Necronlord’s Season 29 Handpriest

Greetings,

today I want to introdruce my Handlock-Style Control Priest to you. There are some people who don’t whant the Priest class to die, so i try out some new variants and this is a relative succesfull one.

Playstyle and main idea

It’s a control deck with focus on a big hand and minions like Twilight Drake and Mountain Giant who are taunted with minions like Sunfury Protector and Faceless Shambler. For filling your hand you can use Northshire Cleric, Thoughtsteal, Museum Curator, Acolyte of Pain, Shifting Shade and even Power Word: Shield.

Your main wind condition is the Faceless Shambler who is coping minions your enemy can’t remove easy. In control matchup it will mostly go into fatigue so you have to use your Entomb wisely.

Card Decisions and Tech Cards

Card Decisions

All cards marked with a (T) are tech cards wich can changed for other tech Cards.

• Museum Curator is a early game card wich can be played without loosing a card in your hand. It’s the perfect 2-drop for this deck. The discover mechanic let you choose a card for your situation but in most cases you whant a card with card draw. (Shifting Shade, Loot Hoarder, Polluted Hoarder, Bloodmage Thalnos)
• Sunfury Protector (T) is to taunt your board. It’s mostly to use it together with Twilight Drake and Mountain Giant
• Wild Pyromancer is to stop Aggro and control the early game. Against Aggro you should use him together with Coin, Shadow Word: Pain and Power Word: Shield. Against midrange and tempo you can drop him on an empty board to gain tempo for yourself.
• Acolyte of Pain (T) nice together with Wild Pyromancer or Power Word: Shield to stop aggro. Against tempo/midrange and control your enemy is mostly able to kill it with just one card.
• Thoughtsteal is a nice card to fill your hand and very good to get more options to deal with your enemy. You will get some nice drops to beat him with his own weapons.
• Faceless Shambler is very nice to drop it together withTwilight Drake and Mountain Giant. Drop it at round 5 after you dropped a Twilight Drake/Mountain Giant your enemy can’t deal with OR drop it together with one of these cards. You should save at least one of your big threats if you have at least on Faceless Shambler in your deck otherwise it’s a dead card.
• Shifting Shade (T) is a little thoughsteal with a minion together.
• Twilight Drake this is your main drop for round 4. If you hold this in your hand try to save as many cards as possible and try to draw as you can without loosing to much control/tempo.
• Mountain Giant is nice in matchups where you don’t play too much cards. That’s the reason why there is only one copy of it in this deck. In tempo/aggro matchups it’s mostly a dead card until round 8 except your enemy is unlucky and can’t build a early game.

Tech Cards

• Acidic Swamp Ooze or Harrison Jones is nice if you meet a great amount of Tempo Warriors and Aggro Shamans.
• Second Mountain Giant is nice for Control Matchups because your enemy runs out of removals in time.
• Second Excavated Evil or Holy Nova can be used if you play against much Zoo-like decks and you recognize that you need more board clear.
• Defender of Argus to get bigger and better taunts and trades.

 Matchups

Warrior is maybe the most played class today in the meta. The most problem is here that you don’t know if you play against an aggro, midrange or control deck. Mulligan for tempo.

Mulligan

Look for Shadow Word: Pain, Museum Curator, Wild Pyromancer, Power Word: Shield, Thoughtsteal and Twilight Drake. Maybe you can look for the Auchenai Soulpriest + Circle of Healing combo. It depends a little bit if you hold the Coin and wether you have some of the other cards.

Playstyle

Tempo and Tempo Dragon Warrior

Try to keep the board clean with less cards you can, so you can drop a big Twilight Drake or Mountain Giant  at turn 4 or 5. The Tempo warrior just have 2 Executes and he must hold it to use both. Shadow Word: Death can be used for all minions over 5 attack. Your Wild Pyromancer can be dropped on an emtpy board to steal tempo of your enemy.

(Dragon) Control  and C’Thun Warrior

Here you have to play against the main playstyle of your deck. The game will go into fatigue in 95% of the cases and here is the warrior favorated, so try to draw as less cards as possible. Against C’Thun save one Entomb for his C'Thun. In most cases you will get some Acolytes  of the old god from Thoughtsteal and Shifting Shade. Use your Sylvanas Windrunner wisely and try to get a Sylvanas Windrunner or Shifting Shade from your Museum Curator. The best weapons against control warrior are his own cards.

The most playstyle you see is midrange. There are some Yogg Hunters out there but this is not the norm so mulligan for midrange.

Mulligan

Against Midrange Hunter Mulligan for Power Word: Shield, Shadow Word: Pain Museum Curator, Thoughtsteal and Twilight Drake. If you have the coin you can search Auchenai Soulpriest and Circle of Healing for some nice board clear. You can hold Northshire Cleric and Power Word: Shield but don’t play the Northshire Cleric alone because it’s killed instantly.

Playstyle

Midrange Hunter

The Mindrange Hunter is a very minion based deck with some tempo spells. Try to do efficent trades. Save your Entomb for his Savana Highmanes and your Auchenai Soulpriest + Circle of Healing combo for his Call of the Wild. Big threats are very hard to kill for the midrange hunter espacily if you have some other minions on the board because mostly they play just Deadly Shot as removal so try to drop your Twilight Drake as early as possible. After you surived round 6 (Savana Highmane) and round 8 (Call of the Wild) you should win this game.

There are two main Warlock playstiles – Zoo and Reno. At Reno you have mostly the combo or the C’Thun style. Mulligan hard for The Zoo.

Mulligan

Against Zoo your main weapon is the board clear. Mulligan for Wild Pyromancer + Power Word: Shield and/or Shadow Word: Pain. Northshire Cleric, Museum Curator and Acolyte of Pain are nice for traiding.

Playstyle

Zoolock

Board Control is the keyword. Keep the enemy board as clear as possible. Don’t use your boardclears too early. Wait for at least 4 or 5 minions on the enemy board. Use your Shadow Word: Pain against the Imp Gang Boss or Flame Imp and kill theyr Darkshire as soon as you can. With your Museum Curator you should discover sticky early/midgame minions like Infested Tauren or Abomination. 10 or 14 is your lethal range (in dependence of how much Power Overwhelming he played) so try to stay over this life-range.

C’Thun Renolock

It’s a control matchup so Entomb is your main weapon. Save one for C'Thun and the other for a situation you can’t clear. Don’t flood the board with big minions because of his Twisting Nether. Try to play constantly big threats because your enemy don’t have that much removals.

Combo Renolock

A little bit like C’Thun but with more pressure. Try to build some pressure with Twilight Drake, Shifting Shade, Wild Pyromancer and maybe a minion of Museum Curator but don’t overwhealm your board. Drop Justicar Trueheart as early as you can and try to stay above 22 live because that’s your lethal. Be allerted after your enemy played Emperor Thaurissan because this from now on he can play is combo.

Druid can be played as C’Thun/Ramp or Yogg/Token. Both are midrange style decks so mulligan should be similar.

Mulligan

Look for Museum Curator, Thoughtsteal, Twilight Drake, Mountain Giant and Shadow Word: Pain. If you have a Twilight Drake or Mountain Giant you can hold a Faceless Shambler.Shadow Word: Death is nice to deal with early big minions. If you hold Auchenai Soulpriest– Combo piece you can mulligan for the other one (Circle of Healing or Auchenai Soulpriest).

If you hold a Power Word: Shield you can search for Northshire Cleric or Wild Pyromancer.

Playstyle

Ramp/C’Thun Druid

The big weakness of Druid is, that he don’t have many removals. Try to play your Twilight Drake and Mountain Giant with a Faceless Shambler as early as you can. Save one Entomb for C'Thun.

Try to play your Justicar Trueheart as early as you can to use your Auchenai Soulpriest as a soft removal.

Yogg – Token Druid

In this matchup you need your board clears. After your enemy did a combo you have to clear his board. Don’t use your board clears too fast and kill his Violet Teachers as fast as you can. Cycle for your board clears and the game should be yours.

This Matchup is similar to Midrange Hunter. Shaman can be played as Aggro, Midrange and Ancestral Control variant. Aggro and midrange is pretty similar so mulligan for them.

Mulligan

Search for Shadow Word: Pain, Museum Curator, Twilight Drake and maybe Wild Pyromancer. If you have Power Word: Shield you can mulligan for a Northshire Cleric. The Auchenai Soulpriest Combo is nice too. Keep your Shadow Word: Death to deal with early an early Flamewreathed Faceless.

Playstyle

Aggro and Midrange Shaman

Again – Board Control. You have to look if he is an aggro or Midrange Shaman. At the Aggro variant just save your face and drop taunts. Use your board clears if he have 3 or more minions on the field or he don’t have any cards in his hand. Against Midrange you should prepare yourself for a big Bloodlust turn. Drop your taunts wisely and try to keep the board as clear as possible. Kill his Mana Tide Totem as soon as possible to keep your card advantage. You loose the game if your enemy can build a board again and again.

Ancestral Control Shaman

This one is not easy. Entomb his minions with Ancestral Spirit and use your Sylvanas Windrunner wisely. Try to clear his hand and build a card advantage. The Shaman has not much options to draw cards so this will win you the game.

The most competive Decks are N’Zoth and Miracle Rouge. Mulligan for Miracle.

Mulligan

Against Rouge you need pressure so he throw his spells on your minions and not in your face. Mulligan for Museum Curator, Thoughtsteal, Faceless Shambler, Twilight Drake and Mountain Giant. Against a you can keep the Auchenai Soulpriest-Combo.

Playstyle

Miracle Rouge

The keyword is pressure. Play your threats Twilight Drake, Mountain Giant  and Faceless Shambler to force him to deal with them and not with your face. At round 6 or 7 (beware if he have the coin) you need Auchenai Soulpriest + Circle of Healing to kill his . After this try to play taunts so you don’t run into a Leeroy Jenkins-Finisher-Combo.

Deathrattle Rouge

Like at the other N’Zoth matchups you have to Entomb the right cards. His Sylvanas Windrunner and Cairne Bloodhoof are your main targets. Keep a big Boardclear for is N’Zoth round.

Tempo Mage, Reno and Freeze Mage are the Variants. But they are all not that common.

Mulligan

Keep Shadow Word: Pain, Museum Curator, Wild Pyromancer and Twilight Drake. If you have Power Word: Shield you can keep Northshire Cleric.

Playstyle

Tempo Mage

Kill his key-minions as fast as you can. These are Mana Wyrm, and Flamewaker. Don’t overuse your boardclears but have a look at your life. The mage player can do much damage with spells. Justicar Trueheart is nice to heal out of lethal.

Reno Mage

Entomb the right minions and play your big threaths in combo with Faceless Shambler. A Reno deck has not that much removals so he will get some problem if he run out of them.

Freeze Mage

Try to play Justicar Trueheart as early as you can so you can heal out of lethal when he plays his Alextrasza. Don’t overwhwealm the board if he has at least one Doomsayer–Frostnova-Combo in his deck.

There are some Aggro and N’Zoth Paladins at the Ladder. Mulligan for the Aggro variant.

Against Aggro you have to clear the board and don’t beware of a big Equality

Against N’Zoth you just have to Entomb Thirion Fordring and Cairne Bloodhof to win the game.

There are no realy competetive Priest Decks at the moment. Orient your playstyle at the the Control Warrior Style.