Mind Blast Priest General Strategy
On first sight, this deck might seem to be kind of all over the place in the chaotic meta game of the first few weeks of Witchwood. However, the combination of the best Priest cards in the game makes this deck a true meta-breaker in the best possible way. Looking at the statistics of admittedly moderate sample size, Mind Blast Control Priest has beaten the most played decks (Odd Paladin, Odd Hunter, Cubelock, and Tempo Rogue) pretty convincingly.
With the new patch, many important matchups will become way more favorable, and the deck as a whole will perform even better both in competitive and casual play. If you want to read more information about specific matchups, please don’t hesitate to scroll down to the Matchup section.
Now to the actual list: First of all, we have the card draw engine that includes Northshire Cleric, Wild Pyromancer, Power Word: Shield and a new addition called Divine Hymn. One of the strongest upsides of this group of cards is the fact that it also serves as a great way to clear the board early; Shadow Visions and Mind Blast can help in that regard as well. The amount of board clear in total makes this archetype a great match against the Aggro lists that currently try to break greedy control archetypes.
Acolyte of Pain finds a place in more and more lists as the new Standard year goes along, and rightfully so: It can pick up a lot of value against Paladin and other archetypes that rely on cheap minion pressure; it also may be the “most included card after various iterations” in all of Hearthstone’s control archetype. The amount of greed only increases with the evolution of the meta-game at the time, and the inclusion of this card showcases exactly that.
The dragon package suffered heavy losses with the rotation, but still kept important cards like Duskbreaker, Twilight Drake and Primordial Drake which help to survive into the later stages of the game. Alexstrasza may look like a random include, but serves one particular purpose: To defeat the mighty Cube Warlock. This will be discussed further in the Matchup Guide section.
One of the more powerful cards of the earlier iterations, Scaleworm, has seen less and less play recently. Reasons for that may be its mediocre performance against Aggro, and the refinement of the archetype itself towards a more draw-heavy solution.
Acidic Swamp Ooze is having a field day in basically every control list at the moment. Paladins alone use three to five different weapons, Hunter uses at least two as well. Our dear friend Harrison Jones has been cut from most versions of this list recently, just because other cards have way more consistent performance. The fact that Cube Warlock has been sent to the nether with the recent balance patch justifies the cut as well.
One or two copies of Shadow Word: Death try to handle early Mountain Giant aggression and Spiteful Summoner high rolls, something that many control lists still struggle with. Newer versions seem to run Twilight Acolyte instead of SW:D, which is fine as well but always less reliant against early threats.
When all the floodgates open eventually, Psychic Scream and Shadowreaper Anduin are ready to remove ridiculous board states to save enough time to get to the win condition of this deck.
The “curve ball” in this list is Mind Blast. 10 damage for 4 mana may still be the best face damage per mana distribution in the whole game, and we don’t even need cards like Prophet Velen to make it work. Shadow Visions alone can produce up to four copies, and Alexstrasza does all the dirty work up to 15 health anyway.
A very weird addition that finds its way into more and more lists is Holy Fire, but the fact that it can add additional reach against heavy Armor archetypes like Taunt Druid oder Quest Warrior can make it worthwhile in the long run.
The archetype of Mind Blast Priest turned from a sleeper deck into one of the most played lists on ladder on all ranks. The patch favors Priest as a whole even more, and if you know how to play specific matchups, nothing can stop you!
Mind Blast Priest Matchup and Mulligan Guides
Cubelock: HIGHLY FAVORED
You want to beat Cube Warlock more consistently than any other list? Play Mind Blast Control Priest. Playing this matchup, however, is surely not a walk in the park. It is key to know when to pull the trigger on specific cards. Alexstrasza for example is part of our “combo”, so playing that on curve does absolutely nothing since Cubelock can just heal back up to full life in a heartbeat. It really is a game of attrition, and having Shadowreaper Anduin in hand early is almost mandatory to be able to put out enough damage before playing Alex eventually. Bait out as many heals as possible, try to get additional Mind Blast copies, and don’t use your Mass Dispel too early. And by the way: If you get confronted by a random copy of Rin, the First Disciple, be sure to Silence it as quickly as possible, because that is one of the very few ways to lose if played on curve.
Mulligan: Cards to keep are Shadow Word: Death, Northshire Cleric, Shadowreaper Anduin, and Acidic Swamp Ooze or Harrison Jones.
Odd Paladin/Even Paladin/Murloc Paladin: HIGHLY FAVORED
History doesn’t change, and that applies to Control Priest versus Aggro Paladin. Wild Pyromancer alone carries you through the early game, and if you don’t draw one, you should at least get Northshire Cleric for early board contesting or Duskbreaker for the heavy board swing on turn 4.
Don’t underestimate their ability of reloading the board, and choose wisely when it comes to board clear. If you play the board correctly you will almost always come out ahead, and Psychic Scream or Primordial Drake will seal the game eventually.
Mulligan: Cards to keep are Northshire Cleric, Wild Pyromancer, Power Word Shield and Duskbreaker.
Odd Aggro Hunter: HIGHLY FAVORED
Basically the same game plan as against Odd Paladin. Don’t be afraid to neglect your life total at the beginning of the game, because Divine Hymn or Shadow Visions will almost always be in your back pocket. Use your Hero Power to make value trades and to keep the board presence.
Mulligan: Cards to keep are Northshire Cleric, Wild Pyromancer, Power Word Shield and Duskbreaker.
Spell Hunter: UNFAVORED
This matchup can become very hard. The mix of singular threats through Build-a-Beast and lots of 3/3 wolves makes keeping the board clean a herulian task. Mulligan HARD for Duskbreaker if you want to maintain a lead into the late game! This is the single-most important card in the matchup.
Try to maximize your value cards, play Pyromancer only when you can clear the board with it, and Northshire Cleric only when you can draw cards with it the very same turn.
Mulligan: Cards to keep are Northshire Cleric, Wild Pyromancer, and Duskbreaker.
Tempo Rogue: FAVORED
Many opponents will think that you are playing a Spiteful Priest list, and that helps you a ton in the matchup against Rogues. They will try to build up a big Edwin early on, and you will eat it up with Shadow Word: Death. The rest of the matchup plays out as easy. Scaleworm is the answer Priest needed against Fal’dorei Strider, so even more value-oriented Rogue archetypes will have trouble to compete in the mid game.
Mulligan: Cards to keep are Northshire Cleric, Wild Pyromancer, Power Word: Shield and Duskbreaker.
Spiteful Druid: EVEN TO UNFAVORED
As we all know, Spiteful Summoner’s rolls have become increasingly better due to the rotation of the Old Gods, and that is why this archetype can high-roll you out of the game in a heartbeat. The combination of Prince Keleseth and copious amounts of cheap minions that have more than 3 health can become too much from time to time. The deck also has a lot of defensive capabilities, and Armor is the bane of every combo-based Alexstrasza deck. Try to go in as early as possible, get your Scaleworm on the board, and pray.
Mulligan: Cards to keep are Northshire Cleric, Wild Pyromancer, Power Word: Shield and Duskbreaker or Scaleworm.
Tempo Mage: BALANCED
In my opinion, this is one of the most fun matchups of Mind Blast Priest. It really can go both ways every time; your Duskbreaker can deal with all of their minion threats at once, but well-timed Counterspells and Explosive Runes can cost you the game. Besides that, destroying Aluneth with your Ooze feels incredibly satisfying and will most likely win you the whole match.
Try to focus on board control as much as possible, use your Health as a resource. This can backfire of course, but normally Shadow Visions and Divine Hymn should keep you out of lethal range for a long time.
Mulligan: Cards to keep are Northshire Cleric, Wild Pyromancer, Power Word: Shield and Duskbreaker.
Elemental/Control Mage: UNFAVORED
You know what’s as bad as Armor for our list? Lifesteal, and Frost Lich Jaina has plenty of that in hand. In this matchup you basically need to hard-mulligan for Shadowreaper Anduin so that you can apply pressure as early as possible and before Jaina gets drawn. You have to go wide on the board as well, because the board will stay clear all of the time anyway. The matchup against more value-oriented Elemental Mages without that many board clears is much better.
Mulligan: Cards to keep are Northshire Cleric, Power Word: Shield and Shadowreaper Anduin.
Odd Rogue: BALANCED
Odd Rogue can dish out tons of early damage due to their upgraded Hero Power and cards like Hench-Clan Thug. Try to not play greedy with your board clear, because this archetype tends to not have as many board refill compared to other Aggro archetypes.
Mulligan: Cards to keep are Northshire Cleric, Wild Pyromancer, Power Word: Shield and Duskbreaker.
Even Shaman: SLIGHTLY UNFAVORED
Control Priest always had a hard time against Shaman, just because it has no way to deal with huge amounts of cheap value minions over and over again. Even Shaman has more than enough of that, and the fact that those Totems can turn into legit threats in the mid-game thanks to Flametongue Totem or Dire Wolf Alpha. The only hope in this matchup is to draw Pyromancer every time; other than that, Duskbreaker needs to carry into the late-game where Anduin and Mind Blast could do enough damage while removing their board over and over again.
Mulligan: Cards to keep are Northshire Cleric, Wild Pyromancer, Power Word: Shield and Duskbreaker.
Taunt Druid/Quest Warrior/Odd Warrior: UNFAVORED
On paper these are the worst matchups for Mind Blast Priest. If played correctly, running out of Armor is not an option for both decks.
However, if your opponent doesn’t know what he’s up against, these games can turn into skill-based matchups really quick. Even in Legend ranks, lots of players still play too greedy instead of leaning back and just ramping up Armor over and over again. Sadly, both the paper and the real match is lost if you don’t draw Anduin early enough.
Mulligan: Cards to keep are Northshire Cleric, Power Word: Shield and Shadowreaper Anduin.
Mind Blast Priest Tech Cards and Replacements
Shadow Word: Death: Depending on the meta, you can only run one copy of SW:D, but at the moment it’s just too good against Mountain Giant and Spiteful Summoner. A healthy alternative of course is Twilight Acolyte.
Chameleos: Many variations of this list run Chameleos, and in a more control-oriented meta, this card can spy out a lot of vital information and create great value.
Prophet Velen: This card actually does nothing in terms of additional reach within a single turn, just because it has to stick to the board for at least one turn.
Spirit Lash: A lot of lists run this card, especially if you can’t afford a second copy of Psychic Scream; it adds good board clear and healing, especially combined with Pyromancer.
Too old
I really appreciate this deck, was stuck with the meta rush at 15 but since running this deck I’ve managed to hit 11 in under a day. Props to you sir!
Great to hear, Legend is in sight!
4 out of 4 lost in ranked at level 21.
Not much back up plan with this deck. Also lack of dmg against high hp poison and 4 attack+ high hp cards
I’d advise you to try the deck out more, a sample size of 4 games is pretty low, especially at low ranks. You can also sift through the comments if you feel like you need to include certain tech cards to have some “back up plans” depending on the current meta.
Can I run Gluttonous Ooze instead of Acidic? I understand that 2 mana is good for efficiency, especially against warlock, but I feel the extra armor could be good against aggro decks.
That’s fine. I personally really like Acidic Swamp Ooze just because it can deal tons of damage early against heavy control bullies if they don’t draw well, and that one extra turn you can play it earlier can mean 3 more damage in the end.
Also Acidic Swamp Ooze is good at pushing damage with Shadowreaper Anduin. I won a few games due to the 2 mana cost
Good point!
I put 2 pumpkin and remove a swd and the mass dispel, and work really well
Can i replace psychic scream with smth? I dont have enough dust and in far future i probably wont have but this deck seem really fun and i really want to play it. Is it still playable without psychic scream?
You should at least run one copy of it. It’s your backup against Aggro if you don’t draw into early board clear, and it buys you turns against heavy control boards (Void Lords, etc.).
One of the worst decks I’ve ever played. So mulligan + draw reliant. Waste of dust.
Yah, I’ve about had enough of it too. It simply doesn’t win. Way too dependent on far too many things. The only deck it beats is Paladin. It is NOT favored against warlock. That’s a huge lie. It loses to control priest, warlocks, Druid, mage and some hunters. Total joke.
According to hsreplay, in 140.000 games played, the winrate of this deck against any Warlock is over 62%.
https://hsreplay.net/decks/fS2rEbxNUX8wr40SnkHYzb/#gameType=RANKED_STANDARD&tab=overview
According to the last two vS Data Reaper Reports, the deck’s winrate against both Cube and Control Warlock is well over 50%, and was even higher two weeks ago.
https://www.vicioussyndicate.com/drr/matchup-chart-data-reaper-report/
It’s one thing that you don’t seem to be able to play the deck and its matchups correctly, but it’s very rude to call a given fact a “huge lie” that can be disproved within ten seconds worth of Google search.
*whistle slowly*.. killin em lol
Or, maybe I’m getting matched up against decks that it instantly loses to. Have you ever considered that? Obviously you haven’t since this deck is an automatic loss to many decks people are playing right now. DK Mage or Face mage? Dead. Quest warrior with all those taunts and armor? Dead. Shudderwock? Usually dead due to the obscene amount of healing they have. Druids? Maybe 50/50 but taunts Druid destroys this deck.
Sure, I kill paladins and sometimes warlocks. That’s IT. Every other deck is a horrible matchup…..like horrible. Those are the real world facts.
Greetings again,
please, if you try to cover your answer with “real world facts”, please don’t be afraid to show a source for said facts, just like I did in my first answer. Despite the lack of sources, I will try and answer your doubting regarding those matchups:
“DK Mage”: I don’t know which archetype you’re referring to, but let’s take Big Mage. That has indeed a slightly favored matchup against Control Priest, it always had. That however does NOT mean that it’s an autoloss. You need to mulligan hard for Anduin and you need to try to get in early minion pressure before they clear the board.
“Face Mage”: We see a 54% WR for the most prominent Burn Mage deck against Priest on metastats. However, lots of Control Priest lists have a positive or even WR aganist Burn Mage as well. In the end I’d say it’s a pretty balanced matchup; we have tons of healing thanks to Shadow Visions and Divine Hymn, and a defensive Alex can work wonderes. Duskbreaker challenges every single minion on the board at once, so if you try to outheal them you’ll get a good chance to win at the end. This is most DEFINITELY NOT an autoloss.
Quest Warrior: I said this many times in the comments section, but it’s common knowledge that Quest Warrior vs Control Priest is more of a skill matchup than anything, and that applies to lower ranks more than anything. Bad players try to do their quest asa fast as possible so that they can kill you with their Hero Power, and that gives us enough time to get in early minion and Anduin damage. Shadow Visions for multiple Mass Dispels does tons of work, and newer lists include Twilight Acolyte and Cabal Shadow Priest to steal one of their Taunt minions. I do have to admit that it’s one of the harder matchups to play from a skill perspective, but if you’re the better player piloting your deck in this specific matchup, you’ll increase your winning edge and therefore WR by a ton.
As a personal note, I’m currently 7-1 with this deck against Warrior this season, and none of these matches have been against Aggro or Rush.
Shudderwock: They need to get their combo in the first 15-20 cards. Everybody can lose against a combo-heavy archetype if they draw the nuts. In the bigger picture, Shudderwock Shaman is so incredibly inconsistent that you should be able to outplay them much more often than they draw the nuts against you. There’s a reason this deck is Tier 1 and Shudderwock Shaman is Tier 3.
“Druids”: It’s funny that you say that the Druid matchup is 50/50, because it is BY FAR the worst matchup for Control Priest across all ranks (Quest Rogue becomes worse but only at 5-Legend). You just simply can’t do a whole lot against even one Spiteful Summoner on curve if you don’t have enough early minion pressure. Some people even mulligan for SW:D, but a Tyrantus high roll for example will basically crush your soul. The unrelenting minion pressure with lots of Taunts overcomes the average board clear capabilities of Control Priest.
Taunt Druid on the other hand can become, similar to Quest Warrior, a skill matchup, because Taunt Druid itself is very hard to play, and it is very easy to lose if you don’t know how much damage the Priest can dish out in one turn; one wrong use of Branching Path for example can easily win you the game, but you have to play the better game as well of course.
And now some numbers for these terms “dead” and “autolose”: My worst matchup this season is Druid, and I’m 12-18 with Control Priest against Druid. That’s a 40% WR in 5-Legend. That means that out of 10 games I win 4 games. It DOESN’T mean that I lose every game out of 10 games. Please stop using this kind of “definitive” language when it comes to statistics, it just blatantly shows that you have no numbers and no experience to back your claims.
I have played over 150 games with this deck the last two seasons, and I can safely say that this rightfully has become a Tier 1 deck, just because it has no real losing matchups, The amount of working mechanisms when behind is unmatched or only challenged by Cubelock at the moment, and this deck will only get stronger after the nerfs hit next week.
Please try to badmouth a Tier 1 deck somewhere else, because here your “real world facts” really don’t shine. As “priestplayer” said, you’re welcome to post replays of one of your matches against these “unwinnable matchups” so we can discuss them!
You mention Control priest several times…. Im talking strictly Mind Blast which IMO are different decks. Hope were talking about the same thing here. As for Druid – I meant that I had a good win rate against aggro or token druids that tend to open with Fireflies and such. Not Taunt/Hadronix druid which is a waste of time, sorry to say. As for Taunt Warrior… thats great if you have some luck it but there is no way to bust through that armor. Alex doesnt help. Your hero power is nice but with few minions of your own to play the 8 damage often hits your face late game. Hard to sustain much of that with only Divine Hymn to heal with.
Face Mage is just awful. That 54% stat is only a snapshot and not really taking into account everything. None of those stats do – thats why I hate relying on them as the only argument for a decks quality. There is a LOT more to it than some arbitrary website data snapshot. Its a terrible matchup unless you draw perfectly and they draw terribly which does happen. But, its hard to “skill” your way out of Wyrm, into Arcan, into secrets, into Kirin Tor, etc, etc. Good Luck.
And…. yer talking From Rank 5 and down. At that stage, your chances of facing meme decks or goofy decks goes way up. For everyone else thats between R5 and R15, we are seeing a much dfferent meta thats loaded with try-hards and tier -1 net decks. Again, this is where those stats simply dont paint the whole picture at all. Once I get to R5 or lower I start goofing around and the matchups change drastically. Not apples to apples, IMO. I swear I have been matched up like 6-7 times in a row with exact counters to Mind Blast priest…. its silly at that point.
I dunno…. I question anyone taking this deck from R15 down to R5 without a lot of good matchup luck and all that. No way anyone is just breezing through like nothing. Sure, if you get nothing but Paladins and Warlocks then suddenly the deck feels awesome. Its very relative to what your playing against. The deck is very polarizing.
‘it simply doesn’t win’ What rank are you? Plenty of people have piloted this deck to high ranks in legend and aren’t complaining. Go into deck tracker and link some of your replays, I’m confident you have no idea how to play this deck properly.
Sorry but this deck right now is garbage in this meta. Warlocks are changing their decks to deal better with this deck. The only decks it does OK against is paladins. It’s an automatic loss to any DK Mage deck, taunt warrior, most druids, control priests, and Shudderwock. I don’t know what the hell everyone sees in this deck and whoever is playing it at high legend is getting extremely lucky and facing nothing but Palladins.
I’m playing it just fine…..the deck simply lacks a LOT of tools to deal with the cancerous meta we have right now. Those are the facts. Thanks for your guidance.
How does this deck handle baku quest warrior?
It doesnt. Baku warrior is insta concede.
That being said i have over 70% wins with this deck so well worth it
That’s not entirely true. The deck may not have a positive WR over all ranks, but I’m absolutely certain that many, many Warrior players at lower ranks don’t know what Priest deck they’re facing, and in that case it’s more of a skill matchup than anything.
First thing I would like to say is that I really enjoy the list. I love that it continues on what I was able to do with the Raza focussed deck.
Started playing the deck around R15 to see what I needed to do vs certain match-ups. Really like the Skulking Geist vs Warlock and vs Kingsbane Rogue (if that is even a thing).
Made a few changes cause I wanted a better match-up vs aggro/warlock:
-1 Divine Hymn; +1 Spirit Lash.
Works great vs silver hand recruits + I prefer some damage + heal
-1 SW: Death; -1 Mind Control; +2 Squashling.
Early game can be usefull to heal your side + add some small bodies. Late game helps your combo/Heals you for 10 if you needed a bit more sustain.
-1 Ooze; +1 Harrison Jones. : Most of the time I just want the draw effect to get to DK Anduin faster. Ooze was fine in must match-ups it was needed, but I simply personally prefer Harrison.
I tried playing acolyte for more draws first, but his tempo was simply too low compared to a full enemy board silence with Mass Dispel. (Especially vs Paladin, Warlock and Druid)
Currently going 28-2, only losing vs Spitefull Druids cause my opponent simply had more resources.
I like your substitutions on Death, MC and Ooze. Those were exactly the cards I thought could be replaced in this deck, but Squashling wasn’t a replacement I had in mind. Going to give it a shot.
I love this deck. Anduin and Velen were 2 of my first 3 legendary cards. However, I’m really struggling to find a purpose for Divine Hymn. It seems like it’d just be better to run Spirit Lash instead. I’ve yet to be in a situation where using Divine Hymn would restore enough health to turn the game around, and it seems really wasteful to use it for Wild Pyro.
I’ve started running 1 copy of Spirit Lash and 1 copy of Divine Hymn, but I’m thinking of cutting that single copy as well. Is there something I’m missing about this card? I’d rather just have even more board clear.
I think you shouldn’t have more board clear in this deck because it has a lot of them and against aggressive decks works better than good. Spirit Lash is great against aggro paladin but mind blast priest beats it even without Lash, so I think it’s better to replace Divine Hymn (also for me 2 of them is just too much – often 2 dead cards in hand) or one Shadow Word: Death with some card draw (something like Novice Engineer or Acolyte of Pain). For me more card draw works excellent because it really helps you to get faster your Anduin or Mind Blasts which is really important, especially against control. Hope I helped you.
Spirit Lash has actually saved my life so many times. Gaining 4-6 health with it while putting minions in range of your other board clears is insanely good against decks like Murloc Paladin. I feel like I only need 1 copy of Divine Hymn because I can easily discover a second or third copy of it against the likes of Face Mage, but I’ll experiment with a bunch of different combinations.
This deck is literally trash. 0-20. Auto-loss versus Elemental Mage, Rush Warrior and Baku Warrior, and taunt Druid and both Spiteful variants (Druid and Priest). Can‘t beat Cube Lock even with all the tech (not enough direct damage to finish the job, especially with his 3 life gain per turn. I‘m so pissed didn‘t craft Anduin when it was decent.) What a gimmick freakin‘ deck.
Lost to the stupid life gain weapon Rogue deck, the Quest Amara deck, the 4 horsemen deck. This deck maybe beats Aggro paladin (which i played ZERO of in the 20 matches I tired it).
Calling a deck trash because you don’t know how to play it is pretty stupid, it is one of the top decks in high legend at the moment. It’s incredibly good vs the top decks right now but its a very skill testing deck and requires practice.
Also, who in this game is playing kingsbane, quest amara and four horsemen decks, hell I’ve only seen one rush warrior and elemental mage.
If you are struggling against cubes and taunt Druid with a geist I think you need to re-evaluate how you play this deck.
Yes, obviously the deck is whats trash…
It doesn’t work against high Armour gain decks, as for warlocks, bait the heal and then use Alez, you will win. I always beat spiteful if I keep the right cards in hand, (Alduin and Shadow Death)
LOL, I faced 20 cubelocks and if i loose 2 was alot… u suck man.
You rely on knowing every single deck in play for this to work. I understand you no job, mouthbreathing dickheads have that amount of time to put into this game. But the rest of society doesn’t.
So i spent my last dust on this deck. Hope it will work with reaching legend.
Man it’s really strong deck with high win rate for me so enjoy playing with it.
You still have Harrison Jones mentioned all over the guide even though you traded him out for Skulking Geist. In another post you mentioned you didn’t think Skulking Geist truly helped with the winrate against Cube Lock. Mind me asking the reason for the swap?
Evident may correct me if I’m wrong, but all the Guide lists will get replaced by the most popular list that gets tracked by metastats or hsreplay as soon as those lists become popular in the first place.
I still think that the deck is fine without Geist, but other people, including my dear colleague Stonekeep, think that Geist instead of Harrison is the way to go. Initially the list has done very well without Geist, but maybe now, after a lot of Warlocks know what they’re up against, adding Geist might be the right move.
All in all I’d say it’s personal preference. If you feel like Geist improves your matchups, go ahead and take him on your journey 🙂
I´ve been testing the deck and I think Geist or even Chamaleos is better than having another minion to destroy weapons, in fact I feel that the weapon has less impact on my wins than a lock healing 8 heals for which i need 2 mind blast to compete with.
Thank you guys for the input. I appreciate it.
What is the sole purpose of Sulking Geist. Sorry, I’ve never used the card
It destroys all 1-mana spells in both your own and the enemy’s deck. This can be very useful in the matchup against Warlocks because you destroy their copies of Dark Pact which are an excellent source of healing up over and over again.
Geist is so strong agaisnt cubelocks and there are planty of them and I havent lost with single cubelock yet
Control priest is one of my favourite decks so I’m very happy it’s back. Mind blast priest is actually really good on ranked right now cause it’s almost impossible to lose against aggro pally and also works well against other aggro decks. Playing against cubelock require some skill (and luck) but it’s still a good deck to beat it. Even against “unfavorable” decks like control mage or druid I win 50% games on legend. To sum up deck is bad against some decks like quest rogue but it’s viable deck and if you like control priest you shuld try it out.
What do you think about swapping in lich king for a primordial drake?
Swapping dragons is a tough one because your Scaleworms lose tons of synergy. Besides that, Primordial Drake still serves as the best nail in the coffin against Aggro board refill, so I’d rather swap a Twilight Drake.
Another thing: Lich King is a great card, it offers tons of value. But what can it do in this list that we don’t already have? It’s basically an 8-mana 8/8 taunt minion, because only one of its eight DK cards will add more reach to our damage kit (Death Coil), and I’d rather take PD’s board clear to be honest 🙂
With all the dude Paladino running around it might make those matchups slightly worse? But it’ll make the control matchups better.
I’m absolute disgusted how I see this deck played around 200legend, people honestly play this deck like idiots.
I highly recommend you run double psychic scream if you want to win the harder match ups and vs mage I would aim to get an extra mind blast just for a nice little dmg combo to burn armour gained and probably a third psychic scream . Your aim is to keep elementals off her board for you to play Alex and then win. I have managed a 10 win streak with this deck including 3 mages this deck has potential.
When is the best time to use Psychic Scream with this deck?
You can’t beat Odd Warrior right ?
Depends on their skill level. As said before, I’m convinced that it is a pretty decent skill-based matchup, and if YOU know what you’re doing and the Warrior doesn’t, then it could easily go your way. Many Odd Warriors try to equip Sulfuras asap, and that gives us enough time to burn through the low amounts of Armor due to them not having their Hero Power anymore. However, if they choose to not equip the quest weapon, winning is actually not that easy.
Last but not least, Odd Warrior is a very niche archetype according to the latest ladder statistics, so I wouldn’t be too worried about it.
Very fun deck to play, just got one question, what’s the mass dispell for?
We don’t run inner fire or something like that, so taunts generally don’t matter, so what exactly is the purpose of mass dispell in the deck?
Yesterday I ruined a Token Druid’s day with Pyro+Mass Dispel against a board full of whisps with Soul of the Forest.
Generally speaking, Mass Dispel does tons of work against basically all archetypes. You need draw, and you need to survive. Yes, we don’t run a combo that relies on face damage, but Alex + Mass Dispel the next turn can give you enough reach against Warlocks or Warriors for example.
Even against Paladins this card can take out a lot of damage if you draw poorly in the early game. It silences Divine Shields, Knife Jugglers and other stuff that they can capitalize on.
Um are there any replacements, I just spent all my dust crafting spiteful priest and i lack all the epics for this deck
pls help
As already said in multiple comments, most epics are absolutely mandatory in this deck, Shadow Visions in particular. If you can’t afford the very core of the list you shouldn’t bother to play this deck, as harsh as it may sound.
So um should I dust my golden rexxar for this
I used to play spell hunter but now…
I’m f2p and got anduin, alex and the golden rexxar from packs so yea……..
trying to find a deck to get higher in the ladder and since spell hunter isnt as good
I don’t think you should go for this list when you’re F2P. Aggro decks still are much cheaper, and Odd/Even Paladin do very well for their cost, and they are much easier to play. On the other side, all of the cards in this deck have very high crafting value anyway.
I have both Anduin and Alex already so…….. yea just the epics left which im ok with crafting as they mostly seem really good
I guess this deck was good before the expansion because now it gets wrecked by about everything
I just hit legend with it. Still good just tough to get used to how to play certain matchups
I’ve been using this deck from Rank 5 to Rank 3 with the intent of using it to attempt Legend. I ended up removing one Scaleworm and adding one Spirit Lash. Although this deck is already highly favored against aggro decks, I was still finding myself in the occasional situation where my draws just weren’t lining up correctly, for instance no pyro/spell combos in the early game or a Duskbreaker without a dragon activator. I didn’t want to cut Scaleworm but I really wanted the Spirit Lash and that was the best card I could come up with to cut as all the others are just too important for the roles they were intended to fill.
Spirit Lash has essentially turned a favorable matchup into an almost unloseable one as not only does it provide an excellent clear for all the little one health dudes but it can also provide some much needed face healing as well (plus it provides a nice way to damage all your dudes and then combo with Northshire Cleric/Hymn for some serious card draw).
The cut doesn’t seem to hurt the already unfavorable match-ups too much, although against decks like Druid (Spiteful or Taunt), early game pressure from minions on board does seem to be the way to win, so one might argue that having the extra body might improve those matchups slightly and obviously Spirit Lash does very little against those decks. I guess it boils down to what you’re facing more of.
My favorite deck right now and this absolutely wrecks on the ladder. Easy wins against the aggro decks, in particular against Paladin (Psychic Scream and he can shuffle 7 1/1 dudes in his deck :-). Pyro and Breaker take care of early game aggression.
Control a bit more difficult, but against the popular decks (Cubelock, Mage, Spiteful) still super solid. Would keep the 1x Mind Control, as that comes in handy against Cubelock and to some extent, Spiteful high rolls. You are favoured against aggro already, so would not tech in more anti-aggro stuff. 0
So im quite bad at HS and would love to get better. ive used this deck for a bit and i cant seem to win consistently, i have a 33% win rate. any tips for getting better, or anything that could help me?
Maybe tharid can add but this deck is difficult (but fun) to play. Games generally can be separated into playing against aggro or control. Against aggro, aggressively mull for early drops and board wipes. You will repeatedly wipe the board and eventually win by attrition. Focus discover on spells that help u survive. The other half is control. These games usually go to near fatigue and last very long. Winning these takes practice and focus on two things: your shadowreaper and mind blasts. try to survive till late game and discover as many mind blasts as possible. Ideally, u will wipe the board then play shadowreaper. At that point, focus on chaining hits to their face. Finish with the volley of mind blasts uv collected. Hope some of this helps. Btw, my edits to his list: -1 SWD, -1 mind control and +2 stonehill defender. Not so much that i needed help v aggro but his is so good with your 1/3 drop and almost always can find a powerful late game drop. I always lack targets for mind control and SWD.
Good summary!
Stonehill Defender is a greedy tech decision that makes our matchup against Warlock a little bit worse, but its great for survival in the early stages against decks like Quest Rogue or Aggro archetypes.
Imo stonehill good against all. Obvious is the aggro. But it’s a body against control to start chipping at armor. It protects ur early drops. It’s a body to heal for your 1 drop. It also consistently finds high cost threats for late game. It also triggers shadowreaper twice minimum. I also helps u survive after swapping to reaper. Warlock is a favorable match up, but I’ve found the extra taunts go a long way vs non favored druid.
Isnt this just theos deck why dont you credit him at all?
He has been credited through his own featured deck list right here (he commented on that deck as well):
http://www.hearthstonetopdecks.com/decks/theos-3-legend-witchwood-control-dragon-priest-april-2018/
I m a f2p player and this is my first control deck i manage to craft. Is cheaper than other control decks, good vs most popular decks in current (early witchwood) meta, and very brainish deck. The only change i made was +1 Gheist -Harisson, as my dust wasnt enough. Thank you for sharing.
Brainish may be my new favorite word to describe this deck 🙂
This deck is just terrible. Haven’t won any games trying to make this thing work. Maybe the people ranting about it just got super lucky?
I’m playing this deck since 5 rank 0 stars and still got 1 rank 4 stars. Trying to become a legend.
I don’t have Harrison Jones so i change it for another mass disspel. It was working till rank 2, so now i am playin 1 mass display and i add second mind control.
I really do like this deck, but i have big problem vs druid (whit beast that summon all taunts) – they are making so much armor that i think i just can’t kill them.
Keep trying!
Good work, keep on climbing! That matchup can be very tricky. Always keep in mind that you played the deck to Rank 1 though, so you must be pretty good with it, and that is the number one prerequisite to beat bad matchups as well.
Good luck!
What matchups did you play against? What do you think was the reason behind your losses?
I’m doing well with this deck except against spiteful Druid. You just can’t win against Spiteful Druid with this deck cause it lacks a strong broad presence whereas that’s what spiteful Druid pressures you with. Even cleric and shield on opening hand isn’t fast enough for a curved tempo, and once they highroll a 12/12 or 7/14 with Spiteful summoner and then take control of the board before turn 7, which is usually what happenes, you’re done.
This deck has a leaning curve. It is a harder deck to pilot, but once you get the hang used to it, it works wonders. What in particular is going wrong for you?
Admittedly, I didn’t have all the cards on that list So mine is that list but with these changes:
-1 Psychic Scream (I didn’t have 2 screams in my collect)
-2 Primordial Drakes (I didn’t have 2 Primordials in my library)
-1 Harrison Jones (I don’t have Harrison Jones in my library)
+1 Skulking Geist (Tech choice to burn Dark Pacts and Lost in the Jungles. Anything else is a bonus)
+2 Spirit Lash
+1 Acidic swamp Ooze
Even with these changes, I’m finding that the deck is working really well. The Spirit Lashes have been really helpful with keeping aggro in check in further as well as just being more sustain against Cubelock’s doomguards. The Skulking Geist has been MVP in several of my Cubelock match ups. It has admittedly, eaten at least one of my PW:S each of the games I played it, but it also always ate 2x Dark Pacts, mortal coils, and Lost in the Jungles each time. That’s probably just my deck highrolling its ass off, but there you go.
Really cool list dude. Even though I didn’t have all the cards to replicate it, I’m happy with what I do have for it. My experience against Cubelock and Paladin has been sooooo much better, thanks to you.
Great to hear! Spirit Lash can work wonders if the meta leans towards more Paladin and Hunter archetypes.
As already said in other comments, Skulking Geist isn’t that obvious of a tech choice in my opinion. The deck does well without it, and while it may seem that it causes the Warlock matchups to be a lot easier, it shouldn’t change the initial win rate by that much.
Any thought of putting in the coin/Velen combo? Can swap out one weapon removal and mind control but put in the gargoyle and Velen for extra burst
Yeah, people have been suggesting that! I think it’s a tough tech choice. Coins are not needed as a direct win condition like it was with OTK Paladin, and yes, they might be valuable against Aggro for additional Pyromancer value. In Control those coins can get pretty clunk over time because we don’t have as much cycle as OTK Paladin, and while Coldlight Oracle has left the scene, there’s still plenty of situations where you can easily overdraw (Hadronox Druid intensifies).
Try it out and report back how it performed! 🙂
I love this deck, I’ve been playing another version, but can’t wait to try this one.
Can I ask two questions?
#1 I’m not sure about the Mind Controls place in the deck because i’m not sure what i’m trying to MC in the current meta. if spiteful comes out on turn 10 we have other answers and voidlords we want to pop to shuffle the 1/3’s.
what about replacing it with Glimmeroot or something?
#2 what about playing twilight acolyte instead of Death, to give you a threat to replace theirs, and more consistancy when looking for Mind Blast?
thanks for posting the list, it looks awesome.
#1: MC is a great tech choice against Cubelock. You can MC greedy Cubes or Voidlords for protection against incoming Doomguards. I don’t think it’s really needed, but it can buy you the turns you need for working on your combo.
#2: Solid choice depending on the meta. It can be great against Odd Paladin as well, but with the amount of Mountain Giants being in the game right now, hard removal trumps everything!
I have Chameleos and i’m keen to use him regardless of his effectiveness. What would you sub out to make room for him?
MrYagut played a iteration of this deck with Chameleos and only one copy of SW:D.
Nice guide mate! Did you forget Quest Warrior? i think is the worst favored scenario 😀
Thanks! You can only cover so many different matchups, but that is what the comments are for, right 🙂
Your MU against Taunt Warrior *can* be very unfavored. That however requires the Taunt Warrior player to know what he’s up against. A lot of more casual players will never expect you running this list, so they will try to get to using Sulfuras as quickly as possible. That is where you can flood the board and Alex+MB his face, because Armor Up doesn’t provide the Armor he needs against us in the later stages of the game.
In general I’d call this a “skill matchup”. If you’re the better player, then you should have a fairly decent win rate.
Great deck. I’m finding the lack of warlocks and eqpt at rank 4 warrants swapping a shadow word death and Harrison Jones which both lack tagets. Seems meta dependent. Lots of game losses due to those cluttering my hand. Swapped for mix of chameleos and stonehill defender. Very untested but liked both. Really up in the air on those two slots. My meta is paladin (almost auto win) and druid with druid being a tough MU. Open to ideas! Great post.
Interesting ideas! We have double Weapon Removal, but Jones is highly situational and not very usable against Aggro, so that is indeed a tech inclusion against Warlocks only. Stonehill Defender can be great, especially if you find Obsidian Statue; great “last alamo” against Aggro, and a two-turn-saver in Control matchups.
Druid is a tough one, but I beat Hadronox Druid pretty consistently. The matchup plays very similar to Cubelock: Try to get the most value out of your Screams, focus on card draw, and get Anduin go as quickly as possible. As it is with most bad matchups, the fact that we play a list they won’t expect gives us a massive edge, so many Taunt Druids will try to erect that Taunt Wall to get Hadronox value, when they instead should just bank Armor into the late game.
This deck is actually insanely good! Once you get the hang of it you can literally kill anyone from 20+ health in one turn…well 2 turns if you need to Alex before. Playing against aggro decks can be a bit tricky, but survival is definitely not a problem for this deck, you got so much removal is ridiculous.
Glad to hear you are having success with it!
This deck is the truth. It’s consistently beating Warlocks and Pallys, as the guide proclaims. I’m just trying to get my games in before I start seeing a bunch of these running around ladder.
“This deck is the truth” may be my favorite statement regarding this list 🙂 Go get ’em!
I got chameleos, any card of the deck to replace with? Ty
MrYagut played a list with Chameleos and only one copy of SW:D.
Thank you! 🙂
Is it possible to play this deck without Alexstrasza?
What is the win condition than?
Vs taunt druid this deck get destroyed but then again i have drawn anduin bottom 5 all 6 games…
That’s a lot of bad luck in six games 🙁 Drawing Anduin is key against Hadronox/Taunt Druid. I’d still mulligan it away because there has been an uprising of Token Druid, and you’ll need all the board clear you can find against that. Keep on trying! 🙂
Dude this deck is amazing, is fucking breaking the meta, u need a little bit luck of course but this deck is doing it and when facing druid most of the time is skill based i love it, feels awesome killin pala/cube/baku hunter
The deck seems pretty good but I cut 1 Scream for 1 Spirit Lash to help ensure I have a tool to remove Silver Hand Recruits.
I went 16-8 at legend with this deck. It’s a decent deck I would say.
The deck seems like fun, but for me, it has struggled with gaining presence on the board during the early turns. Has anyone else had the same problem? I ended up cutting out some of the more expensive cards and adding some two drops like Doomsayer.
Yep, if you don’t draw cleric or duskbreaker early or pyromancer against paladin you are usually too far behind. It feels so helpless. This deck needs more board presence, IMO. It could also use more silencing fornstupid warlock BS.
The deck is also an automatic loss against elemental mage. I dunno, I don’t think this deck is that great. Requires too many pieces to fall into place. Maybe there are bette priest decks with dragons?
This deck does not focus on early board presence. You contest early enemy board presence with board clear, not with minions. Collect your Pyro chain, heal up in the meantime, and strike back with a one-time board clear and a follow-up Scaleworm to get into a healthy mid game.
You should really be running geist, if u play vs any decent players and they are on warlock they will be saving the heals for the alex unless they have the otk cube combo with umbra or without her. I mean worst case you geist 2 power words, which is less valuable than 16heal plus combo potential and all in all this is a control deck.
I have been thinking alot about Geist. On paper it looks great and may serve the greater cause, but I don’t think that it is really needed. It makes the matchup easier, but if you control your deck accordingly, win rate should stay the same.
Just started playing this deck currently 5-0 at rank 9-7. I queued into baku taunt warriors and still managed to beat through 20 armour and win
Great to hear! Taunt Warriors are tough to beat, but if you stay patient you might get the upper hand one time or another!
I concede to Taunt warriors. There’s so few currently, but its always like, 30-60 minute games. An uphill battle that really isn’t worth the stress of going through.
This is an awesome deck, funny to play and really strong right now. I just did 2 important change:
Harrison Ford –> Prophet Velen
Mind Control –> Gilded Gargoyle
That’s because I prefer to have more option for the combo (Alextrasa+DK Anduin or Velen+Mindblast). Right now I lost only vs EvenMage
I only have limit dust to craft and i must choose between Physic scream and Primordial Drake
Which one should icraft first and what can i use to replace the other one?
Physic screem is stronger right now and cost one mana less. Obviusly Primordial has a great body but the 2 dmg arent enought sometimes to clear the board and in this meta with this deck a board clear is essentialy
any replacement for the drake?
Try holy nova
Any card to tech out for Silence?
What would you want Silence for? Mass Dispel does the job in that regard. I don’t think it’d be worth to replace any card in that list with Silence!
This deck is just a mess. I don’t see how a few mindblasts are supposed to be the answer to cube lock. They have so much healing that it really isn’t a problem for them to just heal up after you cast Alex and you have no good ways of putting up pressure in the beginning.
The idea is to bait out his heal and discover an additional 2 mind blasts for 20 dmg. mass dispell will help pressure through the voidlords. a good read will signal the best time to drop alex. This is all made pretty clear in the guide.
I have a high WR vs Cubelock with this deck. You sometimes dont even need more than 2 mindblasts. They never expect the mind blast because Priest usually runs Spiteful. Early game is easy, you erase giants or doomguards easily. Late game you can destroy their weapons, use psychic to clear the board and then they have to deal with your dragons, You can poke them until they are at range of your mindblast or minions and then you can either mind control the voidlord or go mindblast depending on the board. Remember Anduin DK + 2 mindblasts means 16 damage, and with 3 mindblasts is 19 damage, so as long as you are in that range you are gucci 🙂
RAZAKUS STRIKES BACK
Any replacements for harrison jones?
Just the good ol Ooze
I have Harrison but I subbed it for a squashing, I know it sounds funny but its actually quite a versatile card lol. If you don’t draw your pyro or dusk early you can have a couple of these guys heal you up and do some trading against aggro, it’s great for healing your own minions out of duskbreakers range or even late game getting to to heal for 10 + put 10 damage worth of pumpkins on the board! Personally I’ve had more success with the squashling than with double weapon removal, maybe there’s a better card for the deck but it works pretty well for me!
I’m missing both psychic screams and a second copy of shadow visions, any suggestions on replacing these 3? I spent all my dust on spiteful druid and shuderwock shaman but am stuck teedertodering b/w rank 4 and 5
They’re both really important. Being able to shuffle – as opposed to kill – creatures is part of why the deck is so good against Warlock. And Shadow Visions represents a win condition by collecting more Mind Blasts, while also saving your ass when you need a specific removal spell earlier in the game.
There’s not a lot of leeway in replacing them. I’d get Visions before Scream, though, as Scream can be replaced more easily against non-deathrattle decks.
Agreed. You could maaaybe play with one Scream only and go for something that adds reach (Holy Fire for example), but two Shadow Visions is a must.
Super, thanks for the feedback guys, going to craft a psychic scream and a shadow visions so I’m running 2 visions and 1 scream and going to add clockwork attomaton in place of 1 scream.
I think the holy fire would be better than clockwork, since it can function as removal or reach, as well as providing more reach on same turn its played.