We've probably all seen Kripp and others toy with different OTK versions of Reno Priest involving Spawn of Shadows shenanigans. What I notice from many of them is an over reliance on the OTK setup, which makes the deck feel very gimmicky.
After playing a lot of Dragon Reno Priest, however, I DID feel it was missing that game-winning condition, especially against Jade decks and Reno Lock, which are two of my most frequent matchups. Hence, I took the idea of the "OTK" with Spawn and tweaked it into a Dragon Reno Priest. I'm currently over 64% win rate into Rank 4 with this version. Most importantly, it has switched my Jade Druid and Renolock matchups into FAVORED and given me a puncher's chance against Rogue.
The goal of this deck is very different than the "Chansey" priest builds. You are NOT looking to OTK someone. You are looking to play a minion heavy, tempo & value deck with the ability to put out burst to finish a game. For that reason I've eliminated many of the horrible value cards you see in these "Chansey" decks (I'm looking at you Curator, Wrathion, Scarab, etc..) and focused on the ability to win the tempo & value game.
A few notes about your burst combo.. you rarely (aka almost never) use the entire deal. Really, you're most likely to use Spawn of Shadows plus just one or two of the other cards. It's important to know how much burst you will need, if any at all, and don't be greedy about holding onto the cards. Sometimes a tempo 5/4 on 4 is better than holding out for the burst.
As for the essential, can't change cards;
Priest Package; Power Word :Shield, Pain, Death, Evil, Nova, Raza, Dragonfire, Brann, Kazakus, Reno, Doomsayer
Dragon Package; Whelp, Wyrmrest Agent, Operative, Netherspite, Twilight Drake*, Guardian, Azure Drake, Ysera*. *(Twilight Drake doesn't get the appreciation it deserves. It's an on-curve 4 drop with a Dragon tag that alone vastly improves your mirror matches. Ysera is the perfect card to give you a stand-alone value generator in an odd meta of full Smorc mixed with pure Value games.)
OTK Package; Spawn of Shadows, Garrison Commander, Sir Finley, Shadowform
And then the tech cards; Cleric, Potion of Madness, Talonpriest, Ooze, Blood Mage, Book Wyerm, Courier,
Cleric & Blood Mage fill card draw. You NEED 2 card draw here, but feel free to play with any combination of these two, Novice Engineer, Acolyte, Bloodmage that you see fit. Cleric is useful for the synergy with Raza plus people freak out to remove it and it contests pirate warrior on 1, so it's hard to eliminate. The second slot is a toss up between Engineer, Hoarder, Bloodmage so dealer's choice. Acolyte isn't very good without Pyro and, well, we don't run Pyro here. I switched to Blood Mage because it has the most upside in Shamanstone.
Potion of Madness is just flexible and nice, hard to drop.
Talonpriest is just a fantastic tempo play and hard to cut.
Ooze feels needed in the current meta but is quickly cut if we ever get past the weapon smorc meta.
Courier is a fun card that I find useful, but realistically could be cut.
Book Wyrm is an auto include in Shamanstone.
First five out; these are the cards I wish I could fit but just can't. (Notice a mana-cost theme.)
Dirty Rat. Great when it's great, auto lose when it's bad. Pretty friggin bad in Shamanstone when it pulls just all sorts of bad things.
Sylvannas. This is just a great card for Priest especially but it's slow and awkward with your gameplan.
Wrathion. If this had the Dragon label it'd likely be an auto-include, but without it it's a generic 6 mana; 4/5 taunt draw 1 card. That's just not good enough. The odds of drawing 2 cards with this deck are horrendously low. You could try running this over Cleric since they kind of serve similar roles (mid-game card draw + removal target) but I wouldn't.
Blackwing Corruptor. Corruptor is an oddity here because it fits pretty well with the curve, it has excellent value... and it's an easy drop. On turn 5 you just have better things to do. Drake, Operative, Brann + Netherspite, Raza or an AOE are really what you're aiming for. After turn 5 the value of this card drops dramatically as it requires an activator and the 3 damage becomes less and less relevant.
Entomb. This card is both super slow AND worsens your draw. Amazing in some metas, not in this one.
Cards others like and I hate;
Holy Smite. It's a horrible version of Arcane Blast that only benefits your already favored matchups and even then, minimally. You need to have synergy cards to make it work; ie PotF, Beardo, Pyro, and we ain't running those guys.
MC Tech. This is just such a low percentage card I don't get the frequency of which I see it. You have to already be behind, by a LOT. Your opponent has to be bad. And you have to RNG into the right minion. No thanks.
Chillmaw. Awful in your bad matchups and decent in your good matchups. A win-more card that doesn't really help you win more. No thanks.
Cabal Shadow Priest. Really only has one great target in the meta, Imp Gang Boss, so it's a primo grab from Courier in Renlock matchups. But an actual spot in the deck? Or worse yet, two spots with the horrible Pint Size Potion? No thanks.
As an update, I'm up to rank 2 and my record against Reno Locks is 14-2 with this deck. Rogue is the worst match up, 4-7, but every other match up is over 50%.
Probably going to swap Rat for either Bloodmage or Book Wyrm (likely Wyrm) as the meta seems to be shifting back to Shamanstone where Rat is pretty dreadful but Book Wyrm and Thalnos are legit. Might end up trading Rat for Wyrm and Hoarder for Thalnos.
Thanos is nice for the 3 damage nova, especially, and in Shamanstone the attack power of 1 health minions is irrelevant.
I highly recommend the Spawn package if you're playing Reno priest. It drastically improves your bad match ups and you really only give up irrelevant meta cards to get there.
incredible write-up, i really appreciate all the explanation you put behind all the choices for this deck.
Just out of curiosity, why do you choose Reno Priest over say Reno Lock? Is it the dragon package? Personally i find that to be inconsistent, so i would tend to prefer reno lock (currently I don't have either, but I'm considering crafting one).
incredible write-up, i really appreciate all the explanation you put behind all the choices for this deck.
Just out of curiosity, why do you choose Reno Priest over say Reno Lock? Is it the dragon package? Personally i find that to be inconsistent, so i would tend to prefer reno lock (currently I don't have either, but I'm considering crafting one).
Thanks!
Thank you!
There are a few reasons! First, I just find Reno Priest and Mage to be a lot more fun. Reno Lock, to me, feels very scripted whereas both Reno Priest and Reno Mage have to really alter their gameplans and improvise based on the draw and the opponent. Raza alone is a wicked cool card, it's very fun to get that free hero power. I also appreciate that Reno Priest is the LEAST reliant on drawing Reno; my winning percentage in games I did not draw Reno is still over 58%.
Second, I think both Reno Priest and Mage are BETTER in this meta. They both fare much better against aggro and probably 75%+ of my matchups at rank 2 are against aggro. Yes, Reno Lock does well against aggro if they get the ideal starting hand but both other Reno decks have much more in the way of options. Reno Priest, especially, is the only one I feel can still consistently win against Aggro WITHOUT drawing Reno. I'm not alone in this opinion, either; check out Vicious Syndicate and they have the three Reno decks clumped together with Reno Lock trending down and the others up.
I actually find the Dragon package to be very consistent. It requires some counterintuitive plays at times, however. Take Twilight Whelp. There are a good deal of circumstances where it is better NOT to play Whelp and instead hold it as an activator. If you aren't going to get value from a 2 attack minion, don't play it; save it to activate your other Dragons. It's important to be smart about what Dragons you play and when and remember how many are left in your deck AND what still requires activation.
Say turn 5 you have a Book Wyrm, Azure Drake, Bloodmage and Talonpriest in a fairly stable situation. Often, people play Drake here to put a solid minion on board and get that card draw. That is, however, often the wrong play with this deck. You'd want to Blood Mage + Talonpriest so you can use Book Wyrm next turn if necessary. Because Azure does not require activation you want to hold it as an activator whenever possible. Then again, sometimes you want to play Drake. This deck requires good knowledge of other Meta decks and challenges you to make correct situational plays.
If you're intent on crafting a Reno deck, I would recommend Priest. It is also the only Highlander deck that realistically stands a chance of being relevant post rotation (unless they reprint Reno.)
I'm having a great bit of fun with this deck. Had a 14-3 run tonight and 72 % winrate in total this season. I switched around a little on the cards, taking away Holy Nova and Sir Finley Mrrgglton; and added Entomb and Novice Engineer. I found that you didn't need the full combo with Sir Finley, since you're going to chip at them a little anyway. It's more important having draw and a way to deal with Ysera. Might go back to Holy Nova for novice engineer though, since I struggle a little with pirate warrior (40 % winrate).
But all in all this is a meta breaker. The only thing missing for the Reno Priest deck was reach. I tried combining Kripp's OTK with a dragon reno, but yours is so much better.
I'm having a great bit of fun with this deck. Had a 14-3 run tonight and 72 % winrate in total this season. I switched around a little on the cards, taking away Holy Nova and Sir Finley Mrrgglton; and added Entomb and Novice Engineer. I found that you didn't need the full combo with Sir Finley, since you're going to chip at them a little anyway. It's more important having draw and a way to deal with Ysera. Might go back to Holy Nova for novice engineer though, since I struggle a little with pirate warrior (40 % winrate).
But all in all this is a meta breaker. The only thing missing for the Reno Priest deck was reach. I tried combining Kripp's OTK with a dragon reno, but yours is so much better.
Thank you! Taking out Finley for Engineer isn't a bad call at all, Finley is really the weak link of the combo as you literally just never want to play it unless you're killing the opponent. But it does reduce the redundancy of the combo. Then again, more draw is always good and originally I wasn't using Finley and kind of regret putting him in.
Losing Holy Nova isn't the best call in an Aggro meta, but Entomb does feel necessary. I actually took out Courier for Entomb. Courier doesn't really bring much to this deck because you already have plenty of value/tempo plays/win condition; 3/4ths of the time with Courier I'm praying for single target removal so might as well run Entomb. My reservation with Entomb is it dilutes your draw but oh well.
I also have been playing with Dirty Rat in over Potion of Madness, which is kind of just bad in this meta and Dirty Rat can really screw over Rogue, which is one of my more common matchups. Dirty Rat is all around a solid card; it also works well against Pirate Warrior and even Aggro Shaman (as soon as you're sure they only have spells!) Potion can be REALLY amazing at times but probably 7 out of 10 games it just sits there or you use it to kill a 2/2. Dirty Rat is consistently good as long as you don't YOLO it on turn 2, haha.
So for changes overall I like your Finley/Engineer. I'd do the following to the posted list.
-Finley, -Kabal Courier, -Potion of Madness
+Novice Engineer, +Entomb, + Dirty Rat
The nice thing about the deck is you have no just BAD matchups like say Reno Mage. The burst combo makes you EXTREMELY favored against Reno Lock & Mage and I actually find this version better against Rogue, due to the added draw and Shadowform, which is actually quite good against Rogue (gives you many more options for clearing Auctioneers and Drakes, for example.)
Okay, update. I've run your updated list but I found that dirty rat stays in my hand for too long against aggro, making it yet another tool against control - which I really don't need (I'm going 10-0 against priest and 7-2 against warlock). So I've changed that for second-rate bruiser instead. This has balanced my match-up against warrior out by a lot. that was an unfavoured class before, when I was still running no holy nova and also dirty rat. The warriors I've played against seem more midrange now, however, running ragnaros among other things. That may have something to do with it as well. This is a 50-50 match-up now, more or less.
I still feel intimidated by miracle rogue, but I've only played one game against them with the new list so can't really say if it has helped any. I've always struggled against them with priest. Simply don't know how to approach the game apart from trying to rush them down, and this deck does not rush well. Any tips or tricks I can use will be well appreciated.
I have changed bloodmage for Confessor Paletress, which gives a lot of fun plays at turn 9, when you already played raza and have Garrison on hand. you can change board control drastically with Paletress. I also switched holy nova for Lightbomb, as 2 attack is not enough to kill most minions nowadays. I also took out Sir Finley for an Entomb, like many others.
Looks quite cool, and way more sensible than Kripp's list, definitely gonna play with it tonight. Will Alex be a suitable replacement for Ysera (don't have her)?
Hello all!
We've probably all seen Kripp and others toy with different OTK versions of Reno Priest involving Spawn of Shadows shenanigans. What I notice from many of them is an over reliance on the OTK setup, which makes the deck feel very gimmicky.
After playing a lot of Dragon Reno Priest, however, I DID feel it was missing that game-winning condition, especially against Jade decks and Reno Lock, which are two of my most frequent matchups. Hence, I took the idea of the "OTK" with Spawn and tweaked it into a Dragon Reno Priest. I'm currently over 64% win rate into Rank 4 with this version. Most importantly, it has switched my Jade Druid and Renolock matchups into FAVORED and given me a puncher's chance against Rogue.
The goal of this deck is very different than the "Chansey" priest builds. You are NOT looking to OTK someone. You are looking to play a minion heavy, tempo & value deck with the ability to put out burst to finish a game. For that reason I've eliminated many of the horrible value cards you see in these "Chansey" decks (I'm looking at you Curator, Wrathion, Scarab, etc..) and focused on the ability to win the tempo & value game.
A few notes about your burst combo.. you rarely (aka almost never) use the entire deal. Really, you're most likely to use Spawn of Shadows plus just one or two of the other cards. It's important to know how much burst you will need, if any at all, and don't be greedy about holding onto the cards. Sometimes a tempo 5/4 on 4 is better than holding out for the burst.
As for the essential, can't change cards;
Priest Package; Power Word :Shield, Pain, Death, Evil, Nova, Raza, Dragonfire, Brann, Kazakus, Reno, Doomsayer
Dragon Package; Whelp, Wyrmrest Agent, Operative, Netherspite, Twilight Drake*, Guardian, Azure Drake, Ysera*. *(Twilight Drake doesn't get the appreciation it deserves. It's an on-curve 4 drop with a Dragon tag that alone vastly improves your mirror matches. Ysera is the perfect card to give you a stand-alone value generator in an odd meta of full Smorc mixed with pure Value games.)
OTK Package; Spawn of Shadows, Garrison Commander, Sir Finley, Shadowform
And then the tech cards; Cleric, Potion of Madness, Talonpriest, Ooze, Blood Mage, Book Wyerm, Courier,
Cleric & Blood Mage fill card draw. You NEED 2 card draw here, but feel free to play with any combination of these two, Novice Engineer, Acolyte, Bloodmage that you see fit. Cleric is useful for the synergy with Raza plus people freak out to remove it and it contests pirate warrior on 1, so it's hard to eliminate. The second slot is a toss up between Engineer, Hoarder, Bloodmage so dealer's choice. Acolyte isn't very good without Pyro and, well, we don't run Pyro here. I switched to Blood Mage because it has the most upside in Shamanstone.
Potion of Madness is just flexible and nice, hard to drop.
Talonpriest is just a fantastic tempo play and hard to cut.
Ooze feels needed in the current meta but is quickly cut if we ever get past the weapon smorc meta.
Courier is a fun card that I find useful, but realistically could be cut.
Book Wyrm is an auto include in Shamanstone.
First five out; these are the cards I wish I could fit but just can't. (Notice a mana-cost theme.)
Dirty Rat. Great when it's great, auto lose when it's bad. Pretty friggin bad in Shamanstone when it pulls just all sorts of bad things.
Sylvannas. This is just a great card for Priest especially but it's slow and awkward with your gameplan.
Wrathion. If this had the Dragon label it'd likely be an auto-include, but without it it's a generic 6 mana; 4/5 taunt draw 1 card. That's just not good enough. The odds of drawing 2 cards with this deck are horrendously low. You could try running this over Cleric since they kind of serve similar roles (mid-game card draw + removal target) but I wouldn't.
Blackwing Corruptor. Corruptor is an oddity here because it fits pretty well with the curve, it has excellent value... and it's an easy drop. On turn 5 you just have better things to do. Drake, Operative, Brann + Netherspite, Raza or an AOE are really what you're aiming for. After turn 5 the value of this card drops dramatically as it requires an activator and the 3 damage becomes less and less relevant.
Entomb. This card is both super slow AND worsens your draw. Amazing in some metas, not in this one.
Cards others like and I hate;
Holy Smite. It's a horrible version of Arcane Blast that only benefits your already favored matchups and even then, minimally. You need to have synergy cards to make it work; ie PotF, Beardo, Pyro, and we ain't running those guys.
MC Tech. This is just such a low percentage card I don't get the frequency of which I see it. You have to already be behind, by a LOT. Your opponent has to be bad. And you have to RNG into the right minion. No thanks.
Chillmaw. Awful in your bad matchups and decent in your good matchups. A win-more card that doesn't really help you win more. No thanks.
Cabal Shadow Priest. Really only has one great target in the meta, Imp Gang Boss, so it's a primo grab from Courier in Renlock matchups. But an actual spot in the deck? Or worse yet, two spots with the horrible Pint Size Potion? No thanks.
As an update, I'm up to rank 2 and my record against Reno Locks is 14-2 with this deck. Rogue is the worst match up, 4-7, but every other match up is over 50%.
Probably going to swap Rat for either Bloodmage or Book Wyrm (likely Wyrm) as the meta seems to be shifting back to Shamanstone where Rat is pretty dreadful but Book Wyrm and Thalnos are legit. Might end up trading Rat for Wyrm and Hoarder for Thalnos.
Thanos is nice for the 3 damage nova, especially, and in Shamanstone the attack power of 1 health minions is irrelevant.
I highly recommend the Spawn package if you're playing Reno priest. It drastically improves your bad match ups and you really only give up irrelevant meta cards to get there.
incredible write-up, i really appreciate all the explanation you put behind all the choices for this deck.
Just out of curiosity, why do you choose Reno Priest over say Reno Lock? Is it the dragon package? Personally i find that to be inconsistent, so i would tend to prefer reno lock (currently I don't have either, but I'm considering crafting one).
Thanks!
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I'm having a great bit of fun with this deck. Had a 14-3 run tonight and 72 % winrate in total this season. I switched around a little on the cards, taking away Holy Nova and Sir Finley Mrrgglton; and added Entomb and Novice Engineer. I found that you didn't need the full combo with Sir Finley, since you're going to chip at them a little anyway. It's more important having draw and a way to deal with Ysera. Might go back to Holy Nova for novice engineer though, since I struggle a little with pirate warrior (40 % winrate).
But all in all this is a meta breaker. The only thing missing for the Reno Priest deck was reach. I tried combining Kripp's OTK with a dragon reno, but yours is so much better.
I refuse to believe that I know what I'm doing.
Okay, update. I've run your updated list but I found that dirty rat stays in my hand for too long against aggro, making it yet another tool against control - which I really don't need (I'm going 10-0 against priest and 7-2 against warlock). So I've changed that for second-rate bruiser instead. This has balanced my match-up against warrior out by a lot. that was an unfavoured class before, when I was still running no holy nova and also dirty rat. The warriors I've played against seem more midrange now, however, running ragnaros among other things. That may have something to do with it as well. This is a 50-50 match-up now, more or less.
I still feel intimidated by miracle rogue, but I've only played one game against them with the new list so can't really say if it has helped any. I've always struggled against them with priest. Simply don't know how to approach the game apart from trying to rush them down, and this deck does not rush well. Any tips or tricks I can use will be well appreciated.
I refuse to believe that I know what I'm doing.
I have changed bloodmage for Confessor Paletress, which gives a lot of fun plays at turn 9, when you already played raza and have Garrison on hand. you can change board control drastically with Paletress. I also switched holy nova for Lightbomb, as 2 attack is not enough to kill most minions nowadays. I also took out Sir Finley for an Entomb, like many others.
These few changes were for the good from my side.
Looks quite cool, and way more sensible than Kripp's list, definitely gonna play with it tonight. Will Alex be a suitable replacement for Ysera (don't have her)?
20 face damage from Priest?