The New Contenders-Part 1

Today I'm going to start a series of posts talking about some of the top new decks to emerge from Through the Dark Portal. First up is the Paladin.

Paladins very quietly got a lot of good stuff in this set. I know Lay on Hands is getting a lot of the hype, but I can tell you at least one card that is significantly better for Paladins, Argent Defender. This nifty little shield will help to alleviate every Paladins biggest problem, recurring equipment removal. There are some tricky little ways to make this instant speed to negate a Medoc or Chasing A-Me. For anyone who wants to play on the Horde side, you also get Ophelia Barrows as a reliable answer to recursion.

Another card that really helps Paladins is Onslaught Girdle. I know this card is getting a lot of hype for the Warrior solo decks, but it is also very effective in a Paladin deck. This card allows a Paladin player to actually end a game in a relatively short amount of time. This is important because it puts less emphasis on a Paladin to win game 1 since playing the deck doesn't automatically require going to time every round. It's actually possible to lose game 1 with a Paladin but still have time to come back and win games 2 and 3 before you run out of time.

Okay, now we can talk about the Paladin card that everyone else is talking about, Lay on Hands. While I'm in the group that think this card is incredible, I will say that after I have played a Paladin deck quite a bit in testing, Lay on Hands isn't as good as I had originally thought. Part of that is the fact that in many games the Paladin simply doesn't need it. I have played a lot of games where I stabilize the board and then Wraith Scythe + Seal of Light does all the healing without me having to skip a turn. The only matchups I really want to play Lay on Hands in are the aggro matchups.

Having said all that, let me say that anyone who thinks the card is not good is simply not using it right. Everyone talks about how when you play it and then skip the next turn you're going to end up right back where you were. If you're facing down an army of allies that is doing 25+ damage to you per turn, you're in bigger trouble than Lay on Hands can get you out of. Most of the time I have played Lay on Hands, it is usually preceded by a Consecration or Skullflame Shield. Ideally, you can play a Blessing of Protection during your opponent's end step and then Lay on Hands keeping yourself safe through that skipped turn. After the Skullflame or Consecration resets the board, you're fully equipped with a new health total. Lay on Hands is not a card that's going to be relevent in every matchup and it's not going to greatly skew the metagame, but when used properly in the right matchups it is very strong.

Why the Paladin might be really good:

So far in testing the Paladin deck doesn't have any bad matchups. Usually that's a very good thing, but on the flip side, it doesn't have any great matchups either. Almost every matchup, we've played is pretty close. This is good because it means you'll have a shot in almost every match, and you'll have a big advantage if you know your matchups well. Another thing the Paladin really has going for it is its versatility as a control deck. It has good answers to ally-based rush decks and solid answers to the combo oriented solo decks. Skullflame Shield and Consecration are good cards to thwart a rush strategy although a little slow. Wraith Scythe + Onslaught Girdle also allows the Paladin to quickly heal a lot of damage. Against the solo decks that look to deal a lot of damage in one big turn the Paladin has several good answers. Blessing of Protection prevents all damage that would be dealt, Blessing of Freedom makes the Paladin untargetable, and Divine Shield does both. If you play the Horde Paladin, you get Arcane Torrent. The Dwarf Paladin gets The Perfect Stout (which is especially good when people want to attack more than once per turn).

Why the Paladin might not take the next step:

It doesn't have any great matchups. Not having any bad matchups is good and all, but do you really expect to be able to play 6 or 7 rounds of Swiss against a bunch of 50-50 and 60-40 matchups and come out on the winning side all day? All the versatility that I mentioned can blow up in your face. What if you draw your solo answers against a rush deck or vice versa? The deck is difficult to play. There are a lot of very tough decisions to be made over the course of a single game. Making the wrong one anywhere along to the line can lead to disaster. Again, with the amount of close decisions through 6 or 7 rounds, how confident are you that you are going to make the right one every time? Despite the deck's ability to win faster than it could before, it is still by no means a fast deck. Many of your matches will still go to time or close to it. Many people don't like to play decks that are going to produce that many long matches as it can take a lot out of you at the end of the day. There are a lot of factors that can keep the Paladin down, but it also has the chance to rise up and be a player in the Through the Dark Portal metagame.