Very often I find myself rooting for the underdog classes of WoWTCG. I used to play a Boomkin deck during the Dark Portal days, which was exactly one set before it actually became viable. Sometimes these oft forgotten classes have some solid class cards that possibly haven’t found a home in the current meta. Yet.
My attention this week is turned to a Priest deck that I received from Se7enhitman. He and I had been going back and forth on a separate Mage idea that he had had, but he sent me this deck list last week and I was intrigued.
I do, however, have another deck list that maybe you can look into. It’s a prototype for graveyard priest play. In the future, this could be a fun combo deck.
Hero: [Mindtwister Quimtrix]
Abilities: 21
3 [Twist of Faith]
3 [Oppress]
4 [Vigil of the Light]
4 [Dark Embrace]
3 [Leap of Faith]
4 [Shadow Word: Death]
Allies: 30
4 [Cairne, Earthmother's Chosen]
3 [Exxi the Windshaper]
4 [Gispax the Mixologist]
4 [Onnekra Bloodfang]
3 [Sava'gin the Reckless]
2 [Al'Akir the Windlord]
2 [Malfurion Stormrage]
2 [Timriv the Enforcer]
4 [Dagax the Butcher]
2 [Sinestra]
Quests: 9
4 [The Ichor of Undeath]
2 [The Essence of Enmity]
3 [Mystery Goo]
Thanks again for your help and attention, most appreciated!
There seems to be a lot going on in this list. Se7enhitman seems to have a bunch of early aggressive allies with [Onnekra Bloodfang] and [Dagax the Butcher], very little midrange stuff, and then some controlling end game allies like [Malfurion Stormrage] and [Al'Akir the Windlord].
I wanted to give the deck a test so I fired it up against Alliance Aspect Hunter, as I often use that deck as a measuring stick of the format. It’s a popular, cheap deck to make and its super effective in terms of consistency and tempo. It’s the 800 lb gorilla of the format, it’s hardly impressing anyone or taking anyone by surprise but it wins.
I lost the roll in my first Hunter match-up. He started off quickly with an [Emerald Captain], follow up by [Loriam Argos]. The problem I found myself in was that deck has very few answers to early game drops. All of the early allies in the deck are forced to attack my opponent directly. Against some decks, it’s fine to try to race your opponent but against Aspect Hunter, once they land [Aspect of the Wild] there isn’t a chance in hell you’re going to be able to outrace them. I was able to [Shadow Word: Death] the [Emerald Captain] and [Oppress] his [Aspect of the Wild] the turn after he played it. We traded some things back and forth and I was even able to steal a [Tesla] via [Twist of Faith] but the problem became that with some many of my answer cards ([Twist of Faith] and [Oppress]) where not instant and thus, the Hunter was able to gain value from his initial Ferocity allies.
I played out a few more games and was able to win a few, but overall I felt the deck was missing a little something for its midrange drops. I was never able to [Vigil of the Light] early than turn 7 and that really bothered me. Se7enhitman isn’t looking to deck-out anyone with his build, so [Dark Embrace] seems to serve the sole function of filling your own graveyard. It’s a fine card for the purpose, but what’s the point? Cheating into play [King Varian Wrynn] with [Vigil of the Light] on turn 6 was utterly backbreaking to opposing decks. You get a modifier that essentially wipes your opponent’s board as well as netting a beefy 9/9 protector that threatens to end the game in a couple of turns with some sort of removal. In Block, who are you trying to cheat into play? In Se7enhitman’s list, the best targets are [Al'Akir the Windlord] and [Malfurion Stormrage]. Is it worth playing both [Vigil of Light] and [Dark Embrace] to cheat into play [Al'Akir the Windlord] a turn early or [Malfurion Stormrage] two turns early? It just seemed like jumping through a lot of hoops for very little payoff. I decided to cut that theme out of the deck, which opened up a whole bunch of room in the deck.
I moved some things around and eventually landed at the following:
Hero: [Mindtwister Quimtrix]
Abilities: 22
4 [Oppress]
3 [Twist of Faith]
4 [Shadow Word: Death]
4 [Power Word: Preservation]
3 [Resurrection]
4 [Power Word: Barrier]
Allies: 27
4 [Timriv the Enforcer]
4 [Bronze Guardian]
1 [Al'Akir the Windlord]
4 [Gavin Haverston]
4 [Mahna Lightsky]
2 [Gispax the Mixologist]
4 [Bronze Warden]
1 [Malfurion Stormrage]
3 [Acid Hands McGillicutty]
Quests: 12
4 [The Crucible of Carnage: The Twilight Terror]
4 [Mystery Goo]
2 [Cleansing Witch Hill]
2 [The Ichor of Undeath]
So I changed quite a bit with the deck, more than I usually would. I wanted to focus more on a particular theme, in this case, surviving initial turns to grind out a win.
The first thing I wanted to do was to add a bit more to the early game. It’s extremely important to not let your opponent get too far ahead of you with ally drops. If you lose the roll, you’re already behind so that forces you to have some sort of answer in the 1-drop slot. [Bronze Warden] not only acts as an early Protector, but also heals you later on. [Power Word: Preservation] is a card that I’ve literally overlooked a thousand times before making this list, never realizing its offensive potential. It literally shuts off any 1 or 2-drop in the game. Sure it doesn’t kill the ally, and it’s probably a bad idea to stick this on a Protector but it’s a good answer card in a class that’s a bit lacking.
Also on the Power Word front, I decided to add in [Power Word: Barrier]. I sort of scoffed at this card as well but it’s a house on both defense and offense. It lets you make unfair trades with your opponent and on the defense can stave off big packets of damage if you play it at the correct time. I did attempt to use [Divine Fury] in the deck in lieu of [Power Word: Barrier] but ultimately decided that [Divine Fury] was just too slow in this format for what it does. The 5 Unpreventable damage is nothing to scoff at and the heal is very nice, but it simply doesn’t do enough in such a fast format. I think [Divine Fury]’s best place is in a more aggressive deck where you are trying to race as it’s a good come from behind card when you’re simply trying to stick as much damage as quickly as possible.
[Timriv the Enforcer] and [Gavin Haverston] proved to be a pretty effective combination, especially when you’re packing [Power Word: Preservation] to make sure that your opponent’s allies stay in play. Gavin runs in for the ping and Timriv follows things up for the finish. For the allies that are just too good to finish off this way, there’s also [Twist of Faith].
[Mahna Lightsky] is a bit of a experiment. There’s a ton of Nature damage running around the format and I thought she’d work well against those allies. Her stats are a bit sub-par, but she’s difficult to deal with for many a Nature build and she’s a Protector. She’s definitely on the cusp of being cut, but for testing purposes she always seem to make my final list, in some capacity.
So the question begs to be asked, “How do you win?” Unfortunately the days of [Voidfire Wand] ending the game for you are over (as are the days of efficient discard). You’ve got the combination of [Al’Akir the Windlord] and [Malfurion Stormrage] should the game go long. You’ve also got your mid-range allies and the ability to replay them (via [Resurrection] or [The Ichor of Undeath]) as well as the very real threat of stealing your opponent’s best allies with [Twist of Faith].
Admittedly, the deck looks a bit sketchy on paper but it plays surprisingly well. I’m not 100% sold that Priest is viable, but it does have a very unique mix of class abilities as well as the most effective answer to [Aspect of the Wild] in [Oppress].
My apologies to Se7enhitman as I really did try to keep the deck a bit closer to his original Graveyard Recursion list. My many thanks for his submission.
As always, if you’ve got a deck that needs a little something extra, send me a deck list to aquestionofgluttony@gmail.com. Next time around, hopefully we’ll have some New Core decks with Throne of Tides.
-Sean