New Priest Card Revealed: Acolyte of Agony
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is this supposed to be a Acolyte of Pain wannabe?
Not a great arena card, but that 3 health a turn (especially if you can buff it with a Kabal Talonpriest) or somehow buff its attack to heal you for even more makes this card at least decent.
Probably not strong enough to see play in constructed.
Gonna be playing around with aggro priest. Bonemare, Kabal Talonpriest
People need to stop and consider that unlike Earthenring Farseer, Acolyte of Agony requires Pirate Warrior to invest resources into removing it from the board AND Life Steal "powers up" Corpse Taker as well.
Wont see play unless the whole ladder is aggro, ok arena card.
If this was a 3/4 it prob still wouldnt see play.
I write this assuming all lifesteal minions to essentially be "soft" taunt. since unless they are about to kill you they will target the lifesteal minion right away.
its a weaker less versatile version of earthen ring farseer combined with a "soft" taunt ironfur grizzly.
against token or some aggro it may be decent, but overall is probably not strong enough to make it into a deck list except as a tech card
Keep in mind, if they trade into this, they're healing you. If they use a spell on this, which aggro doesn't normally use, that's one less control card for you to worry about and less of a board for you to deal with. Which, using control on Priest's low cost cards? RIP any chance of winning the late game.
Earthen Ring Farseer | Acolyte of Agony
The problem is that its immediate impact is non-existent. In control matchups it will probably get insta-killed. Aggro can buff so they can trade this 1 to 1, which means in that case it is exactly Earthen Ring Farseer. If you can get this to stick against aggro then you are already winning by a lot. Let's also not forget it is a class card so typically you expect something slightly stronger than a card in neutral (for the same mana). Not saying its terrible, but it seems like it won't be much better than Earthen Ring Farseer most of the time.
it's not EXACT earthen ring if you force a trade against aggro, making aggro WANT to trade is by itself a difference.
Well yeah, but how often can you force a 2-1 trade from an aggro deck of today? That's why I made the comparison. For this to be good against aggro you have to be already winning (be ahead on the board to then choose the trades), so a lot of the time it is just an Earthen Ring Farseer. Especially considering that Priest can't use his life as a resource and the fact that the HP can heal you, making this card seem redundant.
Also keep in mind that if you're already ahead vs aggro (either because of a Potion of Madness or because your opponent drew badly, this will be just a 3/3 since you will be at full Health). Lifesteal is a strong mechanic, but I don't think you need a 3/3 with it in Priest.
Although I don't think this card will make a massive impact on the constructed meta because it's totally useless in the control mirror I think people massively underestimate the lifesteal mechanic against specifically aggro. I see your point that this card is similar to earthen ring farseer but I think it is far superior verses typical aggro decks. If they don't trade into it then you'll get at least 2 heals which is 6 health for three (insane compared to healbots 8 health for 5) but the big part that everyone misses is that if they trade into it although it only heals three you are forcing an aggro deck to trade essentially giving this card taunt and heal 3. The big difference between this and farseer is that aggro will just ignore your farseer and keep punching you in the face but forcing them to trade basically allows you to think about it as healing the difference (if they trade 3 dmg into it then that's 3 not going to your face, which they would have hit your face with had the minion been farseer, effectively healing you for 6 if you want to think that way). Again I don't think it's broken by any means and they do get to decide what minion to trade in but the lifesteal mechanic slows down aggro decks that don't have spell removal sooo much (as if zoolock wasn't dead enough already)
Covfefe. Definitely Covfefe.
i dont understand lifesteal.
So this card does 3 damage, and 3 additional damage lifesteal = 6 damage on enemy and 3 heal on own hero ?
It heals you for any damage done, attacking, or being attacked. Unless mitigated by spells, you will get a guaranteed 3 health back to your hero on this card, either from it attacking, or it being attacked.
We expect better cards for priest
99% of the time this is a worse version Earthern Ring Farseer - a 3/3 that will gain you 3 life when it trades off.
The remaining edge cases this might do very broken things after it survives to be bolstered or healed up. You were probably going to win those games anyway, and in any case if you wanted your game plan to revolve around a 3 mana 3/3 not being killed on sight, Vicious Fledgling is a better bet.
Comparisons with Wickerflame aren't really fair as Wickerflame is set to either deal damage twice or eat some sort of effect in exchange for his shield. And, taunts can't just be ignored for a turn, which this can.
Keep in mind that even if this does eat a removal card, it ate a removal card which, against Priest, you have to conserve your removal for their actual threats. And while you can hit past this since it doesn't have taunt, why would you? You're going to have to do substantial amounts of damage each turn to make the damage you do worthwhile. You let this thing live, the priest can send this where they want and undo some of the damage you just did. Plus, it's priest. With the new cards being released, you're likely not going to have a board and this just can smash face again, and again, and again and heal up the priest better than the priest can heal the priest.
And against Aggro, assuming Aggro still exists after this expansion, this thing can essentially win you the early to mid game transition single handedly. They trade into it? You heal up and remove their little guys. They ignore it? You trade and protect this thing, and heal up. They run out of steam? Pick off their guys and hit face with this and heal up.
This card is even decent in control matchups because, if it's left unanswered, you keep yourself topped off for the late game for the most part and if they use a removal on it, well, that's one less removal for your late game fight, which Priest can already outvalue most control decks in the late game as it is.
This card is MUCH better than Earthen Ring Farseer as it can get your much more healing and value and essentially is a spell taunt, unless your opponent likes giving you some free health with this thing. Plus, with buffs, this thing becomes public enemy number one because not only are you dealing more damage, you're easily outdamaging your opponent as you're going to be healing up most of the damage they do each turn.
Essentially this card gives you a very strong early to mid game minion that's surprisingly flexible thanks to that one tag which is one of the reasons I think Lifesteal is going to set control decks on top of the meta.
Lesser Healing healing is not efficient at all. It's 2 mana for 2 health. The only upside to it is that it's a hero power. As for the other heal cards. Nova is 5 mana AND it's not used for healing, it's used for board clears as the healing from it is often irrelevant except maybe against mage from time to time but even then it's still usually irrelevant. Mistress only sees play in Deathrattle Priest. Priest of the Feast is powerful healing but requires you to cast spells as well as it's a 4 drop, though the body offers decent trading potential. Darkshire Alchemist isn't even in standard plus it's slow. Binding Heal, is efficient but I would like to point out Flash Heal was a fail unless used for damage with Auchenai. And Greater Healing Potion is 4 mana and does absolutely nothing to the board. All of these either have a requirement, are very slow, or just do nothing to the board.
Out of all the cards listed in the 3 drop slot I've only ever seen the Glimmerroot and Talonpriest. Caller doesn't see play outside of disconnect or deathrattle priest. I've never seen Ooze, Stonehill, or Tar, except on a blue moon as a random tech in. I've yet to see a list running Courier, and Igneous Elemental? I've yet to see a working Elemental Priest deck so don't know why someone would run that in the 3 slot unless you need it for the deathrattle.
And even then, this card is still good and can see its way in priest. You can consecutively heal with it and against aggro, it's a guaranteed 6-9 health dropping it against them as most of the time as they normally don't have cards to deal with 3 health minions unless its meant for face damage which means, hey, you just got a pseudo-heal by redirecting one of their face cards. In the control matchup this wins you fatigue if it sticks, keeps you topped off for the late game when you do reach it, plus, you're priest. Unless they OTK you they're very likely NOT going to win. The new legendary says you win the fatigue matchup, plus he gives you more control, and more threats than your opponent can deal with as well as Devour Mind can easily get you a lot of extra tools in the value game.
The big reason why Acolyte of Agony is good is because is because it is incredibly flexible, which is what priest has been needing is some flexibilty. It offers a decent early game minion with a fair body. And it also offers a lot of potential healing. Combined with your hero power and the new Spirit Lash, along with Potion of Madness, aggro will actually fear facing priest. And if it eats removal in a control matchup? Well, what is your opponent doing wasting removal on a tiny 3/3 when they're planning to go late game with the one class who can outvalue everyone? This card brings a lot to the table and can push priests into the late game a lot better than most of the healing we're sitting on now because this is the first low drop healing card, aside from Spirit Lash, which can get board control AND healing done at the same time.