What has everyone found in testing the paladin?

[Reddicediaries]

So pally is a bit of a mystery to me. Temple seems ok with him, but does not seem to mesh well with his abilites.
So if he is not using temple, you need to be agressive or you get too far behind in board precence.
If you are agressive, you can only have 3-4 creatures. This can be a problem however if you face a book that can stop your rush and focus your creatures efficiently.
Temple I worry is too slow and does not put pressure on.
And god knows what you are going to do if you are agressive vs druid.
So what has the community found out about the paladin's good/bad playstyle's and tricks?

[Halewijn]

As I said yesterday too, I don't really understand why you believe the temple is worse for the paladin than for the priest. It is a decent, cheap creature spawnpoint. The most crucial decision in each book is choosing between the temple, the banner, the forge and/or cassiel.

My personal favorite is forge + cassiel and banner as a backup plan if needed to spawn 2 level 2 guys.

I think that even without the temple, the paladin does not have to rush. He can take his time, gear up, kill creatures, gain valor and activate aura's. With his challenge he is one of the best mages to kill creatures and his aura's give him a "free" boost in the long run. I think key in playing paladin is remaining calm and slowly but certainly put more and more pressure on the opponent. 3 big creatures is generally more than enough for an entire game. If needed, you could use the banner for some quick deployments.

[Reddicediaries]

I think temple is a bit too slow for pally; you want to be the leader of an "elite squad" imo.
I am really scared of running forge in this meta as Mind's eye kind of wrecks it
I have debated between the following openings
T1: Blue knight akiro
T2: blue knight moves 2, signet ring and brace
T3: lesser teleport blue knight, he wrecks face, mage summons artumuis.
Vs:
T1: Monk Flower
T2: Ehren regrowth
T3: Martyr's + blue knight
Vs:
T1: Forge Cassiel
T2: Cheap deploy, cassiel enchants you, as do you.

I really like the monk opening as it works in almost every situation and does not reveal your plan.
Your thoughts on these ideas?

[Reddicediaries]

I also think if you go temple, you are employing a strat that might just be better used with a priestess.

[Reddicediaries]

As I said yesterday too, I don't really understand why you believe the temple is worse for the paladin than for the priest. It is a decent, cheap creature spawnpoint. The most crucial decision in each book is choosing between the temple, the banner, the forge and/or cassiel.

My personal favorite is forge + cassiel and banner as a backup plan if needed to spawn 2 level 2 guys.

I think that even without the temple, the paladin does not have to rush. He can take his time, gear up, kill creatures, gain valor and activate aura's. With his challenge he is one of the best mages to kill creatures and his aura's give him a "free" boost in the long run. I think key in playing paladin is remaining calm and slowly but certainly put more and more pressure on the opponent. 3 big creatures is generally more than enough for an entire game. If needed, you could use the banner for some quick deployments.

Cass + forge T1 leaves you at 11. How do you plan to punish enemy spawnpoints? Or do you not intend to punish right away?