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Mulligans
General Mulligans
Activate the Obelisk is a necessary win condition against all but the most aggressive face decks. It should only very rarely be mulliganed, though it can come down after turn 1 if it's important to get Northshire Cleric down.
Northshire Cleric is excellent. Better than usual in this deck because it will have plenty of healing targets and a better reason to be healing than normal. Not a turn 1 play in this deck normally, but so important to draw that you keep it anyways.
Injured Tol'vir is a solid 2 drop which is an excellent target for Wretched Reclaimer and Psychopomp. Also, a good healing target for the quest and enables turn 3 Northshire Cleric + Heal. Also can swing with Circle of Healing.
Injured Blademaster is a solid 3 drop which is an excellent target for Wretched Reclaimer and Psychopomp. Also can swing with Circle of Healing.
Aggro Mulligans
Note that you still keep Activate the Obelisk unless you're facing overwhelming aggro. Its win condition is still important for your success.
Holy Ripple is kept against token decks. Great answer to Wispering Woods, Microtech Controller, Squirrels, or 1/1 Mechs. Even helps your board state a bit if token decks get greedy and leave minions up.
Penance is a card that Priest has desperately wanted for early board states. Powerful with the upside of healing. Especially good if there is an important removal target like Keeper Stalladris, Sorcerer's Apprentice, or Flame Imp.
Wild Pyromancer is the nuts against token decks, and made better with Holy Ripple. Also strong against Zoo and Murlocs.
Midrange Mulligans
Activate the Obelisk is your win condition against midrange decks. Allows you to overwhelm their board and crushes them over time.
Penance again for high-importance targets is a must.
Hench-Clan Shadequill is great for controlling the midgame. Great stats which make it difficult to remove, and if you're behind the deathrattle is oftentimes negated. Worst case, it works towards quest completion.
Combo Mulligans
Activate the Obelisk is a bit slow against combo, but you would still never mulligan it because your win condition would vanish. Will struggle against these decks somewhat.
Shadow Word: Death counters turn 3/4 Mountain Giant
Mass Hysteria + Holy Ripple counters turn 6/7 Mountain Giant + Conjurer's Calling.
Penance is again useful for high importance clears.
Additionally there are some combos with Wretched Reclaimer which you'd wish to keep as well. Injured Tol'vir is really good into it because it also puts it in the resurrect pool for Psychopomp. Convincing Infiltrator for hard removal in the late game is solid as well.
Control Mulligans
Activate the Obelisk is your win condition vs Control. It can snowball boards very quickly and completing it quickly is essential to your ability to win.
Psychopomp is the card in this deck against control. Can snowball early boards, create minions which are difficult to remove, provide healing targets, and put up impressive stats early.
Convincing Infiltrator is an excellent midgame option which becomes deadly alongside Embalming Ritual and Wretched Reclaimer.
As a player who explored Silence Priest for much of Rise of Shadows, I was incredibly excited to learn about the tools that Priest was getting in Saviors of Uldum. Two cards immediately stood out to me: Activate the Obelisk and Psychopomp. Knowing that, I sought to create a deck which could utilize those powerful tools to their full potential. This was the result.
A few notes on the construction:
- An omission that might strike some is Divine Hymn. I definitely considered it for this deck but ultimately rejected it in favor of Holy Ripple. There are a few basic reasons why. First, Holy Ripple is excellent against Token Druid which saw a fair amount of play in the last expansion. Second, Holy Ripple fills the 1 damage void that Mass Hysteria left when facing a board of Conjurer's Calling, Mountain Giant, and Grave Horror, which is essential to be competitive against Mage. Third, Penance mitigates the need for hero healing that Divine Hymn provides and Circle of Healing is more flexible as a board heal. Note that this is purely based on the metagame and Divine Hymn may be better or worse depending on what you’re facing.
- Also worth noting is the omission of Sandhoof Waterbearer. It simply doesn’t make the cut. Its statline is ok at 5/5 and its effect is not good enough to compensate. 5 points of healing is far from guaranteed and it’s uninspiring alongside Psychopomp. It directly competes with Convincing Infiltrator for that slot in the deck and is worse. Note that Convincing Infiltrator is also excellent alongside Embalming Ritual, Wretched Reclaimer, and Psychopomp when making your comparison. If you feel differently, that’s probably the switch you would make.
- Omitted also is Acolyte of Pain because it’s questionable alongside Psychopomp because of the overdraw possibilities and poor interaction with the upgraded hero power along with its stats. It could be run for extra draw, but there are decided drawbacks. Note this deck has a small curve and wants to combo cards together, so draw is even more important than usual. Notably, I thought Acolyte is a better engine than Questing Explorer for its synergy and late-game use, and Dead Ringer because mech synergy oftentimes spawns 1/1 tokens that are terrible alongside Psychopomp.
- Finally High Priest Amet isn’t included in this list because most of the minions are high health minions and his downside is highlighted in a high-health minion deck.
- Wretched Reclaimer is the third best card in this deck behind Obelisk and Psychopomp. It bolsters your early boards with Injured Tol’vir and Injured Blademaster, allows for backbreaking value trades, and enables your nastiest combos alongside Embalming Ritual and Obelisk.
- Shadow Word: Death can be substituted for different tech choices, it is currently there for mage.
