Hearthpwn

This is not my deck. I found it on hsreplay and went from Rank 7, 5 stars to my first Legend. I saved this deck here, on my account just in memory. And wrote a guide ;-)

Strategy

Your deck has only big minions. You are summoning them or playing from hand. Eventually they die. Then, you resurrect them with your spells.

The best way to summon a minion is to play Barnes on Turn 4. Barnes summons a 1/1 copy of a minion from your deck. You kill this minion and then resurrect it with full body.

You have six resurrection spells in your deck: double Resurrect, double Eternal Servitude and double Lesser Diamond Spellstone; and two copies of Shadow Visions, which gives you two more resurrection spells.

If you don’t have Barnes, summon a 5/5 minion with Shadow Essence. When it dies, resurrect full body.

If you don’t have Shadow Essence, try to find it with Shadow Visions on the turn before the Essence.

In worst case, just play a big minion from hand.

Tips

This a slow combo deck. Don’t be aggressive with it.

Keep Shadow Visions for as long as you can. The later you play it, the higher chances to win. Against aggro decks, search for controllish spells; against control decks, search for your resurrection spells.

Resurection spells should be found in this order: Lesser Diamond Spellstone, Eternal Servitute, Resurrect. The more value is better, the more flexibility is also better.

If Barnes still in your deck, it’s better to get another resurection spell from Shadow Visions than Shadow Essence.

Always remember what minions have died. Once, I could not remember whether my Y'Shaarj, Rage Unbound has died or was shuffled in my deck. I thought a lot, still could not remember. I made a suboptimal play just because of it (still won). Maybe it’s better to write on paper who has died.

Barnes can win you games but can ruin. If you play him on Turn 4, chances to win is 80%. However, if Barnes is in your deck, your Shadow Essence could work against you.

Keep tracking of whether Barnes has died or not. If he died, skip playing Resurrect until the very end, when all of your big minions died several times to decrease chances of resurrection of Barnes. Time after time, you will resurrect Barnes from Resurrect and from Lesser Diamond Spellstone however.

I once thought ”Maybe it would be better without Barnes?” because you cannot summon it from Shadow Essence and resurrect with Resurrect. Still, Barnes is the only chance to win against Rogues. Just play around of his death.

It’s always better to suffle Barnes into opponents deck with Psychic Scream because Barnes needs a deck built for him (like yours), so for your opponent this card is useless. You can kill Sylvanas Windrunner with Lightbomb, she will stole Barnes and he will never die on your side.

Beware playing Y'Shaarj, Rage Unbound against control decks. This card works amazingly against aggro-decks due to creating a lot of tempo, when aggro does not have mass removals. But against control decks (like Control Warrior), this card works against you. Essentially, it Recruit a minion from your deck and the control deck clears the board with just one spell. So, you are losing two big minions to one spell. At some point, you will have nothing to play.

Try not to play Y'Shaarj, Rage Unbound against control. And even Shadow Essence because it can summon Y'Shaarj. Play Essence only when Y'Shaarj is in your hand. When you know that no minions is in your deck, you can play Y'Shaarj and resurrect him.

The best choices to resurrect from Eternal Servitude against control is: The Lich King and Ragnaros the Firelord; against aggro: Obsidian Statue and Y'Shaarj, Rage Unbound.

Some classes of your opponents can summon minions into your side. Keep tracking of this as it breaks your resurrect spells. Most notably: Leeroy Jenkins, Cornered Sentry.

Some classes can transform your big minions into another, like Mages and Shamans. Well, it’s inevitable. You will resurrect Sheeps and Frogs, not your big minions. Try to bite for Polymorph and Hex with Obsidian Statue and when all of transformations are gone, play big minions, like The Lich King or Ragnaros the Firelord.

Note, however, Tinkmaster Overspark is available for everyone and pretty common for control Warriors and Warlocks. Still, it’s hard to play around everything.

Control Warlocks has access to Doomsayer and Treachery combo. If Doomsayer has died on your side, that’s really bad. Try not to use Resurrect until the very end and not buff your Lesser Diamond Spellstone. Always prefer playing Eternal Servitude and look for extra copies of it with Shadow Visions.

The last but not the least. You have six minions and six plus two resurrection spells. It’s a lot but not infinite. Heal your minions! Value trade! Go face when you can. It’s really possible you will have nothing to play and no ways to resurrect. DO NOT kill your big minions just to resurrect them! Let your opponent kill them. Resurrect only when you have nothing to pressure your opponent.

Do not kill your 1/1 Obsidian Statue you got from Barnes with Shadow Word: Pain or Shadow Word: Horror, just to immediatly resurrect it with Resurrect! It’s looking wise to kill it and have a minion died, so you always have something to resurrect but it’s not. This 1/1 Statue is a removal: it kills a random enemy minion. Wait until your enemy plays something and then trade this Statue into it. Also, you should always prefer resurrecting The Lich King or Ragnaros the Firelord, not the 4-attack Statue.

How to

How to counter Rogues

Rogues can be Odd Rogue and Kingsbane Pirate Rogue. Both are unfavorable for you :-(

Odd Rogue is pretty fast so it kills you on turn 6. You can play Shadow Essence at this point and even if it summons the Statue, Rogue can just play Vilespine Slayer the next turn and finish you.

The only thing that beats Odd Rogue is perfect Barnes on turn 3/4, into Obsidian Statue, with some resurection spells in hand. Also, Rogue could draw pretty badly — it’s your chance! Don’t concede until the end!

Kingsbane Pirate Rogue is even worse. This Rogue plays Sap and even if you have perfect Barnes into Obsidian Statue, Rogue just saps the Statue in your hand and it’s over. Your only chance — Rogue drew bad. Still, you should try to beat it.

In any case, games with Rogues are very fast: you lose fast or win fast. My advice: don’t concede, try your best, Rogue can drew badly; even if you still lose (likely), it’s a fast game; remember: you can win out of nowhere, so just don’t threw game before it starts.

How to beat Shamans

Most oftenly Shamans are Even Shamans. You are favoured in this matchup.

Beating Shamans should not be an issue. Just follow the pattern: clear the board, clear all big threats, play your combo.

It’s always better to clear the board than play Shadow Essence. Shaman can just Devolve all of your taunts and kill you. So, always prefer to clear the board. If you really want to play Shadow Essence, it’s best to wait until turn 10 and combo it with some board clears.

Beware of Windfury. If the only minion of Shaman is 7/7 Flamewreathed Faceless, expect Windfury on it the next turn.

Try to bite Shaman to summon a lot of totems and then Psychic Scream them all. The perfect Scream wins you games.

Always prefer healing as Shaman can burn you with Crackle. Perfect double Crackle is at most 14 damage. It’s a lot! Always think about burst damage! Prefer to leave the range of burst as soon as possible. You should always be at 12 health or more.

Note, your Excavated Evil breaks Battle cry of Murkspark Eel (no more 2-damage).

How to win mirror matches

Mirror matches with another Big Priest can be tricky. Sometimes it’s a game of skill, sometimes it’s a coin flip.

If your opponent plays perfect Barnes into 1/1 Y'Shaarj, Rage Unbound, the game is over for you. Unlucky.

If you play The Coin and Barnes on turn 3, and the next turn your opponent plays Barnes, it’s a coin flip — the one who summoned the better creature has won.

Most likely, both of you will play Shadow Essence on turn 5/6 and it’s also a coin flip.

In mirror matches, you always want to out-value your opponent. The Lich King is perfect card for this because it gives you cards. Frostmourne creates a lot of value as your opponent has only big minions that you want to resurect.

Beware of Doom Pact as this card can destroy everything you summoned from Lesser Diamond Spellstone.

Almost all Death Knight cards from the The Lich King are great in the mirror match (except for Army of the Dead), so The Lich King is perfect target for resurrection.

If you are behind on board, maybe it’s wise to resurect Obsidian Statue. The Statue has 4-attack, so your opponent cannot get rid of it easely. Most likely, he will attack it with his 8-attack minion, whose will die from Statue’s deathrattle. Don’t forget: the Statue is a removal!

Ragnaros the Firelord can be a good target to resurrect as it’s also a removal (albeit inconsistent).

You should always out-value your opponent, so you should prefer to play perfect Greater Diamond Spellstone into four big minions. If it’s possible, try to find additional Lesser Diamond Spellstone from Shadow Visions as it creates a lot of value!

Mulligan Guide

• Always keep Barnes
• Always keep one Shadow Visions
• Always keep one Shadow Word: Pain except against Priest
• Druid: Shadow Essence, Eternal Servitude
• Hunter: Shadow Essence, Excavated Evil
• Mage: Shadow Essence, Excavated Evil
• Paladin: Spirit Lash, Shadow Word: Horror, Excavated Evil
• Priest: Shadow Essence, Lesser Diamond Spellstone, Eternal Servitude
• Rogue: Spirit Lash, Shadow Essence
• Shaman: Shadow Word: Horror, Shadow Word: Death, Excavated Evil
• Warlock: Shadow Essence, Shadow Word: Death
• Warrior: Shadow Essence, Eternal Servitude

Card choice

Silence

Resurrect

Shadow Visions

Shadow Word: Pain

Spirit Lash

Shadow Word: Death

Eternal Servitude

Greater Healing Potion

Shadow Word: Horror

Excavated Evil

Lightbomb

Shadow Essence

Lesser Diamond Spellstone

Psychic Scream

Obsidian Statue

Barnes

Ragnaros the Firelord

The Lich King

Y'Shaarj, Rage Unbound

To Place To Include

Potion of Madness

Entomb

Mass Hysteria

Kel'Thuzad

Zerek's Cloning Gallery

Statistics

This deck on hsreplay: VEFq4jLsJMnyY3MIQb1y3c

I played this deck for 9 days, for 92 games. I tried to play 10 games in day. All games I played from my main PC, with Deck Tracker, in a quiet room, fully concentrated. I spent 705 minutes on this deck or almost 12 hours (a little bit more due to finding games, resting between games, waiting for the last opponent to find a new game, etc).

I won 60 games and lost 32 games. It’s 65% win rate. I went from Rank 7, 5 stars to my first Legend ;-) (three stars on Rank 6 I got from win streak)

(The first game was on my mobile phone so it’s not shown here but it was recorded on hsreplay. It was a win against Control Mage).