Dragon Priest: A Powerful Tribe Meets Big Spells
Dragons enjoy a storied history in World of Warcraft lore. From newcomers like Sindragosa to classics like Ysera and Deathwing, dragons have likewise been asserting their dominance in Hearthstone for a long time — and they aren’t going anywhere.
In the earliest months of Hearthstone, Ysera was a win condition for Control Priest. Blackrock Mountain and League of Explorers introduced many dragons to the set, which players banded together to create powerful Dragon Warrior tempo decks. Since Alexstrasza's Champion and Blackwing Corruptor left for Wild, players have found space for dragons in Highlander Priest and Control Mage, taking advantage of their tribal synergies in control matchups while using their generally formidable stats as leverage in midrange and tempo matchups. And of course, Kibler finds a way to thrill us with dragons no matter the class or meta — piloting Mitsuhide’s #2 Legend OTK deck while climbing to Legend in October.
The bottom line: dragons are a powerful, versatile tribe in Hearthstone. While Patches the Pirate and his ragtag crew have sped up the meta significantly, this hasn’t stopped players from experimenting with non-aggro decks in the month since Kobolds and Catacombs. We’ve seen, for instance, a powerful Control Warlock archetype and the continued dominance of both Razakus and Big Priest at high ranks. For months, in fact, these were the only Priest archetypes to keep in mind at the mulligan phase. But things have changed.
Cheating Mana with Dragons
Enter Dragon Priest — nothing altogether new, but a fun amalgam of powerful dragons, big spells, and Prince Keleseth. The style of deck, first dreamed up by Satellite, currently offers the potential for blow-out tempo swings against aggro and tempo decks alongside the flexibility of a value-oriented gameplan against, say, Control Warlock. The deck aims to use Northshire Cleric, Kabal Talonpriest, and Duskbreaker to maintain a semblance of board control early on, leveraging that advantage into overwhelming plays on turns four, five, and six. Twilight Drake and Cobalt Scalebane should dominate the board on these turns.
The most exciting new additions to the archetype are Spiteful Summoner and Grand Archivist, a duo capable of generating insane amounts of pressure against any opponent. The idea is to include only a handful of spells in our deck — in this case Mind Control and Free From Amber — so that, as with Big Spell Mage, we maximize the value from the Summoner and Archivist. The damage this causes the opponent is difficult for them to mitigate, often putting games out of reach at turn six.
There are two popular variations of the deck floating around out there: a value-focused one with Netherspite Historian, two Mind Control, and one Free From Amber; and a tempo-focused list with Prince Keleseth, one Mind Control, and two Free From Amber. Of course, one is not inherently better than the other. Players will need to analyze the meta at their rank and play accordingly.
One tip, though: Mind Control can absolutely dominate the Control Warlock lists that are so popular right now. Stealing a Voidlord allows you to continue pressing damage, protects your minions from Doomguard, and cheats the opponent’s Death Knight of value. And stealing a Carnivorous Cube does, in fact, give you two of whichever minion it consumed with its Battlecry. Without consistently drawing Duskbreaker, though, this build suffers against Aggro Paladin and other fast decks. To compromise, the Keleseth build could perform well with a Kabal Songstealer tech to answer rampant Voidlords.
Always mulligan for Northshire Cleric, Prince Keleseth, and Kabal Talonpriest. In Control matchups, you can prioritize the Cleric, Keleseth, and Spiteful Summoner. Always toss the spells back to maximize potential value for Spiteful Summoner and Grand Archivist. The control matchups are fun to navigate, because if the tempo gameplan doesn’t quite get you there, you must pivot to prioritize value. Deciding when, if ever, to make that pivot will often decide these games. Against Tempo Rogue and the like, whoever controls the board throughout the early game usually comes away with a win.
Take them by Surprise
In case anyone wasn't aware, dragons are good. Their resilience as the meta changes proves this. While there are still Razakus and Big Priests all over the standard ladder, the new Dragon Priest should be on the minds of everyone (especially those who queue into a Priest expecting a combo deck). Moreover, its versatility against many of the meta’s most popular decks makes it a wise choice, while its blowout potential with Spiteful Summoner makes it fun to play, too — a welcome combination for those hoping to climb ranks.
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Wow, it was so satisfying wrecking this deck with The Darkness a few moments ago. His 4 drops from Spiteful Summoner were shit, Rattling Rascal and The Voraxx. It is rarely that the Darkness is so useful.
For those looking for replacement for Curious Glimmerroot: Faerie Dragon works well.
The article mentions two variations.
Do we have a deck list for the other version with the Prince?
Thanks man :) I think I prefer the non-Pirate version.
That makes sense. Thank you very much! :)
more like highroll praying deck
There weren't any new dragons in League of Explorers, I think he meant to put The Grand Tournament. (Yes I know Brann was ran in Dragon priest but its not a dragon card.)
Is it worth spending 1k dust for this deck? I dont own any other tier 1 deck (at least not fully) and i keep encountering tempo rogues and aggro pallys.
Cant say if it has good winrate on rank you are playing, but I can say that this deck isnt that fun to play yourself and play against, so I wouldnt reccpmend it. But its a matter of taste, I guess.
Depends on what the 1k is going toward. If it's epics that can act as staples or high end upgrades in other decks? Totally worth. If it's solely for this? Ehhh.. not sure. But YMMV.
Im missing both Spiteful Summoners and both Drakonoid Operatives; i think I can make do without the Drakes. Tbh idk where else can the spiteful summoners be used: i saw the latest hs tournament where a zoolock guy had twisting nethers and the summoners, which looks interesting tho.
I'm currently running Spiteful Summoner in three decks. One is definitely competitive, being a Big Spell Dragon list, similar to what's above. The second is kind of competitive, being my Midrange Spiteful Paladin. With some very strong 8 drops out there, it can be very good. With other midrange tools, it's a deck that can hang tough and use those Spiteful Summoners for a big tempo play that swings the game. The last is more for lulz, and that's my Big Spell Mage. It's fun. It's interesting. But it's also a little slow to be competitive.
The Drakonid Operative, although extremely powerful, is not a good investment if you are a Standard only player. It's gone in about 3 to 3 1/2 months.
And a Zoo deck with those strikes me as more midrange than traditional Zoo. I used to play Zoo. A LOT. It's good for new players because it's cheap and fairly effective. It's not *as* good in today's meta, but it's still respectable if you're wanting to play competitively without a Legend push in mind. The inclusion of Twisting Nether is a bit of an oddity. That's usually more a control piece. A Zoo-lock can't afford to lose out a bunch of minions like that, so I'd expect it to be a 1-of-trump-card to try and swing the board back.
It's just a rare. It's only 200 dust.
The article talks about Dragonfire Potion but the list here doesn’t include it and no one else is using it either...?
8>6
From the article:
> Since Alexstrasza's Champion and Drakonid Operative left for Wild...
Umm, Drakonid Operative hasn't left for Wild.
I meant Blackwing Corruptor. Thanks for pointing that out!
Why do you run 2 Northshire Cleric ? Is it because the stats alone are enough to make you include it? Otherwise the card draw is unlikely to trigger. I also find Grand Archivist an inconsistent addition. Often you risk pulling out your last spell before you've got summoner and have the risk of casting mind control on a small minion. I think there are more consistent things you can do with the mana.