So, well everyone complains about Quest Mage, Quest Hunter, Quest Warlock, Quests in general, spells and everything else under the sun.
Paladin sails on supremely with the only real Tier 1 deck, which according to HSreplay has over 65% win rate.
Paladin spent nearly 2 years as the no. 1 class, finally in Barrens the last 2 months after multiple nerfs they dropped to average.
Now they back at no.1!
Why no pitchforks, anger at our Paladin overlords?!?
Because paladin plays minions
See what happens when you throw Priest into a trashcan and celebrate it? The deck hilariously weak to silence and hard removal effects gets to take over.
At least it’s a different flavor.
Handbuff Paladin is freaking cool!
paladin again,no surprise. When its paladin for 2 years its no longer an accidental fluke.
Paladin was always solid. Since Secret Paladin long time ago. 
Everyone wants interactivity… OK, well go ahead and break those divine shields and clear the board because now two 10/10s are waiting to drop on the next turn.
Without priest, this will stay #1.
Shaman could fight this too, but a lot of lists have dropped that Lilypad Elemental
And if you DON’T clear, anytime after t5, adjacent minions have windfury are coming your way so you need to kill them by t5/t6. This is inherently a problem when the the viable counter is just to rush face.
The thing is that Paladin can seriously spike in powerlevel by receiving even a little bit of coherent synergy.
Though the playstyle is usually less infuriating, taking some hard justice to the face, over and over again, can make people feel similarly helpless.
Look at DarkGlareLock, for example.
went legend with paladin, I think I had like 20%winrate against face hunter. Just kolkar + cheap spell and demon companion is enough to destroy you before turn 5 .
Just saying the deck isn’t reigning supremely or whatever. But the good thing is , teching robe of protection make mage an easy matchup instead of an unwinnable one.
Pally has an easy MU against mage and warlock because they are greedy combo focused, and relies on cheap removal that can’t go through robe of protection . If warlock was going full control for example, Paladin wouldn’t be able to win (twisted nether,hysteria and cascading disaster > handbuff).
So it’s really a matter of meta. Handbuff has limited ressource and is weak to hard removal. but there isn’t any real control deck right now.
A bubble-focused buff paladin would probably fare better vs hypothetical control decks. Such packages have already been playtested in Wild, in case of meta shifts. Valanyr has, up until now, been the tech vs slow control decks like Odd Warrior. But shields can potentially set up much greater burst, in the future.
Honestly kinda scary how HB Pally went from meme to menace.
Val’anyr is an near-infinite value engine that hit face.Handbuff paladin has no infinite value engine . once he has played all his minions, he dies.
4 cascading disaster, 2 hysteria and 2 twisted nether are enough to destroy the 30 card in paladin deck. That’s basically what happened during darkness at moon faire, and the only way for paladin to win against control warlock during this meta was to abuse penflinger, which hit face at this time.
Q rogue can also put a fight vs paladin, he has the early tempo advantage and then he has hard removal in si assasin and saps.
Plus, paladin can’t really stop the stealthed scabbs from connecting.
and that’s in the current meta.
if meta slows down even a bit, warlock (quest or not) can still run cascading to seriously hamper him.
Control Priest has a gadzillion tools to stop him as well.
(i’m not saying that handbuff shouldnt be touched, especially if the other top decks are nerfed he would need adjustments as well, maybe drop the weapon to 2 durability or something of the likes)
Can’t say I shared that experience. DF meta, even post Flinger nerf, enabled Libram Paladin and 30+dmg bursts through the help of Eydis, as well as immense waves of threats, further strengthened by other control tech, such as Voraxx, of all things.
HB Paladin had a bad matchup vs full control decks. But you ignored the point. The new cards can set up chargers that are scary, without the need for Conviction, or even the Windfury 5/5. Though the latter one helps, for sure. Valanyr was just the best they had, until now.
Fordragon, Broom and one or two additional, shielded minions turn a 2/1 murloc into The Darkness with charge, and no candles.
i have the slight notion that one of you is speaking about wild and the other one about standard…
I’m the Wild Guy, which should’ve been clear, by now.
I mean…whatever.
but are you always wild? or only when drunk? or is it random?
I don’t drink. I’m just a random person playing Wild, exclusively.
Flag me for false advertising. I dare you.
The horror!
you mean to tell me someone lied ovber the internet!
impossible…
my dissapointment is immesurable and my day is ruined now.