Yeah, basically my title sums up my feelings pretty well. Nearly every class has some meta options that are affordable as a free to play player except paladin. All the paladin decks run like five legendaries at minimum because the paladin legendaries are just so much better than the rest of the paladin cards.
I’m not saying that the legendaries are too strong and they ought to be nerfed, but it’s really frustrating because before Alterac Valley came out I at least had hope that some of these must-have cards would rotate out next year but it’s actually only gotten worse. Now every paladin deck is running Cariel Roame and Lightforged Cariel it’s just too much.
I’ve been playing for a year now and I have a pretty good collection of legendary cards from this year, but I still can’t quite make a meta paladin deck yet. Anyone else feel the same way?
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One less broken libram pally to play against so I’ll shed no tears.
Thankfully that deck is due to rotate out very shortly
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I think that’s why it isn’t played more even when it is really strong. Maybe they should make mage look more like paladin for the same reasons.
But to your point, I am f2p and I play libram paladin. I don’t play priest, so I manage to get some dusts there and cobble it together. I got some luck on draws, too, but it is easier now than it was two years ago.
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Paladin is kind of stuck like that because midrange is its only viable archetype. The lack of reach, draw, and removal kind of neuter any other strategies.
Paladin is a mostly minion class, so it likes running good minions, including legendary minions.
But I think the issue can be mitigated so you aren’t totally screwed. Suppose there’s a meta list of legendaries you must run. If you have all of them, you’re at 100% potential. But even if you’re missing one or two or even three, I think you can still reach like 80% potential if you adjust your deck and strategy accordingly.
If you insist on getting max potential or trying to climb as high as possible, well then you kinda have to pay the price of crafting that netdeck. But for less ambitious regular playing, I think it’s reasonable to operate at like 80% potential. If anything, it would be more fun when your slightly off meta deck does something cool.
don’t forget samuro and varian cost nothing, which makes the deck as expensive as handlock for example
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I am happy to see less paladins due to its expense. However, in principle, I’m not sure any particular class should cost drastically more than the rest.
Control Warrior historically has been the same, filled to the brim with expensive legendary finishers.
Is it really that expensive? I don’t have a full Wild collection, but I’ve kept up with the last 4 or so years of Standard and do have all of those. Paladin decks usually seem to have 2-5 legendaries from what my mind recalls, but 1-2 of those are often freebie legendaries.
Actually, I guess Samuro and Varian don’t really count as freebies since they were on the paid reward tracks that require the Tavern Pass purchase. Although if you’re going to buy anything, I think the Tavern Pass probably has the most bang for buck, over most different pack bundles.
Why would anyone want to buy packs if the only viable decks were ones with a walmart design?
Yes
I checked and a common list for libram pally runs 6-7 legends with 7 legends (barov, murgurgle, both cariels for wr, alongside lady liadrin in highest libram + varian and samuro, + 6 epic copies in 2x liberals of hope, 2x devout pupils, and 2x stonehearth defenders vs 6 classic legendaires for control warrior.
In terms of dust cost it’s like 15k for a libram pally and like 10-12k dust for wallet warrior. Libram is a deck close to 50% legendaries + epics.
Control warrior ran 6 legendaries like alexstraza and brawls, but libram warrior is a non evergreen deck literally 2000-3000 literal dust more expensive than wallet warrior, but the dust system I suppose can be more generous after the revamps.
Being 3000 dust more expensive than wallet warrior isn’t the best feat though. But yeah, the barov and murgurgle can easily be dropped or a smite added, im just checking popular lists.
But yeah, I have cariel and epics and 5 random pally legendarys and pally would literally cost me 4000-6000 dust to play even with the cariel dk and samuro, it’s ridic.
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Mmmm, good point, I wasn’t even considering the epic side of the equation. Paladin lists do tend to have a bunch of epic requirements, don’t they?
You can make a budget-friendly hand-buff paladin deck with the deck below as a baseline:
Budget Hand Pally
Class: Paladin
Format: Standard
Year of the Gryphon
2x (1) Knight of Anointment
2x (1) Prismatic Jewel Kit
2x (1) Righteous Protector
2x (1) Worgen Infiltrator
2x (2) Hand of A’dal
2x (2) Nerubian Egg
2x (2) Noble Mount
2x (2) Ram Commander
2x (3) Alliance Bannerman
2x (3) Goody Two-Shields
2x (3) Hold the Bridge
1x (3) Rustrot Viper
2x (3) Stonehearth Vindicator
2x (4) Sunwing Squawker
2x (5) Blessing of Authority
1x (6) Battleground Battlemaster
AAECAeq3BALH+QPQ+QMOysEDv9EDytEDzOsD8PYDjfgDqvgDtoAEoY0ElqAEyaAE0aAE9KQE+aQEAA==
To use this deck, copy it to your clipboard and create a new deck in Hearthstone
From this set, you can use what legendaries you have to make it stronger. Popular upgrades:
- Murgur Murgurgle
- Saidan the Scarlet
- Blademaster Samuro
- Cariel Roame
- Lightforged Cariel
- Varian
Surprise, surprise. The best performing deck is also the most expensive one. Classic pay2win deck.
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That list is massive eww, even accounting for missing legendaries. You should probably cut the Prismatic Jewel Kit; you don’t have nearly enough Divine Shield minions to support it.
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Uh, I think in the most competitive ranks, Burn Shaman is both ultra powerful (if not the actual best deck) on top of being incredibly cheap. In fact there’s been a bunch of decks that are dirt cheap at the top of the meta lately.
Of course the list is not very strong - it’s a baseline budget at 2k dust. If you have a better budget template for people to use, by all means.
Drop the Viper and Jewel Kits. Add another Battlemaster and two Irondeep Troggs. Probably replace the Worgen Infiltrators with Sneaky Delinquents or something to avoid too many 1-drops.
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