Exploring C'Thun Priest

Introduction

Deck Insight

Now, I’m not going to explain every card in the deck – not only would that drag on, but it’d basically be reciting information that’s been around in the Hearthstone meta for a long time, and most are self-explanatory (Northshire Cleric synergizes with healing; Priest has a healing hero power).

But there are a couple of really important cards, both new and old, that are essential to making this deck work, especially in today’s meta, so let me point them out here so you guys know how they work and why they work.

Shadow Word: Pain and Shadow Word: Death – We run one Shadow Word: Pain in order to get rid of anything that might ruin our tempo, such as a nasty Fierce Monkey, because cthun Priest depends on a strong early game in order to draw out some initial tempo and build a better board by the late game. As for Shadow Word: Death however, we run two copies since more control decks are present on the ladder, and with most of the aggro decks being Face Shaman and Zoolock, this handles Flamewreathed Faceless and Sea Giant.

Excavated Evil – You’d be surprised at just how versatile the extra point of damage is, especially when you’re falling behind and can use your few minions to trade into a board clear. Of course, since it damages our board as well and it is so situational, we only run one copy to avoid cluttering up our hand with a dead card. That’s why we run two copies of Holy Nova to make up for it.

Twilight Darkmender – This is a boon for cthun Priest if the deck emphasizes control, because it allows you to either stall the game out during a fatigue match, take the lead over an aggro deck as they run out of steam, or more; it simply is just a great card with a wonderful amount of value.

Entomb – This is probably the best way to get rid of cthun with Priest, as it negates the effects of Doomcaller and it means that you’ll have an extra cthun to play with as well, so there’s no reason why you shouldn’t save Entomb for cthun unless you won’t live long enough to see your opponent play one, if you know what I mean.

Loot Hoarder – With plenty of card draw in this deck, control was never an issue as I tested this deck. As a point of contention, however, vamp9190 mentioned that these two copies of Loot Hoarder might be unnecessary, what with all the copies of Northshire Cleircv, [card]Power Word: Shield, and an Acolyte of Pain. If you don’t think this card works for you, feel free to replace them with another minion! I can’t tell you what minion to replace them with, however, but experiment if need be.

twin-emperor-veklor – Probably one of the most powerful legendaries in the WotOG expansion, but this guy is definitely at least partially responsible for making cthun Priest as strong as it can be, with this card’s condition met almost every time you draw this card thanks to the plentiful amount of cthun buffs in the deck. I shouldn’t really need to explain much else if you’ve ever used this card before. Bonus: Brann Bronzebeard + twin-emperor-veklor play on Turn 10?

Doomcaller – This guy’s fantastic, because you can play it by itself for average stats or use it to revive your cthun late into the game. There’s no bad choice! It’s a simple card, but I like this card a lot.

General

Mulligan

Remember to throw away your spells and high-cost minions in search of your early game minions: Northshire Cleric, Beckoner of Evil, Loot Hoarder, Acolyte of Pain, and Twilight Elder.
Don’t keep minions such as Hooded Acolyte or disciple-of-cthun because you’ll either not have enough mana to activate their effect or you’ll just waste their effect if you play them on an empty board.

Tips

The most notable feature of this deck is that it has enough early game and healing to handle any aggro deck.
If you don’t have board presence, play a minion over a spell. The goal of any good deck is to put pressure on your opponent, so keep playing minions if you have the chance, but don’t overextend.
Try to hold your cards to maximize their synergetic value (i.e. cards like Twilight Darkmender, Doomcaller, etc.) but if you’re behind on the board and you don’t have any other choices, feel free to play the card to get ahead, because you can’t play a good combo if you’re not alive to play it.
Remember to always have board control, but make sure to not play right into an area-of-effect (AOE) spell by the opponent. Generally, the rule is three minions at a time, and even when you think you’re about to win the game, don’t overextend – you’ll never know when the opponent can make a comeback.
Entomb your opponent’s cthun for massive bonus points, but if a Tirion Fordring is blocking your way (or some other huge value class minion) don’t fret to Entomb that guy instead.

Class Matchups

Warrior

If you see Warrior, chances are that it’s a slow control deck, so follow the default mulligan outlined above but keep Acolyte of Pain as well if you see him.
I can’t stress this enough, but please don’t overextend your board because Brawl is a devastating card when used to capitalize on your carelessness.
Before you’re thinking of playing cthun, bait out their removal like Execute and Shield Slam, but if you can’t, it’s not the end of the world.
Play your early game minions and trade favorably, saving cthun for the finishing blow.
I haven’t seen too much Pirate Warrior recently, but they traditionally tend to be aggro-centric, so try to take advantage of your card draw and early head start to clear their board or draw into twin-emperor-veklor, if you’re lucky.

Warlock

This deck seems to do rather well against Zoolocks, so stick with the default mulligan, keeping one copy of Excavated Evil or Holy Nova if you see it.
Use your minions early on to trade, keeping the board clear so they can’t flood the board with Sea Giant or activate Power Overwhelming, or that’ll swing the game entirely in their advantage.
Hopefully, you’ll have drawn taunts and heals by turn seven, so you can slow down your opponent and swing the game in your favor.
A Renolock deck is a decidedly different battle, as you’ll have to wear out the opponent as he burns through his deck and eventually drops Reno Jackson. If you can’t kill your opponent within a single turn, don’t waste your cthun and minions because you do not want to give them the opportunity to heal back to full health with Reno Jackson.

Shaman

Most Shaman decks use the same core cards, so stick to the default mulligan and try to control the board.
If you see a lot of Shaman on the ladder, replace a Loot Hoarder for an Acidic Swamp Ooze as you’ll want to get rid of Doomhammer as soon as you see it.
If it’s a Midrange Shaman, definitely consider using Entomb on a Thing From Below or a Flamewreathed Faceless to control the board and pressure the opponent.
Play your minions quickly and attempt to gather full control of the board as soon as possible. If you need to heal, I’d save Brann Bronzebeard and combo him with a Twilight Darkmender, if you somehow can get both of those cards in the same hand.
If it’s an Aggro Shaman, keep their board clear using your spells and drop as many minions as you can, but most Aggro Shaman players ignore your minions anyway, so don’t focus too much on creating a strong board if you need to protect yourself first.

Rogue

Focus on clearing their board using your minions, buffing them with spells such as Power Word: Shield.
Save Entomb for Edwin Van Cleef or cthun and keep an AOE spell on hand for a board full of stealthed minions.
As always, make sure to control the board and remove their minions through efficient trades and spells as soon as possible.

Hunter

Face Hunter isn’t really a thing anymore, but I have seen a lot of Midrange Hunter lately, but the strategy for that matchup is pretty similar to Shaman and Warrior. Keep the board clear and ruin their day by taking away their beast synergies, watching out for that turn eight Call of the Wild.
Consider using Entomb on one of their Savannah Highmane, making sure to develop a strong enough board or drawing a Shadow Word: Death to take care of the second one. These tend to generally be the biggest threats.

Druid

Druid typically isn’t a huge problem for cthun Priest, although their uncanny ability to drop huge threats before you can efficiently deal with them might be an obstacle.
Follow the default mulligan, but like Warrior, try to keep an Acolyte of Pain if you see him.
Play your early game minions, trade efficiently, and keep an Entomb or Shadow Word: Death in hand by at least turn seven in case any Innervate shenanigans allow your opponent to play a cthun the next turn.
As any observant Hearthstone player knows, their weakness is that Swipe is their only effective board clear, so if you can maintain an okay board before they drop too many threats down, you should be able to eventually take the lead with AOE spells and efficient trades.
If it’s cthun Druid, cthun is typically their only win condition so stay vigilant and have your removal ready and on hand.

Paladin

Not much has changed for Paladin, although I haven’t seen much of it on the ladder as of recent: Aggro Paladin seems to be the only archetype I’ve been playing against whenever I do find a Paladin player, but go about it the same way you’d go about Aggro Shaman and Control Warrior and stick with the default mulligan.
Keep a small and strong board to avoid Equality board clears.
Consider using Entomb for Tirion Fordring or Sylvanas Windrunner, or even cthun, although I doubt you’ll see any of these guys nowadays.

Mage

There’s mostly Tempo Mage with a small sliver of Freeze Mage on the ladder recently, but we’ll just cover Tempo Mage as it’s an archetype cthun Priest generally has a problem with.
Watch out for a Frostbolt turn two if you play a Northshire Cleric turn one.
Use your Shadow Word: Pain on any Water Elemental you see, but don’t use your Entomb until Archmage Antonidas or Ragnaros the Firelord comes out.
The key here is to create a strong board faster than your opponent, which will allow you to hopefully take the lead and defeat your opponent faster than he or she can defeat you. In my experience, it’s tough, but it’s not impossible. Believe in yourself!

Closing

Thanks for reading! I hope you find this guide useful, and like you all probably know already, always think about the worst outcome that could happen every single turn and plan ahead! Let me know if you’ve enjoyed what I’ve written here, and feel free to criticize anything I said if you disagree. I’ll see you guys in Hearthstone!