Friendly reminder that unless it says otherwise, all discover effects pull only from your own class and neutral. Say what you want about the opponent interaction aspect, but it’s not the same as something like Brightwing or Face Collector.

Bazaar Burglary too! The two main win conditions of the deck in Raven and Dragon metas and you they’re not even mentioned?

An entire article on Thief Rogue and not a single mention of Tess Greymane?

Exactly! This is the singularly biggest reason that Seek Guidance is my favorite card from Stormwind. It could work in midrange shells because it asks you to curve out, but it also provides a powerful *proactive* strategy for Control Priest, and opens up patterns of play that are fun and complex. Do you defend against the opponent, or do you advance your own gameplan? Do you have a midrange tool that can do both? how many reactive things do you stick in if you’re in a slower matchup where you need to finish the questline as soon as possible? it’s the EXACT kind of play pattern and deckbuilding dynamic Iksar and the team seem to be promoting and I’m here for it, but I worry it won’t ever be as good as it could be unless there’s more competitively-powered tools for priest.

“On the other hand, if you’re hoping for significantly longer Hearthstone games, that’s not going to happen. Fast-paced action with a fair share of board battles is the target state for the game.”

(I’m sorry for typing another one of my long diatribes on the state of priest, but I care deeply about this class and have so many thoughts about it.)

So the people screaming for Priest to be removed are actually getting their wish.

I’m only half exaggerating here. I absolutely see where all this is coming from: Galakrond/Sethekk Veilweaver/Random Nonsense Priest was one of the most mind-numbingly boring decks I’ve EVER played against. Yet if this is the direction Team 5 wants for the game (fast, board-based decks where even slower strategies have proactive win conditions), based on the power level of cards made to support midrange and tempo-based priest decks in the past, I very seriously believe that unless something changes, Priest will be left in the dust permanently. The last seriously viable midrange priest deck was Spiteful Priest, which saw meta play back in K&C and some fringe play in Rastakhans (possibly so fringe that I was the only one who managed to climb to Rank 5 with it, the first time I’ve ever done so). Its power in K&C was based on incredibly powerful resource and “answer/threat” minions like Duskbreaker and Drakonid Operative. These both had the “holding a dragon” condition, but they were aggressively costed and could come down on curve. Ever since then I’ve hoped for the return of a proactive, board-based Priest midrange decks and done what I could to use what was released to hit that objective. Yet it feels increasingly like Team 5 is scared of letting Priest have that level of power again. Here’s some of my thoughts on some the midrange-style cards priest has gotten since then (these are the ones I remember fighting for, hoping they’d be good, and being disappointed):

Natalie Seline

Why is she an 8-drop? She’s the epitome of midrange minion: answer an opponent’s threat and provide your own at the same time. Yet being stuck so incredibly high on the curve makes her far worse as a single-target removal, no matter her power. Other unconditional removal minions fell almost exclusively around the 6-mana point: Vilespine Slayer (combo would typically mean a 1-mana investment increase), Kel’idan the Breaker, Flik Skyshiv, SI:7 Assassin (its cost reduction ability makes it more squishy, but the deckbuilding restriction helps offset that). If Natalie Seline followed the same formula and was a 6-mana 6/1 instead of 8, I believe she would be far more used and far more powerful.

Aeon Reaver

Of course, Priest DID get a 6-mana removal minion, and yet it also only saw fringe play. But pay attention to the differences between it and Natalie Seline. A single-target lightbomb is a powerful effect, yes, but it is nowhere near as consistent as unconditional destruction. Aeon Reaver’s design and its effect’s power level is more along the lines of Lilypad Lurker, yet Lurker boasts Drakonid Operative-level stats and mana cost, while Reaver was made a 6-mana 4/4. Why? Why not make it a 5-cost? Why not give it better stats? It was so close to being good but these small differences caused an enormous discrepancy in viability.

Chronobreaker

I can almost guarantee Team 5 wanted to recapture some of the power of Duskbreaker while also not making it as meta defining as the original. I got into a huge fight with various people when it released arguing how Duskbreaker was a multi-archetype allstar, while Chrono was solidly a midrange tool. Yet while its effect was powerful, a deathrattle board clear that lacked taunt was utterly inconsequential, especially with such a pitiful statline. It could have been given taunt, it could have been more aggressively statted so opponents would feel more pressure to kill it and have to choose whether to (a choice dynamic midrange loves), but because it was such a weak, ignorable 5-cost minion, Chronobreaker was left in the dust.

Cleric of Scales

My only real quarrel with this card was that it should have been a 1/2. Discovering from deck instead of generating cards was fine, but as Cleric of An’She has since shown, it’s fine to more aggressively stat spell-drawing one drops that have an activation condition.

Twilight Deceptor

This one makes me more angry because, with United in Stormwind, Team 5 spent far more time investing in tempo and board-based priest decks, yet still there’s a huge discrepancy between the power of the stuff they gave priest vs cards they gave other classes that do similar things in the SAME SET. Were it in any other class, Twilight Deceptor’s activation condition would probably not be that difficult to achieve, but in priest, asking that they deal damage to someone is a fairly significant ask. Now let’s look at other classes’ minions that do the same thing: the ones that come to mind are Knight of Anointment and Harbor Scamp. Neither of the ones that come to mind are as well-statted as deceptor, but the stats are not the point here. Card draw is possibly the most powerful thing you can do in HS, and Deceptor once again falls behind, and Paladin and Warrior were given minions that do it without ANY condition, let alone one that is difficult to fulfill on curve like Deceptor. In a board-based priest deck you would hope that Twilight Deceptor would be a powerful turn 2 play, but unless you want to be playing River Crocolisk, it’s nowhere near as powerful as you’d hope.

I do believe that HS devs want Priest to have board-based and even aggro/tempo options, yet consistently they have failed to deliver powerful enough tools for those shells. The ones I listed above are ones that I thought were/are NEARLY there, but just miss the mark. There have been so many others that are much worse. Does anyone even remember Zarek, Master Cloner? Or Lady in White? I understand Team 5 wanting to pull away from infinite generation Bore You to Death control gameplay, but unless they actually give priest tools for more aggressive archetypes that can compete with other classes, Priest wont be able to rise to the occasion. There have been some new ones that give me hope for the class. Xyrella, Serena Bloodfeather, Void Shard, Brittlebone Destroyer, Darkbishop Benedictus, and even Seek Guidance (it asks you to curve out, and rewards you with card draw for doing so. There’s at least SOME midrange potential in that, and it provides its own late-game win condition if you cant fight it back), but we need a critical mass of powerful midrange cards, and I dont think we’re there yet. I really hope the mini-set and the last expansion of Year of the Gryphon have the tools we need, because I love Priest, and I get sad whenever people scream how much they hate the class and want it to be deleted because it feels like I’m the only one who believes Priest can and should be a lot different than it is now.

(oof, sorry for the essay. If it’s too long for this comment section I can copy and paste it to reddit or something. Wouldn’t want all my typing to go to waste)

Thank you thank you THANK YOU for what you said about Priest in the Darkbishop section. Priest is my favorite class, and it constantly feels like I have to defend and fight for that statement because everyone hates the Bore You to Death Priest shells (and rightfully so!). Dragon Priest during Rastakhan’s was the first deck I ever climbed to Rank 5 with and every expansion I try to recapture a midrange, proactive Priest shell with little success. My hope is that Darkbishop and even Seek Guidance will help bring Midrange Priest back because THAT is my favorite class, not the boring do-nothing control decks that always seem to crop up.

I always love reading your reviews; they’re very thought out and tend to be accurate when it comes to what the meta looks like. However, just wanted to quickly point out in response to your section on Secret Paladin that Sunreaver Spy isn’t rotating out, it’s now part of the Core Set. Not that that will magically make Secret Paladin viable, but it’s something, along with the 4/3 that grows with every secret revealed.

The really interesting thing is that this works both in a potential spell-heavy hunter deck with the new draw legendary AND it works in the midrange beast shell I’ve been hoping for from the moment Sunscale Raptor got previewed. Playing this on curve is not the worst thing in the world; there are better things you could do, sure, but it’s not garbage. But even upgrading this ONCE makes it so much more powerful than the median. 2 mana for a 4/4 body with immediate board impact? 2 mana for a 6/6 in the late game, something even Unleash the Beast couldn’t make? The gut reaction is to say this card is bad because “Hunter doesn’t play slow”, but the point is this card is only as slow as you want it to be. being able to simultaneously affect the early, mid, and late game is the key midrange capability that beast hunter needs.

Also I WANT A DOG EXPANSION TOO IKSAR

“He believes that Control matchups are more fun if they have multiple bomb cards, not 29 removals and one infinite resource generator (looking at you, Priest).”

*laughs in Deathstalker Rexxar*

So this is what it looks like when Reno’s not legendary

Ysera and Malygos: *are ancient, powerful Dragon Aspects with high hp to match*

One Fireworky Boi: “And I took that personally”

Yogg-Saron Quest Mage will ride again*

*Ride for the first time because Yogg has never been in the game at the same time as Raid the Sky Temple

If she doesn’t say “Unity. Precision. Perfection.” We riot.

If Big Demon Hunter is viable then, and only then, will I deign to play this class. Enough of this whole “going face” thing, I want to play with L A R G E B O I S

It has been ( 0 ) days since our last Useless Mage Take

Apparently it really WOULD have killed them to reveal more than two Priest cards before the final stream tomorrow.

It has been ( 0 ) days since our last Useless Mage Take

Devs have confirmed that this is the case; playing a hunter secret would generate Rogue, Mage, or Paladin, rogue secrets would generate Hunter, Paladin, Mage, etc.

I believe Blizzard said there will be additional Rogue secrets/secret synergy cards later in the year, but even with just the one we have I already think this is better than you give it credit for. You’re right that it’s probably best to play these on the same turn to guarantee the bounce, but think about what you get from that: a good-statted one drop, a big tempo swing WITH a cost increase, and a secret with a very easily triggered condition that summons a minion that also has good stats for what you paid for. Either way, we of course need to see what else rogue is getting to really reach a conclusion, but I’m at least optimistic.