The Comprehensive Scholomance Academy Preview

 

First Day of School

How good was Fire Fly? First Day of School is better than Fire Fly, since one of the generated minions is almost guaranteed to be better than a 1/2, which means that First Day of School offers a stronger turn 1 play on average. This is the kind of card Paladin needed to fully take advantage of Hand of A’dal, and improve the consistency of its curve. The fact it’s a 0-mana spell is another upside relevant to Spellburst synergies. Basically, First Day of School is one of the strongest 1-drops and 2-drops in the format.

Score: 4

Shield of Honor

Paladin doesn’t have reliable self-damage capabilities, so the class could struggle to make use of this card, even though it would love to for obvious reasons. Shield of Honor represents a lot of pressure, but the condition is just too difficult to consistently meet.

Score: 1

Wave of Apathy

In Paladin, we’d rather set our opponents’ minions to 1 health rather than 1 attack. Much like Shield of Honor, this card feels like it was forcefully jammed into Paladin and is much more useful in the other class it shares it with.

Score: 1

Judicious Junior

Pack filler isn’t what Paladin needs right now, or pretty much ever. This is a very underwhelming and unimaginative minion that is unlikely to see play in a constructed deck.

Score: 1

Gift of Luminance

This card feels very redundant in the face of stronger buffs that are available to the class. Paladin doesn’t have 2-drops that would particularly benefit from this follow-up buff other than Micro Mummy, and we’re not dying to play Micro Mummy.

Score: 1

Goody Two-Shields

This card is pushed so hard. A 3 mana 4/2 with Divine Shield and the ability to refresh that Divine Shield feels very much like a 4-drop rather than a 3-drop. Can generate a lot of pressure in slower matchups and acts as a threatening buff target. Not as good in faster matchups since aggressive opponents will find it easier to trade into it if they have the board, but this is definitely a strong upgrade for a class that currently resorts to playing Bronze Explorer on 3 because it doesn’t have better options. This instantly becomes the best 3-drop in the format.

Score: 4

Blessing of Authority

This is a gigantic buff that feels very cheap for what it does, though the downside is certainly relevant as you cannot take advantage of it immediately. Still, Paladin currently struggles to close out games in slower matchups so just having big, dumb threats can be useful. It also has specific synergy with a certain legendary that’s worth exploring.

Score: 2

Commencement

We don’t believe in Duel Paladin and we don’t think this is the card that turns it into a meta contender. Commencement is pretty much unplayable outside of this archetype, so we don’t see much promise in it.

Score: 1

Argent Braggart

The great equalizer. Braggart looks insane to us on paper, providing Paladin with a way to either leverage a board lead to unbearable levels, or offer a tempo swing in case we’ve fallen behind. Works tremendously well with buffs and could make Salhet’s Pride a reasonable tutor option in the class. You don’t need to do much for it to be a strong play at 2 mana. Though it’s unlikely to be strong on turn 2, its ability to scale in the mid-late game is tremendous. Braggart is essentially a pseudo Faceless Manipulator for 2 mana. Unreal when you really think about it.

Score: 4

Ceremonial Maul

Maul competes with stronger weapons in the class, and there’s no reasonable follow up to the card on turn 4 that really gets us thinking, so we’re not big fans of this weapon. We’re not developing on the turn we play it either, so it’s unlikely we can connect with Blessing of Kings, for example. Considering the current power level of Underlight Angling Rod and Lightforged Zealot, we give this one a pass.

Score: 1

Devout Pupil

Pupil from Below. This card is obscene. At its base cost, it’s a Sunwalker. A discount of two mana already makes this card overwhelmingly strong, and with Libram of Wisdom around, it’s going to get discounted quickly. We’ve learned by now. When you have a beefy boy that can potentially cost 0 mana, you just give it the max score and move on. Devout Pupil is a hard push to get Paladin in business.

Score: 4

Lord Barov

So, we’re just going to print a 3 mana 3/2 that casts a spell that was nerfed to 4 mana? Okay then. Lord Barov looks utterly ridiculous, though there is an argument that Paladin may not utilize it as well as it could for two reasons. The first is that Control Paladin just hasn’t been around lately. All of Paladin’s current archetypes are beatdown in nature, so a symmetrical removal card may not be the best fit for them, especially when Libram of Justice is around. The second is that Paladin doesn’t have Whirlwind effects that can combo with it and doesn’t have a way to easily kill it to activate the deathrattle. So, while there is no doubt that this card is extremely powerful, it may not make an immediate impact.

Score: 2

High Abbess Alura

Alura could potentially become a new Barnes by cheating out a ridiculous amount of mana through various ways. We particularly like her synergy with buffs and the way she can completely blow out the opponent by casting something on herself (Blessing of Kings, Blessing of Authority, Libram of Hope). Even weaker outcomes should still end up being favorable for the Paladin considering Alura is a 4 mana 3/6 at her baseline. First Day of School and Libram of Wisdom are strong activators as well as the coin, of course. Just an overwhelmingly powerful card that we can break in multiple ways.

Score: 4

Turalyon, the Tenured

Turalyon is a sad late-game removal card considering it’s not strictly better than Natalie Seline, a Priest legendary from the classic set. Turalyon doesn’t go through taunts and doesn’t deal with divine shields very well, and its only major upside is that its effect can potentially be repeated if it survives. That is a big if, and the fact that we struggle to put it clearly over a legendary that doesn’t see much play is indicative of how underwhelming it is. No, the Duel synergy doesn’t make us excited about it either.

Score: 1

 

 

Final Thoughts

Scholomance Academy Set Rank: 4^th

Overall Power Ranking: 7^th

Paladin’s set in Scholomance Academy is about shedding its naivete. It’s time to stop being nice and fair, and start playing dirty.

The class hasn’t received strong card draw mechanics in this set, which is an issue that still limits its decks to some degree. Lack of draw makes us less comfortable about Paladin’s chances of success than we’d like, but the set seems to be trying to make up for it with some utterly ridiculous standalone cards.

First Day of School is exactly what Paladin was looking for to have a more threatening and consistent early game. Goody Two-Shields is a blatantly overtuned on-curve play. Argent Braggart and Devout Pupil can potentially provide extremely powerful tempo swings. Alura is one of the most dangerous cards in this set, from a balance perspective.

These cards give Pure Paladin a stronger game plan to take over the board and pressure the opponent with sheer power. It’s not going to be subtle or clever, but mostly about putting more stats on the board and cheating more mana. This could compensate for Paladin’s late-game flaws in slower matchups, by increasing its mid-game lethality. If we never get to the late game, we don’t have a problem!

Aggro Paladin’s loss of Divine Favor has drastically lowered its chances of being competitively viable ever since. But, with Voracious Reader, it could make a return. Several cards in the Paladin set are just as good in Aggro Paladin as they are in Pure, because they’re hard-hitting.

As for slower Paladin archetypes, they might still run into an issue of how to proactively win games, and the new cards the class has received don’t really solve it.

To conclude, Paladin will not want to wait until the late game. Uther will be bringing his hardest-hitting weapons to the field, and hope that by the time he’s out of breath from swinging them, the opponent will already be knocked out on the ground.