Basically the deck centers around core card draw mechanics for Priest, using Acolyte of Pain and Northshire Cleric. You can get massive card draws with this, and sometimes need to be careful not to deck yourself out in a few turns.
The deck uses a lot of self harming and healing mechanics to both draw cards and serve as effective AoE to clear the board. The star of the show is the Berserker, who you can pump up to high levels of damage using the Pyromancer and Spirit Lash. I wanted to get Holy Mite in, but felt getting the Tar Creeper in for stalling is better. Also Silence would be nice to bypass Taunts, but again, had a hard time finding room for it.
It looks good, but I would add more high health minions because your overall minion count is low. Perhaps you could cut mind blast for Injured Blademaster ?
Yeah, but I included the Mind Blasts as another way to trigger Pyromancer. I think I'll keep it in mind and play around with it both ways to see what works better. I originally had Squashling in the deck. I think all three of those are viable options.
Okay, I've been playing this deck a bit and have made some revisions that you can now see in the OP. I added Eternal Servitude as a way to both summon a minion and cast a spell at the same time to be able to trigger Pyromancer.
I think this is actually a really good deck for a beginner with Priest to get the feel of how to play Priest and have some real Priest flavor on a budget, without Shadow Visions.
Arguably some of the other cards are a little challenging too, like Eternal Servitude and Stonehill Defender. Both of these are good cards, but being rare and about to rotate soon you may not want to craft them. I'd probably use something like Tar Creeper as a cheap replacement for Stonehill Defender and maybe something like Injured Blademaster as a classic replacement for Eternal Servitude.
The key to playing a deck like this is patience. It took me a while to get used to it after playing so much aggro. It's often better to just wait and take damage and be able to drop many cards on a turn than to start putting stuff out a bit at a time. This is definitely a combo style deck. I've gotten several big come from behind wins with this, and also quite a few misplays that could have been wins.
What I'm learning is that playing combo style like this is way more challenging in large part due to the timer. I've misplayed many times because of the timer. But the beauty of a deck like this is that once you get a few of the pieces in place you can have monster turns. I've double wiped the board and had huge attackers with it, etc.
For example I played a game against Druid and I was being patient and they got a full board with deathrattles on every minion so summon 2/2s. I had a few things in place and was able to drop Pyromancer and a Cleric, with the Berserker already in play and a Drake and then I was able to cast several spells, like PW:Shield, Divine Spirit, Inner Fire, Topsy and clear his board except 1 non-taunt minion with 1 health left and I had a big Berserker and Drake on my side and was able to end it the next turn.
I had a similar deal vs a Rogue where I was able to win it with a 24 attack Berserker when I was below 15 and had not much left in my hand (He had 23 health remaining at the start of the turn). I pulled a Pyromancer and already had a 18/18 Berserker, but was able to get him bumped up to 24 damage via the Pyromancer and casting some random spells.
It can be frustrating when not all the parts come together, but that's why I've learned its better to just wait, because all it takes is a one or two big turns to really swing things with this deck. And don't worry about big boards of small minions Spirit Lash and Circle of Healing, etc can really restore a lot of health.
It's a fun, relatively powerful, relatively cheap deck that will take a lot of people by surprise, especially when you play the Berserker and they look at you funny like you're a noob (Until the Berserker smashes their face :p)
This deck kind of showcases the unique abilities of Priest and is pretty cheap to craft.
Basically the deck centers around core card draw mechanics for Priest, using Acolyte of Pain and Northshire Cleric. You can get massive card draws with this, and sometimes need to be careful not to deck yourself out in a few turns.
The deck uses a lot of self harming and healing mechanics to both draw cards and serve as effective AoE to clear the board. The star of the show is the Berserker, who you can pump up to high levels of damage using the Pyromancer and Spirit Lash. I wanted to get Holy Mite in, but felt getting the Tar Creeper in for stalling is better. Also Silence would be nice to bypass Taunts, but again, had a hard time finding room for it.
It looks good, but I would add more high health minions because your overall minion count is low. Perhaps you could cut mind blast for Injured Blademaster ?
4
Yeah, but I included the Mind Blasts as another way to trigger Pyromancer. I think I'll keep it in mind and play around with it both ways to see what works better. I originally had Squashling in the deck. I think all three of those are viable options.
Okay, I've been playing this deck a bit and have made some revisions that you can now see in the OP. I added Eternal Servitude as a way to both summon a minion and cast a spell at the same time to be able to trigger Pyromancer.
I think this is actually a really good deck for a beginner with Priest to get the feel of how to play Priest and have some real Priest flavor on a budget, without Shadow Visions.
Arguably some of the other cards are a little challenging too, like Eternal Servitude and Stonehill Defender. Both of these are good cards, but being rare and about to rotate soon you may not want to craft them. I'd probably use something like Tar Creeper as a cheap replacement for Stonehill Defender and maybe something like Injured Blademaster as a classic replacement for Eternal Servitude.
The key to playing a deck like this is patience. It took me a while to get used to it after playing so much aggro. It's often better to just wait and take damage and be able to drop many cards on a turn than to start putting stuff out a bit at a time. This is definitely a combo style deck. I've gotten several big come from behind wins with this, and also quite a few misplays that could have been wins.
What I'm learning is that playing combo style like this is way more challenging in large part due to the timer. I've misplayed many times because of the timer. But the beauty of a deck like this is that once you get a few of the pieces in place you can have monster turns. I've double wiped the board and had huge attackers with it, etc.
For example I played a game against Druid and I was being patient and they got a full board with deathrattles on every minion so summon 2/2s. I had a few things in place and was able to drop Pyromancer and a Cleric, with the Berserker already in play and a Drake and then I was able to cast several spells, like PW:Shield, Divine Spirit, Inner Fire, Topsy and clear his board except 1 non-taunt minion with 1 health left and I had a big Berserker and Drake on my side and was able to end it the next turn.
I had a similar deal vs a Rogue where I was able to win it with a 24 attack Berserker when I was below 15 and had not much left in my hand (He had 23 health remaining at the start of the turn). I pulled a Pyromancer and already had a 18/18 Berserker, but was able to get him bumped up to 24 damage via the Pyromancer and casting some random spells.
It can be frustrating when not all the parts come together, but that's why I've learned its better to just wait, because all it takes is a one or two big turns to really swing things with this deck. And don't worry about big boards of small minions Spirit Lash and Circle of Healing, etc can really restore a lot of health.
It's a fun, relatively powerful, relatively cheap deck that will take a lot of people by surprise, especially when you play the Berserker and they look at you funny like you're a noob (Until the Berserker smashes their face :p)