What the Light Won’t Tell You: Priest Class Card 101

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The Light (and sometimes the Shadow) will bring victory! Priest has an infamous history in Hearthstone lore already, being one of the most frustrating classes to play against. Tons of different removal spells, absurd buffs for minions and of course Mind Control. Priests were perceived as so powerful that the entire metagame shifted to a mid range, medium sized minion aggressive style to remove the threat of Priest late game by rushing them down hard.

Priests are a middle of the road class in the current, most recent meta. But, they still have a few very slick tricks up their sleeves. By abusing their powerful Hero power and cheap removal, Priests can make mid game trading a waking nightmare. Again, as I stated with my Paladin guide, these are not a set in stone hard ranking for each card and is instead meant to be discussion points for advanced players and introductory knowledge for newer players. Now I’ll illuminate the subject and I’ll tell you what the Light won’t.

Grading Scale

• 0 : Seriously, don’t put this card in your deck. It’s bad and I will probably explain why it is bad on a card by card basis.
• 1: Unless you are running a strategy that heavily centers around needing this card or a strategy that buffs this card to overwhelming value, skip it.
• 2: A card that is usually worth considering at least. Weigh your options, and be sure that there are no alternatives that do the same thing for your deck but do it slightly better. (Think Argent Protector vs Hand of Protection for Paladins)
• 3: Now we’re getting to the good stuff. These cards are good, but they lack the utility of 4 and 5 scoring cards. Often good at doing one thing and doing it well, they are perfect if you need them to do that one thing. It can slice, but don’t expect it to dice.
• 4: Strong cards. You can almost expect to encounter this card once, maybe twice per encounter against this class and you should probably have at least one of these in every deck you make for said class.
• 5: These are the true class defining cards. Fitting in either an aggressive or control deck, these cards are the staples of the class and you can expect to see two in nearly every situation (Or more if you’re in arena).

Circle of Healing

Until Shaman get a Chain Heal card in a future set of cards (Blizzard pls), Circle of Healing is the best option for healing everything on the board in the game currently. And by everything, I mean A) everything that isn’t a Hero, and B) EVERYTHING. INCLUDING ENEMY MINIONS. This is a very important part of this card. 4 Healing for all of your cards for 0 mana is pretty amazing, especially if the enemy doesn’t have any minions on the field. However, if you have an Auchenai Soulpriest on deck, this card becomes 0 mana Hellfire without the self hero damage. This card requires a lot of thought to use properly to make sure you don’t help your enemy more than you help yourself. But by having the option of being a damage card as well, Circle of Healing can find it’s way into a decent amount of constructed decks. Much harder to use properly in Arena.

Arena: 1/5 | Constructed: 2/5

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Silence

This card has Wisp syndrome. Just because it’s 0 mana doesn’t mean it’s insane value because it also costs one of your 30 precious card slots. Silencing a Ysera or a Hogger is obviously strong, but with the existence of Spellbreaker or even Ironbeak Owl, this card just doesn’t bring enough to the table. I would much rather see Silence cost 1 mana and draw a card. Until it gets buffed or the Silence mechanic gets buffed in some manner, there is no reason to use this card.

Arena: 0/5 | Constructed: 0/5

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Holy Smite

A card that usually trades up very well, being 2 direct damage for 1 mana. The same exact spell as Arcane Shot, Holy smite helps Priests cover their obvious weakness against creatures with 4 attack. By either directly removing them (Something like a Holy Smite into an unshielded Argent Commander for instance) or softening up their health pool for something else to tackle, Holy Smite is a good card for Priests, especially Priests who may lack some of the more devious tools of the trade such as Shadow Madness.

Arena: 3/5 | Constructed: 3/5

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Inner Fire

Everyone knows about the Divine Spirit/Inner Fire sacred combo that lets you get silly things on the board like a 6/6 Northshire Cleric turn 3. However, combining Inner Fire with Divine Spirit is just the basic, use for it. Additionally, Inner Fire works as a psuedo-removal by adjusting your enemy’s attack. Whether this is higher (for Shadow Word: Death) or lower (for Shadow Word: Pain or to avoid damage), Inner Fire has uses outside of the obvious “make a 10/10 on turn 3”. All in all, Inner Fire is a great card but don’t get tricked into thinking it is a mandatory Priest card. In order to get the full effect of it, it needs to be combined with at least 2 other cards (a minion and a Divine Spirit) allowing your opponent an easy 1 for 3 with hard removal such as Siphon Soul and Deadly Shot or prime Polymorph and Hex bait.

Arena: 1/5 | Constructed: 1/5

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Mind Vision

The first of many “Let me try that!” spells from the Priest deck. This card is scary investment sometimes, you trade 1 mana and 1 card for anything out of your opponents hand. Which means sometimes you get Deadly Poison. Sometimes you get cool stuff though like an Arcanite Reaper. People give this card a bad rap, but I do not think it deserves all the flak it gets. In constructed, a lot of decks are built around combos and such, but trading a Mind Vision for an Ironbark Protector against a Druid can be a real boon to your chances of winning the game. Additionally, you get the added benefit of knowing one card from your opponent’s hand, so it’s basically a legal way to “ghost” someone’s hand. Not the best, not the worst, but don’t depend on Mind Vision to bail you out of a bad situation.

Arena: 2/5 | Constructed: 2/5

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Power Word: Shield

This card is insanely good. Granting +2 health on a target for 1 mana AND drawing a card puts your amazing hero power to shame. Cycling a new card into your hand and allowing for favorable trades, this card allows you to grab board control early. By turning a 3/2 into a 3/4 or a 4/3 into a 4/5 you can get some pretty insane value on some of your minions, especially since the bubble you place on them also gives you some leeway for your hero power to work it’s magic. Priests require beefy minions for their best playstyle, and Power Word: Shield makes everything beefy. Just make sure not to put all your eggs in one basket, getting two shields and an Inner Fire silenced off one minion is a common mistake a lot of beginner Priests will get stuck in. Great Priest card, easily one of their best class cards if not THE best.

Arena: 5/5 | Constructed: 5/5

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Northshire Cleric

“Is someone injured?” The Cleric asks this as she is played, probably directed at her opponent who punches a wall in frustration of seeing probably the most annoying 1 drop in the entire game. A 1/3 for 1, the Northshire Cleric is an insane draw engine that draws a card every time a minion is healed, allied or enemy. Mana efficient just for the stats, this card is a decent Turn 1 drop but should be saved until you know you can protect it or some of the opponents lower end removal cards such as Wrath or Frostbolt are no longer in play. While in play, the card basically buffs your hero power to be “Heal 2 health, if the target is a minion, draw a card.” Just don’t expect it to do too much fighting or to last too long without getting removed or silenced.

Arena: 4/5 | Constructed: 5/5

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Divine Spirit

Double a minion’s health for 2 mana. Sounds great right? Honestly it’s more bark than bite. Besides the obvious synergy with Inner Fire, Divine Spirit is good as making cards such as Sen’jin Shieldmasta a brickwall that is difficult to deal with. As I’ve said before, try not to get too carried away stacking buffs on the same creature. Yes, it’s hilarious to see a 20/20 sunwalker after double Divine Spirit and Inner Fire. Your opponent will be laughing equally as hard as they throw down a silence or a removal on the card as soon as you’re done buffing it to god status. Remember, there’s three talent trees to Priests: Holy, Shadow, and DISCIPLINE. PRACTICE PROPER DISCIPLINE WITH YOUR BUFF CARDS! Overall, Divine Spirit is just good, not great, and like Inner Fire, by no means mandatory. There are other ways to have your minions gain health in the Priest deck, which doesn’t make Divine Spirit as mandatory as it would seem.

Arena: 1/5 | Constructed: 2/5

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Mind Blast

As scary as getting blasted in the mind sounds, this card is not very strong. “But it’s half a pyroblast for 2 mana!” Right, but that means you need to use 2 cards to get 10 damage onto the opponent. These are 2 cards that have no effect on the board condition. Priests aren’t Mages. If you wanna blow people up with spell to face damage, Mages do that much better. Priests need board control to smack things into other things and then heal them up to have the Light bring them victory. Mind Blast would be an amazing card if Priests were an aggressive class. Maybe someone will invent some high tech Shadowform deck with tons of direct damage that will make Mind Blast strong, but for now Mind Blast is a resoundingly mediocre card that just doesn’t fit in a 30 card deck for Priests.

Arena: 0/5 | Constructed: 0/5

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Shadow Word: Pain

Simple enough removal card. You got 3 attack or less? You’re outta style like white after Labor Day. Acolyte of Pain won’t proc his ability and Divine Shield won’t save the target you send this ability after. This card is strong removal that helps Priests grab early board control. However, with the catch that the card is for 3 and under, things like Dark Iron Dwarf and Shattered Sun Cleric can easily push prime targets such as Knife Juggler out of reach of Shadow Word: Pain. One of these is usually good in every deck, but Priests have other removal options for weaker creatures such as Holy Smite and Shadow Madness that can get better value than a Shadow Word: Pain. Best at stalling and trading evenly in both card and mana cost with your opponent, SW:P is a strong delay tool for a class that needs to get to the late game.

Arena: 4/5 | Constructed: 4/5

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Lightwell

The “lolwell”, Lightwell is a situational card that doesn’t help you gain board control, but can maintain it very well. A popular target for the sacred Inner Fire/Divine Spirit combo, a 10/10 Lightwell running around bopping people is pretty amusing. However, with the lack of attack without the help of additional cards, Lightwell does not help a Priest’s plight as much as you would think it does even if you DO have board control simply because the healing is completely RANDOM among injured targets, your hero included. If you were able to click on the Lightwell (lol) and select the target it heals in the same fashion as your hero power, this card would be amazing. But if the card cannot even heal the target you want it to heal, it loses a lot of it’s value very quickly. Also, you can’t have this on the field with an Auchenai Soulpriest, which is one of the better Priest cards in my opinion. Can work in certain decks, but most of the time isn’t worth the spot in a deck. One final gripe I have with this card is that it doesn’t proc at the end of your turn, which takes away a lot of the value this card could bring.

Arena: 1/5 | Constructed: 2/5

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Shadow Word: Death

This card, much like Shadow Word: Pain, is just straight removal. 5+ attack? You’re gone. Great against things like Ragnaros, Sylvanas if your board is empty, Ancient of War, the list goes on. However, just like Shadow Word: Pain, it is NOT good against things like Spellbreaker, Chillwind Yeti or even certain legendaries like Hogger and Ysera. By having the 4 attack deadzone, Priests can get put in some hairy situations that SW:P and SW:D will not save them from. However, this card is always worth putting in a deck because you will almost always wind up getting atleast mana value from this card, seeing as almost everything in the game with 5+ attack costs more than 3 mana. (As a matter of fact, the only 5 attack 3 mana drop I can find is Magma Rager, but who plays that card seriously). Great removal to have around in the late game, combining this card with a Faceless Manipulator can net you something like a Ragnaros while taking it away from your opponent.

Arena: 4/5 | Constructed: 5/5

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Shadowform

“Shadowform ok?” “NO!” “Uhhh Imma do it anyway” “HELL NO!”. These immortalized lyrics from the days of Molten Core raiding summarize the plight of Shadowform in this game as well, unfortunately. Changing your hero power to 2 or even 3 damage (by using the card twice) is great on paper. However, outside of maybe Mind Blast, Priests are not really an aggressive deck like a rushdown Mage or a Warlock. The biggest problem that I have with Shadowform, is much like real World of Warcraft Shadow Priests, when you go into Shadowform YOU FORGET HOW TO HEAL. FOREVER. Priests work best as a class of smacking minions into minions and bandaging them up, giving you a good trade at the end of the day with beefier minions. Granted having a two times strength Mage hero power is powerful, without the ability to toggle Shadowform off through a different card, I find Shadowform a hard pill to swallow for a majority of Priest decks. I’m sure it could work in a direct hero damage deck with Leper Gnomes and Nightblades and such, but why not just play Mage if you want to do that?

Arena: 1/5 | Constructed: 1/5

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Thoughtsteal

Arcane Intellect from the enemy deck. Can be insanely useful and give you powerful class cards like Assassin’s Blade, Truesilver Champion, Swipe, or even dip into the enemy’s legendaries and net you a Ysera or a Ragnaros. However, it can also be completely useless and draw you things like Deadly Poison and Totemic Might. Much like Mind Vision, Thoughtsteal is kind of RNG but I think it gets a bad rap. Having 2 Thoughtsteals essentially means you are trading 2 cards for 4 cards from the ENEMY deck, so you have 32 cards to play with. Whether or not those cards are useful or not, that’s a different story up to RNGesus. Can be insanely strong card draw or insanely weak card draw, just don’t play when you need to attend to your board control instead.

Arena: 2/5 | Constructed: 3/5

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Mass Dispel

Try as I might I just can’t call this card good. 4 mana for a card draw + multiple silence looks ok on paper. Hitting a Sylvanas and an Ancient of War or a pair of Harvest Golems at the same time with this takes away a decent amount of value from those cards, while drawing you a card. Unfortunately, you just spent 4 mana for a convenience instead of a removal. It’s really nice to remove multiple texts off of cards with one card, but it would be better to REMOVE THE CARDS instead. With all of the effect cards in constructed, it’s very tempting to take this card, but personally I just can’t make it work or justify it. Not for 4 mana.

Arena: 0/5 | Constructed: 1/5

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Shadow Madness

This card is a real momentum breaker for your opponent and is a great way to secure your momentum in a game. Say you’ve got a Faerie Dragon down and the enemy put down a Knife Juggler and some other 3 drop like a Shattered Sun Cleric or a Harvest Golem. Things are not looking good for your board. Then, this card with the most DEVIOUS GRINNING MAN on it appears in your hand. And your face, it gets the same DEVIOUS GRIN. You take one of his 3 attack cards, and ram it into one of his 3 health cards, killing them both hopefully. Powerful 2 for 1 removal, but without the random elements of something like Multi-Shot or Forked Lightning. This card is also a way to hold onto your Shadow Word: Pain cards for weirder late game threats like a Gurubashi Berserker. 4 mana, 1 card could in theory knock out 6 mana, 2 cards for the opponent. Besides the obvious 3 or less attack condition, the only play around this card is to not play more than two minions for the opponent, and it’s really hard to trade with Priest minions 1 on 1 when they have such strong buffs like Divine Spirit and Power Word: Shield. This card is a circus of values. As soon as your budget allows it, I cannot find a reason not to have one, if not two of these in every Priest deck.

Arena: 5/5 | Constructed: 5/5

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Mindgames

Turn 4 Ragnaros? No problem. Turn 4 3/15 Jaraxxus on the field? Not optimal, but I guess it’s ok for hitting stuff with. Turn 4 Elven Archer with no battlecry? That kinda sucks. If you’re a gambling type of person, this card was made for you. 4 mana for ANY MINION from the opponents deck sans battlecry can put you in some hilarious situations, either for yourself or the enemy. There’s not much else I can say about this card: It’s a big gamble that is either really useful or really not. Great for fun play and casual modes, I don’t really see this as a competitive card. Turn 4 Mindgames for a Ragnaros followed up by a Turn 5 Faceless on said Ragnaros is pretty much DREAM status for this card though. There are much safer and stronger options for Priests for 4 drops, so unless you like living on the edge, skip this card.

Arena: 0/5 | Constructed: 0/5

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Auchenai Soulpriest

This card is bizarre at first, but I believe it is one of the strongest class cards for Priest. It gives you the effect of the Shadowform card as long as it’s out for your hero power, but it also opens up a few other interesting combos. Earthen Ring Farseer becomes a 3/3 with a battlecry of 3 damage. Circle of Healing becomes a 4 damage Hellfire that doesn’t hit heroes. Darkscale Healer becomes a self Consecrate that is really embarrassing to use on yourself. Making all of your healing effects into damage is a double edged sword that you need to calculate for, but honestly I think it allows Priest to be incredibly aggressive mid game and is a great card to help drag games out into the late game where Priests can really shine. JUST DON’T PLAY DARKSCALE HEALER. And remember not to nuke yourself with Holy Fire. As long as you are thinking, this card is great, but you can pigeonhole yourself into awkward situations where you can’t play some cards in an optimal fashion.

Arena: 3/5 | Constructed: 3/5

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Lightspawn

5/5 for 4. Great right? The text on the card reads “This creature’s attack is always equal to it’s Health.” Also great, that means it’s immune to annoying stuff like Aldor Peacekeeper battlecry. Great to combo with Divine Spirit, beware of Silences with this card more than usual. A silenced Lightspawn has ZERO attack value, essentially making it a dead card. But, the fact that it can draw removals and silences early make it a great card to lead into larger threats such as Ragnaros or Ysera. Great synergy with Priest class cards essentially make this a stronger Chillwind Yeti for Priests as long as you can maintain it’s health. Glaring weakness to Silence and having it’s attack decreased by trading hurts the value of this card a little, but it is a strong card in the Priest deck for sure.

Arena: 4/5 | Constructed: 4/5

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Holy Nova

NOUUUUUUUVA. Holy Nova is a 5 drop, 2 damage to all enemies/2 healing to all allies spell that can cause a huge shift in board momentum. Can also get you huge value if you have some wounded minions on the field with your friendly neighborhood Northshire Cleric. Besides that, there’s not much else to say about this card. It’s a straight forward, solid card for the class that does everything it could need in a 5 drop. AoE damage to the enemy side, AoE healing to your side helps the Priest gameplan of attrition with beefy minions for board control.

Arena: 4/5 | Constructed: 4/5

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Holy Fire

THE LIGHT SHALL BURN YOU!

Finally, when we get to 6 mana, Anduin can make good on his threat of the Light burning you by playing this card. 5 directed damage on any enemy unit, hero or minion in addition to +5 healing for yourself is a decently valued nuke as long as you use the healing as well. Life gain is always nice in slower decks, allowing you to take some face damage early game. Combine with Spellbreaker to get rid of pesky Sylvanas Windrunner or an Ancient of War without having to deal with Deathrattles or 10 hp. Can also be used as finisher against heroes with low HP, Holy Fire is a flexible enough, multi purpose card to warrant it’s cost. Especially with the nerf to Argent Commanders, the 6 mana drop area got freed up for a little more variety, and that variety can include Holy Fire.

Arena: 4/5 | Constructed: 4/5

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Temple Enforcer

Beefy card that makes other cards beefier. 6/6 for 6 is already pretty alright, I mean it’s not a Boulderfist Ogre, but healing for 3 or giving 3 extra HP to a card is a powerful battlecry. Giving 3 HP to a Lightspawn for instance is essentially giving it 3/3, so this card combos great with Lightspawn. Additionally, just plain old having 3 hp gives you more leeway to abuse the healing from your hero power and to make strong trades on the board for you to heal up through. A solid value card, once again now that Argent Commander isn’t as obscenely mandatory as before there is room at the 6 mana cost area for Priests to play a Temple Enforcer or two.

Arena: 3/5 | Constructed: 4/5

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Cabal Shadow Priest

A real mind changer. A Chillwind Yeti with a Mind Control battlecry for enemy minions with 2 or less attack, this card can throw some real wrenches into some classes strategies. Taking away a Nat Pagle (who was recently bugfixed to actually be 50%), enemy Northshire Cleric or a Mana Tide Totem is great, free draw for you. Additionally, snatching something like a Flametongue Totem can give you an unexpected burst of damage. Even taking a Mogu’shan Warden for a 7hp taunt wall is a great use of this Battlecry. Basically a better version of the neutral Stampeding Kodo, look to steal annoying low attack minions with this card. I believe this card to be especially valuable in Constructed with creatures like Bloodmage Thalanos and Nat Pagle becoming common place in a lot of high cost decks, but isn’t terrible as an Arena card either.

Arena: 3/5 | Constructed: 4/5

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Prophet Velen

This class legendary is pretty obscene honestly. While he isn’t a card that will turn a sour board around, there are definitely some unique plays you can make with Velen on the field. If you were lucky enough to Mind Vision or Thoughtsteal a Pyroblast, enjoy your free 20 damage. Otherwise, this card jacks up your Holy Fire to 10 damage/10 healing and your hero power to 4 healing or 4 damage with Auchenai Soulpriest/Shadowform (or 6 if you play Shadowform twice). It can even make Mind Blast scary. 7/7 for 7 isn’t all that great lategame, but atleast you have a card with reasonable threat if this card gets Silenced. A legendary that fits the class very well, but you can work without it and build your decks around Ysera instead, who is arguably a better legendary. Ysera feeds you cards to play, Velen requires you to have other minions on the field or other cards in hand to make full effect of him. He’s not weak and has he uses, but he’s not as solid of a class legendary as something like Tirion Fordring.

Arena: 3/5 | Constructed: 4/5

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Mind Control

What else is there to say? You like their Ragnaros? Yours. You like their Tirion Fordring? Yours. This card was so insanely powerful at 8 mana it basically rendered other end game cards unplayable until you baited it out with something else. If your opponent had an end game creature as their “win condition”, this card completely screwed them over. Even with the nerfs bringing it to 10 mana, two of these cards + a Faceless Manipulator in your deck pretty much guarantees you’re going to clone or steal something good from your opponent. Post nerf, it’s not as powerful as it was, but it is still one of the hardest cards to play around in the entire game. By putting the fear of Mind Control into your opponent, you can get some free hits in on them for board control as they fumble their hand trying to figure out if they should play their cards or not. The days of 3+ Mind Controls in Arena are probably gone, but as long as this card is always “Remove X creature, place X creature on your side of the field”, it will have a place in Priest decks as one of the most powerful cards in the game.

Arena: 5/5 | Constructed: 5/5

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Top 5 Overall Priest Class Cards For All Deck Types

1. Power Word: Shield
2. Shadow Madness
3. Mind Control
4. Northshire Cleric
5. Shadow Word: Death

Overall, Priest class cards do a great job of buffing existing friendly minions and removing enemy threats. In the current meta, they are unfortunately fairly weak. Their stall until lategame and then come to town with tons of huge minions playstyle is just done better currently by both Druids and Paladins. They are definitely not Hunter tier, but they take some effort to make work properly. With powerful synergies with neutral cards such as Injured Blademaster and Lightwarden, there are definitely viable routes for Priests to take. The Priest deck is on the weaker side of the METAGAME, but is a perfectly viable class for casual play and has plenty of fun options with their card stealing and copying antics.