Priest of the Dragonlord - Now 100% Less Theore...
- Last updated Apr 27, 2016 (Old Gods)
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Wild
- 21 Minions
- 9 Spells
- Deck Type: Ranked Deck
- Deck Archetype: Dragon Priest
- Crafting Cost: 8400
- Dust Needed: Loading Collection
- Created: 4/13/2016 (Explorers)
- Hammurabi1337
- Registered User
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- 11
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- 81
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Battle Tag:
Hammurabi#1583
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Region:
US
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Total Deck Rating
106
"Anduin... clearly you are intended for something greater. Some powers are best left buried... unless you are one of the chosen few who can handle them with a clear mind... but you're one of them, aren't you? Yes, of course you are..."
Anduin's new master calls from the spoiler list. Will you answer his call to arms?
Dragon Priest is an interesting deck. Since TGT it has consistently sat somewhere in the second or third tier of competitive decks, never really becoming irrelevant but always outshined by Patron Warrior, or Tempo Mage, or Renolock or Secret Paladin. With the release of the Standard format, this is going to change.
Every competitive deck archetype is taking a sizable hit when Naxx and GvG rotate out, except Dragons. Every class is taking a sizable hit except for Priest, who only lose Dark Cultist, Velen's Chosen and Lightbomb, which were nice to run but by no means essential.
Put Crackle-less Face Shamans in their place.
This list will be updated as more cards are revealed and an extensive guide will be written and updated as Standard rolls out and the new meta solidifies. In the mean time I'll be active in the comments and be making notes of synergies I'm considering. Feedback (especially from other Dragon Priest veterans) is much appreciated.
Current thoughts:
I really, really want Scaled Nightmare to work but it probably isn't going to work. A shame, really. And this deck doesn't have space for Inner Fire.
Ancient Harbinger and either Twilight Guardian or Cyclopian Horror on a 10-mana turn seems pretty solid. 12 health total to deal with through trades or removal spells and if Harbinger survives you have the 10 mana to immediately drop what it pulls. If they commit to killing that Harbinger they have that much less to deal with another Legendary out of your hand the following turn.
The third and final Dragon of the expansion, Midnight Drake, is a rough fit for this deck. The biggest assist from this last set of reveals is Cyclopian Horror, which will help against aggro.
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FRONT PAGE HYPE
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The new cards are out and so are a good number of cards from the old list! This variant has gone undefeated through all of Rank 6 and 5, still going strong. Note that Forbidden Shaping has been dropped not because of its own merit but because there just isn't space at the moment. Maybe if the aggro shaman decks die off it will replace Cyclopian Horror.
N'zoth seems too slow, and Deathwing might also be too slow for too little. Chromaggus might be a better fit somewhere so deathwing is better more often, and maybe replace nzoth with the other deathwing. Dragonlord is weak to hex and polymorph like crazy but he will clear the way for ysera, deathwing and chromaggus against other classes if they dont silence him. I feel Forbidden Shaping is a one of, and only because its fun and really just hurts the deck tbh. Also museum curator could get a value deathrattle but another holy nova is almost a must i think. Maybe a sunfury to give taunt early or late. Wonder who the Dragons vs Cthun favors
Also "Every class is taking a sizable hit except for Priest, who only lose Dark Cultist, Velen's Chosen and Lightbomb" Lmao best quote
Why would you put Malygos in a deck that only has a single spell that does magic damage (the one copy of Holy Nova)? That's a severe waste of space and if you draw it without Dragonlord's deathrattle going off, you have a dead card in your hand that you'll never want to play unless it's the only card you have and you happen to have 9 mana sitting around.
I suppose you could "threaten" to burst finish with it, but anyone with decent knowledge of how a dragon priest works knows that it's going to have too many minions in it to fit in very many spells without removing vital removal spells like Entomb or Shadow Words.
Chromaggus actually has value on its own with this deck and poses a serious threat even when played from hand instead of from the deathrattle. Plus it could be combo'ed with Power Word Shields on the off chance you haven't used them yet, no Emperor mechanics necessary.
Yeah I suppose you could cut a Museum Curator or both (since you have Forbidden Shaping in the deck, it's not super necessary to get curve filling cards from Museum Curator, plus the dragon priest decklist is known for curving out really nicely with big, healthy dragons). But I still think it'd be tough to hold on to 5 drop spells that are probably going to be way more valuable as removal/card draw than as a burst finisher for a mechanic that's probably not going to go off.
As people get more familiar with playing against a decklist like this, they're going to be very aware of the consequences of not having an answer for Dragonlord should the game carry on that far (which it likely will as a Priest is pretty good at living, especially hiding behind a slew of big taunts). You either have a Polymorph/Hex for Dragonlord or he essentially just sets a limit on the number of turns left for you in the game. Silencing him and killing him doesn't feel good unless you can do it relatively easily (Paladin comes to mind with Equality, Hunter with Hunter's Mark) and if you DON'T kill him, you're only going to live a couple more rounds so hopefully you're within range of finishing your opponent. Malygos just seems unnecessary and clunky to me, it sacrifices the integrity of the other cards for a burst finish that'll almost never happen.
After some thought about this deck, I got this:
I took off 1 Forbidden Shaping, because it seemed a waste to have 2 of those, since you'll probably want to use it in the early game or at turn 8 or 10, 2x Museum Curator because you won't get much value from it, 1x Cyclopian Horror because it won't work as well as Twilight Guardian, and there are already two 4 mana cost taunts, the Ancient Harbinger doesn't make much sense because you can get a better minion for the same mana cost, and Chillmaw because it doesn't have synergy with N'Zoth the Corruptor.
Instead of those, i added 1x Shifting Shade and Sylvanas Windrunner, wich fit well in the deck and synergyse with N'Zoth the Corruptor, 1x Earthen Ring Farseer because i felt 1 more 3 mana cost minion was needed, and heals for 3, 2x Dragonkin Sorcerer because it's a solid 4 mana cost Dragon, and can still get buffed by Power Word: Shield, and Confessor Paletress because it's the best 7 mana cost minion you can add now.
Why doesn't Chillmaw have synergy with N'Zoth?
It's Deathrattle will deal 3 damage to all minions, meaning it will kill Shifting Shade, and deal 3 damage to Sylvanas Windrunner. I don't think it fits if N'Zoth the Corruptor is in the deck.
The card nerf list is out!
The two major ones we were looking for were Big Game Hunter and Ironbeak Owl and Blizzard delivered. They're still a consideration but won't be run at nearly the rate they are now.
That deck seems fun but thats all it is. With 2 light bombs gone, you absolutely need 2 entombs and 2 shadow word deaths, in any priest deck in standard. With only 1 entomb u have absolutely no removal, you need 1 more entomb and 2x swd for this to be even close to playable i think
Ancient Harbringer doesn't make sense. Priest games are always slow, and a lot of times come close to fatigue. Chillmaw also doesn't make sense, because of N'Zoth. Your opponent can just kill Chillmaw and kill your two Shifting Shades. I think Sylvanas would be better. I also don't like Forbidden Shaping in this deck. Dragon Priest decks have never had trouble filling out their curve. I guess 1 copy would be okay. You're also not running Shadow Word: Death which is really bad.
Forbidden Shaping is amazingly flexible. Unless you curve out perfectly every Priest deck has these weird turns where you heal and pass, either on turn 2 where the heal does nothing or later where you waste like three mana. Shaping fixes that on any turn and unlike most low-cost cards it's a decent to good topdeck in topdeck battles. A random 6 or 7 is way better than, say, a Zombie Chow and pass.
There are some mana curve where Forbidden Shaping is just amazing, like 1 drop. WIth almost no drawback and help stablize tempo early. And doesn't end up too shitty even if drawn late. Which is important for Priest, as they are the only class that can have 10 cards in hand and 0 playable previous to this expansion. So a card that can be played regardless of condition is very good, it can be used for tempo against aggro and value against control.
can you not read lol it sumom a minion equal to how much mana you spent very good in late game
"ONLY" Lose Lightbomb & Velens?? Velens....ok maybbbeeee. Extremely great card helping longevity of minions & also nova/lightbomb damage in some situations. But Lightbomb?? We NEED that. I'm sorry. I've been playing dragon priest ever since even before it was "cool." Unless they replace it, there's no reason to even bother with dragon priest in standard.
Ok, maybe i'm going overboard a bit. There is auchenai/CoH, but that's 2 extra cards & combo cards at that. Theorycraft is great and all, but this isn't gonna work. Plain and simple.
It looks great if you're not contested at all but this is reality here.
Need mass removal? There's always Deathwing.
My biggest issue with the deck is you have almost enough minions with dragon synergy as you have actual dragons. This and N'Zoth, you're loaded with tricks that will rarely trigger. Lose the Deathrattle synergy, or lose the dragon synergy, don't try to pull off both.
There are nine dragons here, which is the number most dragon decks aim for. With nine available you have a very good chance of opening the game with one in hand, even without a full mulligan dump.
(I just consolidated all my thoughts into one comment)
I looked at this deck and it immediately felt off to me. The first and obvious reason is that the curve is way too high, there has been only a few decks in the history of the game that could run eleven cards 5+ Mana. The current iteration of Dragon Priest actually runs twelve 5+ Mana cards, but for much better reason and in a more balanced way. So lets compare the 5+ Mana cards in each deck.
Current Dragon Priest:
2x Azure Drake, 2x Blackwing Corruptor, 2x Holy Nova
1x Cabal Shadow Priest, 1x Entomb, 1x, Lightbomb
1x Chillmaw, 1x Dr. Boom, 1x Ysera
Dragonlord Priest:
2x Azure Drake, 2x Blackwing Corruptor, 1x Holy Nova
1x Ancient Harbinger, 1x Entomb
1x Chillmaw, 1x Ysera, 1x Deathwing, Dragonlord, 1x N’Zoth the Corruptor
What is different between these two? The current Dragon Priest has more swing cards, cards that impact the board immediately, better cards on curve, and less conditions to be met. The current Dragon Priest is also able to fight for the board better in the early game and thus has more room to run higher cost cards. Speaking of swing cards, the current Dragon Priest runs 3x board clears (not including Chillmaw), and two single target removals.
The second thing that stood out to me is that this deck just isn’t able hold off in the early game and could easily lose the board. Essentially for two reasons, the loss of Velen’s Chosen, and the lack of one more impactful minion in the 2-4 slots. These problems are somewhat one in the same, as Velen’s Chosen essentially acted as that strong minion in the 2-4 slot. The Dragon Priests plan was to play high health minions early and then to buff them with Velen’s to trade incredibly efficiently. There are essentially no good neutral options in these slots anymore. A Dark Cultist or Piloted Shredder could have served very well here, but its not an option. You could try to play a Wild Pyromancer as Priest often does, but as we move toward a less token based game with the removal of Muster for Battle this doesn’t feel that great either.
What took me longer to realize is how suboptimal you have to try to make the deck to have the N’Zoth dream come to fruition in any real capacity. First off you can try to run Shifting Shade, but I think that these is terrible for two reasons. First off, it is a terrible tempo play, a 4 drop that can easily be killed by a 2 drop, and without a Deathrattle that will have an immediate impact is just not good in a deck that needs the tempo. Second off it has a horrible anti-synergy with Chillmaw. If you dropped N’Zoth, pulled out two Shifting Shades and Chillmaw and then the Chillmaw died and its Deathrattle activated you would feel pretty bad. In the same vain you have to run Museum Curator, which is also a terrible tempo play, especially without the chance to buff with Velen’s. What is less obvious about it is that there is nothing that feels good to get from Curator in standard with this deck. First off, the number three top cards you would want to get are all gone (Dark Cultist, Piloted Shredder, Sludge Belcher), and second off the other ones are either high costed (like Sylvanas, Chillmaw, etc.) or die to Chillmaw’s effect. The best cards you could really get from it for tempo are like Spawn of N’Zoth (terrible), Infested Tauren (terrible tempo play, good with N’Zoth, terrible anti-synergy with Chillmaw) or Shifting Shade.
With all of that said, I don’t think that there is really a much better option to try to make this N’Zoth/Dragonlord deck work. I think there may be an argument for removing Chillmaw and adding in like Infested Tauren’s, but then the Dragonlord feels a lot worse. I look at the current Dragon Priest deck and it feels so right, like Blizzard knew exactly what that deck was supposed to look like and how it was going to function, and this just feels wrong. Why is Shifting Shade not a 3 / 4 or even a 3 / 5 when Chillmaw and Excavated Evil are in the game? Where is a good priest specific 2 drop? How about a 3 mana dragon with Deathrattle?
Here is my go at it:
http://www.hearthpwn.com/decks/477161-nzoth-dragonlord
Wow, I just wanted to say that this is the most detailed, in-depth and well-written analysis I've ever read on this forum. The logic is so clear it's easily a grade-A academic paper. Great analysis, great work!
Awww, thanks :)
the meta is changing and this deck is meant for standard not wild