Our Razakus Highlander Priest deck list guide for the Kobolds and Catacombs expansion features the very best list for this popular archetype. This Highlander Priest guide includes Mulligans, Strategy & Matchups, and Card Replacements!
Introduction to Highlander Priest
Highlander Priest is a Control/Combo deck based around the synergy between Raza the Chained and Shadowreaper Anduin. With Raza, Anduin’s hero power, Voidform, costs 0 mana and can easily be used several times each turn. Once this combo is enabled, the deck can use Prophet Velen to deal insane burst damage in one turn.
Highlander decks have existed since the introduction of Reno Jackson, but Highlander Priest wasn’t top tier until Shadowreaper Anduin was released in the Knights of the Frozen Throne expansion.
Update: Highlander Priest – February 2018
Razakus Priest might be on the way out with the upcoming nerf to Raza the Chained. Without the ability to machine gun down enemies with 0-mana damage hero powers it will be a whole lot more difficult for this deck to exist in a fast paced meta.
Highlander Priest Mulligan Strategy & Guide
VS Everything
- Raza the Chained – Raza is the highest winrate card in the deck. Even before you draw the full combo, Raza gives you consistent value by enabling the use of your Hero Power every turn without having to spend any mana. Against Aggro decks this helps keep you alive, and against Control keeping it in your opening hand makes it that much easier to find your whole combo.
- Shadowreaper Anduin – There is some merit to throwing Anduin back against aggressive decks, but the whole deck is built to find this card (and Raza). Once played, Anduin’s Hero Power also helps clear minions off the board, which keeps you alive longer. Playing Anduin and Raza on curve means victory most of the time, and while it does take a while before you can actually play Anduin, it’s almost always worth keeping him to make sure you can play him as soon as possible.
- Kazakus – Kazakus is a versatile and powerful minion that can create answers to a variety of problems. He can clear your opponents board, transform minions that your opponent wants to resurrect, or just draw cards to accelerate drawing your combo.
VS Fast Decks
Higher Priority (Keep every time)
- Northshire Cleric – The only 1-cost minion in the deck, Northshire Cleric allows you to trade with early minions and get value from your Hero Power before your hero takes damage.
- Shadow Word: Pain – Good removal for almost all early minions. The smaller your opponent’s board, the longer you live to assemble your combo.
- Golakka Crawler – Thanks to Patches the Pirate, Pirates are staples in nearly every Aggro deck. You don’t need this against Burn Mage, but just about everything else runs at least Southsea Captain. Playing an above curve minion while simultaneously removing one of your opponent’s can buy you a lot of time against Aggro.
Lower Priority (Keep only if certain conditions are met)
- Auchenai Soulpriest and Circle of Healing -Auchenai and Circle as a duo create a powerful early board clear, but separately they’re pretty useless against Aggro in the early turns. If you have both keep them.
- Dragonfire Potion – Playing this card on curve really helps you stabilize. It removes most minions that would have hit the field by that point, including Corridor Creeper, and also prevents your opponent from playing Bonemare for full value. However, you can’t really afford to play you first card on turn 6, so unless you have earlier things to do send it back, especially if you don’t have The Coin.
VS Slow Decks
Higher Priority (Keep every time)
- Full mulligan for Shadowreaper Anduin and Raza the Chained. Each card you toss gives you another chance to play your combo on curve. If you find both pieces fast enough there isn’t much your opponent can do about it. Against Control your early survival tools are pointless, and everything else in your deck is there to find your combo. You can and probably should keep Kazakus as well.
Highlander Priest Win Rates
Winrate stats are currently unavailable for this deck at the moment!
Highlander Priest Play Strategy & Matchups
Vs Aggro
Survive until your opponent runs out of cards, or until you’ve played both combo pieces, at which point they can’t stick anything on the board.
This is a match where you really don’t need Anduin. The whole game you just want to stay out of range of their burn spells and wait, patiently. Eventually they play Aluneth, which draws them tons of cards (forever) and if they can’t stick minions and can’t finish you off with their burn spells, they eventually fatigue themselves to death, completely ignoring their Ice Block. This strategy may seem implausible, but if you keep track of which spells they’ve used and repeatedly clear their board, it’s very reliable. The maximum amount of burst damage they can do to you is 21, if they have two Sorcerer's Apprentice, two Frostbolt, two Fireball, a Medivh's Valet and a secret already on board. This scenario is completely unlikely, as they’ve probably used some of their burn to keep their minions on board, and would play Apprentice for board presence if they drew it early.
Remembering which spells have been used is very important, think about the most damage they could do to you and stay above that number. Always think about the enemy’s secrets, and play around them carefully. They typically run two Counterspell, two Explosive Runes and an Ice Block. It’s totally okay to waste spells like Silence and Circle of Healing to test for Counterspell, and if you think they have Explosive Runes, play higher HP minions like Auchenai Soulpriest and Raza to check for it. If it wasn’t runes, you have a big minion on board, and if it was, you didn’t take 5 damage.
A lot of this match is just about clearing as many minions as you can, but you always have to be conscious of Savage Roar. Count the amount of damage your opponent could do with it every turn, and clear or heal accordingly. Also remember your opponent could have supplemental spells in their hand like Mark of the Lotus and Power of the Wild. If you survive until around turn 5 or 6, you’ve probably cleared your opponents minions once or twice, and then it comes down to dealing with Living Mana. There are a couple fun things you can do with this. Targeting one of their tokens with Potion of Madness and running it into something else denies your opponent a mana crystal and gains you one (but don’t save your potion for this if you draw it early. It’s hardly the best answer to it and you probably want to use it to clear earlier minions).
Mass Dispel removes all the crystals your opponent invested in their Living Mana, but leaves the minions on board. If you have enough life to survive whatever damage they could deal the next turn, then this is an excellent strategy. The most devastating thing you can do to a board full of Living Mana tokens is play Psychic Scream. Not only do you put them at minimal crystals and remove their whole board, but now they’re drawing unimpressive 2/2s for the rest of the game. When clearing individual Living Mana tokens, make sure you think about how much mana that will give them next turn. If killing one allows them to play Savage Roar or some other attack buff next turn, then it’s better to hold off and tank the damage.
Tempo Rogue can be challenging because their boards tend to be tall rather than wide (fewer big minions rather than many small minions). Highlander priest does have some great single target removal, but it only gets to run one copy of each. The good news is that this deck’s burst damage is limited compared to some of the other Aggro decks. Many run Leeroy Jenkins, and many but not all run Cold Blood. Other than that, the only burst damage in the deck comes from Southsea Deckhand/Patches the Pirate and Bonemare. Once you get into the later turns, most of Rogue’s impactful minions will have 5+ attack, so they’ll all die to Anduin’s battlecry. If you can survive until this late in the game, and clear their board at least once, the match looks good for you.
Aggro Paladin or Murloc Paladin
This deck comes in two varieties, with and without Murlocs. Against the Murloc Version, you want to keep as many Murlocs off the board as possible to prevent big Gentle Megasaur plays. You can be a little choosy about whether or not you remove a Murloc if your hand has limited removal in it. You don’t want to waste Shadow Word: Pain on Grimscale Chum if it’s your only way to get rid of a potential Murloc Warleader play the following turn. Other than that, the biggest difference between the two decks is how many Pirates they include. The Murloc version runs minimal Pirates, usually just Captain and Patches if any. The non-Murloc version runs a bunch of Pirates. Because of this, Golakka Crawler is a tricky card to keep in your opening hand. I recommend keeping it, as even if you’re facing the Murloc version you’re likely to run into a Pirate at some point or another. When deciding how much you want to invest into clearing your opponent’s board, always keep Sunkeeper Tarim in mind. The later the game goes, the more likely they are to have him, and he can turn even pathetic boards into lethal damage very easily. If you run into Paladin a lot, you can consider adding a Shadow Word: Horror to your deck, as it hits most minions in Paladin.
Vs Control
Draw your combo and blow up your opponent with Prophet Velen. The faster you draw your combo the more likely you are to win.
The Mirror
This matchup is all about who draws their combo and Velen first. Use your silence spells on their minions that could draw a card, every card they draw puts them closer to their combo. Similarly, in this matchup your removal spells are for your own minions. If you Shadow Word: Pain your own Loot Hoarder, then your opponent can’t silence it or steal it with Potion of Madness. In the later turns, if your opponent hasn’t drawn their Raza yet (if they haven’t played it, it probably isn’t in their hand) then Psychic Scream can be used to prevent them from activating it. Raza lists do vary a lot, but most players run mostly the same minions. If your opponent has a 3 or less cost minion on the field that matches one in your hand, play it and Scream. Until they draw one they can’t play Raza.
Jade Druid is a hard matchup. Druid gained a TON of armor generation tools in Year of the Mammoth, and this deck is likely to be running most of them. The best reason to play Jade Druid is because of the popularity of Highlander Priest, so some lists will even be running Earthen Scales. While Highlander Priest does have a high damage ceiling, the ceiling is there, and Jade Druid gets past it fairly easily now. Try to get as much chip damage in early as you can, and hope to draw your combo on curve. If you run into this deck a lot, it’s not a bad idea to tech in a Skulking Geist, as without it you’re unfavored.
This deck does have a lot of burst damage, but Highlander Priest lists are filled with tools to slow it down or stop it. You can silence Possessed Lackey or Potion of Madness it to prevent your opponent from cheating out a big demon. You can also silence Carnivorous Cube if they play one and don’t sacrifice it. Kazakus potions can be very handy if you manage to get the polymorph effect from it (5 mana). If you poly a Doomguard your opponent can’t bring it back with Bloodreaver Gul'dan. I would prioritize this effect even over drawing two cards in this match. A demon shuffled into your opponent’s deck also won’t return with Gul’dan. What you do with Voidlord depends on your hand. You can silence it before you kill it to reduce your opponents board presence. Alternatively, you can produce the Voidwalkers on purpose to clutter your opponent’s Gul’dan rez or clutter their deck with Psychic Scream.
Cube-lock does a lot of damage to itself, so once you’ve found your combo there’s not much danger. Remember that Holy Smite, Mind Blast and Prophet Velen can deal 14 damage without Anduin, so if they get low enough you can just blow them up that way.
Kazakus Potions
There’s no guarantee you’ll get the effect you need, but I’ll go over some guidelines on which Kazakus potions you should try to make.
1 Mana Potion – The one mana potion has the highest value for the cost of any Kazakus Potion. The good times to take this potion are when you are desperate against Aggro and when you’re looking to blow up your opponent with Velen. The 1 mana potion can find 2 damage AOE and 3 single target damage, so if you have 5 mana to work with and don’t have a more sure way of surviving, you can hope for this combination to kill one minion with as much as 5 health, and all other minions with 2 or less. You can also get 4 armor or Freeze a random target if you miss one or both of your preferred effects. To create burst with Velen, you’re only looking for the 3 damage option. This can hit face, and deals double damage while Velen is on the field.
5 Mana Potion – When playing Kazakus on curve, this is the best potion to take in most situations. Against just about anything, you’re looking for the “draw 2” effect, unless you’re dangerously low on life (in which case you’d rather have armor). The second effect varies by matchup. In Aggro matchups you want the 4 damage AOE, which is enough to clear most boards on turn 5. Against matchups with recursion, like Cube-lock and Big Priest, you want to take the Polymorph effect. Polymorphing Big Priest’s first minion slows down their Eternal Servitude plan, and Bloodreaver Gul'dan doesn’t bring back sheep. Against Control decks like the mirror the secondary effect matters less, but resurrecting 2 minions can be good if some of your draw minions have died already. Polymorph, deal 5, and summon a 5/5 minion are also good options to take here.
10 Mana Potion – Don’t take the 10 mana potion. It does provide the biggest effect, but spending your whole turn playing this one card is almost never worth it. When Kazakus was first introduced, 10 mana potions were pretty good because most Control matchups were value based, and this potion gives you the most overall value. Current Highlander Priest is not a value deck, it’s a Combo/Burst deck. The only reason to go for this potion is that it can polymorph the whole board, but the only matchups you would need that for are Cube-lock and N’zoth Warrior. If Cube-lock has a board full of demons you don’t have time to make this potion, and even if you saw it coming and created it in advance, Gul’dan probably summoned 4 Doomguards and killed you. Polymorphing and removing the board after a N’zoth can be pretty good, but N’zoth Warrior usually runs Dead Man's Hand to play multiples of them, and spends the game racking up armor. You’re better off taking the 5 mana draw to find your combo faster, or 1 mana damage to make Velen more bursty.
Highlander Priest Card Substitutions
The only manditory cards in this deck are Shadowreaper Anduin, Raza the Chained and Prophet Velen. Any list without Kazakus is strictly worse, but the deck can be played without him. Lists like this one, designed to find the combo as fast as possible without dying, have proven to be the best, but there’s a lot of room for this deck to be worse while still being good. You could try a version of the deck based around N'Zoth, The Corruptor and/or Awaken the Makers. The Quest allows you to have a pseudo Reno Jackson, and the higher minion count can be better against decks like Jade Druid. You could also try a Dragon package with Duskbreaker and Drakonid Operative. Including this package will slow down your combo, but give you much more productive things to do in the midgame. If you’re missing cards that aren’t the three mandatory ones above, you can include some of the following:
- Gnomish Inventor and/or Polluted Hoarder – This deck wants to find its combo as fast as possible, and the more cycle you include the more often that will happen. It’s better to have survival tools instead of going overboard with cycle, but if you’re missing some cards anything with “draw a card” on it is a suitable replacement.
- Shadow Word: Horror with or without Pint-Size Potion – Shadow Word: Horror is actually pretty good right now against most aggro decks, even on it’s own. Pint-Size Potion allows it to hit higher attack minions like Corridor Creeper and Cobalt Scalebane, but is largely useless if you don’t also have Horror to go with it.
- Dirty Rat – If you run into Combo decks a lot, Dirty Rat is a great inclusion. It gives you a way to cheese decks like Exodia Mage and you can even ruin opposing Highlander Priests by hitting their Raza or Velen.
- Doomsayer – Great to slow down aggressive starts, this card is often included in Highlander Priest.
- Lyra the Sunshard – Many versions of this deck include Lyra. Any card that creates additional cards is going to have synergy with your combo.
- Gilded Gargoyle – Were it not for Potion of Madness, this would probably be a staple in this deck. Zero mana spells synergize so well with the Velen combo, but having it potion’d away is a bummer.
- Thoughtsteal – More value and more cards to activate Voidform.
- Holy Fire – More healing that also removes a minion.
- Fire Fly – Trades well with early minion and provides two Voidform ticks with one card.
- Gluttonous Ooze – Without Pirate Warrior plaguing the ladder this card has fallen somewhat out of favor, but it does have it’s uses. Most Paladin decks run Rallying Blade and/or Unidentified Maul, and Rogue, Warlock and Mage lists often run their Legendary weapon. Acidic Swamp Ooze and Harrison Jones also work here. I don’t think there’s enough weapons in the Standard meta to justify running more than one of these.
Please Update this deck guide for the new wild season:
-1x Golakka Crawler
-1x Kabal Talon Priest
-1x Curious Glimmeroot
-1x Prophet Velen
-1x Gadgetzan Auctioneer
for
+1x Emperor Thaurissan
+1x Excarvated Evil / Shadow Word: Horror
+1x Lightbomb
+1x Spawn of Shadows
+1x Azure Drake
LOL now garbage with the Raza nerf.
RIP
The spiteful priest will slide right into it’s spot in the meta pretty seamlessly.
To be fair, the deck will still be usable… but nowhere near it’s previous power level.
That, and you read my mind, Matt.
Spiteful Priest is the new Best Priest.
sorry but if you update the deck to not-include lyra, you might also want to update the guide as it doesn’t make sense otherwise 😉
Guide is updated now, sorry about that.
🙂 thank you!!
i feel its too slow, i even switched galakka crawler for loot hoarder, raza and my hero card are always at the end of the deck. I might be very unlucky but in order to win u need to draw 1st raza, then hero card then play velen with radiant elemental with mind blast and holy smite. more often then not i get completly bashed before i even remotly have assembled those combo pieces
Reokacement fot Thalnos?
I keep running into the new armor stack Jade Druid how do I beat them with this deck? By the time I have my combo they are at 50+ hp, maybe I’m just unlucky
Yeah I kinda wanna know the same thing
Yeah I just took someone out with 37 damage in one turn. Fun times
Embrace the shadows??
Yes? It’s a better Auchenai Soulpriest.
Not always. It is better as in you can prayer wrath sooner. However, having a 2 damage hero power is awesome!
Soulpriest sticks around after the Circle of Healing (which is the entire reason to play it) very, very rarely and in most matchups you actually want the ability to heal, especially since it can turn off a crucial Binding Heal. Decks are tempo-focused at the moment and although the 3-attack is relevant, it has 1 health when used with Circle and is too easily cleared with tempo gain for the opponent. If it’s at full health, you played a Sen’Jin Shieldmasta without the taunt on turn 4 or simply managed to ping them for 2 on turn 6. Sub-optimal in most cases, even though the Sen’Jin body can sometimes be relevant.
I can make this deck , but i really don’t know if i should.I think i know how to play it , but , i really don’t know 😀
*i really don’t know if i should craft it.
neah , crafted it , swaped auctioneer for lyra , it’s fun , just played 5 games with it , won them all.
There is absolutely no reason to play Lyra in this deck. Update is coming out today so hopefully that will explain things better.
I don’t know , i crafted it either way , and it won me some games , but yeah , i think auctioneer might be better since i am losing games because of card draw.
First of all, i was leery of dropping so much dust on legendaries for a deck i didnt know for sure id enjoy, but i decided to go for it since its also a top-tier wild deck. And oh man i dont regret it one bit! The deck is a blast!
That said, having played both, the dragon list seems largely just way better than this one. Really the only things it cuts compared to this list are the cards i found were strongly underperforming anyway.
Pls update evident! Love this site btw 🙂
there is a new highlander deck, mostly creatures and most of them are death rattle. You still have Raza and DK but excludes most spells and Velen. Which deck is this?
https://hsreplay.net/decks/9hn9fgDyLjvhASbpBKITYd/
Tempo Priest
What you are referring to is a completely different deck that’s quite honestly a high-level gimmick that aim to exploit an unusual approach that people don’t expect when thay face Priest and is generally safe. Rogue does pretty much the same thing but better.
If you ever play Aggro Priest in casual you’ll notice people always Mulligan wrong against you. It’s a decent tactic
Thoughts on Coldlght Oracle for the card draw?
And what would you recommend swapping out for Golakka Crawler if seeing a lot of pirates?
There is a heavier-cycle version that uses Clodlight Oracle, it’s a perfectly fine source of draw. This specific list here doesn’t because it’s more well-rounded, but you can totally play Oracle. If you want to be better against pirates you can take out somethung clunky. The best thing to cut is Mass Dispel, but you can also get rid of the Auctioneer if you are facing mostly aggressive decks, however that will hurt your control matchups noticeably.
Your main win conditions are Lyra the Sunshard value generation.
There is no lyra..
That’s not even close to your main win condition, I don’t know where you got that idea from. This deck wins by bursting people down with Velen and Shadowreaper Anduin’s hero power.
its arguable, but when you cast a spell to draw cards, do you want a random card that has no combo factor with your deck? Or draw cards that can finish the game and necessary pieces as they are part of the combo i.e., Velen Raza DK
Love the deck, but I am running out of cards consistently. I love having all the cards, but unfortunately run out of cards before just before I can close the game out.
That means that you are not sending enough stuff at the opponent’s face. If you completely run out of cards, you have an OTK with Prophet Velen when you have your Shadowreaper Anduin hero power. Velen, Radiant and a bunch of 0- and 1-cost spells (that costs 0 thanks to Radiant) and Mind Blast in the same turn.
NO LYRA, WTF
Oh my god! How could this be? Is this even real life?
I really love playing this deck and I’ve been playing around 100 games with it. It’s almost impossible to reach rank 5 with this deck. You have to be so lucky with the cards.. getting the cards in the right order/combination and hope for other early deck getting a bad start.
Maybe it’s just me being extremly unlucky with my cards!!
Compared to other decks out there such as Jade druid, Big Druid, Rogues, secret mages, Mid range hunters and warlocks it’s hard playing a Kazakus priest. Also, the other decks are easier to play and most of them cheaper aswell.
And HOW on earth do you win against a mage that on round 10 kills you with 20 fireballss ??
No you are just garbage. This deck is the best. If you cant even get 5 with this don’t blame the deck scrub.
Wow, so edgy. It’s not an easy deck to pilot mate so just practice with it and be sure to change cards based on your meta
Kazakus change?
surprising for me, kazakus has won me so many games
Any suggestions for replacing Thalnos?
And I don’t have Elise.
I replaced Thalnos with Elise is that fine or should I save dust for thalnos? I think elise is better than thalnos in the deck since she offers so much valuue
Is it possible to play this deck without velen or kazakus?
Without Velen you lose your prime combo win condition. It would still be decent, but not even close to as good as the optimal list.
I want to add dirty rat here, what can i replace?
You can sacrifice some burst potential against Druid by cutting Mind Blast or just remove the worst card in your deck (Auchenai).
I’m hybridizing this with the old Elise version. Dropping Auchenai and Circle for Elise and Tar Creeper. Early taunt saves my ass against Hunter and Shaman.
What could i possibly cut for elise. I realy like playing her in this deck (Should i even do it?) Also, why gnommish inventor?
We play Inventor because we need pretty much every card that draws other cards. You can cut Auchenai for Elise if yo ureally want to.
I’ve cut Auchenai for Elise, and Circle of Healing for Tar Creeper. Tar Creeper has saved my ass way to many times with the old build of this deck for me to drop it. The early taunt can destroy Hunter and Shaman.
I am disappointed with my results playing this deck. I performed much better with the deck prior to this, with Elyse.
I actually reached level 10 with the Elyse deck last season. The Ungoro pack helped and make your spells and minions unpredictable for your opponent. I’ve been trying to play this deck since this weekend, and I realize the problem is me, or the competition on the lower ladder kills this deck, but I run out of cards in a couple of games.
The synergy feels off, where the combos are not in my hand. I try and play for them, but I end up just playing the cards as a hail mary at times. For example, Circle of Healing + Auchenai does not happen, can’t get the cards at the right moment. Same for Circle of Healing, + Northshire Cleric + Spirit Lash.
Yeah, trading out Auchenai for Elise is an easy call for me.
Ok… i’ve been playing the deck for the weekend because everybody is saying that THIS IS THE DECK.
Stuck on level 10 (because you cant lose anymore stars at this point).
Impossible to win JADE DRUIDS. You just cant. They wait for the Fen’ral combo and this is it. Bad hands against agro is also a defeat, like the Rogue deck of the moment.
Only easy matchups are Shamans. For the dust cost of the deck, if you are not a pro player (i mean PRO), dont use this deck. Too much strugle. Warlock or Rogue are my bets.
Best of luck to you all.
Believe me it possible to win. I usually play with Jade Druid and i lost 6/10 against this deck. I’m saving to craft this one now.
How to replace priest of the feast?
Greater Healing Potion
I played the elise version of this deck. The previous one in this site. İt is still good?
It’s definitely good.
“Tar Creeper – An excellent body in the early game that stops most threats around its mana cost dead in their tracks.”
It’s not on the deck list though 😀
Fixed, thanks.
is it worth dusting guldan to craft thalnos(only card i dont have)?
no not worth
You got me!
The new iteration of the deck changed quite a bit of cards. I tried to delete all mentions of the ones that were no longer in the decklist but I failed. Now I must restore honor to my family by committing Seppuku… or by doing a better job next time.
Just dusted my Big Priest deck to start building this
Have all the cheaper cards + Anduin & Razza
Enough dust to craft either Velen or Kazakus next
Which would you recommend?
Not the author but a highlander priest player…
I would think Kazakus is definitely way more flexible in this case. I personally do not have Velen, so I’ve been running a deck without it. It works, but of course I lose a lot of the burst without him.
Thanks Rainon. My thoughts as well
Kazakus it is!
I have every card except bloodmage Thalnos, how can I replace him?
Just cut him and play one of the next best cards that didn’t make it into the final list – Wild Promancer for more board clear options, Mass Dispel for the extra cycle and a little bit of value, Cabal Shadow Priest against midrange decks or Elise for added value in the control matchups.
Alternatively, if you really want to win the mirror matches, play a Mirage Caller.
Replacement for Velen?
You can play a version of the deck that doesn’t have Velen and still somewhat burst them down, but it’s a lot less reliable to actually kill the opponent. Anything that gives you more cards or generates value is fine.
What about Mind Blast? Or is it overkill?
If you want to be greedier and improve the mirror match, Mind Blast is OK but then you give up power somewhere else – cycling our anti-aggro tools. If you are facing too many other Priests, you can consider Burgly Bully and/or Mind Blast.
Hi m8, if my opponent is also highlander and he gets raza and dk first, what should i do, if i have only dk in my hand, i need to play him asap, or just w8 for raza and try to stay alive? coz every time when my opponent gets combo first, i lose :C
Yea that’s kind of how mirror matches work, it’s very hard to avoid that happening. Your best bet is to powercycle as much as possible and deny them draws – it’s important to fight for the card advantage. Usually the person who outdraws their opponent wins. Get 5 mana Kazakus potions that draw 2 cards whenever possible and use Potion of Madness to deny them Acolyte, Hoarder or Thalnos cycling.
thnx, i will try and i think u gave me the best option. Good tips bro
is it a good idea in the mirror matchup to have Hemet in the deck between elise?….cuz the match depend so much on having DK
It’s only good when you refresh the hero power several times every turn, and how are you going to do that with no 3 cost and lower cards?
How can you say that this deck feasts on Jade decks if the Winrate is ~39% ? Is there any viable techs against them, besides skullking ?
It beats Druids by bursting them down from high health totals. The reason for the low winrate is because the deck is very popular and is being played by everybody – unfortunately most players who pick up the deck don’t recognise their win condition and try to play on the board against a stream of 10/10 and higher jades.
and I don’t see the ‘nerf’ changing that.
the fact that this deck looses miserably to jade druid… is depressing to me.
The fact you don’t know how to spell the word lose, is even more depressing…
Your thoughts on skulking geist in this deck? It’s slightly anti-synergistic, but can occasionally help by thinning your deck/hand, and many decks that aren’t jade druid will be running it anyway. I’ve been playing this deck swapping Glimerroot and Priest of the Feast (which I don’t own) for Kabal Courier and Geist and having mixed results, but it feels worth it to not be hopeless against jade druid.
It’s not really needed. You beat Jade Druid by bursting them down with an insane Velen turn and can take them down from upwards of 20 hp easy. You have plenty of time to set that up in the matchup. Geist will remove your Holy Smite, which is absolutely crucial for dealing a lot of damage.
If you play Geist you will kill their Idols, but that doesn’t matter because you don’t want to go to fatigue. If you’re not killing them you will lose to the rest of their jade cards.
Is Elise replaceable, if so how can I replace her?
And is it better to craft Velen or Elise ?
For this deck, definitely Velen. In general, Elise is a safer craft, used in more decks.
How do I beat quest mage (I see them very often) without dirty rat or more card steals to find ice block? It’s insta concede for me
What about stonehill defender instead tar creaper and Laval courir instead curious glomerular?
You simply have to be faster than them. You can assemble your burst more quickly and just kill them. If you are seeing that many Mages than obviously you need to tech against the field. Cut the Greater Healing Potion for an Eater of Secrets.
I put in a secret eater just for this matchup because its so tough but I find it dead in all other matchups. I also have a coldlight and i’ve try to burn some of their key cards but its inconsistent. You need to burn antonidas to ruin the combo as most quest mages run 2x simalcrum to copy sorcerers. I find myself losing to a 2hp quest mage 100% of the time if they draw antonidas and I’m out of options. #help
basically get combo early and pressure them before they have combo assembled.
Is it worth to craft Raza right now? I dont have it and in 8 month it will rotate out. I dont have Velen also but I have all the other cards, including Anduin, Kazakus and Elise…
I think that doing the deck without the first 2 cards would be a lot less powerfull…
You can’t go wrong with Raza. Many people play a version without Velen that’s a little bit more value oriented.
Is it worth i to craft prophet velen right now, or will the deck be less viable after a druid nerf? Or is prophet velen replaceable?
Velen is not replaceable and most definitely worth to craft. If you don’t believe me, you can listen to Frodan’s wise words: https://clips.twitch.tv/CleverFlirtyAntelopeCoolCat.
Although the deck is built in a way where it can handle Jade Druid, it’s still not a guaranteed win. A nerf to that class will only make this deck even stronger, potentially the #1 in the meta.
this deck is so beautiful. pure fun + very very strong
I dont know if the owner of this guide looks at the comments but i would like to applaud the maker of this. This was extremely helpful and easy to use, and was really clean. Thank you so much for making this, for us new players you are a godsend.
PS: If you make more guides in the future make more substitute sections like Glimmerroot for Kabal
Thank you very much for the kind words!
I do plan to further expand this guide (waiting on a couple of visual assets) and improve the substitute sections on all of my guides to the best of my ability. We realise that not everybody can afford to invest into this game as much as the streamers and pro players do and we try to provide the best budget alternatives whenever that’s possible.
Highlander Kazakus
Class: Priest
1x (0) Silence
1x (1) Holy Smite
1x (1) Northshire Cleric
1x (1) Potion of Madness
1x (1) Power Word: Shield
1x (2) Acidic Swamp Ooze
1x (2) Golakka Crawler
1x (2) Loot Hoarder
1x (2) Novice Engineer
1x (2) Radiant Elemental
1x (2) Shadow Visions
1x (2) Shadow Word: Pain
1x (2) Spirit Lash
1x (3) Acolyte of Pain
1x (3) Kabal Courier
1x (3) Shadow Word: Death
1x (3) Tar Creeper
1x (4) Eternal Servitude
1x (4) Gnomish Inventor
1x (4) Greater Healing Potion
1x (4) Kazakus
1x (4) Shadow Word: Horror
1x (5) Elise the Trailblazer
1x (5) Holy Nova
1x (5) Raza the Chained
1x (6) Bone Drake
1x (6) Dragonfire Potion
1x (8) Shadowreaper Anduin
1x (9) Obsidian Statue
1x (9) Ysera
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I dont have:
Mass Dispel
Pint-Size Potion
Glimmerroot
Priest of the Feast
Lyra the Sunshard
Prophet Velen
Bloodmage Thalnos
Doomsayer
If there are anythings you think I should drop or change out i’m all ears
I dont have a lot of cards but Priest is by far my favorite deck and I basicly disenchanted all of my other cards to make the deck
You don’t need to play all of those cycling minions such as Gnomish Inventor, Novice and Loot Hoarder since without Velen you are not drawing into a kill turn as fast as possible. With powerful cards like Statue and Ysera you can consider Shadow Essence and Y’Shaarj if you have him and I would recommend getting the Karazhan adventure – Barnes is a perfect fit for your deck and it will give you Priest of the Feast as well.
The most important piece missing from your deck is Kabal Songstealer, which is an incredibly powerful card and common.
Thank you so much!
So do you think I should craft Kabal and put priest of the feast and barnes in?
Do you think I should get Karazhan adventure?
I think Kabal is a must-have. Getting Karazhan would be nice – it has a ton of powerful cards that are good across many classes, but it’s not strictly necessary. But it’s fun to play through the missions!
This deck has too much card draw
too much card draw? there can´t be enough in this deck
It’s on par with other control decks, you think it’s too much because it’s a combination of the Priest class’ lack of draw and the highlander deck type.