The only thing holding me back is the extra crafts I'd have to make on top of Tarim. For an optimal Dudes list, I'd need Musters, QMs and a Steed, so that's another 1,100 dust. Although I am sitting on a reserve of around 4,200, leaving around 1,500 dust after kitting out for Dudes, we're pretty close to KnC now. As such, I feel like it's probably best to wait at this point, just in case I don't unpack something that I'd like to try out.

Dudes isn't the only way to go with aggro or midrange Paladin.

I assume you're looking at this list? That deck is definitely well-rounded and tight for an aggro deck, but you're missing a lot of the core pieces, and honestly at higher ranks it's not even the best Paladin aggro deck. I wouldn't go out of my way to craft it, especially with a new expansion coming.

You might want to craft SKT and then look into this deck . It's much better than Dudes in current wild meta (like 30% Priest matchups above rank 5) if you have Old Murkeye and Finja. If not, you can still throw in some old reliables like Muster for Dudes or Knife Juggler to make a solid aggro deck that will easily get you to rank 5.

You might want to just bank dust for the new expansion. If Paladin is anywhere near tier 1/2 though, SKT is going to be in those decks, there's zero question about that.