Autodefense Matrix

Autodefense Matrix Card

Autodefense Matrix is a 1 Mana Cost Common Paladin Spell card from the The Boomsday Project set!

Card Text

Secret: When one of your minions is attacked, give it Divine Shield.

Flavor Text

We call it the bubble machine.

Autodefense Matrix Card Review

I’m always curious to see more Paladin Secrets. They’re the hardest ones to balance. On the one hand, they need to be pretty powerful for a 1 mana card to be viable. On the other hand, it seems like they want to keep their power level toned down after Avenge was a staple in multiple Paladin decks for a long while.

If I had to compare Autodefense Matrix to something, it would probably be Noble Sacrifice or Redemption. Similarly to Noble Sacrifice, when one of the minions is attacked, the attack is basically blocked – by a 2/1 minion or in this case by an extra Divine Shield. Unlike Noble Sacrifice, though, your opponent has the ability to choose the target, and face hits don’t get blocked. If he attacks a 1/1, that’s like having a 1/1 version of Noble Sacrifice. But if he attacks a 5/5, well, now his minion probably dies and your lives. On the other hand, it’s similar to Redemption in a way that it protects the chosen minion. When you have something that your opponent really wants to kill on the board, then Autodefense Matrix will make it way more durable.

In the right scenario, this Secret can be really powerful. You just buffed your minion with Blessing of Kings and you don’t want it to die? Well, giving it a Divine Shield when it’s attacked might be great.

On the other hand, Autodefense Matrix has a few downsides too. It’s bad in any deck that wants to summon a lot of 1/1’s, such as Odd Paladin. Giving your 1/1 a Divine Shield for a cost of 1 mana AND a card is just bad. You’d rather just drop a 1-drop like Argent Squire or Righteous Protector. Another downside is that it only stops ATTACKS, not spells. If your opponent Fireballs your 5/5, then it won’t get a Divine Shield. It can also be played around quite easily if you identify that it’s THE Secret your opponent runs – so it’s really a bad Secret to put into your deck alone. Oh, and it’s really bad when you play lots of minions with Divine Shield. If your opponent attacks one with this Secret in play, it basically does nothing – it gives DS to a minion, which already has one.

I mean, you can already give Divine Shield for 1 mana. Reliably, to the target you want. On your turn, so you can trade with it immediately and get the value. Yet Hand of Protection sees no play at all. I know that they’re different, but both have their upsides and downsides. Noble Sacrifice also sees no play, so why would this card be different?

The only deck I could see this working in right now is Secret Paladin. It has got some support last expansion with Bellringer Sentry, but that card alone wasn’t enough. Adding Autodefense Matrix might make Secrets harder to play around – when you run 3-4 different Secrets, they can get much more value when your opponent simply plays around the wrong one. But right now, the deck still doesn’t look very promising. The card is probably a bit better than Noble Sac, but Noble Sac isn’t great to begin with, so in the end its quite average. Pretty easy to play around and has no synergy with lots of Paladin stuff (Hero Power, Righteous Protector and other DS minions etc.).

Card rating: 4/10

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31 Comments

  1. Shaoxia57
    July 25, 2018 at 1:46 pm

    I just thought of Dva’s “defense matrix activated”

  2. Wendigo
    July 24, 2018 at 2:51 pm

    If you are going to kill a big minion and have a little one and a big one. You will attack with the little one to test Noble Sacrifice and with the big one to kill…

    The same test goes for this secret. This is bad design as secrets should make enemies confused.

  3. minti
    July 24, 2018 at 1:14 pm

    well just one divine shield is too little. At least give it taunt too. We know there should be bad cards but not like this.

  4. Jirwin
    July 24, 2018 at 9:22 am

    well, bellringer and hydrologist just got alot better, now you get noble sac every time 😉

  5. GlosuuLang
    July 24, 2018 at 2:40 am

    The problem with Paladin secrets is that they generally are not valuable enough to justify one whole card in your deck. The exception was Avenge, and Competitive Spirit in Token decks. It was needed a busted card like Mysterious Challenger to finally make the archetype viable (where putting secrets into play didn’t cost you that much because you didn’t need to draw those cards). In Standard we have Bellringer Sentry, which is not enough to make the archetype viable (although it’s at least fun). In Wild I don’t think this makes the cut in Mysterious Challenger decks, besides it has some anti-synergy with Noble Sac (an enemy attacks, procs Noble Sac, and this gives it Divine Shield, which means instead of procing Avenge, the Defender survives and you have a 2/1 on board, procing Avenge is definitely much better). NOW. We WILL see this secret SOMETIMES, thanks to Hydrologist. In the same way Arcane Keysmith has made secrets like Mirror Entity, Frozen Clone, Mana Bind and Spellbender make an appearance in the competitive scene (because these secrets aren’t valuable enough in a deck to occupy a card), Hydrologist CAN discover this secret, and that will lead to some nice mindgames. So I believe this is a 1/5 stars card to include in a deck, but it’s actually not a bad discovery option.

    • GlosuuLang
      July 24, 2018 at 2:45 am

      Also, I like the flavor in that it is a direct reference to StarCraft’s Science Vessel, which had a Defensive Matrix ability. Nice.

      • GBojan
        August 1, 2018 at 1:26 am

        This one won’t proc on Noble sac, it will proc on the attacked target, so if you 1 minion on board and Noble sacrifice + this + avenge, that minion will get both divine shield and avenge buff

        • GlosuuLang
          August 1, 2018 at 7:55 am

          It depends on the order. If this is played before the Noble Sac, it will trigger and give Divine Shield on the attacked minion, and then the Defender will block the attack. But if you played Noble Sac before, then the Defender will come to block the attack, and then this will give Divine Shield to the Defender (since it’s the new attack target). So yes there is some anti-synergy.

  6. Brian
    July 23, 2018 at 4:16 pm

    Interesting to see the back and forth.

    In my personal opinion, I think this card is a solid 3. Both sides of the coin are valid. This card isn’t bad, but just different interactions.

    On one hand (pun intended) we have Hand of Protection which is the same cost but you target what you want to protect. This card simply is used for when you don’t have a preference on which card gains more survivability and it interrupts the opponent’s plan. Not only that but because of other secrets it gives a possibility for the element of surprise. It’s not necessarily better and not necessarily worse. Both cars have synergy with different things.

    It’s just different implications. The card has the potential to be a big swing if your opponent tries to trade the like of a Giant into your Lich King ect. Is it amazing? No, but to say it’s not useful isn’t correct either.

  7. Dage
    July 23, 2018 at 4:09 pm

    Really like this with Bell-Ringer. Easy to check for though, and not sure what kind of deck would play this.

  8. Jed
    July 23, 2018 at 12:14 pm

    Well now aren’t opinions mixed on this poor card. It’s better than eye for an eye in the paladin secret pool so that already counts for something. I think it will see play in secret paladin, but it’s no avenge. 3.5/5

  9. Infestus
    July 23, 2018 at 11:38 am

    What does happen when you already have a minion with divine shield on board, while you have placed “autodefence matrix” a round before? Does the secret trigger no matter what or a divine shielded minion is auto-excluded? If it triggers ipso factum then the card is absolute rubbish; otherwise, it is a card that it should be dealt with a bit more seriously.

    • 8BitBrain
      July 23, 2018 at 11:41 am

      probably doesn’t pop; like how get down doesn’t work with 7 minions on board

  10. Soup And Salad
    July 23, 2018 at 11:07 am

    It’s easiest to compare this to Noble Sacrifice that triggers only when one’s opponent targets a minion.
    As such, this is very much a trade off compared to it more so than anything else and is probably as viable in a generally minion based class like Paladin.
    This can deal more than 2 damage to an attacking minion, but it can’t defend the life total and it can deal less.
    This can be used when one has a full board of minions, but completely useless on an empty board.
    This can be played around in the same way as Noble Sacrifice, but it still triggers when a minion with divine shield is attacked.

    If Secret Paladin or Hydrologist come around again as a force to deal with, this will see play at least as one of the three most popular choices from a discover pool.

  11. Squelar
    July 23, 2018 at 10:57 am

    Best paladin secret so far, but i don’t think it will see much play

  12. Mrthejazz
    July 23, 2018 at 10:26 am

    This is bizzarely really good and bad at the same time. It scales better than Noble sacrifice. But If your minion already has divine shield it’s a waste. And of course many paladin cards have divine shield.

  13. KLGamet
    July 23, 2018 at 10:01 am

    You know what, aggro-pali wasn’t good enough in the last to expansion. Lets give them a way better Noble Sacrafice.

    • ShoM
      July 23, 2018 at 10:17 am

      And giving them a way better noble sac when they dont want to play a card like noble sac matters because?

      • KLGamet
        July 23, 2018 at 10:49 am

        there are totally no cards which but secrets in play

        • ShoM
          July 25, 2018 at 4:09 am

          And they are ALL even cost so you dont put them in your ODD paladin.

          Except mysterious challenger but das a wild card

  14. TheEyeszlader
    July 23, 2018 at 9:46 am

    Guys playing divine shield instead of 1 mana minions (usualy with divine shield) is odd paladin is realy bad and outside of odd paladin this card is only playable in a Bellringer paladin and even then there might be better option.

    This card is too akward to play even in an ideal situation it’s pretty easy to play around it.

    2/5 Stars

    • Xix
      July 23, 2018 at 9:53 am

      All paladin secrets are weak. But i think this is one of the stronger ones. It’s better than noble sac in my opinion. And it makes hydrologist alot stronger. Most likely this will be the number 1 pick out of the 3 options that hydrologist gives you.

      In Arena this can be a real nightmare for your openent. Alot more than noble sac :0

  15. SupHypUlt
    July 23, 2018 at 9:36 am

    If only I have prince liam, i probably experiment an secret paladin for the next expansion. liam being a back up option.

  16. ShoM
    July 23, 2018 at 9:22 am

    Seems weak on its own but not terrible so it makes Hydrologist that much better. Also takes us an inch closer to bellringer sentry being viable.

    Almost certainly wont see play on its own but makes paladin secret synergies better.

    2/5

    • Jeff
      July 23, 2018 at 9:32 am

      You are trippin. This card makes secret paladin good a thing. High tempo card the works amazing in a secret synergy deck. Gives you a great trade to keep tempo. Better than get down if it triggers on a two attack minion or higher. 5/5

      • ShoM
        July 23, 2018 at 10:11 am

        Just because this 2/5 makes 5/5 bellringer sentry and other stuff playable, doesnt make it above 2/5. Its just the least awful option to use with the 5/5 sentry

        • Solus
          July 23, 2018 at 10:17 am

          If you think that then you’re rating system is garbage. if a card makes a deck viable and sees play in that deck and the deck is good then the card is good, simple as that.

          • ShoM
            July 23, 2018 at 10:18 am

            There are levels of goodness

            2/5 stands for the worst card of a viable deck. Like this would be

        • Soup And Salad
          July 23, 2018 at 10:58 am

          How exactly is this worse than any of the other paladin secrets?

          • ShoM
            July 25, 2018 at 4:19 am

            Avenge is obviously way better, so is getaway codo usually but im going to assume you mean in stantard.

            Redemption is by and far the best paladin secret for a secret paladin list. Because bellringer sentry that resummons itself is crazy and it isnt half bad with all the sunfury protectors and secretkeepers you’d likely rub in such deck as those can get beyond the 1 health thing. Or if you spec into the murloc route thanks to hydrologist, resurrecting murlocs for gentle megasaur is okay. Repentanceor whatever the drop health to 1 card is called isnt that bad as any aggro paladin list is prone to having 1/1s with divine shield. Other than that, the other paladin secrets are way too fucking weak to see play even in a dedicated secret paladin list unless mysterious challenger levels of stupid synergy exist. This is the worst card in a meh deck that needs like 4 more cards to even work. 2/5

      • Jirwin
        July 24, 2018 at 9:25 am

        just because this card is good it doesn’t mean its a5/5. is secret paladin tier 1 with just this card? i dont think so but i think the card is standalone good, that makes it a 2/5 for me