SpArk’s Competitive Tempo Priest!

 

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Priest is a class considered to be one of the least viable classes in the current Meta. Most of the decks that do use Priest often rely on the luck of the draw with combos such as Circle of Healing with Auchenai Soulpriest or Injured Blademaster to win them games. This one is different in that it tries to ignore Priest’s fundamental weakness and plays to the strengths of the class. This Priest deck uses mana efficient and value oriented cards to slowly build tempo and board position to overrun the opposing deck.

I’m Samuel “SpArk” Park, a 16 year old high school from the United States, and this’ll be a fully comprehensive guide on my tempo Priest deck. I won the very recent Topdeck NA Tournament #13, taking a 3-1 victory over [DKMR] BorN in the finals and a 2-1 victory over [Team5]Portex in the semifinals.

The Deck

The Core Cards

Power Word: Shield
In my opinion, this is the best 1 mana spell in the game. This card can be used to buff your minons for effective trading as well as activating Wild Pyromancer.

Wild Pyromancer
This card gives you extra sources of boardclear in the form of its ability and is a two drop which allows you to start place it down early for pressure in matchups where the ability isn’t as necessary.

Thoughtsteal
This card can singlehandedly win you the game by stealing Ragnaros, Ysera, Tirion, or any other big legendary. Because of this, Thoughtsteal is extremely effective against control decks. Also, Thoughtsteal allows you to see what cards your opponent is running as well as force them to play around their own cards.

Shadow Word: Death
This card kills their high mana cost minion with your low mana cost spell. It leaves you extra mana to build the board some more. Probably the more important reason why Shadow Word: Death is in here is because this deck has no minions above 4 attack. It’s completely necessary to remove the large threats your opponent might have.

Holy Nova
This card will be your main method of clearing your opponent’s board. It especially helps with effective trading as it heals your minions as well.

Holy Fire
This is another staple of many Priest decks as it serves as 4 attack creature removal as well as healing for when you’re low on health.

Cabal Shadow Priest
Often considered to be the best card for Priest, this card is found in nearly every Priest deck and this is no exception. The battlecry effect is extremely powerful against decks of all archetypes because of the extreme prevalence of <2 attack minions in the current metagame allowing you get value nearly every time.

Mind Control
This card isn’t very useful against aggro, but against control decks, it is a game changer. It allows you to remove their Legendary while taking it for yourself. Just make sure it’s worth your entire turn though. This card is best used against Cairne and dragons like Ysera because they’re just so hard to kill with normal minions due the fact they have 4 attack and extreme resiliency.

The Special Cards

Faceless Manipulator
Feel that one Ysera isn’t enough? Why not get a second one with Faceless Manipulator?

Black Knight
Black Knight excels at removing large taunted creatures such as Giants, Ancient of Wars, and Earth Elementals, greatly strengthening the deck’s matchups against mid-ranged decks. When the battlecry ability is used, it grants a huge tempo swing as well.

Ysera
This card is an excellent complement to the deck, especially against mid or late game decks, because it generates new threats for your opponent every turn or maybe even some sort of extra boardclear. Even when silenced, it has a formidable 4/12 body. If unchecked, this will win you games, especially against classes like Druid and Warrior who have very limited big creature removal.

Cards Unable to Make the Cut

Auchenai Soulpriest
This card is very situational. It’s really only good with a Circle of Healing which the deck doesn’t run and even then, it’s only for when you’re behind as it will destroy your own tempo if you play it with your own board full. This card also prevents you from playing Holy Nova or Holy Fire, making it a dead card against aggro.

Circle of Healing
This card isn’t too good without the Priestess or Cleric.

Northshire Cleric
Although this card can draw you many cards, it’s not very good for the tempo archetype of this deck.

Crazed Alchemist
Although you can do fancy tricks with this card, but often requires another card to make it fully work, making it detrimental to the tempo of the deck. Additionally, it’s only a 2/2 meaning it usually dies off for free.

Shadow Word: Pain
This card isn’t like Shadow Word: Death because the minion you kill with it will be around the same mana cost. Additionally, it’s not a card that builds you tempo, it just slows your opponent. You’ll find that even most control decks will only run one copy of this card.

Second Injured Blademaster
The reason I don’t run a second copy of this card is because it’s simply too weak as a turn 3 drop. However, it does fine as a turn 5 Chillwind Yeti or as a turn 6 play in conjunction with Earthen Ring Farseer.

Cairne Bloodhoof
This card is easily one of the best cards in the game, however it’s not necessary to this deck. You already have a number of 4/5’s in this deck and you shouldn’t be losing too many of them. Additionally, there are already a number of 6 mana cards in the deck, making it hard to justify putting in an unnecessary albeit excellent card.

Playing the Deck

Playstyle

This deck focuses on building board presence early in the game with cards such as Cabal Shadow Priest and buffed creatures and then retaining that presence using Priest’s hero power and Power Word: Shield. It builds tempo using low mana cost spells to get rid of his high mana cost minions. It’s definitely a deck that focuses on board control and efficient trading. This deck usually wins in the midgame by starving the opponent of cards using efficient trading and by playing around boardclear, but is not afraid going to the late game against nearly all decks.

Wombo Combos

Ancient Watcher + Sunfury Protector/ Defender of Argus
This is a pretty common combo of cards. If done early in the game, it can be a huge game swing. This combo is excellent against aggro and classes that can’t deal with big minions easily.

Injured Blademaster + Earthen Ring Farseer
On turn 6, you can have a 4/6 and a 3/3 on the field for a relatively strong board position.

Cabal Shadow Priest + Defender of Argus
On turn 10+, this will give you a 5/6 with taunt along with a 2/3 and 3/x taunt.

Faceless Manipulator + Shadow Word: Death
This works as pseudo-Mind Control. My favorite target for this is Ragnaros. Alternatively, you can just Faceless the Ragnaros and pray to RNJesus.

Wild Pyromancer + Any Spell (specifically Power Word: Shield)
This combo clears small minions with 1 hp, and if more than one spell is used, can act as an Abomination. Power Word: Shield is particularly good because it’ll typically allow the Wild Pyromancer to do a 2-1 trade.

Matchups

Control Warrior

Difficulty: Really Easy
Mulligan: Offensive
This Priest deck excels in this matchup. This game should be a free win for you. Just keep 3-4 minions on the board to beat him down while saving your SW: D for his Grommash and Ragnaros and Mind Control for his Ysera. Just don’t overextend to Brawl. Good Thoughtsteals will also be a huge help.

Warrior Aggro

Difficulty: Medium-Hard
Mulligan: Defensive
This is a somewhat tough matchup as the minions are tough enough to where Wild Pyro can’t stop them. The weapons also prove to be a big threat. Try to taunt up your minions to >5 health so he can’t just Arcanite Reaper them. Keep him above 12 health if you’re in range of double Mortal Strike. Use the Holy Fires to kill his Nightblades and Dark Irons.

Mid-Ranged Shaman

Difficulty: Medium-Easy
Mulligan: No preference
Shaman’s early removal can make it somewhat tough to get a good footing in this matchup. Search for Wild Pyro + PW: S to clear his totems. Use the coin to trigger Wild Pyro if you go second. Use your Holy Nova sparingly as it’ll be your main way to get rid of all his totems. Use Cabal to steal his Flametongues, Manatides, Feral Spirits, and Unbounds. You can use either SW:D or Holy Fire to remove Fire Elementals, preferably saving the Holy Fires for Auctioneers and Drakes. Heal to play around lightning storm.

Miracle Rogue

Difficulty: Hard
Mulligan: Defensive
Miracle Rogue has some really cheap removal to stop you dead in your tracks early game. With Miracle Rogue, it doesn’t really matter what your HP total is at because they always seem to find a way to burst you down. You’ll probably end up using your SW: D on some Cold Blooded minion at best, so play it whenever you can. Play your taunts, control the board and hope for the best. If you can get to the end game without dying, you’re in the clear.

Control Paladin

Difficulty: Medium-Hard
Mulligan: No preference
Paladin is one of those classes that don’t really care what the HP of your board is. All they have to do is play Equality along with any one of three cards. This makes it imperative to not overextend or else you’ll end up losing the game. Feel free to play everything once he uses both Equalities though. There’s not many targets for Cabal except the 1/1 recruits and Acolytes, so feel free to play it when you see those. Use SW:D on Guardian of Kings and Mind Control on Tirion.

Paladin Aggro

Difficulty: Easy
Mulligan: Defensive
Try and get Ancient Watcher with Sunfury. Alternatively, look for Wild Pyro with Power Word: Shield. This is the same procedure with nearly all aggro decks. Just control the board and start playing big minions on turn 4. Focus on using heals on yourself as your opponent doesn’t want to be trading too often.

Hunter Aggro

Difficulty: Easy
Mulligan: Defensive
Wild Pyromancer will kill 90% of his minions and your taunted Ancient Watchers will sit there as walls as you heal up using Holy Fire and Hero Power. SW: D and MC are dead cards here. Just keep taunting and healing up. Don’t play more than 3 or 4 minions and check for secrets.However, Thoughtsteal can be a lifesaver here if you end up taking one of his Flares or Eaglehorn Bows.

Token Druid

Difficulty: Easy
Mulligan: Defensive
This matchup is pretty good for the Priest. Just play around Swipe and maybe Starfall. Use your healing to slowly gain card advantage while clearing out his tokens with Wild Pyromancer/Holy Nova. Taunted Watchers are a big pain for Druids. Use Cabal on Argent Squires or Harvest Golems, SW:D on Ancient of Lore, and Holy Fire for any 4 attack minion he might have.

Ramp Druid

Difficulty: Medium
Mulligan: No preference
This matchup can be tough especially if your opponent gets off something ridiculous starts like Double Innvervate or Double Wild Growth. Don’t . I’ve lost a number of games because he gave 2/2 to all of his minions. Black Knight will provide good value by killing Ancient of War or Druid of the Claw. Ysera is also a highlight here as they won’t have a direct way to deal with it unless they chose to burn Force of Nature + Savage Roar. Overall, it’s pretty similar to playing against Token Druid, except more a bit slower.

Handlock

Difficulty: Medium-Hard
Mulligan: Aggressive
In this matchup, you need to try and kill him before he plays Jaraxxus. Hopefully you can burn him out with Holy Fire/ Holy Nova. Drakes will be nearly invincible but Giants can be Death’d and/or Facelessed. Play around Hellfire and Shadowflame. Hope for Leeroy or Giants when you Thoughtsteal and you should be OK.

Murlocs

Difficulty: Hard
Mulligan: Defensive
Murlocs can be nearly unbeatable if the opponent gets the right hand. The only way to stop Murlocs is to prevent them from building momentum in the first place. Try to control board early with Wild Pyro. It’s your best hope.

Warlock Zoo

Difficulty: Medium-Easy
Mulligan: Defensive
Just like with the other aggro decks, play defensive and control until you can stabilize. Try to draw into a Holy Nova or Wild Pyromancer with a spell. Cabal Shadow Priest is pretty decent if you’re winning. You can also use it to steal taunts. Taunted Watchers will be crucial and SW: D allows you to 3 for 1 against Doomguard. The game should be relatively easy with a decent enough draw.

Mage

Difficulty: Medium
Mulligan: No preference
I’ve only faced about two mages in about a hundred or so games so I don’t really know how to play against them. Just play well by playing around his Flamestrikes, controlling the board, and not letting your health get too low.

Control Priest

Difficulty: Really Easy
Mulligan: Aggressive
Beat his face down with your more aggressive Priest and he won’t have a chance. The probability of losing with deck against other Priests is very low due to the fact that most minions in the deck have the magic 5 HP, 1 away from Circle of Healing, and 4 attack, making it immune to Shadow spells. The only real way to lose to is to super sick wombo combos.

If you want to see the deck in action, here are the VODs for the finals of the Topdeck Tournament. The deck was used in games 1, 3 and 4.

Thanks for reading! Let me know if you have any questions and I’ll do my best to answer them. Either post them here or shoot an email to [email protected]