After weeks of anticipation, The Grand Tournament is upon us and the 130 plus cards are already rocking the meta game. Through my first few hours of play I’ve seen a lot of broken dreams, wishful thinking, and crappy inspire decks. The ladder is filled with jejunely styled decks like beast hunter, inspire mage, and pirate rogue. Ultimately, they are fun decks to play but inconsistent if trying to climb ladder. Obviously, my deck is none of those things and is the best deck you’ll ever see or play with! Inspired (no pun intended) after Americas favorite family,
the Duggars, my Token Paladin is everything that’s good about the family: it’s holy, good, and procreates lots of cards that grow up to do lots of damage. And get this, unlike the Duggar family; you won’t be overpopulating the planet with zealots or incestuous child molesters!
How to Play:
Essentially, the crux of this deck is to play it like Zoolock: control the board early and get as much face damage in as possible with your surplus of damage. Minions will stick and the combinations to strengthen them are endless, usually buffing up your minions to a point where AoE even becomes ineffective!
Why Toke the Token Deck? You might think I’m high because token decks have traditionally been lackluster; usually too slow to gain a consistent tempo lead or too precarious against AoE wipes. The Grand Tournament has changed all that and in my opinion, token decks will become a staple of the Hearthstone meta. The creation of new cards like
Mukla’s Champion,
Silver Hand Regent, and
Competitive Spirit will become game changers; solidifying late game play and making once dead cards viable again.
New Cards:Competitive Spirit: Paladin has often been derided for its Secret’s and up until TGT it has been warranted. Competitive Spirit coalesced with Avenge makes Paladin secrets viable and cards like the
Mad Scientist playable in this deck. Getting +1 +1 value on two or more minions is worth it alone, get it one 3-5 and you’ve got yourself some insane value. Just be careful in the early game not to drop a Mad Scientist in conjunction with a hero power; getting a single
Silver Hand Recruit buffed up is definitely not worth it.
Seal of Champions: I love a good ol’ twofer and the Seal of Champions represents just that, often giving you two for one value. Using it on an early minion pressures the opponent immensely, turning a once flaccid minion into a rock hard, mushroom stomping machine! Get this off on an
Echoing Ooze and watch your opponent shit their metaphorical pants.
Fencing Coach: This card has a lot of untapped potential due to its ability to combo with the inspired based mechanic. In this deck, it gives you a plethora of combinations to set up for. Mukla’s Champion,
Quartermaster, and Silver Hand Regent are just a few cards that it works with; play around with this deck and I’m sure you’ll find even more.
Silver Hand Regent: I love everything about this card and the value it garners is insane. This is a must kill card because if it stays on the board you will overwhelm the opponent with high value plays.
Gormok the Impaler: This is probably one of the only few decent aggro cards that came out of TGT. It looks impossible to pull off, but with a deck like this you’ll be tapping into his Battlecry more often then you’d think. The Duggar Family Token Paladin spits out minions, and like the family themselves, their will be no shortage on supply.
Mukla’s Champion:Stormwind Champion looks like a chump when stacked up against this card. This is one of the best Inspire cards to come out of TGT and is one of the main reasons a Paladin Token deck is so viable. The ability to continuously buff your minions on the board while adding an additional minion with the Paladin hero power makes this card a perfect match. It synergizes with several cards and worst case scenario you get 6/5 worth of stats for 7 mana.
Cards that are Viable Again:Avenge: The addition of Competitive spirit has added a lot of flavor to Paladin Secrets. Your opponents will constantly avoid attacking your minions for a fear of Avenge, to only get screwed when they find out it’s a Competitive Spirit! Essentially, it’s a minion attacking deterrent that allows you to realistically play a Mad Scientist.
Sword of Justice: I haven’t played two of these yet because it’s notoriously considered too slow of a card. In a control heavy meta, you can definitely get away with two, providing additional value to cards like the Silver Hand Regent. The best is when you buff up a couple Silver Hand Recruits and then watch as they explode with value when a Competitive Spirit or Quatermaster is played.
Quartermaster: Cards like Competitive Spirit, Fencing Coach, and Silver Hand Regent have given the Quatermaster a renaissance. You’ll never be short on Silver Hand Recruits again, they will either be too hard to remove or the opponent will have bigger threats to deal with; opening up a great opportunity to play this card.
Additional Notes:
Overall, I honestly don’t know how this deck will fare in the future meta. Right now, things are weird and people are playing sub-par decks while trying to figure the meta-game out. I’ve done very well playing this deck, losing few games while having a blast playing it. As always, if you have any questions, comments, or suggestions, make sure to leave them below!