one makes the cut because at the very worst it cycles itself. You can combine it with Adapt: Windfury for even more draw, put it on an enemy minion to pacify them at the very worst, and it also forces them to kill the Voraxx token if they want to deny you draw. If you feel like you're drawing enough, then by all means replace this with Divine Strength, Blessing of Might or Hand of Protection.

Unique Exclusions:

Tirion Fordring and Ragnaros Lightlord: Woah, wait, you're not playing two staple legendaries in Paladin?! Are you mad? Perhaps, honestly with how good Stonehills are for giving you Tirions and Wickerflames, I experimented with just cutting them from the list entirely. As far as Turn 8 goes, I'd rather be playing the hilarious combo of Voraxx + Silvermoon Portal. It's not as if Tirion isn't still good, but not including it also plays around your opponent thinking it's in your deck simply because it must be. A Shaman will be hesitant to use Hex for instance, if they think they need to save it for Tirion. It's metagaming, it might be wrong, but I've yet to have a game where Stonehill Defender hasn't given me Tirion, or I just win without him anyway. As for Ragnaros, he's usually a big heal 8 for 8, but thanks to the taunt density and the ability to buff Wickerflame (and the fact that Wickerflame + Redemption basically heals you for 8 as well) means it's really not necessary.

Sunkeeper Tarim: He didn't make the cut for the simple reason I couldn't find something to cut him for, at least in this version. Again, Stonehill can somewhat compensate for the lack of him in the 30. If you really want to include him, you can try cutting the Stampeding Kodo, I'm not going to argue his power, I just feel Kodo is necessary as a non-spell way to beat Frost Nova + Doomsayer which can spoil your fun. It's also less powerful since I'm not running much in the way of token generation outside of the Voraxx, so often times you just end up debuffing your own stuff.

Primalfin Champion: The best way I can describe this card is "Trap and crap". Honestly, this card really doesn't fit this particular version of the deck as you aren't trying to complete the Quest as early as possible. It's poorly stated, easily punished with Silence/Transform effects and forces you to play a lot of the 1 mana buff spells which are for the most part terrible. I never felt good playing this card no matter what buff I threw on it, recycling your buffs is a pretty cool idea, but it's just not big enough of a payoff in my mind. You complete the Quest easily enough without it.

Blessing of Kings: The +4/+4 is fantastic, don't get me wrong, putting it on a Windfury Galvadon can turn the big dino into even more of a closer, but I felt it wholly unnecessary, especially in the scenario where Galvadon doesn't get stealth and you might need to give it Liquid Membrane to protect it from removal spells. I valued Silvermoon Portal over Blessing of Kings simply because the average 2 drop has usually got 2/2 in stats at least, anything bigger and it's a plus on the Kings, not least because it gives you another minion to buff. The Voraxx might be better with the Kings, but I still prefer getting the second 2 cost minion in that instance.

Equality: Okay, yes. I didn't put Equality in here. Yes it synergies with Wild Pyromancer AND Consecration AND Primordial Drake. But I never liked setting my minions health to 1, that's the issue I have with this. Not including it frees me up to use consecrates more aggressively and I still have access to Doomsayer and Poison Pyros for the full clear. 

 

Legendary Substitutions:

Wickerflame Burnbristle: Kind of necessary as it's the best t3 this deck can have sometimes and the healing helps stall aggro, if you don't have it the closest then you can try Earthern Ring Farseer, Harvest Golem, Jungle Panther, Tar Creeper, Defender of Argus or Vicious Fledgeling instead.

Mukla, Tyrant of the Vale: Easily another Spikeridged Steed.

The Voraxx: Violet Teacher, Infested Tauren, Sen'jin Shieldmasta. Honestly none of these really have the same synergy with the buff spells that the Voraxx has, but it's effect is rather unique and very powerful.

Curator: Any of the Paladin Legendaries I decided to cut can work in place of this. Being able to draw 3 cards and put up a 4/6 taunt is invaluable though. You can also try Lay on Hands but that lowers the value of Primordial Drake, so you may wish to also replace that with either a second Stampeding Kodo or a Defender of Argus.

Obviously, feel free to tweak the buff package as much as you like, swapping out the 1 cost spells (Adaptation is a staple, so leave that be).

 

Well met, and good luck!

 

To come: Specific Matchups and how best to build your Galvadon.