Dragon Priest Standard

[Damien 1,514]

This thread is for comments about our Dragon Priest Standard deck.

[Paracel 165]

Museum Curator in guide mulligan section. Twice.

Stop copypasting old sections! ;)

Outside of that, cool write-up and an interesting deck!

[Valks 2,375]

On 9/22/2016 at 0:28 PM, Paracel said:

Museum Curator in guide mulligan section. Twice.

Stop copypasting old sections! ;)

Outside of that, cool write-up and an interesting deck!

Isn't it in the mulligan section twice, talking about two different things? Aggro and control?

[Paracel 165]

1 hour ago, Blainie said:

Isn't it in the mulligan section twice, talking about two different things? Aggro and control?

Yes, it's precisely there, but not in the deck itself.

[mgoetze 6]

I like how this deck is just called "Dragon" and not "Legendary Dragon". Except you seem to have made that change for all the new decks... should have done it for Priest only. ;)

[Valks 2,375]

15 hours ago, Paracel said:

Yes, it's precisely there, but not in the deck itself.

Will pass it on!

[Valks 2,375]

12 hours ago, mgoetze said:

I like how this deck is just called "Dragon" and not "Legendary Dragon". Except you seem to have made that change for all the new decks... should have done it for Priest only. ;)

We like to stay realistic when it comes to priest :D

[Guest Minor Tweaking]

Just thought I'd throw this out there, but I replaced Justicar, mainly because I don't have that card, with Prince Malchezaar and it seems to work pretty good. Most of the time it'll add some high level dragons to the deck adding some extra power late game.

[Valks 2,375]

1 hour ago, Guest Minor Tweaking said:

Just thought I'd throw this out there, but I replaced Justicar, mainly because I don't have that card, with Prince Malchezaar and it seems to work pretty good. Most of the time it'll add some high level dragons to the deck adding some extra power late game.

I think that's fair enough, but you always have to be careful with Malch. He can dilute your deck, meaning you have less chance to draw those cards you need rather than the ones you'd sort of like to have.

[positiv2 953]

4 hours ago, Guest Minor Tweaking said:

Just thought I'd throw this out there, but I replaced Justicar, mainly because I don't have that card, with Prince Malchezaar and it seems to work pretty good. Most of the time it'll add some high level dragons to the deck adding some extra power late game.

Sadly for Prince Malchezaar, there are way too many trash and bad legendaries, such as Millhouse Manastorm, Nat, the Darkfisher or Anomalus that can mean a dead draw, which is something unacceptable for this deck, as Priest in general does not have good draw mechanics without wombo wombo Northshire Cleric+Wild Pyromancer into a spell into Circle of Healing (which can however result in overdrawing). 
I recommend you to use Sylvanas Windrunner, or a big dragon, such as Ysera or Chromaggus.

[KingMe 289]

Prince Malchezaar is better suited in slower decks that run Elise Starseeker, that way if you do get trash you have a chance of re-rolling for something better. I'll run him every now and then in my Fat Warrior but like @Blainie had mentioned, he can dilute your deck. 

[Keizoku 185]

You are all quite right that Prince Malchezaar is a double-edged sword, but many people (me included) simply don't have the extended collection with all the nice legendaries and the perfect fit/replacement.

As a budget option, Malchezaar is fine. Yes, he can (and will) clog your deck/hand up with trash. On the other hand, you're really happy when he gives you a Ragnaros the Firelord/Sylvanas Windrunner/Tirion Fordring/Archmage Antonidas/Leeroy Jenkins/... you don't have and just massively improve your chance of victory.

[Paracel 165]

I can't say that you can compare Justicar Trueheart to everyone's favorite Pit Fighter. Just no.

I'll just quote the guide because Sottle puts it pretty good :

Quote

The deck does play quite a low curve which tops out at Justicar Trueheart. As mentioned before this is of benefit as it allows you to operate quickly to be able to counteract Aggro and other Midrange decks. Against Control you will need to rely on Netherspite Historian to pick up the late-game power cards that you need.

With access to Netherspite Historian, you can free up space in the deck for relevant cards - removal options, curve, etc; it all makes a consistent Priest deck, for God's sake! 

Malchezaar takes this "consistent" core back home, into the trash can. With 35 card deck and without Justicar chances chances you die before capitalizing are ridiculously high.

I'll say it clearly : this deck is not really good. You need to understand matchups deeply, play tight, get lucky and maybe then you can have a chance to win. You can't really get away with some suboptimal replacement, like you would with "normal" decks. 

If you really want to durdle that way, your choice should be at least Elise Starseeker, because you can "control" her more than Pit Fighter, she fits the curve better than Pit Fighter, and she gives you a 6/6 taunt reliably. I haven't played a late game where I had a big grip of cards to possibly get anything good out of her, though.

[Guest Smiddy621]

I'm still split on Holy Nova vs Excavated Evil for board control. Too often I come across situations where I can't clear anywhere near half a larger board due to that 1hp. 

Opinion on swapping in a Bloodmage Thalnos for a Northshire Cleric? I'll have to sit down and do an hour of play just to try it out but I like the potential combo with either board clear since the only other spell damage is Azure Drake.

[Paracel 165]

Evil kills your own board, but it's definetly better when you're behind. Try to evaluate where you're behind on board more often than ahead or even, and make your decision based on this.

I wouldn't call Thalnos a good fit here because Nova/Evil is pretty much the only damage spell you play, and it's not really worth it, especially a deck slot, and then the draw. Such mediocre 2-card combo would be hard to pull off in a deck that already struggles with card draw and wants to play a tempo game.

[Guest Boer]

Works very good agains aggro and midrange, but it's a garanteed loss against control warriors.

[Guest Butterfly]

Too depending on card draw, imo. Get totally wrecked by hunters and so unless you've got the absolute perfect draw.

[Valks 2,375]

5 hours ago, Guest Butterfly said:

Too depending on card draw, imo. Get totally wrecked by hunters and so unless you've got the absolute perfect draw.

What rank are you playing at? Also, what style of Hunter?

I haven't had any issues with early game, unless my Historian gives me terrible options when I really needed something.

[Valks 2,375]

On 10/11/2016 at 9:59 AM, Guest Boer said:

Works very good agains aggro and midrange, but it's a garanteed loss against control warriors.

Understandable, I think. You don't have that late pressure to be able to deal with everything they have. You need an early entomb on Elise to be able to win, or you need late threats from Historian, like Ysera, Nef etc.

[Guest Flodder]

After playing this deck for a while, my personal conclusion is that it is too weak against too many opponents.

Against decks that keep on putting a lot of pressure, like some druids or hunters, it is very depending on a perfect card draw to stay alive.

Against slow or control decks, you usually cannot put enough pressure to kill them, and in endgame you have no counter to cards like N'zoth.

Also I found myself rather often without a dragon in my hands the first 6-7 moves, making many cards unplayable and falling behind instead of being in charge with tempo playing.

[positiv2 953]

3 hours ago, Guest Flodder said:

After playing this deck for a while, my personal conclusion is that it is too weak against too many opponents.

Against decks that keep on putting a lot of pressure, like some druids or hunters, it is very depending on a perfect card draw to stay alive.

Against slow or control decks, you usually cannot put enough pressure to kill them, and in endgame you have no counter to cards like N'zoth.

Also I found myself rather often without a dragon in my hands the first 6-7 moves, making many cards unplayable and falling behind instead of being in charge with tempo playing.

That isn't issue of the deck, but rather priests as whole. They don't have strong early game cards (or good proactive cards at all) and their hero power isn't helping them gain early board either. This is why they are rated as the worst class in the game, and a running joke that HS has only 8 classes.

Most of the issues you listed are often caused by bad mulligan strategy. Could you please send us a few replays of your mulligan to see if the issue lies in there?

[Guest Flodder]

14 hours ago, positiv2 said:

That isn't issue of the deck, but rather priests as whole. They don't have strong early game cards (or good proactive cards at all) and their hero power isn't helping them gain early board either. This is why they are rated as the worst class in the game, and a running joke that HS has only 8 classes.

 

Sad but true. The disbalance in Hearthstone is huge. It's some sort of rock-paper-scissors, with one class that ALWAYS loses.

[Valks 2,375]

On 10/19/2016 at 11:48 AM, Guest Flodder said:

Sad but true. The disbalance in Hearthstone is huge. It's some sort of rock-paper-scissors, with one class that ALWAYS loses.

The lack of good early drops like Dark Cultist etc. really does hurt Priest right now.