[23-5] Super fun Benedictus/Steal priest deck
- Last updated May 2, 2018 (Witchwood)
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Wild
- 22 Minions
- 8 Spells
- Deck Type: Ranked Deck
- Deck Archetype: Dragon Priest
- Crafting Cost: 10720
- Dust Needed: Loading Collection
- Created: 4/30/2018 (Witchwood)
- Sekro
- Registered User
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- 3
- 20
- 40
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Battle Tag:
N/A
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Region:
US
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Total Deck Rating
103
UPDATE:
The new season has just started and I was back to rank 7 (2 stars) as I finished last season rank 3 (2 stars). Thanks to this deck, I am now back to rank 5 (2 stars), losing only twice to quest rogue (which is our worst matchup). Won every other games, beating Baku Rogues, destroying Warlocks and over-valuing Spiteful Druids. It's been a super easy climb (maybe the easiest I've had so far). This deck is not for beginners and requires a good knowledge of the meta and what your opponents will try to do (so you can mulligan accordingly and save the right cards for the right time).
Also, I have set up HSReplay and will now be able to share games against different matchups with you. I started posting some below:
- Versus Baku Rogue: https://hsreplay.net/replay/go49uvec6cRihg9Twq8vYD
- Versus Control Mage: https://hsreplay.net/replay/pQv7tBFCGrDNci9Rs6Z55V
- Versus Cube Warlock: https://hsreplay.net/replay/uj5wKxSMJiRXXxqb4BoVsk
- Versus Spiteful Druid: https://hsreplay.net/replay/VEjxwnBLvmQeN6xc9Bi4fW
- Versus Even Paladin: https://hsreplay.net/replay/JCVheVZcm3oUw6qV2tZLTj
INTRODUCTION:
Guys, I've been having so much fun with this deck that I couldn't resist sharing it. I am currently winning 23-5 and it's only the beginning :) Anyway, here is the story of this deck:
Couple of hours ago, I was getting tired of the current meta (full of Warlocks, Spiteful/Taunt druids, even Palis and Mages). I decided to see if I could come up with an effective "Steal" priest deck (similar to the one I used to play before the new expansion). Yeah I know, I just love the priest class...
Anyway, I spent some time thinking about the deck and the different cards to include in order to make it fun and effective at the same time. I came up with this list and decided to give it a try on the ladder (I was back to rank 5 after testing a bunch of lower tier decks). Surprisingly, the deck ended up being super strong and able to beat almost all my opponents (23-5 so far).
ABOUT THE DECK:
Stealing Minions:
Basically, the key idea of this deck is to be able to steal valuable minions from your opponents. To do this, the deck includes:
- 2 Twilight Acolyte and 2 Cabal Shadow Priest (these cards combo very well together)
- 2 Mind Control + 1 Shadow Visions (that can give you one more Mind Control)
- 1 Shadow Madness (that can be used to steal cards like Hadronox or even Voidlord).
- 2 Mind Control Tech
Out-valuing your opponents:
On top of all these steal cards, your deck also includes strong minions such as:
- 2 Twilight Drake : Solid early game minion that helps with the dragon synergy.
- 2 Primordial Drake : Solid taunt minion that also deals damage to other minions.
- 1 The Lich King : For even more value.
- 1 Alexstrasza : Helps to lower the health of your opponent (or increase yours)
- 1 Ysera : A great card that creates a lot of value, above all when played at the right time.
Reaching fatigue:
In most of your matchups, your opponent will reach fatigue before you (taunt druids, Warlocks, etc...). However, the deck includes Archbishop Benedictus which you can use to make sure you won't lose to fatigue. It has been a super valuable card to me when facing Control Mages or Taunt Druids.
Board control:
I know that in most matchups, controlling the board is important. To do this, I have included:
- 2 Duskbreaker : Great when playing against paladins or tempo mages.
- 1 Mass Dispel : Make sure to use it at the right time.
- 1 Gluttonous Ooze : To destroy weapons
- 1 Shadow Word: Death : To deal with big minions (like when a giant is played turn 4, or when a druid plays its Spiteful Summoner).
- Taunt minions: 2 Stonehill Defender (awesome card that also creates value) and 1 Tar Creeper
- All the other cards mentioned earlier (Mind Control Tech, Twilight Acolyte, Cabal, etc...)
Healing:
I understand that some matchups can be tough, this is why I have included:
- 2 Divine Hymn : This card combo very well with Northshire Cleric and heals you (and your minions) for 6.
CONCLUSION:
This deck is super fun to play and definitely strong. However, the most important thing is to understand your opponent strategy, mulligan well and save your key cards for the right time.
If you guys are interested in a more detailed `matchups` guide, make sure to vote for the deck and I'll add it ;)
MATCHUPS GUIDE:
Hadronox druid:
Ok guys, so I like to see things in a pragmatic way (this is how I usually define my game plans and strategies). In this matchup, the strategy of your opponent is composed of 4 steps/phases:
Step 1: Playing as many taunts as possible before being able to play Hadronox
Step 2: Play Hadronox and kill it
Step 3: Play Witching Hour, summon back Hadronox and Cube it
Step 4: Play Witching Hour, summon back Hadronox and Cube it
(which is a total of 7 Hadronox, if you were wondering).
So as your opponent is using 4 steps, let’s use 4 steps too that will focus on countering his.
Step 1: How do we counter his step 1? Well, we can’t stop him from playing taunts. However, we can do two things:
- Putting pressure on him by playing our minions and controlling the board. As we start playing bigger and bigger minions, he might be forced to use his Naturalize to remove threats (which is a great thing as he won’t be able to use it to kill Hadronox).
- Making sure that we steal his Lich King. Why? Because this is a key card in his strategy as he wants to be able to bring back as many of them as he can and play Anti-Magic Shell to boost his board and kill us. So no Lich King to bring back = no board boosted = less things to worry about.
Step 2: If he plays Hadronox and can’t kill it, then steal it and you basically won the game. However, if he plays it and kills it, keep controlling the board and play your 2 Mind Control Tech to steal 2 of his minions. This will put pressure on him and he will be forced to play Witching Hour, which takes us to step 3.
Step 3: After your opponent plays Witching Hour, he will definitely cube his Hadronox to fill his board. This will be the perfect timing for you to steal his cube (with Mind Control) which will give you 2 Hadronox. From here, your opponent might have reached fatigue (or be really close to it). Keep controlling the board and play Alexstrasza to lower his health to 15 (he might still have a lot of armor but this will scare him).
Step 4: When he plays his last Witching Hour, you can steal his Hadronox (if he doesn’t have cubes left) or repeat step 3 he cubes it.
Guides for other matchups will be added soon (as I need time to write them).
This looks quite fun. Do you think it makes sense to craft The Lich King to build it in the current meta? I mostly play control priest so might get value out of him in other decks I guess... (I will have to DE a golden Onyxia though)
I think the Lich King is an awesome card (one of my favorite). However I wouldn't recommend you to craft it (not now that the next expansion is so close). If I were you I would replace it with another card and wait for the next expansion to see what the meta will look like.
That makes a lot of sense. Thanks for your help Sekro :)
Hey @Sekro I have all the cards for your deck and it looks really amazing so But i'm missing one Cabal Shadow Priest and one Primordial Drake
So I added Deathwing and Shadowreaper Anduin
Do u think these two cards could make the deck better
Hey DragPriest, I think Deathwing is fine to add. What I would do is to try adding it and see if it actually helps in your matchups. If you end up almost never using it, then you might want to switch to another type of dragon (Sleepy Dragon or even Nightscale Matriarch as it combo well with Divine Hymn).
This deck was made a long time ago so you might need to adapt it to the current meta.
Regarding the Cabal Shadow Priest, you could replace it with a Shadow Madness (so you can still combo it with Twilight Acolyte if needed.
Hey @Sekro thnx for the reply,, also I am currently using an adapted version of your other deck. The rank three to legend deck
I am going to make the deck in deck builder sometime soon and it would be much appreciated if you could check it out and tell me what you think in the comments.
Sure man! Just let me know when you've built the deck and I'll tell you what I think! Good luck with your climb!
Hey whenever you want to check it out it's there,
Thnx, link is below
Have you had any luck with this deck? I am tempted to try it.
I haven't really been pushing for high ranks but this deck has got me to rank 10 without spending too much time grinding
it has the possibility to reach legend tho as it is an upgraded more expensive version of sekros deck
@Sekro do u think i could add deathwing
if so what would I replace with
Very usefull deck 4/4 games i lost them all
I main priest and this deck looks super fun but I need to craft Benedictus so I don't know :(, quite expensive for a marginal card. Maybe I'm wrong
Yeah, if you do not have Benedictus I wouldn't craft it. The deck is super fun but I believe there are better (and more useful) cards to craft.
If you main priest for the same reasons I do (enjoy control decks and ridiculous plays), you'll love Archbishop Benedictus. While he's not the top as far as competitive cards go, he can make games so, so much fun.
Just tried a few games of this deck, and I'm very impressed. Not only it's super fun to play (like stealing a Enraged Grommash), but it's very consistent. Against aggro decks it's a bit draw dependent, more than against control, but you still have enough threats to keep pressuring your opponents. I MCT has been less than impressive, but I think it's just the type of deck I've been playing against.
The only game I struggled was tempo mage. The secrets and burn caused me to have very ineffective turns and I was too behind. Not sure how to play against that... Any suggestions?
Glad you like the deck Igmhorus. You can try to remove one MCT if they haven't been really useful to you so far. I added two as I wanted to keep that `steal` synergy the deck is built on. You could try adding another Tar Creeper or a Holy Nova (which I have been testing in the deck lately).
Tempo Mage is actually one of our easy matchups (I rarely lose them because of the 2 divine hymn). Ideally, you want to mulligan for:
- 1 Duskbreaker (so you can clear the board if they play Wyrm into Apprentice into Kirin Tor)
- 1 Twilight Drake (to pop Explosive Runes without losing health)
- Early game minions (Cleric, Stonehill, Tar Creeper)
- 1 Divine Hymn
The goal here is to slowly take control of the board while healing yourself. This will force your opponent to use his burn spells on your minions instead of your face. Don't hesitate to play minions like MCT, even if your opponent doesn't have more than 3 minions, as the key here is to take control of the board. Duskbreaker is just perfect in that case as you can clear all his early game minions. Divine Hymn are key cards in this matchup, so use your Shadow Visions (if you draw it early) to get a 3rd one.
Yeah, that deck is really fun to play :) It takes some time to get used to it, but once you do, it offers so much possibilities. I am currently testing replacing Shadow Vision with Holy Nova (to improve chances versus more aggressive decks). Pretty good results so far!
Both cards you picked are awesome and Chameleos definitely adds value to this deck. I really need to try adding it and see how it performs (maybe I'll remove one MCT). Keep it up mate!