Busy-Bot
Our immediate thought goes to Silver Hand Recruits, which are the classic 1-attack minions available to Paladin. If Busy-Bot can buff a bunch of them, then it’s obviously a good deal inside a 2-mana 3/2, but there are some concerns.
Dude Paladin usually has multiple ways to buff Recruits. Once they’re buffed even once by another card, Busy-Bot doesn’t work on them anymore. This should make the card far worse in practice.
We also think it’s hard to make Busy-Bot work in an aggressive deck that doesn’t go all-in on dudes. Showdown Paladin has a bunch of 1-attack minions, but it also has Flash Sale and Crusader Aura, which are significantly stronger payoffs that are always active. Considering the tight competition already existing, this is a decent card that may fall through the cracks.
Score: 2
Vacation Planning
This card does a lot of things all at once. It makes a board. It draws cards. It heals. We know that Arcane Intellect is a weak draw engine, while a 2-mana spell that draws 2 cards is strong for constructed play. So, if the tacked-on effects are worth 2 mana together, then Vacation Planning is a good deal.
Is summoning three Silver Hand Recruits while healing for 4 worth 2 mana? Easily. Considering this is very comparable in value to Muster for Battle. Vacation Planning is more suitable for a defensive minded deck, but its ability to help us recover, fight for board, while also accumulating resources is powerful.
This should become a staple card for any Paladin deck with some late game aspirations.
Score: 4
Trust Fall
Discovering 2 minions for 4 mana is in no way an acceptable value generator. The built-in buff attached to them can be sizable in theory, but simply playing Trust Fall already sets us far behind on board, so there’s a lot of ground to catch up for these stat buffs to be worthwhile.
What we dislike about this card the most is that it’s a value generator that doesn’t further any specific deck’s game plan. This is probably the real killer of its competitive prospects. There’s nothing to leverage here besides finding random garbage and hoping the extra stats blow out the opponent on turn 5 after completely passing our turn 4, which gives the opponent a lot of breathing room to set up removal. We dislike this card conceptually.
Score: 1
Final Thoughts: Vacation Planning is a boost for Paladin’s late game consistency. Mage is already blessed with card draw, so may not feel compelled to tap into it. We don’t expect the other two cards to make a big impact.
