Introduction:

I think I might be one of the only people out there still exploring the Secret Paladin archetype at this point. Call me old fashioned, but I will always smile upon hearing an old friend remind me that it is none of my business to wonder who he is as he puts up a shiny golden Christmas tree above my hero. Forged in the Barrens definitely gave Secret Paladin a shot in the arm a few years ago with cards like Sword of the Fallen, Crossroads Gossiper and Northwatch Commander, but the deck still revolved around an incredibly powerful card that I personally happen to find a little boring and restrictive to deckbuilding at this point: Call to Arms. While I have nothing against those who enjoy a good CtA-Aggro-Paladin-Sort-of-Deck, I have grown a little tired of shoving it into any aggro-minded Paladin deck to cheat out Crabrider and [Hearthstone Card (Nerub’ar Weblord) Not Found]. After seeing a pair of YouTube videos from Chump and Darkseeker (linked below) I became curious about branching the archetype out into Pure Paladin territory as others had tried previously during Ashes of Outland. After some tinkering I arrived at two different lists I am enjoying currently: the one you are reading which is a midrange-y deck focused on secret synergies, and a list running The Purator and an accompanying light menagerie package to drive a big draw and swing turn. Both versions of this deck are only possible due to the presence of The Countess. She gives this deck a new set of legs that it didn’t have before, creating win conditions and fun interactions out of thin air. Both are quite fun and play pretty similarly, so hopefully one of these is fun for you!

Inspiration videos:

 

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Win Condition:

 

This is a midrange style deck, which means you are going to be fighting for the board with your minions in the early game in order to swing the game hard with a Mysterious Challenger turn. If that doesn’t secure a one or two turn lethal through minion damage, you have The Countess to generate a new win condition through a variety of 0-cost legendary minions. Most importantly, you want to play these friends as close to on curve as possible. To help facilitate this, the deck runs the powerhouse spell Order in the Court to throw them on top of your deck as well as bury your secrets so they can be cheated out through other means. 

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Secrets and Those Keep Them 

These are your tools for building a board for lethal and protecting a board once you have built it. Of particular note is the rarely-run Commander Rhyssa and even more rarely seen Cannonmaster Smythe. Both are run in this deck because they are personal pet cards that I adore, even if their power level doesn’t quite match modern day Hearthstone all that well. That being said, Rhyssa is definitely better than Smythe in this deck. The secret package I have chosen is designed to run with her ability (minus Oh My Yogg!) to maximize her benefit when she sticks on the board. If Rhyssa can stick (which isn’t impossible against decks that rely on spell-based removal if you have a protective secret up) she can turn a board into a big threat if your buffing secrets are able to double proc. Heaven help your opponent if Rhyssa is followed up by a Mysterious Challenger, as hilarity and big green numbers will ensue. 

Cannonmaster Smythe should be a different card in this deck. However, as hard as it may be to believe, his ability to build a board against a cautious opponent has actually somehow made the difference in a few games and thats enough for me to keep him around. Once again, if a decently-sized board of Northwatch Soldiers can stick around into a Mysterious Challenger turn, a slightly lesser but still large amount of hilarity can ensue as the opponent tries to navigate the minefield of little question marks. I’m not saying it’s optimal or even any good, but I like having Smythe around. It’s a real blast serving the Alliance with him, after all. 

Sword of the Fallen is here to help cheat out secrets and fight back against small early game minions so that you do not get completely overrun immediately. While the weapon can cause you to run out of secrets for your Challengers to play, it can be useful to protect an early board if you need a faster gameplan or to build a board against a slower opponent with Smythe. 

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Pure Nonsense

These cards help you control the board through their pure condition battlecry effects. Class Action Lawyer is a powerhouse of a card and the main reason this deck moved away from a Call to Arms shell. Whether it be early in a game to get ahead on board or late in the game to neutralize a bomb from the opponent, this Single Female Lawyer does not mess around and comes ready to fight for her clients every game. Her ability makes it so your Sword of the Fallen can clear any minion that doesn’t have Divine Shield, paving the way for your secretly buffed minions to hit the opponent’s face. 

Lightforged Zealot gives you a slightly beefy weapon to help control the board in the late-early to midgame while providing some healing to offset the damage your face is taking as well. And hey, the weapon is getting buffed to heal 3 in the next core set so there’s that! 

We’ve already talked about The Countess. The flexibility she provides is bananas and makes every game a lot of fun as you stitch together unlikely lethals through combinations of class legendaries that shouldn’t be played together. 

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Other Support in the Deck:

Knight of the Dead has been such a strong card for me that I’m surprised I don’t see more of it from my opponents. I don’t think I’ve ever played one of these minions and been disappointed by it. Early game pressure, late game healing, he/she/it’s got it all. One particular game ended very quickly after a Knight of the Dead was buffed by Never Surrender, Competitive Spirit, and the 2 mana spell my opponent cast that got Yogg-ed into Bless targeting my Knight, resulting in a turn 4 10/10 on board. Count me as a huge fan of this card. 

Murgur Murgurgle is here as both an early board contest and a late game board refilling bomb. Just try not to play Order in the Court until he has been shuffled in if at all possible. 

Sanguine Soldier is a a good, aggressive 1 drop meant to help you get out ahead and control the board at the start of the game. 

Order in the Court continues to be a powerful card in many Paladin decks, and this goes doubly so for Secret Paladin in general. For 2 mana you get your bombs stacked on the top of your deck while also burying the draws you don’t want in the late game to give you a better chance of closing things out before you run out of steam. This is another card that almost single-handedly has made Secret Paladin feel pretty good again. 

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Substitution Ideas:

Really, any of the secrets can be fine-tuned as you see fit. I went with board buffs primarily to try to double them up with Rhyssa when possible, but secrets like Redemption and Noble Sacrifice can be just as beneficial by protecting the minions you play while still generating extra bodies if Rhyssa can stick around. Righteous Protector can play into this slower gameplan as well, creating annoying attack-eating wall that can protect your more valuable minions through sheer stubbornness and tenacity. 

High Exarch Yrel….I just want to play her so badly. She was in this deck for a while…but she didn’t feel worth the mana cost and the delay to The Countess and Mysterious Challengers that she creates when Order in the Court is played. Maybe you don’t mind her in your version, but she ended up being cut to make room for Murgur Murgurgle, who feels pretty good both in the early and late game. 

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Conclusion:

I love this archetype so much. Watching your secrets pop off will always feel diabolical, and seeing them benefit from Commander Rhyssa is just hilarious every time. Plus, it feels good to give some very underplayed cards a home even if they are very much suboptimal and should be replaced. While the upcoming set Festival of Legends and the core set for the Year of the Wolf have done away with secret support, I will continue to mess around with secret packages and see what other archetypes they can mix with to create fun, new combinations. In particular, I have my eyes on the divine shield package from Festival and am excited to see how it might mesh with these secret cards. Will it work? Probably not. But it will still be fun to test out and try new things. 

If you like this version, check out its companion deck Secrets of the Purator:

This version, which is probably stronger, forgoes cards like Sanguine Soldier and Cannonmaster Smythe in order to cram in The Purator and a small menagerie package. It will probably do better for most people when compared to this deck, but this one will always be near and dear to my heart as my first attempt at a Pure Secret Pally.