by JR Cook - 10 years ago     show comments

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[DKMR] Kisstafer here bringing you this week’s Amaz-ing deck of the week! Priest is considered to be the worst class in the game by most top players. However, according to GosuGamers recent statistics, Priest is the most winning tournament class in the game. These statistics may come as a surprise to some, but Liquid’ Amaz has been winning tournaments with Priest since the beginning of time. The strength of Priest lies in its ability to keep its minions healthy, its mass board removal with the Wild Pyromancer and Auchenai Soulpriest combos, and its extremely mana efficient cards like Cabal Shadow Priest and Shadow Word Death.

Deck List

2x Circle of Healing: Circle of healing works really well with the Injured Blademaster and Auchenai Soul Priest. It heals the former to a 4-7, which is similar to Innervating out a Druid of the Claw if you play it on turn 3. The latter is similar to a 4 mana Flamestrike that also creates a 3-1 minion.

2x Holy Smite: It can be difficult for Priest to finish off minions, as most of their creatures deal 3-4 damage, so Smite can be used to finish off larger foes (followed up by healing the minion that made the attack), or to destroy small minions seen in Aggro decks.

2x Power Word: Shield: The bonus health gained from this spell makes it much easier to abuse the Priest’s hero power, because your minions will now survive combat interactions with the opponent’s minions.

2x Shadow Word: Pain: Pain is a metagame call, sometimes there are hardly any targets and sometimes there are an abundance of them: Sludge Belcher, Violet Teacher, Senjin Shieldmasta, and Water Elemental are all excellent targets for Shadow Word: Pain to kill. It is also a strong removal against aggro decks to delay until you can drop Sludge Belcher or clear the board.

1x Wild Pyromancer: Wild pyromancer is extremely useful in dealing the last points of damage to larger minions, and doubles as a pseudo board clear when coupled with cheap spells like Holy Smite and Power Word: Shield, especially if you have the coin. This card is King Mukla’s worst enemy.

2x Shadow Word: Death: Oftentimes minions with 5 attack or more will cost at least 5 mana, which means you are getting a tempo lead by including shadow word death. It is a clean way to destroy the opponent’s win condition minions (Ancient of War, Ragnaros, Savannah Highmane, Mountain Giant, etc.)

1x Emperor Cobra: Emperor Cobra is a pretty neat minion, it is usually worse than Harvest Golem, but in the matchups that it is good against, it is -very- good. If you power word the Cobra against Druid, they have to either invest a lot of removal into it or play Keeper of the Grove (which opens them up to being mind controlled by Cabal Shadow Priest). Against Handlock, it can deny them from even playing their Giants at all.

2x Injured Blademaster: The Blademaster is one of Priest’s most deadly weapons, able to carry the game if he is played on turn 3 with Circle of Healing. A 3 mana 4-3 that can be healed offers a lot of utility, because he can be played as either a 3 drop or a 5 drop (or a 4 drop with power word shield). He offers a lot of power and flexibility to the deck’s mana curve.

2x Auchenai Soulpriest: The Soulpriest is a card that opponents always have to play in fear of, or they run the risk of being blown out by the 4 mana mass board removal when coupled with Circle of Healing. The combination does 4 damage to all minions, though, so be careful about wiping your own board.

2x Chillwind Yeti: Yeti is just a solid minion to play on turn 4 to take control of the board, and is complimented very well by Priest’s hero power and Power Word: Shield.

1x Azure Drake: Spell damage can be useful with cards like Holy Smite, but the Drake is in the deck primarily for the much-needed card draw that it has. He keeps your hand full and ensures that you draw into your powerful combos and removal spells.

1x Loatheb: Loatheb excels at tilting a game in your favor and at preventing the opponent from finding lethal damage. If you manage to take control of the board you can abuse it by playing Loatheb to prevent the opponent from removing your minions, and then you can heal them later on to keep them healthy.

2x Sludge Belcher: Sludge belcher is just a really solid turn 5 minion; he takes a lot of attacks to get through most of the time and keeps the Priest healthy. It is important to have defensive cards like this as Priest for two reasons: first, you have combos that can wipe the board, so by playing taunts you give the opponent opportunities to over-extend their board without actually dealing much damage to you. Second, preserving your life total is important so that you can safely play your legendary minions come the late game.

2x Holy Fire: Holy Fire is a solid delay tactic that works into the Priest’s strategy of winning in the late game – you keep the opponent’s board small and gain health at the same time. As a high mana single target removal It can falter against decks that run multiple small minions, but against decks like Rogue or Druid that tend to play single threats it is very powerful.

2x Cabal Shadow Priest: Cabal Shadow Priest is one of the hardest cards to play against in the game. The threat of it alone can deny the opponent from even dropping their minions in the first place, which helps in the games where you haven’t yet drawn Cabal. Being able to mind control a Harvest Golem, Keeper of the Grove, or Loot Hoarder brings with it incredible tempo swings as well as card advantage.

1x The Black Knight: Priest can struggle to deal with 4 attack creatures, and many of the popular 4-attack minions are also taunters. The Black Knight gives Priest an easy answer to cards like Sunwalker or Druid of the Claw that would otherwise be an incredible pain to get rid of.

1x Ragnaros the Firelord: Similar to the Black Knight, Ragnaros gives priest an answer to miscellaneous minions on the board, as well as providing some extra burst firepower that Priest sorely lacks.

1x Ysera: Priest’s best quality is its ability to stall until the late game, and as such is one of the few classes in which Ysera really fits in. By the time Ysera comes down, the opponent has usually expended all of their removal on cards like Ragnaros and Injured Blademaster. If you get Ysera down safely and she survives for a few turns, you will develop such a card advantage that you will just win the war of attrition.

1x Mind Control: Mind Control is great in metagames where decks tend to be late-game oriented such as against Control Paladin, Ramp Druid, and Control Warrior. These decks are slow enough that you won’t get run over by them early on, and you can punish them for their greed by stealing their cherished Legendary cards.

Mulligan

Against aggro decks you want to be searching for cards like Wild Pyromancer, Auchenai Soulpriest, Circle of Healing, Smite, and Shadow Word: Pain. Injured Blademaster is also good to keep if you already have Circle of Healing. Against control decks you want to be searching for cards like Injured Blademaster, Power Word: Shield, Emperor Cobra, and Yeti. Circle of Healing is fine to keep if you already have Injured Blademaster. There are certain cards that are good to keep against specific decks. For example, we would usually keep Cabal Shadow Priest and the Auchenai + Circle combination against Shaman even though it isn’t an aggro deck.

Game Plan

The plan with Priest is to try to secure board control early on. If that fails, keep the board as clear as possible so that you can safely get to the late game without being overrun. Tools like Blademaster + Circle can be used to assert dominance over the board and assume an aggressive stance, while Auchenai + Circle (or another combination) can be used to clean up a board that you’ve fallen behind on. Getting to late game safely should be your main focus, even if it means sacrificing some card efficiency. You will gain the card advantage back once you start dropping your late game cards like Cabal Shadow Priest, Ragnaros, and Ysera, so keeping a clear board should be your primary objective.

Final Thoughts

Create the deck on Hearthstats.net and then keep track of your wins and losses. Be sure to try it in a tournament as well! Let us know how you’re doing with it.

[DKMR]Kisstafer streams weekdays http://www.twitch.tv/kisstafer. You can find all of DKMR’s streamers on their website with the days that they stream!

Written by [DKMR]Kisstafer

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