Blizzard has released the full core set and we're in for a very different new year of Hearthstone! Today we're going to be taking a look at the Paladin class in the Year of the Gryphon by looking at their new set of core cards and giving the new ones a full review.
- If you want to see the full core set, you can check out our Core 2021 Guide.
- Want to see only the new cards? We have a dedicated article for that.
- You can build decks with all these cards in our deckbuilder - just select Year of the Gryphon as the format!
Let's get to it!
Reckoning
Reckoning is quite an interesting secret - seemingly a variant of Vaporize. It's cheaper and takes out something whose damage actually matters. Its downside to Vaporize (although sometimes it could be the upside!) is that Reckoning triggers when the minion in question attacks anything, not just heroes.
I like this secret. I think it'll definitely see play, what with being a 1-cost removal of average-to-strong minions. It also works well with the "mind games" aspect of secrets: A 1-2 attack minion won't activate it, while it is generally favorable for opponents to use minions inside this particular attack range to try and bait secrets into triggering.
I see this secret as being way more valuable later in the game, where you have the chance of murdering chunky minions such as Blood of G'huun (as well as its summon) and any of the new Dragon Aspects, which I believe will certainly see quite a bit of play.
Pursuit of Justice
Pursuit of Justice is the card Odd Paladins have been collectively dreaming about - too bad it costs an even number! What about Standard?
Standard is leaning into Silver Hand Recruit-centric decks this coming Year, with Stand Against Darkness and Warhorse Trainer making a comeback. Now, we do not yet have all the pieces of the puzzle, with the Barrens expansion having not revealed any Paladin cards yet. Since the expansion is Horde-themed, I am not too hopeful there's going to be much Silver Hand Recruit support until Expansion 2 of Year of the Gryphon, which by its color, promises to be Alliance-themed.
So, we've only got 3 cards so far to help us deduce if the Paladin's hero power will be absolutely awesome from the Barrens launch until mid-summer. With two Pursuits of Justice, you'll summon a 2-cost 3/1 every turn. Further, Stand Against Darkness will summon a total of 15-attack (5 3/1 minions) on the board, but that'll still be quite a fragile army to work with. The upcoming Blademaster Samuro, for example, is a direct counter to this.
Thankfully, we've still got a few cards to lean on, from the last three expansions. Lothraxion the Redeemed would be an absolute requirement of Silver Hand Recruit decks, with Balloon Merchant as a weaker but cheaper option. Day at the Faire still exists, helping you keep the swarm of Paladin wannabe's constant.
I'd say the archetype has promise. It might not be too powerful at the start, and we don't yet have all the pieces, but compared to the game's older attempts at making Totem Shaman decks a thing, Silver Hand Recruit Paladins seem to have more going on for them right now.
Before I close, what about decks that don't want to focus their entire deck on their hero power? I reckon one Pursuit of Justice would be a nice little boost. Unless you're fighting a Mage, that 2/1 Recruit could be just what you need to defeat a beefy enemy minion. If you're struggling for board control and trading is a bit harder for you, having those few extra minions, but with a more decent attack value, could be just what you were looking for!
Will the Light Forge You a New One?
We can see that Paladins are getting cards to support a decently varied amount of archetypes. We touched on hero power-centric cards above, but Paladin surely has a lot more to offer. Your favorites, such as Tirion Fordring, are returning, and there's even a buff to the Consecration + Equality combo! Guardian of Kings is no longer pointless and actually does what his name implies, and Holy Light has grown into quite a banger.
We are, unfortunately, saying goodbye to some of the Paladin's other bangers. The sun sets onLay on Hands, with Holy Light taking on a bit of its workload. In a similar vein, the removal of Holy Wrath and Blessing of Wisdom marks the end of card draw being a thing in Paladin. You can also say goodbye to juicy, juicy minions with the removal of Blessed Champion. But it's not all bad, right? At least we won't have Eye for an Eye diluting the card pool! Some other big losses include the beautifully versatile Avenging Wrath as well as Redemption, which gelled really well with Goody Two-Shields
Overall, the Paladin Core Set looks quite promising - it seems to provide decent cards for building all kinds of decks, and, while we are losing some pretty iconic and just generally useful cards, I have hope that this re-imagined Paladin experience, coupled with all the cards we'll be getting our hands-on throughout the years, will lead to some good, fun decks.
I only fear this could end up being the best year to throw Eye for an Eye in your deck!
These are merely my thoughts, and who knows how prophetic they will turn out to be! I'd like to know what y'all think, not just about these new cards, but the Paladin's overall journey through the Year of the Gryphon. Hit me up in the comments below!
View More Out of Cards Core Set Reviews
We're putting together reviews for all the classes and their core set cards. Here's everything up so far!
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Comments
You could argue that Paladin is changing the least as a class when you consider that the Legacy cards it is losing are seldom seen these days. Every other class is losing some powerful auto-includes, but Paladin gets to keep all of theirs.
Dude Paladin has always been interesting to me, but it never seems to be strong enough to truly succeed. I worry that the lil guys are gonna need a health boost in addition to the tools we've seen, or they won't live long enough to make an impact. Lothraxian is all well and good, but as a legendary, he can't exactly be counted on to show up early in the game when you need him most.
I have reached Legend last season with Pure silver hand Paladin 63% win rate. With the new expansion and core set there is a strong change that "dudes Pally " will be a very strong deck.
Well well, here comes the class that has largely benefited from all the core changes, perhaps more so than other classes. Unsurprisingly, that's because paladin's main game plan hasn't really changed much. Just about anything that's important to paladin is still here, Tirion Fordring, Truesilver Champion, Blessing of Kings, Equality, and Consecration, while losing its relatively interesting but for the most part worthless cards like Blessed Champion, Eye for an Eye, and Holy Wrath
Shouldn't be surprising that dude pally is likely to be the most popular, and perhaps best archetype, in the next meta. Card draw continues to plague paladin with the removal of Blessing of Wisdom and the now rotating Salhet's Pride, and it wouldn't surprise me too much if none is to be had in Barrens to draw paladin some cards. Tempo-wise, their cards are simply just better than the other classes. We should count ourselves lucky that Lightforged Crusader is rotating as well, or its likely to be unbearable.
What else can pally do? Murlocs are conclusively out of the way, with Murloc Warleader gone. Managerie paladin is a possibility, libram paladin suffers from card draw and since you can no longer tutor out Pen Flingers, it might be too inconsistent for the top meta. There's a small place for some kind of midrange paladin with Rally! as a centerpiece, so we forgo the dudes and bring in the usual stuff with rally for reload.
One thing is for sure. Paladin is likely to still be in the top 3 of the meta. Unless rogue and dhunters get some really powerful tempo tools, I can't see otherwise.
Paladin has vexed me this year.
I've only ever taken Murloc Paladin seriously. I see no Murloc support in the core set. Warleader is gone. It's sad.
Fish people are people too.
Don’t forget Carnival Barker which may not be a “Dudes” card directly, it synergizes with them since they are 1 health minions. And the new spell Pursuit of Justice only buffs the attack of future SHRs, so it won’t disrupt that synergy either.