Time will tell if Murgur is a passable control finisher; given the pool of available murlocs, I'm highly skeptical. Even though they get Divine Shield, hoping to high roll for another Murgur isn't a great place to be in.
As far as theme goes, I'm tired of murlocs, especially in Paladin. This could have been an awesome Draenei or Human hero, but instead we just got some random murloc with cooking implements attached to its hands. Not thrilled about opening this card, even if it does turn out to be a good finisher for the libram deck.
4
And if you are playing a 4/6 for 7, when are you going to find the time to cast those spells that you've gotten back?
4
Lads, I'm beginning to think this expansion won't introduce an identity revamp for Paladin after all.
2
It's not popular. It's a strong deck but not popular.
1
That is so fucking broken
2
Fighter-Cleric-Fisherman-Engineer-Dragonrider-Pirate(remember Wickerflame?)-Murloc-Archaeologist-Mummy Man. Paladin is just the side job.
2
Yeah, Secrets don't fit thematically at all. From a flavour perspective it doesn't fit. From a balance perspective, it's rare that you actually want to put them in your deck - they're often not worth the card slot.
I feel like the Paladin identity as defined by Blizz (in terms of the traits laid out instead of the image of the class) just shuts down any control possibilities whatsoever as well. Not having any direct removal is a choker for the class. It's also completely weird card draw isn't listed as a weakness given that they are hesitant to add good, non-conditional card draw for the class.
In fact the Paladin basic card pool is straight trash. They nerfed Equality to the ground, so that's crap now; once you take that out, the real staples in the basic pool are Truesilver, Blessing of Kings, Tirion (maybe) and Consecration (maybe). Honestly as the power level of cards has gone up generally, Tirion has gone from a game-ender to a decently strong minion, Consecration is just mediocre and the only reason we're using it is because they haven't seen fit to give us anything else. Like, the Paladin basic card pool basically revolves around minion combat, having things on the board which you can then take advantage of and taking value trades with them. And that's fine, but the massive amount of mana/tempo cheating in the game rn and the amount of removals and clears there are and minions rarely live for a turn, if that. So many of the tools that Paladin has are so dependent on having something live that the strengths of the Paladin class aren't able to be used properly. They need to start giving proper removals, clears, draws, Rush minions.
1
I've quit for a long time because of the state of Paladin, I really really wanted a Control Paladin to work (not otk), unfortunately this hasn't been the case for 2 years.
Here are some things missing from the class imo.
1. Efficient removal:
Whether it's single target or AoE, Paladin's removal options are pitiful. Paladin removal (single target) takes the form of stat manipulation(Aldor/Humility/Subdue/Equality/Shrink Ray)or weapons(mostly just Truesilver). Stat manipulation is inefficient as removal for the Paladin class because direct damage is almost non-existent in the class, therefore you end up having to hit minions yourself with your weapon or with a minion on the board. The problem is that as a Control deck you are often behind on tempo, meaning that having a minion on the board is difficult. If you don't remove the minion straightaway after using your removal on it, keep in mind it can still be bounced to hand or hidden behind a Taunt minion. This is especially problematic in the case of minions with special effects (ongoing effects, start/end of turn effects).
With weapons, Truesilver is really good, efficient removal early, but falls off hard in the mid~late game since it is unable to help against high-health minions (anything 5 health and above is impossible to deal with).
With AoE even before the Equality nerf one of the problems was that all AoEs effect your side of the board symmetrically, which made it more difficult to build a board (which, in the absence of single target removal, Paladin has to rely on for board control). After the Equality nerf there is a dearth of mana/card efficient AoE (as all AoEs require comboing with Consecration/Wild Pyro). Cards like Veranus being given to other classes is a joke.
2. Card draw (?)
I think this might have changed now, but my opinion of Paladin draw cards are that they are consistently limited. Cards like Lay on Hands are too expensive for what they do and the others are limited in ways that make it unfavourable for a Control deck to play them. This might be different now, though, since I haven't played for quite a while, with neutral draw options like Big Ol' Whelp, and cards like Crystology being buffed to 1 mana (still think you wouldn't really want to put Crystology, at least two copies of it, in a control deck).
3. Lategame
This is one of the big things, but Paladin simply does not have a lategame value bomb like other classes do. If you want to just hang on until late game, Paladin can do that decently, but once you get there, what are you gonna do? Play Tirion and...hope it doesn't get answered? Meanwhile, other classes are playing Galakrond and other late game infinite value cards, or finshing the game with cards like Dinotamer Brann and other finisher cards. Paladin has no finisher (no direct damage, bar the highly inconsistent (in a normal deck) Holy Wrath), nor does it have a lategame value card, so it struggles to compete in the late game.
4. Midgame tempo
Personal feeling this, but I kinda feel like on 1 and 2 you had some really good cards you could throw out to gain tempo. From 3~6ish however, the class minions you have access to are badly statted and don't stick. You look at cards like Rotnest Drake which are obscenely powerful as a tempo tool, in the meantime Paladin gets a mixed bag of stuff that is usually bad on tempo despite a heavy reliance on tempo (despite Blizzard purposely making it ao that Paladin's reliance on board is the greatest out of all classes by flat out refusing to print removal). Whoever printed the Saviours of Uldum cards, by the way, needs to get fired - that expansion might as well not exist.
There are no Rush cards or anything really that helps you come back on the board that can be thrown out on curve. The only Rush minion in the class that I can even think of was severely overcosted (5 mana 3/4 rush, Divine Shield). Everything is throw something on the board, hope it sticks, then try to get a value trade off. This was less of a problem in the old days but in todays' game where you have Rogues using up to 80 mana a turn (maximum - 7 for Gala, 3 for Togwaggle wand, 7 cards for 0 mana that can cost up to 10 mana apiece), Druids using effectively two cards at the cost of one every turn after they complete quest, Hunters with incredibly efficient minions, etc, this passive board building strategy rarely works. This is also the same problem with the existing Paladin removals - they presuppose that you have a minion on the board to trade with, when in fact minions rarely last longer than the turn you play them. How is Paladin supposed to build and maintain boards when minions don't last past the turn they're played, unless they are extremely mediocre tempo plays? The tools are only for snowballing a board, not taking it back.
From this expansion specifically there were a lot of questionable cards, Sand Breath and Amber Watcher/Bronze Explorer/Nozdormu the Timeless don't fit (Sand Breath is great as a tempo tool, but lacks value to fit in a lategame deck which both of the class dragons want to get to - goes back to problem 3 as well. What are you gonna actually play in the late game that's worth playing?), not enough Pure Paladin removal cards to play late game with a Pure deck (Lightforged Zealot probably can see play in a more aggressive Pure Paladin deck if such a deck works), a bunch of swarm cards (the only archetype Blizz is actually pushing enough to get played)...
Obviously, this is just my opinion, feel free to disagree
1
There's no one true Paladin deck archetype. Aggro is a mainstay, has been since launch (Divine Shield swarm decks have been around for a long time and cards like the now HoF'd Divine Favour are evidence of that).
Midrange has also been around for a long time and historically probably the most common and most successful. Secret Paladin was the most successful example of that, but the more iconic one was probably the version that ran midrange minions (Sylvanas, Tirion, Boom, Piloted Shredder) along with things like Quartermaster.
Combo has also sometimes cropped up in the class. Anyfin, DK Uther OTK and the current Holy Wrath OTK decks are an example. That said due to extremely limited direct damage in the class this is probably the most foreign one.
Control? Also not really alien. We had one decent attempt at it during N'Zoth but cards that heal are a hint that control is an archetype Paladin could play, going for the long game rather than going for tempo. Lay on Hands is a great example (albeit dated). Also I would argue that in those days any kind of slow midrange deck effectively was classified as control at the time, since the consistent value generation you see in some of the DKs and the hero cards like Dr. Boom, Mad Genius simply did not exist and so you ended up striking a balance on the question of "how much late game stuff can I cram into my deck without dying to aggro?" - Control Warrior ended up running things like Dr. Boom, the Alex/Grom combo, Sylvanas, Geddon, Rag, etc - by today's standards this would be a slow midrange deck.
Unfortunately Blizz will never release this archetype for Paladin anymore because of their fixation on minion swarming and secrets as "part of the class identity." They never give Paladin the removal nor the consistent late game value cards, the resource generation(this is a big one, card generation being awful when you're forced to run two cards for one boardclear meaning you fundamentally don't have as much resources as other classes do is awful), necessary for Control to work.
1
Reborn doesn't retain magnetized, there is no reason to think so. Unless it specifically says that the card retains enchantments after dying. When this dies with something magnetized to it, this card will just be Reborn as a 1/1.
Overall it is an okay card but nothing spectacular. Might see experimentation in mech aggro decks or flood decks.
2
Compared to Vex Crow or Violet Teacher this is more powerful (stats and effect) and easier to activate in return for a slight downside, but Zoolock wants to start tapping when they start running dry anyway. Zoo will love this. Control Warlock has better things to do than summon a random 3 drop.