Personally I really enjoy playing Wild, especially Wild Priest decks. Thing is: every time I make a control-ish Priest deck, I struggle to decide which board clear cards to include. What cards do you think are good? And which ones are clearly worse? I hope this thread can help me - and perhaps others as well - make the right call. You can fill in the poll or post a reply or both: do whatever you like.
As for the Priest cards that I consider board clears:
I am extremely conflicted on whether Holy Ripple will be a better option than Spirit Lash or not. Holy Ripple has the advantage of healing your minions instead of damaging them, but Spirit Lash heals your hero a lot and the healing benefits from Spell Damage.
I really like Excavated Evil. It's like Hellfire, but for 1 more Mana it shuffles itself into your opponent's deck. Against aggro decks, it messes up their draw. Control decks can't make much use of it either, because you're running a control deck yourself. Combo decks get their draw stalled by one card.
I think Mass Hysteria is great. It can deal with a few big minions or lots of small minions, or even a combination of small and big minions. Yes, you do have to get lucky sometimes, but the average result is very good.
I'm not sold on Dragonfire Potion. I think Lightbomb outclasses it by a longshot. Lightbomb deals with aggressive decks, because they tend to run Attack-centric cards; and Lightbomb deals with lots of minions that have more than 5 Health, unlike Dragonfire Potion.
I don't like Psychic Scream. Shuffling cards into your opponent's deck can cost you the game against control decks. I think Plague of Death will be a much better choice. Both cards essentially silence and remove all minions from the board. However, Psychic Scream shuffles them all into your opponent's deck for you to deal with later; while Plague of Death sucks them into the quicksand, never to be seen again. I think that's well worth the extra 2 Mana.
Psychic Scream is the best board clear Priest ever had. "Stuffing cards into your opponent's deck" is usually advantageous because your opponent's top decks will get worse. And it it only costs 7 mana instead of 9 (Plague of Death, which isn't gonna be seen).
If you don't understand this, you must be brand new to the game.
Psychic Scream is the best board clear Priest ever had. "Stuffing cards into your opponent's deck" is usually advantageous because your opponent's top decks will get worse. And it it only costs 7 mana instead of 9 (Plague of Death, which isn't gonna be seen).
If you don't understand this, you must be brand new to the game.
No, if you think that Plague of Death is too expensive to ever be seen, it’s you that doesn’t get priest. Maybe not run two copies in every deck, but it gets around reborn and deathrattle and is a guaranteed board wipe. We will see plenty of this card because it will be very good against slow control decks like warrior which is strong and in the mirror match, which priest will be extremely strong this expansion. In every expansion, you could guess if priest would be viable by the number of board clears priest has. Priest just added two new board clears for early and late game and it already has decent mid game clears.
If you are playing a control deck, Lash is better than ripple since you'll have few minions (if any) in your side, also, it has lifesteal, something indispensable for this sort of deck. As you wrote, shuffling stuff in your opponent's deck is really good, so why wouldn't Psychic Scream be bad? (I agree with TardisGreen - it is THE boardclearer!!!). The problem with the plague is its cost (thank God they made it that way!!!), at this point in the game, you would be more occupied playing (or resurrecting) your minions than trying to control the board.
I think Shadow word Horror is really good (well, in my point of view, since I don't play control priest and when I face them, I always expect for this card on turn 4, which, when comes, completely ruins my game)
About dragonfire potion, I also agree with you, lightbomb is more efficient, unless you're running a dragon deck...
The cards you stuff into your opponent's deck will largely be cards from their deck. This means they could've drawn them anyway. Also, if your opponent has to rely on the quality of their topdecks when you're playing control, you've already won the game most of the time. I believe Psychic Scream is highly overrated.
Disclaimer 1: holy ripple and plague of death are obviously more difficult to assess since they haven't been released yet.
Disclaimer 2: I have punctuated them based on this entire group. If I had done this back in the day when some of these AoE's didn't exist, dragonfire and lightbomb could have easily been 5's, for example.
Oh, you're right. Guess that's what happens when I look through the Crafting menu. Ah well, I think we can all agree that it's forgettably underwhelming anyway.
I think ranking the boardclears without considering the decks you'll face is quite complicated. At times when you faced mainly 1-Health-minions (Pirate Warrior, older Paladin Archetypes...) spells like Spirit Lash and the new Holy Ripple would have been quite strong.
Now just before Launch of SoU it's hard to tell which boardclears will be most useful.
With suspected Murlocs or early buffed minions, the same spells might be rather weak.
Even Excavated Evil might see play again, because it deals 3 Damage and also messes with your opponent's deck. (could destroy some Highlander decks or archetypes relying on high cost spells.)
But I'd be interested to run this poll in about 4 weeks. Then we might have a better feel for it.
Psychic Scream is the best board clear Priest ever had. "Stuffing cards into your opponent's deck" is usually advantageous because your opponent's top decks will get worse. And it it only costs 7 mana instead of 9 (Plague of Death, which isn't gonna be seen).
If you don't understand this, you must be brand new to the game.
No, if you think that Plague of Death is too expensive to ever be seen, it’s you that doesn’t get priest. Maybe not run two copies in every deck, but it gets around reborn and deathrattle and is a guaranteed board wipe. We will see plenty of this card because it will be very good against slow control decks like warrior which is strong and in the mirror match, which priest will be extremely strong this expansion. In every expansion, you could guess if priest would be viable by the number of board clears priest has. Priest just added two new board clears for early and late game and it already has decent mid game clears.
I have close to 3000 Priest wins in Ranked Play across 3 different servers, so I think I qualify as being knowledgeable about the class.
You can judge how viable Priest will be by looking at how many broken cards they have. When they had the Raza/DK combo, they were very good, not because they had board clears, but because the two cards were insanely OP together. After the Raza nerf, several Priest archetypes thrived because of Shadow Visions and Psychic Scream.
Priest has a hard time winning the game. Once upon a time, they played Mind Control x2 and Ysera and out valued many other decks. Those days are gone. Mind Control has been nerfed, Ysera doesn't even trade evenly with an Omega Devastator, a 4-mana card.
Also gone is Mind Blast. This leaves DS/IF as the only for Priest to win.
Control Priest won't exist, because even if a Control Priest played and completed the quest, it would still be out valued by the Dr. Boom hero power. Playing and buffing minions doesn't work when the other guy simply blows them away the moment they hit the board.
This leaves Zoo Priest as the only viable archetype. It won't be running any board clears at all. Zoo decks are supposed to win the board with their minions.
Imo Psychic Scream is the best boardclear priest has ever gotten. Not only does it clear the whole board without triggering Deathrattle, but it also let’s your opponent topdeck the most horrendous things in the late game. No Paladin wants to pull a Silverhand Recruit on turn 15. No Warlock wants to see an Egg when he’s out of gass.
Excavated Evil is being highly underrated by people in this thread. It’s a 3 damage boardclear which really IS that much better then 1 or 2 damage. And even better is the fact that it shuffles into your opponent’s deck which makes it a bad topdeck for any (somewhat) aggressive deck.
I must say that I think Lightbomb is mainly good as a one of. Nonetheless a great card!
Psychic Scream is the best board clear Priest ever had. "Stuffing cards into your opponent's deck" is usually advantageous because your opponent's top decks will get worse. And it it only costs 7 mana instead of 9 (Plague of Death, which isn't gonna be seen).
If you don't understand this, you must be brand new to the game.
No, if you think that Plague of Death is too expensive to ever be seen, it’s you that doesn’t get priest. Maybe not run two copies in every deck, but it gets around reborn and deathrattle and is a guaranteed board wipe. We will see plenty of this card because it will be very good against slow control decks like warrior which is strong and in the mirror match, which priest will be extremely strong this expansion. In every expansion, you could guess if priest would be viable by the number of board clears priest has. Priest just added two new board clears for early and late game and it already has decent mid game clears.
I have close to 3000 Priest wins in Ranked Play across 3 different servers, so I think I qualify as being knowledgeable about the class.
You can judge how viable Priest will be by looking at how many broken cards they have. When they had the Raza/DK combo, they were very good, not because they had board clears, but because the two cards were insanely OP together. After the Raza nerf, several Priest archetypes thrived because of Shadow Visions and Psychic Scream.
Priest has a hard time winning the game. Once upon a time, they played Mind Control x2 and Ysera and out valued many other decks. Those days are gone. Mind Control has been nerfed, Ysera doesn't even trade evenly with an Omega Devastator, a 4-mana card.
Also gone is Mind Blast. This leaves DS/IF as the only for Priest to win.
Control Priest won't exist, because even if a Control Priest played and completed the quest, it would still be out valued by the Dr. Boom hero power. Playing and buffing minions doesn't work when the other guy simply blows them away the moment they hit the board.
This leaves Zoo Priest as the only viable archetype. It won't be running any board clears at all. Zoo decks are supposed to win the board with their minions.
I’m going to disagree with the Razakus analysis. The chances of getting the combo were the same as in a non-highlander deck, but the ability to stay alive long enough to use them is what made it work. Razakus, Ysera, Mind Blast were all good win conditions and other than machine gun priest, weren’t that broken. Priest lacks good win conditions and when priest is strong it is because they have a good win con, but they also have to live long enough to play them. Machine gun priest wouldn’t have been a viable deck if it didn’t run Dragonfire Potion, Pint-Size Potion and Shadow Word: Horror, Psychic Scream, Spirit Lash, Doomsayer, Shadow Visions, Kazakus, Lyra the Sunshard, Holy Nova, and finally Auchenai Soulpriest with Circle of Healing.
I know that looking back, the DK/Raza combo was insane, but when you see how many cards were dedicated to keeping the opponent without a board, it really doesn’t matter what the win conditions is, as long as there is a win condition. This was also a time where possibly the 2 best board clears were in standard and there were several ways of generating new ones.
Psychic Scream is the best board clear Priest ever had. "Stuffing cards into your opponent's deck" is usually advantageous because your opponent's top decks will get worse. And it it only costs 7 mana instead of 9 (Plague of Death, which isn't gonna be seen).
If you don't understand this, you must be brand new to the game.
No, if you think that Plague of Death is too expensive to ever be seen, it’s you that doesn’t get priest. Maybe not run two copies in every deck, but it gets around reborn and deathrattle and is a guaranteed board wipe. We will see plenty of this card because it will be very good against slow control decks like warrior which is strong and in the mirror match, which priest will be extremely strong this expansion. In every expansion, you could guess if priest would be viable by the number of board clears priest has. Priest just added two new board clears for early and late game and it already has decent mid game clears.
I have close to 3000 Priest wins in Ranked Play across 3 different servers, so I think I qualify as being knowledgeable about the class.
You can judge how viable Priest will be by looking at how many broken cards they have. When they had the Raza/DK combo, they were very good, not because they had board clears, but because the two cards were insanely OP together. After the Raza nerf, several Priest archetypes thrived because of Shadow Visions and Psychic Scream.
Priest has a hard time winning the game. Once upon a time, they played Mind Control x2 and Ysera and out valued many other decks. Those days are gone. Mind Control has been nerfed, Ysera doesn't even trade evenly with an Omega Devastator, a 4-mana card.
Also gone is Mind Blast. This leaves DS/IF as the only for Priest to win.
Control Priest won't exist, because even if a Control Priest played and completed the quest, it would still be out valued by the Dr. Boom hero power. Playing and buffing minions doesn't work when the other guy simply blows them away the moment they hit the board.
This leaves Zoo Priest as the only viable archetype. It won't be running any board clears at all. Zoo decks are supposed to win the board with their minions.
I’m going to disagree with the Razakus analysis. The chances of getting the combo were the same as in a non-highlander deck, but the ability to stay alive long enough to use them is what made it work. Razakus, Ysera, Mind Blast were all good win conditions and other than machine gun priest, weren’t that broken. Priest lacks good win conditions and when priest is strong it is because they have a good win con, but they also have to live long enough to play them. Machine gun priest wouldn’t have been a viable deck if it didn’t run Dragonfire Potion, Pint-Size Potion and Shadow Word: Horror, Psychic Scream, Spirit Lash, Doomsayer, Shadow Visions, Kazakus, Lyra the Sunshard, Holy Nova, and finally Auchenai Soulpriest with Circle of Healing.
I know that looking back, the DK/Raza combo was insane, but when you see how many cards were dedicated to keeping the opponent without a board, it really doesn’t matter what the win conditions is, as long as there is a win condition. This was also a time where possibly the 2 best board clears were in standard and there were several ways of generating new ones.
I think Razakus Priest either ran Auchnai-Circle or PSP/SWH, but not both. Tom's deck from the WC had the former but not the latter. It also didn't run Holy Nova, or Doomsayer for that matter.
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Hey guys,
Personally I really enjoy playing Wild, especially Wild Priest decks. Thing is: every time I make a control-ish Priest deck, I struggle to decide which board clear cards to include. What cards do you think are good? And which ones are clearly worse? I hope this thread can help me - and perhaps others as well - make the right call. You can fill in the poll or post a reply or both: do whatever you like.
As for the Priest cards that I consider board clears:
(Note: as of creating this thread, Holy Ripple and Plague of Death have yet to be play-tested.)
Now for my opinion.
Psychic Scream is the best board clear Priest ever had. "Stuffing cards into your opponent's deck" is usually advantageous because your opponent's top decks will get worse. And it it only costs 7 mana instead of 9 (Plague of Death, which isn't gonna be seen).
If you don't understand this, you must be brand new to the game.
No, if you think that Plague of Death is too expensive to ever be seen, it’s you that doesn’t get priest. Maybe not run two copies in every deck, but it gets around reborn and deathrattle and is a guaranteed board wipe. We will see plenty of this card because it will be very good against slow control decks like warrior which is strong and in the mirror match, which priest will be extremely strong this expansion. In every expansion, you could guess if priest would be viable by the number of board clears priest has. Priest just added two new board clears for early and late game and it already has decent mid game clears.
If you are playing a control deck, Lash is better than ripple since you'll have few minions (if any) in your side, also, it has lifesteal, something indispensable for this sort of deck. As you wrote, shuffling stuff in your opponent's deck is really good, so why wouldn't Psychic Scream be bad? (I agree with TardisGreen - it is THE boardclearer!!!). The problem with the plague is its cost (thank God they made it that way!!!), at this point in the game, you would be more occupied playing (or resurrecting) your minions than trying to control the board.
I think Shadow word Horror is really good (well, in my point of view, since I don't play control priest and when I face them, I always expect for this card on turn 4, which, when comes, completely ruins my game)
About dragonfire potion, I also agree with you, lightbomb is more efficient, unless you're running a dragon deck...
The cards you stuff into your opponent's deck will largely be cards from their deck. This means they could've drawn them anyway. Also, if your opponent has to rely on the quality of their topdecks when you're playing control, you've already won the game most of the time. I believe Psychic Scream is highly overrated.
My take:
5: Psychic Scream, Mass Hysteria
4: Lightbomb, Dragonfire Potion
3: Spirit Lash, Holy Ripple (could be a 2), Plague of Death (could be a 2)
2: Excavated Evil, Holy Nova (could be a 1), Shadow Word: Horror (could be a 1)
Disclaimer 1: holy ripple and plague of death are obviously more difficult to assess since they haven't been released yet.
Disclaimer 2: I have punctuated them based on this entire group. If I had done this back in the day when some of these AoE's didn't exist, dragonfire and lightbomb could have easily been 5's, for example.
I've just realized, Holy Nova is missing
Oh, you're right. Guess that's what happens when I look through the Crafting menu. Ah well, I think we can all agree that it's forgettably underwhelming anyway.
I think ranking the boardclears without considering the decks you'll face is quite complicated. At times when you faced mainly 1-Health-minions (Pirate Warrior, older Paladin Archetypes...) spells like Spirit Lash and the new Holy Ripple would have been quite strong.
Now just before Launch of SoU it's hard to tell which boardclears will be most useful.
With suspected Murlocs or early buffed minions, the same spells might be rather weak.
Even Excavated Evil might see play again, because it deals 3 Damage and also messes with your opponent's deck. (could destroy some Highlander decks or archetypes relying on high cost spells.)
But I'd be interested to run this poll in about 4 weeks. Then we might have a better feel for it.
I have close to 3000 Priest wins in Ranked Play across 3 different servers, so I think I qualify as being knowledgeable about the class.
You can judge how viable Priest will be by looking at how many broken cards they have. When they had the Raza/DK combo, they were very good, not because they had board clears, but because the two cards were insanely OP together. After the Raza nerf, several Priest archetypes thrived because of Shadow Visions and Psychic Scream.
Priest has a hard time winning the game. Once upon a time, they played Mind Control x2 and Ysera and out valued many other decks. Those days are gone. Mind Control has been nerfed, Ysera doesn't even trade evenly with an Omega Devastator, a 4-mana card.
Also gone is Mind Blast. This leaves DS/IF as the only for Priest to win.
Control Priest won't exist, because even if a Control Priest played and completed the quest, it would still be out valued by the Dr. Boom hero power. Playing and buffing minions doesn't work when the other guy simply blows them away the moment they hit the board.
This leaves Zoo Priest as the only viable archetype. It won't be running any board clears at all. Zoo decks are supposed to win the board with their minions.
5: Psychic Scream
4: Lightbomb, DFP, Mass Hysteria
3: Spirit Lash, Plague of Death, Excavated Evil
2: Holy Ripple, Shadow Word Horror
0: Holy Nova <- trash card
Imo Psychic Scream is the best boardclear priest has ever gotten. Not only does it clear the whole board without triggering Deathrattle, but it also let’s your opponent topdeck the most horrendous things in the late game. No Paladin wants to pull a Silverhand Recruit on turn 15. No Warlock wants to see an Egg when he’s out of gass.
Excavated Evil is being highly underrated by people in this thread. It’s a 3 damage boardclear which really IS that much better then 1 or 2 damage. And even better is the fact that it shuffles into your opponent’s deck which makes it a bad topdeck for any (somewhat) aggressive deck.
I must say that I think Lightbomb is mainly good as a one of. Nonetheless a great card!
Have a look at this data from HSReplay.net. What can we extrapolate from this?
I’m going to disagree with the Razakus analysis. The chances of getting the combo were the same as in a non-highlander deck, but the ability to stay alive long enough to use them is what made it work. Razakus, Ysera, Mind Blast were all good win conditions and other than machine gun priest, weren’t that broken. Priest lacks good win conditions and when priest is strong it is because they have a good win con, but they also have to live long enough to play them. Machine gun priest wouldn’t have been a viable deck if it didn’t run Dragonfire Potion, Pint-Size Potion and Shadow Word: Horror, Psychic Scream, Spirit Lash, Doomsayer, Shadow Visions, Kazakus, Lyra the Sunshard, Holy Nova, and finally Auchenai Soulpriest with Circle of Healing.
I know that looking back, the DK/Raza combo was insane, but when you see how many cards were dedicated to keeping the opponent without a board, it really doesn’t matter what the win conditions is, as long as there is a win condition. This was also a time where possibly the 2 best board clears were in standard and there were several ways of generating new ones.
I think Razakus Priest either ran Auchnai-Circle or PSP/SWH, but not both. Tom's deck from the WC had the former but not the latter. It also didn't run Holy Nova, or Doomsayer for that matter.