Hearthpwn

At first, you might look at this as a mess of a deck, like something drafted in Arena rather than created for Constructed, but it’s actually quite powerful. The reason I call it Perseverance Priest is because you do just that: Persevere. At any given moment, there’s a good draw in your deck, something that’s always exactly what you need. In the off chance that there isn’t, the Jeweled Scarab, Thoughtsteal, or Mind Vision can help instead.

If you’re a Hearthstone veteran, the first thing you’ll be wondering about is the fact that there’s a Reno in this deck, and yet there are no less than three duplicates. No, I’m not crazy. First, each and every card in this deck has its place and the vast majority combo well with other cards: Lightspawn combos well with Divine Spirit, which also combos with Djinni of Zephyrs, which also combos with Potion of Madness, and so on. Second, This deck will almost always carry out into the late-game. If you‘re almost dead by turn five or six, you were doomed anyway, so having three duplicates isn’t as big a drawback for Reno as you might think. Third, having duplicates of each of these cards has proved extremely helpful on multiple occasions, and yet still including Reno has saved my life a variety of times.

The biggest downside of this deck, aside from that, is that you almost always have to have some presence on the board by turn four. A bad opening hand can ruin you, and there have been times where I played either Kabal Talonpriest or Shattered Sun Cleric on an empty board just for the sake of having something there. Besides that, it’s a pretty fun and pretty good deck. A bonus point in favor of it is that, because it’s so against the current meta, your opponent is never able to guess what you have in hand, and so will rarely be able to play around it. That’s a huge advantage in long games.

Because of the three duplicates, I can’t call it a Reno deck, and because you rarely have exactly what you need to destroy the enemy minions in hand, I can’t call it a Control deck, so I just made up a new name: Perseverance. In my opinion, it works well. But don’t take my word for it; I’ve been running a deck helper program while playing in order to keep track of how this deck does. I’ve played around 200 games with it, and it has a 63% winrate.

A huge benefit to playing this deck is that it can be adjusted to your liking to provide more opportunities for combos or to guarantee a larger board presence. One of my friends, for example, took out a Djinni of Zephyrs and replaced it with Kazakus, while another traded out Mind Blast for Ysera. The version I’ve been using lately replaces one Potion of Madness with a Pint-Sized Potion, a Djinni of Zephyrs with Emperor Thaurissan, and Mind Blast with Ragnaros. This enables me to get to my Reno more quickly and provide some bigger late-game threats, but limits my combo and board clear potential.

Due to it being quite effective, quite unusual, and quite fun to play, my Perseverance Priest is easily one of my favorite decks I’ve made.

Decklist:

1 Mind Vision
2 Northshire Cleric
2 Potion of Madness
1 Divine Spirit
1 Jeweled Scarab
1 Lightwell
1 Mind Blast
1 Youthful Brewmaster
1 Shadow Word: Pain
1 Shadow Word: Death
1 Kabal Talonpriest
1 Shattered Sun Cleric
1 Thoughtsteal
1 Defender of Argus
1 Holy Champion
1 Kooky Chemist
1 Lightspawn
1 Darkshire Alchemist
2 Djinni of Zephyrs
1 Holy Nova
1 Kabal Songstealer
1 Power Word: Tentacles
1 Sunwalker
1 Temple Enforcer
1 Bog Creeper
1 Mind Control
Reno Jackson

Requires: League of Explorers Wing 1, 820 Dust

Good Against:

Tempo Mage
Freeze Mage (Thoughtsteal does wonders)
C’thun Druid
Jade Druid (If you’re able to keep up with the tempo)
Ramp Druid
Control Warrior
Renolock
Zoolock
Beast Hunter
Secret Hunter
Jade Rogue
Pirate Rogue
Dragon Warrior
Jade Shaman
Murloc Paladin

Bad Against:

Buffadin
Murloc Buffadin
Aggro Shaman
C’Thun Warrior
Reno Priest
Dragon Priest
Miracle Rogue
Reno Mage
Discolock
Beast Druid (oddly enough)
Any OTK Deck

Questionable Against:

Pirate Warrior:
If you get either Potion of Madness or Northshire Cleric in your opening hand, it clears your way to play more minions in the next few turns. At that point, Pirate Warrior is wrecked. However, in nearly any other situation, you’re 100% dead.

Midrange Shaman:
It completely depends on whether or not he plays spell damage early and if you have an answer. If he does and you do, then it’ll be close, but most of the time you’ll win. Otherwise, it’ll be close, but most of the time he’ll win. At least from my experience.

Reno Hunter:
This is the only time where having three duplicates is an enormous downside. The variety in the deck will keep you on your toes, and it won’t be long before both of you are down to low health. If he can play Reno and you can’t, you’re screwed. However, if you’ve drawn your duplicates, or he can’t get Reno until later, you’ll generally win.

Winrate: 63%