Hearthpwn

Come in and Warm your Frozen Boots by the Fire!

 

Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Gunnolf, and I am originally from the Land Down Under a.k.a. Australia. I am an avid gamer that has acquired a real passion for card games, which originated from my humble beginnings as a Yu-Gi-Oh collector and eventually grew from my dabbling in Cardfight Vanguard and Buddyfight, until we reached the game we know as Hearthstone.

I've played Hearthstone since the days of classic, with multiple accounts on both EU and NA servers. Despite having reached the Rank of Legend and my own personal mentality of equating 'having fun' with 'winning', I am not really a fan of meta power-grinding & net-decking, not that there is anything wrong with that. Therefore, I enjoy thinking about new, cool and fun deck ideas that push boundaries while also allowing you to win and those are what I want to share with you guys every-time I post a decklist.

I have presently become a contributing writer to WILDHS and will be posting articles there on a semi-regular basis, regarding deck-archetypes the status of the meta as well as how to get the most fun out of this game even if you aren't a big spender. If any of this sounds interesting, then I highly recommend that you check out of the website, as the writers and the owner himself are some of the nicest people you'll ever meet with great in-game knowledge (link to be website can be found HERE). You can also follow me on Twitter for latest updates.

If you genuinely like my content and would like to see me produce more of it, then please consider supporting me on Patreon. This is by no means necessary but it will definitely help me out in the long run. Thanks for Reading ^^

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Deck Introduction

Greetings wilders and welcome back for another legendary deck write-up. This one is a goody that really, really packs a solid punch against the current meta. Unfortunately, try as I could, I could not find a way to squeeze in Lyra the Sunshard due to the fact that we run so few spells. However, not to fear, you do not need to run her when you can just steal her from your opponent, among other things. The deck I want to reveal to you today is Master Dragon Thief Control Priest. It's a mouthful I know but it works. You essentially win games by denying your opponent their win condition. What they try to build up you just tear down over and over. To be perfectly honest it won't be uncommon for you to have an entire hand full of randomly stolen cards. I hope you enjoy this deck. it may be a toughie but once you get the hang of it, it can really provide you with some awesome hearthstone games. Now lets get to the details.

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Card Choices and Deck-building Explained

In this section, I will explain some of the card choices I opted for and the reasoning as to why they were included over potential counter-parts.

1) Northshire Cleric: Although it may seem like a super obvious inclusion, some lists choose not to run it. I believe that as the deck lacks forms of consistent card-draw, it requires that little nudge that can only be provided from priest's staple one-drop minion.

2) Greater Healing Potion: It's a lifeline against aggressive decks. Two of almost seems necessary to survive the damage output put out by aggro & murloc paladin as well as aggro shaman and burn mage post stabilisation. It is worth noting that I also experimented with Priest of the Feast extensively. He did not work as well due to limited spells.

3) Skulking Geist: Primarily included as it is a strong counter to warlock since it targets their healing spells. Additionally, it also has the added benefit of hitting innerfire priest and jade druid which do show up on ladder.

4) Entomb: Better, cheaper and faster Mind Control. Absolutely key to denying your opponent value.

(At the present time, only a few cards have been listed but I will include more if questions pop-up within the comments section regarding substitutions and why other cards were included.)

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Possible Card Substituions

There are a few minor changes you can make to the deck to tech it against particular pocket metas. As you know I like to set out them within the deck description and not make entirely separate lists for the views and the clicks.

Through playtesting I have identified four slots (namely x2 Northshire Cleric, x1 Shadow Word: Death, x1 Shadowreaper Anduin) which are more or less flexible and can thus be used to tech your deck to a particular meta.

1) Full on Dragon Priest
Here you can go a little bit greedier and include two additional dragons thus pumping up the number of dragons you run in your deck from 8 to 10. To run this extra package you can choose to sacrifice either removal or draw. In essence:

-x2 Northshire Cleric or -x1 Shadow Word: Death & -x1 Shadowreaper Anduin) / +2x Bone Drake or +2x Book Wyrm

As to why I chose to run Bone Drake, it is because it is a cheap aggressively statted dragon that does not require an activation piece in hand and gives you another dragon upon death.

2) Anti-Burn Mage
As your objective is to stay alive against burn-mage often the extra lategame removal or early 1/3 minions are not relevant. As such you can choose to sub the out for the ultimate secret counter card. Essentially:

-x2 Northshire Cleric or -x1 Shadow Word: Death & -x1 Shadowreaper Anduin) / +2x Eater of Secrets

3) Anti-Giant Warlock
Not as prevalent as you may think but even so there were quite a few pocket metas where this obscene monstrosity was prevalent. As such it was necessary to respond accordingly with extra board clears for consistency.

-1x Dragonfire Potion / +1x Lightbomb

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Short Mulligan Advice

Against aggro and burn decks keeping cards like Netherspite Historian, Northshire Cleric, Twilight Whelp and especially Duskbreaker are key to victory.

Conversely against control you want to be way greedier. While it positive to hold onto Netherspite Historian if you get the the thief combo i.e. Twilight Acolyte and Cabal Shadow Priest you should keep it. The sooner you start denying your opponent value the better.

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Guide & Match-ups

Yay, even more reading! Well, I am sure you are sick of this at this point but please do keep going as it is quite important to recognise the match-ups as doing so should significantly increase your winrate. 

Vs Giantslock (Favored 19-12) | Control Warlock-Cubelock (Favored 17-9): This deck very much feels like it was created specifically to target a few decks. It does so very well against warlock. With cards like Entomb, Twilight Acolyte, kabal shadow priest and Potion of Madness you can stall their progression, deny them any resurrect targets for their Gul'dan and wipe out their giants with a single card (although admittedly the latter is harder to do if they coin out their Naga Sea Witch).

Vs Big Priest (Favored 13-7) | Big Spell Priest (Even 7-4): Against big priest, you really want cards like Potion of Madness, Twilight Acolyte, Entomb and Cabal Shadow Priest to show up as soon as possible to deny them any resurrect value. Be careful on the backswing not to commit too much to the board. They have plenty of board clears themselves and some even run Entomb for the mirror. As far as big spell priest is concerned, it is an iffy match-up. I didn't quite get the handle on it but essentially if you are able to stabilise and defuse their highroll effects off of Spiteful Summoner you should be favored to win.

Vs Burn-Tempo Mage (Even 22-16): I was able to win the majority of times mainly due to the fact that i correctly recognised the pocket meta and had the Eater of Secrets teched in. You must ensure they don't get a lot of chip damage in with their minions. An early Duskbreaker is key and you must never get your Greater Healing Potion counter-dispelled.

Vs Aggro Dude & Murloc Paladin (Slightly Favored 31-19) | Secret & Anyfin Paladin (Inconclusive 2-0): Whether it is murlocs or dudes, it doesn't matter. Both can be buffed up the wazoo so leaving them up when you can clear them is asking for trouble. Duskbreaker is an emergency switch but when you can try to build up a board and manually trade with your minions. Remember you don't need to win, he just has to run out of resources.

Vs Kathrena Secret Hunter (Inconclusive 2-1) | Giants Hunter (Favored 1-0): Not enough match data to provide a conclusive analysis but it was nice to see on ladder though. Avoiding triggering cat trick as much as possible until you can deal with it seems to be core to winning. Against giants well I won using Lightbomb and stealing his Deathstalker Rexxar.

Vs Aggro Shaman (Favored 25-13): Do your best to clear their minions as quickly as possible to avoid chip damage. Duskbreaker is key for their board. Shadow Word: Death is relevant for the 4m 7/7 and Greater Healing Potion is greater for healing out of range of their burst.

Vs Malygos Druid (Unfavored 8-12): It is really hard to actually play against the combo, especially if it comes out quickly. Your best chance at winning is pilling on the pressure as much as possible and continuously striking him in the face, so much so that he is forced to use Branching Paths defensively.

There were several other match-ups but none quite so relevant that they needed mentioning at least in my honest opinion (Renomage, Reno Priest, Pirate Warrior, Token Druid, Innerfire Priest, Evolve Shaman, Jade Druid). If you have queries regarding a particular match-up, let me know and I'll review my notes and add to the deck description. Thanks for reading. ^^

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Do you like Combo Decks?

Are you an avid priest player that wants to get to legend with a combo deck? Well then look no further. If you kept Raza the Chained even after his nerf, then you are in luck cause OTK Reno priest is still very much a strong deck. So if you feel like dusting off the good old Shadowreaper Anduin combo then consider playing my list. There is an extra bonus that people can't hate you for it since it is retro to play it now haha! ;)

[LEGEND] Gunnolf's Wild OTK Razanduin Priest Highlander Priest Deck by Gunnolf - Nov 1, 2017 View Deck String Export to BBCode Export to Cockatrice Export to MarkDown Export to Html Clone this deck
Minion (16) 1x Bloodmage Thalnos 1x Emperor Thaurissan 1x Kazakus 1x Raza the Chained 1x Reno Jackson 1x Doomsayer 1x Azure Drake 1x Mirage Caller 1x Spawn of Shadows 1x Acolyte of Pain 1x Explosive Sheep 1x Gilded Gargoyle 1x Loot Hoarder 1x Northshire Cleric 1x Priest of the Feast 1x Radiant Elemental	Ability (13) 1x Lightbomb 1x Psychic Scream 1x Shadow Visions 1x Excavated Evil 1x Twilight's Call 1x Silence 1x Binding Heal 1x Holy Smite 1x Mind Blast 1x Potion of Madness 1x Shadow Word: Death 1x Spirit Lash 1x Power Word: Shield	Playable Hero (1) 1x Shadowreaper Anduin
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Author's Notes

This is an extremely fun deck to play but fair warning it is not easy. It might take you a few tries to get used to the intricacies of the playstyle but once you do, you'll be rolling in heaven. Consider carefully what you might be up against before you mulligan. If you do that then you should be favored to win.

Take your time to learn the deck. It truly isn't an easy one to master and requires a decent amount of games played on ladder to know the match-ups (especially when things like giants exists). Will update the list in the future, so stay tuned!

I enjoy deck-building a multitude of interesting decks that are both entertaining and Legend viable (with some odd Free-to-Play lists mixed in). So if you like this deck (or anyone of my other ones) consider leaving a thumbs up, as it really helps in the long run! :)

Thank you guys for all your support and if you have any suggestions, let me know. 

 

Check out my other decks!

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