Standard
Anointer of the Faithful strategy - cheat out your expensive paladins by bonding them to
Hojan, Crownbreaker. With an Anointer on the field Hojan -> power lets you bond Brel for 0.
Regent's Tomb is your only activator for a Hojan on the board so it is frequently correct to keep Hojan in hand to use as part of a bond combo and to play out quarries/treasure troves first.
Copperhall Paladin is not included because this variant does not run weapons to trigger it outside of Anointer/Maiden and Hojan accomplishes the same thing while being a significantly better card.
I'm currently testing to see if I can make
Phoenix Hammer feel useful with Quarry to discard it, Brel to make it stronger, and Regent's Tomb and Xo to incidentally play three spells in a turn. If you prefer running good cards feel free to use
Starsteel Daisho,
Auric Runehammer, or
Molten Fist. Edit: Test complete, a 6 power 4/2 is just so bad that it's not even fun :(
Next test: seeing if the Paladin tag makes
Reyna, the Unwavering good enough to be worth crafting. Edit: It's not a bad card, it just doesn't do enough in most match ups. It is immune to all of Haunted Highway's removal though.
Market change:
Oni Quartermaster has a very high ceiling when combined with
Anointer of the Faithful or
Statuary Maiden but this deck does not run enough cheap paladins or produce enough cudgels to justify the market slot (look at my other paladin decks if you like Quartermaster). I've had a lot of trouble with everyone playing Martyr's Chains ramp and Plate on a smuggler allows you to punish their lack of interaction and hopefully beat their face into the ground before they get a collection of 256/256 owls.
Market change round 2: Vanquisher's Blade helps deal with reanimator and Talir combo and isn't a dead card against non recursion strategies. I subbed
Martyr's Chains in for
Smuggler's Stash when I went down to 3 relic weapons (I don't always post minor revisions to EWC) and was trying to hit rank 1. Stash is a lot more fun and neither of them end up being pulled very often. Edit: after playing with Chains a bit more it rarely works out, this deck really wants to win via early tempo plays (tombs, bonded paladins) and frequently lacks units on board and power in hand in games that go long.
Defiance
x1
1
Seek Power
x4
1
Torch
x4
2
Anointer of the Faithful
x4
2
Hojan, Crownbreaker
x4
2
Quarry
x4
3
Display of Ambition
x4
3
Red Canyon Smuggler
x4
4
Auric Runehammer
x2
4
Regent's Tomb
x4
4
Statuary Maiden
x2
4
Throne Warden
x4
6
Brel, Solist Apostate
x4
6
Molten Fist
x1
6
Xo of the Endless Hoard
x4
Fire Sigil
x2
Justice Sigil
x7
Shadow Sigil
x1
Crest of Chaos
x4
Crest of Glory
x3
Crest of Vengeance
x3
Seat of Chaos
x3
Seat of Glory
x1
Seat of Vengeance
x1
View Deck on Shiftstoned
I would recommend running 1 Brel in the market instead of Stash or Plate. This allows you to fulfill the primary goal of the deck - playing Brel in as many games as possible. You can use the extra slots to add in more copies of your strong cards such as Torch, Maiden, and relic weapons, or play some Dark Returns and lean into recurring a Brel with Bond. For more paladins I would recommend Copperhall Paladin, which would synergize with Ornate Katana as a Hojan activator. Oathbreaker is just too low impact, I would actually run (and have before) Order of the Spire if I was willing to run a paladin that doesn't accomplish anything if it eats slow speed removal.
Side note about Ornate Katana, you can use it for free on your bond target and turning Anointer into a 3/3 lifesteal makes it an actual threat. I have a Paladin deck in the works that leans into this weapon synergy, doesn't run Brel, and features Anointer of the Faithful and Martyr's Chains in the market that I have not posted yet because it's significantly worse at actually winning games.