EVEN Bigger Paladin

Introduction

Prior to the release of Rise of Shadows and the reveal of Duel! or Call to Adventure, I had been experimenting with Big Paladin decks as an excuse to make use of the Madam Goya that had been sitting in my collection for years.  After making and testing out my initial attempt at the deck, I realized that all of the important mana cheating cards had an even mana cost...

as well as many of the big minions I wanted to cheat out.  Since the deck could struggle in the early game and relied on getting a Silver Hand Recruit to stick in order to use Madam Goya, I figured making an Even Big Paladin might be worth a shot.  The result was this EVEN Bigger Paladin.

Given the deck building restriction that comes with the 1 mana hero power and the need for cheap spells to abuse Prismatic Lens, the deck makes use of a few unusual cards, most notably Seal of Light and A Light in the Darkness.  Although they aren't the greatest cards in the world Seal of Light can be handy for dealing with the board in the early game as well as upgrade Lesser Pearl Spellstones and A Light in the Darkness can give us a minion to play while we wait to draw our mana cheats.  Because we will just be Hero Powering for much of the early game, Frost Giants are included as they will likely cost 0 mana if drawn by Prismatic Lens and they can be played as early as turn 6 or turn 5 with The Coin if you Hero Power every turn.

The Big Minions

In addition to your typical Big Paladin minions like Ragnaros the Firelord, The Lich King, Y'Shaarj, Rage Unbound and Tirion Fordring, this deck makes use of a Big Dragon Package as well...

One of the more unique aspects of Big Paladin compared to other classes' Big Decks is that Prismatic Lens allows you to take advantage of Battlecries when cheating out large minions.  As such Primordial Drake can be a really good pull from it.  Since we don't have access to 7 and 9 mana minions as an Even deck, I included Deathwing, Dragonlord and Chromaggus to have a bit more synergy going for the Drakes and to give Barnes another highroll target.  Originally I was also using the OG Deathwing but often found him to be a dead hit for Prismatic Lens because I didn't fancy discarding my hand and have been using one Bone Drake in his place.  Now that Rise of Shadows is out Nozari may be better because it has a larger body and the full heal can be game changing since you'll be soaking up a lot of hits in the early game, however, I do not own her.

Ragnaros, Lightlord is another Big Minion that you may consider adding if you have him since the only reason he isn't in the deck is that I don't own him.

The Small Spells

In order for Prismatic Lens to make our big minions as cheap as possible, I haven't included any other spells that cost more than 2 mana.

Forbidden Healing is my favorite card to use with Prismatic Lens because it means you can play the big minion you just drew right away!  Who doesn't like playing a 0 mana Y'Shaarj, Rage Unbound on turn 3?!

Lesser Pearl Spellstone can also be considered as part of the big/mana cheating cards since you can make it a 2 mana 6/6 taunt.  To reliably upgrade it in addition to the previously mentioned healing cards, Truesilver Champion is included for both the healing and mid game board control, and Flash of Light is a great card for the deck, not only healing, but cycling to help us find our mana cheats as well! Argent Lance is almost always a 2/3 because of the way the deck is built and it helps us to damage our face so we can actually heal to upgrade the spellstone.

Other Options

As mentioned previously, Nozari and Ragnaros, Lightlord are good to try out as other Big Minions if you have them.  From Rise of Shadows, Big Bad Archmage may also be worth trying.

The only other Rise of Shadows card that might fit this deck is Lightforged Blessing, but I prefer having the cheap spells be things I can play before cheating out my large minions.

Dark Conviction could be useful for buffing our dudes or as soft removal while sticking to the 2 mana cost and Rebuke could be helpful for protecting your large minions from removal and board clears or delaying combos.  In the late game you can also play it alongside cheap Frost Giants and another large minion to secure lethal on board.