Hearthpwn

What Atramentar said: this deck is predicated on the Pogo-hopper buff. Of course, people have already tried it out, refined it, and determined it's not tier 1, so this decklist is now irrelevant anyway. I just use this deckbuilder for my theorycrafts b/c it's my favorite one out there. Normally I set them to private, I just forgot to do it this time.

I knew I was forgetting something! lol

Quote from n3r0s1 >>

Have you guys tried Medivh instead of Grand Archivist? Upside is it give much extra value to spells in hand, downside is slower tempo since Medivh doesn't do anything on playturn like GA do. Not sure it's better since tempo is important but when against control it can be good.

I don't really like Ascendant, either. It seems less impactful. Last season I played Faerie Dragon in the 2-slot for most of the climb and then, when it was all aggro I switched to Doomsayer.

I like the Pirates, but no Keleseth. I prefer Historians to skipping turn 2 and a 2/2 charging Patches is till good enough to contest early boards.

FWIW, this deck is also not really a highroll deck like people here are saying. There is a decent amount of variance for sure, but it's often not meaningful variance: 11/9 stats on 6 can be just as back-breaking as 16/16 stats on 6 if they don't have the answer. It hurts to hit Old Gods, but most of the time the biggest play is whether or not you have Spiteful on 6, NOT what you get from it.

Quote from zzAMBIENzz >>

[removed quote of my own post]

 

 So this deck has me intrigued. At first glance, it just looks wrong. Taking out the Free from Amber seems like you really are cutting into hat the actual identity of the deck is ... the Spiteful Summoners. At least with the Free from Amber's, you were guaranteed (2) 8 mana minions, with a potential for more. That is partially offset by the Creepers. It gives away some of the RNG aspect of the deck ... which of course can be a good thing, or a bad thing. 

Then there is our favorite Charrrrrger minion. With only the (2) Southsea Captain to pull Patches, I guess I don't see the value in running this package. It seems you have a much higher risk of playing Patches from your hand, which completely negates his value. 

And then there is the double Doomsayer's. Duskbreaker already has a bad habit of taking out our own minions for us ... and this deck has two more complete board wipes. Great if you are facing a lot of aggro Paladin, but not so great otherwise. 

Granted ... I am a Rank 3 player, and you did pilot the deck to legend, so I'm not "bashing" the deck .. more questioning it. In a very aggro heavy meta, I can see it's upside. But in the very mixed meta I am seeing right now, I question if these changes don't actually gimp the deck?

 

I played Spiteful Priest to Legend last month and I loved it. Like others have said, it's a middle-of-the-road deck in terms of most matchups, and it has a moderate number of flex slots to adapt to changing metas. It plays a tempo-based minion game, which is what I like to play, but with some really big swing turns. It is similar to old-school Secret Paladin in how it plays that you played the best card on each turn, made value trades, and then curved into a back-breaking turn to close the game out.

One thing, if you're concerned about spending your dust: you don't need the Glimmerroots. I think Southsea Captain (and Patches, of course) is better, and you already run Talonpriest and Tar Creeper, so that fills out the 3 slot fine. 

I posted it a few times, but it never got the traction of other builds, so here is the one that I took up to Legend from Rank 2, 1 star, without dropping a game. As you can see, it's built to counter all the Paladin and Rogue I was seeing at the time. I think it highlights, at the very least, how much flexibility is in the deck, as it's pretty different from the more standard builds you always see.

I'm probably not supposed to link to other sites here, but I just wrote up a good amount about it for Blizzpro if you want to check that out.

Hey Deck_Fiend, I'm going to answer here and on the deck page so that everyone can see my answer:

The Lich King has a unique combination of effects that make him impossible to 1-for-1 sub out with anything. He's an immediate threat, he's lasting value, he's resilient, he's a defensive wall, AND he fits the somewhat scarce 8-slot on the curve. No other one card does ALL those things. That said, you don't usually need ALL of those things in any specific game. Therefore, you can sub in a card that does some of the effects depending on what you are teching against and/or whichever effects you think are most important OR you can try to sub in a card that covers most of the effects most of the time, for a similar utility-belt style card. Ysera is a decent choice if you are afraid of slow decks and/or other priest, but I personally think it is a bit too slow and without enough immediate presence. I'd sub it with Free from Amber instead. Free From Amber gives you similar utility through the discover, which you can use to pick the best card for the situation and sometimes even get The Lich King anyway ("it could be a boat!"). It also makes Spiteful Summoner a bit better, because 8-drops are the best and it makes the 6-drop low-roll less likely.

Good luck climbing!

Hey Deck_Fiend, I'm going to answer here and on the deck page so that everyone can see my answer:

The Lich King has a unique combination of effects that make him impossible to 1-for-1 sub out with anything. He's an immediate threat, he's lasting value, he's resilient, he's a defensive wall, AND he fits the somewhat scarce 8-slot on the curve. No other one card does ALL those things. That said, you don't usually need ALL of those things in any specific game. Therefore, you can sub in a card that does some of the effects depending on what you are teching against and/or whichever effects you think are most important OR you can try to sub in a card that covers most of the effects most of the time, for a similar utility-belt style card. Ysera is a decent choice if you are afraid of slow decks and/or other priest, but I personally think it is a bit too slow and without enough immediate presence. I'd sub it with Free from Amber instead. Free From Amber gives you similar utility through the discover, which you can use to pick the best card for the situation and sometimes even get The Lich King anyway ("it could be a boat!"). It also makes Spiteful Summoner a bit better, because 8-drops are the best and it makes the 6-drop low-roll less likely.

Good luck climbing!

Dope, I hope it works out for you. HMU if you have any questions about how it's supposed to play, matchups, etc., but if you already got to Rank 6, then you're probably already good enough (or very nearly good enough) to get to Legend. Good luck!

I took Spiteful Priest to Legend this past month as well. I also did not have issues with Control Warlock because we run Spellbreaker and Mind Control to beat Voiddaddies. Aggro Paladin hurt, so I switched up my build. The new build cruised from Rank 2:1 to Legend without a loss. It's here:

My concern for newer/f2p-ish players is that this deck will likely get hit hard come rotation  in 3-4 months, when it loses Drakonid Operative, Patches, and Netherspite Historian, so just keep that in mind. That said, a lot of the cards you're investing in are things you might already have (Patches) or will get use in other decks before and after rotation (Spiteful and Creeper).

Thanks, man! I sure thought it was a better fit for the meta. Hopefully it works out for you, too!

I was seeing a ton of aggro and tempo rogue in Ranks 1-3, so I swapped out some cards (including adding Dragonfire) for my final Legend push and it worked great! It makes Spiteful slightly worse, but I felt it made the matches overall better. The thing is that it requires you to rejigger the deck a bit more than just a 1-for-1 swap because, like he said, it is terrible with Archivist. But I dropped Archivist a long time ago anyway, so that was no biggy for me.

Here's that version for reference: http://www.hearthpwn.com/decks/1013161-ladder-optimized-big-spell-priest

I've played a lot with this deck and I don't actually like the archivist in there. You can easily cut it (and, with it, probably one of your spells) and still do well. Just sub in whatever tech or filler card you're feeling.