Hearthpwn

Proof & Winrate:

Intro:

Hello my name is Maximal and I am a heartstone player since 2015. I was a hardcore handlock player since I started playing and I pretty much neglected many other classes. But lately I fell in love with priest and this deck particularly.

Mulligan:

• Always try to get early game minions in 1,2,3 mana pool to curve out decently and preferably a 4 mana dragon for dragon synergies.
• Mulliganing for Duskbreaker and Wild Pyromancer is crucial against aggressive decks.
• Twilight Acolyte is crucial against Even Warlock and Odd Rogue, to prevent damage from their big early minions.
• Power Word: Shield is always a good keep if you have an early game minion in the mulligan already.

General Strategy:

• The deck plays out similar to a tempo deck, you want to curve out and establish yourself on board, board control is crucial. If you completely lose board control, there is almost no way to win the game.
• Main win condition is obviously Divine Spirit + Inner Fire combo to finish off your opponent, but hogging those card just to get that combo is not always right, especially against aggressive decks. Playing Divine Spirit on your minion or Inner Fire on enemy's aggressive minion with big attack and low hp is still a good value against decks that you won't really need the combo to finish of the game.
• The Divine Spirit + Inner Fire combo is one of the fastest combos in the game, sometimes it will even allow you to finish of the game on turn 3 or 4. The speed of the combo allows to beat all other combo decks, before they assemble their combo. That also makes it great against control decks, all you have to do is stick a decent sized minion on board and assemble the combo with multiples Divine Spirit and sometimes even Power Word: Shield.
• Cycling through the deck fast is also crucial. Power Word: Shield, Northshire Cleric, Acolyte of Pain - are the main cycle engines in the deck. You can combine Acolyte of Pain + Wild Pyromancer + Spells or Northshire Cleric + Wild Pyromancer + Spell + Circle of Healing to draw a ton of cards. But always count how many cards you will draw, you don't want to overdraw and it is quite easy to overdraw with this deck.
• Playing Northshire Cleric on turn 1 is not always the right thing to do, you do want to get that card draw value from her, so if opponent can contest her with a 3/2 and you have no way to buff it and heal, it is a bad outcome, try to play her into the decks that you know have a weak one drop or play it after they dropped that weak 1 drop. In general playing Northshire Cleric against aggressive decks on turn 1 might lead to a big game stall for your opponent, they don't want to let you draw cards, hence might not even play weak drops, until they get rid of your Cleric, this buys you a ton of time and tempo. And always remember you can heal your opponents minion to get a draw with Northshire Cleric.
• Usually from Shadow Visions you want to grab another copy of Divine Spirit unless you are playing against aggressive deck or you have a really bad hand and want to cycle with Power Word: Shield or Circle of Healing. Silence can be a decent choice against deathrattle decks. Obviously every situation is different so grab what you need. Same goes with Firetree Witchdoctor, decent choices that synergize with this deck are Divine Spirit, Inner Fire, Topsy Turvy (especially if you suspect the opponent can play/played Skulking Geist), Extra Arms, Unidentified Elixir, Silence, Mass Dispel, Shadow Madness. You can grab board clears or target removal if needed. Or you can stock up on some value cards in slower matchups.
• Circle of Healing is also very good with Nightscale Matriarch since you can play him and Circle of Healing, he will summon a 3/3 for every friendly damaged minion. if you have a big damaged minion it is also great to heal it back up and play the Divine Spirit + Inner Fire combo for lethal.
• Its always good to combine Lyra the Sunshard and Radiant Elemental for a miracle turn. Lyra is your another win condition, that can bring great value.
• Always keep control of your Dragon Synergies, you generally want to keep a dragon in your hand at all times. Try to get max value out of cards that rely on dragon synergies before getting rid of the last dragon in your hand.
• Don't overextend too much against decks with numerous board clears. Always try to keep 1 big minion on board for potential lethal, force them to use board clear or target removal, then drop another big minion the next turn.
• Sometimes, if your hand is very bad, you may need to go all in and buff your minion to finish of opponent in 2 turns and just hope he has no way to deal with it.

Replacements:

• Lyra the Sunshard can be replaced by Ysera or Primordial Drake, this provides better dragon synergies and another win condition.

Verdict:

It is a hard deck to play that needs a lot of experience, there are a lot of choices during the game and a lot of planning. It is a strong deck if you know how to play it, but a weak deck if you don't. Other than that it is a very cheap, fun deck to play and reach legend if you can master it.