Introduction
Fade2Karma is a professional eSports Hearthstone team that consists of top players like Hawkeye and Dethelor. Today Dethelor will share his Legendary Dragon Priest deck!
Strong decks in Hearthstone are proactive. The biggest problem of Priest(pre-TGT) was its reactive nature; not having the exact answer in control Priest costed you most games. However, the new dragon cards and synergies introduced in TGT transformed Anduin into a tempo midrange powerhouse.
The Deck
In my opinion, there isn’t a single deck list which clearly is the best. The archetype is flexible and there are many cards you can swap in and out. The core is posted on the right side and here are some cards you can consider:
Holy Smite – You are better off with 2 copies especially if you run Vol’jin for the turn 6 combo. Finishing off damaged threats is a good tempo play, and it gets buffed by Velen’s Chosen and Azure Drakes.
Dark Cultist – You are going to need at least two 3-drops and I consider these slightly better than the Blackwing Technicians. Playing 2 Cultists and 1 Technician is decent.
Vol’jin – It’s prrobably an auto-include but could be replaced by Sylvanas Windrunner or even a Lightbomb.
Lightbomb – It’s decent but not an auto-include because we will often have board control and Sylvanas Windrunner is almost always better in those cases.
Dr. Boom – Very good against control and midrange decks. It enables more efficient trading because of the Boom Bots. We already have a potential Big Game Hunter target in Drakonid Crusher so this an extra argument in running Dr. 7.
Wild Pyromancer – Good versus aggressive decks. Play this if you face a lot of Paladins/Hunters.
The Last Dragon Slot
Dragonkin Sorcerers (1 or 2) – One is probably needed in order to have a sufficient number of dragons in the deck.
Nefarian – can be very good in control matchups but I would rather have 0 Big Game Hunter targets instead of 1.
Drakonid Crusher – I decided to run 1 copy of this underplayed card. This not a control deck and going face is sometimes correct. This card is a dragon and is only bad if we are behind on board. The main argument for including this card is that it is a 6-drop and a dragon in the same time.
Variant 1: Divine Spirit, Deathlord, Fjola Lightbane and/or Eydis Darkbane
Variant 2: 2x Shrinkmeister, 2x Cabal Shadow Priest
Deck List
Mulligan
Always keep:
Northshire Cleric, Power word: shield (with a 1-drop), Twilight Whelp, Wyrmest Agent (with a Dragon)
Sometimes Keep:
Velen’s Chosen (with an early drop and the coin)
Shadow Word: Death against Handlocks
Blackwing Corruptors against midrange decks
Azure Drakes against slower decks if you have Whelp/Wyrmrest
Taunts against fast decks
Dark Cultists
Holy Nova possibly with coin against early game board decks
Never Keep:
Dr. Boom
Ysera (There is possibly an argument for keeping this card in slower match-ups /w the coin)
Drakonid Crusher Vol’jinMatchups
Against Faster Decks: Keep all early minions and taunts. Try to control the board in the early game and punish them with Holy Nova / Velen’s Chosen.
Against Midrange Decks: It’s all about board control! Try to play on curve and force them into suboptimal plays. Velen’s Chosen and Blackwing Corruptors can swing the game into our favor.
Against Control Decks: Depending on your/their hand and the board state, you either have to rush them or straight-up outvalue them. Make sure to trade efficiently and don’t overextend into big board clears. You will be able to wear them down especially if you manage to draw plenty of cards with your Northshire Clerics.
Against Combo Decks: Kill them before they draw enough cards to out-tempo you! If you play on curve against Patron Warrior you will be able to win almost every time except when they draw the nuts. Take calculated risks, such as playing Velen’s Chosen to pressure them after they played one removal.
Not enough data on exact matchups. Patron Warrior looks favorable and we are ahead against fast/aggro decks. Handlock is probably one of the hardest match-ups for the deck but is not unbeatable. Depending on our hand we can either try to rush them and hope they don’t have Molten Giants or just outvalue them with our sturdy creatures and Shadow Word: Death / Vol’jin.
Parting Words
If you would like to see the deck on action, I will be playing it on my stream at twitch.tv/dethelor. You can also follow me on twitter at @F2K_Dethelor for more guides/content. I will be more than happy to answer your questions! See you next week with a brand new F2K deck of the week!
