This is my current priest deck. While I've only been messing around with some friends and in unranked, it seems to be somewhat viable and more importantly; fun. The general strategy is to focus on efficient counters and trades until the insane priest late game kicks in.
What I'm looking for is a bit of a discussion regarding some alternatives, upgrades or additions. Should you wish, I could explain the rationale behind any of my choices. I've got about 3.5k dust to spend, too, and some other legendaries lying around.
EDIT: Made a mistake. I forgot to put Holy Smite in. I forgot that I removed the Argent Commander from this deck.
Judging by the amount of mindcontrol on low creatures, one might think this deck is designed against aggro. Yet stuff like twilight drakes, crazy alchemists, faceless and thoughtsteal are best to use against control decks. Therefore this deck might be really susceptible to The Almighty God of RNG. If you get lategame stuff against aggro, you lose. If you get earlygame stuff against lategame, you might get overwhelmed.
Judging by the amount of mindcontrol on low creatures, one might think this deck is designed against aggro. Yet stuff like twilight drakes, crazy alchemists, faceless and thoughtsteal are best to use against control decks. Therefore this deck might be really susceptible to The Almighty God of RNG. If you get lategame stuff against aggro, you lose. If you get earlygame stuff against lategame, you might get overwhelmed.
It is susceptible to RNG, but not as much as you may think. The only loss I've had so far was against a very fast hunter. I didn't have a play (not a good play, but any play at all) until about turn... 5? I also screwed up and popped a snake trap before killing his Starving Buzzard.
The cards offer a lot of flexibility. In particular, Crazed Alchemist is excellent at manipulating the board for mind control or the words. As long as I draw a counter or two by turn 3 or 4 against rush decks, I'm usually OK. Having a good set of early game cards doesn't really hinder me against control. They often spend a few too many resources trying to stabilize the board to stop my late game. Granted, I've not taken this deck very far and that could all change. That's why I'm looking for a bit of discussion.
Just been thinking about my deck. It could use some additions, but I'm not sure what.
The current neutral legendaries I have access to are Cho, Alexstraza and Illidan, in addition to approximately 3.5k dust. More if I disenchant Illidan/Pagle, who are golden.
What legendaries would you kind folks recommend putting in and what would you remove to make room?
It seems your deck very susceptible to heavy weapon oriented decks perhaps a few more taunts.
Sunfire protectors or defender of Argus a good addition to make ur Nat useful other than for RNG.
With more taunts cards such as sylvan as and ragnoros would be better additions. I removed my hogger for similar reasons. It simply isn't tank enough to stay in game to make itself useful. I'd much prefer a sylvanas or cairne for the 6 drop. Um holy smite and thoughtsteal are imo lackluster compared to inner fire once again for stuff like Nat and berserker. A lot of times players sneak into 4 dmg range to make it in susceptible to sw death and that's when inner fire or crazed alchemists come in.
It seems your deck very susceptible to heavy weapon oriented decks perhaps a few more taunts.
Sunfire protectors or defender of Argus a good addition to make ur Nat useful other than for RNG.
With more taunts cards such as sylvan as and ragnoros would be better additions. I removed my hogger for similar reasons. It simply isn't tank enough to stay in game to make itself useful. I'd much prefer a sylvanas or cairne for the 6 drop. Um holy smite and thoughtsteal are imo lackluster compared to inner fire once again for stuff like Nat and berserker. A lot of times players sneak into 4 dmg range to make it in susceptible to sw death and that's when inner fire or crazed alchemists come in.
Just my 2 cents
You make some interesting points. Weapons haven't posed a massive problem, but you're right in saying that I am susceptible to them. I haven't got any counters. I just heal up and try to weather the storm. I'm not sure I'd bother with Sunfire Protector and the Defender seems a bit expensive for the function it would serve in my deck. That could be, however, due to my unfamiliarity with the usage of that card. Any other taunt you'd recommend? Also, what would you remove to make room?
Hogger is serving quite well as a taunt at the moment. They either kill him very inefficiently, or blow one of their removals. Win-win for me. However, I do take your point that with other taunt cards I could probably substitute him out. Illidan is the only other leg six drop I have, but I guess Sylv or Cairne would be more suited to the task.
Holy Smite is excellent. I'm going to have to defend it there. It's an awesome stall card if I get a sub-par opening hand, it's great for slowing down hunters (who just fail at late game) and it's nice for covering weaker minions/sniping annoying cards behind taunts. It's also cheap. Sure, Inner Fire is the same price but I feel that it's a lot less flexible. I can also (partially) replicate it's effect via Crazed Alchemist. I do agree that it would be useful for Nat Pagle, but I'm not sure I want to include 1 or 2 cards just to help him. Additionally, he'll get a bit of extra utility if I put in a Defender of Argus.
Thoughtsteal, I may agree with you. Some games I get lucky (dupe a guy's Ragnaros) but other times I draw a dud/poor card (eww, Tracking). The last few games I had them sitting in my hand without a particularly ideal time to use them. Any replacements you would recommend?
Thanks! Speaking with other people really gets my brain working.
um other taunts are like senjin or warden. i don't think you've fought a gorehowl warrior. they will demolish most of ur mobs. I took another look at your deck not half asleep. Your mana curve also a bit imbalanced towards late game. You really need the taunt.for late game for set up for a stronger early game.
um like i said before. taunts. Sunfire protector and defender of argus are best cards for your deck. If you think it's too expensive perhaps 2 sunfires and 2 senjin's? Ancient watchers + sunfire protector + argus is also a very strong opener. When you whip this out, just liek ragnoros (8/8) and they silence you. you get a free attacking 4/5 for 2 mana.
- If you decide to take 1 inner fire > thoughtspells. Cards you may highly consider are: Warden, Lightwell, Shieldbearer
- But 1-2 spellbreakers are crucial for the late game. i.e. a silenced hogger is a 4/4 for 6 mana, a silenced. You could take your pick at spellbreakers or owls + ancient watchers. If you think about the trade up against a sylvana as well. Even if you shadow ward death it. It steals 1 of your mobs. You are in a closer situation of having to have no mobs on the table. Or cairnes reincarnation.
I can see 3 potential cards beneficial to inner fire: Ysera, blademaster, nag.
you might want to swap a shadow madness for Mindcontrol as well esp since you have Cabal Shadow Priest already.
probably another shield would do you good as well.
feel free to add me jordypordy#1203
my deck is below. It's not quite as expensive but I've beaten decks with much more expensive cards. I've beaten a guy with cairne, sylvanas, and tink overspark.
um other taunts are like senjin or warden. i don't think you've fought a gorehowl warrior. they will demolish most of ur mobs. I took another look at your deck not half asleep. Your mana curve also a bit imbalanced towards late game. You really need the taunt.for late game for set up for a stronger early game.
um like i said before. taunts. Sunfire protector and defender of argus are best cards for your deck. If you think it's too expensive perhaps 2 sunfires and 2 senjin's? Ancient watchers + sunfire protector + argus is also a very strong opener. When you whip this out, just liek ragnoros (8/8) and they silence you. you get a free attacking 4/5 for 2 mana.
- If you decide to take 1 inner fire > thoughtspells. Cards you may highly consider are: Warden, Lightwell, Shieldbearer
- But 1-2 spellbreakers are crucial for the late game. i.e. a silenced hogger is a 4/4 for 6 mana, a silenced. You could take your pick at spellbreakers or owls + ancient watchers. If you think about the trade up against a sylvana as well. Even if you shadow ward death it. It steals 1 of your mobs. You are in a closer situation of having to have no mobs on the table. Or cairnes reincarnation.
I can see 3 potential cards beneficial to inner fire: Ysera, blademaster, nag.
you might want to swap a shadow madness for Mindcontrol as well esp since you have Cabal Shadow Priest already.
probably another shield would do you good as well.
feel free to add me jordypordy#1203
my deck is below. It's not quite as expensive but I've beaten decks with much more expensive cards. I've beaten a guy with cairne, sylvanas, and tink overspark.
I've not fought a Gorehowl warrior. I know how I would handle it in theory, but I would certainly like to fight one. I can't really analyse what I would do without some combat experience. The mana curve is a bit biased towards the early game, I agree. I've got a lot of draw and not a huge amount of minions to back it up. I could remove my Thoughtsteals to put in a couple of Defenders of Argus. Ancient Watchers are an interesting choice, but I'm not sure what I would remove for them. What would you recommend? I do feel that my weaker early game minions are covered by a strong array of spells. It could be interesting to change the ratio and see if that is an improvement, though.
I'm still not sold on Inner Fire. I do feel that the function of that spell is covered by my Crazed Alchemists to an adequate degree. They would be what is removed in favour of Inner Fire, but they are definitely more flexible and offer some more strategies.
On the surface, it would appear that I am missing some silence cards. The only one I've got is Tink. However, with my contingent of spells it's often rather easy for me to just kill a problem outright rather than silence it. Cairne and Sylv are the only two that would pose a problem. Their powers cannot be neutered with a simple kill. That's where Tink comes into play. On the rare occasion I fight them both, I usually rely on some clever Alch/Shadow Madness/Faceless plays to steal their deathrattle. I could put in a single Spellbreaker but again, I'm not sure what I would remove. Truth be told, I do need to fight more Sylv/Carine and see how well I can handle them.
Silencing Hogger is usually good for me. They need to play another card to kill him, and while he is 4/4 for 6, I still have a 2/2 taunt out. But I do agree that Cairne or Sylv would be better for the role, if I put in a different taunt.
In my mind, Shadow Madness, Mind Control and Cabal Shadow Priest all fill a slightly different roll.
Shadow Madness compensates for my light early game. It's an incredibly efficient trader (2 for 1, usually equal or cheaper in mana, chance to steal a Deathrattle). Cabal is one of my first moves to turn around a weaker early game. The free minion gives me a good board swing and starts putting my opponent on the defensive. This allows me to press onwards with my strong late game. Mind Control is a late game removal card. However, it's the only thing you can do that turn and a lot of the time it seems like a win-more card. It performs a similar function to Ysera/Rag (strong card, likely to be removed if they have removal available) but without the reliability that a custom card provides (you rely on your opponent. If they haven't got anything worth MCing, it's a dead card).
I'd like another shield, but I'm just not sure where I would put it.
I'd love to add you. I always want people to chat and play with on HS. Not got enough! I'll make sure I do it when I get home from work.
O think you are doubling too much on situational cards thought steal alchemist, holy fire, holy smite are all cards I would consider to not double up on. Shadow madness as well. Then go from there.
If you are analytical towards ur deck. You don't need to double up on a lot of them as they would only be required in certain scenarios and you have a lot of them overlapping. I would consider shadow cabal and shadow madness almost the same thing. I would consider 1 shadow madness -> mind control to cover your spread. With a bigger spread you could end up not having to rely on RNG as much. Also twilight drakes could go for senjins as well. I thought they were the 5 drop drakes for draw card and +1 spell. I don't see how you will be able to stack cards with a weak opener. Without a nag or cleric opener. Clerics seem to only be 1 or 4 drop able now with maybe 1 card return. This makes twilight almost only viable in that particular instance. I'd rather 4 drop a light spawn > twilight. Also having situational cards usually make you hold on to them for longer than you want decreasing your mana output.
Assuming the game as balanced: 1 mana = 2 points collectively spread between atk/hp
By 4! You only 6 minion cards that are sure play in ideal situations. This is looking at it, at a most basic scenario. I counted the 6 minion cards as cleric, nag, blademaster, and tink. And in most situations you may not even play them. You may play a sunfire protector as a minions by itself. But would you play a 2 drop 2/2 crazed alchemist or a 3 drop tink master? So while your opponent has spent 4!= 10 mana on minions you may only have spent 2 speaking in pure statistics. So buck for buck you start the game off at an early disadvantage .
1 drop worgen worth 2 drop sw: pain? I wouldn't even consider it a worth for 1 drop holy smite for a worgen. But in many instances I could imagine you in these situations.
My only point is that your deck requires a lot of luck to pull through early game.
O think you are doubling too much on situational cards thought steal alchemist, holy fire, holy smite are all cards I would consider to not double up on. Shadow madness as well. Then go from there.
If you are analytical towards ur deck. You don't need to double up on a lot of them as they would only be required in certain scenarios and you have a lot of them overlapping. I would consider shadow cabal and shadow madness almost the same thing. I would consider 1 shadow madness -> mind control to cover your spread. With a bigger spread you could end up not having to rely on RNG as much. Also twilight drakes could go for senjins as well. I thought they were the 5 drop drakes for draw card and +1 spell. I don't see how you will be able to stack cards with a weak opener. Without a nag or cleric opener. Clerics seem to only be 1 or 4 drop able now with maybe 1 card return. This makes twilight almost only viable in that particular instance. I'd rather 4 drop a light spawn > twilight. Also having situational cards usually make you hold on to them for longer than you want decreasing your mana output.
Assuming the game as balanced: 1 mana = 2 points collectively spread between atk/hp
By 4! You only 6 minion cards that are sure play in ideal situations. This is looking at it, at a most basic scenario. I counted the 6 minion cards as cleric, nag, blademaster, and tink. And in most situations you may not even play them. You may play a sunfire protector as a minions by itself. But would you play a 2 drop 2/2 crazed alchemist or a 3 drop tink master? So while your opponent has spent 4!= 10 mana on minions you may only have spent 2 speaking in pure statistics. So buck for buck you start the game off at an early disadvantage .
1 drop worgen worth 2 drop sw: pain? I wouldn't even consider it a worth for 1 drop holy smite for a worgen. But in many instances I could imagine you in these situations.
My only point is that your deck requires a lot of luck to pull through early game.
I had some extensive play yesterday and I do agree that some cards probably don't require two copies in my deck. My only problem with reducing numbers is lowering the chance of having the card in your hand when you need it. But with situational cards, I guess the odds of that happening are lower. Thoughtsteal is... very hit and miss. I'm fairly certain I'm going to remove that in favour of two Ancient Watchers. It doesn't really fit with the theme of the deck. I'm trying to counter plays and this card just does not allow me to do that consistently. Shadow Madness... I also agree with. I was playing yesterday and Shadow Madness/Cabal Shadow Priest do fill a very similar role. I will certainly try and drop one. I'll put in a Defender of Argus instead. With the increase in taunt minions, I may be able to remove a Holy Fire (or two, I don't like the card a whole lot but it's currently serving a purpose). I'll see how it plays out. Holy Smite is another one to watch, but it's quite a strong spell and has helped me in a lot of situations where a minion would not have been able to help out. Alchemist is... a funny one. A lot of the time, though, I can find a good use for two. At the very least, it's 2/2 for 2 which isn't great, but it's not terrible.
Yeah. Thinking about it, I do agree with you and the double ups. I could certainly cut some of them out. As said before, I agree. Madness and Cabal do fill a VERY similar role. Playing yesterday really helped me realise that. I'm still not sold on MC. I'd rather put my own minion in there (I swapped Gruul for Rag, by the way. The instant board impact is a large improvment). I completely agree with you and the spread. My early game is usually OK, but probably not as good as it should be. Even with a completely terrible opener, the drakes hardly ever dip below 4/5 (same as a yetI) and while they are open to a silence, that's one less silence I have to deal with later on. They frequently hit 4/6-4/7 and make excellent targets for the alchemists. If I include two Defenders (which I am going to try and do), I won't need Sen'jin as much for the taunt. The inclusion of Defenders/Sunfury will help with the lack of early drops. I disagree with the viability of Twilight. It has seen a lot more play than I thought it would when I first included it. I don't see the Lightspawn being better than Twilight. It's easier to take down due to it's decreasing attack and when silenced, it's even worse than the drake. I very rarely hold the drakes. They hit the board almost instantly. Maybe this will change with the addition of DoA/Sunfury + Ancient. Deck building is a gradual process.
I wouldn't put Tink in that list but I would put the drakes. Still, I do agree with you. I need more drops for my early game. 7 still isn't a huge amount. I would play the Alchemist if I had to but certainly not Tink, you are correct there. I do agree with your point. Hopefully the efficiency of the Watcher will make up for the weaker performance of the Alchemist as just a drop. I'll have to experiment and see!
I treat that kind of scenario on a case by case basis. While it is stealthed, I can't do much but if it was revealed it would make an acceptable target for the Alchemist. Not amazing, but it would result in a trade in my favour. I would only Smite/SW:P the worgen if there was nothing else I could do and there's no way to deal with him using minions in an efficient manner. Those spells are my back-up plan.
A lot of luck? Probably not. More luck than is needed? Almost certainly.
I would also like to apologise. I feel I may have come across a bit strongly with the defense of my deck. It is far from perfect and I am not blind to that. Also, thank you for your time! I'll remember to add you tonight! (I completely forgot last night. I had the 7 victory quest so I was quite busy).
Firstly:
http://www.hearthpwn.com/deckbuilder/priest#18:1;19:1;39:1;62:2;147:1;209:2;245:1;315:2;360:2;409:2;431:1;442:2;450:1;457:2;495:1;547:2;600:2;612:2;671:2;
This is my current priest deck. While I've only been messing around with some friends and in unranked, it seems to be somewhat viable and more importantly; fun. The general strategy is to focus on efficient counters and trades until the insane priest late game kicks in.
What I'm looking for is a bit of a discussion regarding some alternatives, upgrades or additions. Should you wish, I could explain the rationale behind any of my choices. I've got about 3.5k dust to spend, too, and some other legendaries lying around.
EDIT: Made a mistake. I forgot to put Holy Smite in. I forgot that I removed the Argent Commander from this deck.
Judging by the amount of mindcontrol on low creatures, one might think this deck is designed against aggro. Yet stuff like twilight drakes, crazy alchemists, faceless and thoughtsteal are best to use against control decks. Therefore this deck might be really susceptible to The Almighty God of RNG. If you get lategame stuff against aggro, you lose. If you get earlygame stuff against lategame, you might get overwhelmed.
It is susceptible to RNG, but not as much as you may think. The only loss I've had so far was against a very fast hunter. I didn't have a play (not a good play, but any play at all) until about turn... 5? I also screwed up and popped a snake trap before killing his Starving Buzzard.
The cards offer a lot of flexibility. In particular, Crazed Alchemist is excellent at manipulating the board for mind control or the words. As long as I draw a counter or two by turn 3 or 4 against rush decks, I'm usually OK. Having a good set of early game cards doesn't really hinder me against control. They often spend a few too many resources trying to stabilize the board to stop my late game. Granted, I've not taken this deck very far and that could all change. That's why I'm looking for a bit of discussion.
Thanks for your reply!
Just been thinking about my deck. It could use some additions, but I'm not sure what.
The current neutral legendaries I have access to are Cho, Alexstraza and Illidan, in addition to approximately 3.5k dust. More if I disenchant Illidan/Pagle, who are golden.
What legendaries would you kind folks recommend putting in and what would you remove to make room?
It seems your deck very susceptible to heavy weapon oriented decks perhaps a few more taunts.
Sunfire protectors or defender of Argus a good addition to make ur Nat useful other than for RNG.
With more taunts cards such as sylvan as and ragnoros would be better additions. I removed my hogger for similar reasons. It simply isn't tank enough to stay in game to make itself useful. I'd much prefer a sylvanas or cairne for the 6 drop. Um holy smite and thoughtsteal are imo lackluster compared to inner fire once again for stuff like Nat and berserker. A lot of times players sneak into 4 dmg range to make it in susceptible to sw death and that's when inner fire or crazed alchemists come in.
Just my 2 cents
You make some interesting points. Weapons haven't posed a massive problem, but you're right in saying that I am susceptible to them. I haven't got any counters. I just heal up and try to weather the storm. I'm not sure I'd bother with Sunfire Protector and the Defender seems a bit expensive for the function it would serve in my deck. That could be, however, due to my unfamiliarity with the usage of that card. Any other taunt you'd recommend? Also, what would you remove to make room?
Hogger is serving quite well as a taunt at the moment. They either kill him very inefficiently, or blow one of their removals. Win-win for me. However, I do take your point that with other taunt cards I could probably substitute him out. Illidan is the only other leg six drop I have, but I guess Sylv or Cairne would be more suited to the task.
Holy Smite is excellent. I'm going to have to defend it there. It's an awesome stall card if I get a sub-par opening hand, it's great for slowing down hunters (who just fail at late game) and it's nice for covering weaker minions/sniping annoying cards behind taunts. It's also cheap. Sure, Inner Fire is the same price but I feel that it's a lot less flexible. I can also (partially) replicate it's effect via Crazed Alchemist. I do agree that it would be useful for Nat Pagle, but I'm not sure I want to include 1 or 2 cards just to help him. Additionally, he'll get a bit of extra utility if I put in a Defender of Argus.
Thoughtsteal, I may agree with you. Some games I get lucky (dupe a guy's Ragnaros) but other times I draw a dud/poor card (eww, Tracking). The last few games I had them sitting in my hand without a particularly ideal time to use them. Any replacements you would recommend?
Thanks! Speaking with other people really gets my brain working.
um other taunts are like senjin or warden. i don't think you've fought a gorehowl warrior. they will demolish most of ur mobs. I took another look at your deck not half asleep. Your mana curve also a bit imbalanced towards late game. You really need the taunt.for late game for set up for a stronger early game.
um like i said before. taunts. Sunfire protector and defender of argus are best cards for your deck. If you think it's too expensive perhaps 2 sunfires and 2 senjin's? Ancient watchers + sunfire protector + argus is also a very strong opener. When you whip this out, just liek ragnoros (8/8) and they silence you. you get a free attacking 4/5 for 2 mana.
- If you decide to take 1 inner fire > thoughtspells. Cards you may highly consider are: Warden, Lightwell, Shieldbearer
- But 1-2 spellbreakers are crucial for the late game. i.e. a silenced hogger is a 4/4 for 6 mana, a silenced. You could take your pick at spellbreakers or owls + ancient watchers. If you think about the trade up against a sylvana as well. Even if you shadow ward death it. It steals 1 of your mobs. You are in a closer situation of having to have no mobs on the table. Or cairnes reincarnation.
I can see 3 potential cards beneficial to inner fire: Ysera, blademaster, nag.
you might want to swap a shadow madness for Mindcontrol as well esp since you have Cabal Shadow Priest already.
probably another shield would do you good as well.
feel free to add me jordypordy#1203
my deck is below. It's not quite as expensive but I've beaten decks with much more expensive cards. I've beaten a guy with cairne, sylvanas, and tink overspark.
I've not fought a Gorehowl warrior. I know how I would handle it in theory, but I would certainly like to fight one. I can't really analyse what I would do without some combat experience. The mana curve is a bit biased towards the early game, I agree. I've got a lot of draw and not a huge amount of minions to back it up. I could remove my Thoughtsteals to put in a couple of Defenders of Argus. Ancient Watchers are an interesting choice, but I'm not sure what I would remove for them. What would you recommend? I do feel that my weaker early game minions are covered by a strong array of spells. It could be interesting to change the ratio and see if that is an improvement, though.
I'm still not sold on Inner Fire. I do feel that the function of that spell is covered by my Crazed Alchemists to an adequate degree. They would be what is removed in favour of Inner Fire, but they are definitely more flexible and offer some more strategies.
On the surface, it would appear that I am missing some silence cards. The only one I've got is Tink. However, with my contingent of spells it's often rather easy for me to just kill a problem outright rather than silence it. Cairne and Sylv are the only two that would pose a problem. Their powers cannot be neutered with a simple kill. That's where Tink comes into play. On the rare occasion I fight them both, I usually rely on some clever Alch/Shadow Madness/Faceless plays to steal their deathrattle. I could put in a single Spellbreaker but again, I'm not sure what I would remove. Truth be told, I do need to fight more Sylv/Carine and see how well I can handle them.
Silencing Hogger is usually good for me. They need to play another card to kill him, and while he is 4/4 for 6, I still have a 2/2 taunt out. But I do agree that Cairne or Sylv would be better for the role, if I put in a different taunt.
In my mind, Shadow Madness, Mind Control and Cabal Shadow Priest all fill a slightly different roll.
Shadow Madness compensates for my light early game. It's an incredibly efficient trader (2 for 1, usually equal or cheaper in mana, chance to steal a Deathrattle). Cabal is one of my first moves to turn around a weaker early game. The free minion gives me a good board swing and starts putting my opponent on the defensive. This allows me to press onwards with my strong late game. Mind Control is a late game removal card. However, it's the only thing you can do that turn and a lot of the time it seems like a win-more card. It performs a similar function to Ysera/Rag (strong card, likely to be removed if they have removal available) but without the reliability that a custom card provides (you rely on your opponent. If they haven't got anything worth MCing, it's a dead card).
I'd like another shield, but I'm just not sure where I would put it.
I'd love to add you. I always want people to chat and play with on HS. Not got enough! I'll make sure I do it when I get home from work.
O think you are doubling too much on situational cards thought steal alchemist, holy fire, holy smite are all cards I would consider to not double up on. Shadow madness as well. Then go from there.
If you are analytical towards ur deck. You don't need to double up on a lot of them as they would only be required in certain scenarios and you have a lot of them overlapping. I would consider shadow cabal and shadow madness almost the same thing. I would consider 1 shadow madness -> mind control to cover your spread. With a bigger spread you could end up not having to rely on RNG as much. Also twilight drakes could go for senjins as well. I thought they were the 5 drop drakes for draw card and +1 spell. I don't see how you will be able to stack cards with a weak opener. Without a nag or cleric opener. Clerics seem to only be 1 or 4 drop able now with maybe 1 card return. This makes twilight almost only viable in that particular instance. I'd rather 4 drop a light spawn > twilight. Also having situational cards usually make you hold on to them for longer than you want decreasing your mana output.
Assuming the game as balanced: 1 mana = 2 points collectively spread between atk/hp
By 4! You only 6 minion cards that are sure play in ideal situations. This is looking at it, at a most basic scenario. I counted the 6 minion cards as cleric, nag, blademaster, and tink. And in most situations you may not even play them. You may play a sunfire protector as a minions by itself. But would you play a 2 drop 2/2 crazed alchemist or a 3 drop tink master? So while your opponent has spent 4!= 10 mana on minions you may only have spent 2 speaking in pure statistics. So buck for buck you start the game off at an early disadvantage .
1 drop worgen worth 2 drop sw: pain? I wouldn't even consider it a worth for 1 drop holy smite for a worgen. But in many instances I could imagine you in these situations.
My only point is that your deck requires a lot of luck to pull through early game.
I had some extensive play yesterday and I do agree that some cards probably don't require two copies in my deck. My only problem with reducing numbers is lowering the chance of having the card in your hand when you need it. But with situational cards, I guess the odds of that happening are lower. Thoughtsteal is... very hit and miss. I'm fairly certain I'm going to remove that in favour of two Ancient Watchers. It doesn't really fit with the theme of the deck. I'm trying to counter plays and this card just does not allow me to do that consistently. Shadow Madness... I also agree with. I was playing yesterday and Shadow Madness/Cabal Shadow Priest do fill a very similar role. I will certainly try and drop one. I'll put in a Defender of Argus instead. With the increase in taunt minions, I may be able to remove a Holy Fire (or two, I don't like the card a whole lot but it's currently serving a purpose). I'll see how it plays out. Holy Smite is another one to watch, but it's quite a strong spell and has helped me in a lot of situations where a minion would not have been able to help out. Alchemist is... a funny one. A lot of the time, though, I can find a good use for two. At the very least, it's 2/2 for 2 which isn't great, but it's not terrible.
Yeah. Thinking about it, I do agree with you and the double ups. I could certainly cut some of them out. As said before, I agree. Madness and Cabal do fill a VERY similar role. Playing yesterday really helped me realise that. I'm still not sold on MC. I'd rather put my own minion in there (I swapped Gruul for Rag, by the way. The instant board impact is a large improvment). I completely agree with you and the spread. My early game is usually OK, but probably not as good as it should be. Even with a completely terrible opener, the drakes hardly ever dip below 4/5 (same as a yetI) and while they are open to a silence, that's one less silence I have to deal with later on. They frequently hit 4/6-4/7 and make excellent targets for the alchemists. If I include two Defenders (which I am going to try and do), I won't need Sen'jin as much for the taunt. The inclusion of Defenders/Sunfury will help with the lack of early drops. I disagree with the viability of Twilight. It has seen a lot more play than I thought it would when I first included it. I don't see the Lightspawn being better than Twilight. It's easier to take down due to it's decreasing attack and when silenced, it's even worse than the drake. I very rarely hold the drakes. They hit the board almost instantly. Maybe this will change with the addition of DoA/Sunfury + Ancient. Deck building is a gradual process.
I wouldn't put Tink in that list but I would put the drakes. Still, I do agree with you. I need more drops for my early game. 7 still isn't a huge amount. I would play the Alchemist if I had to but certainly not Tink, you are correct there. I do agree with your point. Hopefully the efficiency of the Watcher will make up for the weaker performance of the Alchemist as just a drop. I'll have to experiment and see!
I treat that kind of scenario on a case by case basis. While it is stealthed, I can't do much but if it was revealed it would make an acceptable target for the Alchemist. Not amazing, but it would result in a trade in my favour. I would only Smite/SW:P the worgen if there was nothing else I could do and there's no way to deal with him using minions in an efficient manner. Those spells are my back-up plan.
A lot of luck? Probably not. More luck than is needed? Almost certainly.
I would also like to apologise. I feel I may have come across a bit strongly with the defense of my deck. It is far from perfect and I am not blind to that. Also, thank you for your time! I'll remember to add you tonight! (I completely forgot last night. I had the 7 victory quest so I was quite busy).
There's my new deck. I haven't replaced Hogger yet (I don't have Cairne or Sylvanas) but I've made some other changes.
probably 1 defender --> sunfire protector to even out spread