Hearthpwn

Proof & Stats

Hitting legend with Priest in 2018 LUL

 

Intro

Priest has been in a really tough spot this expansion. According to VS Data, it's the least played class by a large margin and its best decks are in the gutter of all tier lists out there. As someone who finds great satisfaction in winning with lesser-known meme decks, I decided to take on the challenge of climbing to legend with a homebrew list.

I got heavy inspiration from Savjz's list, which you can find here. I actually started out just straight up netdecking his exact list, and had a lot of fun with it. There was definitely room for optimization for the current meta, but the potential of this deck was undeniable. With some tweaking and tinkering, this deck turned out to be a force to be reckoned with.

The deck can be a little inconsistent, from things like Hemet, Jungle Hunter being at the bottom of your deck or drawing combo pieces too early, and boy is it infuriating. Also every now and then, aggro decks would continuously run me over and force me to play something else to get off tilt, lol. At one point I even tried running 2x Mind Control Tech just to combat a swarm of Zoolocks and Odd Rogues, to no success. Eventually, I had to come to terms with the fact that this deck definitely struggles against those and there was nothing much I could really do about it. EDIT: LUL just kidding! Check the bottom of the guide for some changes that have helped these match-ups tremendously.

So why play this deck? While it struggles against super aggressive decks, it can definitely hold its own versus everything else, and it's a very rewarding feeling seeing our robo-lord Mecha'thun blow up the enemy face. Against decks that don't kill you by turn 6, you'll normally have enough time to cycle through your deck and assemble the combo pieces. It may not be tier 1 in competitiveness, but it's tier 1 in fun for sure.

 

Mulligans

These will be listed in order of priority, first being highest and gradually getting lower as it goes rightward. Specific match-ups may require special mulligans and will be explained in more detail in that respective section.

Against midrange and control decks, if Hemet is in your opening hand, toss the quest (or don't play it). You'll want to play Hemet as soon as possible and start going straight into combo mode, and the quest will interfere with that gameplan since it'll end up putting Amara, Warden of Hope in your hand.

vs Aggro

Doomsayer, Tar Creeper, Plated Beetle, Loot Hoarder, Squashling, Shadow Visions (to grab Spirit Lash/Psychic Scream)

vs Midrange/Cube decks

Hemet, Jungle Hunter, Loot Hoarder, Dead Ringer, Plated Beetle, Tar Creeper, Bloodmage Thalnos, Shadow Visions, Novice Engineer, Doomsayer, Psychic Scream

vs Control/Combo

Hemet, Jungle Hunter, Loot Hoarder, Dead Ringer, Novice Engineer, Bloodmage Thalnos, Power Word: Shield, Shadow Visions

 

Gameplan/Match-ups

Usually, the plan is simple: survive until you can play out the combo. The order in which you play the combo out is very important, since if you do it out of order, the combo will NOT work. The order goes as follows: 1) Reckless Experimenter, 2) Coffin Crasher, 3) 2x Ticking Abomination. This uses up all 10 mana, so make sure your hand has ONLY these cards in it (and Mecha'thun of course), and that your deck is empty. You can also play your 2-mana deathrattles for free alongside the combo as a final way to dump your hand, but only a max of three of them. Otherwise, you won't have the board space.

One more thing to note: If your quest is at least 3/7 complete, DO NOT PLAY HEMET UNLESS YOU HAVE THE TOOLS TO COMPLETE THE QUEST! The final combo involves 4 deathrattles, so it'll end up putting Amara, Warden of Hope in your hand which ruins EVERYTHING. This is why sometimes it's permissible to toss the quest away if Hemet is in your hand.

There are very rare instances where you'll need to play your combo pieces for tempo in order to survive. This will most often happen versus aggressive decks. Use your best judgement to decide if you'll need to throw aside the combo and win through board control. If you want to see an example of this, I have a replay below versus Tempo Mage where I went ahead with this gameplan and ended up as the victor.

Now, for the moment you've all been waiting for, the specific match-ups:

Druid

vs Token: Token Druid has been gaining a lot of popularity this week, and you DEMOLISH them. Search for Spirit Lash and Shadow Visions in your mulligan, as it'll help you find a way to deal with a Wispering Woods on curve. From Shadow Visions, you'll likely almost always want to pick Psychic Scream since that card alone just wins you the match-up. Obviously there'll be exceptions, but generally this is your way to win.

vs Malygos: This match-up is basically a race to see who gets to their combo first, and more often than not, you're the winner. Don't overextend and let them get a huge Spreading Plague unless you have a Psychic Scream ready, since that + Branching Paths could be a way for them to kill you on board. Apart from that, the match-up is pretty straightforward.

vs Togwaggle: EDIT- I initially explained the match-up incorrectly. Here I explain Tog's win conditions against us, and how we can play around it.

vs Spiteful: Only faced against one of these guys. This is a pretty easy match-up, they're a board-centric deck that doesn't apply an overwhelming amount of pressure until their turn 7 swing with Spiteful Summoner, which you have Psychic Scream to deal with. The only issue I can see is that they're capable of reloading fairly easily and reliably with Ultimate Infestation, but you should still have enough time to stall until the combo.

Hunter

vs Cube: You're pretty favored. Again, Psychic Scream is the MVP of this match-up. If I have a good curve, I've kept it in my mulligan sometimes. It's a weird time to be alive to say a Hunter deck is too slow to kill you, but that description fits the bill here. They spend too much time developing their board rather than smacking you straight in the face, so more often than not, you'll have plenty of time to zoom through your deck and get into combo mode. Just monitor how much damage they have on board and keep it tame, and you'll be fine.

vs Secret: This is a little tougher. If they have a good curve, the game snowballs out of control really fast and there's not much you can do. NEVER try and proc secrets by hitting face unless you absolutely need to, but at the same time, try and wipe their board as much as you can. The quest reward is actually a huge win condition in this match-up, since it's hard for them to plow through an 8/8 taunt and the Reno-type effect can crush them. If they draw the nuts, it's hard for you to ever win, but under normal circumstances it could go either way.

vs Spell: Basically a harder version of the Secret Hunter match-up, because they deal a lot more direct damage from hand and it's hard for you to interact. I haven't seen too many out there, but if you're unfortunate enough to run into one, you're pretty unfavored. Do all you can to stay alive, pretty much, and be smart about testing for secrets.

Mage

vs Tempo: An example of a pretty hyper-aggro deck where it can be hard for you to win. Kill their minions as much as you can and look to complete the quest as soon as possible, since they have a limited amount of burn. Once they equip Aluneth, you can pretty much give up on comboing them since there's no way you can possibly race them. The plan in this case is just to do anything and everything you can to survive the onslaught, since eventually they'll just die of fatigue.

vs Control: Pretty much a free win haha. The only form of pressure they have comes in the later stage of the game, where you should already be nearing your combo. By then, you'll probably have Psychic Scream in your hand already, so there's very limited ways for them to really kill you. They have no way to disrupt your combo either, unless they happen to be running Arcane Keysmith and pull Explosive Runes (I personally have not encountered one though). Apart from that, all they can do is sit like a duck and wait for their death :^)

Paladin

vs Odd: Basically a slightly trickier version of Token Druid, since their hero power applies endless pressure. Like the Druid match-up, Spirit Lash and Psychic Scream are your MVPs. Keep their dudes in check and make sure to monitor how much burst damage they can do to you, and you should be fine. Psychic Scream actually wrecks Paladin wayyyy harder than Druid, since the only form of card draw Pally has is Divine Favor. A big Psychic Scream will probably give them a lot more dead draws and should give you ample time to get in combo mode. It's important not to use these spells prematurely; monitor their hand size and keep in mind what potential rebounds they might have. Don't be too greedy of course, but make sure you get ample value out of them. There's a lot more to be wary of compared to the Token Druid match-up, but you're still pretty favored here.

Priest

As you could see from my stats, I didn't play against a SINGLE Priest during my climb, so I really don't have much to say here... :(

Rogue

vs Odd: This is pretty much an auto-loss, they apply too much pressure and their minions are too difficult for you to deal with. Basically the hope is that they have a few slow turns which gives you enough time to complete the quest and heal back up, but that hasn't happened once with me during my climb. Oof.

vs Quest: It looks bad on paper, but it's not unwinnable by any means. Sure, you're still unfavored, but my only win against Rogue actually came versus Quest. This is PURELY a race to get to the combo, since if you give them too much time, you'll just get SMORc'd down by 4/4s every turn. This match-up is solitaire gaming at its finest.

Shaman

vs Even: I haven't actually played against any Even Shamans during my climb, but I'm familiar enough with the deck to know how the match-up should play out. Psychic Scream is your unquestionable MVP here, since they have ZERO card draw. A smart player should know not to overextend with totems, but it'll be hard for them to make any progress without tapping the hero power anyway. You'll be fine vs these guys.

vs Shudderwock: There's two variants, Tempo and Combo Shudderwock. I only saw one of each on my climb, and both played out pretty similarly. Again, it's just a race to the combo in which you usually come out as the victor. Both these decks apply quite a bit of pressure on board, so it's crucial not to let them deal too much damage. Normally, they shouldn't ever have enough to kill you though, especially since you have the quest on your side. Smart players will quickly catch on to what you're up to and will look to apply pressure, so play to survive once they initiate the SMOrc gameplan.

Warlock

vs Zoo: Another auto-loss. They swarm the board too much and it's hard for you to keep up. In almost every game I played, I was dead by turn 6. Again, the hope is that they have a few slow turns which gives you enough time to complete the quest and heal back up, but again, that hasn't happened once with me during my climb. Oof. EDIT- However, in some games at legend, I’ve had a turn 2 Doomsayer really halt their assault and it allowed me to take control of the board, eventually leading to my victory. It’s not impossible to win, but it’s hard. I've also been running alternate builds that have had a lot more sustain, at the expense of more consistently cycling through our deck. I'll write more about it in my closing thoughts.

vs Cube: Here's a winnable match-up, though. A turn 4 Mountain Giant is killer, and sometimes you can't deal with Doomguard smacking your face nonstop, but as long as they don't highroll the crap out of you, you should have a pretty good chance. One thing to note is that playing Doomsayer past turn 4/5 is VERY risky since they can eat a minion with Carnivorous Cube on that turn, making it actually beneficial to them I wish I had this hindsight earlier on LOL. Try to Psychic Scream big boards away as much as you can, since it doesn't actually kill minions off to be res'd by Bloodreaver Gul'dan. Monitor the graveyard, monitor their potential burst damage on any given turn, and don't get outplayed highrolled, and you should have more than a fighting chance.

vs Even: I've faced a couple, and one little shit had a Demonic Project in his deck that ruined everything for me >:( The only thing you're really afraid of is an early Mountain Giant. since nothing else applies that much early pressure to you. You basically just want to cycle through your deck quickly as usual while being ready to answer a ton of big boys with Psychic Scream and also don't face a little shit that runs Demonic Project, and you should be okay.

vs Control: Really rare, I haven't faced a single one, but I'm just putting this here because if you KNOW for a fact they are indeed pure Control, you'll have a really tough time. They almost always run Demonic Project, and a smart player will hold them for when you're in combo mode. To combat this, you should probably save some cheap deathrattles in your hand (i.e. Loot Hoarder, Dead Ringer, etc.) that you can play for free anyway thanks to Reckless Experimenter. Leaving these in your hand gives you a chance to luck out and steal a game if Demonic Project misses. It's still a long shot to win this game, but if there's a will there's a way.

Warrior

vs Odd: Free win. Yay! Realistically there is just no way for them to kill you fast enough since they are purely a reactionary deck. I've had games where Hemet, Jungle Hunter was the last card in my deck and I STILL won. You should feel reeeeeal good going up against these guys.

vs Taunt: Not so much a free win, since they can hero power you down if you don't draw the combo fast enough, but you're still favored. The only ones I've faced are the Odd variant, and from my experience they usually aren't fast enough. My only loss vs Warrior came against one of these guys though, even though it was mostly just my bad luck with Hemet, Jungle Hunter being the last card in my deck again :(

vs Mecha'thun: A game of who can cycle through their deck first, and Hemet, Jungle Hunter makes you pretty favored in that race :^) Veeeeeery straightforward match-up.

 

Replays

Just a few notable games I had which I'd like to showcase. I may or may not have played 100% optimally in each of them, but I think these should help give you a feel of how the deck plays out.

• Crazy game vs Tog Druid
• Using combo pieces for tempo vs Tempo Mage
• Drawing the nuts vs Quest Rogue
• Pretty typical game vs Odd Paladin
• Close call vs Cubelock

 

Closing Thoughts

All credit goes to Savjz for the original idea, this is not something I cooked up entirely on my own. I'm simply putting this deck out there as a new, refreshing force for in the meta and to give Priest some time to shine for a change. Not really sure where this deck would line up in a tier list, but to me, it's pretty damn strong and pretty damn fun! Aggro match-ups are a living hell, but you have a shot versus anything else. The deck still may not be perfectly optimized either, so there may still be even more room to grow. Feel free to comment with suggested changes!

 

EDIT: One week later, this deck has gained quite a bit of traction here and on Reddit. Thanks everyone for the kind words! The deck isn't perfect, but to this day, it's still very much competitive. I've been testing out many different builds and have settled on a better anti-aggro list, but the Druid match-up becomes a lot weaker as a result. However, the changes have greatly increased our sustainability, just at the expense of more consistent cycle. Here are the changes:

• -2x Novice Engineer
• -1x Squashling
• +2x Tainted Zealot
• +1x Mirage Caller

With these changes, I've been able to steal a lot more games from decks like Zoolock, Tempo Mage, Secret Hunter, etc. Tainted Zealot + Spirit Lash is essentially like a mini-Reno Jackson, and can heal you for a TON to buy you more time. With two Lashes, it often clears the board and sets you back to full health. It's been a great anti-aggro addition, but it's really just a meta call. Again, with these changes, I can't say the Druid match-up (apart from Token) is very favorable anymore. In general, you can't race other combo decks as well, but against board-centric decks, this might be closer to a more optimal build. Still testing around though, so let me know what you guys think!