I think those are valid and interesting perspectives and thoughts about the paladin. The logic is sound and the theory is developing nicely. I'm personally interested in how you implement those theories into a book and the tactics involved. Have you tried much of this out? Which creatures/ openings/ support spells have helped accomplish what you lay out above? What has been detrimental or tough to deal with when trying to implement this in a match?
Thanks!
So essentially, I made a book last night that I'll post when I'm at home, but it focuses on medium creatures while then transitioning to bigger guns like angels and knights.
I think the current book runs 1-2 vanguards, 2 light of dawns, 2 KOW, 2 Angels, Ehren, 2 clerics, monk, messenger bim, and potentially a red helm or white cloaked knight. And I might have the legendary archer from pvs (can't spell her name lol)
Well it makes sense. While you get lots of valor with the ring on by killing creatures fast, the more creatures you have, the stronger the auras become. And the Paladin has good acsess to "Swarm" support like the healing song, temple of meravaran, dawn's bastion, some war commands, radient breastplate, fortified position song of love, etc. He also has good access to help his mitigate the dmg he takes when he most likely protects his creatures with Temple of the Dawnbreaker, Divine Reversal, Glancing Blow, Brace Yourself (although every mage has equal access to it bc it's novice), and eye for an eye for doing the dmg you take right back (and you have easy access to healing)
I've only played the book once and it was against one of biblo's necro's. The match actually went much better than expected (I killed the Idol and graveyard without being overrun by zombies) and had I put ANY armor on, I could have pulled it out. (The book was also missing purify, remove curse, and signet of the dawnbreaker at that point.)
I'm a bit worried about potential mana issues and which creatures to run. Red helm I really don't like bc of strongest interactions, but he's still pretty good. I already mentioned why I dislike White Cloak Knight. However, you need some of the five main eight mana creatures for holy (Red helm, White Cloak Knight, Light of Dawn, Defender, and Vanguard). Personally my ranking of them is LOD, Vanguard, Defender, Red helm, White cloak knight, but I need to test the last three a bit more.
It's also important to have at least one and likely two eight mana creatures so you can quick deploy from the banner if needed. In my SWAT paladin, I never cast the banner bc all my creatures outside of Ehren were nine mana or more; I never had the mana to cast anything from the banner even if I did cast it (unless I let it build up which doesn't really fit that book.)
The priestess is actually better with a few bigs and a forge imo (paladin is right behind). This is because she can heal her troops more effectively and is better at "defensively" supporting most troops. She is also the best at "pure" temple because of the higher channeling and abilities/cards that combo well with her. The priest can go with a forge or temple, but I think how Coshade uses him is spot on. The priest cares less about supporting the creatures and is more alright if they die than the other two holy mages. Since HA in INSANE on most level 1-2 Holy creatures, he can just reapply it for very little mana.
The Paladin is the best at supporting an army imo. His auras are get better with the more creatures you have and as already stated, he has a TON of ways to not only defensively support them, but offensively as well (meraveran, auras, bastion can do both, radiant can do both, etc).
An army is not a swarm imo. An army is made up of for the most part strong creatures that are worth buffing (individually or as a mass). Swarms are for the most part made up of much more fragile and are often not as worth supporting each creature (or even any of them really.)
So the priestess is the best at a "pure" temple build and few big with a forge, priest is the best with smaller creatures that go with HA, and the Paladin is the best at "army" play.
So all in all, many people think the paladin should be this rush mage who banner rushes and kills you by turn 6/7 or something like that. Or a SWAT team. Those can work pretty well, but I actually think going with an "army" is the best way to go. You get more use out of your auras and the paladin has the best ways to support an "army" of any Holy Mage in my eyes.
Once I figure out what creatures/how many to run and how to manage mana issues, I think it could be a pretty good book.
