Hearthpwn

One of the many problems with Priest at the moment seems to be how limited its options are in terms of playstyle. The class is naturally suited to playing the long game, with Midrange decks like Zetalot's being considered rather fast for a Priest. This deck is essentially an attempt at creating a Tempo Priest which has some degree of viability in the current meta, taking the concepts which make Warlock Zoo so powerful and putting a Priest-y spin on them. The end result is a deck which isn’t insanely powerful, but which is pretty fun to play, has a lot more room for creative plays than traditional Zoo, and makes for an interesting break from Priest’s typically slow playstyle.

Strategy

The main point of this deck is to apply constant pressure on the opponent and keep it up until victory is achieved. It sounds fairly simple, but the main problem any non-Warlock Zoo decks end up facing is their lack of card draw and difficulty keeping the pressure up into the late-game. Obviously, Warlocks can combat the former through Life Taps, and the latter isn't an issue since they have Doomguard and Soulfire to finish their opponents off. Other classes struggle to compete with the amount of draw and pressure Warlocks can manage; however, it isn't impossible.

Card Draw

The issue of card draw was the first that needed to be resolved. Even in more control-oriented decks, Priest has inconsistent card draw at best: one game, you'll be counting cards to make sure you don't end up burning cards; the next, you'll spend the back half of the game top-decking. The solution here was to borrow from Freeze Mage, one of the most consistent non-Warlock decks when it comes to card draw, and add in several cycling cards:

- Power Word: Shield: One of the best cards in the Priest arsenal, always trading at least one-for-one, and often enabling a minion to trade for one more card than it normally would. And, of course, there’s its synergy with Wild Pyromancer which makes for cheap and efficient AoE.

- Northshire Cleric: Priest’s staple minion for card draw. Four stats for one mana is pretty good all on its own, but the card draw on top of that makes Northshire a surprisingly scary card for your opponent, forcing them to choose between playing around a one mana minion or risk giving you cards, neither of which is particularly ideal.

- Loot Hoarder: Preferable to Novice Engineer because, while it doesn’t give immediate card draw, the one extra attack is essential for helping maintain pressure.

- Acolyte of Pain: The 3 health works especially well in Priest as it can be buffed to give the card more survivability and them healed so that it becomes a threat comparable to Northshire, forcing your opponent to expend resources dealing with a 1/3 minion. Additionally, Acolyte synergizes incredibly well with Wild Pyro, potentially allowing for insane amounts of card draw.

- Gnomish Inventor: Strong enough to trade well, provides and good target to buff, and replaces itself in your hand. All around a pretty strong card in this deck.

With the above cards, it becomes far more feasible to keep up the pressure as the game goes on.

Pressure

Many of the cards in this deck are also in Zoo decks, and serve similar purposes: Abusive Sergeant [/card], [card]Dire Wolf Alpha, Knife Juggler, etc., all serve the same basic purpose in this deck as in Zoo. But there are also a few additional tricks which help to keep your opponent on the defensive:

- Mind Blast: Two mana for five damage, helping you to either push for damage when your opponent’s low or activate Wild Pyro when you need a bit of extra help on the board.

- Crazed Alchemist: Insanely fun to use with all the temporary buffs Zoo decks tend to have, turning a Dark Iron Dwarf’s normal +2 attack for a turn into a permanent +2 health. Alternatively, it can turn normally-underwhelming cards like Shieldbearer, Northshire, and Acolyte into bruisers that can put on a decent amount of pressure.

- Shadowform: Usually a poor card due to how it’s essentially a one-turn tempo loss in exchange for long-term benefits. In this deck, however, the tempo loss isn’t quite as bad since the deck has enough early-game that you’ll often have a pretty well-developed board by the time you play it. In addition, the card can be combined with Pyro for a free whirlwind in addition to its usual effect. The card then allows you to really bear down on your opponent and keep them from recovering. (Note: it’s generally incorrect to play Shadowform on turn 3 because at that point, you’ll want to still be developing your board. Exceptions are when your opponent has a really slow start and there are no other plays. Otherwise, it’s typically better to stick with the ability to heal so you can support your board position without losing tempo in the process.)

Before moving on, I’d like to note the difference between pressure and damage. As an example, let's say you have a Knife Juggler and Cleric on the field and a Power Word: Shield and Alchemist in hand: Although using PW:S and Crazed Alchemist on a Cleric might deal a lot of damage, it leaves a Magma Rager on the board, which is quite easy to deal with. An alternative play might be to use Alchemist on a Knife Juggler and then put PW:S on it, as while that path will deal less damage, it makes a minion with a very valuable ability far more troublesome for your opponent to remove, so while it doesn’t deal as much damage, it actually puts far more pressure on the opponent.

Mulligans

The opponent is largely irrelevant since the goal is always the same: putting on as much pressure as possible, as quickly as possible:

- Cards you’re looking to have in your opening hand: Northshire, Knife Juggler, Wild Pyro (especially if you suspect your opponent is playing aggro), Shield Bearer, Loot Hoarder.

- Cards you should pretty much always mulligan: Shadowform, Mind Blast, anything that costs more than 3 mana

 

Again, this isn’t the most powerful of decks, but it’s fun to play and considerably faster than Priest’s normal fare. Can’t wait until Naxx is released; I can see Dark Cultist and Nerubian Egg having a lot of potential in this deck. >:)

GL & HF