Mysterious Challenger

Mysterious Challenger is an epic paladin minion card, from the Grand Tournament set.

Strategy
While Paladin Secrets are individually weak, Mysterious Challenger forces your opponent to play around several of them at once, making it difficult for them to gain or maintain board control. On top of that, by pulling Secrets out of the deck it also reduces your deck size to increase the chance of drawing more valuable cards. The minion itself is also reasonably strong for its mana cost. This card is the centrepiece to the Secret Paladin deck - see that page for details.

This card's value depends on how many Secrets it pulls from your deck when you play it. This card is best used in a deck that has multiple different Secrets in order to maximize its effectiveness.

History
The introduction of this card gave rise to the Secret Paladin, a deck that quickly rose to dominance in the meta following the release of The Grand Tournament, remaining highly effective until Whispers of the Old Gods and the arrival of game formats, which saw the removal of key cards like Shielded Minibot and Muster for Battle. However, while not as popular as it once was, as of late 2016 the deck remained viable. The removal of Mysterious Challenger from Standard format in 2017, however, ended the archetype in Standard matches.

Lore
With his uniquely non-specific background, Mysterious Challenger appears to be original to Hearthstone - at least as far as we can determine.

Trivia

 * Mysterious Challenger is often nicknamed "Dr. 6" because he's a 6/6/6. This is a reference to Dr. Boom being a 7/7/7.
 * Mysterious' Challenger's infamy is frequently referenced in the game, particularly among other Secret-related cards.
 * Eater of Secrets' summoning quote is a direct response to the summoning quote of Mysterious Challenger, as Eater of Secrets is a counter to Mysterious Challenger.
 * The names of Glacial Mysteries and Mysterious Blade are based on Mysterious Challenger.
 * Bellringer Sentry and Masked Contender's flavor texts reference Mysterious Challenger, both having similar but weaker effects.

Patch changes

 * Added.