Hearthpwn

The Argent Dawn is a conglomerate effort between our buddies The Silver Hand, The Argent Crusade, and a few dis-illusioned Scarlet Crusaders. They were the big neutral faction in WotLK, and made the big push against Arthas and the Armies of undead, eventually forming another partnership with the Death Knight faction The Ebon Hold to become the ashen verdict.

Suffice it to say, the Argent Dawn is kinda dull. So I refrained from flat out stating which faction any of these guys belong to. We have a scarlet crusade member, a silver hand, a guy in judgement gear (Best. Set. EVER.), and even an arrakoa. Cuz' zealotry knows no bound.

Avenging Zap: Ok, a lot of Paladin damage isn't great. All direct damage is either directly on or under par. Avenging Zap is designed as a heavier damage option. But you say, what would a more expensive, less good Arcane Missiles do? Well, I'll say that mage has it good for damage, but they don't have Equality. This combination is less consistent then Pyroquality, but a lot more efficient on smaller boards of big minions.

Shining Protector: Mark of the Wild, anyone? I've costed it higher due to the influx of Deathrattle minions, and also because Shielded Minibot exists. Hence, it has the added benefit of Ancestral Healing and stats reworked for a more defensive angling. It's a fairly simple buff card in all respects. But there is a funny story- My partner in crime McF4rtson took one look at it and said "Is that an ingame photo?" To which I could only respond "If it was an ingame photo, I would take more screenshots."

Knight of Legend: First off, yes I know this is an honestly cancerous suggestion. But then, so was Quick Shot. I was angling for a sort of Savannah Highmane style minion to epitomize the Deathrattle format. However, it still dies horribly to Piloted Shredder and often gets less value. I would like opinions on this one though, so do tell me if this is a mistake.

Final Defender: Ok, so Healing Wave is a card. I pretty much went slack-jawed when I first saw it, because 14 health is one of the heaviest swings possible. Final Defender is based on a very similar concept, just a different approach. Between Taunt protection and actual health restoration, he protects you for 14 damage. He has fairly good attack for a taunt minion, and there are ways to trigger deathrattles multiple times (Another one coming up even), but he has a drawback- It's not an instant effect. Chances are he never procs, between Silence and Just spells to face. If he's silenced earlier on, it's not a massive deal- You protected your Tirion and all. But for a Healadin, this card can either replace or be used alongside Defender of Kings. And it has Judgement gear.

Unending Sanctuary: I CLAIM SANCTUARY! This is a cheap Commanding Shout-alike, and there's not much else to it. Admittedly I've heard rumblings of "But Blood Knight exists!" but I don't see that as too much of a detractor. For one things, BGH is heavily meta, and paladin doesn't have too many targets. Secondly, Ironbeak Owl. Thirdly, I don't honestly expect a pure divine shield deck to be played. This is less of a meta tool and more of what Blizz did in TGT- Add a fun card for more varied and low ranking gimmick decks.

Awakened Adherent: That being said, I do expect Awakened Adherent to go Meta. While a minion that gave two divine shields as a battlecry would have been ludicrous, on deathrattle it provides something more interesting. I lobbied for this to be a 4/2 or even just a 3/2 on the premise of being killed by random damage- The opponent suddenly having to deal with two minions that have Divine Shield, or even being unable to play AoE due to the shields alone is interesting. I was talked out of it, as you can tell. I do think buffs on the opponent's turn are interesting enough as a concept to get rid of this card, however. Think of something like Dark Cultist, but that you could line up to buff specific minions.

Redeemed Zealot: Man how I want to do a Scarlet Crusade oriented something or another- These guys are just batshit insane. I love it. Anyhoo, this is my favorite part of deathrattle- The disincentive to trade. 6/3 is of course a bad statline, but he trades against things like Dr. Boom fairly efficiently, most likely taking his Boom Bots down with him. Plus, if played second, has a good chance of wrecking Sludge Belchers. The closest comparison is something like Abomination, but I feel an Arcane Missile style effect is so much stronger (And flavourful with Avenging Wrath).

Grieve: The required secret for this Expac, I wanted something a bit better than Feign Death. I will make a note now- to make it anywhere close to playable, I envisioned it proccing the Deathrattle of the minion that just died. Do tell me if that's stupid or not even good enough.  Pretty simple- Because there a lot of very decent Deathrattle minions with taunt, it isn't impossible to get it to proc.

Lightsworn Crusher: If your crusher isn't Lightsworn, now you know what you're missing. A lot of weapon classes have at least 5 mana weapons designed for hardcore trading. Lightsworn Crusher is designed for heavy boardclear. The current meta may not be quite condusive to expensive weapons, but let's face it- This is 1000 times better then Magnataur Alpha. I've always maintained when designing giant weapons they should only be good against minions, and this is no exception. This deals 36 damage between a possible 6 minions in only 2 turns. Plus, since lategame you may be watching your health, you can attack a boom bot, take base 1 damage and still deal heavy damage to Boom. Huzzah.

Sunwalker Dezco lore: So paladin was once exclusively an aliiance class. For reference, every other legendary is a human guy. In Burning Crusade, we of course got Blood Elf Paladins, but more interesting was Cataclysm... When we got the glory that was...

The Holy Cow

You bet everyone flipped out over Tauren Paladins and Priests. To explain the sudden and strange edition, we were introduced to the Sunwalkers (Yes,Sunwalker). In Mists of Pandaria, we ran into Dezco, in a questline in Krasarang Wild, leading the Dawnchaser Tribe to the Valley of the Four Winds. On the way, there was a questline that actually stuck with me, despite the fact I was powerleveling to 100 at the time. You see his wife die in childbirth (hence the kids above), and he steels his resolve and presses on. He even loses his kids- One is killed, another is the chosen one or some such nonsense. AND he goes one to fight the Thunder King and Garrosh Hellscream. Needless to say, I find this guy awesome.

 We didn't use Lady Liadrin because seriously, she will be the Paladin Alt hero. I'd stake my Dr. Boom on that.

Sunwalker Dezco Balance: First off, the most often comment on cards that give you cards is to encourage the use of under-used cards. Yes, Lay on Hands is a grammatically incorrect yet Powerful card that sees plenty of play in Midrange decks. But, you only really have space for one, because it kills your curve if you draft two. Dezco adds three to the total count of your deck, but this decision wasn't arrived at for no reason. I had simply wanted a minion that shuffled a few copies of a card into your deck and one into your hand, but the issue is how to insure getting them. Lay on Hands is a heavy draw and a great late game card, and the slow effect of shuffling more into your deck is balanced by the draw off of Lay on Hands.

Statwise? I compare to Tirion Fordring. He gives you what is likely a 7 or 8 mana weapon, and has a much stronger body. Lay on Hands is debatably stronger then Ashbringer, but you have to pay for it. Tirion has 12 stats for 8, Both Divine Shield and Taunt. Dezco has 11 for 7, and no effects other than his Lay on Hands effects. So, Dezco has a stronger battlecry/deathrattle, but Tririon provides more board presence. Also, compared Rhonin, he's slower but gives more value over time.

Ravenholdt is the old fashioned Rogue association, a league of gentlemen and ladies who thieve and assassinate, but seemingly for the winners- The factions. The syndicate, however, are not so friendly. They destabilize teh regions they take up residence in and work for the highest bidder.

At one point, Wrathion hung out at Ravenholdt. He even killed a few of them. But they totally deserved it.

 Dramatic Entrance:  The first push towards stealth Rogue is a fairly simple buff, with a slight twist. See, you can play this a turn before the minion you want to be buffed, i.e. turn 2 into turn 3 play. This allows very strong minions with a good chance of survivability, at the cost of slight tempo. The Stealth buff from this is permanent mind- Beware of turn five Dramatic Entrances into turn 6 Emperor Thaurrisans.

Dagger of Accuracy: This is more of a fun one. Both my partners complained this was too strong, and it should have set uses. See, I wager this is more of a trade-off deal than anything else. Rogue is known, and pretty much designed for weapon synergy. Do you sacrifice that to become a mage? It's definitely a tech card, but hey, cards like Charged Hammer don't get love.

Syndicate Fatale: Ho ho, the first of many tempo cards. It's generally accepted that turn 4 is a highly pivotal moment in the game, in which a strong play can put you far ahead, and a weaker play can put you far behind. So what if your opponent couldn't use their heavy 4-drops? Now mind you, this isn't a Loatheb alike as much as it is a minor delay - And their spells are unaffected.

Ravenholdt Plotter: You can only jam so many cheap spells into your deck. There are only so many easy ways to proc your combos. And sometimes, you have to burn a combo card to activate one. Oof. The Ravenholdt Plotter (Statted against the Piloted Shredder to make it decent) is a very active way to refill your hand with combo-activator, and has a decent chance of killing 3-drops and severely denting aggro decks.

Joint-Caser: Simple, efficient. Basic stats, decent effect. Why 2-mana? Well, it's a fairly good effect, and also because one of the best Combo cards in the game is SI:7 Agent. Again, it really is a simple effect for a decent tempo drop.

Cloak and Dagger: Darkbomb! Quick Shot! Frostbolt! Yeah, this is perhaps the stronger card for Stealth Rogue, to really push it. While Dramatic Entrance cannot effect anything on the field, Cloak and Dagger allows for clearing an enemy and hiding that minion that's down to one health. Mind you, this is more often than not strong mostly with tempo decks- while any minion gains a buff from stealth, usually you want a specific one for survivability.

Smoke Barrage: Now don't get me wrong, Blade Flurry is one of the more versatile and strong AoE's in the game. This is just a secondary option. Of course, much like Auchenai-Circle, this often hinges on either a lot of a stealth minions naturally, or a well played Conceal.

Syndicate Hitman: Oh ho, the stories I can tell about fitting the card text on this baby. Let's face it- People don't play Assassinate, they don't play Sabotage, and they don't play Patient Assassin. Syndicate Hitman, however, he gets the job done. On combo, he has a Deadly Shot grafted onto him. So, even if he gets silenced, one down. I won't lie, the Windfury is one hundred percent superfluous, and was used to buff the text length. We got desperate. But the fact remains, he can easily, unless silenced, wreck shop very often and double trade. Tempo.

'Holdt Headhunter: Art and name out of the way first- This guy isn't actually going to be lopping off heads. He's a talent scout, a scalper... a Corporate headhunter. People of course don't play Gang Up, but this more than often takes high damage or highly powered battlecry minions. Gang up loses a lot of tempo from not having an immediate effect, but Headhunter puts a body down on the field and allows you to trade with impunity. Also, he will "borrow" any minion that kills him as well, so he can spell taunt to a decent degree.

Wrathion Lore:If you know much about recent developments in World of Warcraft, you've probably heard of this guy. In Cataclysm, he Prince of Persia'd for a rogue legendary Dagger quest (As seen Above, the Fangs of the Father). In MoP, he ramped it up and ran a legendary cloak questline for ALL adventurers.... And then he basically started a war between Azeroth and Alternate Draenor.

But you probably know him because he's been constantly shipped with Anduin.

OFC, his affect is designed to emulate the whole turn-in aspect that legendary questlines have. Mirroring Questing Adventure in flavour design. There is no teleporting of Garrosh, but we had limited card text.

Wrathion Balance: Ha ha, this was fun to balance. Now, the token weapon is actually the only reason that this is at all reasonable; I attempted to provide a much stronger statted weapon as a disincentive to HP'ing, while assuring they aren't used to instantly rush face. Now, you CAN theoretically crack the fangs and go face... But that 2 mana is almost too pivotal to waste for buffing. Wrathion is a high priority target, and the buffs stop coming when Wrathion stops breathing.