Hearthpwn

Versatility is key to a good strategy. This deck embodies this by having an outstanding early game, while still not sacrificing the late game.

While this initially started as a fun deck to try to get majordomo executus to be good, the framework in that deck turned out to be an incredibly powerful board control engine. Every time, it seemed that the majordomo would cost me upwards of 20 life to play. There may still be hope for him yet, but not in this shell. This priest's shell is all about taking board control early and never giving it up, all the while it will also be extracting value as we go. Let me cover the gameplan against rush decks:

Unlike many priest decks, this one starts straight out of the gate with minion after minion after minion starting from turn one. Zombie chow is an easy way to take out one or two early creatures, and if you're on the coin, both it and the cleric combine really well with velen's chosen on turn two. Most creatures that trade will give you a bonus, like a card, or some extra health on a minion. This snowballs very easily until we end up with a sunwalker or holy nova+a board of our own which is often too much for an aggro deck to handle. Basically, we are flooding the board with early creatures. Because we are a priest, if a minion gets to stick, it will spiral out of control. If they deal with the creature, we get a bonus and they're not hitting us and we have some good brick walls later on. Now to the long game:

The two top end legendaries generate a massive amount of value. Bringing back a sunwalker or even a piloted shredder or a cobra is a disaster for your opponent. Even the lowly loot hoarder is netting you cards in this deck. Thaurissan and Thoughsteal should generate enough mana and cards against the toughest control decks. Usually, thoughsteal is particularly good against these decks as well as they're prone to contain many powerful minions themselves. The removal package is the emperor cobra and basically your early minions and that one big game hunter. Emperor cobra is quite the card to resurrect or play a kel'thuzad next to, and it can wear that velen's chosen like a champ. If you have a dark cultist, after he dies you have a slightly smaller version of the 2/8 Maexxna. Plus he beats down for damage as well. Unlike the shadow words, this card is never dead in any matchup. This may not look like much, but I have found that you do not really need much more to deal with control decks. We draw a healthy amount of cards and can trade with our multitude of creatures. And all of this plays into our game plan pretty smoothly.

Finally, Patron warrior, oil rogue and hunter are still a thing, so we are playing two acidic oozes. They fill the curve and of all things, the weapons that those classes have are one of the few things that are really good at stopping this deck, because they get to deal with two threats and drop something of their own for two turns of mana generally. Plus, some of these use their weapon as part of a grander combo, which we do need to have a plan against. Only mage, druid and priest have no targets for this guy, but a 3/2 on turn two is still more than reasonable still.

The one card that is on the chopping block is the min control tech. It used to be a hate card against paladins, but I rarely see those pop up anymore, and I also think we do not need to have a dedicated card against them anymore. If you were to replace it, I would play an auchenai soulpriest, beecasue we can use another 4 in the deck, and it works reasonably well in our board control plan with your hero power.