Our Lord and Savior: The Ancient One

If you’re like me, you might be having a tough time climbing the ladder this month with all the 10-mana spells and taunting scarabs running around. This can be excruciating and obnoxious but by welcoming our lord and savior: The Ancient One into your heart, you too can enjoy hearthstone again! 

I present The Resurrection of The Ancient One. 

**DECK BASICS** 

This Priest deck is similar to a lot of the popular “big” priest decks running around now and features the ever-powerful Barnes/Y’Sharaaj combo to pull fat minions out of your deck. Only this time, we’re not summoning you’re run-of-the-mill fatty. We’re summoning a 9-mana 30/30. I’ve been able to climb from the depths to rank 21 to the slightly higher depths of rank 14 by playing this bad-boy to a 52%+ winrate. 

It’s stacked full of early-game control cards like SWDeath/Pain, Spirit Lash, and Holy Smite, along with some sweet board clears, and a sprinkle of healing. The goal is to stay alive until you can surprise your opponent with a 30/30 and then continue to resurrect until they concede.  

**CORE COMBOS**

The goal of the deck is to summon The Ancient One. That’s it. Sometimes you win via beatdown from Y’Shaarj or The Lich King but almost all of the time you’re going to be wanting that amazing feeling of slamming a 30/30 into your opponent’s face. There are many ways to summon the Lord and Savior and all of them are worth it. 

***Barnes (summoning Blood of the Ancient One)+ Mirage Caller***

This is the most basic of the combos in the deck and can be successfully pulled off as early as turn 6 with the coin — resulting in a 30/30 that either eats a removal spell or kills your opponent. With Barnes and at least 1 Mirage Caller in hand, your odds of hitting BotA1 are 40% and whiffing on that will nab you a Y’Shaarj or Lich King almost all of the time. 

***Shadow Essence (Summoning BotA1) + Mirage Caller***

Same deal, only this time you start with a 5/5 OoOoOooo. Takes longer to pull off, so I only include one in the deck. 

“But SoManyFlamingos,” you must be thinking, “What happens if my Bloods of the Ancient one or — god forbid — THE Ancient One die at the hands of my foe? Won’t that just ruin the combo you worked so hard for?” Fear not, fellow players, because Eternal Servitude is the best fuckin card in the deck. 

**LEGIT COMBOS**

***Dead BotA1 + Eternal Servitude + Mirage Caller***

Did your 9-mana 9/9 get Shadow Word Death’d? Don’t fret! This wacky 4-mana Priest spell can bring him back for you at less than half the cost! Talk about value! With 2x Shadow Visions in the deck, you’ll never have to be without one! It’s always going to hit the minion you want because we’re only playing 7 minions on the deck! (For extra value, play two Eternal Servitudes in the same turn and summon BotA1 both times!) 

***Dead Ancient One plus Eternal Servitude***

This is my favorite combo in the deck. Not only has your opponent had to deal with your 30/30 by this point — likely expanding their limited hard removal to do so — but they’ve also had to deal with your whatever else you’ve done to pull the combo off, so they’re not in the best shape to deal with the greatest meme of all: a 4-mana 30/30. That’s right, if youre lord and savior dies, just resurrect him with this easy 4-mana spell that’ll make your opponent’s head spin. 

For even more fun, try discovering two more Eternal Servitude’s with Shadow Visions to create up to 5 total Ancient One’s for maximum value. That’s over 149/149 of stats! 

***CONCLUSION + OTHER FUN***

There you have it, a special brew that’ll cure all of your KFT-ladder blues. I’ll tell you firsthand that there aren’t many things in this game that will make the Timmy inside you happier than cheating a 30/30 into play. I highly recommend playing this on ladder whenever you’re feeling blue. 

For extra extra fun, try including Lyra the Sunshard for surprise spells, Faceless Manipulator for more ways to copy your Bloods, or Drakkari Enchanter for TWO 30/30s AT THE END OF YOUR TURN! However, these will dilute your combo and make Barnes + Y’shaarj worse. 

Don’t ask me what cards you can replace on a budget. If you don’t have Blood of The Ancient One, Barnes, Shadow Essence, or Eternal Servitude, then get craftin! 

Happy playing!