Communist Paladin

Last updated 2 years, 10 months ago by
  • Casual
6

All minions are equal, but some minions are more equal than others.

The Paladin questline is probably the weakest among the Stormwind questlines. This deck tries to make the most out of a weak card and the result is stronger than you might expect, but not something you could use to climb ladder once you're out of bronze. It is however a great deck when you have the "complete 3 Stormwind questlines" weekly quest, since you can complete the questline pretty much every single game.

Game Plan

The goal of the deck is to complete the questline before turn 5, so you can get a 7/7 Lightborn Cariel down and buff your Silver Hand Recruits at a time in the game when those stats are still relevant. If you're on the coin, you have a decent chance of succeeding; if you go first you need above average draws.

In most matchups you'll be the aggressor, so make sure you get in chit damage and only trade if it's favorable. You can end up with a full board however, especially after you upgrade your hero power, so if you're running out of board space you should sacrifice your weakest minions.

If there are no enemy minions to clean up, I often go face with Light's Justice. A few points of extra damage can matter, plus there is the chance you'll discover a new weapon from Blessed Goods later.

Using the 0-mana hero power from Tour Guide becomes twice as valuable after you upgrade your hero power and a lot more than that after you play Lightborn Cariel, so plan ahead.

Mechanics

Rise to the Occasion requires you to play 3 different 1-cost cards per questline stage. Keep track of which cards you have played in the current stage to avoid playing duplicates and missing out on quest ticks.

Try to play cards that you might draw or generate duplicates of before unique cards, to reduce the chance you'll be stuck with unplayable cards in your hand later. As you can't play a secret that's already in play, it can be a good idea to play a secret early to maximize the chance that it has triggered by the time you might want to play another copy of the same secret.

To complete the questline before turn 5, you need to play the quest card and 3 rounds of three 1-cost cards, so in total you need 10 cards and spend 10 mana. Since 1+2+3+4 = 10, the mana is not an issue, but getting ten 1-cost cards is tricky, since you get three or four 1-cost cards in your opening hand and draw one per turn on turns 1-4 for a total of 7 or 8 cards. Getting enough value out of your card draw/generation is crucial.

If Safety Inspector is the last card in your hand, it will draw you a card when played, even though you have nothing to shuffle into the deck.

Ivus, the Forest Lord counts as a 1-cost card, no matter how much mana its battlecry consumes.

If your opponent has no minions on board, it can be a good idea to play Pen Flinger or Guardian Augmerchant before your other minions, otherwise you'll be forced to target your own minions even though you might not want to damage them.

Mulligan

Keep cards that provide multiple quest ticks: cards that draw or generate other cards, plus Pen Flinger. Keep spells if you found Pen Flinger.

You can keep Intrepid Initiate if you're on the coin, but if you go first you cannot afford to lose out on any potential extra questline ticks.

Replacements

The questline is obviously irreplaceable. The only other expensive card is Oh My Yogg!, which can be replaced by other 1-mana spells.

Blessed Goods often discovers another quest tick (secret or Righteous Protector) while in the late game it can discover weapons or bigger minions to force a lethal. To maximize the chance of drawing it via Knight of Anointment, I'd advise against including too many Holy spells in the deck.

It is useful to have one-ofs in this deck, since it makes it easier to play 3 different cards per questline stage. However, there aren't a whole lot of playable 1-drops. I tried to balance this by running 2 copies of the good cards and 1 copy of weaker or more situational cards. Examples of good but situational cards are Animated Broomstick and Guardian Augmerchant.

Other 1-drops that you could substitute include Irondeep Trogg and Elven Archer.

I have attempted running Lady Prestor, but I think it makes the deck weaker overall: it takes a long time before it pays off, while it decreases the chance you'll complete the questline by turn 5 significantly. Additionally, you generally want to use your hero power every turn after you play Cariel, which conflicts with Lady Prestor's mana cost on turn 6 or 7.

 

Vote On This Deck!

Enjoy this deck guide? Help others find it and show your support to the author by giving it an upvote!

6

More Quest Paladin Decks


More Decks From Zelgadis

Comments

  • yollowolf's Avatar
    40 1 Posts Joined 01/16/2022
    Posted 2 years, 10 months ago

    I made this acc just to say that this deck doesn't work. 

    0
    • Zelgadis's Avatar
      Wizard 1070 870 Posts Joined 05/29/2019
      Posted 2 years, 10 months ago

      In what way doesn't it work? It should be fairly easy to complete the questline and there are various other synergies as well.

      If you mean the deck is relatively weak compared to meta decks, then I agree, but the first paragraph of the guide already mentions that.

      I've looked at several other decks that people build around Rise to the Occasion and they all came to a point where the way to improve the deck was to drop the questline. I wanted to see what would happen if you go all in on the questline by maximizing the chance of completing it by turn 5. I think this deck succeeds in that goal, but the outcome of the experiment is that the quest reward often isn't enough to carry you to victory with an almost empty hand and 1-drops as top-decks.

      0
    • Crusader2010's Avatar
      Garrosh 695 295 Posts Joined 05/30/2019
      Posted 2 years, 10 months ago

      Obviously. It's communist! Just look at how equal all the cards are!

      🤣

      0

Leave a Comment

You must be signed in to leave a comment. Sign in here.