Hearthpwn

Played over 60 games with your Shadow/Fatigue deck in this season before the TGT release, topping out at Rank 7. I agree that the meta is not favorable for this deck, but it sure is fun when it works! Like most "boutique" decks, you need to make consistent, optimal plays to stand a chance against the onslaught of OP netdecks. As you climb, this becomes more and more difficult when your opponents carefully play around your board flips, as well as mitigating tempo swings from Shadow Words.

Still, this deck is a blast, and I'm really looking forward to seeing what you come up with when the Inspire mechanic goes live.

I've found that this deck is a bit harder to play this season, so I made a couple of tweaks that have been helping me quite a bit. I've swapped the Spellbreaker and Big Game Hunter for Mindblast and Prophet Velen. It doesn't sound like much, but if you save them both for the later game play, they can either score you the kill, or save you from a tricky spot. Prophet Velen combined with Shadowform is game changing. 

So here's the version I'm running now.

Notable changes:

• Shrinkmeister is like a Swiss Army Knife for priest. Any deck that runs Shadow Word: Pain, Shadow Madness, or Cabal Shadow Priest should consider running at least one. And most importantly, it gives you more ways to deal with Ysera
• Bloodmage Thalnos gives you an edge over Patron Warrior by allowing you to combo and clear the board with Holy Nova. It also gives the deck something that it otherwise does not have: card draw.
• Resurrect is insane value if you get it in your opening hand. Play your Deathlord turn 3, watch your opponent pour tons of resources into getting rid of it, spin up another one turn 4/5, watch your opponent pour even more resources into it...suddenly, you've stalled him/her long enough to get to turn 6, when you can Lightbomb the whole board, including the minions that got yanked out by the deathrattle.
• I'm going up against tons of mages and warlocks right now, so I'm not sure if Harrison Jones is necessary.
• Unlike most priest decks, Vol'jin cannot be replaced. He provides a huge, unique tech that allows you to remove any minion (including 4-Attack ones) in a number of turn 10 combos.

Definitely seems like a viable substitute. Especially because I keep getting the damn ooze from Resurrect. Also, most decks (other than druid) don't run any spells that deal exactly 4 direct targeted damage, so it's not as if the loss of that extra hit point will make a huge difference in trades. But that deathrattle could end up being disasterous against Patron Warrior.

Current deck stats: http://hearthstats.net/decks/shadowgrinder?locale=en

Never mulligan Lightbomb. Ever. And despite the deck name, it's totally fine to mulligan Shadowform. You don't want to go Shadowform until you've grinded away lots of their resources, anyway.

These are the changes I'm currently using:

• -1 Recombobulator – Great card, but feels like a gimmick in this deck. Too much RNG for it to be reliable.
• -1 Doomsayer – Maybe I'm just having bad luck, but it's very difficult for me to get value out of Doomsayer. My opponents almost always have a way to remove it or silence it without giving up any tempo. I do like having one though, because it really slows down face hunter and zoo if I get it in my opening hand.
• +1 Resurrect – 4 times out of 5, this will resummon a taunt, much to your opponent's dismay. And if that taunt happens to be Deathlord, then when it dies and summons a minion for your opponent, that just becomes pure value for your Lightbomb.
• +1 Bloodmage Thalnos – Stays dead in your hand until you need that extra boost for your Holy Nova or Lightbomb. Since making this change, my winrate against Patron warrior has really improved.

After looking at some other decklists on here, I'm considering the following changes:

• -1 Holy Smite – Cute, but doesn't win games.
• +1 Mind Control – More firepower against control decks, wallet decks, and handlock. I currently have a 0% winrate in matches where Ysera drops without me having Vol'jin in my hand. I need another way out.
• -1 Sludge Belcher, +1 Abomination – More firepower against aggro decks, and built-in AoE enables full board clears with Lightbomb against decks with fat minions (control priest, taunt and combo druid). I usually have minimal board presence anyway, so the AoE won't cause much tempo loss.

Agreed, I have lost a lot of games to Ysera. Vol'jin is the only way to deal with it without Mind Control.

Handlock is difficult because you often have tons of options for removal, and using the wrong one even once can cost you the game. Tips for Handlock with this deck:

• Wait for your Deathlord to die before playing your Lightbomb. You need to remove at least 2 giants with it.
• Be VERY conservative with your Shadow Word: Pains in case your Deathlord pulls Lord Jaraxxus out onto the battlefield.

As for Mech Mage...I haven't had any issues crushing them. As long as you draw a few taunts by turn 5, you should be fine.

Since you lose the ability to heal your face every turn, is there room for Lightwell in this deck? Also, Resurrect sounds like a blast in this deck. "2 Mana, Summon a random minion with taunt. Or a Doomsayer."

So I've been playing this deck all night long, it's extremely fun! Some quick notes:

• Lightwell does not feel like a good option. Between the Antique Healbots, Holy Fires, and Holy Novas, this deck actually has plenty of healing already.
• Doomsayer is extremely difficult to play. 9 times out of 10, my opponent finds a way to remove it before it can proc. But, it is very nice for playing on an empty board right before a huge turn to keep your opponent from playing any minions, so I kept one, and swapped out the other for a Bloodmage Thalnos. Absolutely, highly-recommend this substitution. If you can't seem to draw Lightbomb, Bloodmage Thalnos + Holy Nova is the only way you'll have even a chance against Patron warrior.
• Resurrect is incredible. Since the deck is so lightweight on minions, it's easy to predict what you are going to get from it, and most of the time, it's going to be either a Sludge Belcher or Deathlord.
• Don't try to play your Shadowform as soon as possible. Unless you've been dealt no other options, wait until at least turn 5 so that you can combo into Mind Spike. Same goes for playing your second Shadowform; you should try to wait until at least turn 7 so you can Mind Spike + Shadowform + Mind Shatter in one turn.

this is a really fun deck to play.

Particularly playing voljin on turn 7 with shadow form active.    Turns an opponents big card into dust....  I always get a chuckle from that move

Only changes i've made (because i don't have the cards), is NO: recom, doomsayer, or BGH.  Instead i added 2 clerics and 2 divine spirit.

This is probably my single favourite deck I've found on this site. Its a joy to play and the experience is pretty much unique. I love going into every single game with the expectation that I can answer every single problem a deck throws at me. I normally don't post on much of anything; but I found this to be so exceptionally enjoyable that i had to give kudos to you nosebleed7.

Best of luck to anyone else climbing ladder with shadow priest shenanigans. 

I've been experimenting with shadowform since i saw it for the first time, seems like it finally works for me. This archetype always needed a card like antique healbot and more heavy mass removal, now with lightbomb, AH and voljin it has it's shines.

I've added 2 coldlight oracles for the draw. Since this deck usually goes to fatigue, this is a win-win situation. There are of course matchups where you dont want to give your opponent more fuel (mech mage, face hunter etc.), but then you can just save it in hand until you gain game/tempo control or try to use it as a last line of defence and hope for topdeck. This is a core, top, most important change for me, until i did it i had lost like 2 ranks.

I also added Emperor Thaurisan, a sick card considering you keep a steady hand most of the time. Something like loatheb but better, especially if you manage to polay it on a taunted board. In worst case, your opponent wastes his turn to remove it.

Removed holy smite, one SW:P and one Cabal. All of them too situational if you ask me and you REALLY need some card draw engine.

Everything else unchanged, works great for me. Not a top consistent deck (i hang around rank 9/10), but super fun and finally something that makes good use of shadowform!

I've been playing this deck for a few days now.  Very fun, but get's crushed if opponent plays Ysera.  I'm going to try adding two Shrinkmeister to combo with Shadow Word: Pain and Cabal Shadow Priest.

Congratulations on this list ! It's a very fun deck. One of the funniest deck I ever played with mill rogue maybe. Every game look like a challenge but almost every game look like a game you can win. The only drawback (but I don't mind) is that games are longer than usual.

Anyway, did you think about Alexstraza ? There are a lot of games where your life become low or your opponent's life staying at 30 in the late game.

This deck needs Harrison Jones if you're facing a lot of warrior.

Curious if you're planning on adding any BRM cards (i.e. Emperor & Resurrect) to this?

I love the deck but I simply hate the deathlords.  I switched the 2 for a wild pyro and a zombie chow, I' m having fun so far. I don' t feel experimented enough with it to play ranked though.  So far no games lost against face hunters, druids or mech mages.

I have unfortunately had the Deathlords severely backfire on me early  a few times.  They are awful to use with Druids probably more so than any other class.

I've also had Hunters magically manage to always have a hunters mark or a wolf rider/kill command combo to pop them early too.  Overall though I think they -usually- help more than they hinder.

Oh, Priests can be bad to use them on too, SW:P ruining days heh.

Thank you so much for this deck.  I prefer priest over anything else just cause we are so the underdog.  I just shoved a face hunter back into himself and that was sooooo satisfying.  Thanks!

Sounds like someones just missing 3 cards :-)

The deck revolves around shadowform. To remove it would be basically making this a completely different type of deck and a different play style.