by JR Cook - 10 years ago     show comments

You’ve queued up for a match and found a worthy opponent, but just who is this person, and what is he or she capable of? Know Your Foe aims to take some of the guess work out of the equation by providing you a turn by turn analysis of the core threats a class can provide.

The Priest is one of the most maligned classes in Hearthstone right now. It features seemingly limitless removal options (unless your minions have exactly 4 attack) and a finishing move that will often tempt you to break your keyboard in overwhelming rage. That said, Priest can be incredibly predictable because of its often static limitations, and fighting against them can become very similar to taking down a raid boss in World of Warcraft. It’s just a matter of knowing the phases of the fight.

Phase One

Anduin Wrynn’s early game potential revolves largely around card draw and minion removal. The Priest deck is incredibly adept at dealing with standard aggression minions, with the exception of Faerie Dragon, which everyone has a difficult time dealing with short of trading other minions to get it off the board. The tradeoff for this strength is that it has difficulty dealing with early swarm tactics. If you can crowd the board with three plus minions, or boost their attack to four through the use of Shattered Sun Cleric or another card, you’ll be in a dominant early on.

The major non-removal threat Priests can generate early on in the game is the Northshire Cleric. While she won’t really tear into your health pool like other conventional early threats will, Northshire Cleric can give Anduin an annoying card advantage if you’re not careful, or simply unlucky with your opening hand. She’ll need to be silenced/removed immediately. If you can’t simply get rid of her, you’ll need to adjust your play style to compensate for her being on the board. If you’re a Paladin, her coming out means it’s time to stop making tokens. She’ll ram into them and be healed, gifting Anduin a card. Shamans, considering rolling for a totem? Just remember, you could get the 1/1 totem, and that will probably cause more harm than good.

Another early threat, Priests can do some crazy stuff with buffs such as Inner Fire, Divine Spirit and Power Word: Shield, but all you need to handle this gimmick is a silence or a kill card. What’s more, because Priests often invest two to three cards on building up a super unit, using one card to remove that threat from the board means that you’ll probably have card advantage, which is huge against most classes, but Priest especially. At present, this tactic not seen much in high tier play.

Phase Two

Progressing into the middle of the game, take care to watch turn five. If you have multiple minions with two or less health, expect a very real threat to come in the form of Holy Nova, the Priest specific area of effect spell. It’s slow compared to other class AoE options, but it has quite the kick. It will deal two damage to you and your minions and also heal Anduin and his minions for two, assuming he has any on the board. That said, because Holy Nova costs so much, if you can have a couple of two health minions alongside a three or four health minion or two, you can make it out of turn five with minimal wear and tear and continue pressing the offensive. Shattered Sun Cleric and Dark Iron Dwarf really shine in this scenario.

From turn five on, expect a different experience depending on the specific deck you’re playing against. Holy Fire, Temple Enforcer and Cabal Shadow Priest are all solid, but expensive, and it seldom seems that they’re all run at the same time as a result. It’s not really possible to play around Holy Fire, as it’s a nuke, but just remember this. If your opponent plays Holy Fire on turn six, that’s it for turn six. It’ll do a good job of removing one midgame minion, but it’ll do little against the might of the swarm, or against a larger minion such as Venture Co. Mercenary or Boulderfist Ogre. Cabal Shadow Priest can be a nuisance, but because whatever she steals has to have less than two attack, it’s usually not all that crippling. Temple Enforcer is the most solid of these cards, in my opinion. The ability to buff a friendly minion’s health is super strong, but even if you have nothing else on the board, it’s still a 6/6, which is tough to deal with.

Phase Three

Regardless of where your opponent goes in the midgame, you know where they’re going in the late game. That’s right, Mind Control. Working around Mind Control can be a simple process. If you play an Argent Commander (which most people seem to now) and don’t attack a minion to pop the shield, it’s an appetizing Mind Control target. Chillwind Yeti, because of how unfriendly it is towards Priests is also a prime target. Try and bait the Priest into taking cards similar to those, as opposed to your potentially game winning Tirion Fordring or Ysera. After both Mind Controls have been exhausted, all bets are off and it’s time to pummel Anduin into the ground and collect your loot.

The key to beating a Priest is keeping a close eye on the turn clock. Around turns five and eight especially, know what the Priest can do, and look at your hand to see what you can play in order to gum up the works. Yes, a Priest can still beat you sometimes because of the RNG heavy nature of the class, but by playing smart, you’ll drastically increase your odds of victory, and might even find yourself one day saying, ‘eh, Priests aren’t all that menacing.’