Unhealing Tempo Priest

The goal of this deck is simple: Establish board control with over-statted minions in the early game, refresh your hand with Northshire Cleric combos and Power Word: Shield, sneak through as much chip damage as you can, and finish them off by unhealing their face.

This deck does well VS:

Most Control decks except “Bomb Warrior” (Seriously, that deck is nutty, it has a positive win-rate against every deck except… MECH PALADIN??? Probably because Dyn-o-matic is a 5-mana 3/5 in mech matchups. Regardless, Blastmaster Boom is just a ridiculous card, and just think about this: The deck is nowhere near reaching it’s true, optimized form yet.

Most Midrange / Tempo decks that lean towards the aggressive side. Value-focused Midrange / Tempo can run this deck out of steam fairly consistently unless they draw poorly in the early game. (I’m looking at you, Heistbaron Togwaggle …)

Warlocks, Shamans, and Druids of all flavors. If a control variant of any of these draws the nuts and you draw nothing but top-end, they might stand a chance, but otherwise it’s basically a free win.

Combos:

(From here out I will call Auchenai Phantasm and Auchenai Soulpriest “anti-heal” to save myself having to put a link to them in a bunch of lines.)

Anti-heal + Circle of Healing = 2- or 4-mana 4-damage AOE! Being able to do this as early as turn 1 (with Coin) if you need it is the main reason this deck does so well into Warlock, Shaman, and Druid (Zoo, Murloc, and Token, respectively.)

Anti-heal + Squashling, Earthen Ring Farseer, Regenerate = Single-target nuke, all of which can go face. Squashling and Earthen Ring Farseer have the bonus effect of adding to your board in the process.

Anti-heal + Hench-Clan Shadequill = 5 damage to the face. Trickier to pull off than the other combos in this list, but situationally useful. (Remember that Circle of Healing can be used to kill your own minions as well :D)

Northshire Cleric + Wild Pyromancer + SPELLS + Circle of Healing = The CLASSIC. Just be careful if you decide to go full Northshire…

Injured Blademaster + Circle of Healing OR Regenerate = Another classic turn 3 tempo play, now with the option to not waste your board clear / card draw!

There are way more combos, mostly situational, especially with EVIL Conscripter adding the randomness of Lackeys to the deck, so I’ve just listed the big ones that you’ll probably use at least one of every game.

Reasons for each card choice:

Circle of Healing – Overwhelming synergy with the rest of the deck.

Forbidden Words – Flexible replacement for Pain / Death.

Regenerate – Again, flexible. It can either be a heal or a 0 mana Darkbomb.

Northshire Cleric – Card draw good. Me like card draw.

Power Word: Shield – Synergizes well with Wild Pyromancer and is just overall good.

Auchenai Phantasm – Combo enabler for tempo / finisher plays, as well as a 2 mana 3/2, which is OK.

EVIL Conscriptor – A priest 2-drop that generates value. 2/2 can be healed. 2/1 cannot.

Squashling – Flexible damage / healing, and generates a lot of badly-needed value.

Wild Pyromancer – Board clear vs fast decks, a cog in the card draw engine vs slow decks, what’s not to love?

Earthen Ring Farseer – 3 mana 3/3 is acceptable. The battlecry is flexible and combos well with the deck.

Faceless Rager – If you can’t handle it as a 5/1, you don’t deserve it as a 5/11. Just a decent early tempo drop.

Injured Blademaster – Good early minion, synergizes well with Northshire Cleric.

Auchenai Soulpriest – Great synergy with the rest of the deck. Soulpriest is still Soulpriest.

Hench-Clan Shadequill – Strong tempo drop, and the negative deathrattle can be turned into a positive with careful play.

Convincing Infiltrator – “Giants? Dragons? Van Cleef?” I have no idea what you’re talking about.

Anyway, that’s the deck, and the summary. I’ve been finding a lot of success with it, after some practice and refining, and I hope you do as well! Give it a shot, tweak it, and let’s get this damn anti-heal priest archetype on the tier list for once!