The Comprehensive Across the Timeways Preview

 

Hardlight Protector

A 2 mana 2/1 with divine shield is weak, so we need to evaluate just how good the effect is. We will usually be playing Protector in the early game, so we will most likely be facing early game minions that have a low attack value to punch through our divine shield. Therefore, we cannot consider the divine shield to be worth more than about 2 points of health. It gets a little better in the late game but remains weak against ‘ping’ classes.

Furthermore, Protector may end up overhealing us if we play it on curve, as our opponent will only get a chance to attack us with their 1-drop. This diminishes the value of the effect as well.

We cannot value the battlecry at more than half a mana, which makes Protector acceptable in slower decks only. We suspect a new Paladin deck will need to emerge for this minion to see play.

Score: 2

Tankgineer

A small, sticky minion with a massive deathrattle. A 7/7 with divine shield is a massive threat in the mid-game, but it is unlikely to pop before turn 6 without proactive support on our end, as our opponent will otherwise ignore the 4 mana 2/1 body.

Where things get interesting is when Carnivorous Cubicle enters the conversation. It offers perfect follow-up to a turn 4 Tankgineer, punishing an opponent that ignores the initial body. In fact, it seems incredibly difficult to play around this curve, as popping Tankgineer alone means we can eat the Tank with Cubicle.

Paladin has already been flirting with Cubicle thanks to Terran Paladin’s synergy with The Egg of Khelos. The addition of a faster threat that works well with Cubicle and Umbra may enhance the deck’s consistency to the point it is a serious competitor.

Score: 3

Chronological Aura

This spell is identical in its impact to Dozing Dragon, a 5 mana Druid Dragon from Perils in Paradise, as it summons three 3/5 taunt dragons across three turns. Dozing Dragon is a fringe card that did not see much play even at the height of Dragon Druid’s competitive phase.

This means that for Chronological Aura to see play, it needs a significant push through synergies. Gelbin of Tomorrow is the primary candidate to make this aura work, as it highly encourages the Paladin to stack its decks with auras that Gelbin can pull out from the deck and cast for free. In that context, Chronological Aura provides board development and stabilization following the Gelbin turn.

Paladin’s set does have a heavy focus on aura, with Manifested Timeways also offering a strong aura payoff, but we can only see Chronological Aura being played in a dedicated Gelbin deck.

Score: 2

Neon Innovation

The discover pool from this spell is of low quality and mechs have no synergy in Paladin under the current format. The only upside of Neon Innovation is that it allows us to potentially cheese the opponent with a massive minion on turn 4, much like we do with Creature of Madness when we get the +4/+5 Dark Gift buff. The big difference is that Creature of Madness develops a body on turn 2 and guarantees us a turn 3 play. Neon Innovation requires us to completely skip turn 3, which is a far bigger penalty, while not providing us with a guarantee of an efficient follow-up turn.

There is no chance this spell touches Standard.

Score: 1

Manifested Timeways

This minion possesses an extremely powerful effect. A 4 mana 3/3 that deals 3 asymmetrical damage that goes face is nuts. The 3-damage breakpoint is critical at dealing with most early game threats, so Timeways provides us with a big swing card against aggressive decks.

The condition is not easy to meet, especially on turn 4, as it requires us to develop an aura before that turn. Paladin does have two cheap auras for that purpose, though it forces us to play slightly off curve. A turn 2 or 3 Lifesaving Aura or a turn 3 Resistance Aura activate Manifested Timeways on turn 4.

If we play a dedicated “Auradin” deck, Timeways should be trivial to activate throughout the game, especially post-Gelbin. But this effect is so powerful, while Paladin lacks strong board clears beyond Equality, that this minion is a great incentive to run an Aura package in any late-game-oriented Paladin deck.

This is a powerful minion only limited by a steep deckbuilding restriction.

Score: 3

PMM Infinitizer

For those that remember, Paladin got a similar spell back in Scholomance Academy called Blessing of Authority. It was a 5-mana spell that buffed a minion by +8/+8 and did not allow it to attack heroes on that turn. That spell saw competitive play in board-centric Paladin decks because they always had a target to buff on curve, and it gave them the option to pressure through large threats against opponents that excelled at clearing wide boards. It was a decent card, but far from overpowered.

PMM Infinitizer represents a dramatic reverse power creep from the original effect. It does not buff by +8/+8, but sets stats to 8/8, meaning it is far less effective on larger minions. It also comes down on turn 6, so whatever threat we develop cannot hit our opponent in the face until turn 7. For an aggressive deck, a one turn delay is a huge deal.

The only upside is that it comes with a body, but the later the game goes, the more the impact of stats diminish as more removal becomes available. This card is too slow for aggressive decks.

Score: 1

Past Gnomeregan

This location is worth a lot of stats for the cost. Three 2/1 buffs with further effects in subsequent charges that help us pressure the opponent further. This is a great card for any board-centric Paladin deck that starts its pressure game plan on turn 1. Any Aggro Paladin running Crusader Aura should consider this a good card for the next 16 months, for example. It is not a great fit for Quest Paladin, as the deck skips turn 1 and does not want to spend mana on non-murloc cards.

We can also see Gnomeregan proving its usefulness in a Terran Paladin running The Egg of Khelos and Tankgineer. This is a great tool to buff and activate multiple phases of The Egg of Khelos for trades.

Score: 3

Mend the Timeline

The average cost of a random Holy spell in Standard is 3 mana, so Mend the Timeline’s heal effect is worth slightly over 6 health considering the Rewind effect. It does need to be said that expensive Holy spells are usually bad, so there is a tradeoff between finding useful spells and healing for a larger amount.

Generating 2 random spells for 3 mana is a completely unplayable effect. We have seen cards like Mend the Timeline proven to be useless even at 2 mana. Is the heal effect worth more than 1 mana? Our verdict says no, which means Mend the Timeline is unworthy of constructed play, even when taking its Rewind effect into consideration.

Score: 1

The Fins Beyond Time

The closest comparison we have to Fins Beyond Time is Rogue’s Secret Passage. This spell was a Standard staple by providing an incredible card advantage tool, allowing the class to dig into its deck and find more immediate resources. It required a deck with a cheap curve, but when properly leveraged, it was a menacing tool.

Fins Beyond Time costs 1 more mana and does not tap into our deck, but into our old starting hand. This does make it likely that we will find cheap cards with it, but the effect and cost are not comparable to how good Secret Passage was.

Nevertheless, this legendary is a great option for aggressive decks to reload the board with recycled resources. The Fins Beyond Time is a murloc, which makes it a likely staple in Quest Paladin, where we can use it to find more murlocs. It also looks enticing in any aggressive Paladin deck with a cheap curve that can play this legendary around turn 6 and load the board again for Crusader Aura after facing an opponent’s AOE.

Nowhere near as good as Secret Passage but being worse than Secret Passage hardly dooms its competitive prospects. We think this card sees play.

Score: 3

Gelbin of Tomorrow

Both Gelbin’s auras are unimpressive spells when evaluated as standalone cards. Mekkatorque’s Aura is a delayed mid-sized buff at a high cost of 5 mana. Gnomish Aura is particularly weak, offering a small heal for three turns to our characters. Neither of these spells are constructed worthy.

But these auras have tradeable and are never meant to be cast from our hand. Whenever we draw them, we trade them back to maximize Gelbin. Gelbin’s battlecry pulls auras from our deck and casts them for free. This makes Gelbin a powerful cheat card that can be tutored by Ursine Maul and accelerated with Paladin’s coin generation through their Rogue tourist set from Perils of Paradise.

Gelbin makes us view auras differently. Crafter’s Aura now looks like a serious consideration in constructed decks, alongside Chronological Aura. Together with Gelbin and his two tradeable auras, they provide significant board pressure and stabilization across multiple turns. Add Resistance Aura to the equation and it becomes increasingly hard for the opponent to properly respond to this play.

We think the prospect of an ‘Auradin’ has serious potential, with Paladin possessing the proper tools to leverage this package in a consistent fashion. We may also see Gelbin inserted into an existing deck, such as Imbue Paladin. If there is any ambition from a Paladin deck to hit turn 7/8, then the combination of Gelbin and Ursol looks tasty.

Score: 3

Final Thoughts

Across the Timeways Set Rank: 5^th

Overall Power Ranking: 8^th

Paladin is a class that has gone stale over the last 4 months. It needed to freshen up with new ideas and we believe it received a set that can push it in a new direction that has not been explored yet: A deck entirely built around auras.

Until now, Auras were a spell type with effects that complemented strategies. This set requires us to think about them differently, as a building block for a strategy where they become the focus.

Auras are inherently backloaded spells that provide less immediately and more once they fully resolve. This means they tend to be individually weak and reliant on other synergies to work well. The solution in the set is to brute force them to the point they become overwhelming.

What better way to do this than add a late game card we can consistently tutor with Ursine Maul that cheats over twenty mana’s worth of Auras? Or a minion that demolishes an enemy board when an aura is active? Gelbin and Manifested Timeways have the potential to carry this archetype.

Our main concern is that Auradin might be one-dimensional and overly reliant on an early Gelbin to win. Similarly to secret decks, we do not really want to draw auras. We want to cheat them out. Furthermore, Auradin may not have enough juice to win late game matchups by itself, meaning we may need to add more greed to the archetype and find ourselves vulnerable to aggression. Alternatively, we could treat auras as a package and insert them into an existing archetype, such as Imbue Paladin.

We do not have too much hope for aggressive Paladin decks. Quest Paladin will no longer be the new deck on the block and new additions to the archetype will be minimal. Aggro Paladin gets a couple of new cards but has little chance of attracting players when other aggressive decks will have a more diversified game plan.

The one sneaky powerful card in this set could be Tankgineer, but we will see if players are willing to revisit Terran Paladin with Egg of Khelos to make it work.

Paladin has potential competitive strategies, but each one has serious question marks surrounding its power and/or appeal. The class should be able to survive, but we will be surprised to see it dominate early. Its best chance of gaining visibility is with an explosive, christmas tree Auradin.