by JR Cook - 10 years ago     show comments

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[DKMR]Alchemixt here from team Don’t Kick My Robot to bring you this week’s Deck of the Week. This week the deck that we will be discussing is a Priest Control Deck. This deck is designed for specific meta-game shifts and/or tournament play. Priest has its own unique style of play and can be difficult at first but very rewarding and fun if you choose to learn the deck. Personally, I have had some great success in playing priest during my 4-0 King Of The Hill victory. Before we go any further here is the decklist and a brief explanation of each card.

The Deck

Circle Of Healing – Not too impressive by itself, but it works well with Northshire Cleric, Injured Blademaster, or Auchenai Soulpriest.

Power Word: Shield – A nice card that really smooths out the deck and works nicely with Wild Pyromancer.

Northshire Cleric – This is the primary source of card draw in the deck. Sometimes it may be correct to hold onto this card for when you can gain multiple cards at once the same turn you play it with something like Holy Nova or Circle Of Healing.

Shadow Word: Pain – Flex slot. This could be anything of your choice. This card deals well with smaller divine shield creatures and it is another cheap spell to go along with Wild Pyromancer.

Crazed Alchemist – This card is quite fun in priest. You can set up many situations with this card in order to take advantage of Shadow Words, Big Game Hunter, and Cabal Shadow Priest. Our favorite scenario is damaging an enemy creature, swapping its toughness then stealing it with Cabal Shadow Priest.

Wild Pyromancer – This card is fantasic in priest because of cards like Power Word: Shield and the ability to keep healing up your Wild Pyromancer for multiple triggers.

Shadow Word: Death – Obviously used for killing large threats.

Big Game Hunter – With the dissappearence of Tinkmaster Overrpark, Big Game Hunter seems to be a suitable replacement.

Injured Blademaster – Most Decks would run something like Harvest Golem in this slot but with priest you have access to Circle Of Healing which makes the blademaster a much better choice.

Auchenai Soulpriest – When combined with Circle Of Healing it is one of the best board clears in the game. The soulpriest by itself is not too bad either. The stats are quite nice and the ability to use your hero power to pick off small creatures can be game breaking. Just remember that once you drop this card down you will be unable to heal yourself so be cautious.

Defender Of Argus – Taunt enabler

Senjin Shieldmasta – With the amount of hunters we have been running into on the ladder we decided to go with the shieldmasta. Some other options for this slot could be something like Chillwind Yeti or Twilight Drake. The taunt can also come in handy for surviving against decks like Miracle Rogue or preventing a Grommash Hellscream kill from Warrior.

Holy Nova – A bit expensive but a very nice AOE effect that can combine well with Northshire Cleric to draw a ton of cards.

Holy Fire – It is necessary for Priest to run 2 Holy Fires because of the fact that generally you are getting face smashed for the first part of the game. This card allows you to claw back into the game once you have established more control of the board. Direct damage is nice to finish off the opponent or a larger sized creature like a Chillwind Yeti that Shadow Words can’t kill.

Cabal Shadow Priest – One of the best cards in the deck and one of the best 6 drops in the game. Stealing cards like Harvest Golem can be game swinging and when combined with Crazed Alchemist the limit to what you can steal is infinite. This is definitely one of those cards that you will have to play with for yourself to really understand how great this actually is.

Sylvanas Windrunner – With the absence of Tinkmaster Overspark as well as the ability to Shadow Word: Death your own Sylvanas on 9 mana makes this card a perfect fit for the deck. We could also see swapping of Sylvanas for Cairne Bloodhoof if you really like Cairne instead as they are both great choices.

Ysera – With the increased popularity of Big Game Hunter we wanted a threat that didn’t die to it. Ysera fits great into that role. Also, using Crazed Alchemist on Ysera for the killing blow is always hilarious and sometimes necessary.

Mind Control – This card is game winning especially when you steal something like an opponents Ysera or Rag. The downside to Mind Control is that if you draw it before turn 10 then it can really be a super dead card that clogs up your hand.

Now that you have explanations for why each card is in the deck lets talk about when you should be playing this priest list. This deck is quite good against other late game decks because of cards like Mind Control, Cabal Shadow Priest, Shadow Word: Death, Big Game Hunter, and Ysera. There are also amazing synergies within the deck that mostly come from Circle Of Healing combinations. This deck is also not too bad against Aggro with cards like Wild Pyromancer, Senjin Shieldmasta, and the Auchenai Soulpriest + Circle Of Healing combo. You may be asking yourself why is priest not played as much if it can be good against both Aggro and Control decks. Well the answer to that is consistency. Sometimes your hand will be clogged up with Shadow Word: Death, Mind Control, and Ysera very early putting you at a disadvantage. Often times you will have a Circle Of Healing with nothing else to go with it making it borderline useless. The point we are trying to make is that because this deck has so many synergies and situational cards it is sometimes very awkward when you do not draw them in the right order or together at all. This is a tournament deck, you are counter picking with this deck and if not up against an Aggro deck, you can recover from a bad hand.

Playing with priest has a completely different feeling than playing any other Hearthstone deck. With most decks you want to maximize your mana efficiency and play something proactive most turns of the game to add to the board. With priest it is all about patience and waiting to get the most out of your cards. There will be many turns in priest where you literally do nothing except for heal yourself. Sometimes you will have a nice Injured Blademaster draw followed up by more midgame creatures but when that doesn’t happen you will need to get the most out of your synergies. For example, you may want to hold onto Northshire Cleric until you can immediately draw cards off of it or you may want to hold onto your Injured Blademaster so that you can heal it in the same turn that you play it. This concept also applies to cards like Wild Pyromancer and Auchenai Soulpriest. Just keep in mind that when playing this deck you really need to make sure you are not just throwing your cards away and that you are getting as much value
as possible even if that means taking some hits early on.

When using the priest Hero Power you will often find yourself filling mana gaps by healing yourself. However, the true power of the priest’s hero ability is best when used to control the board. Killing off an enemy creature and then healing your creature back up will allow it to repeatedly kill off creatures until stopped by your opponent. Also the ability can be a source of card draw if you manage to find a Northshire Cleric, Remember you can also heal your opponents creatures if you think gaining a card is worth it.

Overall we find priest to be a great class that has the potential to beat anything. We think that priest gets a bad representation of how good it can be because people are simply not playing it correctly. Just remember to be patient and get the most out of each play.