Dragon Priest: A Powerful Tribe Meets Big Spells
Dragons enjoy a storied history in World of Warcraft lore. From newcomers like Sindragosa to classics like Ysera and Deathwing, dragons have likewise been asserting their dominance in Hearthstone for a long time — and they aren’t going anywhere.
In the earliest months of Hearthstone, Ysera was a win condition for Control Priest. Blackrock Mountain and League of Explorers introduced many dragons to the set, which players banded together to create powerful Dragon Warrior tempo decks. Since Alexstrasza's Champion and Blackwing Corruptor left for Wild, players have found space for dragons in Highlander Priest and Control Mage, taking advantage of their tribal synergies in control matchups while using their generally formidable stats as leverage in midrange and tempo matchups. And of course, Kibler finds a way to thrill us with dragons no matter the class or meta — piloting Mitsuhide’s #2 Legend OTK deck while climbing to Legend in October.
The bottom line: dragons are a powerful, versatile tribe in Hearthstone. While Patches the Pirate and his ragtag crew have sped up the meta significantly, this hasn’t stopped players from experimenting with non-aggro decks in the month since Kobolds and Catacombs. We’ve seen, for instance, a powerful Control Warlock archetype and the continued dominance of both Razakus and Big Priest at high ranks. For months, in fact, these were the only Priest archetypes to keep in mind at the mulligan phase. But things have changed.
Cheating Mana with Dragons
Enter Dragon Priest — nothing altogether new, but a fun amalgam of powerful dragons, big spells, and Prince Keleseth. The style of deck, first dreamed up by Satellite, currently offers the potential for blow-out tempo swings against aggro and tempo decks alongside the flexibility of a value-oriented gameplan against, say, Control Warlock. The deck aims to use Northshire Cleric, Kabal Talonpriest, and Duskbreaker to maintain a semblance of board control early on, leveraging that advantage into overwhelming plays on turns four, five, and six. Twilight Drake and Cobalt Scalebane should dominate the board on these turns.
The most exciting new additions to the archetype are Spiteful Summoner and Grand Archivist, a duo capable of generating insane amounts of pressure against any opponent. The idea is to include only a handful of spells in our deck — in this case Mind Control and Free From Amber — so that, as with Big Spell Mage, we maximize the value from the Summoner and Archivist. The damage this causes the opponent is difficult for them to mitigate, often putting games out of reach at turn six.
There are two popular variations of the deck floating around out there: a value-focused one with Netherspite Historian, two Mind Control, and one Free From Amber; and a tempo-focused list with Prince Keleseth, one Mind Control, and two Free From Amber. Of course, one is not inherently better than the other. Players will need to analyze the meta at their rank and play accordingly.
One tip, though: Mind Control can absolutely dominate the Control Warlock lists that are so popular right now. Stealing a Voidlord allows you to continue pressing damage, protects your minions from Doomguard, and cheats the opponent’s Death Knight of value. And stealing a Carnivorous Cube does, in fact, give you two of whichever minion it consumed with its Battlecry. Without consistently drawing Duskbreaker, though, this build suffers against Aggro Paladin and other fast decks. To compromise, the Keleseth build could perform well with a Kabal Songstealer tech to answer rampant Voidlords.
Always mulligan for Northshire Cleric, Prince Keleseth, and Kabal Talonpriest. In Control matchups, you can prioritize the Cleric, Keleseth, and Spiteful Summoner. Always toss the spells back to maximize potential value for Spiteful Summoner and Grand Archivist. The control matchups are fun to navigate, because if the tempo gameplan doesn’t quite get you there, you must pivot to prioritize value. Deciding when, if ever, to make that pivot will often decide these games. Against Tempo Rogue and the like, whoever controls the board throughout the early game usually comes away with a win.
Take them by Surprise
In case anyone wasn't aware, dragons are good. Their resilience as the meta changes proves this. While there are still Razakus and Big Priests all over the standard ladder, the new Dragon Priest should be on the minds of everyone (especially those who queue into a Priest expecting a combo deck). Moreover, its versatility against many of the meta’s most popular decks makes it a wise choice, while its blowout potential with Spiteful Summoner makes it fun to play, too — a welcome combination for those hoping to climb ranks.
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Sometimes casting mind control on a small minion is enough tempo to win the game. 8 mana 4/7 take control of an enemy 1/1, still pretty good. Turn 8 Archivist can win games and even if it is inconsistent the rest of the deck is strong enough to make up for it. With plenty of dragons to play and also FoA, you need to go for a bit of high-rolling in your deck to win some games faster and climb faster.
whats the hype behind this Deck? Ive literally beaten it every single time cause considering anyone who plays this deck is basically running 100% of the same list its so simple to beat. All you have to do is clear their board once or twice and you play around mind Control which is pretty easy. This is a great example of bad players netdecking.
Or you've just played against a bad player who spans out his hand onto the board any chance he gets. This deck is awesome. I've bested every tier 1 deck that exists currently several times.
I rejoice at playing against any Priest variation that isn't Raza/Velen/Mind Blast. Last night I had run my opponent out of cards, had lethal on board, and played carefully the whole game to be sitting at 24 health. My opponent's turn with three cards left in hand/0 cards in deck. Hero power/Velen/hero power/Mind Blast/hero power/Circle of Healing/hero power for a 24 point combo. I'm really thinking of taking a break until the standard rotation. I really think they should nerf Shadowreaper Anduin so that the hero power only refreshes on spells, which would be consistent with Priest's spell themes, and would reduce that simple turn to a mere 20 damage. Remember when the whole community raged at Force of Nature/Savage Roar 14-point combo? If you got under 20 health you always had to keep their board clean or risk being OTK'd. Raza Priest is way, way, way better, and we just seem to accept it.
Comparing those two are not the same, as one is a deck made to facilitate 1 combo, and the druid was auto include in many of the decks at the time, with little to no play around.
Run some tech against raza if you have such big a problem.
My own raza deck runs The Darkness just to kill a mirror matchup
Anduin shouldn't receive a nerf. Imagine him without Raza. How strong is he? Nerf-level strong? No. He's not.
I do *completely* agree with waiting for the April set, as that's when Raza will rotate.
Comparing it to FonRoar is unfair. The early years of Hearthstone was when Blizzard was learning about what they should and shouldn't do. So FonRoar was one of the things they shouldn't do. Once Whispers of the Old Gods was released, everything changed. Heartstone wasn't "Growing Up" anymore. Yogg Saron was out of control, and a few other significant members of the Classic set had their power levels toned down, due to being too useful.
FonRoar was oppressive because Innervate gave 2 mana and Ancient of Lore drew 2 cards. Now we have Ultimate Infestation instead. Though FoN should still not be three 2/2s with charge for reasons more than just FonRoar combo.
I just lost again with 31 health when my opponent was at four, and I had guaranteed lethal on board. I don't expect them to nerf Anduin. I'm really done with the current meta though until standard. I get why the comparisons to FoN/SR don't match up, but the issue is how easy it is to pull the "combo" off, and how much damage it does. I run two Dirty Rat's and they don't consistently pull Raza or Anduin out for a kill. I'm not running The Darkness. I was sick of running Skulking Geist before as well. I'll be very happy when Raza and Jade rotate out. Without knowing the new cards, I think the current meta would be amazing without those two mechanics.
I've found a lot of success against Priest the last couple days with Control Warlock. Geist, Despicable Dreadlord, and Guldan shine in that match-up. Geist makes it much harder for players to assemble a combo before the four-attack minions pressure them. And when they do find Raza and Anduin, if you have Guldan up, your hero power can out-value them.
My issue is that Velen, Mind Blast, and Circle of Healing aren't really a combo. Raza is a great card by itself. The highlander restriction is not that big of a deal because Circle of Healing isn't even part of the comob - any 1 or 0 mana spell works. Shadowreaper is a great card by itself. The two can be played in any order. It's not really a combo deck. I understand that this won't get resolved because Raza is rotating soon, but it absolutely violates the "fun and interactive" ethos that they strive for. I love control. I think the control meta is going to be amazing after the next rotation provided there's nothing close to the power level of Patches in the next expansion.
My whole point was that you're losing a game to a combo on turn 20+. That's infinitely better than losing every game to aggro on turn 5.
But if you want to keep complaining forever, go ahead.
But by making that argument that I waited too long (turn 20), you're making an argument for me to playing a more aggressive deck. You're making the case for aggro. The Raza decks eliminate the space for other control and value-oriented decks because even with life-gain and armor and board control you can take over 30 damage in a single turn or 40+ across two turns off the back of something that requires no in-game setup (just highlander deck building). Only 10 points of the damage is actually coming from a spell. Everything else is from the busted hero power.
You don't need an aggro deck to kill your opponent before turn 20...
But fine dude, have it your way. Take a break from Hearthstone until all late game combo's are gone.
This deck is insanely good for its cost!
it is even in the decklist above! Best dragon ever.
Drakonid Operative is still in standard and is in the deck you posted 😁
operative is still in standard