Hearthpwn

After several demands for a guide to the dragon priest I tried to finally write up a guide. If you enjoy this deck/guide I would really appreciate you following me on twitter and or twitch.

I have played this deck multiple times into top10 EU and also used this to climb from rank 5 to Legend in the early season. Proof from my twitter: 

https://twitter.com/Bunnyhoppor/status/795354216281866240

 my twitch: twitch.tv/bunnyhoppor

The first question I am usually asked about the deck is: why 2 Entomb and why a single priest of the feast:

The reason you want to play 2 Entomb is that when I made the deck there was mostly druid on ladder and playing 2 Entomb simply sparks the power level of your [card]Shadow Word: Death[/card] even more,  as you can afford to spend those early. Also in ALL control matchups this card is obviously insane, but more in that in the matchup guide. Depending on the meta, say you only face shaman you might put in another priest or another Blackwing Technician

Now to the matchup and mulligan guide:

Always keep Twilight Guardian and Twilight Whelp as well as Wyrmrest Agent.

• Shaman (Hard)

You pretty much always out value shaman, but they are very prone to overrun you, especially if you can't deal with thing from below.

Mulligan hard for early game, all your 1-2 drop minions, except Netherspite Historian especially shadow word pain and Wyrmrest Agent. Only keep Netherspite Historian, if you already have an Wyrmrest Agent + Dragon or Twilight WhelpAlso the Blackwing Technician can be great as it challenges everything except for  totem golem, for which you more or less need shadow word pain

Keep any dragon with wyrmwrest and shadow word pain. Now there isn't much special to this matchup: don't commit too hard into their 4 AoE spells, clear totems whenever you can, trade early with trogg and take care of flametongue asap.

Only special tip for this matchup: Deathwing from Netherspite Historian can be a great safety switch.

Also Entomb on an azure drake is still fine.

If you face only shaman:

-1 Entomb + 1 Blackwing Technician

• Druid

So this matchup is quite tricky, but you just have to capitalize on the turns they play understated minions. You use you [card]Shadow Word: Death[/card] for tempo, as well as playing on curve and hitting them in the face.

Also keep Historian in this matchup. Your worst enemy in this matchup is Azure Drake, you have no efficient way of dealing with it, while producing tempo of your own. Since you have great sources of 3 dmg, you need 1 extra and the Netherspite Historian does exactly that.

Other than that, just SMOrc!

• Tempo mage

Mulligan for early game and shadow word shadow word pain, also keep Northshire Cleric. Try to deal with their 2 drops using your own minions, if you can ever get ahead on board before turn 5 you should win it, afterwards their only 2 comeback mechanisms are Flamewaker turns or SMOrcing you to death, but you have 2 shadow word pain and 2 Bookwyrms to deal with that. 

If you face too many of those on ladder: - 1 Entomb + 1 Priest of the Feast.

Freeze mage: (Super bad Matchup)

Keep Ragnaros.

Keep Priest of the Fiest, but only play in after alex together with [card]Shadow Word: Death[/card] or power word shield and such.

shadow word pain is also great, but don’t keep all of the 3 above together, you need to put on at least some pressure so you don’t get otk’ed to easily.

• Hunter

Mulligan for your early drops, also keep Northshire Cleric. Playing the twilight welp on turn 1 or Wyrmwrest on 1 with coin is just a huge deal for them, because it contests the secretkeeper and you don’t want that to snowball you out of the game. Overall you should be favored in this matchup, mostly because you never need to really activate the cat trick unless you play spells for a swing turn. 

If you face too face hunters on ladder: - 1 Entomb + 1 Priest of the Feast. Against midrange hunter: Keep as it is, open for suggestions though.

5.Rogue

Probably the hardest matchup, but you just win by pressuring them out of the game. If your hand is decent keep [card]Shadow Word: Death[/card] as well, since it deals well with their pillager as well as questing or Edwin.

Against Malygos Rogue you can also win just by staying at a high health total and making them use their burn on minions, just to close the game be Entombing their Malygos.

Against questing rogue your best friends are taunts followed up by [card]Shadow Word: Death[/card] .

Also Tomb Pillager is an excellent Entomb target as it usually just denies them 2 cards.

• Warlock – Always mulligan for Zoo 

Keep Northshire Cleric, Twilight Welp,shadow word pain, Wyrmwrest Agent, Twilight Guardian. Contest the Board early and try to get rig of their Imp gang Boss with shadow word pain Councilman often has to get dealt with using [card]Shadow Word: Death[/card] .

Whenever possible try prioritizing taking Malchazar’s Imp off the board.

If you face Renolock, use Entomb for Sylv whenever possible, pick the biggest dragons of netherspite historian, they usually don’t have enough removals for all the big threats. If twitch chat spams: Take Neferian!!! Do it, you will get Sacrifical Packs, trust me ;)

7.Warrior 

Keep Wyrwrest, Twilight Guardian, Blackwing Technician, andshadow word pain, if you already have a curve. If you have ceric do not play it unless you can draw a card with it the same turn, sometimes it is even useful to draw multiple cards with holy nova. Also with Wyrmwrest, if you don’t have any other dragon keep the Bookwyrm as it pretty much always get’s good value.

Agianst Control/Dragon control/Yogg Control:

You often outvalue them, Entomb on sylv + monkey or elise. If you don’t have a good reason to play bran early, bran + Netherspite often wins the game later, just pick the biggest minions and with rag and 2x Entomb you just have too much for them to deal with. Always be aware of brawl, as it is together with gorehowl the only card that can trade better than 2 for 1. If you can have them run out of cards with, for example Book Wyrm or shadow word pain on Acolyte go for the pressure plan.

Nzoth Control

This matchup is a lot harder, but try to steal their cairne with Entomb as well as sylvanas, keep 1 holy nova for the time they play nzoth. Otherwise you should have enough with minions for them not to play a perfect NZoth, don’t be afraid to draw aggressively with Northshire Cleric.

Dragon Warrior

Keep shadow word pain; don’t be afraid to use Entomb on their Azure drake, as it is a great drop later on again. Your game plan for this is to take up good trades from having board early as well as gaining great swings with Bookwyrm and shadow word pain/[card]Shadow Word: Death[/card] . If possible try to stay above 15 health unless you have multiple answers ([card]Shadow Word: Death[/card] /Entomb) for big threats.

8.Priest:

If it is the mirror: 

Never had this, but it is very similar to playing against dragon warrior.

If it is control:

You just out-pressure them with your minions, go for the biggest minions possible with your Netherspite Historian. Also your minions simply have too much health for them to deal with.

• Paladin

I played over 100 games with this deck on ladder or more and I haven’t seen a single Paladin…

Any comments or suggestions are welcome.