Spell Priest
- Last updated Aug 8, 2016 (Old Gods)
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Wild
- 3 Minions
- 27 Spells
- Deck Type: None
- Deck Archetype: Control Priest
- Crafting Cost: 4360
- Dust Needed: Loading Collection
- Created: 8/7/2016 (Old Gods)
- BinxyPrime
- Registered User
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- 3
- 9
- 11
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Battle Tag:
N/A
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Region:
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Total Deck Rating
163
**Introduction**
After the latest card announcements I had basically given up on priest and swapped to warrior, then last night I couldnt sleep and started watching random hearthstone youtube videos. I stumbled across a deck playing 30 spells for priest only near rank 4 and he was winning his games pretty convincingly.
Using his list as a starting point I decided to make a deck to troll low ranked players with while I climb towards rank 5.
Something miraculous happened though, the deck was actually good, a few tweeks later I am currently something like 9 and 0 with the deck and only a siingle one of those games were close. I've completely dominated druids, other priests, dragon warrior, cthun warrior, and a hunter.
The sample size and the ranks the decks were played in do leave something to be desired but the deck is really fun to play and I honestly believe it could be the best priest deck at the moment.
**Problems with Standard Priest**
The problem with priest has always been that all of their minions suck and all of their spells are situational. This creates a situation where you don't want to draw minions early game but instead want to draw the correct types of removal for the board state. Here is the idea curve for standard control priest.
1 -> pass, 2 -> SW:P, 3 -> SW:P, Arch + Circle, Death, Entomb, more AOE, ?, somehow win.
The problem is, if you drew too many minions and your opponent (who, lets be honest, has tempo and more efficient minions) can deal with them you can never hero power and you will eventually miss a removal turn and you lose.
Any active priest player can tell you that you don't get this kind of a curve often but those games feel completely in your control at all times and are really fun for you, and probably extremely frustrating for the other player.
**How this deck is different**
Going against common logic this priest deck with almost no minions is actually MORE consistent than a standard priest deck at living to later turns where priests actually have powerful options.
The deck doubles down on removal spells, You run duplicates of Holy Smite, SW:P, SW:D, Shadow Madness, Excavated Evil, Holy Fire, and Entomb. You also play duplicate copies of mind vision and thought steal which often give you more removal spells and weapons.
This set up has carried me through the early game vs every single deck I've played, including aggressive Dragon Warrior variants. Late game you use Yogg-Saron and your 2 copies of Mind Control + Golden Monkey to win games.
**The Deck List and Card Choice explanations**
*Forbidden Shaping* - The first question most people will ask is, why only a single copy? The answer is, I only own 1 and the only cards I would consider cutting from this deck are flash heals and Justicar which I like for their ability to keep me alive vs Hunter, if you don't care about hunter and tempo mage match ups and the occasional agro paladin, cutting Justicar for Forbidden Shaping is probably a reasonable decision.
*Flash Heal* - Its a cheap spell for yogg and it helps keep you alive to find answers vs rush down and also allows you to make better use of weapons that you copy with thoughtsteal or Mind Vision.
*Holy Smite* - MVP, this card has done so much work for me along side pyromancer in standard priest that it was a no brainer here. All you care about early game is staying alive, this makes turn 6 excavated evil way stronger vs a lot of decks with 4 attack 4 health minions and it also gives you an edge vs Zoo and Hunter early on, its a really nice answer to huffer or Elek and if you aren't using this in your other priest decks I urge you to give it a try.
*Mind Vision* - Initially I put it in as a joke, but it is a cheap spell for yogg and its a good turn 1, its really nice vs a lot of decks, Warrior often mulligans for FWA but any of their removals except shield slam are really strong and its always great vs druid. It probably needs more testing but I've really liked it.
*Convert* - This card was in the 30 spell deck that inspired this so I decided to use try it. Nothing is more satisfying on turn 10 than using 2 converts on a grom and then entombing it. This combo also works on Sylvanas, Cairne, Ragnaros. This card which I anticipated to be one of the weakest in the deck is actually performing amazingly, vs Druid this almost always reads 2 mana add a 5/10 taunt to your hand.
*SW:P* - Surviving early game is all you need, if you draw this late game you can transform it with Elise into a legendary.
*SW:D* - This is the card that creates tempo for you in the late game, I try to destroy minions using other removal options if possible so I can play Death and a converted minion on the same turn. In a bind it can be used on 4 mana 7/7 creatures.
*Thoughtsteal* - You don't play minions, thus the tempo loss of this card never comes into play, just play it on turns that the enemy has an empty board or you have nothing else. This card often gives some good removal and creatures that you need in control match ups, vs Agro it can give you some cards to contest the board in the mid game.
*Shadow Madness* - Often destroys 2 minions, I'm more than happy to run a 3/3 into a 3/5 and holy nova the 3/5 and some other stuff later on though. It helps weaken opponents board state early game.
*Excavated Evil* - Board Clear, you really need this.
*Holy Nova* - Why run this over someting like circle and embrace the shadows? The simple answer is card advantage, this deck actually has single target removal so you don't need to take as much face damage waiting for high damage AOE, just kill what you can when you can.
*Entomb* - Stops deathrattles, in a pinch can remove buffed minions, often gives you some late game minions to use in control match ups, pretty bad vs aggro decks but is still pretty decent vs mid range. Probably the best card priest has even though this is normally such a huge tempo loss.
*Holy Fire* - This card is awful... in standard priest. But in this deck it's actually super strong. Its single target removal and helps you stay alive vs flood decks, I often use this on 3/3s vs agro or on naked Sylvanas' and such in other match ups.
*Mind Control* - While I've been generally lucky in my games to not draw this early I think its a really powerful card in the late late game. Once again this deck has so much more removal than a normal priest that its okay to wwait for them to play an 8 drop, its not like standard priest where having an extra card in your hand that you cant use means you lost. Although I've also used it to steal 9/9s from dragon warriors.
This deck runs 3 minions, 2 of which are optional.
*Elise* - This card is what makes the deck viable, she IS your game-plan vs aggro, you remove minions until a turn where you can clear the board and monkey and then you win the game for free. In control match ups it puts you 1 further away for fatigue and turns all those useless Shadow Madness spells into powerful cards that you can drop turn after turn.
*Justicar Trueheart* - Because you run so few minions your opponents are very likely to have removal for your minions, thats why Justicar Trueheart is such a great fit, even if he dies for free he still lets you outlast other decks so much easier. Good replacements could be Emperor or another copy of Forbidden Shaping.
*Yogg-Saron* - we play 27 spells in this deck, Yogg-Saron can win any game. I tend to play Yogg vs mid range decks that are outdrawing me, some games your removals only go 1 for 1 and your opponent has drawn a lot of cards, the average Yogg in this deck on turn 10 is going to be casting 12-13 spells, really great odds that you will draw or generate some cards and clear a board. While I do think this deck would function wwithout him I think that he is a big part of what makes this deck fun. He provides almost all of the decks high moments and is a really powerful comeback mechanic.
**Game plan & Win Conditions**
Remove threats as efficiently as possible while saving the correct removal for the corresponding threats, vs aggro you want to either convert some medium sized minions and protect them OR you want to make it to monkey and blow them out wwith legendaries and a 6/6 taunt. VS Control this deck has too many win conditions to count but the basic idea is to conserve single target removal and last until Mind Control turns or double convert entomb turns on a powerful minion and ride the efficiency of those minions to easy victories.
The toughest match up is OTK Warrior, the are 2 ways to win this match up. Convert of thougtsteal 3 copies of Shield Block or play a Yogg and hope he plays Freezing trap or Ice Block, kill the worgens then heal out of range of weapons.
**Conclusion**
I can't even begin to imagine how irritating this deck would be to play against. It can win games in completely 1 sided ways that don't feel fair. As a long time Priest player this makes me feel gooey inside. The only matches that have been even remotely close have been vs NZoth Priest and Ramp Druid, Ramp Druid always feels like I am losing the whole time but then somehow I win in a very convincing way.
Would love to hear your feedback!
**Change Log**
-1 Mind Control, -1 Shadow Madness, -2 Mind Vision
+2 Archenai, +2 Circle
I applaud the effort and deck ingenuity but this deck is beyond bad. Sure, you can stave off the pressure for a while but you never take any initiative on the board. It works much better with double pyro, double doomsayer imo. Convert is just a god awful card, even though you may get good value with it sometimes in control matchups.
love the ida of the deck but i just got rekt by aviana druid cuz:
i dont have any minions but i will keep playing it its fun :D thanks alot man
Some guy played this deck against me yesterday. About halfway through i realized he didn't have minions. i played some mid size minions and he had to use his removal on them, then I just dropped large minions. I had a really bad draw and couldn't play anything until turn 6. Didn't seem to matter since he couldn't play anything either.
So this is an alternate version of Regiskillbin's no minion deck - http://www.hearthpwn.com/decks/576301-no-minion-thief-priest-decksperiment ? I like the addition of Yogg and perhaps even Justicar, but I don't think Elise is going to make a huge difference. I'd actually add an additional Forbidden Shaping in her place tbh. When Regiskillbin did his video he was getting crazy value with them at 8 mana.
Feels good to win my first game with this deck against a c'thun warrior even after yogs decided to pyro my face. Got fairly lucky tho. Mind controlled yog with careful planning. And thought steal sylvannas twice and entombed it when he played it.
Fun deck. I can't wait to try it out. I saw the video of Regiskillbin making and playing the Zero minion version of the deck. I thought it was going to be a disaster . . . but he kept winning, and doing so fairly decisively.
Anyway, I think adding in a few minions like you did is a good idea, but I think it would still be nice to identify Regis in your deck description since he's your source of inspiration.
I just played a match against N'Zoth Priest on ladder rank 10. From Turn 20-25 i was below 5 HP, surviving some critival Ragnabro hits and finally outlasted him because he burned his Elise some turns before. Hilarious match, thanks for the deck idea!! :)
Forbidden Shaping
dont listen to yogg hes trying to tarp u
Hm ok, well, this deck is quite fun to play but really NOT viable on ladder.
If you have continuous draw luck and dont face C'Thun Druids or Shamans and Hunters who draw well, then you have a chance to win, sure.
But come on, what are all you who are winning so often with this deck doing against hyper aggressive decks or decks who run several 4 attack minions?
Ah and then there is not even one real card draw mechanic in this deck. So if you dont draw your board clear or Yogg when you need him you lose pretty hard.
Nice idea, really, but without an enormous amount of continuous draw luck and opponents not playing cards on curve you mostly dont have a chance to win.
Tried this deck after playing Handlock from 20 to 12 but then soon realizing that it doesnt stand a chance against all the fast decks.
Didnt have any real hopes for this deck aside from simply having fun so its all good, but I really cannot understand how all you guys can win more than lose with it or even have easy wins.
Could win vs. a Zoo with perfec draws and good Mind Visions, but I dont believe theres a chance to win vs. Face Shamans or other fast decks that draw perfectly. You're always playing so much from behind and even when you remove their stuff you will take damage and get finished by doomhammer rockbiter combo.
Fun fact: Never drew Yogg, so maybe thats what you have to rely on to win?
EDIT: How often did you draw your Elise AND Map AND Monkey to get your legendaries WITHOUT any card draw? Your draw luck must be insane. :D
EDIT2: 3-7 now and beginning to simply give up. I have to repeat myself, you just cant win vs Shaman, except maybe when you have the perfect answers AND he draws really badly. This deck can win vs. slow decks but nearly never vs aggro...
EDIT3: Giving up now after 3-9. Either you had a really lucky streak with good matchups and perfects draws or I had the luckiest opponents ever and rly bad matchups. I consider myself not a bad player, this deck is just full of "draw your answer without any card draw or you just lose." And it's not even fun to play anymore, you just get steamrolled.
Maybe you are not playing on EU like I do? Rank 12-14 meta is full of shamans, other aggro decks and C'Thun Warriors. Awful meta btw.
This deck runs all the board clears available, I don't think you have to call it "perfect draw" since you will almost always draw them.
I added Bloodmage Thalnos for bigger board clears against aggro, and also Doomsaye, even if they use ressources to clear it, it gives a lot of tempo for you to control the game.
Shadow Madness is also a great asset against shaman and zoo.
Also you don't need "real" carddraw to cycle your deck since the game might go to fatigue against control warrior/C'thun warrior. This lets you win against them even when they have 60+ HP. Just get some cards from Thoughtsteal, Mind Vision, Entomb, Mind Control that will generate so much card advantage and threats for your ennemy.
This deck is not the most competitive but it has definitely got potential. I'm currently 15-8 with my version
I successfully climbed from 14 to 18 today while having loads of fun :D
Have to agree regaring limited viability on EU ladder, but there are a couple of things that help vs. Zoo and 4-attack heavy decks. I've added a Doomsayerand 2 Wild Pyromancers. The latter allow you to clear all those azure drakes and the holy fires help as well.
Regarding matchups, I see it this way:
I lost to Shaman every single time. Doomhammer [/card]or a lack of SW:D kills you right away if you don't get swarmed with [card]Flametongue Totems before turn 5. Against the control version the pressure gets too heavy if they start dropping huge minions every turn.
If you get the chance to play the monkey, you usually win anyway. Yogg and/or fatigue is the primary win condition IMO.
I agree with a lot of your points. Currently 0-5. such a cool idea but no idea how this guy went 9-0. and god forbid you have to go against yog hunter. The game takes 25 minutes and both of you skip so many turns because most the game all either of you has is a form of removal. it was miserable. And i ended up losing to my own Yogg fucking me over
Yea Yogg can be cruel sometimes. Especially when your opponent's Yogg wins him the game and then next game your Yogg kills you brutally... FeelsBadMan
Not for nothing, but I just milled a mill rogue with this deck so hard I think he cried. 10+ friend requests later bwahaha
Came up against this deck yesterday. I beat it playing as totem shaman but it had me quite worried towards the end and felt like I got a bit lucky.
I just won against control warrior thanks to the monkey, anyway I survived about 21 turns. Pls.
Pretty much steal the best and survive until Golden Monkey.
And I can agree with card draw but I don't have a problem with 4 attack minions. The only one I can recall seeing often is Azure Drake.. And that's it.
Agreed, I went 0-5 against the decks that this is supposedly favored against (Dragon Warrior). There aren't enough answers to all the threats they are dropping, and unless you get super lucky with Thoughsteals and Mind Vision, you are gonna get overrun. Wow, Thoughstole a Twilight Guardian with no dragon to activate it.
Amusingly, I got almost all of my wins back against this deck. The dead giveaway is Convert. Who really plays this card? Well, thanks for the free wins.
nice used yogg?