Introduction
Sooo after seeing Immortal Prelate, I decided “Hey, this thing is pretty dang good with Val'anyr . Why not make a deck around that idea?” So this is what I came up with. Is it good? Probably not. Fun? Heck yeah. So lez go x3
Core Mechanics
The deck revolves around the synergies between Immortal Prelate and Val'anyr, enabling you to infinitely stack your buffs. Although this was somewhat available pre-RR with duplicating cards such as Saronite Chain Gang and Doppelgangster, with Deathrattle synergies in Baron Rivendare and Spiritsinger Umbra (and, to a lesser extent, Echoing Ooze and Faceless Manipulator), the deck now has a better control-shell with Immortal Prelate allowing you to constantly keep up pressure with a giant minion each turn, while doubling up on Val'anyr procs.
Assuming Val'anyr‘s Deathrattle enchantment is “Give a minion in your hand ‘Deathrattle: Reequip Val’anyr'”, once you proc Val'anyr to hit Immortal Prelate, it now and forever (until owl hits) has a Val'anyr in its stomach, waiting to be regurgitated. This sticks with it even when it dies, returning to your deck with a new and spiffy Val'anyr equipped for you as well as the one in its belly. Re-proc Val'anyr with another (or the same) Immortal Prelate, rinse and repeat ’til you have plenty of Val'anyrs to throw around.
The deck has a bit of enchantment synergy outside of that combo, but the deck mostly revolves around Val'anyr doubling, with Lynessa Sunsorrow and Tirion Fordring really only being there to soak up some silences for you (or outright winning the game, should your opponent not silence them), as well as Uther of the Ebon Blade giving you a bit of survivability and an alternate win-con if your opponent is, say, a Taunt Druid which doesn’t want you hitting their face for 15+ each turn.
Win Condition
Mostly just double up on Val'anyr through your duplicating mechanics until your minions are big enough to both stick on board and whack your opponent for meaningful damage. Or Spikeridged Steed on Echoing Ooze or Immortal Prelate if you hate aggro. Or have Lynessa Sunsorrow or Tirion Fordring survive a silence, in which case you kinda just win. Pretty self-explanatory: Step 1) Val'anyr . Step 2) Punch your opponent in their face. Step 3) OH WAIT, you were actually playing with a friend sitting across the table from you… Apologize and give ’em a box of chocolates or something.
Counters
Ironbeak Owl and Spellbreaker are sad. Silence on the other hand, you can probably win since your opponent is incompetent enough to hard-run Silence. Outside of that, the deck is pretty fine; Aggro is dealt with with a decent Consecration and Spikeridged Steed, and control gets out-valued by your Val'anyr doubling. Also if you’re dumb and throw down an Immortal Prelate with a Spiritsinger Umbra on the field, expecting to keep a giant taunt and ending up with a Stegodon and a Val'anyr.
Substitutions
Idk, if you choose to run the Galvadon package, it’s basically a different deck; it has too many cards required to keep the Val'anyr package intact. I guess you can run the Galvadon package and throw in Val'anyr, but it’ll be substantially more meh and not as satisfying as having the flood of whooshes and clicks of a bunch of minions equipped with Val'anyr dying and giving you too many Val'anyrs to hold.
Conclusion
Hope y’all enjoyed my first Theorycraft of RR! ‘Twas fun as usual, and I can’t wait to look at other cards in the same manner x3
why not play the quest with the amount of buff spells in here?
I note that in the Substitutions part of the guide, but the deck only runs 9 buff cards (not counting double-ups on the Sound the Bells). IMO this isn’t enough to consistently proc the quest early, as you’re better off just running a regular Galvadon deck. You’re completely free to do it once the expansion goes live, but I wouldn’t recommend it myself.
So Rivendare lets you get to shuffle your prelates into your deck then take them out and shuffle them back in again? COOL.
Rivendare is mostly there to double up on Val’anyr minion procs, but yeah x3
Realistically you only really need one prelate to go infinite with Val’anyr, but more of them to keep up your draw consistency isn’t bad :3
no 3 drops, why not put in that 3 drop prince? This deck seems legendary heavy enough
Actually, that’s not a bad idea. Copy a minion which is already massively Val’anyr’d, proc more deathrattles and Val’anyrs; basically a 3-mana Faceless for this deck, as you’re mostly wanting the value from deathrattles rather than sheer stats. The problem I see with it (and Faceless Manipulator) is that they could potentially get hit with Val’anyr, mitigating the effect for however many Val’anyrs your hit it with (which can completely mess up your first proc of Val’anyr and screw over your entire game plan). But sure 😀
*editing deck: -1 Faceless Manipulator, +1 Prince Tal’daram*