Blessed Champion on a Tirion, Piloted Golem or any 3 attack minion buffed with Avenge is 12 damage without BoK. And stick minions means that's usually fairly likely.
Of all the cards in this deck, Blessed Champion is definitely not on the "maybe" list in my opinion.
I'm having fun withy the secretadin deck but in terms of the ladder, no, I'm having no luck at all. Stuck at rank 14 which is the lowest I have ever been stuck at since launch. I don't know what I'm doing wrong but I do know that I face mainly hunters and warriors and I can't seem to find a deck that succeeds against both.
Last season I climbed to rank 5 very quickly then toward the end began to plummet and have been stuck there since.
Tirion rarely gets me value anymore, everybody knows he's coming and can easily deal with all of our threats until he is played, by which point they can just remove/silence/steal him.
I'm really not sure how it's fair that Priest can steal cards, it just seems like an automatic tempo swing in their favour that can win games no matter how far behind they are, but this is coming from a Paladin only player so perhaps it's simply because we are so weak generally and have very few answers to priest that I feel this way, because other classes don't seem to find it so bad.
Shrinkmeister has significantly worsened our matchup with Priest as now they can effectively play 3 minions and remove one of your for 2 cards. Paladin has no reliable gimmicks or combos and relies entirely on value trading so this is basically the ultimate hard counter to our class.
I would be able to accept that we are severely handicapped against Priest though, if it wasn't also the case that we are a poor matchup to basically every other class in the game too, especially the most popular one, Hunter.
But ultimately I believe that the issue is we have no particular win conditions, no reliable combos, no bursts etc. Even muster/quartermaster when pulled off successfully seems to be easily dealt with. We are still confined to an arena style game of minion trading, only in a constructed setting where everyone is exploiting mechanics or setting up combos that will end the game before you'll have the chance to win that way.
silverhander I'm afraid to say that you've hit the nail on the head with your last post and that things are unlikely to change until the next expansion.
This has been the case since the launch of the game. We waited for Naxx but Avenge and undertaker happened, we waited for nerfs but some (read: hunter) class cards are so overpowered across the board that one or two nerfs won't stop their dominance, and now we have waited for a 100+ card expansion and still nothing has changed, people are even still playing the exact same decks as months ago.
As you say, Paladin class cards remain almost across the board overcosted and/or weak. They are even rendered redundant by neutral minions, such as antique halibut making holy light basically a joke. Meanwhile aggro cards as whole are overpowered in the game generally so without the massive armour gain and removal of something like Warrior, a slow class just will not work. That's us.
Without buffing our existing class cards it will take a very long time before enough good cards are given to Paladin to make it viable. As it stands ~20% of the class cards released whether it's vanilla, an adventure or an expansion are actually viable for Paladin, at that rate you can pretty much expect to wait 1 year minimum before Paladin has enough cards to simply match the toolbox that other classes have today, and by then, they will have many more.
If Blizzard were to give Hunter a few more nerfs eg. UT doesn't gain health, less attack on Highmane, 4 dmg Kill Command, less +mana cost on Freezing Trap, then that class would probably still be strong but not ludicrous like it is now. If they also nerfed Warrior a bit then together this would probably allow for a LOT more Paladin play and variety in decks for all classes. The former will happen but just a matter of how much Blizzard drag their feet, the latter probably will never happen.
Buffs for Paladin will also likely never happen and this is my main issue. It's all very well nerfing cards that are killing the game, but what about buffing cards that are killing classes. Paladin pays 2 mana for it's card draw in Lay on Hands and HoW, all other classes pay 1.5, then there's GoK etc. etc. if these things aren't addressed then we will always be behind.
Yeah I've been trying the new Divine Tempo deck and like all the other Paladin decks it is "very good" on paper but it's just not got the tools to handle hunters on the aggro end and it can't compete with the unreal removal and armour of warrior on the control end.
I know that goes for shamans and druids and rogues etc. etc. too. Hearthstone really is a game of 2 classes with 2 more as "special guests", but I feel that Paladin has been the most neglected of all since launch.
Aggro is overpowered, simple as that. Playing control puts you at an instant disadvantage in Hearthstone, however certain classes have been deemed worthy of cards that allow them to be competitive in control. Warrior for example, with it's unbelievable removal and unreal armour gain, and to a lesser extent Priest with it's tempo swinging minion stealing.
Paladin has none of these tools. You could argue that there is healing, but in it's current form it's not very viable or just too slow and has no synergy with board control like armour does for Warrior.
Paladin is expected to play control but given no specific tools to make it work other than simply having a high mana curve. Even it's card draw favours aggro (Divine Favour).
For many months, most classes have endured the torture of aggro Hunter and so they're not having much fun either, but as Paladins we are still particularly suffering and GvG, whilst it gives us some "nice" cards, did nothing much to change this.
Blizzard are very slow to accept that their game is currently deeply imbalance and unvaried and that they don't really know what they're doing with Paladin. This may change but probably not for some time, until then we must simply be happy with the small victories: winning the occasional game against mech mage because of a perfect draw etc. these must be our equivalent of the efficient ladder climbing that hunter experiences, and maybe wallet warrior/mech mage.
Specifically re Muster and QM, yes, it took about 3 days before everyone was wise to it and now the combo being pulled off is the exception rather than the rule. Giving us a combo that requiring 1/1s to survive a turn was pretty cruel even for Blizzard, almost like a slap in the face compared to Savage Roar + Force of Nature. It does something feel like the situation Paladin is in is deliberate, or that it has a design team that plays only arena or something. Muster is still a good card generally but the combo will not win you any more games than anything else has before.
Blessed Champion on a Tirion, Piloted Golem or any 3 attack minion buffed with Avenge is 12 damage without BoK. And stick minions means that's usually fairly likely.
Of all the cards in this deck, Blessed Champion is definitely not on the "maybe" list in my opinion.
I'm having fun withy the secretadin deck but in terms of the ladder, no, I'm having no luck at all. Stuck at rank 14 which is the lowest I have ever been stuck at since launch. I don't know what I'm doing wrong but I do know that I face mainly hunters and warriors and I can't seem to find a deck that succeeds against both.
Last season I climbed to rank 5 very quickly then toward the end began to plummet and have been stuck there since.
Tirion rarely gets me value anymore, everybody knows he's coming and can easily deal with all of our threats until he is played, by which point they can just remove/silence/steal him.
I'm really not sure how it's fair that Priest can steal cards, it just seems like an automatic tempo swing in their favour that can win games no matter how far behind they are, but this is coming from a Paladin only player so perhaps it's simply because we are so weak generally and have very few answers to priest that I feel this way, because other classes don't seem to find it so bad.
Shrinkmeister has significantly worsened our matchup with Priest as now they can effectively play 3 minions and remove one of your for 2 cards. Paladin has no reliable gimmicks or combos and relies entirely on value trading so this is basically the ultimate hard counter to our class.
I would be able to accept that we are severely handicapped against Priest though, if it wasn't also the case that we are a poor matchup to basically every other class in the game too, especially the most popular one, Hunter.
But ultimately I believe that the issue is we have no particular win conditions, no reliable combos, no bursts etc. Even muster/quartermaster when pulled off successfully seems to be easily dealt with. We are still confined to an arena style game of minion trading, only in a constructed setting where everyone is exploiting mechanics or setting up combos that will end the game before you'll have the chance to win that way.
silverhander I'm afraid to say that you've hit the nail on the head with your last post and that things are unlikely to change until the next expansion.
This has been the case since the launch of the game. We waited for Naxx but Avenge and undertaker happened, we waited for nerfs but some (read: hunter) class cards are so overpowered across the board that one or two nerfs won't stop their dominance, and now we have waited for a 100+ card expansion and still nothing has changed, people are even still playing the exact same decks as months ago.
As you say, Paladin class cards remain almost across the board overcosted and/or weak. They are even rendered redundant by neutral minions, such as antique halibut making holy light basically a joke. Meanwhile aggro cards as whole are overpowered in the game generally so without the massive armour gain and removal of something like Warrior, a slow class just will not work. That's us.
Without buffing our existing class cards it will take a very long time before enough good cards are given to Paladin to make it viable. As it stands ~20% of the class cards released whether it's vanilla, an adventure or an expansion are actually viable for Paladin, at that rate you can pretty much expect to wait 1 year minimum before Paladin has enough cards to simply match the toolbox that other classes have today, and by then, they will have many more.
If Blizzard were to give Hunter a few more nerfs eg. UT doesn't gain health, less attack on Highmane, 4 dmg Kill Command, less +mana cost on Freezing Trap, then that class would probably still be strong but not ludicrous like it is now. If they also nerfed Warrior a bit then together this would probably allow for a LOT more Paladin play and variety in decks for all classes. The former will happen but just a matter of how much Blizzard drag their feet, the latter probably will never happen.
Buffs for Paladin will also likely never happen and this is my main issue. It's all very well nerfing cards that are killing the game, but what about buffing cards that are killing classes. Paladin pays 2 mana for it's card draw in Lay on Hands and HoW, all other classes pay 1.5, then there's GoK etc. etc. if these things aren't addressed then we will always be behind.
Yeah I've been trying the new Divine Tempo deck and like all the other Paladin decks it is "very good" on paper but it's just not got the tools to handle hunters on the aggro end and it can't compete with the unreal removal and armour of warrior on the control end.
I know that goes for shamans and druids and rogues etc. etc. too. Hearthstone really is a game of 2 classes with 2 more as "special guests", but I feel that Paladin has been the most neglected of all since launch.
To be fair though, QM + hero power isn't a bad play.
Aggro is overpowered, simple as that. Playing control puts you at an instant disadvantage in Hearthstone, however certain classes have been deemed worthy of cards that allow them to be competitive in control. Warrior for example, with it's unbelievable removal and unreal armour gain, and to a lesser extent Priest with it's tempo swinging minion stealing.
Paladin has none of these tools. You could argue that there is healing, but in it's current form it's not very viable or just too slow and has no synergy with board control like armour does for Warrior.
Paladin is expected to play control but given no specific tools to make it work other than simply having a high mana curve. Even it's card draw favours aggro (Divine Favour).
For many months, most classes have endured the torture of aggro Hunter and so they're not having much fun either, but as Paladins we are still particularly suffering and GvG, whilst it gives us some "nice" cards, did nothing much to change this.
Blizzard are very slow to accept that their game is currently deeply imbalance and unvaried and that they don't really know what they're doing with Paladin. This may change but probably not for some time, until then we must simply be happy with the small victories: winning the occasional game against mech mage because of a perfect draw etc. these must be our equivalent of the efficient ladder climbing that hunter experiences, and maybe wallet warrior/mech mage.
Specifically re Muster and QM, yes, it took about 3 days before everyone was wise to it and now the combo being pulled off is the exception rather than the rule. Giving us a combo that requiring 1/1s to survive a turn was pretty cruel even for Blizzard, almost like a slap in the face compared to Savage Roar + Force of Nature. It does something feel like the situation Paladin is in is deliberate, or that it has a design team that plays only arena or something. Muster is still a good card generally but the combo will not win you any more games than anything else has before.