Control Priest ft. Elise&Lyra

Greetings.

In case you hadn’t noticed, Priest is actually pretty awesome now. I piloted this deck to rank 5 this season and probably could have hit legend with it if I had more time to play.  Before I get into the specifics of the deck, let’s first talk about the advantages and disadvantages of playing a Priest list like this one.

ADVANTAGES:

– It’s fun as hell. Generating a billion cards off Lyra, the thrill of busting open an Elise pack and winning the game with what’s inside, drawing your whole deck with cleric+pyro+circle combos, etc.. This is the funnest deck I’ve played, hands down.

– People won’t know what to expect. Priest decks are still fairly unrefined in the current meta and therefore people won’t know exactly what cards you have. Do they need to play around burst healing with priest of the feast? How many dragonfire potions do you have? People still run the auchenai+circle combo?!?! Oh yes.

– You get to bully aggro decks. Sure, sometimes Pirate Warrior has the nut draw and you have a terrible draw and they overrun you. But generally, this deck is super good at controlling small minions and then healing for a bunch once you’ve got the board.

DISADVANTAGES:

– It ain’t easy being Priesty. This deck is not easy to pilot. Thorough knowledge of the meta and how to play against certain decks is required for decent success.

– One of the most popular decks in the meta right now is a terrible match-up for this deck. Taunt warrior is very difficult to beat with this list.

Ok, with that said let’s get into the general strategy and the strategy for the various match-ups. I’ll start with the most popular decks and work my way through.

General Strategy:

Your goal is to get a minion on the board with high health in the early-game. A Northshire Cleric or preferably a Radiant Elemental with a Power Word: Shield is a good way to get this going. Turn 2 Radiant Elemental+PWS is the dream opener. From there you want to try to draw as many cards as possible with Northshire Cleric while removing their threats with PoM, Sw:P, and Sw:D when necessary.

In the mid-game you’re looking to go off with a huge Lyra turn. This means it’s often correct to not play cheap spells just because you can. You want to save a handful of cheap spells and, if possible, a Radiant Elemental to combo with Lyra.

In the late-game your hoping to discover a huge minion from Free From Amber as well as trying to get to your Un’goro pack as fast as possible.

For match-ups I’ll use the following rubric: Abysmal – Highly Unfavored – Unfavored – 50/50 – Favored – Highly Favored – God mode

Pirate Warrior:

Match-up: Favored

For those of you laddering around ranks 15-6 you may have thought this deck was not very common anymore. Well, once you hit rank 5+ those suckers are back in full force. Try to control their early pressure as much as you can with PoM and Sw:P. If you land a Golakka on a threatening pirate you’re hugely favored, but not out of the woods! Don’t get sloppy and think you’re safe, they can do an astounding amount of damage from hand sometimes. Look for an opportunity to heal for a lot with Priest of the Feast.

Mulligan

Priority Keep:

 – Golakka Crawler (obviously)

 – Potion of Madness

 – Radiant Elemental

Secondary Keep:

 – Northshire Cleric

 – Shadow Word: Pain

 – Power Word: Shield – Keep if you have Radiant Elemental

If you’re seeing a lot of pirate warriors, you could cut Free From Amber  and Acolyte of Pain to add a second Golakka Crawler and a Gluttonous Ooze.

Taunt Warrior:

Match-up: Abysmal

Possibly the worst match-up for this deck. Maybe Quest Mage is worse but luckily you hardly see them on ladder. Why is it so bad? Well, they will complete the quest against you. Every time. Then they grind you out because you don’t have enough minions that you can afford to have everything sniped off for just a hero-power, that’s just too much value.  Every time I have won this match-up it’s been because of the Un’goro pack. For this reason I’ve decided it’s correct to keep Elise off the Mulligan 100% of the time vs. taunt warrior. The problem is, Elise is a terrible keep against pirates, so how can you tell which one you’re up against? This is a problem, and probably has something to do with why warrior is so popular on ladder at the moment. There is a way to deal with this though, at least a little bit.

Here’s a tip I learned from watching Firebat: Pay attention to their mulligan. Taunt warrior will keep the quest against Priest 100% of the time and the quest is, of course, the left-most card in their hand. Watch what cards they hover over during the mulligan by looking for the red outline/aura. If they touch the card on the far left then it’s probably pirates since taunt warrior would never even consider mulliganing the quest against you.

Mulligans:

Priority Keep :

 – Elise the Trailblazer 

 – Radiant Elemental

 – Shadow Word: Pain (There are so many targets for this, really good if you can discover an extra copy from Shadow visions, too.)

Secondary Keep:

 – Shadow Visions – Keep if you have Elise. You can play Elise and then discover the pack, this is one of the ways you win this match-up

 – Power Word: Shield – Keep if you have Radiant Elemental

If you’re seeing a lot of taunt warriors you could cut 2 Blinding Heals for a Dirty Rat and a second Free From Amber.

[Description to be completed]

Edit: Cut a blinding heal and an Acolyte of Pain for +1 Gollaka Crawler and +1 Gluttonous Ooze as I was encountering far more pirate warriors than anything else from ranks 5-3.