Hearthpwn

He did it on stream if you want to watch. It's just insanely good against other aggro decks and tempo decks. If you're running into Cubelock a lot then it'll be tough, but otherwise this deck is great. It has a 58% winrate so far: https://hsreplay.net/decks/vwrGPK0eHY1lLNmRGp9Yqb/

I am genuinely surprised there are people commenting whose biggest issue with Warlock is Voidlord itself. It's a 9 mana card, and though I haven't been playing Hearthstone that long, Voidlord certainly doesn't seem overpowered for its cost. By far the most frustrating thing about Warlock for me is not Voidlord, its the turn 5 Skull of the Man'ari, then turn 6 use Carnivorous Cube + Dark Pact on whatever was summoned by the weapon. 

A card like Dark Pact, to me, seems like a card where there is supposed to be a tradeoff, right? Kill one of your minions but gain a decent amount of health. But the way it works with Warlock currently is devastating. I'm surprised no one else has mentioned having an issue with it. That said, I don't think Warlock is broken or ridiculously overpowered, it just has a great deck right now, and I would be playing it myself if I had the dust. 

It's also worth noting that it's entirely possible to beat Warlock without silence, Secret Mage and Spiteful Priest are both more than capable of doing it and both are cheap to play, so i'm not sure the argument that Voidlord is oppressive because every deck now must have Spellbreakers is a good argument.

If you use it correctly it won't be chaotic, and is one of the most powerful cards in the deck. The only place where there could be chaos is with Mind Control. You have to be aware of the four big spells you have and haven't used. If you have at least one Free From Amber and Mind Control still in your deck, you are probably better off just not playing Grand Archivist. The best time to use it is when you only have Free From Amber OR Mind Control in your deck. That way you know what spell is going to be cast at the end of your turn.

You could still get undesirable results if Mind Control takes a minion you don't want, so it's best to play Archivist (assuming Mind Control is the only spell left in your deck) when the opponent only has one strong minion on the board, or has multiple strong minions and you don't really care which one you steal. Unless you are desperate, I would only play Archivist when you know what spell is going to be cast next, and, in the case of Mind Control, what minion it is going to steal. If you play it that way, there won't be any chaos, and it will bring you tremendous value.

Of course, if you are desperate, then chaos is what you need :)

A bit surprised you don't play against Aggro Token Druid, which I play against more often than Jade Druid. 

I'm not sure how your response is relevant to the original comment. I'm not trying to be rude or anything, it's fine if you don't like it when people use net decks. But I didn't say that would make anyone a better player. You said this isn't a good deck "now", implying that there was a point when it was a good deck. I said that there is a good explanation for why the win rate for this exact deck is down a percentage point or two over the last few days, and that a slight variation on this deck (swap Glimmerroot for Faerie Dragon) has a fine win rate, roughly in line with where this deck's win rate has been over the past few weeks.

? This is the case with 95%+ of decks played on the ladder. I haven't seen any off meta decks all season, save for a few Warriors. Everyone knows every card in pretty much every deck. The win rate for this deck has decreased a bit over the last few days, but it seems to me like a good explanation for that is the increasing popularity of the deck and its relatively cheap price, so more and more players who are unskilled with the deck are playing it. That, in my opinion, is why Cubelock is only like 5-6th in win rate by deck archetype.

In any event, a variation of this deck is seeing a 54%+ win rate the last few days, so I wouldn't worry too much.

Win rates: http://metastats.net/archetypedecks/Dragon-Priest/last4/

Quote from WorldSome >>

First month playing. Rank 6. Holy shit

Quote from azrael94 >>

What a machine... Rank 6 in the first month? it took me like 2 months to even get to rank 15 lololol

Quote from keklord93 >>

I just made legend with the spiteful dragon priest this season (with a 68 % win rate from 5-legend)

Against warlocks i never had a problem that much rly , had a winrate over 60 % against warlocks . but that because i changed one corridor creeper for a spealbreaker for his voiddaddys early.

And against aggro palas it was always about if i draw my dustbreaker dragon or not. IF piloted well ect you can get very high ranking with this deck very fast

Quote from decktech >>

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:

Ladder Optimized Big Spell Priest Dragon Priest Deck by decktech - Dec 29, 2017 View Deck String Export to BBCode Export to Cockatrice Export to MarkDown Export to Html Clone this deck
Minion (27) 1x Patches the Pirate 1x The Lich King 2x Corridor Creeper 2x Doomsayer 2x Southsea Captain 2x Spiteful Summoner 2x Drakonid Operative 2x Duskbreaker 1x Spellbreaker 2x Bonemare 2x Cobalt Scalebane 2x Kabal Talonpriest 2x Netherspite Historian 2x Northshire Cleric 2x Tar Creeper	Ability (3) 1x Dragonfire Potion 2x Mind Control
Loading Collection

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).

Quote from CurveballQC >>

It's a fun deck to play, but it's getting harder and harder to win with the Control Warlock and Aggro Paladin swarming the ladder. 

Quote from Deck_Fiend >>

the big spell one is good. played a few games tonight and did pretty well. won most of the games and had some crazy stuff happen, as well as memorable victories. 

definitely one of the best decks around right now IMO. 

if you do want to play dragon priest, you should play the big spell/tempo one with grand archivist and spiteful summoner. It's not all that expensive to make as it has no legendaries, but it does have like 7 epics. 

I did a quick search on the forums for Dragon Priest and it seems the deck hasn't been brought up much lately, at least in thread titles. I am considering building a Dragon Priest deck to climb with for the next ranked season, and I am wondering what everyone thinks about it in terms of its viability on the ladder right now. 

For some background, this December was my first month playing Hearthstone. I was able to climb to rank 6, primarily with a Secret Mage deck. I'm a mostly F2P player, but more of a "spends money in small amounts when I get the chance" player, and after I bought One Night in Karazahn it was pretty cheap to build a Secret Mage deck, so that's how I ended up climbing with that this season.

My goal is to reach rank 5+ next season, which I think is doable with my Secret Mage deck, but I would like to play another viable deck alongside it, hopefully boosting my chances of reaching the rank 5 goal. I enjoy playing Priest, and Dragon Priest is much cheaper than a lot of the other meta decks right now. So, that's why I am leaning toward building a Dragon Priest deck right now, and that's why I want to know what everyone thinks about it.

Feel free to comment with any opinions on the deck, if anyone needs any more information I will gladly respond.

Isn't Cubelock considered difficult to play? Probably worth considering that as a factor in win rates. Anytime a deck is difficult to play, the deck's overall win rate will differ significantly from its win rate when it's played by a skilled player.

Likewise, the easier a deck is to play, the closer its overall win rate will be to whatever its win rate would be when played by a skilled player.

I think one of the biggest problems that would arise from this system is quick triggers on the concede button. Instead of thinking through the game and coming up with solutions to sticky situations, players will be quick to concede against aggro decks, far before the game is over.  Maybe that's not a bad thing, I dunno. Maybe I'm not thinking super clear on why this idea doesn't seem right to me.

I also think the single biggest reason people like fast decks is that they are cheap compared to control decks. Take me for example. My favorite Hearthstone streamer is Kibler, and his creative and complicated decks are what I love most about the game: Building interesting decks that other people haven't thought of before, but are competitive enough to climb. But I don't do that enough myself, because I don't have the money currently. I think most players play fast decks for similar reasons. 

Ignoring the skill it takes to play aggro decks vs. slower decks is also mistake, in my opinion. Besides money, I would guess (just a guess) that skill is the next biggest reason people play aggro. Yes, any deck takes skill to play effectively at a high level, but there is no question that playing something like Aggro Paladin is easier than Control Warlock. That doesn't make people stupid for playing Aggro Paladin, it just makes it simpler to play a reasonably cheap deck that's straightforward to pilot past rank 5 and beyond. People who just want to climb might reasonably ask why they should take the time to learn Control Warlock, or something else like that.

All that said, I enjoyed this post a lot. Seems well considered, and you have a lot of good ideas in here. In fact, I do think your solution would help, I just don't know how much it would help, and whether or not it would ultimately hurt the way people play Hearthstone. I'm interested to see what other people think as well.

Quote from Matrix801 >>

Pace is a factor in the game one has control over.  I will sometimes vary from a long turn to a lightning one just to try to throw the opponent off-kilter, especially if they are kind enough to give me indications of impatience like mousing over things and emoting.   Upsetting the opponent is a valid strategy - it encourages misplays and overly aggressive actions.  Of course, veteran players aren't affected by this and just let you have your turn regardless.   

I mean, in the current meta Paladin has some of the best decks by win rates. You can look here (Disguised Toast) and see that both Aggro and Murloc Paladin are top decks right now. So, if you want to play Paladin and climb standard ladder, those are fine decks to start working toward. They also aren't particularly difficult decks to play.

I can't help you much beyond that, without knowing what deck you are playing and at what rank you are playing. Sounds like you might be playing an off meta deck, which is fine if you like building your own decks (which can be more effective than meta decks if you're good at it), but if you just want any Paladin deck that will help you climb, the decks from the link I posted are the way to go. 

Hope that helps. If you have any follow up questions feel free to ask.