Basic Priest Deck

While there are obvious weaknesses due to the Basic-only limitation, this deck is balanced, and quite strong. It should allow you to defeat the AI (in both Normal and Expert modes), and it can hold its own against players using Rare, Epic, and even Legendary cards in Play mode.

In addition to listing the deck, we will also explain why some cards have been included or excluded, how some of the minions in the deck are best played, and what changes you can make to the deck.

Note that to succeed with this deck (as with all decks), you need to make the correct decisions while playing. For this reason, we advise you to also read these two articles: Card Advantage and Why Am I Losing?.

Strategy

Priest has access to several very strong basic cards from the start. Due to this reason it is an extremely strong choice for a Basic only deck. The Priest Hero Power also lends itself well to a basic board control strategy and teaches new players important lessons about card advantage and value.

The general strategy of this deck is to use various high health minions to create a significant presence on the board. This deck favours high health over high attack due to the Priest Hero Power. Using your Hero Power you can create additional value out of your minions by healing them up after they take damage. This action is comparable to drawing a card since it allows you to get full value out of 1 minion multiple times.

Card Choices

In this section we will discuss some of the cards that have been chosen, how to use them effectively, and why they are chosen over other possibilities. Hopefully this will both help you to succeed with this deck, as well as inform your own deck building decisions in the future.

Holy Smite and Shadow Word: Pain are your early game removal cards. They are important to have in hand early to control the early drops from your opponent and allow you to build a board advantage to start healing your minions.

Psychic Conjurer is used as both a free play to get a minion on the board at any point, due to its ability to generate a card to replace itself, and a good way to access higher-budget cards that may be present in your opponent's deck.

Sen'jin Shieldmasta and Chillwind Yeti are used due to their solid stats for their cost. Their high Health values synergise with Priest in particular, increasing the chance they can survive hits from other minions so that they can be healed and buffed in the future.

Power Infusion is used to further support Priest's healing potential. By giving a huge amount of additional Health to a friendly minion, it greatly increases its survivability so it can benefit from Priest's Healing effects even more.

Holy Nova is Priest's go-to AoE option. While the 2 damage to your opponent's side of the board is fantastic utility, just as important in this deck is the 2 points of healing it gives to your side. Combining this with a Northshire Cleric and multiple damaged minions can draw you multiple cards in a single turn.

Gurubashi Berserker is another 5-drop that becomes stronger in Priest due to the class's Hero Power. Damaging Gurubashi to buff its damage and then healing it up can quickly build up a hugely intimidating minion. It is also worth mentioning that Gurubashi Berserker is a great target for the Divine Spirit mentioned earlier.

Mind Control is your ultimate trump card. Taking control of the largest threat in your opponent's deck is not only a huge swing on the board, but is also fantastic for card advantage. For example, Mind Controlling a Boulderfist Ogre kills a 6/7, summons a 6/7, and then trades for whatever your opponent uses to remove that 6/7, all for 10 Mana and 1 card.

Card Omissions

Here we will talk about some of the cards that are not included to help you understand and identify weaker cards, hopefully improving your deck building skills.

Mind Vision is not included due the random and unreliable nature of the card. For 1 Mana you would almost always prefer to use Psychic Conjurer to get you a minion in addition to a card from your opponent.

Radiance is not used as it has zero impact on the board. While being able to heal your Hero for 5 Health may seem useful, it is much more effective to directly contest or remove a minion dealing the damage rather than trying to outheal it.

Card Swaps

Obviously, as a Basic deck, this list has a lot of room for improvement. As you progress with the game and gain access to more cards and Arcane Dust, here are some additions that you may consider.

Other welcome additions from the Expert Set are listed below. However it should be noted that these cards should be added only if you open them from a pack. Spending dust to improve a Basic only deck is not particularly efficient, and you should instead try to save dust towards one of our low, or mid-budget decks.

• 2 x Temple Enforcer for 2 x Boulderfist Ogre. Temple Enforcer plays perfectly into this deck's strategy. Losing the 1 point of Health from a Boulderfist Ogre in exchange for the +3 Health buff is a very worthwile trade off.
• 2 x Kul Tiran Chaplain for 2 x River Crocolisk. Kul Tiran Chaplain is strictly an upgrade over River Crocolisk. It has the same stats and Mana Cost, while also providing a Health buff to a friendly minion that synergises excellently with the value-oriented strategy of this deck.

For other strong cards to consider, look at our full budget Priest decks, or our Crafting Guide.

Changelog