High Priest Thekal - Converts all, but 1, health into shield allowing for healing effects to be more effective for charging Zandalari Templar and increasing overall life pool if done correctly.
Nozari - Heals both heroes to full health. Great synergy with Thekal. Instant requirement filler for Templars. Not damning if stale mate or mirror match up.
Zandalari Templar - Able to become an 8/8 Taunt cheated out on turn 4 under perfect conditions (unlikely) and overall great taunt for later turns and especially after Nozari.
Dragons! - Pretty straightforward. Bronze Herald and Dragon Speaker will help greatly and Nozari can become a bigger threat late game as with both speakers he will become a 10/18.
Optional Components:
Lightforged Blessing - Grants Lifesteal to a minion. Twinspell being able to be casted twice. Combined with the possible addition of Call to Adventure, it could be useful under the condition you aren't using too many low impact minions.
Witchwood Piper - Great for drawing Thekal or Zandalari Templars. Only one copy suggested as to not draw another piper.
Prismatic Lens - Option for possible high roll of a discounted Nozari to combo with Thekal in one round or to lower minion cost in exchange for a less necessary spell.
Bad Components:
Duel - If Nozari is pulled anytime after turn 5 he'll no longer provide that much of a big body and then easily removed with no impact as the Battlecry will not have been triggered.
Notes: With dragons and healing, Paladin has the tool to become an actual control threat. However tweaking can make this become a power house of an aggro deck by getting heals off quicker and playing aggressively with Templars. Overall Dragon/Heal is an option with hopes of future support such as more dragons that utilize dragon in hand activation, which the class lacks despite the push for Dragon Paladin this expansion.
Holy Wrath OTK Package
Key Components:
Shirvallah, the Tiger - Shirvallah is the key piece to the Holy Wrath combo and will be in standard for YoD.
Holy Wrath - The other key component to the Holy Wrath combo witch draws Shirvallah after Baleful Banker shuffles in two copies and hits the opponent for 50 damage.
Baleful Banker - Shuffles 2 more copies of Shirvallah so it is the last cards in the deck for a nearly guaranteed OTK.
Time Out! - Survival Tool. Grants immunity for 1 turn per copy. Used typically while getting the last 2 turns of the combo ready.
Crystology - Draws 2 cards and possibly Crystalsmith Kangor if ran. Good for cycling.
Optional Components:
Draw minions - Loot Hoarder, Novice Engineer, etc. With the loss of Call to Arms, draw is slower with OTK Paladin and it will have to fall back on minion draw to have a chance to pull the combo off in time to survive.
Prismatic Lens - Great for draw. Pray that Shirvallah and Holy Wrath do not swap costs (This leads to guaranteed loss vs armor centric Warrior).
Notes: This is one of the lesser touched combo decks after rotation. Hopefully with the right tinkering it can become effective in the RoS meta. Weak to Hecklebot and Unseen Saboteur. Probably the only deck that can completely lose to Spellward Jeweler.
Secrets Package
Key Components:
Commander Rhyssa - Double trigger for secrets, great for Hidden Wisdom draw, Redemption for high damage/divine shield taunts, etc. Unfortunately Repentance on Rhyssa doesn't cause an additional trigger. Hopefully a future buff to "Your secrets trigger an additional time."
Mysterious Blade - Gains an attack for having a secret in play. Goes great with secret Paladin. Most likely to be used to take face damage and keep minions alive or to go all in aggressive as secret paladin has no real win condition other than playing aggro to face.
Eye for an Eye: Not typically played, but Rhyssa can make your opponent think twice about using a combo lethal other than Mecha'thun or Hakkar.
Secrets - Obviously as many secrets as fit.
Optional Components
Flash of Light - Now than Divine Favor is rotating, Paladin needs draw.
Rebuke - To keep up aggression and to prevent board clears via spells.
Avenging Wrath - It may fit in this deck as a last resort to get that last bit of damage for lethal.
Notes: Secret Paladin could be a viable option for the RoS meta, but hopefully future expansions build on the ground work laid out in RoS, but with Hydrologist having rotated, there aren't many bodies tied to secret generation which makes selecting minions for a secret Paladin deck slightly more difficult.
Class Notes
Paladin is losing some very useful utility minions that slotted into many decks: Hydrologist, Righteous Protector, Sunkeeper Tarim, and Lynessa. The latter of the listed not as important, but it further buries the minion buffing archetype.
The loss of Call to Arms is harming to combo decks by increasing the amount of time it takes to draw the deck to make the combo easier, but the loss of Righteous Protector would have weakened this spell as it would no longer draw an effective taunt.
Paladin doesn’t have much of a defined identity this expansion as it had cards trying to push a dragon, secret, and hand buff archetypes. Hopefully future expansions will have more cards to fully define each of these archetypes which should bring diversity to what was a class dead set on aggressive tactics in Year of the Raven.
It just needs a really good value buff like Spikeridged Steed or something that gives it Rush/Charge to tip it over.
Mechs could be very strong since Paladin has a great Magnetic package to work with. Slotting in even just a few cards out of Zilliax, Annoy-o-Module, Wargear, Mechano-Egg, Glow-Tron, and Kangor's Endless Army doesn't take a lot of room and can be a nice value add to a midrange/control deck.
I'm personally going to try out a Dragon Handbuff deck since I love both archetypes, but I'm obviously not expecting it to be tier 1.
Sad to see Immortal Prelate being effectively destroyed by loss of Spikeridged Steed, hope we get another taunt buff soon.
Gonna try dragon/heal/fatigue (maybe with hakkar for the lulz as well) either way, even if I end up stuck on rank 15.
Piloted Shredder, Knife Juggler, Mad Scientist, Dr. Boom
Need to be removed from this game
You forgot about the Mech package, which might eventually be the strongest archetype depending on the meta
I think a deck using Immortal Prelate is really close to working, but just needs a few more pieces to pull it all together:
It just needs a really good value buff like Spikeridged Steed or something that gives it Rush/Charge to tip it over.
Mechs could be very strong since Paladin has a great Magnetic package to work with. Slotting in even just a few cards out of Zilliax, Annoy-o-Module, Wargear, Mechano-Egg, Glow-Tron, and Kangor's Endless Army doesn't take a lot of room and can be a nice value add to a midrange/control deck.
I'm personally going to try out a Dragon Handbuff deck since I love both archetypes, but I'm obviously not expecting it to be tier 1.