Mid-Range Priest (Holy Priest)
- Last updated Dec 12, 2014 (GvG Launch)
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Wild
- 18 Minions
- 12 Spells
- Deck Type: Ranked Deck
- Deck Archetype: Unknown
- Crafting Cost: 8340
- Dust Needed: Loading Collection
- Created: 12/8/2014 (GvG Launch)
- VeiledSyn
- Registered User
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- 18
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- 29
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Battle Tag:
VeiledSyn#1435
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Region:
US
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Total Deck Rating
493
Update: When this deck what first created it was a very fast Priest built to shine in mid-game, with the focus of buffing and healing your minions. The meta has changed and gotten much faster over the past week. The build is sound, and if played efficiently works well, but can not be as competitive as it once was. If the meta does slow back down in the next few weeks, it might be viable again. Thank you all who played it at the start and had fun. If your interested, I recommend reading the guide and giving it a try.
--------------------- Mid-Range Holy Priest --------------------
This is my personal Priest deck that I want to share with you. I have always loved the Priest as a class, so I set out to create a new GvG Priest that didn't have the same shortcomings and flaws as its predecessor. The new cards we received were not only good, but they fill roles that no other cards could.
Just to clarify, this is a Control deck at it's core, but not limited to only that. It is more of a hybrid, using strong and sturdy minions, with your heals to make you extremely efficient and consistent. With a much faster rate of play than the standard control Priest, you now have options for early game. Meaning your not at the mercy of the luck of the draw. Thus the "Mid-Range Control Priest" is born.
I encourage you to leave a comment, and I will take any suggestions or questions you have seriously and do my best to respond. If you like the deck, be sure to give me an up-vote / +1.
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The Core Mechanics:
If your familiar with playing Control Priest it shouldn't be too hard to grasp, however if your inexperienced with this with this class, don't worry... I will outline basic mechanics here.
If you have never played a control Priest before, be prepared. Its a class anyone can play decently, but is quite hard to master. As with most control decks, it isn't as much about the strength of your minions on the board. It's about the way you can manipulate the board to make those minions stronger.
This deck is played a slightly bit different than usual. It's about using all your forms of healing and stat buffing, to get the absolute maximum value from your minions. Ideally you want to buff your minions health via Velen's Chosen, Light of the Naaru, your Hero Power, and Dark Cultists Death-rattle. Then, you can trade into their minions, live, then heal them back up to fight another day. The goal is to try to take out 2 or more of their minions for every one of yours. Aside from these minions, you have numerous spells that can take out any threats that wouldn't be favorable to trade your minions into. Quite often I end up dealing with their cards so effectively that they lose because I've forced them into having to top-deck, with no combos.
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Deck Lineup Changes
12/11: -1 Defender of Argus -1 Mind Control / +1 Jeeves +1 Harrison Jones
12/9 :I have made some small changes that is working out really well for me. I removed 1x Holy Smite, 1x Holy Nova, 1x Cabal Shadowpriest and added 1x Zombie Chow, 2xDefender of Argus.
This gives you another strong early game minon (Zombie Chow), which can also, if drawn later in the game can be combined with Auchenai Soulpriest for a 5 damage nuke.
As for the 2x Defender of Argus... They are yet another buffing minion, and can help protect your Lightwardens, Vol'jin, or Troggzor the Earthinator. But the best use it taunting up a Dark Cultist so that you are pretty much guaranteed his Death-rattle buff.
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You keep all the core cards, but really add onto an already strong class.
Key Cards and their uses/synergys :
Shrinkmeister : Just an obviously good minion, 3/2 body and can help you make more favorable trades and can allow you to Cabal or Shadow Madness higher attack creatures. Don't save him forever trying to get the perfect combo, more often, just use him for a good trade or just to use as a 3/2.
Velen's Chosen : This is such an amazing card, used early game on a Northshire Cleric, Dark Cultist, or Injured Blademaster provides a very scary high health minion. For example a turn 1 Northshire Cleric into a turn 2 Coin + Velen's Chosen for a 3/7 on turn 2, its value it just outrageous.
Light of the Naaru : A very cheap heal, that summons a minion that is buffed very easily due to our many heals + Hero Power. It can be used on your hero if you really need to spawn the Lightwarden, or on Injured Blademaster instead of blowing the highly prioritized Circle of Healing.
Lightbomb : This card can have many uses, either as yet another board wipe vs aggro, or as a high attack minion killer (think Handlock Giants or Rag). This card it a little more situational so at this point is a 1'of. Another function is that all of your minions have higher Health than Attack, so you can use this even with your minions out, kill the enemy off, then (with a Northshire Cleric out) use a CoH, drawing 3-4 cards while also buffing your Lightwardens.
Vol'jin : An almost auto include, good attack for 5 mana, but the fact you can basically set your own health, and reduce any minion they have to 2 health.
Troggzor the Earthinator : This minion has a decent body, but the true value comes from it's effect. It's the new Loatheb. Makes your opponent think twice about using any spell, and even if he gets removed by a spell, you still get a 3/5 minion.
Mass Dispel : With the whole new array of deathrattles and buffing minions, I see this card becoming very viable once again. The mana cost is slightly high, but the risk vs reward seems quite worth it. Cycles itself, and can remove all those pesky deathrattles. These 2 cards aren't mandatory, and can be replaced with whatever you feel necessary. (Silence, Smite, SW:P/D, Shadow Madness, Holy Fire all good options)
Defender of Argus : These guys are yet another nice buff to your creatures, and can help you protect your Lightwardens and Troggzor. But the best use is to taunt up your Dark Cultists so that you are pretty much guaranteed to get the Death-rattle bonus.
Zombie Chow : Simply, just another minion to help with early game board control, quite strong when buffed, but also useful if you kill him with Auchenai Soulpriest out as a 5 damage nuke to the face.
Jeeves : Jeeves is there to help in the transition from mid-late game, he is situational, and can backfire. So be careful when using him, and do not play him if your opponent is going to get more use from him than you are. If your doing fine on card draw (efficiently using your minions) feel free to remove him and add in Mass Dispel or Mind Control.
Harrison Jones : Lately many classes have been using a lot more weapons than usual, and this deck did have problems dealing with them. Harrison has a strong body to use regardless of the effect, so he can always be useful... and now vs classes with weapons, you have a removal for them, and gain card advantage and that's a win/win/win.
The rest of the deck is pretty self explanatory, this deck is built to be faster, to keep up with the new pumped up MechZoos and other aggro rush decks while also maintaining its core cards for control matchups. Overall I see no exploitable flaws that the priest had pre-GvG. It should be able to keep Aggro decks on the defensive and just enough control to batter down other control decks.
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Mulligan Guide:
Being a mid-range control deck, there are many early game spells and minions, it can be quite difficult to decide what is worth keeping, and what you should send back for something better.
I am going to break this down into two groups, mulligans vs fast decks and mulligans vs slower decks. It's really impossible to make any kind of more accurate distinction due to the extreme volatility of the current "meta"...
Mulligan Guide vs Fast/Rush/Aggro/Etc Decks:
Primary Goals:
Your looking for 2 spells, Light of the Naaru, and Velen's Chosen. Either one, or both are good.
Your also looking for 1-3 mana minions. Northshire Cleric, Dark Cultist, and Injured Blademaster.
Mainly wanting to the specific combinations of Northshire Cleric + Velens Chosen, or Injured Blademaster + Light of the Naaru.
Shrinkmeister is generally something you want later in the match, send him back.
If your not able to get these specific combos, DO NOT WORRY, this deck is a mid-range deck. There are plenty of minions and control spells to carry on just fine.
Secondary Goals:
SW:Pain is acceptable to keep if you expect them to have a solid minion played quickly (Like Expecting an Undertaker vs a Hunter) AND you already have at least one of your 1-2 cost minions.
If you get an Injured Blademaster, and a Circle of Healing, it is also acceptable to keep this to pair with coin on turn 3 or regular turn 4.
If your expecting a very strong early game, and do not come across an minion or Velen's Chosen... It is okay to keep an Auchenai Soulpriest and/or a Circle of Healing in hopes for a turn 4 board wipe.
Mulligan Guide vs Slower/Control/Ramp/Etc Decks:
Against slower classes and decks all the same rules from above apply, with a few exceptions...
With the slower decks you have the ability to spend more time on setup. Most importantly, if you draw a Dark Cultist, it is worth also holding onto, or trying for a Defender of Argus. Ideally you want any of your 1-3 minions on board, with your Dark Cultist, then taunt it up. The nice little buff is good, but controlling and forcing your opponent to kill the Cultist first, and in turn giving that buff to your other minions goes a long ways.
I had someone message me and ask a pretty good question, "How does this deck handle heavy aggro without Wild Pyro or other X card/s. This deck is quite a bit different than what were used to, I am posting my reply here, in case anyone else is wondering...
This build is a bit different than how Priest has been being played recently. It's a true healing Holy Priest, rather than controlling the board through Wild Pyros and damage, you now get board presence and don't give it up. Priest now has some really amazing early game minions and spells. Most notably Velen's Chosen, and Light of the Naruu.
Using Velen's Chosen on any of your 1-3 mana minions, creates a very big threat, 3/7 Northshire, 5/8 Dark Cultist, 6/11 Injured Blade master. Every turn a rush deck puts a minion out, you can attack it, lose 3 health, then heal it back up. They really just can't break through something that large. And with a 1 mana 3 health heal that spawns you yet another token that can get buffed really easily, fighting for board control vs aggro isn't impossible now.
By the time they finally do break through your minions, its mid to late game now and you have your Lightbomb, or Aucheni + CoH, or Holy Nova (Also remember Velens Chosen gives spell power so 3 damage Novas) to clear board and from there, they have already ran out of steam and are top decking. The build is so efficient on cards, generally killing 2-4 of their minions with 1 of yours.
And that was just a small portion of the cards you have, don't forget you still have Shadow Madness, Cabal, SW:P/D, Smite and Shrinkmeister that all help in the early game. It's not a standard control deck, it plays out so much faster.
Possible Substitutions :
If the meta does turn out to be a little slower than we are expecting, several of these cards can be changed out for some bigger late game minions.
Kezan Mystic : Could be very useful vs Hunter, and if Mage sees a massive comeback, Pally secrets generally aren't too hard to deal with and offer little threat.
Cairne Bloodhoof : Sticky threat, can benefit from heals and hp buffs.
Ysera : Usually a staple of the control priest, would fit well in this deck, but at the moment I think it will just be too slow.
Sludge Belchers : This deck lacks taunts, which I don't see as a huge issue due to the mass AoE's and the buffs/heals. Your opponent will have a hard enough time trying to wrestle board control from you to even go face. If you feel you need them, take out the Mass Dispels.
Defender of Argus / Sunfury Protector : When using the buffs like Velen's Chosen, you could pair these well to keep you opponent attacking these high health targets or to force them to kill your Dark Cultist for the buff, all while you keep buffing Lightwardens and such.
Be sure to +1 if you like and leave a comment or suggestion.
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Fantastic deck! Thank you very much for sharing! I've been playing it for a few days, and I really like your card choices. Shrinkmeister and the early game are my only points of concern. Sometimes Shrinkmeister combos with Shadow Word: Pain or Cabal Shadowpriest, and that's cool. Usually, he sits in my early hands, and doesn't contribute much. Sometimes I have a solid creature out and want to drop the Shrinkmeister before I bang into an enemy minion to reduce damage, but those situations don't happen all that often. Usually heal is enough to ensure my solid minions survive their combats. I can't help but think I might be better off cutting the shrinks for some guilt-free early plays. Maybe another Zombie Chow (who I find to be wonderful)?
I'm fairly certain that in almost all cases it's better for you to play a 3/2 and reduce damage by 2 when you trade than to trade and then heal your creature for 2. Board presence/control is too important.
This deck is a control warrior's nightmare unless we can draw weapons and removal turns 1-5. Annoying creation considering its all I see on the ladder. Fuck you man.
I've been playing nothing but this deck from Rank 19, heading toward legendary. I don't feel defenseless, this is a control priest with strong early game options. I think you might just not be looking at the deck and perhaps haven't read the write up above?
Auchenai + circle is something I barely use in play since it requires 2 specific cards that you don't always get. And even then, by turn 4 I don't really want to nuke my own board for 4 damage. So I don't think you're playing the deck properly if you're totally depending on a board wipe that harms your own creatures in order to win.
Shrinkmeister has synergy with multiple elements within the deck. Again I think you might just not be familiar with how it works. By being able to lower the attack rating of a creature you can take it via Cabal Shadow Priest or Shadow Madness. You can create better trades that can actually keep your creatures alive while at the same time put out 3/2 on the board.
Vol'jin is something powerful within the deck, but it's not the key legendary as the write up explains. Again you have to read it to get a better idea on how the deck works.
Dude... are you sure you meant to comment on THIS deck? Your comments don't even really apply.
For one, this is probably the ONLY priest deck where Auchenai + CoH is actually a bad combo. Usually CoH is better used as a heal. And as for Shrinkmeister, you obviously didn't read the post. If your saving him forever, your doing it wrong. Hes there when you can make nice combos, but if your holding onto him and losing board control, play him!
I really think your just one of those people commenting on a deck LIKE you actually play it, when really your just looking at the deck list.
I've learnt through the hard way that keeping shrinkmeister when you're behind will almost cost you the game. If you start first, opponent doesn't plays 1-drop you're better off dropping shrinkmeister for board control because if they want they'll need to coin out a removal plus play a minion.
I'm sure that as the meta settles in the coming weeks, the deck will see alterations.
Thanks for sharing. I found that Velen works really well in this deck as well! Velen + Light of the Naaru can heal 6 hp, if you have Auchenai Soulpriest, you can deal 6dmg + 1 Lightwarden, for only 1 crystal cost, which is soooooo OP!! Also, if there is a +1 spell dmg on the board, Light of Narru can deal 8 dmg! (but heal 6 hp only)
Let me know what you guys think!
He works pretty well. If I was going to use him I would change alot more, but hes fun to play around with.
I really like this deck but find it to be very hard to pull off with so many agro decks in the 20-10 ranks currently. If you get the mulligan combos mentioned above then it should be easier but this relies on rng quite a lot. I am certainly missing the wild pyro crowd control of pre gvg priest. I have been quite unlucky with rng but over 4-5 games lost due to early aggro and board flooding I think its fair to say more early game aoe is required. The deck is great when given a bit of space though. My highlight has been my opponent using 5 spells with troggzor on board to which he conceded instantly.
Made this variant. Been working better for my play style than the one you have. But thanks!
Ok, i advice you to unlock Naxx.
Only thing I'd get out of it would be Dark Cultist
Playing the exact same deck but with some ajustments, changed Zombie Chow for Recombobulator and both Defender of Argus for two Gilblin Stalker and it's doing wonders! Gave me early game, early board control and some combos, they have to kill the Dark Cultist at turn 3, buffing Gilblin, or he surely sits quietly waiting for my Velen's Chosen also at turn 3 if i choose to do so, thought of using 2 Shade of Naxxramas instead, but i don't know, i'll try it later and give a feedback soon. Oh, and also changed Holy Smite for another Cabal Shadow Priest to dice up the chances with Recombobulator and give me more board control...Stay sharp guys! =)
Police Officer: Sir, are you classified as human?
Negative, I am a meat popsicle. (Korben Dallas)
I've come to believe that weapons are the bane of this deck. I think that's the main problem I have right now progressing toward legendary. Paladins, warriors, rogues they all have weapons to deal with your minions (even buffed up) and it seems like there needs to be a way to deal with them in this deck. I can't remove or deal with them right now and it's proving to be the deciding factor in losing or winning games.
You really got legend with it ? Do velen's chosen x2 + light of naaru x2 meanwhile having greedy stuff like 2 arguses and a lightbomb actualy carry you that well? Like , not only turn 3 blademaster+circle is a 80% winrate now, but also just Velen's chosen? Well, if that's true, I can only be happy about such a glorious state for priest.
Thanks for this deck. Priest is my main and I had a very similar deck except for Sylvannas and Lightbomb. Most of the time my cleric dies on turn 2 and somehow every minion I put on the board gets cleared 1 for 1. I'll craft Sylvannas and add Lightbomb tonight. My games are usually quite 1-sided like when I'm up, it's usually clear but when I'm behind, even with control mid-range cards coming into play, I can't seem to catch up.
Instead of Holy Smite, any other 1 drop cards worth including?
Dont play Cleric in the early game if you know its going to be killed.. its too risky if you are up against someone you know will mulligan for a 3 dmg removal :)
Well, I avoided cleric on turn 1 against warriors. The warlocks I met always had soulfire somehow. My mulligan is nowhere near average so I think that's the main cause of me losing games really quickly. I had to add in a Sludge Belcher too.
Thanks for the input. (I'm also an advocate for the use Mind Control Tech) such an underused card at the moment, when I'm sure it could get used in almost every game right now.
I'm about to add this to the main guide, but I've been playing with Jeeves instead of MC my past 10-15 games and have gotten some decent results. It increases your draw engines to 3 total cards, which pretty much ensures by the time you hit turn 6+ you've drawn a draw engine. Downside is Jeeves doesn't synergize as well, but has still been useful for me.