New Paladin Minion - High Exarch Yrel

Well this will see play in one deck and only in standard probably, but it will be good there...

Not bad.  Not a big fan of pure paladin build because it limits a lot what cards you can use.  I prefer No duplicates because you have to use even more variety of cards. 

Well I mean, Pure Paladin is strong going into the set, already has a couple cards that look good in it, I see no reason why it won't continue being Tier 1 or 2.  Also, man, the Paladin legendary characters are feeling really out of place.  Turalyon doesn't make a ton of sense in Scholomance, let alone as a professor, and Yrel has little to nothing to do with the Faire or the Old Gods in general.  At least the Silver Hand Recruits look like theyre at the Faire to have a good time, she does not look happy at all.   If anything I would have thought Outland to be the place for her character, but oh well.

Okay, so after all the dust has settled from my eyes, this card is strong, very strong even. But it may not be the killer card that finally brings pure pally to, say, tournaments.

Its main power is actually that it can trade the same turn you play it, heal for 7 and stay on as a defensive taunt. But realistically though, pure pally has never been short of healing, and certainly never short on defensive plays with Libram of Hope and Devout Pupil basically ruling the roost. There's also the new cards; Hammer of the Naaru and Carousel Gryphon which is defensive as well. Plus, it cost 8, and so competes for space with Tirion Fordring. Can this really sub for tirion? I'm more than a little skeptical.

Also, there's the main problem of pure pally being both extremely predictable, and not really all that great higher up the rank where most players generally play around pure paladin well enough.

In short, its a very strong card. But its never going to be anywhere near the levels of Lady Liadrin so there's some reason to pause for thought.

Shirvallah for 8 mana and taunt. Alright, sure. You just run it in Pure Paladin, and thats it. Can be generated by the 7/7 which I can foresee to be a very rare problem. What a boring legendary, I’m disappointed honestly.

This should have come out in Ashes instead as it makes better sense flavour-wise and expansion-wise. Liadrin’s effect could have come out in this one instead as like a ticket-master legendary or something.

A slower, conditional Zilliax. It's not a bad comparison considering Zilliax was probably the perfect card the game has ever seen. Gonna be an excellent utility tool for Pure Paladins.

This is gonna be hard-countered by Bomb Warrior though, assuming it's still a meta deck by the next expansion. An 8-mana do-nothing 7/5 will be horrible. 

Though I can't speak to its flavour, I don't see why something like this won't be run in Pure Paladin. It's a very high-impact card for the cost in that deck.

This looks pretty good for pure paladin. I love the artwork on it as well.

The card is ok.  I really don't like the design of the minion.  The Battlecry restricts it to only pure paladin.  If it was an on board ability it could have been an option in big pure paladin if paladin were to get another big minion.  If this is summoned randomly by another class it will just be a vanilla 7/5 as well.  There could have been some more on board interactivity, but I guess the balance team didn't want that.  Missed opportunity IMO.

Quote From Echo

As the resident Zilliax hater, this card bears too much resemblance to that robot so I already am not a fan of this card and refuse to change my stance on it at all in the future.

I am not a fan of Z as well but for different reasons. This card is a much more balanced version.

1) it is a class card. We will see much less of it

2) it is conditional is just vanilla stats in any other Deck which is no good.

3) it's expensive. Aggressive decks can kill you well before turn 8. 

4) can't buff other minions and go face like the magnetic ability allowed

Overall still a good card in pure decks. However may be too slow. demon hunter and token druid can be quite explosive early and refill the board often. May need stronger early control tools to make this card work. Not a bad card but certainly not as prolific.

Its a bit black or white but there can be no neutrality in the fight against darkness.

Good effect, poor flavour.

Rush+Life steal+divine shield it's good enough to force pure archetype.

And, maybe, the new dude cards will fit on pure decks.

good card.  not too much to say about it.  It's just a sick top end bomb for pure pally and pure pally only.  Rush/divine shield lets you impact the board immediately to get value so it is much less weak to removal / sap effects.  Taunt/lifesteal basically locks out aggro who have to trade into it.  Has synergy with librams because by turn 8 they're often 0 so you can pump this up.

I remember Yrel from WoW WoD.  Cool to see her in HS.  

Oh boy... we already know libram paly is a T1 deck :( so this card is an auto 5/5 stars. Paly will have such insane heals now, they will beat priest

Edit: Oh and on the subject of priest, if they manage to copy this card from the opponent's deck, it's basically useless to them :D

8 mana is just too much for this effect, even if you disregard the deckbuilding constraints.

If you want a big heal + removal, paladin has many options that are better than this.

I doubt that this sees play.

This is certainly no unity, precision, perfection. It is however a good way to deal with aggro in a deck that can already deal well with aggro. And, more importantly, a deck that's boring as hell to play with.

Quote From BloodMefist

....  Also, man, the Paladin legendary characters are feeling really out of place.  Turalyon doesn't make a ton of sense in Scholomance, let alone as a professor, and Yrel has little to nothing to do with the Faire or the Old Gods in general.  At least the Silver Hand Recruits look like theyre at the Faire to have a good time, she does not look happy at all.   If anything I would have thought Outland to be the place for her character, but oh well.

Turalyon will probably confuse me until the end of days, but I can at least understand the timing of Yrel, if not the setting. I imagine they wanted another Pure Pally card before DoD rotates out, and Yrel is the leader of the over-zealous Lightbound in modern day alternate Draenor, making her the right character for the effect. Maybe one of the Mag'har orcs told her to chill out for a bit, so she's gone to Darkmoon Faire to (try to) do that?

Nice, a really good addition to Pure decks! Removal, healing and defense in one card, really strong. The problem is that both Lightforged cards rotates in april, will Pure decks be viable after that? Pure decks also have counters like bombs and albatrosses. Useless in Arena ofc.

No brainer include in pure paladin, same keywords of zilliax except magnetic so it should be great also 7 heal swing while leaving a body..

Exciting & high-powered card.  Capable of huge swings!

I think this will see play since it is a strong late game card that can do a lot to get you ahead if you are behind. If Zilliax has taught me anything, it's that if you put enough keywords onto a card, it will see play. 

It's kind of funny to me how Pure Paladins get rewarded for not playing any neutral cards by getting a bigger version of the most played neutral card in the game.

Quote From Pezman

It's weird to me that everyone is comparing this to Zilliax and not Shirvallah, the Tiger. Same exact stats and abilities, just with taunt and a different activation scenario.

Thank you! I was thinking the same thing. Also, the fact that it's not Magnetic makes it a completely different card.

Someone else said Paladin has better removal options, but I doubt those remove and heal and generate a decent body with Taunt.

It's very strong on pure paladin, you can even get another copy with Lightforged Crusader, it's kinda slow, but with librams you can stand against aggro.

Lorewise, I like the way that the 'light chosen' have some strong buffs as a leader of lightforged crusaders

Hearthstone Community:  Wow. Pure Paladin is such a solid and well rounded deck.  I'm glad that there isn't anything that makes it super scary for a turn or two.

Blizzard:  ... Hold my flagon of ale... 

Time to put back the Bad Luck Albatross

Good for pure Palidan and possibly good for a Limbram esque palidan too

Quote From DarkFrostX

Time to put back the Bad Luck Albatross

Or play Bomb Warrio

Zilliax except way more expensive and requires a deck condition I'm not sure if this will be played much but it will be very annoying to deal with

This is a weird card for this set considering how Lightforged Zealot and Lightforged Crusader are rotating out of standard soon. Nonetheless, High Exarch Yrel is basically an 8 mana version of Zilliax, which was one of the best legendaries to ever exist in Hearthstone. This will see play in the already viable Pure Libram Paladin archetype as Yrel 1) removes a minion, 2) puts a taunt minion in play, and 3) provides a substantial heal all at the same time.

it's zilliax. That's it.

Will be run for the next 4 months until the lightforged package is gone, but then probably won't see much play after.  I still think it will be super strong these next 4 months arelats.

Seems super solid in Pure Paladin, which i'm guessing it still gonna be a tier 1/ high tier 2 deck. So i guess High Exarch Yrel will see plenty of play in standard.

In wild i don't know if it will see play. Pure paladin is generally more of a buff deck, but i think it will see plenty of experimentation at the very least. High Exarch Yrel reminds me of Shirvallah, the Tiger and Zilliax. Both were, and still are very good cards.

Also i'm happy for the Yrel fans, because now she is finally in HS.

More fuel for Pure Paladin, sigh.

Shirvallah with Taunt, and a different condition to make it playable. Thankfully Pure Paladin is already pretty good, and this will be a welcome addition.

I mean, if you're playing Pure Paladin you play this. I don't know if you should be playing Pure Paladin, but you obviously include a bigger Zilliax there, it's a no brainer.

8 mana for 5 health seems a tad too much, will have to wait and see

Control Paladin got so much love in Year of the Phoenix, too bad she doesn't have a trip like Shrivalla.

Unity. Precision. Perfection. PRIMITIVE PURITY!!!

I expect this card to be everywhere on ladder. Unless Pure Paladin just can't find a foothold in the upcoming meta, it will be played on ladder and there will be no reason not to put Yrel in that deck. Solid payoff for doing something people were already doing.

Glad to see Yrel join the fray, and it seems like the girl has been working out, given what she can do

A pure paladin Zilliax replacement. Great, just what I wanted to see from them. Is Paladin turning into the controlling grind you down class?