Hearthpwn

So I've been looking over this forum and the amount of discrepancies on how to play Highlander priest is just insane. Everybody has their own idea, and honestly that's what the game is about, but after 311 games and 11 revisions with my own version of the Highlander, I hope you listen to my own 2 cents and think about what I got to say here lol.

A quick note: I've been playing priest since Goblins vs Gnomes came out, after I was rank 25 and someone shadow word pain'ed my frothing berserker, which was my first rare. I thought that was OP as **** and decided I'll do priest. 1559 wins later I finally hit legend lol

Ok so let's get started.

• I see most people wonder about is the inclusion of Prophet Velen. How is this even up for discussion? YES. If you don't have prophet velen, who buffs your hero power, what is the point of playing a deck that is centered around using your hero power to finish off the opponent, be it to clear the board or go for lethal, or to complete your OTK? Auto include.
• This begs the inclusion of Mind Blast. If you don't have it, auto concede all mirror match ups, cuz you either rush your opponent down with your borderline combo deck that's missing pieces, or wait long enough for your opponent to draw into up to 40dmg in a turn, and all the armor in the world isn't going to save you at that point.
• At this point to any logical person it's becoming obvious this is a combo deck. Not midrange, not aggro, not really control because you're going to cough out the FINITE amount of damage you can deal. Combo-deck. Let's say this again, RAZAKUS is a COMBO deck. What's the most important thing in a combo deck? I'm no expert but probably card draw. And some people leave this up to chance and tech in oozes and geists and make excuses that "it helps in this meta cuz weapons and jade and stuff". You know what else helps in this, and frankly, any meta? Drawing your win condition. Bloodmage Thalnos, Novice Engineer, Gnomish Inventor, Shadow Visions, Power Word: Shield and Acolyte of Pain are the bare minimum. BARE MINIMUM.
• "I don't have kazakus is there a replacement?" NO. There is not. Not in standard at least, and in wild the replacment is either Lightbomb or Reno Jackson. Kazakus is there to make your RNG based deck even more RNG based, and win you games by creating unfair advantages. It's a must have because it improves the consistency of the deck. It's like
• not including Raza. are you kidding me?
• Elise the Trailblazer. THIS IS ALL IN CAPS BECAUSE HOLY CRAP I CAN'T STRESS THIS ENOUGH. DON'T EVER PLAY ELISE!! "Oh but it won me this game and that game and I like her and she cost me 1600 dust so I have to play her, also, value" NO. STOP. I don't care which pro players you saw include her in the deck, they might not have ever played priest before and if they include elise "cuz value, especially with shadow visions", you and them are really missing the point of this deck. Cuz it's combo, not control. You HAVE to finish the game by the time you draw for the 26th time, cuz if the game got to that point you're playing vs someone who created their deck to beat u in the long run anyways, and 5, hell, 10 more random cards are not going to do you any good vs mill warrior or jade druid that now spawns 10/10s. "oh but that's why i tech'd geist in".. well then play secret mage if you wanna play geist cuz you must've cut card draw for it, and if you're cutting card draw from a highlander deck... most of my wins vs priest came off guys who ran elise, and all my losses were vs big priest or a highlander that got the combo faster than i did.
• with all this said, there isn't all that many flexible spots in this deck list. honeslty you know what the most flexible card in this deck might be? The Northshire Cleric, but then again no, because it draws removal, stops early plays, and draws you cards. 2nd most flexible is Curious Glimmerroot, because you could actually swap it out for more of your own card draw.

These are just some things i noticed that are simply misplays that happen before the game even begins, and I've seen priest, my all time fave, go through some serious slumps, so it'd be nice to cement him as an all time great for at least a couple seasons, like when dragon priest was annihilating the ladder.

This is obviously all just my opinion, and I'm really interested in what you guys might have to say, cuz maybe it'll open my eyes to something im missing from the picture and ultimately lead to an even better deck list for everyone

 EDIT: I've posted my deck, here's the list

yeah i second the "super easy" motion.

just play on the curve, IGNORE ALL THEIR MINIONS, and pray to RNG. chances are you can lower their health and start triggering their ice blocks by the time they have the combo done. A lot of things can go wrong for exodia mage, like self milling, anton being bottom of deck, getting spells that are too expensive out of cabalists tome and book etc...

just rush them down. minimum 50% win rate guaranteed.

it's pretty irrelevant, but people with card backs predating goblins vs gnomes are at a higher chance of knowing what they're doing then someone with a card back that came out last month, and this is a game of stats and chance after all.

i think you should take every game seriously no matter what card back your opponent is playing though, even if it might seem like they're a total noob, and as far as mulligans go you should always mulligan for your own win condition and try to make the opponent have the answers

I'm really happy this has been able to help so many people, my main intention while putting this together is to show that you don't need to play a 28k dust deck, like the ones futured on the main page of hearthpwn, to win. I think the real challenge of this game is how well can you do with what you've got, instead of how well can you do with unlimited resources.

without getting side tracked further, there's a really good budget hunter deck, but it does take the perfect draw; it's on the front page under "hunter", it utilizes scavanging hyenas. takes a while because you've got to hope that he doesnt remove them, or that this doesnt happen, but it worked. otherwise i used murloc pally, and that took ages as well,and i've been thinking about how to do mage but it seems down right impossible without at least 3-4k dust so you can do an OTK.

yeah i've toyed with that idea, and if you do want to make it as barebones as possible it's a good way to do it

reason why i opted to stick with all those extra cards because once you do draw your auctioneer (which dropping all the other cards helps ensure), you are bound to be able to cycle through the majority of your deck anyways, and lay down some big threats.

without heals though you're slightly more susceptible to getting stun locked by blizzard, and he might be able to cause just enough damage for you to loose since all your eggs are in one basket. On the other hand, with heals you're more likely to not even get a board. so any way you slice it, it can work or spontaneously combust

if you are going for the ultimate barebones, i would take one extra gadgetzan; one for just cycling through your deck, another so you can play him when you've got 8-9 mana and he'll do the rest of heavy lifting for you

thanks; yeah, Fandral would help, but I personally really dislike druid in the game and never crafted a single legendary for him. been playing priest since GvG lol. and even if i did, he wouldnt help that much because you still have to play him, and that means 4 less mana for your auctioneer to use up.

this deck though won after 2-3 tries i think; if you can make it to turn 7 and he can't kill your auctioneer, it's pretty much game over right there

shameless plug, if you just want the free pack http://www.hearthpwn.com/decks/917810-budget-lich-king-remover

as far as the other classes i havn't been able to figure out a >800 dust way of beating them, saw some other really cool suggestions in the comments im gonna check out though

At least you can't drop down to rank 11 anymore.

Got the tavern brawl quest, and thought I'd give this deck a go to try and get it over with ASAP. First game this happens: