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Highlander or singleton decks might not be dead yet, Alcuev used this Kazakus Priest list to get to legend and kindly allowed us to re-host their guide.
Be sure to check them out on Twitch!
Intro
I loved playing Reno Mage and Reno Priest in MSoG and wanted to find a singleton list that works without Reno. After lots of experimenting to find a good list, I climbed from Rank 5 to Legend with 67.2% win rate with this decklist. I played Golakka Crawler until I reached Rank 1 which was crawling with Murloc Paladins, then subbed in Hungry Crab to great effect.
Stats
| Opponent | Win % | Archetype Breakdown |
|---|---|---|
| Rogue | 8-7 (53%) | 6-4 Quest; 1-3 Miracle; 1-0 Aggro |
| Warrior | 10-2 (83%) | 7-1 Pirate; 3-1 Taunt; 1-0 Elemental |
| Paladin | 5-7 (42%) | 2-0 Midrange; 0-5 Murloc (no Hungry Crab); 3-2 Murloc (w/ Hungry Crab) |
| Hunter | 6-1 (86%) | 6-1 Midrange |
| Mage | 5-1 (83%) | 3-0 Burn; 2-0 Freeze; 0-1 Secret |
| Druid | 4-2 (67%) | 4-2 Aggro |
| Shaman | 2-1 (67%) | 2-0 Bloodlust, 0-1 Control |
| Priest | 3-0 (100%) | 2-0 Silence; 1-0 Control |
| Warlock | 0-0 | lol |
| Total | 43-21 (67.2%) |
Deck Guide
Why This Deck?
- It’s really fun.
- Crushes Warriors, Hunters, and Mages
- Can be flexibly teched against the meta
- Every game has unique decisions
- High skill ceiling to pilot – I learn something new every game
- Nobody knows how to play against it
Gameplan
Survive the early game through strategic mulligans for tech cards and board clears, heal up mid-game to get out of burn range from aggro decks or mages, then dominate late game with value from Medivh, Kazakus, Shadowform, and Un’goro Packs while efficiently removing opposing threats.
Key Synergies
I’m not going to go in-depth on each individual card choice, rather I will highlight the key interactions & synergies that justify my core list since many of the cards are weak in a vacuum.
Medivh + Big Spells, Kazakus 
Arguably the main reason to run this particular build. My big spell package includes Free From Amber (I’ve been really impressed with this card), Mind Control, Kazakus Potion, Holy Fire, Dragonfire Potion, and misc smaller spells. This synergy can outvalue almost any non-Medivh deck late game, and Paladin / Warrior don’t have enough board clears to beat multiple Medivh triggers + Kazakus Potion.
Raza + Shadowform, Beardo, Auchenai
Provides extra value and reach for long games, while also individually being strong mid-game bodies to hold board. People don’t expect reach from priest, so sometimes I can cheese opponents for 6+ burn in one turn from multiple hero powers.
Cheap Spells + Pyro, Priest of the Feast, Beardo
These synergies are the essential reason that this deck is so good against aggro decks and mages. They can set up versatile board clears and heal you out of burn range. The cheap spells are Silence, Potion of Madness, PW:S, SW:P, and Shadow Visions. If you’re having trouble vs aggro and need more cheap spells, Circle of Healing can also help and is another board clear with Auchenai.
Shadow Visions + Elise, Shadowform
I had ~50% win rate before adding Shadow Visions and Elise. They are key to the deck’s success IMO. Shadow Visions is not only an extremely flexible answer in a deck like this, it can also be used to win long games by grabbing an extra Un’goro pack or Shadowform #2 for games that go to fatigue. These value engines allow me to run tech cards like Silence, Hungry Crab, and Greater Healing Potion and still win grindy control match-ups.
Card Draw + Legendaries, Singletons
Northshire Cleric, Loot Hoarder and Acolyte are necessary to dig you to the strong legendary cards and singleton tech cards. You don’t really need to draw cards for value because the deck is so greedy, but you need lots of options to exploit your synergies.
Tech Cards
- Dirty Rat: Slows down Rogue and Warrior quests, can pull strong battlecries like Stonehill Defender, The Curator, and Alexstraza.
- Hungry Crab / Golakka Crawler: Hungry Crab significantly improved my results against Murloc Paladin, which is otherwise a really tough matchup. I think Crab is the better tech right now since Murloc Paladin is so dominant at the higher ranks and the deck is already good vs Pirates. I’m hesitant to run both but it could be right.
- Tar Creeper: Slows down aggro and blocks popular weapons.
- Gluttonous Ooze: I’ve been really happy with Ooze because it both slows down aggro and is also useful against Tirion, Sulfuras, and Medivh.
- Greater Healing Potion: Key to beating Hunters and Mages who otherwise can kill through burn (Holy Fire serves a similar purpose).
- Cabal Shadow Priest: This is maybe replaceable but it’s sooo good vs Taunt Warriors and Hunters, and is a great follow-up to board clears when your opponent is trying to get back on the board.
- Bog Creeper: Taunt is really good right now, and it’s the best big taunt minion for Priest.
Notable Exclusions
- Lyra the Sunshard: Could be good, but I never tried it because I don’t have enough dust. I do think that the deck already has enough value with Medivh that this is not necessary.
- Circle of Healing: Really high synergy with the current build and probably tied for best 31st card with Golakka Crawler, but I just didn’t know what to cut. I currently run Silence instead as a way to deal with deathrattles, taunts, and Warleaders. Maybe you can fit both.
- Holy Smite: I used to run as early removal, but I was already beating all the aggro decks and this was the weakest of the cheap spell package.
- Bloodmage Thalnos: This could be better than loot hoarder, but I like the 2 power more than the spell damage. I couldn’t fit both.
- Crystalline Oracle: The random card is usually not good in this deck because it relies on so many specific synergies.
- Radiant Elemental: Not as good in my experience as the pyro or loot hoarder as 2-drops, and just doesn’t do enough. This deck needs value and flexibility more than tempo from mana reduction.
- Doomsayer: Really bad with Kazakus rez and no notable synergies with the other cards in the deck.
- Curious Glimmerroot, Kabal Courier, Kabal Talonpriest: These are all reasonable inclusions over Ooze or Beardo as 3-drops, but I just settled on those two for this meta. These are all definitely worth trying.
- Thoughtsteal: This deck doesn’t usually need extra value cards, and it’s not very flexible or powerful unlike the other value cards in the deck.
- Kabal Songstealer: I used to run this and I think it’s quite good, but Elise and Raza are far more key to the deck and I didn’t want another 5 mana 5/5.
- The Curator + Primordial Drake: This would have to replace the Medivh package and would be a significantly different deck. I have not tried it yet.
Mulligan Guide & Matchup Tips
Paladin
One of the hardest matchups but easiest mulligans, since you just mulligan to beat Murlocs. You will often beat non-murloc midrange since it’s slow and you have stronger late game. You want any cheap spell (SWP=MVP), Hungry Crab, Northshire, Pyro, Kazakus, and Dragonfire. Though expensive, Dragonfire and Kazakus are essential to clear Gentle Megasaur and Murloc Warleader boards. You can’t beat Murlocs without early Hungry Crab or multiple board clears including Kazakus. Be wary of Divine Favor and if your opponent starts dumping their hand, you need to also. The only exception is to save SWP for Warleader. An early dirty rat can be strong, but make sure you have silence or SWP for Warleader.
Against Midrange, play for value (eg 10 mana Kazakus potions, greedy Shadow Visions), don’t play Dirty Rat too early, and save removal and MC for the legendaries (Sunkeeper Tarim, Tirion Fordring, and Ragnaros, Lightlord). In a pinch remember you can silence your own minions that have been Aldored or Tarimed. Steal their Acolytes for insane value!
Rogue
Mulligan hard for early game minions, Dirty Rat, Kazakus, and Dragonfire Potion. You can beat Quest Rogue by applying early pressure, disrupting their quest with Dirty Rat, landing a tempo 5-mana Kazakus potion, or clearing board with Dragonfire and winning the value game. I’d say the matchup is a coin-flip, or slightly favored if you tech Golakka Crawler and draw it early.
You pretty much just lose to Miracle, but if you get both Kazakus and SWD early you can eliminate their big threats (Arcane Giant and Edwin VanCleef) and maybe grind them out.
Warrior
Mulligan assuming Pirate Warrior. You want any cards costing 2 or less to stop early aggression and hold board. Ooze and Tar Creeper are also reasonable keeps, but only if you have another early drop. As usual, if you can hold off early aggression you should be able to win.
Against Taunt Quest, you usually have enough time to draw what you need to win regardless of the mulligan. Medivh and Kazakus 10-mana potion put enough on the board at once to push through board clears and Sulfuras, and Cabal Shadow Priest is insane value. Save MC for Primordial Drake and Silence/SWP for Acolytes/Direhorns.
Druid, Hunter
Wild Pyro and Potion of Madness just win these matchups, so mulligan hard for those. If you survive early board flood you will likely win, as your life gain will wall out their reach.
Mage
This is the weirdest mulligan. You want to keep Dirty Rat, Greater Healing Potion, Priest of the Feast, and Kazakus (for 7 armor potion). These decks almost always want to win using multi-turn burn setups, and have a hard time beating heavy life gain. Aggressively clear small minions so they don’t get extra face damage. Hold rat for turn 8 to block the Alexstrasza setup and keep Ooze for Medivh, the Guardian. If you play it right, they can’t play enough burn to win and you can beat them down with Medivh or even win in fatigue.
Priest, Shaman
I’m honestly not sure how to mulligan for these matchups because they are so rare. My intuition says keep Northshire, Acolyte, Silence (for opposing Northshires, Acolytes, and the 0/3 totems) and Kazakus, and Pyro against Shamans.
Warlock
I never played any Warlocks but I imagine this deck would be weak against Zoo, so that’s lucky! I would mull for Pyro and Kazakus for board clears. Not sure what else due to inexperience.
The Future
This deck has so much opportunity. It performed well for me, but it’s also very unrefined and can adapt flexibly to the meta. Other popular decks like Murloc Paladin, Quest Rogue, Pirate Warrior, and Midrange Hunter don’t feel like they have a lot of room to be optimized further, but there are so many tech choices and packages for Kazakus Priest, it’s really hard to say what’s best. Alternate builds with Curator and dragons are probably also strong, for instance. I didn’t play a single mirror match on ladder, but hopefully some of you are inspired to experiment with Kazakus Priest and optimize it further.
How important is Elise in this deck? Plus, would it be theoretically possible that she puts duplicate cards in your deck, and actually interfering with your Kazzakus and Raza?
she can’t put duplicates into your deck. she shuffles an unopened pack into your deck that opens when you play it for 2 mana.
she is pretty important since you can discover the pack (it’s a spell) with shadow visions and get some seet value out of it.
Hello,
is it worth to go for this deck when i dont have either Auctionmaster and Raza ?
I was missing the same 2 cards, and after some tinkering made the following substitutions:
-1 Auchenai Soulpriest
I deleted this card simply because the deck isn’t running Circle of Healing, and without the CoH board clear it didn’t really offer much more than a 3/5 body due to lack of synergy with anything else in the deck.
+1 Binding Heal
+1 Bloodmage Thalnos
+1 Kabal Courier
+1 Eater of Secrets
Not having Raza obviously makes following the OP’s game plan a little tenuous. That said, the substitution cards I chose are intended to work in synergy with the OP’s framework while giving some additional options by giving a little extra drawing potential/spell damage (Thalnos), some extra healing (Binding Heal), and adding an additional tech (EoS) because of all the annoying secrets played by mages/paladins I’ve been facing in the 5-10 ranked ladder. Right at 60% win percentage over 20 games, with my only losing record attributable to control priests. I must admit that even with this small sample of games, it is a super fun deck to play with a ton of options available, and plays well against pretty much everything. One big eye-opener came when I was lucky enough to snag Raza from my Kabal Courier, and it amazed me how much value that one card has in this deck – INSANE value – I will be crafting it 🙂
Finally, thanks to the author of this guide, really informative.
Loving it. About 60% over 7 games so far – finally beating Murlocodin after days of feeling like fish food. And having fun even during the less frequent losses.
Oh yeah – and using Lyra instead of Beardo…seems to be working great so far.
I really like this deck, it is a ton of fun. Has gotten me from rank 5 to rank 1 and am trying to push for legend as well. I ended up changing some cards though, I found shadowform, auchenai, and beardo were just alright and decided to change them for a few other cards to fill in the curve such as cabal chemist and lyra which have been pretty good. Really like the deck and awesome guide, has been helping me rank up!
Any suggestions to replace Mr. Beardo with?
I wonder if Bogcreeper is a bit too late game focused. Maybe curious glimmeroot or the 4 drop turtle taunt instead?
Why?
The guy made a suggestion and you escalated it to something non related to the game… and he’s talking out his ass? If you’re gonna post here at least post constructive feedback, not be a squeaker who is secretly on the computer while mom and dad are sleeping. You lame ass
I’d never used Bog Creeper in any deck, and only played it when it was the best choice from a Stonehill Defender. After playing this deck a little though, it is a real lifesaver at the point in the game that it sees play. I think it’s a pretty solid taunt choice for this deck.
Looks really fun, thanks for posting!