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Data Reaper Report - Paladin

Salvage the Bunker

Salvage the Bunker is a Paladin Terran Common Spell for 3 Mana and has text - Summon two 2/2 Marines with Taunt. Your next Starship launch costs (2) less.

A couple of 2/2 taunts for 3 mana is a solid deal based on history, offering both protection and pressure. The latter might be important for a Starship Paladin deck due to its aggressive slant, though we’re a bit suspicious of this direction for the archetype.

When you add the discount potential for launching a starship, this spell seems reasonable.

Score: 2

Ultra-Capacitor

Ultra-Capacitor is a Paladin Terran Rare Mech Minion for 2 Mana with 1 Attack, 1 Health and has text - Starship Piece Battlecry: Gain +1/+1 for each other friendly minion. Also triggers on launch.

This is where things get a bit awkward for us. Ultra-Capacitor is clearly a minion that requires support through a token-style deck, one that floods the board in an aggressive fashion. A baseline 2 mana 1/1 is terrible. It needs two minions in play to be remotely acceptable. It is not even comparable to Roach, a minion that fits the Zerg style seamlessly.

Yet the starship mechanic, even when taking discounts into account, is one that relies on reaching a power spike at a later stage of the game, rather than prioritizing early game board control. Terran units aren’t fast to get to the board, which means we need to run other fast cards to make good use of Ultra-Capacitor.

But if we do that, why aren’t we just playing Showdown Paladin? Do starships not become redundant in an aggressive deck? How useful is the ability in the context of launching a starship anyway? It’s hard for us to envision this panning out. We could be lacking imagination, or this card just sucks.

Score: 1

Hellion

Hellion is a Paladin Terran Rare Mech Minion for 4 Mana with 4 Attack, 4 Health and has text - Your other minions have +1 Attack. (Transforms if you launched a Starship this game.)

Another minion that is contradictory. A baseline Hellion is completely unplayable, which means that we need to launch a starship for it to be any useful. An upgraded Hellbat could be powerful as a board buff or a swing card thanks to its rush aura, but at which point does Hellbat come online?

If we’re playing an aggressive deck with plenty of tokens to take advantage of Hellbat’s buff, most games will be decided before we even launch a starship. What’s more is that starship cards, especially the neutral ones, are relatively slow.

If we opt for a slower starship deck with a higher curve, we’re still not sure what Hellion does. Its abilities become harder to leverage, as our cards are generally slower.

We believe this card is simply redundant in the presence of Crusader Aura for aggressive strategies, while offering questionable use in slower decks.

Score: 1

Final Thoughts: We think the Paladin set is a bit incoherent and is ultimately redundant in the face of available strategies in the class. A slower Paladin deck with Salvage the Bunker could emerge, but it will likely skip the other two cards.