Control Resurrect Priest Theorycraft Deck List – Rise of Shadows – April 2019

Key Cards:

• Forbidden Words: A new 0-mana spell for Priest, this removal spell spends all your available mana and kills a minion with an attack value equal to the amount of mana spent or less, reminiscent of Paladin’s Forbidden Healing.
• Proud Defender: A new neutral minion with taunt, many see this card as a replacement for Tar Creeper. Although you pay 1 more mana for an extra +1/+1, dropping it on the empty board will make it a 4/6 with Taunt, instantly transforming it to a “Best 4-drop in the game” candidate.
• Convincing Infiltrator: Another new taunt minion of Rise of Shadows, its 2/6 body for 5 mana may not seem that powerful, but it’s the effect that makes it all the more annoying to deal with, as it kills a random enemy minion when it dies. The effect makes it good against most opponents, whether it’s an aggro or slower deck.
• Tunnel Blaster: A strictly-control minion, this 7-mana 3/7 is really underwhelming on first glance, until you realize that its Deathrattle effect (3 damage to all minions), is an extra AoE at 7 mana, looking to fill the gap that Psychic Scream will leave behind with the rotation.
• Catrina Muerte: Legendary with end-of-turn resurrect effect, this is the card you want to protect at all costs. Having Catrina Muerte survive for two turns can be devastating for your opponent, since the deck plays mainly big and annoying taunts that are more annoying to deal with than threatening.
• Archivist Elysiana: Another new card, this 8-cost legendary minion acts a safeguard against fatigue, allowing you to delay it for a good while. It also has an element of surprise and it should be noted that any legendary discovered by its effect, will give you two copies in your new deck.
• Mass Resurrection: This is just Diamond Spellstone without the need to cast spells while it is in your hand and 2 mana more expensive, mainly to avoid abuse by combos. It’s worth noting that you can resurrect multiple copies of the same minion with Mass Resurrection, unlike with the Spellstone.

Main Strategy

The deck plays similarly to “Wall Priest”, but is noticeably slower in developing the gameplan, although the new list should be more consistent. You will spend most of the early game removing threats and drawing cards, before starting to develop your taunt minions after the mid-game point. If you make it to the 6th-8th turn, aggressive decks should have a hard time dealing with the plethora of taunt minions you will be throwing at them, with Tunnel Blaster being a “silence it or concede” type of minion against those kind of decks. Slower decks are going to have an easier time with you, since they generally do not mind for taunt minions, but that is where Archivist Elysiana can shine and a lot of times steal a win, if the opponent gets a little too dedicated to drawing cards and is not well prepared for a fatigue game.

Mulligan Guide

Against aggressive decks

If you’re facing an aggressive list you want removal first and foremost in your opening hand, as well as the best 1-drop in the game, Northshire Cleric. If you have at least some removal for the first few turns, you should be looking to get one of the mid-game taunts, so you can start to develop your game plan.

• Northshire Cleric, Proud Defender, Mass Hysteria, Shadow Word: PainPower Word: Shield

Against slow decks

Your number one priority here is Catrina Muerte, although there’s no hurry in playing her. Other than her, you should be looking for your big minions and the centerpiece spell. One well-timed Mass Resurrection can be a real pain to deal with, for your opponent, so try and bait out some AoE before you commit to it.

• Catrina Muerte, Mass Resurrection, Northshire Cleric, Power Word: Shield, Damaged Stegotron