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Thanks to gttirth for allowing us to re-host his Un’Goro Dragon Priest guide! If you have a question for him, be sure to check him out on Twitter! He has slightly altered the deck recently (updated version is above), and the guide represents the older version of the deck if you happen to notice cards that aren’t in the deck that appear in the guide.
Greetings! I am gcttirth (gcttirth#1560) from India. I contribute as Priest/Paladin expert for the Tempo Storm Meta Snapshot. I am here to post a guide about the Dragon Priest list that I used to get legend from rank 5 after the release of Journey to Un’Goro.
- Legend proof: http://imgur.com/a/P6XDM (Currently legend #37 on NA)
- Stats: http://imgur.com/a/IRBtB (Guide is for version
1.31.2. Version1.41.3 has -1 Acidic Swamp Ooze, -1 Curious Glimmerroot for +2 Cabal Shadow Priest and is the one that I am using right now to climb)
After testing different Priest lists, I figured that the Lyra package is amazing. I managed to combine the Lyra package with the Dragons shell to get good result on the ladder. The deck has been successful for many other players too, helping them reach legend with it.
Mulligan
Mulligans are in this form: Card – Keep condition.
- Always Keep: Northshire Cleric and Radiant Elemental
- Power Word: Shield – Keep with Northshire Cleric and Radiant Elemental
- Acidic Swamp Ooze – Keep vs Warrior. Keep with Northshire Cleric.
- Netherspite Historian – Keep if you are keeping Twilight Drake or Drakonid Operative
- Shadow Word: Pain – Keep vs aggressive decks (Zoo, Midrange Hunter, Pirate Warrior). Keep vs Quest Warrior
- Curious Glimmerroot – Keep if you have at least two minions from Northshire Cleric, Radiant Elemental, Acidic Swamp Ooze or Netherspite Historian.
- Kabal Talonpriest – Keep if you have at least two minions from Northshire Cleric, Radiant Elemental, Acidic Swamp Ooze or Netherspite Historian.
- Twilight Drake – Keep on coin if you are keeping at least two other minions. Keep without coin if you have Northshire Cleric and Netherspite Historian/Radiant Elemental vs slower matchups.
- Drakonid Operative – Keep on coin with Northshire Cleric, Netherspite Historian, PLUS another spell (Shadow Word: Pain or Power Word: Shield) or another minion (Twilight Drake or Kabal Talonpriest) vs control/value matchups only.
- Dragonfire Potion: Keep on coin vs Quest Rogue if you are keeping all the other three cards.
- Always throw: Shadow Vision, Shadow Word: Death, Holy Nova, Lyra the Sunshard, Book Wyrm, Dragonfire Potion, Primordial Drake
Matchups
vs Quest Rogue (9-0) Favored
Quest Rogue is second best matchup for this deck. The Dragon Priest is able to pressure the Rogue very well during the first 3 turns with the help of early game, high health minions. In the mid-game, your plan is to play the 4-cost and 5-cost Dragon minions – the Twilight Drake and Drakonid Operative. Do not hesitate to drop Drakonid Operative without triggering it’s battlecry, we do not need value in this matchup, just tempo. By turn 5/6, the Quest Rogue should have completed the quest and will be dropping down 5/5 minions. It is important to identify when they are able to PLAY their quest reward. You have to clear their board with your minions the turn before they can play their quest reward. When they play their quest reward and 5/5 minions, your plan is to use Dragonfire Potion or Shadow Word: Death to clear their board and keep going face with your minions. Use Shadow Vision to dig for Dragonfire Potion and Shadow Word: Death. If you manage to have 2 Dragonfire Potion by turn6, and a Dragon minion on board, then the game is almost unwinnable for the Rogue deck.
vs Quest Warrior (6-5) Even
This matchup is often a close one. Quest Warriors that play 2x Dirty Rat, 2x Brawl and 2x Primordial Drake seem to be close to even vs Dragon Priest. I tested this matchup a lot in friendly matches, and with a single tech card in the form of Cabal Shadow Priest, the matchup becomes favorable for Dragon Priest. I highly suggest trying out Cabal Shadow Priest (or two) if you are facing a decent number of Quest Warriors. Your gameplan vs Quest Warrior is to establish an early board, and try to rush them down. I suggest not playing around Brawl unless your opponent is specifically setting up for it (t4 Dirty Rat is often a good indicator of upcoming Brawl). If the Warrior has kept 1 card in his hand apart from Quest, try to play around Fiery War Axe. Try to not use Shadow Word: Pain on anything but the 4-cost or 5-cost taunt minions. Use Shadow Vision to dig for Power Word: Shield or Shadow Word: Pain. Dragonfire Potion is often a dead card in this matchup, so pray that you don’t draw both of them.
vs Elemental Shaman (6-0) Favored
Elemental Shaman feels unlosable for Dragon Priest. Shadow Word: Pain and Dragonfire Potion are the key cards in this matchup, capable of dealing with the high-value elementals that the Shaman plays. Using Shadow Vision to dig for situational removal really makes this matchup easy for the Dragon Priest. Book Wyrm and Primordial Drake are amazing as well against Elemental Shaman. Straight forward matchup, you will usually win this at 30hp.
vs Midrange Hunter (6-1) Favored
Midrange Hunter is another favorable matchup for the Dragon Priest, although a really close one. Often, you will find yourself stabilizing at ~9hp with a Primordial Drake on the board. Early game is all about trying to deny them Houndmaster value. Dragonfire Potion followed by another AoE clear around turn6 and turn7 is optimal, and Shadow Vision helps achieve that consistently. Go for early game board control, and play around the Crackling Razormaw when ahead.
vs Spell Priest or Dragon+Elemental Priest (Or “Hybrid” Priest?) (5-1) Favored
Spell Priest (deck based around Lyra the Sunshard and/or Divine Spirit+Inner Fire) is a really easy matchup for the Dragon Priest, thanks to the Shadow Word: Pain and Death, they cannot deal with Twilight Drake and they cannot manage to stick a minion on the board thanks to the removal options. Dragon+Elemental Priest is often a close matchup, as they run more value-generating card than us, at the cost of reducing the consistency of Dragon-triggers. Take advantage of that, and try to beat them down in the mid game with the help of Twilight Drake. Most Elemental lists aren’t running Twilight Drake so unless they get one from their discover effects, regular Dargon Priest should be favored.
vs Zoo Warlock (3-2) Favored
Small sample size, but the deck should be favored vs them thanks to the amount of AoE options available in the deck. All the spells except Power: Word Shield helps Dragon Priest to clear the Zoo’s board, making the matchup favored for the Priest. I faced a couple Quest Zoo Warlock that I lost to due to their Deathwing, but that is not a popular deck on the ladder and hence you should feel fine whenever you queue in to a Warlock. Primordial Drake and Shadow Vision have boosted the win-rate of Dragon Priest in this matchup.
vs Pirate Warrior (2-3) Unfavored
The lack of early game taunt minions has resulted in Dragon Priest being unfavored vs the Pirate Warrior. If you are facing too many Pirate Warriors, consider upgrading the Acidic Swamp Ooze to Gluttonous Ooze, and replacing the Curious Glimmerroot with Golakka Crawler. Play your early game drops, hope to take control of the board, and then pray they don’t draw Arcanite Reaper. Using the suggested tech cards will make the matchup favored for Dragon Priest.
vs Quest Mage (2-1) Favored?
I do not have enough sample size on this matchup, but it felt that this matchup is similar to the pre-expansion Dragon Priest vs Reno Mage matchup. They are unable to complete their quest in time due to the constant pressure from minions. As long as they don’t get early doomsayer off, it feels that the Quest Mage fails to stabilize in-time. Needless to say, Drakonid Operative and Curious Glimmerroot can discover Ice Block which will result in an easy win.
vs Token/Aggro Druid (0-1) Unfavored?
Small sample size, but the matchup feels unfavored to me. Token Druid is able to swarm the board turn after turn, thanks to Living Mana. Early game chip damage means that anytime their board survives a turn, they can burst down the Priest with a Savage Roar or any +1/+1 buff card. Hence, unless the Priest gets 2x on-curve AoE removal, the matchup is difficult to win.
vs Control Paladin (2-0) Favored
Most control decks that lack burst damage should be favored for Dragon Priest, and Control Paladin is no different. It is important to note that the Control Paladin lists are probably not refined enough and that the matchup can change once they are more refined. Play minions on curve, get value from Lyra the Sunshard and try to play around Equality clear and it should be a smooth sailing to victory.
Decks that I have not played against
Do note that the descriptions can be inaccurate here, as these are just based on my theory and other players playing the Dragon Priest deck.
vs Aggro Mage (0-0) Favored?
Aggro Mage started blooming after I got legend with Dragon Priest, so I do not have any data for this matchup. On paper though, it feels like Dragon Priest should be favored. Aggro Mage should not be able to stick minions on the board for too long, and their chip damage is offset by Priest’s hero power. It is important to go for tempo in this matchup and try to close out the game as fast as possible.
vs Miracle Rogue (0-0) Unfavored
Miracle got a huge boost in play after Eloise hit #1 legend with it, again after I finished my legend climb. Miracle Rogue has been historically a bad matchup for most Priest lists, and I would assume Dragon Priest is no different. The Vilespine Slayer makes the matchup even worse for the Dragon Priest.
Tech List
The deck has three flex slots: Acidic Swamp Ooze, Curious Glimmerroot, 2nd Primordial Drake. You can replace them with the following card to get improved result vs a specific deck. Matchups in bold indicate suggested replacement.
- Gluttonous Ooze: vs Pirate Warrior
- Golakka Crawler: vs Pirate Warrior
- Dirty Rat: vs Quest decks (Warrior, Rogue, Mage), Miracle Rogue
- Cabal Shadow Priest: vs Zoo, Quest Warrior
- Holy Nova: vs Zoo, Token/Aggro Druid
- Ysera: vs Quest Warrior, Priest, Control Paladin
- Potion of Madness: vs Zoo, Pirate Warrior, Hunter, Token/Aggro Druid
If I missed any matchup description, let me know and I will edit them in. I will also playtest the deck against other, recently popularized decks to get a better sample size and will edit this post to reflect them.
Follow me on twitter for constant updates on this list and many others. I “like” good decks on twitter too, for your net-decking purposes 🙂 If you try this list out, please tweet at me or post here about how it is working for you!
I have not Elise. I don’ t know which card is the best to change Eliza for short time. Iwant to play this deck now.
If you can help me, thank you
I have not got…
my english isn’t good 🙁
Please update this guide, thx.
Got me to rank 10 🙂 But I I too out a Book Wyrm for Ysera, which really turned out useful against Secret Mage.
It’s a little top heavy. often getting a bad mulligan
fun deck but almost insta-concede against aggro druid, 0-5 against them with this deck
lol. I just won my first match with this deck against aggro druid. anyways can probably swap divine and inner fire for 2 potion of madness
funny but that actually helped, that or rng was on my side
I don’t know how this guy beat quest rogue with this deck even once.
The matchup is awful and him saying it’s the best is just not true.
I took this deck from rank 20 to rank 4 and have not won ever against quest rogue.
Most shitty deck i ever played.
15of15 lost games
That sounds like a you problem. using this deck I manage to win 92% of casual games, and 72% of ranked games.
Love this deck, although I replaced Elise with one Greater Healing Potion, because I had a very bad experience against Hunter and Pirate Warrior. Since then this deck works pretty well for me on ladder.
Garbage against aggro
Just made this deck so for 5-0 games. replaced Elise with Ysera and a priest of feast instead of a kabal talonpriest.
really good but so many paladin murloc kill me
Any replacement for Elise???
She can be replaced with about anything. It is important to note this will make all of the attrition matchups much worse. Shadow visions is also worse without the ability for multiple packs.
Isn’t silence priest better? Any ideas?
I love this deck, but i think the “Burn”/”Discover”-Mage Match up is hard without burst heal after alex comes down.
I am not able to win fast enough through the X Freeze effects…
Any tips or ideas? Did i miss something?
I would sub one Primordial Drake for Priest of Feast
I have been playing this deck for the last couple of days and honestly the discover mage matchup is fairly easy. The high health minions make it hard for the mage to control the board and this deck easily answers what they do play.
maybe this deck nedd some of the ‘priest of the feast” instead of 1*promordial drake and 1 *book wyrm to coe back vs aggro decks
Against quest rogue – play defender of argus, it really good with that much health minions
Looking for a deck to push legend. I stuck at rank3. Is thıs deck worth crafting? Thx.
I tried this deck already n i lost against hunter always.
Maybe it ll work if u add wild pyromancer,maybe.
Playing this at legend (top 1000), great deck.
However I think 2 Primordial drakes is too slow / is not needed.
I switched one drake for priest of the feast since a lot of my match ups consist of discover burn mage / pirate warrior and it really helps in those match ups.
Also you curve out a little better.
Cheers!
Dear Evident. Can you add to Featured Image option in deck creation an Amara, Warden of Hope art. Or maybe I just missed her from the list.
I’ll try to get that working for you!
That would be great.
Thanks for this Deck
Finally reached legend for the first time from rank 2 with this Deck
This deck is not good against questrogue.
You get problems – youre SWP cant kill his minions because he drops them at the start every tourn back to his hand and on his side on the field is never a minion. Tourn 4/5 his quest is ready an he fills the board with maybe 3 or 4 5/5. So at this point you maybe have one dragonfire – you dont= gg; you have? ok you get the board for one round (and kill in this round youre own minions with fire to). next round he fills the board again. And think about it.
You can win yes but you need a perfekt hand.
No, not really. If you just use your dragonfires well you shouldn’t have a problem with them. They usually fill the board and over commit and its gg. There are a few ways to get one too. Either from a shadow visions or one of the two you have in your deck. Also, they shouldn’t kill your board too because it is probably mostly dragons, considering it is dragon priest you are playing man.
Can confirm this deck shits on quest rogue. If you get the matchup mulligan for your dragonfire potion and it will almost certainly be a free win unless you misplay. It also does alright against other decks in the meta but can have a hard time against midrange hunter. But definitely a good list to have around if you are running into a lot of quest rogues and just wanna drop a deuce on their heads.
Really fun deck, many thanks for the list and writeup!
I did not have a positive winrate (+/- 40 games at rank 9), mainly due to many matches against pirate warrior and quest rogue, which crushed me with this deck. Its is very strong against quest warrior. I took out the Lyra package and put in oozes and crabs. Less fun, but better early game.
Have fun!
Hey, could you please elaborate on how many crab/oozes instead on Lyra? I do not have enough dust for this legendary unfortunately 🙁
I just want to sincerely thank you for this deck and the accompanying guide. I am absolutely crushing it on my way to rank 5 right now, and am thinking maybe I’ll FINALLY make a real push for Legend this season with this deck. Great job!
Replacement for Lyra?
Elise Trailblazer for Shadow Visions synergy.
Very underrated deck, easy climb from 12-10 rarely losing a game.
Climbed from Rank 15 to 10 with a 61% win rate (29-18). A few comments.
1. I think 2 x Primordial Drake might be a bit overkill. It does come in handy sometimes and the deck does need the dragon activators. I’m contemplating the 4 attack dragon that gives bonus attack, or possibly Alexstrasza.
2. This deck is devastating against Quest Rogues. I’m 7-3 with quest rogues — one loss because Dragonfire Potion and Shadow Visions were all in the bottom half of my deck, and one because it was a very odd slow quest rogue deck with a ton of control. This beats the crap out of run-of-the-mill fast Quest Rogues. Use SW:Pain early (since it has no value after they play they activate the Crystal Core). Kill their early minions before they turn into 5/5s. Get your Twilight Drake on the board on turn 4 Keep your Twilight Drake and Drakonid Operative high on health. Use Shadow Visions for extra Dragonfire Potions. Then use Dragonfire Potion every turn as your dragons repeatedly go face. Ez win.
3. This deck has a TON of value. More than Almost 33% of this deck replaces the card itself when you play it (Curious Glimmerroot, PW: Shield, Shadow Visions, Netherspite Historian, Drakonid Operative). There’s also Northshire Cleric and Lyra the Sunshard for card draw. You’ll often not be able to play Lyra because your hand is so clogged. On the flipside, a good turn with her with a small hand can replenish you with numerous spells.
4. Twilight Drake gets a ton of synergy with all this value. Save it if you can until you have 7-8-9-10 cards in hand. (Sometimes you’ll have to play it early to fight for board control — that can be okay too).
5. I can envision a variant on this deck ditching the Radiant Elementals and Lyra (plus an aforementioned Primordial Drake) and replacing them with… I’m not sure. Something that gets a major tempo swing in the early game if such a thing exists. Plus perhaps a single Mind Vision, which can easily copy an opponents’ quest reward when they finish it.
Thanks this is a super write-up.
How do you play Radiant Ele? There are not that many spells, is he that good? I assume you keep it and combo with Lyra.
@Vlad, it depends on what I’m facing. Against aggressive early decks or Quest rogue (for which killing minions is an extreme priority before they turn into 5/5 bodies) I play it as a body on turn 2. If I have Power Word: Shield I almost always cast it as well.
Against control decks I hold onto it until I can use it for Lyra with value. When I have board control I sometimes play it the turn before I intend to use Lyra, That way I save myself 2 mana and can get more spells off the next turn.
As for the number of spells, there are more than you might think. Curious Glimmerroot and Drakonid Operative both give me cards from my opponent’s deck — those are often spells. And Netherspite often gives me additional Drakonid Operatives which can produce more spells.
All in all, I’m not as impressed by the Radiant Elemental / Lyra “package” in the deck as I am with other aspects. They definitely come in handy at times, but it’s rare I can pull off a full combo and really rack in massive card value. That usually happens only against slow control decks which aren’t all that common at present. (But damn it’s awesome when it happens — I can collect 4-5 cards in a turn with Lyra allowing for some wild possibilities in future turns.)
It’s worth noting that the deck on this page has changed since its original posting.
Compared to the new deck, the old deck has:
-2 Cabal Shadow Priest
+1 Curious Glimmerroot
+1 Ooze (Acidic or Gluttonous)
I’m not sure I like the current version, albeit I haven’t played it. Ditching two early game minions severely gimps the deck against Pirate Warrior. I’d say the games are almost surrendered with the above deck — Cabal Shadow Priest can’t be played until its too late.
I also like Curious Glimmerroot. I guess correctly about 80% of the time, and some of my incorrect guesses are because I forget I’m not using Drakonid Operative and don’t get to just pick the spell I want. 😛
I’m using a slightly tweaked version of this deck now. Compared to the version currently posted on this page…
-2 Cabal Shadow Priest
+1 Dirty Rat
+1 Gluttonous Ooze
I’m not entirely sold on the ooze. It hasn’t done as well as I’d like, although it does come in handy as a body on turn 3 against non-weapon users at time. Not sure what I’d replace it with though.
I don’t have Lyra, so instead, I opted to run Elise Trailblazer in my build. It’s a competent 5/5/5 and the Un’Goro pack it shuffles into your deck synergizes well with Shadow Visions. I also like using Potion of Madness since Radiant Elemental makes it a free card.
Any replacement for curious glimmeroot?
I got the dust from Hall cards and i still don’t know what to craft with them. I was looking for a real cool priest deck, but people are saying priest is dead.
This deck seems interesting, does it really worth the dust?
Lyra is worth crafting. Priest is not dead. Between Dragon Priest, Miracle Priest, Inner Fire and Silence Priest there are a handful of competitive decks that are also a ton of fun and not just standard Priest Control.
Replacementioned for shadow visions??
I don’t have them either, but I don’t think they’re replaceable: you have few spells in the deck, specifically for Shadow Visions – so it can copy more removal.
I tried Curator but it’s too slow. I added Faerie Dragons for now.
This deck is real good you win alot of times widd cards from your enemy or cards created by netherspite,glimeerrot,drakonid etc and This deck have real good cards to kill the meta…. Your deck adapt easy to almost any enemy deck ,i Only dont like acid Swamp ooze,any idea to use in is place…….
Ooze is to get rid of weapons, if you meet too many aggro decks you could swap in a doomsayer or thalnos/acolyte of pain/loot hoarder, for control decks you could go for elise or dirty rat / ysera / deathwing.
Can I replace 1 Dragonfire Potion?
whats this decks win condition?
TEMPO
You simply out tempo anyone but Pirate Warrior~
Went 15-0 with this deck, drakonid operative is so op even with small amount of dragon and dragonfire potion without azure drake is a powerfull aoe
Azure Drake??? What planet are your from Dude?
I say that dragonfire potion is even stronger than before because azure drake is wild while before un’goro it was in a lot of deck
Awesome deck, just beat Quest Priest beating him down through 60+ life. Same against Quest Mage.
Went 0-6 with this. Back to rank 19 🙁
Lots of quest rogue tho… New cancer?
This deck is very good against Quest Rogue.
There’s an article on that subject on the Facebook Priest group. Feel free to join it if you’d like some tips, or want to talk about Priest decks in general.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/150117245461814/
This deck should be pretty strong vs Quest Rogue… especially with 2x Dragonfire potion.
Ya, I’m having a lot of trouble against quest rogue as well, even with good draws. They just overwhelm so quickly. (I play rank around rank 10)
Hunters are also very hard to beat. They snowball so quickly.
Yep, even if I can clear the board several times (sometimes 3 times with shadow visions) they just play some 1 mana minion with charge and start bouncing it till you are dead.
Yeah deck is awesome….cost of deck is not so awesome. 6 epics which probably will require crafting, coupled with a legend which is likely to need crafting …. 4000 dust anyone? haha!
The show can go on ! Great build !