Tag Archives: Priest

Hearthstone Barrens Part 3: Great, Good, Decent

Introduction

Hearthstone Barrens Part 3 covers Paladin and Priest cards. Slowly, but surely, we are making our way through the new set. So far, I’m happy with the new format. Sure, I often build terrible decks with either no synergy (or too much), but that’s part of the fun of the page. Once again, you can find meta decks at a variety of pages. Where else can you find ridiculous decks and occasional self deprecation?

In this day and age, there’s plenty of that to go around, too…Picture found here.

Once upon a time, in the recent past, I loved Priest. Blizzard unleashed the scourge of Demon Hunter on Hearthstone. I found a Galakrond Priest deck that absolutely destroyed them, so I played that exclusively for the last half a year or so. I never loved Paladin. It stems back to the PTSD caused by Secret Paladin. I never forgave the game for that meta. Even today, unless absolutely necessary, I refuse to play Paladin even to complete a quest.

More recently, Libram Paladin haunted me to the point that I automatically conceded every game against Paladin. I mean, Demon Hunter has become the new hotness in classes nobody wants to play. But, Paladin (and sometimes Priest) are the OGs when it comes to annoying archetypes. Hell, even now I play Galakrond Priest more than anything else and I still concede quite often because I’m in Priest ELO Hell. Let’s see what Hell Blizzard unleashed with our Hearthstone Barrens Part 3 review.

Paladin

Decent: Oh look, another terrible ranked spell and a worse Survivial of the Fittest. I considered Sermon for the “Good” section, but too many other good cards in the set reduced it to “Decent” status. Rank is a new mechanic and often times, they take a set or two to come up with some good cards for a new mechanic. Perhaps the next time they design ranked cards, they’ll come up with some better ones.

Good: To be fair, these cards might not all be better than Sermon. I just put them in this section because the synergy made me consider building a “Holy” deck instead of a secret deck. I nearly lost my mind when I thought that secrets might be “Holy” spells. Thankfully, they have no spell type, so that saved me from having to make too many decisions about my deck. Maybe I will revisit the “Holy” Paladin deck in a future article.

Great: I already talked in the introduction about the old Secret Paladin. Because this deck hasn’t annoyed me nearly as much as that deck, I’m willing to give it a chance and build it myself. I especially like the effect of Cannonmaster Smythe. I played it a few times and it was so much fun. What does this deck look like?

This deck has it all. There are secrets that are versatile, but hopefully won’t trigger immediately so that we can take advantage of Smythe. Both Fordrings can sync together if you draw Alex before Taelan dies. We need to search for Mankrik’s wife, which is a fun little Easter egg for those of us who played way too much World of Warcraft 5 years ago. Finally, Kazakus makes a return.

Priest

Decent: Both of these cards are very situational. I could see Soothsayer’s Caravan being good in a meta with high spell focused decks. Power Word: Fortitude only works with a high concentration of spells. Even then, consider what other spells it beats in any of the mana slots.

Good: Void Flayer fits in with that spell heavy deck I just discussed. However, the stat line is just good enough that it might be slotted in to some Priest decks as additional removal. Serena Bloodfeather is funny because it makes players do math, something that I’ve found CCG players to be surprisingly bad at. Hey, look! A ranked spell that is in the “Good” section. How did that happen? I was going to joke that this could have gone in the “Decent” section and what rule meant I couldn’t have 3 cards there? Instead, I’ll grudgingly admit that the card is pretty good late game.

Great: It appears that the theme for Priest this time is healing. Admittedly, not that inspiring of a theme. However, a timeless theme and less annoying that the theme they often unleash on unsuspecting Hearthstone players, resurrection. Accuse me of plagiarism if you must, but this deck will look a lot like the Blizzard deck in the Tavern Brawl preview for Forged in the Barrens.

As many of my Priest decks do, this one leans fairly heavily into the control aspect of the class. There’s ample removal, card generation, and finally healing to trigger the Xyrella for a big board removal. I might want to put in some of those annoying resurrection effects like Raise Dead, but Veilweaver and Palm Reading do give me a chance to add them to my hand. Hmm, come to think of it, Veilweaver might not be a good choice for this deck since the only trigger in the deck is Apotheosis. I will have to consider that for my revisit.

The Verdict

Paladin made out quite well in our Hearthstone Barrens Part 3 review. Priest is less fun as far as I can see, but I might be missing something. I have seen rumors of a Miracle Priest out there, but I didn’t see a ton of support for the cards I picked in my Great section. Then again, we’re not here to win games. We’re here to have fun and laugh at our ineptitude! Join us soon for Part 4.

Hearthstone Deck List – Priest N’Zoth Greed (Wild)

Introduction

Chris posted a Hearthstonedeck list a couple of days ago. I checked it out and then texted him with encouragement. It’s a Paladin aggro list and those are very strong in Wild right now. I used one that I threw together to beat the same poor soul three times in a row by turn 5 in each game to finish off a quest that I had to do.

His post inspired me to think about maybe with some possibility probably posting one of my own. I have this debilitating controlly greed Priest deck that I use to crush any hope out of my opponent. I told Chris that I can almost see the point at which they realize that it’s hopeless and give up on the game even though they are an anonymous avatar in a computer game.

The Deck

Some Notes

The deck hasn’t been updated with any new cards for maybe two expansions. So, it probably isn’t as strong as it could be. I do know that I discovered a cube from my curator in one game that seems like it could be very strong in the deck. Maybe I’d remove one or both of the curators so that I just had the cubes without having to rely on discover. I also only have one shifting shade, so maybe cutting a Shrinkmeister for another Shade would add that extra death rattle minion for your eventual N’Zoth.

The only board clear is Nova, which generally isn’t an issue. With the Velen’s Chosen cards and the Thalnos, you can generally get a 3 or 4 damage nova. I don’t know much about the meta of wild, but a Lightbomb might also be an addition if you wanted to swap out one of the Novas. Other than that, I have good success with the deck as it is. The one downside is getting stuck with a heavy hand or the Shrinkmeister without any other minion.

Playing/Mulligan

I usually hard mulligan for a cleric against most decks. The card draw let’s you cycle through the deck and get to your heavy hitters/defensive cards quicker. Having a Shrinkmeister is nice, too for decks like Shaman or Paladin, that can coin or play big minions on 2. Aside from that, just shoot for a low curve out hand so that you are making a play each turn and getting that board presence. PW: Shield and Velen’s chosen allow you to get great value trades and a follow up Holy Nova often wipes their boards completely.

Entombs are there to clean up possible big taunts/high impact minions. It can also be used for those pesky 4 attack minions that people think they’ll play to give you trouble. Then again, a Shrinkmeister/SW: Pain or Cabal Shadow Priest will give you a big to massive swing in the early game with Pain or the late game with the Shadow Priest. Once you’ve exhausted all of their resources, the N’Zoth turn is often back breaking.

I’m no professional deck builder. I just put together things that I think are fun. This one plays right into my fun police player profile and it gets good results most of the time. If you have any constructive criticism, I’d like to hear it. L2P Noob? I’ve heard that all before.