Farewell to the Dragon Army - 73.5% winrate
- Last updated Apr 1, 2017 (Aggro Downfall)
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Wild
- 22 Minions
- 8 Spells
- Deck Type: Ranked Deck
- Deck Archetype: Dragon Priest
- Crafting Cost: 4800
- Dust Needed: Loading Collection
- Created: 3/27/2017 (Aggro Downfall)
- farqtheorc
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I am Farq The Orc and this deck just shot me to legend with 73.5% winrate (decktracker stats) from rank 5 to legend over 49 games. It is finely tuned against the pirates meta - it eats pirate decks for breakfast (67% winrate) and if you're like me and love dragon decks, please read on and I will explain why 1 or 2 cards make all the difference.
Turn 3 Inner Fire win vs Pirate Warrior @ rank 4. :-)
Firstly, to tackle a criticism - many people claim dragon decks are boring and that "curvestone" decks take no skill to play. Of course, dragon priest is a midrange deck where you aim to play an overstatted minion each turn. Compared to reno or miracle decks, sure, there is less skill involved in playing the deck, but I will answer this criticism by saying: You win with dragon priest firstly in the deck tuning, secondly in the mulligan and thirdly by knowing exactly when to stop trading minions and go face. So, focus your skill and thinking into those areas ;)
Perhaps more so than other decks, dragon priest needs to be finely tuned to the meta, and 1 or 2 card choices can make all the difference between floating at rank 5 and getting to legend.
So! To address the meta, which is basically pirate warrior, shaman, reno decks and jades, our dragon priest needs to A) answer early threats B) be able to push hard in the mid game (around turns 5-7), C) get value in the long game and D) beat jade druid. Let's look at each one of these attributes.
Inner Fire can LevelUp! your minions to trade smartly or threaten lethal.
A) Answer early threats. We are running a "full package" of early answers including 2 Shadow Word: Pain and an Acidic Swamp Ooze. There are also 2 Blackwing Technician. Why? Having a good 3 drop is *insanely* important for dragon priest, and with five 3-drops we are maximizing the chance of getting one. There is also a Defender of Argus to block arcanite reapers. This good early game start gives us a 67% winrate vs pirate warrior.
B) Push hard in the mid game. I was looking for a versatile win condition in one card and started using Inner Fire. It can also gain mid game tempo by turning a Twilight Guardian into a 6/6 (or a 9/9 with Kabal Talonpriest) for trading up into a bigger minion. Combined with Drakonid Operative (which we all know is OP) we have an extremely strong mid game. There is also Defender of Argus to allow 3/5's and 3/6's to take out an opponent's Azure Drake, or for Drakonid to neatly snipe opponent's drakonid in the mirror.
C) Get value in the long game. Pretty much all dragon decks run Brann Bronzebeard and try to combo with Netherspite Historian and Drakonid Operative later in the game (rather than early) to get extra value. This deck also has ---> Ysera. Why? Can't you get Ysera off a Netherspite? Sure, you can, but not always. Ysera is a long game win condition, a form of card draw, a dragon trigger and a supreme target for Inner Fire (a 12/12, anyone? Nom Nom Nom). So we include Ysera in this deck - golden, of course ;)
D) Beating Jade Druid. Beating Jade druid requires recognising their playstyle and key cards and using the strategy "trade early - then switch and go face". For the early game you want to get a 1-drop, 2-drop, 3-drop and 4-drop on curve. When they drop the 3/6 taunt, use shadow word pain or Book Wyrm, heal up your minions and from that point onwards GO FACE. If you play a long game the jades will eventually kill you, so ignore the jades from about 5/5 onwards, play small taunts, and push face. Note that Shadow word:pain and death counter some of their key cards (fandrall, ancients, etc).
Nice discovers - Tirion and Anyfin ;)
To address all these strategies, we dropped some cards that might seem counter intuitive, and I'll explain why.
Minus one Northshire Cleric. Why? Having 2 clerics in your hand at the start of the game will often mean you lose. You need to curve out with strong 2, 3 and 4 drops. Having 1 Northshire Cleric for the mid game is fine, in fact you should mulligan it away anyway. Another consideration is that the exact 2 classes where you "always" play cleric on turn 1 (vs hunter and vs paladin) are not played at the moment.
No Azure Drakes. What?? Are you crazy? Well, yes, and... no. Azure Drake is a great card, but not for this deck. We are so used to including it that we don't question why. The card draw is nice, but the body is weak and we only run 1 spell that benefits from spell damage. Other than the dragon tag the card is pretty useless for us. Plus we have Drakonid for "card draw". If you didn't try dropping the drakes - do it. You won't miss them.
No DragonFire potion? Wait, but didn't Pavel and Thijs both run it? True, they did, but it's one of those cards that just tends to sit in your hand. Versus pirate warrior Dragonfire Potion comes too late and versus jades it wont help when they get to 7/7's and 8/8's. Plus a 6 mana card is clunky, at most you can play another 4 mana card on the same turn. Besides, midrange decks dont have time to play this on turn 6 - that's when you should just ignore the other minions, taunt up and go face.
No Ragnaros? It's popular in some lists for Ragnaros the Firelord at the moment. But why? Ragnaros is useless if your opponent goes wide on the board, and if you have Drakonid Operative and one other card in your hand, would you rather Ysera or Ragnaros? Ysera as a single card has won me so many games on the road to legend - don't understimate her power, or how difficult she is to remove if your opponent doesn't have a poly or a hex.
Cutting the cards mentioned above shot my winrate from below 60% to over 73%.
Swapping Dragonfire Potion for an Ooze greatly improved the pirate warrior matchup.
WIN CONDITIONS
1. Overwhelm the board with midrange minions. This is your main strategy. Multiple minions wth 6 health are hard to remove. Try to keep out of AOE range of your opponent, don't overplay into Twisting Nether, and get value by healing and trading your minions multiple times (use defender of argus and holy nova to "trade up")
2. Steal something your opponent won't expect. Drakonid Operative is an insanely OP card not just because it's a "pit fighter, draw a card" but because it can open up new win conditions your opponent won't expect. If you can steal a Dirty Rat and pull their Kazakus (did this) - you win. If you can steal a Leeroy and Power Overwhelm (did this too), you win. Be creative! And *think* about the card choices from the discover before you take one, especially if you have 2 discovers from brann.
3. Use Inner Fire (bonus with Kabal Talonpriest). This card will win you so many games. Because you are playing defensively stat'ed minions, it's easy to turn a 3/6 into a 6/6, trade with a 4/4, and heal it up. Alternatively you can surprise an opponent in the lategame (no-one will suspect "burst" from a priest in this manner)
4. Ysera. Simply fight like hell through the midgame until your opponent and you are essentially top decking and fighting a grindy sort of game. Lure out hex or poly if you can, and then drop Ysera. If your opponent can't answer her, she can win the game for you single-handedly.
MULLIGAN GUIDE
Mulligan hard for a good minion-only starting curve, for example 1-2-3 or 2-3-4 (with the coin: 1-3-3 or 2-2-3 or 2-4-4 or 2-3-5). When you have Twilight Whelp / Wyrmrest Agent (or Blackwing Technician with the coin), keep any dragon as a trigger (even if it's Ysera).
If you need a dragon trigger, keep the whelp and / or the agent and throw away everything else.
Throw back all spells (keep Shadow Word: Pain versus shaman) and throw back Northshire Cleric (unless your also have Power Word: Shield - or if your opponent is hunter or paladin).
Versus pirate warrior you want Acidic Swamp Ooze, Shadow Word: Pain, any of your 1- or 2- drops (else a 3 drop with coin) and Northshire Cleric is especially good if going first (counters all pirate warrior openings, else forces them to coin into war axe on turn 1, losing crucial early game tempo).
In the mirror match or versus slower decks (like reno, freeze mage) you can keep Drakonid Operative (or Netherspite Historian, which can often get you an operative).
Remember, you *must* mulligan hard for a good start and you *must* be able to trigger your dragon cards.
PLAY GUIDE
Versus agro decks you want to contest the board early and focus on removing their minions quickly before you can outvalue them and taunt up in the mid / late game. Coin out Wyrmrest Agent or Blackwing Technician if you can. Play out all your early minions even if you don't have triggers.
Versus control decks the strategy is the opposite - you want to play out a good curve using your dragon trigger cards, save the coin for Twilight Guardian or Drakonid Operative, push face damage and either make them waste premium removal on your mid game minions or just flat out kill them before they can outvalue you in the late game. If it gets to the late game, you have Brann Bronzebeard and discovers for value, or just Ysera.
Please watch these fantastic showcase videos below to see these strategies in action (throw them a like if you find the videos useful.)
Showcase video by Kadak (reno lock)
- Kadak coins an operative to apply strong midgame pressure (key to beating reno)
- When Sylvanas comes down he plays out 2 netherspites to refill his hand
- Choosing +damage cards from discover eventually won him the game
Showcase video by KiwiiNbacon (mirror match and rogue)
- Kiwiinbacon uses Inner Fire to make a turn four 7/7 in the mirror match :-)
- Drawing his opponent's SW:D allowed him to play Operative first, snowballing to a win
- In the second game he forces his rogue opponent to play Leeroy to remove a 2/6
- He goes wide in the midgame, playing 2 blackwing techs instead of bigger minions
Showcase video by Furo (pirate warrior, shaman and warlock)
Showcase video by Kristophesaurus (mirror, 2 shamans, 2 warriors, 2 druids)
Join me in wishing "Farewell" to the dragon army - we likely won't see another dragon deck this strong in Standard before 2018, so if you're going for legend right now in the last month of Year of the Kraken, I hope my list and my commentary helps you, good luck, thanks for reading my guide - and may your oppponents be burned in dragonfire!!
HALL OF FAME (players who reached legend rank with this deck):
orch#2491 (EU) - Neltharion#22837 - Furybolt#21447 (EU) - sensei6#2330 (EU) Laeviathan#2282
PS. my name is pronounced like "fark". PPS. the cost to craft this deck in gold is 18,800 dust.
As I said, cheers for the deck, but I still felt like Pirate Warrior is hard matchup. Have a nice evening.
Sure it is. Deck author is exaggerates little bit about pirate warrior. Like any other dragon priest this one is hardly unfavored against pirate warrior. If he draws good you cannot stop him even if you have perfect curve.
Couldn't win a single game with it. Couldn't draw a single dragon and never could get the ooze against pirate warrior.
Sub historians with Faerie dragons and the Book Wyrm with Entomb.
Had a great losing streak with this but suspect that it was down to crap mulligan on my part. Still going to try and get a good rank with it though. Seem to hit a wall of shaman at rank 8-10.
Shaman is 50/50 but you should do well in the other matchups.
Great guide man. I might try finishing the season with this.
good luck! post back here if you make legend.
fun deck, a good farewell to dragons. i am 9-3 with it, all 3 losses were dragonpriest mirrors
Whoever plays Drakonid first usually wins the mirror. Keep it if you get it in the first mulligan! In the mid game - always trade and heal up minions. Keep them above 4 healthso they cant be sniped by corruptor.
Don't have Ysera, tried swapping with Medivh for a little more mid-game tempo and it's good so far. One turn earlier and its ongoing effects not being removed by one card like Ysera is pretty decent sans the dragon synergy.
There is also Chromaggus, if you have it. Drop him on turn 8 and use power word: shield or your northshire cleric to generate duplicate cards on the turn after (if he lives).
Lack of dragon synergy and expensive spells to get value from Atiesh makes Medivh debatable. I'd go with another big-ass dragon.
It's a nice deck no doubt, but there is no chance against the all cancer pirate/jade bullshit in ranks 10 - 1. Current meta is just stupid so there is no place for such deck i think. Or maybe it's just me and i'm not good with dragon priest, i dont know, but you cant beat aggro decks with only 1 holy and no heal potion(or reno style). Maybe for legend ranks it is good.
You beat agro by playing a 2/4 for 2, a 3/5 for 3 and a 3/6 for 4. Each minon you play trades into 2 of theirs, or 1 plus a spell. Once you exhaust their early game minions, play drakonid / corruptor, taunt up and heal up. If you really want to smash pirates you can try a greater healing potion or a second defender of argus, but I can beat them fine in ranks 10-1 with this deck.
Only 1 AOE, which does a merely 2 damage only? How do you get back board control when the opponent takes it first?
Precisely because we have less spells in this deck (only 8 in fact, or 6 draws out of 30 if consider PW:S cycles) we have 22 minions, including three 1-drops, five 2-drops and five 3-drops. That means that you should almost always be able to curve out really well with "defensively statted" minions (like 2/4 and 3/5).
When you coin out a 2/4 on turn 1 or a 3/5 on turn 2, an opponent will not be able to easily deal with it - either you force them to use a response from hand (slowing their tempo, since they aren't playing a minion), or they will just ignore the minion (which is fantastic, since you can trade the minion at least twice into theirs, or use Argus to taunt it up).
Playing tempo / midrange priest is very different to control priest (where you just use auchenai + circle to clear the board) in that it relies more on getting a good curve of defensive minions rather than combo'ing into big AOE clears.
So it goes either your way, where you get the perfect curve or even better, have the coin and play a 3/5 on turn 2. Which means a great advantage. Or you don't draw those cards and you'll lose very fast.
I'm not saying it's a bad deck. I've just won 5 games in a row with it. But it is the one weakness as I feel it. I have just changed out holy nova for Lightbomb and it helped me out more so far. I know it's a 5 mana change for a 6 mana and you have to wait a turn longer to be able to use it but I feel it fits better. As our minions are higher in HP than attack, you'll barely kill your own minions with it, while clearing the board.
If you're playing Wild (with Lightbomb) then you probably also want to play Velen's Chosen and other cards like Loatheb, Vol'jin and Dr. Boom. The deck list I posted here is for S36 Standard. I might do a wild list in future - let's see how Wild looks after the rotation :)
Do you mulligan a 3-drop away if you don't hold Agent and/or Whelp? Going first or second?