Back in classic, paladin was considered one of the worst classes (along with priests not played by amaz). This was believed to be because they had horrible options in the early game other than knife juggler (oversimplification, I know). Blizzard, heavy handed as they are, fixed the problem by giving them the best 2 and 3 drops in the game in GvG, which swung the pendulum in the complete other direction, creating the cancer reputation paladin had up to now. But as standard comes in, those cards are gone (and juggler got nerfed) and WotOG doesn't have much to replace them.
So I think it's a safe bet that paladin is going to become a below average class again, at least midrange ones. But just how bad? Is the entire class screwed, or are people having success with hyper aggro divine shield paladin (that uses Steward of Darkshire or pure aggression to make up for card quality) or control pally (that doesn't necessarily need to curve perfectly)? Or is there something I'm missing and midrange pally isn't about to die?
Paladin didn't really achieve dominance until Mysterious Challenger came around. Before that it was a good deck but not dominant. It spent a long time as first or second best deck in the format once Secret Pally became a thing though, and I think now that it doesn't have it's excellent curve it will have to adapt. I think initially it will drop pretty far as people try to find sideways replacements for the cards it lost. The class will need to be approached from a different direction, and once people figure out which approaches work for the meta I think the class will be fine. With Keeper and Aldor it will always have decent ways to deal with minions, so I don't think it will ever be unplayable.
Back in classic, paladin was considered one of the worst classes (along with priests not played by amaz). This was believed to be because they had horrible options in the early game other than knife juggler (oversimplification, I know). Blizzard, heavy handed as they are, fixed the problem by giving them the best 2 and 3 drops in the game in GvG, which swung the pendulum in the complete other direction, creating the cancer reputation paladin had up to now. But as standard comes in, those cards are gone (and juggler got nerfed) and WotOG doesn't have much to replace them.
So I think it's a safe bet that paladin is going to become a below average class again, at least midrange ones. But just how bad? Is the entire class screwed, or are people having success with hyper aggro divine shield paladin (that uses Steward of Darkshire or pure aggression to make up for card quality) or control pally (that doesn't necessarily need to curve perfectly)? Or is there something I'm missing and midrange pally isn't about to die?
I've been running a Murloc Pally deck and have been pretty unstoppable thus far. It's basically a face deck which I know everyone loves. <3
I like my competition extraSalty.
Paladin didn't really achieve dominance until Mysterious Challenger came around. Before that it was a good deck but not dominant. It spent a long time as first or second best deck in the format once Secret Pally became a thing though, and I think now that it doesn't have it's excellent curve it will have to adapt. I think initially it will drop pretty far as people try to find sideways replacements for the cards it lost. The class will need to be approached from a different direction, and once people figure out which approaches work for the meta I think the class will be fine. With Keeper and Aldor it will always have decent ways to deal with minions, so I don't think it will ever be unplayable.
Nothing doing, traveler.
N'zoth control paladin seems really strong, imo. It's very expensive though.
I'v had quite a bit of success with N'zoth Dragon Paladin. Summoning two 6/6's with taunt is pretty damn strong.
murloc divine shield aggrodin is dank
My soul is painted like the wings on butterflies, the fairytales of yesterday will grow but never die. I can fly, my friends.