The Comprehensive United in Stormwind Preview

 

Blessed Goods

This is a fairly underwhelming discover card. While you’re given the choice between multiple options, it’s very likely that your deck is only interested in one of the pools. Blessed Goods seems mostly geared to give Quest Paladin an easier time at completing the quest because of its 2-for-1 potential when discovering a secret, but we can’t see any other reason why you’d play this card. Handbuff Paladin would rather run a Divine Shield minion of its choice.

Score: 1

City Tax

This is a good activator for Libram of Justice or Lord Barov in Libram Paladin. The archetype did suffer from inconsistency issues when it comes to using these cards, to the point where it cut them altogether. City Tax allows the archetype to reconsider and potentially utilize them more effectively, without a great deckbuilding cost since we can trade it if it’s not useful in the moment. This does ease the pressure on Paladin’s lack of card draw.

Score: 3

Alliance Bannerman

This card is amazing. Any sort of proactive Paladin deck with a decent density of minions will want Bannerman in its 30. It adds so much consistency to everything that the class wants to do. Maintaining your hand size while handbuffing makes this infinitely better than Grimestreet Outfitter, and that card has proven to be strong enough in Wild. It’s also the glue that ties everything together in the potential Divine Shield Handbuff Paladin that is being pushed in this set. Powerhouse.

Score: 4

Prismatic Jewel Kit

This weapon does a lot for 1 mana. Potentially buffing your hand 3 times is absurd. Yes, there is quite the restriction on divine shields, but Paladin was given so many options to consistently activate this throughout its curve. We’ve seen weapons in other classes present harder restrictions with weaker effects. Jewel Kit doesn’t need to do much to be worth triple its cost, and its synergy with divine shield feeds itself (buffing minions with divine shield is quite strong). The main issue we’re seeing is card draw. If you can’t keep your hand size adequate, then Jewel might feel underwhelming, so we’re a little hesitant about its playability.

Score: 2

Noble Mount

This buff is very sticky while potentially triggering Jewel Kit twice. Even if we ignore that particularly synergy, Noble Mount just helps Paladin do what it wants to do in the current format: land Conviction. So, it furthers the class’ overall game plan, while working very well with synergies that are being pushed in this set. Another winner.

Score: 3

Catacomb Guard

This might be the most exciting handbuffing card because of its ability to shut down aggressive decks. This archetype tends to struggle when it’s overrun due to its required setup turns, allowing a faster deck to pressure it. Catacomb Guard is so strong with just one buff, since it can remove an early game minion, heal yourself and act as a must-remove threat. Decks that rely on burning you down cannot let this survive, and trading into it becomes incredibly awkward the bigger it grows. Just a well-rounded card. Dispatch Kodo cries in a corner.

Score: 3

Lightbringer’s Hammer

Aldrachi Warblades for Paladin? Well, this isn’t as good as Warblades. Demon Hunter has plenty of attack buffs to scale and abuse lifesteal, while the 6 damage is as good as this Hammer will ever get. The bigger problem though is its inability to attack heroes. That makes it so much worse, even defensively since you cannot heal off the Hammer if there are no minions in play. Aggressive decks will very much prefer Angling Rod if they’re not running Sword of the Fallen. Libram Paladin could find it to be a strong early game weapon, though it will have to cut Sword for it, and that’s a tough decision to make.

Score: 2

First Blade of Wrynn

This minion is jacked with stats. A 4 mana 3/5 with divine shield is already well above the curve, but if you buff it even once, it becomes an absolutely insane rush minion that can provide you with a huge board swing. Drawing it off the top is not going to feel great, but this is one of the minions that Jewel Kit and Bannerman will look to buff, and it’s a perfect follow-up for Bannerman.

Score: 3

Rise to the Occasion

This quest is filled with contradictions that we suspect will ultimately be its downfall. The requirement is highly restrictive, demanding you to run many 1-cost cards in the deck to quickly complete the quest and get to the tempting reward (which is more powerful than Jaraxxus’ hero power). The problem is that with Paladin’s card draw options as well as the quest’s high demand for 1-drops, Quest Paladin is very likely to run out of gas quickly.

And this leads to the next problem, which is that aggressive decks have never been good at utilizing quests. The penalty is too high for their early game, which means quest decks must worry about sustainability into the late game and properly maximize their power spike. So, Quest Paladin is forced to run many 1-drops yet still pretend it’s not an aggressive deck. This is not likely to work since it will have no defensive tools to survive.

Score: 1

Highlord Fordragon

It feels like we’re revisiting Mean Streets of Gadgetzan, but the power is just way up on Handbuff Paladin. Fordragon is basically a cracked-up Don Han’Cho. It’s one less mana for one less health but has divine shield. Hon’Cho’s battlecry turns into a board-wide ability, so even though it doesn’t activate immediately, its ceiling is much higher and it’s also likely to activate itself at the very least. This card is still a bit slow (no immediate impact on the board) and can be removed in ways that avoid activating it, so we’re not hugely enamored with it. But if Handbuff Paladin is successful, this should sit close to the top of its curve. It has potential for some utter craziness.

Score: 2

Final Thoughts

United in Stormwind Set Rank: 4^th

Overall Power Ranking: 10^th

Paladin got a strong set, but it’s filled with some uncertainties. Most of the power seems to be going into a new, handbuffing archetype, and while this package of cards does show promise, there are certain things that keep us cautious when it comes to assessing its viability.

First, is a lack of card draw. Handbuffing requires you to maintain a good hand size, especially with Jewel Kit, which has quite a bit of upside but is very resource-intensive. Bannerman helps a ton in that regard, but we’re not going to draw it every game and while the neutral card pool offers us some reload, we need to make things count early too.

With that being said, the synergy cards are quite powerful and have potential to be very effective at initiative-focused matchups, which is a good recipe for ladder success. The question is whether buffing minions and playing them turn after turn is an effective enough strategy to beat defensive decks. There’s a hint of linearity and predictable gameplay that could limit this deck’s ceiling.

When it comes to other Paladin decks, we must be reminded of the gap in the power they have to close. Libram and Secret Paladin may have received a couple of good cards, but that doesn’t guarantee they can make their return after the multitude of nerfs they got hit with.

Quest Paladin doesn’t look promising to us at all, with a very restrictive requirement that we’re uncomfortable building around. A dedicated Dude Paladin doesn’t have the means to survive pressure as a Quest deck, and any other iterations look suspect at best when so much needs to be invested into a 1-cost slot.

We think every class in the format has a good chance of being competitive, and we have hopes for Handbuff Paladin, but Paladin might be the most vulnerable class in the format, with plenty of unknown factors and lacking a solid safety net.