Hearthpwn

Until the moment comes when Paladin is given an early 3 damage spell, I'm quite confident that, despite all naysayers' comments, the Argent Lance WILL find its way into a controlish Paladin deck and here's why:

Let's compare our situation with the Warrior: while Warriors have a 3/2 weapon which works well against all the 3 health minions, this class does not run any 1 drops. So on turn 2, after attacking, Warrior is left with a 3/1 weapon and nothing on the board. Unless he coins into War Axe on turn 1 and then plays his Armorsmith or Cruel Taskmaster. However cruel taskmaster is most likely to be played only against Shaman because Fiery War Axe doesn't kill Totem Golem (4 health FTW).

And now for Paladin: Paladin runs Zombie Chow and Shielded Minibot. One has "high" health, the other one has high survivabilty (and always take two hits to be killed. Effectively those two, combined with Argent Lance are very likely to turn into "deal 4 damage on turn 2". Here's how I see it:

The first 3 turns for Paladin usually are: Zombie Chow, Minibot, Muster. Effectively, you aren't able to kill any 3 health minion prior to turn 3 (unless maybe your Zombie Chow has had the chance to attack your enemy twice - which is highly unlikely). And at that point Mage will have played Mana Wyrm and then Sorcerer's Apprentice + coin into something utterly ridiculous. 

What I think is going to be viable instead: Zombie Chow, Lance, Aldor Peacekeeper. Why? Because it will let us deal 4 damage on turn 2. And then at least 2 damage on turn 3. And why is 2 x 2 damage on turn 2 so important? Because after turn 2 Mage and Hunter start spiralling out of control. I'm hopefully anticipating that you're going to tank damage with your hero while maintaintng board presence with the use of sticky minions. Afterwards you just need an effective way to heal up after all the tanking (*cough* Tuskarr Jouster *cough*) and BAM you can start the late-game control phase of your game.  

Some may argue however that's it's unlikely to get full value out of the Lance, since, if it becomes a 2/3 it will be overriden by Muster for Battle. To be honest: WHO CARES? I've seen Warriors lose 1 attack off of Fiery War Axe because they badly needed to equip Death's Bite. Not to mention Rogue hero powering like crazy after just one attack. At most, if you win the joust, you'll be losing ONE durability, if you play on curve and if you REALLY need to play Muster for Battle. Honsetly though, has anyone in the history of Hearthstone utilised full value of Light's Justice? I highly doubt that. Usually you attack once and next turn you play Truesilver Champion. 

There's one more thing I'd like to ponder on - the Jousting odds. I've mentioned minions like Minibot and Chow, which are a liabilty during jousts, but consider this: you MULLIGAN at the beginning of the game so if you trade one Knife Juggler for Argent Lance you increase your chances of a good Joust and then if you mulligan for early game minions you increase the odds even more.

Quote from Human_Guy jump

Quote from Mike_Zed jump

Until the moment comes when Paladin is given an early 3 damage spell, I'm quite confident that, despite all naysayers' comments, the Argent Lance WILL find its way into a controlish Paladin deck and here's why:

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I just play shielded mini bot. It's just better.

Most of the time, but not always.  Shielded Minibot weakens your Jousting while an Argent Lance does not.  Shield Minibot cannot take out high priority threats like Knife Juggler immediately, but Argent Lance does.  Minibot generally does not trade more than twice, while Argent Lance has the possibility of attacking three times.

I have no idea why everyone thinks we need urgently need 2 mana, 3 damage removal.  We have humility effects and heals, we have ways to deal with aggression.

Argent Lance is completely different from Coghammer because of it's mana cost and effect.  Coghammer needs a body to gain value while Argent Lance can be played turn 2 (When you generally need that 2 damage weapon), is a rare, and is not a card that you want to save for the lategame.

I'm actually going to hop on the side of the fence that is preaching that this is actually a pretty solid card. I will agree though, that given the theme/lore of this expansion, this weapon should have been a 2 mana 3/1(2). Regardless, I think this card is going to be pretty solid in a variety of Paladin decks and potentially creating an entirely new one.

Focusing on its strengths:

-This is strictly better than Shielded Minibot as a 2-drop if you are focusing on a Mid to Late game Paladin deck that features the brand new Jousting reveal mechanic. We haven't even seen all of the new Paladin cards for TGT yet and we already know that we will potentially have a very solid Midrange deck. With early control from the Lance and then a strong turn 5-6 play with Tuskarr Jouster to gain us back the health we lost clearing the board early with the brand new Argent Lance + Master Jouster for that super control follow up.

-In general it is going to take out 2-3 Minions early game in control decks against the agro threats even without any Joust cards in your deck. The only problem that I see with this card is maybe top-decking it later in the game against Midrange/Control decks, which may lead us to include Seal of Light as a one of or maybe Captain Greenskin to buff it enough to deal with some later game threats. Greenskin + winning the reveal would make this into a 3/4 (12 pts of Dmg). In fact, that really isn't even that bad of a turn 7 play, Lance + Greenskin to swing for 3 and you have a 5/4 on the board.

-Lastly, I don't think this will counteract Paladins other weapons as much as people think. Yes it will have the potential to do so, but in general I think it will be very easy to get all the value you need out of this weapon if you build your deck properly and play correctly. Let me explain what I mean in detail:

1-drop Weapons: Light's Justice - Let's just be honest, this weapon is never used, nor should it be.
2-drop Weapons: Argent Lance - This is our new early removal weapon that even with just 2 charges will suspend us until turn 4's replacement i.e. Truesilver
3-drop Weapons:
Coghammer - This is generally included as a 1-of in most decks as it's purpose is strictly utility. You want to use this Weapon as a form of Utility + removal. So in other words, A.) You shouldn't be playing this on turn 3 and B.) You are going to hope to draw this around turn 5+
Muster for Battle - Playing this card on turn 3 still works surprisingly well with Lance on turn 2. Think about it, Lance is a 2/2(3), so you swing on turn 2 with Lance and then swing on turn 3 and replace it with Muster. You got standard value out of it as if you didn't win the RNG role. However, I will suggest not playing Muster on turn 3 unless you absolutely have too. I say that simply because it combo's so well late game with Knife Juggler and Quartermaster. Using it on turn 3 is almost undoubtedly a waste.
Sword of Justice - Argent Lance will more than likely not be going in a special agro type of deck that features SoJ and would still be fine fitting in a version of value midrange that features it because as I mentioned above, you just get the 2 charges out of Lance to keep decent board state and then just replace it with this right on turn 3.
4-drop Weapons: Truesilver Champion - Here is the worst case scenario, getting the turn 2 Lance, winning the RNG but then needing to play TC on turn 4. Well, just replace the final charge on turn 4 with Truesilver and the worst case scenario was, you lost 2 points of Dmg that you wouldn't have had anyway had you not won the RNG. An in-between case scenario would be just swinging for the third attack on turn 4 and replacing a full TC after it (but I know that can be very risky with Weapon destruction increasing in the meta).

Only time will truly tell, but I do see some hope in this weapon

@LeajaWijac

Good point about Joust decks and needing early game to be non-minion based.

A bunch of cards that have come out seem under-whelming also seem to be aimed at letting us build decks with purely spell/weapon based early games to help increase the Joust odds above 40% by stacking the deck heavily with mid/late game minions.  Cards that weren't viable on ladder before suddenly need a second consideration (Seal of Light as you pointed out, for instance).

Thing is lance could of been godly with 3 attack. You could of a made a heavy costing minion joust deck that kind of plays like control warrior. 2 attack means its a worse minibot and worse coghammer. Also have fun with playing with sub optimal cards in paladin like seal of light in a topdecking class. It makes no sense to give paladins inferior cards just because they have equality clears and burst heal instead of burst dps and tempo.

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Thing is lance could of been godly with 3 attack. You could of a made a heavy costing minion joust deck that kind of plays like control warrior. 2 attack means its a worse minibot and worse coghammer. Also have fun with playing with sub optimal cards in paladin like seal of light in a topdecking class. It makes no sense to give paladins inferior cards just because they have equality clears and burst heal instead of burst dps and tempo.

Argent Lance would have been too good with 3 attack.  It would be better then Fiery War Axe.  Paladin doesn't even need to remove 3 health minions on turn 2.  Just like you said, Paladins can recover health lost in the earlygame in the midgame and lategame which works really well.

The fact that Paladin now has access to turn 2 weapons that can remove 3/2 bodies makes it much easier for them to not die.  Weapons at 3 mana can only dream to achieve what Argent Lance can do.  It serves a purpose, and does not overshadow the more lategame weapons.  The card is good.