Ever since The Grand Tournament last year, one deck in Hearthstone has reigned supreme. Secret Paladin, no matter what Tempo Storm says, is king. In the past, Paladin struggled with finding an identity. Murloc Paladin, Agro Paladin and Control Paladin all saw play but were never truly considered “S tier.” Everything changed when TGT arrived, giving us the Mysterious Challenger.
This card single handedly changed the game, shaping the meta around it. Mysterious Challenger puts one copy of up to five secrets from your deck onto the battlefield. Secrets like Noble Sacrifice and Avenge that never saw play, were now considered must-haves for a competitive deck. Secret Paladins have dominated the ladder since release. Try playing a game on ladder without running into one. While climbing to Legend, I played roughly 10 Secret Paladins to one of anything else. Ranks 8 to 2 are jam packed with this one deck. It’s gotten to the point where you can’t tell the difference between a bot and a real person, except the real person spams “well played” as you are losing.
A good deck would be played a lot, but still wouldn’t be everywhere. In its heyday, Patron Warrior was the most powerful deck, dominating competitive Hearthstone. On the ladder, it didn’t receive nearly as much success. Players struggled to grasp the tempo and difficult play style the deck required. Patron Warrior involved setting up combos with Grim Patron and Warsong Commander (RIP) to have more board control than your opponent. Secret Paladin is mindlessly easy. No matter how bad you think you are at Hearthstone, you can play Secret Paladin (with the right cards.)
Is it turn 6? Do you have Mysterious Challenger? Those are the only two questions you really need to ask yourself. The curve of the deck is comically easy to understand. The perfect curve of the deck is: first you play a secret, then a Shielded Minibot, then Muster for Battle, and then on turn 6 Mysterious Challenger.
Secret Paladin’s main weakness is the unlucky draw. Drawing a hand full of secrets with no Secretkeeper or monsters can really screw up your day. Even then, a lucky Tirion Fordring or Dr. Boom off the top of your deck can win you the game. All I’m going to say is thank god for the new format changes; I’m so over this deck.
