Hearthpwn

Been having a lot of fun with straight-up Dragon Priest again (after spending a LOT of time with Dragon/N'Zoth). Been looking at the wing 5 cards and I think they will work into the deck well. This is what I came up with:

http://www.hearthpwn.com/decks/618383-tvjefes-dragon-priest

Depending on the meta, you can swap 1 Book Wyrm for an Entomb and play around with the Holy Nova/Excavated Evil config.

With 10-11 dragons, you should rarely (if ever) be hard up for one. 3 of the 5 card draws are discover/steal - so less consistent than Northshire Cleric, but maybe more fun?

Thoughts?

maybe it will come back, but as Museum Curator showed us, cheap early drop minions won't help an archetype perform any better unless you also have powerful buff spells, of which priest has none in the standard format. Boom Wyrm is just too slow to have a massive impact on the deck.

Very pleased to see this. Dragon priest has been on my radar for a while now and I've tried all sorts of varients; these new cards might fill out the missing pieces making it an extremely consistent deck. I liked running curator for the flexibility but a 1/2 has almost zero impact on the board as opposed to 1/3. And Book wyrm is a more fitting cabal, they both might have no upside but being a dragon is a big deal. 

All in all I think priest works when it can do what it does best- leverage the board.  And there haven't been minions pushed in their favor in standard so far. But the dragon subtheme provides pushed stats allowing them to stick around for a turn and let the heal ability actually do something. 

Great to see some Dragon Priest players here.  I was afraid I was the only one. :)

My deck is fairly standard and its fun to play but I always feel like there are cards I could swap out that would be better for the deck.  Like the 4 slot - I have the 2 Guardians and one Shifting Shade.  Lately Ive been trying Priest of the Feast.  Ive also tried a few other cards in that spot but never settle on anything.  The other snag is what other big dragon to run other than Ysera?  I tried Nefarian and honestly too many times I ended up with spells that didnt help me at all.  I dont have Chilmaw but could craft him(plenty of dust).  But, Chillmaw wrecks YOUR board too and Dragon Priest is a minion-based deck so does Chillmaw really fit?  My last few games Ive been using Onyxia and while the 1/1's are easy to clear if I play her late enough they are usualy out of clears so they either stick or can help clean up the board.  Shes still an 8/8 body too. 

I know too that Museum Curator is used in these decks and I do like the cards you get, usually.  But is there a better 2-cost minion for that slot?  Thalnos with card draw and spell power to make Holy Nova Stronger?  I dunno - just trying to get some ideas here.

Nefarian is iffy because he doesn't actually have an immediate impact, same with Chromaggus. I'm still running both atm because ideally by the time I drop them I've grinded out the board and they sort of seal the deal. Chillmaw is amazing, the aoe is crucial against aggro and hardly impacts your board at all typically (at least you can play around it, and if your enemy kills it they've likely sacrificed their whole board too).

Previously I was running Nzoth in my dragon priest deck along with museum curator, it's much better in wild however with velen's chosen. I think it's possible to go strictly dragon in standard now and win by sheer card advantage.

Here's the version I'm working with right now:

http://www.hearthpwn.com/decks/625951-dragon-priest

Quote from T4te >>

Guys, deck works just as it worked, it didn't get any boost in terms of fighting vs current meta. Wyrm>>>Cabal, Historian>>>>Curator, but that's all. This is the same deck after all. So I have no idea why you needed new cards that are just a minor boost to claim Dragon Priest not bad. It has nver been bad, it's just bad against meta. And this remains after post-kara meta settles up, be realistic.

Now for the decklist. I see 0 reason to run Scaled Nightmare. Twilight Drake serves similar purpose (Dragon with significat health you can work on), but is 2 mana cheaper and less situational. 

Brann... Seriously, Dragon Priest without Brann? With 14 Battlecries? I understand it's not that good with minor things like Whelp or Wyrmest, but just for the sake of Corruptors, Technicians and Azures it shoulb be played. 

I'm still not sure whether to run Clerics or not. People mistakenly treat them as early drops and claim them bad, while in fact it's rather late game card draw and they should be mulliganed away. In this respect Iam so far satisfied with Clerics. I'd say some more draw is more important than 2 more big Dragons (especially with Historian that will almost always give you a chance to pick something huge if you need it). I'll test some more before stating for sure whether Clerics are better or worse than stuff like Chillmaw/Nefarian, but as for now, I'm rather for Clerics.

Book Wyrm is not a card worth slotting...especially with priest since he has better removal for low cost minions. If you are that concerned about the low cost minions use 2x Shadow Madness and 2xShadow Word: Pain though the consensus on the latter is to include one copy. You definitely need a chillmaw

Quote from Toymachine >>

Dragon Priest was never out, it absolutely shits on Shaman, Zoo, Hunters and it was always a good choice. Friend of mine even made Legend with it 2 seasons ago and I used it to Rank 5.

It was just that people repeated like parrots that all Priests suck without any reasoning so no one took it seriously, but it was never out, very strong deck last months and very strong deck now...

Not really been out... been playing mine costantly.

However I feel that with latest wing open it is awesome, heres my deck that I tested today from R19 ->16, no losses.

I'm mediumly impressed with Book Wyrm thus far. Dragon decks only infrequently struggle to meet the Holding-a-Dragon criteria and the fact that it is, itself, a dragon is well worth noting.

It isn't as OP as Blackwing Corruptor, obviously, but the present metagame features quite a lot of 4+ cost minions with 3 power or less so it often hits a value target.

Update, with below deck R14, not a single loss yet from R19 with this deck

Maybe I will change cleric to something more useful, card draw has not been an issue in this climb. Many times cleric just standing in hand doing nothing.

and as ARe_You above mentioned, you should have enough dragons in your deck. I have 11 + 2 from discoveries.

you should not over-extend your board for clears like brawl or equalize, just keep constant steady pressure with 2-3 minions until boardclears are gone.

Awesome deck, feels nice to play priest for a while.

@ T4te, sorry to say, but late game dragons for me to seem to work nicely, however as you can see, I try to take advantage also from deathrattles with N'Zoth. In case game goes longish, opponent is quite rarely capable of dealing two times big deathrattle minions.  In fact, I fell that my deck is pretty balaced with having decent early game, awesome mid and lategame. Decent versatility offered by historians and sometimes some random luck with shifting shades.

Quote from GutsHS >>

Book Wyrm is not a card worth slotting...especially with priest since he has better removal for low cost minions. If you are that concerned about the low cost minions use 2x Shadow Madness and 2xShadow Word: Pain though the consensus on the latter is to include one copy. You definitely need a chillmaw

I wouldn't put Book Wyrm  , is the kind of card you want to discover when you need it , not to use a slot in the deck. Too slow against aggro and weak late game imo 

Quote from LightBeing >>

Quote from WhistlerFI >>

 

Mind sharing some gameplay on youtube or something? I don't think your list should do that well but apparently it does?! :) 

Quote from Hieschen >>

Quote from LightBeing >>

Quote from WhistlerFI >>

 

Mind sharing some gameplay on youtube or something? I don't think your list should do that well but apparently it does?! :) 

.. Same here. My list is cheaper and it struggles 10 wins 13 losses between rank 14 and 15. Losses by importance (to be taken with a pinch of salt in view of the sample size)

- miss early game / not able to establish board control by T5, 1 big dragon/turn is not enough to turn around, Nova is more a tech against cheap weenie decks than a comeback card

- get dragon screwed (playing 10 of the beasts plus the historian 2x) but still happens

- run out of cards and unable to finish off i.e. opponent has a stronger endgame than myself (just Ysera fir the time being)

Quote from wizzai92 >>

I wouldn't put Book Wyrm  , is the kind of card you want to discover when you need it , not to use a slot in the deck. Too slow against aggro and weak late game imo 

Quote from WhistlerFI >>

Quote from wizzai92 >>

I wouldn't put Book Wyrm  , is the kind of card you want to discover when you need it , not to use a slot in the deck. Too slow against aggro and weak late game imo 

 Somewhat disagree, in case you play dragons and have pain, you can replace pain with wyrm. One just have to make sure that there are enough early game to survive without pain. I had earlier in my dragon priest deck 2 pains, now none. 3/6 is decent body and there are plenty of targests for in current meta, even in late game. 

Dragon Priest is back because of 2 cards? A Museum Curator that only discovers dragons and an overpriced dragon with weak stats?

Why not use Moat Lurker instead of Book Wyrm?

Sorry, but those two cards is not the reason why Dragon Priest is not being shown much. The reason Dragon Priest hasn't been shown much is because they do not have value minions in the early game that can trade efficiently, or if they can, the opponent just outSMOrcs you. Your only taunts are a 2/4 and a 3/6, which is what most decks laugh at. Bear in mind you have 1 Entomb and 1 Shadow Word: Death and no Justicar, you will not win the control/fatigue game either. Your best shots are against the aggro decks and possibly midrange decks.

That is my theory of course, I can always give it a shot and see how your deck goes and if it fails, I will go back on my word, though it hasn't happened yet.

Quote from BarnacleEd >>

Quote from WhistlerFI >>

Quote from wizzai92 >>

I wouldn't put Book Wyrm  , is the kind of card you want to discover when you need it , not to use a slot in the deck. Too slow against aggro and weak late game imo 

 Somewhat disagree, in case you play dragons and have pain, you can replace pain with wyrm. One just have to make sure that there are enough early game to survive without pain. I had earlier in my dragon priest deck 2 pains, now none. 3/6 is decent body and there are plenty of targests for in current meta, even in late game. 

 Eh...not necessarily. Sometimes you really need SW:P on turn 2 or 3 to clear a nasty early drop before it snowballs out of control (Mana Wyrm, Tunnel Trogg, and Darkshire Councilman for instance) or to re-establish board control (Totem Golem, Argent Squire, Flametongue Totem). So dropping pain entirely seems like a really bad idea to me personally, especially in the current aggro-centric meta. 

This deck isnt viable right now.  Way too off-tempo or something. Not enough card draw either.  I dunno.  What the fuck. I hate this meta right now with these Spell-heavy Mages, Annoying Druids, and Hunters.  Fuck off.