Hearthpwn

Update: Managed to finish Top 100 legend on EU with this deck! https://twitter.com/TheoHS_/status/903380685355978752

Hey all, I’m Theo and you might remember me from my previous guides such as my Top 20 Tempo Warrior Guide or from HGG where I got top 8 with The Netherlands. I’ve finished top 100 Legend every season of Un’goro and looking to continue that in KFT.

With this deck I reached top 20 Legend on EU and stayed top 50 for a long time. While people often consider Big Priest a highroll deck, it consistently wins games and thus is a very competitive deck. The great thing is that most people expect Kazakus Priest so they mulligan the wrong cards and often play incorrectly until they see one of the deck-defining cards.

You can watch me play this and other fun but also competitive decks on twitch. I stream daily at twitch.tv/theohs_

Vod of this stream where I reached top 20 legend: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/168979303

 Mulligan

Always keep Barnes and if you have Barnes always keep Eternal Servitude.

Vs Warlock: Shadow Visions, Thoughtsteal, Shadow Essence

Vs Mage: Shadow Word: Pain, Thoughtsteal, Shadow Visions, Shadow Essence

Vs Priest: Shadow Visions, Thoughtsteal, Shadow Essence

Vs Druid: Shadow Word: Pain, Shadow Word: Horror and Holy Smite on coin

Vs Rogue: Shadow Visions, Thoughtsteal, Shadow Essence

Vs Shaman: Shadow Word: Pain, Shadow Word: Horror

Vs Hunter: Potion of Madness, Shadow Word: Pain

Vs Paladin: Shadow Word: Pain, Pint-Size Potion+ Shadow Word: Horror

Vs Warrior: Potion of Madness, Shadow Word: Pain

Cards

Holy Smite: Great to clear a small minion vs an aggro deck or just to ping something.

Pint-Size Potion: Incredibly strong boardclear with Shadow Word: Horror. Also can be often used to save health on your minions when trading and to steal or kill 4-attack minions.

Potion of Madness: Great vs token decks and helps clear the board.

Shadow Visions: Helps you find the exact spell you need often.

Shadow Word: Pain: Strong removal.

Shadow Word: Death: Strong removal.

Thoughtsteal: Often you don’t do anything turn 3 so with Thoughtsteal you are able to play a card and can sometimes help a lot when you find for example an Innervate to play Shadow Essence turn 4.

Barnes: Best card in this deck, can win the game turn 4 if you manage to get [card]Y'Shaarj, Rage Unbound[/card].

Eternal Servitude: 4 mana to get an 8+ mana minion on board. Can often be used early to get incredible board advantage. Getting [card]Y'Shaarj, Rage Unbound[/card] from this usually wins the game.

Greater Healing Potion: Great to survive against aggro and often helps even in the lategame against decks such as Kazakus priest that just keep firing at your face.

Shadow Word: Horror: Great together with Pint-Size Potion. Also does work against token decks, doomsayers and spreading plague.

Dragonfire Potion: Strong AoE removal.

Shadow Essence: If you don’t draw Barnes this has the same effect. Warning: might spawn a random 5/5 Barnes.

The Lich King: Value generator. Great to respawn as most decks can’t clear it early and also decent vs aggro with its taunt.

Obsidian Statue: Incredible to get early versus aggro. Can be weak against several midrange minions but still forces your opponent to play around it.

Ysera: Same purpose as The Lich King. Generally Ysera’s cards are better though, she is harder to kill for most classes and dodges The Black Knight and Big Game Hunter.

[card]Y'Shaarj, Rage Unbound[/card]: Best card in the deck and with that I mean in the deck. Worst card to draw but wins games when you can cheat it out early.

Replacements

Most of the cards in this deck are essential. The following cards are the ones you can consider replacing: Holy Smite, Thoughtsteal, Greater Healing Potion and one of the 8 or 9-mana cards.

Option to replace them with:                   

Forbidden Shaping: Allows you to play minions earlier without affecting Shadow Essence/Barnes and very flexible.

Silence: Helpful against decks with a lot of buffs and because it’s 0 mana also allows you to play for example Shadow Essence on curve.

Mind Vision: Similar to effect as thoughtsteal, but cheaper and gives you information about your opponent hand. Also when played early in the game the stolen card is more likely to be playable early.

Spirit Lash: Great to clear up tokens and heal a bit.

Mass Dispel: Cycles and good against token decks.

Free From Amber: Extra lategame without playing more minions.

Shadowreaper Anduin: Helps clear lategame vs Jade but often unplayable when you have minions in play. Also hero power is significantly weaker without Raza the Unchained.

General Strategy

Strategy with this deck is a bit different than with most other decks. While against aggro it usually is still a case of surviving and clearing the board, against other decks you just often play your own game. Cheating out big minions early is what this deck does and what you should generally plan around. Sometimes you have an important decision to make though whether you play Barnes/Shadow Essence or clear the board. Often it’s better to clear the board first because that way they don’t trade with their minions into yours resulting in your removal not having many targets. Also if you have to decide between Barnes/Shadow Essence and another play, think about the odds you get something good out of them for the situation and compare the average outcome to the alternative play. Often an Ysera or Barnes from Shadow Essence can just lose you the game against aggro because they almost do nothing at helping you survive, but sometimes you have to risk it to win the game.

Another thing is that you have to keep in mind is how much removal does your opponent deck have. For example against a Jade druid it’s often the best to just play as many big minions as possible because they have no answer for this unless they run a copy of Mind Control Tech. If you keep playing threat after threat every turn you usually win as most decks just can’t keep up with the sheer amount of big minions you are playing.

When choosing a target from Eternal Servitude, [card]Y'Shaarj, Rage Unbound[/card] is basically always the best unless you have no minions in your deck left. Against decks that don’t have solid single target removal Ysera is generally the best and vs aggro Obsidian Statue is usually the best.

 Closing Thoughts

Big Priest isn’t just a meme deck but it’s a very competitive deck currently that can also provide you with a lot of highlights during games. Just like with my Tempo Warrior guide I suggest everyone to try it out as it is very fun to play. I'll also be playing with this deck this weekend at the Summer Playoffs, so keep an eye out for that! Thanks for reading and hope to see you at my stream at twitch.tv/theohs_!

Videos

Getting Top 20 on stream

 KiwiiNbacon Deck Showcase