Hearthpwn

Northshire Cleric x2 1-drop, very good at trading down vs. pirates plus can trade up with Velens. Essential for what this deck is trying to do. Can make your opponent play very awkwardly if you play it right as they are often bending over backwards to try and remove this card, often using resources inefficiently and allow you to seize the tempo. Can give you a crippling card advantage if combined with holy nova.

Potion of Madness x1 Fantastic card for this meta, so much value packed into 1 mana. Helps creates amazing trades which help you seize the tempo. Stealing your opponents Ship's Cannon and sending it into their Small Time Buccaneer while also developing your own minion is the best feeling ever. This card is great for filling out your curve. Versus control it's often correct to save it for their Brann so you can get double discover value on Netherspite/Drakonoid. Very solid card overall because its so versatile but putting two in your deck is going a bit TOO all out and anti-aggro IMO, so keep it to one copy.

Power Word: Shield x2 1 mana, +2 health (sooo good to land it on a taunt vs. aggro, try and plan your turns in advance to set this up) and cycle. This card pretty much goes in every priest deck ever because it's just that good. Fills out your curve and is perfect for a tempo deck such as this one, not much more to say here!

Twilight Whelp x2 Premier one drop. 1 mana 2/3 is very very reasonable in this meta. It's often correct to not play it on turn one or hold it back if you forsee you're going to be short on dragon activators in your upcoming turns, remember your deck only runs 8 Dragons so you should be constantly thinking if it is correct to play this card on any given turn. Great Velen target, a 4/7 will trade extremely favorably with any 2 or 3 drop in this meta!

Acidic Swamp Ooze x2 This card has never been better than it is right now! 61% of my games from Rank 5 to Legend were versus weapon classes. Just play 2! Kill those Arcanite reapers, War Axes, Death Bites, Spirit Claws and Truesilvers with glee. If you're ahead versus Pirate Warrior, it's often worthwhile to stop and think how you can possible lose the game, usually it will involve some nut draws like Reaper + Upgrade!, so in that case you might want to hold back the ooze instead of destroying his 3/1 fiery war axe right now. On turn 1 or two though destroying a war axe or rusty hook with ooze is still great though (especially since it debuffs buccaneer). Ooze also curves directly into Velens so there is synergy there as well.

Netherspite Historian x2 Great card, discover is so flexible. Dosent trade too well on its own but face decks will often have to respect it because of the threat of Velens or risk getting mega-punished so it saves you life in that way. Versus aggro take whatever fills out your curve/contests board/stops damage the most and vs control pick operative, nefarian, chromaggus to get the value train going. It's often correct to save this card for Brann. Versus midrange decks like the mirror or Dragon Warrior or Secret Paladin, heavily consider Deathwing if he is offered.

Wyrmrest Agent x2 TAUNT! Everyone knows that taunt is cheating in this meta and the more cheat cards you put into your deck the better. It's often correct to try and play towards combos such as Wyrmrest + Velens/Talonpriest to bamboozle your aggro opponents with a 5 mana 4/8 taunt which is often just backbreaking. Always try to plan your plays around buffing up taunt cards like Wyrmrest (but if you dont have buff cards in your hand of course just play it on curve). This card is also fantastic for protecting your turn 1 northshire cleric in the mirror.

Brann Bronzebeard x1 Supreme value generator versus control and midrange. Almost all cards in your deck synergy with Brann in some way. Versus reno deck your often wanna try and save him for when you can play netherspite X2 or Operative + netherspite with him in the same turn to win the resource battle. Versus aggro just drop him down on curve if you have to and he will most likely soak 4 damage/force a trade just because of the respect he commands.

Kabal Talonpriest x2 BROKEN when you can land it on a minion on turn 2 or 3. If force to play it on curve without the battlecry its still a 3 mana 3/4 which is perfectly reasonable. Versus aggro try to set up to land the buff on a taunt if your hand will allow you, otherwise sometimes its just too good and you play it on curve. Versus control use it to play around board clears. Make your board as awkward as possible for your opponent to remove. A 1/6 northshire getting an extra draw every turn while his minions are getting beat up by a twilight drake can be a control players worst nightmare.

Shadow Word: Death x1 Good card that can get you out of a lot of sticky situations. Usually versus aggro I hate to draw this though and there's A LOT of aggro out there right now so I cut it down to 1 copy and it's been working great. Versus control try to be frugal/sensible with it as of course it's your only one!

Velen's Chosen x2 Best buff card in the game by some margain, absolutely BUSTED in this deck! You run a low curve so most times you can get this to land easily. If you have it in your hand in the early game try to play in a way where you have maximum chance of sticking a minion to the board by turn 3. Fantastic tool to buff taunters vs. aggro and also to trade up vs. Midrange decks and also to turn that not-so-threatening netherspite into a 3/7 that commands respect when vsing control. To reiterate, absolutely BUSTED card, even more so in this deck and in this meta and along with operative is the MAIN REASON to even play Wild Dragon Priest at all.

Defender of Argus x1 TAUNT! Bamboozle your aggro opponents with this great tech card. Synergises perfectly with your low curve of high health minions. Has the added benefit of also just being a solid play vs midrange and control as well to trade-up unexpectedly and get some crazy value. 2 copies compromises your curve too much and is an unacceptable deck building risk in my opinion, but one is the sweet spot. This card is one of the stars of this deck for sure.

Twilight Drake x1 You're a bit lacking on 4 drops, and this is usually a 4-6 or a 4-5 at worse if played on curve, and only gets better later on if you're vsing control or mid-range where you can work towards a larger hand size. It's also a dragon which is of course what this deck is all about for the activation. I originally had azure drake in this slot but I've found azure drake is all to often just too slow in this meta and the 5-drop slot is already crowded in this deck. Been very impressed with this cards performance and would recommend.

Twilight Guardian x2 Premier Taunt in the deck. Played on curve this card so often does WORK versus aggro and is also very reasonable pressure versus control. Try to gain maximum value out of the taunt by saving buff cards for Guardian if you have the luxury, if not just slam it down on curve versus aggro and slow them down a tonne.

Blackwing Corrupter x2 Huge Tempo swing card, try to map out what minion you could get to three health a couple of turns in advance and play towards it accordingly.

Drakonoid Operative x2 BUSTED! Vanilla stats + Discover opponents cards. You so often get to choose something that is really helpful for your current situation. One of the main reasons (along with Velens Chosen) to play this deck at all. This card will leave your control/midrange opponents pulling their hair out from all the value you can slam them with. In addition to being busted, this card is just plain fun (for you).

Holy Nova x2 Board Clear. Synergies perfectly with your low curve of buffed high health minions. Always be on the lookout for spell power synergy with Velen's Chosen. This card can give you backbreaking tempo/value and survivability all in one if used correctly. Be on the lookout to combo with Northshire Cleric if you think you're going to need those extra draws to close out a game vs. Control or Midrange.

Book Wyrm x1 Top of the curve. This card really shines versus midrange shaman, secret paladin and priest. It's okayish versus pirate warrior but drawing two versus aggro is usually a disaster so 1 is the sweet spot! When versing reno decks its very often correct to hold it to deal with a doomsayer if you haven't seen one yet because you don't run Shadow Word: Pains. Good value AND tempo generation when it lands on a good target (such as Belcher, Twilight Guardian, Brann etc) and in this meta it will almost always find a nice target at some point in the game.

Okay so now I'll go though some of the notable exclusions:

Dragonfire Potion No Dragonfire potions in dragon priest?! Are you Crazy?! Sadly I don't think I am. Despite the crazy potential of this card the sad reality is that it's just too slow vs. aggro and just not doing enough and drawing it early really sucks. The card is fantastic versus secret paladin and midrange shaman (except when the shaman plays azure drake), but those match-ups aren't a significant enough slice of the meta to justify the inclusion, even as a one-of.

Shadow-Word: Pain No Shadow-Word: Pains?! Are you crazy?! This card is probably going to be the hardest for me to try and convince you not to include, but I'll try:

Basically I've found the card just dosent generate enough tempo or slow down the game-plan of aggro enough to justify its inclusion most of the time. You want to generally be playing more proactively, and I find that ooze is just better than this card. Sure there are times where it would have been nice to have (such as versus ships cannon sometimes), but I haven't really been missing this card. You generally want to be finding opportunities to generate two-for-ones with this deck and SW:P will not be helping you facilitate that in the majority of cases. I mean the card ISN'T BAD in this deck by any means, let me make that clear, I'm just trying to argue that I think there are 30 BETTER options for the construction of this deck.

Azure Drake Too slow, 5 drop spot too crowded as it is. I really think Azure Drake is not suited for wild-dragon priest in this meta. If the meta slowed down a bit then sure but at the moment I'm not convinced. I subbed out this card and have never looked back. Redeeming feature of this card is that it's quite good in the mirror.

Okay so let's have a look at the matchups!

Druid (5 Games total - 3 wins, 2 losses) All my druid opponents were playing egg druid. This matchup seems pretty even. You have slightly more consistency in your early curve but their buffs/combo's are more broken that yours when they can get them off.

You need to be bending over backwards to remove as many of their minions as possible to deny them as much value from their sweeper buffs (Power of the Wild, Mark of the Lotus Soul of the Forest, Savage Roar) as humanly possible, otherwise you WILL get snowballed and lose. It's ALL about the board in this matchup. Try to make their turns as awkward as possible. Stop and think about the damage distribution of their minions if they play argus, PotW, or Mark of the Wild and try to play around it according by buffing/healing the correct minions on your side of the board.

Mulligan for a curve, hard mulligan for a 1 drop if you're going first. This is the matchup where it is most important to have a 1 drop to play if you're going first! Take the extra time to think about your turns very carefully in this matchup, because some of the trades you need to make to play optimally won't be immediately obvious at all. Don't get greedy with northshire draws if you have a better tempo play you could otherwise make. Play exclusively for tempo, not value, in this matchup. Potion of madness is fantastic in this matchup.

Hunter (1 game total - 1 win, 0 losses) I only played one game against a hunter opponent. He was playing a face hunter with the pirate package + glaivezooka. I didn't really have too much trouble taking the board after the first few turns then killing him but I can't say too much in general about this matchup of course due to the low sample size.

Mage (6 games total - 6 wins, 0 losses) These were all against Reno Mage. This is a great matchup for us because the mage removal kit generally lines up quite poorly with all our midrange minions. You need to play a macro game, keeping the mage under pressure, drawing as much as possible and setting up for your big brann + double netherspite or brann + netherspite + operative. What you will end up with is a seemingly never ending chain of threats and value. The mage will begin losing card advantage and eventually just fall over and die. Be smart and play around AOE's including kazakus potion. Save Book Wyrm for a doomsayer freeze.

Paladin (5 games total - 5 wins, 0 losses) My paladin opponents included 3 secret paladins and 2 handbuff paladins. Aim to curve out as usual. Ooze is great here versus rallying blade, truesilver and ashbringer. Play around keeper of uldaman by spreading out your buffs and not going all-in on one minion. Try to make your board as awkward as possible for him to deal with his challenger turn. If he has played a few deathrattles (shredder, belcher, creeper etc) lean towards smorcing more and trading less because most secret paladins will run N'zoth and if you give them time to get a good value N'zoth off you will usually lose. Never play around equality in secret paladin, the vast majority don't run it and playing around it will generally be hurting you more than helping you. Handbuff paladins do usually run at least one equality so if you can afford to play around it, do so.

Priest (9 games total - 5 wins, 4 losses) My priest opponents were mostly Reno priest with a couple of dragon priests splashed in. In this matchup look to control the board early as usual. twilight drake is really strong here. Use your Velen's Chosen and Defender of Argus to create as many 4 attack minions as possible. You generally want to be making value plays that don't sacrifice TOO much tempo, so that means trying to squeeze in hero powers when you can. For Reno priest always keep Lightbomb, excavated evil and Dragonfire potion in the back of your mind when extending onto the board with more than two minions, and use your heals, buffs to make each of these options as unattractive as possible to your opponent. You'll be mostly looking for high cost value discovers from your netherspites and operatives. Always keep your opponents Velen's Chosen in consideration when battling for the board on the early turns.

Rogue (0 matches total) Did not face any rogues in my 69 game climb with this deck!

Shaman (14 games total - 10 wins, 4 losses) About 60% aggro shaman, 30% midrange shaman and 10% control shaman. Aggro is pretty straightforward. Curve out, ooze their weapons and look for that crippling power play with corrupter or nova. Buff taunts and then heal face out of range of their burn if necessary. Always clear their board as much as possible because of flametongue. Versus midrange you'll need to play more for value (but still not sacrificing too much tempo) and play around their AOE's. Book Wyrm has a lot of good targets here. Nova is generally great and so is corrupter. Your whole deck generally lines up pretty well versus theirs and the oozes for those pesky spirit and jade claws are just the icing on top. While I just mentioned that playing around AOE is important, it's also important to not be too caught out by a big swing turn with Thing from Below when versing Midrange, so try to make sure you have a decent amount of power on board as well (hard to balance I know, but it will come with practice and experience).

Warlock (7 games total - 2 wins, 5 losses) All Renolock. I was a but surprised to see these stats, I thought I had done better than this versus warlock, maybe it was because all my losses were really close games. Despite what my stats suggest, you still definitely have a fighting chance. Playing around everything renolock can do is almost impossible, you you'll have to take some risks in this matchup. Take every opportunity you can to gain card advantage via northshire or double-discover with brann as long as it dosen't result in a disastrous tempo loss, because trust me you'll need the gas. Always be on the lookout for opportunities to SMORC instead of trade when the risk is acceptable, because you want to give the renolock as little breathing room as possible. The less health they have, the less they'll be able to milk maximum value from their cards and that's how you'll gain an advantage. Taunts are quite valuable in the lategame because of the leeory combo so treat them that way and try to not let them "die for free" so to speak.

Warrior (22 games total - 15 wins, 7 losses) Pretty much all pirate warrior! You can see this matchup alone is approximately a third of my games from Rank 5 to legend. That's great though, because you have the tools to combat this deck quite well. Always keep ooze. It's very often correct to let yourself go low by making higher tempo plays like operative/corrupter to seize the board first, and then taunts + buffs later to stop almost all of pirate warriors reach breaking through, since the only over-the-top damage they're packing is mortal strike.