Hearthpwn

Inner Fire Priest is a combo deck that revolve around Priest's ability to buff a minion's heath. After increasing a minion's health with Power Word: Shield, Velen's Chosen, Kabal Talonpriest, and Divine Spirit, Inner Fire is used to set that minion's attack equal to its health. This allows previously defensive minions, such as Deathlord, to deal massive amounts of burst damage in one turn, often more than 30 for a OTK.

As both Divine Spirits and an Inner Fire are often required, a substantial amount of card draw is required to pull of the combo with any reliability. To do this, 4 cards that are a staple of any combo Priest deck are included: Circle of Healing, Northshire Cleric, Wild Pyromancer, and Acolyte of Pain. The synergy between these 4 cards is the main card draw engine for combo Priest, similar to Gadgetzan Auctioneer in Miracle Rogue. Wild Pyromancer damages all minions, including Acolyte of Pain, which are then healed with Circle of Healing, drawing multiple cards with Northshire Cleric. However, caution must be exercised to avoid overdraw, especially when playing against Priest.

The Journey to Un'Goro expansion added 2 new tools to Inner Fire Priest, causing it to ascend up the tierlist. First in Radiant Elemental, which reduces the cost of spells by 1. Since Inner Fire Priest is one of the most heavily spell dependent decks in the game, a way to reduce spell costs makes the deck far less dependent of Emperor Thaurissan ticks. Second, and more importantly, is Shadow Visions. This spell allows the Priest player to discover a spell included in the deck. As one of the primary weaknesses of Inner Fire Priest is its reliance on drawing Divine Spirit and Inner Fire, this card allows the Priest player to tutor these spells out, drastically improving the consistency of this deck.

~ Write-up by MetricTrout