Ever since I began playing I've been loving playing the priest. However, I, like many others, struggled with the priest for a long while. It boils down to two things: The priest is the one class that can have a dead turn on turn two. Every other class can at least reap some benefit from its hero power. Second, priests have awkward removal spells and generally have trouble sticking around for the late game where they shine brighter than almost any other class.
I've started experimenting and found that the Mana Wraith is an amazing little tool for any priest to use. You can drop it early, and it stunts a rush deck like no other. Actually, it stunts the development of most decks out there. And it happens that the priest is the only class that can keep this guy around when facing the other hero powers. The best part of this card is that it generally will need a card to be dealt with if you build your deck to suit it. And when they do, you will be the first player to start your turn without the mana penalty.
A second card I've started rating higher was the crazed alchemist. His versatility fixes your awkward removal. It can often swap a creature into the range of your Shadow words, or it can just allow one of my fat creatures to take out whatever hideously big monster my opponent dropped.
Below you will find a deck that tries to capitalize on both and has been winning me many games this season. Thus far I've found most of my matchups favourable thanks to the early pressure I'm applying with the Mana wraith or even the Northshire cleric. The shieldbearers are a very useful tool to either get back in the game or to protect the wrath/cleric early on. The remainder of the deck is a follow-up on the early disruption that this deck often manifests. If you want, you can see more information on the deck by clicking on the name and viewing it in the deckbrowser.
The current deck is not finished at all and I'm still swapping some cards in and out, though I think most of the shell is present already. Feel free to give me feedback on the deck.
I do like Mind control and I could see myself putting one in as I'm seeing more and more legendaries out there. The main reason it's not in currently is that I haven't found the room for it and find the shadow word:death and even holy fire far superior because they're cheaper.
As for the archmage, he's a meta choice. Currently, I've seen many warlocks that try to rush me down and various other fast decks. I'm also keen on gaining some early board presence, and so I'm stuck playing holy smite. I could play an azure drake instead of him, but I appreciate his seven toughness. It dodges more removal and he can tangle with the big boys without dying immediately.
As for the circle of healing: I've found that it just doesn't fit the deck. Most priests are trying to play this as a an impromptu sweeper to compensate for not really gaining board presence early on. This deck however will often be ahead early on if it can stick a mana wraith or it will be at parity. Playing a two card combo that wrecks my board at that point is just massive card disadvantage, and I don't want it to be stuck in my hand, have 4-5 mana and not play the auchenai priest in order to protect the combo. I don't like spending a card on making the blademaster a 4/7 immediately either, as this buys into a possible two-for-one and the circle is again situational here. I would rather have the circle be gas instead.
Currently I'm trying to find space for a second blademaster and I've swapped the remaining yeti with a violet teacher. There might also be some merit to playing an imp master because it has great synergy with priests in general and its cost is quite attractive for what this deck is trying to do.
I've been experimenting with mana wraiths in my shadowform deck, as right now it is very light on minions. its still pretty inconsistent (mainly because it doesn't have much in the way of card draw atm, I think), so I'm not sure if they'll end up sticking, but it can be fun watching it stick around for several turns, especially if you can get an early PW:S on it
as for your latest post, I've also disliked auchenai and CoH and have never played them until recently for the very reasons you state. but I did come around to both circle and wild pyromancer recently when in an early game in the deck I made with auchenai and circle when I believe I already had a pyro on board, then played a northshire cleric, injured blademaster and circle of healing and drew like 5 cards on like turn 4. that was a thing of beauty lol. still not a huge fan of auchenai (it can be great, but it can also be more problematic for the priest than the opponent at times), but it remains in that deck for now, though not in the other priest deck I've been playing since the last test season.
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"Sometimes you eat the bear, and sometimes the bear turns into a cat and eats you." - Anonymous Druid
I dropped the cabal shadow priest because she just comes too late too often for it to matter. I think the new holy fires shore up the strategy against rush decks. As Marcotomb mentioned, I also got rid off the archmage. We've had good times together, but I don't need the body that much either. The second azure drake smooths my draws and powers my spells just as easily. The deck now sports a second blademaster as either something to get killed and drag a minion with him against rush decks, or as a finisher. The defender of argus ended up being too situational. I imagine a creature that is just solid on its own would be a good replacement.
The deck now really plays a game of attrition. Between the demolishers, the warden and the soulpriest I'm dealing a steady stream of damage to my opponent and his creatures. Thanks to my taunts, these creatures often stick around, and I'm playing several other cards to buff their toughness while also either drawing a card or playing a 6/6 fatty. As a feat of strength against rush: I've managed to let a warlock draw his entire deck and being unable to kill me. All the guys I play are things he must deal with or be undone by them. The deck also does well against control decks. I can put the pressure on them with my small but resilient force and his big threats run into a shadow word or a holy fire. The only card I'm really having trouble against occasionally is Ysera, because it has the perfect stats against a priest. I'm down to either running 2 creatures in it and burning a holy fire, or crazed alchemist Ysera and suicide a guy in it. Both require me to be ahead, so if it is played in an empty board I'm in a lot of trouble.
I'm considering finding room to play the thoughtsteal again for this reason. Or a mind control. The violet teacher plan still seems to have some merit, but I've noticed that it's just not worth it with hunters being a thing.
EDIT: Currently I've been testing cutting one demolisher for a mind control, so I have an additional piece of disruption against control decks. It even doubles as a win condition. The lack of one demolisher hurts. The chance of drawing one of the auchenais or a demolisher drops from 67% to 56%, and this is on the play and without mulliganing for one. I think this is still good enough though.
Hello,
Ever since I began playing I've been loving playing the priest. However, I, like many others, struggled with the priest for a long while. It boils down to two things: The priest is the one class that can have a dead turn on turn two. Every other class can at least reap some benefit from its hero power. Second, priests have awkward removal spells and generally have trouble sticking around for the late game where they shine brighter than almost any other class.
I've started experimenting and found that the Mana Wraith is an amazing little tool for any priest to use. You can drop it early, and it stunts a rush deck like no other. Actually, it stunts the development of most decks out there. And it happens that the priest is the only class that can keep this guy around when facing the other hero powers. The best part of this card is that it generally will need a card to be dealt with if you build your deck to suit it. And when they do, you will be the first player to start your turn without the mana penalty.
A second card I've started rating higher was the crazed alchemist. His versatility fixes your awkward removal. It can often swap a creature into the range of your Shadow words, or it can just allow one of my fat creatures to take out whatever hideously big monster my opponent dropped.
Below you will find a deck that tries to capitalize on both and has been winning me many games this season. Thus far I've found most of my matchups favourable thanks to the early pressure I'm applying with the Mana wraith or even the Northshire cleric. The shieldbearers are a very useful tool to either get back in the game or to protect the wrath/cleric early on. The remainder of the deck is a follow-up on the early disruption that this deck often manifests. If you want, you can see more information on the deck by clicking on the name and viewing it in the deckbrowser.
The current deck is not finished at all and I'm still swapping some cards in and out, though I think most of the shell is present already. Feel free to give me feedback on the deck.
I do like Mind control and I could see myself putting one in as I'm seeing more and more legendaries out there. The main reason it's not in currently is that I haven't found the room for it and find the shadow word:death and even holy fire far superior because they're cheaper.
As for the archmage, he's a meta choice. Currently, I've seen many warlocks that try to rush me down and various other fast decks. I'm also keen on gaining some early board presence, and so I'm stuck playing holy smite. I could play an azure drake instead of him, but I appreciate his seven toughness. It dodges more removal and he can tangle with the big boys without dying immediately.
As for the circle of healing: I've found that it just doesn't fit the deck. Most priests are trying to play this as a an impromptu sweeper to compensate for not really gaining board presence early on. This deck however will often be ahead early on if it can stick a mana wraith or it will be at parity. Playing a two card combo that wrecks my board at that point is just massive card disadvantage, and I don't want it to be stuck in my hand, have 4-5 mana and not play the auchenai priest in order to protect the combo. I don't like spending a card on making the blademaster a 4/7 immediately either, as this buys into a possible two-for-one and the circle is again situational here. I would rather have the circle be gas instead.
Currently I'm trying to find space for a second blademaster and I've swapped the remaining yeti with a violet teacher. There might also be some merit to playing an imp master because it has great synergy with priests in general and its cost is quite attractive for what this deck is trying to do.
I've been experimenting with mana wraiths in my shadowform deck, as right now it is very light on minions. its still pretty inconsistent (mainly because it doesn't have much in the way of card draw atm, I think), so I'm not sure if they'll end up sticking, but it can be fun watching it stick around for several turns, especially if you can get an early PW:S on it
as for your latest post, I've also disliked auchenai and CoH and have never played them until recently for the very reasons you state. but I did come around to both circle and wild pyromancer recently when in an early game in the deck I made with auchenai and circle when I believe I already had a pyro on board, then played a northshire cleric, injured blademaster and circle of healing and drew like 5 cards on like turn 4. that was a thing of beauty lol. still not a huge fan of auchenai (it can be great, but it can also be more problematic for the priest than the opponent at times), but it remains in that deck for now, though not in the other priest deck I've been playing since the last test season.
"Sometimes you eat the bear, and sometimes the bear turns into a cat and eats you." - Anonymous Druid
I've made some revisions to the deck.
I dropped the cabal shadow priest because she just comes too late too often for it to matter. I think the new holy fires shore up the strategy against rush decks. As Marcotomb mentioned, I also got rid off the archmage. We've had good times together, but I don't need the body that much either. The second azure drake smooths my draws and powers my spells just as easily. The deck now sports a second blademaster as either something to get killed and drag a minion with him against rush decks, or as a finisher. The defender of argus ended up being too situational. I imagine a creature that is just solid on its own would be a good replacement.
The deck now really plays a game of attrition. Between the demolishers, the warden and the soulpriest I'm dealing a steady stream of damage to my opponent and his creatures. Thanks to my taunts, these creatures often stick around, and I'm playing several other cards to buff their toughness while also either drawing a card or playing a 6/6 fatty. As a feat of strength against rush: I've managed to let a warlock draw his entire deck and being unable to kill me. All the guys I play are things he must deal with or be undone by them. The deck also does well against control decks. I can put the pressure on them with my small but resilient force and his big threats run into a shadow word or a holy fire. The only card I'm really having trouble against occasionally is Ysera, because it has the perfect stats against a priest. I'm down to either running 2 creatures in it and burning a holy fire, or crazed alchemist Ysera and suicide a guy in it. Both require me to be ahead, so if it is played in an empty board I'm in a lot of trouble.
I'm considering finding room to play the thoughtsteal again for this reason. Or a mind control. The violet teacher plan still seems to have some merit, but I've noticed that it's just not worth it with hunters being a thing.
EDIT: Currently I've been testing cutting one demolisher for a mind control, so I have an additional piece of disruption against control decks. It even doubles as a win condition. The lack of one demolisher hurts. The chance of drawing one of the auchenais or a demolisher drops from 67% to 56%, and this is on the play and without mulliganing for one. I think this is still good enough though.