Hearthpwn

Now that title is a mouthful.

This deck is an attrition style highlander (one-of) Priest deck making use of various aspects the class has access to. The combination of the cards Awaken the Makers, Reno Jackson, and Zola the Gorgon can allow for an absurd amount of healing in a single game. Because of this, you're okay to lose a little health here and there for various reasons across the game. That being said, any time that you can remove a fair amount of chip damage, it's probably a good idea to do so. If your opponent gets out of hand, don't worry, you have a few, very powerful board clears. With access to Kazakus, Excavated Evil, Lightbomb, and Dragonfire Potion you can make sure you survive until the right moment to go back up to 40 HP. 

So you can stall out the game - so what, how do you win? Why, thank you for asking, reader who probably skimmed that giant blob of text after reading the decklist on the right and already likely know the answer for your astounding question! As a highlander deck and a priest, you have both Raza the Chained and Shadowreaper Anduin, a disgusting 2-card-combo that has been dominating Standard ladder since the release of Knights of the Frozen Throne IT STILL IS RIGHT NOW MAKE IT FUCKING STOP. Your deck isn't centered on force-drawing it, but it's there, and the deck has card draw. Secondly, you run N'zoth the Corruptor. With exactly half of your deck being deathrattle minions, you probably won't have a hard time getting AT LEAST 5 minions off of N'zoth by the time you can play it. If you haven't completed your quest N'zoth can finish the last 1 or 2 triggers you need for Amara, Warden of Hope. N'zoth himself is a win condition, quite a few of your deathrattle minions are heavy hitters, with the heaviest of hitters being Obsidian Statue, Sylvanas Windrunner and Cairne Bloodhoof.

Aggressive strategies will have a hard time beating you if you draw well. The amount of healing in this deck is ridiculous, and stalling isn't that hard. You have quite a few board clears and a some hefty taunt minions. Reno Jackson is perfectly acceptable to play before Amara, Warden of Hope. The extra 10 hp isn't extremely important in a matchup where you're just trying to stay alive. It feels a bit desperate, but I've found that more often than not I come out on top. 

Most control strategies will have a hard time keeping up with the value your cards represent. It's hard to figure out how to respond when someone plays Amara, Warden of Hope and Zola the Gorgon in the same turn. Your opponent isn't ending the game any time soon, so they have to take control of the board, but you just played an 8/8 with taunt and have another for 5 mana in your hand, and your minions are super sticky and awkward to deal with. The value that both Crystalline Oracle and Shifting Shade represent is enormous, especially with Twilight's Call or N'zoth the Corruptor. You're absolutely fine with going to fatigue against a control deck even if you're ahead in draw (you have MASSIVE healing) except in four cases: they are playing Mill Rogue (you're fucked end the game now), they played Archbishop Benedictus (you're fucked end the game now), you've had to burn all of your healing to get to the end of both players decks and they still have healing (you're fucked end the game now), or you're against Combo Mage with infinite Fireballs (you're fucked end the game now).

In fact, the strategy you're fucked end the game now isn't so bad with this deck. You can play it slow and drain a lot of value from your cards or you can start playing like a tempo deck because you're okay with trading big HP hits with your opponent, and the quest DOES give you a 5 mana 8/8. Jade Druid goes infinite towards the end, so it can be useful to change gears quickly towards the mid game or around when you drop N'zoth or Anduin. If you don't steal an Ice Block from a Combo Mage (not just regular old Freeze Mage, when they Alextrasza you, you can just heal back up), you're going to want to end the game before they get infinite Fireballs, which, evidently, can be difficult against a deck centered around not dying and getting infinite Fireballs. If you see a completed quest or an Emperor Tharissan and can't end the game soon, be prepared for some "Aha!"s.

The Mulligan: 

You (nearly) always keep quest, obviously, even though sometimes it feels bad against aggressive decks.

Some general rules:

Against Aggro/Tempo/Midrange: Keep Reno Jackson, Kazakus, Raza the Chained, Northshire Cleric, board clears and your early game deathrattle minions. Potion of Madness is good, can be helpful for removing that early chip damage from smaller minions. You have a lot of healing, but you don't want to die before you get to it. Shadow Madness is OK if you have something you can play BEFORE turn 4. You only keep Raza if your hand has something else you can play BEFORE turn 4, Reno or Kazakus. The best hand you can have going first is Reno/Kazakus and Northshire Cleric, if going second and you have Potion of Madness as well, that's your best hand. To be clear: it is PERFECTLY FINE to hold on to the quest and play Northshire Cleric turn 1. It just means that you have to play the quest before your first deathrattle minion.

Against Control: You always keep Anduin and Raza. Always. It's your win condition. Other than that, you generally want to follow the same basic rule of searching for early game deathrattle minions to curve out and get the quest done. You don't want to keep board clears or the "madness" cards. Against Warlock it can be acceptable to keep Shadow Word: Death for Mountain Giant if you suspect it's a type of handlock. There are some situations where it can be acceptable to keep Death or Entomb against Priest, if you suspect they're "Big Priest". 

Against Mill Rogue: Ignore everything else that's been said in the guide for this deck in this matchup. You're now a really bad tempo deck for a game. CAN BE acceptable to toss quest in favor of small deathrattle minions. Although, the 5 mana 8/8 is a huge tempo swing. You keep Raza and Anduin, and try to curve out as aggressively as possible. Kazakus is an acceptable keep, and you generally want to take the 5 mana or the 1 mana potion and blast him in the face with damage or summon minions. Your only chance is to curve hard and Raza/Anduin combo him in the face before he can heal and stall long enough to mill you into oblivion and fatigue you for 50 damage in one turn. You almost never win this matchup, luckily for you it's super rare on ladder.

Specific notes:

Beware of playing Deathlord against a Priest early in the game, Shadow Word: Pain into an 8 drop on turn 3 can be devastating. Don't be averse to the card, though. It's extremely useful in most games. Against aggro decks, it can be hard to get through and can make favorable trades and heal back up from your hero power. If you build up a board behind it, likely by the time it goes off the small minion an aggro deck is running coming onto the board for free is irrelevant. In control matchups that likely put both players into fatigue, it can be useful to be one card ahead. Sometimes powerful battlecries getting mitigated ends up being really, really bad for a player, so ripping a key card out of an opponents deck can be devastating in the long term of the game. In fact, against yourself, this card can represent a huge threat. If N'zoth, Kazakus, Zola, Raza or Reno get yanked from your deck, it doesn't exactly feel good. This is another reason that you run Shadow Madness and Potion of Madness, man it feels good to burn someone's N'zoth with their own Deathlord.

As with Deathlord, Dirty Rat can ruin your game plan by forcing important battlecry minions out of your hand. It can be hard to predict this card, but if you have a gut feeling, know the netdeck/deck your opponent is playing from experience/having matched against the person before, you can resist going balls deep and not play all of your minions, keeping ones you're okay with getting ripped from your hand, and trying to play the ones that you aren't without losing much value.

In a matchup against Jade Druid, it can be extremely helpful to remember that towards the end of the game they're going to get a few massive minions. Shadowreaper Anduin and Lightbomb can create some devastating turns if you wait for the right moment. Granted if you're at a point in the game where you have to start thinking about saving Anduin for the late game, things are looking grim already.

There is always a chance for everything. This isn't specific advise for this deck and I'm not saying to waste your time when it looks hopeless, but you can always play Crystalline Oracle and Shadow Word: Pain it to maybe steal an Ice Block to survive the onslaught of Fireballs from a Quest Mage. Look for options before you quit.

Sideboarding:

There are some cards that are worth looking at including in the deck, that aren't in the current list. The cards are not in the decklist in its current form because I felt like it was clunky in the deck (after playtesting), felt like it was too greedy in the deck (after playtesting), I decided that there was something better to replace it, because it felt just downright unnecessary, or because I don't own the card (RIP Spiritslinger Umbra).

Current list: Spiritsinger Umbra, Dr. Boom, Brann Bronzebeard, Kel'Thuzad, Power Word: Shield, Mirage Caller, Thoughtsteal, Priest of the Feast, Shadow Visions, Lyra the Sunshard, Prophet Velen, Confessor Paletress, Zombie Chow, Prince Taldaram, Baron Rivendare, Barnes, Elise the Trailblazer, Nexus-Champion Saraad, Bone Drake, Piloted Sky Golem, Toshley, The Black Knight, Chillmaw, Sneed's Old Shredder, The Lich King, Ysera, Stalagg and Feugen.

The ones I expect will turn some heads on me not including are Brann, Dr. 7, Lyra, Velen, Zombie Chow, Stalagg and Feugen.

Brann made me feel as though I absolutely had to save both him and Kazakus for the same turn, though that was before I added Zola, which he could be synergistic with, but the way I'm playing her, she's doing his job but better, and I don't think both are necessary. Dr. 7 was great at finishing the quest, great at pushing a lead, great at bringing me back into a game and great at turning an even game into a win. 2 things about him made him unappealing. The Boom Bots coming back from N'zoth just irritated me, because they're some of the worst deathrattle minions in the pool, and he just has no immediate effect like, Cairne or Sylvanas, but he just costs more. Lyra was greedy because there aren't enough spells to chain for value in the deck, and a lot of the spells in the deck are very conditional (board clears or an amount of attack condition) and you had to hold her for a long while to get value. Velen just felt like a big block and a dead card in my hand when I hadn't played Raza or Anduin, felt greedy to run him. Zombie Chow isn't in the deck because you don't play him turn 1, you play quest first, which is the major strength of the card, and I got tired of getting him off of N'zoth. Stalagg and Feugen are the two cards I'd be most likely to put back in the deck after Spiritsinger Umbra, but they were really conditional, had no immediate effect if the other hadn't been played, and felt super greedy if one was drawn without the other.

If you're missing some non essential cards, the list above is good for cherry-picking cards to put in instead. If you'd like to add a card and keep the rest of the list the same, Museum Curator is probably the most easily removable card in the deck, it's just there to provide more ease with curving/completing the quest, and as much value in the late game as the discover allows.

As a final note, if you're looking to improve the Cubelock matchup, I'd recommend swapping out Museum Curator and Arfus for Silence and Spellbreaker respectively. 

Highlight Video:

Shoutout to Darkseeker Hearthstone for highlighting the deck! Different use of Zola the Gorgon than usual here, but still a viable way to use the card. Copying deathrattle minions definitely has its uses and can add to the value of your N'zoth the Corruptor. Good games!