Scalise’s Sessions: Dragon Priest

Introduction

Another week, another session. While I really want to dive into Miracle Rogue, I have been covering a lot of Valeera as of late and I think it would be better to branch out. As such, I have decided to put that off until next time. Instead, we are going to cover a deck I have played quite a bit of (perhaps more than any other meta deck) during my time on ladder. Dragon Priest is a very powerful archetype that has one of the best cores in the game. So strong that you can afford to play midrange during a time where midrange is largely dead. This list is all about the curve and seeks to overwhelm your opponent with a constant string of powerful, high-health minions. It is not the most flashy deck around, but it sure is fun.

The Deck

As with so many popular decks, there is not just one version of Dragon Priest. In fact, there are many. Though all of them have roughly the same core, the list I’m covering here (and the one that I like the most by a wide margin) is Hotform’s thirty that he recently took to legend. I like this deck a little more than others because it has a much more focused curve that attempts to win the early game and then springboard off of that success. This is a meta where the first two or three turns can decide a game and you want to overload that as much as possible. Though you do lose some ending punch, Dragon Priest has enough natural threat density to pull through. Not to mention, if you do need to go longer there is always the double punch of Museum Curator and Netherspite Historian to pull you through.

Early Game

As mentioned above, this is what this version of the deck is all about. You have six two and four one drops on top of both Power Word: Shield and Kabal Talonpriest. All of that means you are going to be able to begin every game right out of the gate, which is very important to building to your goal. Your whole focus for these turns is to make efficient trades and keep anything you can on board.

Do not be afraid to hold off one turn in order to get a buff going. Sticking to your curve is always priority number one, but you also don’t want to run minions out into situations where they can easily be killed. Holding off a turn one Northshire Cleric against Druid to play it with a Power Word: Shield is often a better play that risking it dying to Wrath.

In that same vein, you should work to set up Kabal Talonpriest. An extra three health is an insane buff that can really lock down a board. Always prioritize high-health minions and do your best to make sure you will have a body on the board when you run out the three drop. Even something like a 1/5 Museum Curator can cause problems for faster decks.

Another key aspect of the early game is valuing your removal against your minions. Shadow Word: Pain and Shadow Word: Death are both essential for controlling the early board, but you typically don’t want to play them if a minion can do the job. For instance, running out a Wyrmrest Agent into a turn one Tunnel Trogg is often better than using Pain because Shaman’s only way to answer your 2/4 is Lightning Bolt or Jade Claws and those both tie up their mana next turn.

Middle Game

The middle turns of the game are where you make your money and will often be where you take your opponent down. With the exception of Renolock, no deck has better midgame minions than you do. Know this, and do not be afraid to take priority. It is very easy to play afraid and work hard to control your opponent’s minions, but that is a very good way to lose. If the board is even or slipping away you should not shy from just putting out big bodies to see how your opponent reacts.

Another important part of these turns is using your minions as tempo plays. This usually manifests itself in form of big threats, but removal is important as well. While just running out a Drakonid Operative is great because it forces your opponent to spend their turn dealing with it, Blackwing Corruptor is your best swing card. Have a plan for it if the five drop is in your hand. Having a target in mind will help you envision your future turns and set up strong plays.

Always look for opportunities to blow your opponent out with Dragonfire Potion. This card may be a little slower than other AOE, but it is devastating if you can set it up at the right time. Sometimes that means just killing off your opponent’s board and keeping one minion around, and others that means getting greedy and going for the full blowout. If you are not in danger of dying, do not be afraid to hold off on using the AOE for one turn to lull your opponent into a false sense of security.

Late Game

Though there isn’t too much here to be said of the late game, if you do find yourself going long you want to be ready. If you are playing against aggro you should work to get up taunts and use your hero as much as possible. However, when going up against control you need to know the game is going to go long in the first few turns. This is because you need to use all of your discover cards to get you late game threats. Drakonid Operative, Museum Curator and Netherspite Historian can all generate a ton of value, and they will carry you if necessary. Try your best to play at least two of the small ones with Brann Bronzebeard.

No matter what you’re up against, you typically want the late game to come down to a top deck battle. This means you should try and leverage your big minions to stretch out your opponent’s removal. You have the strongest bodies around, and you an go toe-to-toe with anything one-on-one. Do not be afraid to just throw out minions, regardless of ability, to see what your opponent can do. Every time they burn a card puts you a little bit further ahead.

In this version, playing to Alexstrasza can be very important. While you have healing and taunts, there are still some games where you will limp into the later games holding on for deal life. In those times, you have to try and stay alive long enough to get the big heal. When going against aggro do not be afraid to burn resources (such as using Dragonfire Potion to clear one or two minions) just to reach turn nine.

Matchups

A breakdown of the most popular matchups in the game.

Aggro Shaman

Aggro Shaman is not an easy matchup, but it isn’t too hard either. This is a 50/50 battle that will usually be mostly decided in the first three or four turns. It is vital to get ahead because, even with your removal, it is not going to be easy to take down Shaman once they get rolling. They are a deck heavily dependent on the board, and you always want them to use removal rather than play a minion. Even if they do manage to take you out with their Jade cards, a 2/2 or 3/3 is better than what else your opponent can come up with. You just want to create as many roadblocks as you can to buy time until you can take out the board with Dragonfire Potion or take the lead with a big threat.

This is a game where you need to focus on both keeping something on the board. Any body is going to be worth something against Thrall, especially if it has a lot of health. As a result, value buffs greatly and always prioritize them over other plays. While putting down a solid body is strong, Shaman has no clean way of answering a 2/6 Wyrmrest Agent. It is also important to conserve your removal. Do not jump at the first target your find for Shadow Word: Death or Shadow Word: Pain. For example, I will usually hold off on coining out a Pain against a turn one Tunnel Trogg. Yes, Trogg can get bigger than the Golem, but it is usually outclassed by things your midrange threats, while Golem’s four health is not.

Miracle Rogue

No matter how you cut it, Rogue is always going to be challenging for Priest. However, unlike control, you do have a curve that you can use to stack up some real damage. The goal of this matchup is to try and simply run your opponent down (or force out their hand) before they can fully combo you into oblivion. You want to play this aggressively as you can, always forcing Rogue back and doing whatever it takes to stack up damage. This is a game where you never want to let up. So much so that making plays like using turn five to Blackwing Corruptor your opponent’s face can often be correct. Rogue does not do well with large bodies, and the more of them you have the better off you will be.

Never let anything live. Today’s Rogue is a deck that thrives off of the board, and if you can stop that their only way to kill you is going to be Leeroy Jenkins (which you can outpace with taunts and healing). A part of that is understanding your removal and knowing how to use it. You need to always save one Shadow Word: Death for Edwin Vancleef or a big Questing Adventurer, and you should almost always pull the trigger on Dragonfire Potion when you need to kill a Gadgetzan Auctioneer right away. This is one matchup where using AOE to take out one minion is often right, especially if your health is in the low teens.

Pirate Warrior

Despite some fringe games where you draw too slow, Pirate Warrior is one of your strongest matchups. This is because you have healing, a great overstatted curve and some extra taunts. All of those work well against Garrosh. Like Shaman, this is a game where health and board presence are going to be very important. However, unlike Shaman, Pirate has the ability to climb up over your head. At a certain point they are going to begin to just bash your face in with weapons, and your healing is not going to be able to keep up with that. For that reason, you need to grab the board and then make them answer you. This is difficult to achieve, but even absorbing one charge minion or weapon hit can go a long way towards extending the game.

You are going to win this through either taunts or pushing damage. Twilight Guardian and Wyrmrest Agent are both essential to stopping damage because they are the only way you can fend off weapons. For that reason, it is very important to try to play them into situations where your opponent has no board. While it can feel nice to run them out, always think about what you’re specifically stopping. Also realize, due to your lack of healing, that you probably aren’t going to be able to win this game if it goes too many turns. Once you get board control you need to strike at your opponent hard with your threats and try to kill them before they kill you.

Renolock

Like Rogue, Renolock is a matchup where you want to be aggressive. However, unlike Rogue, that plan will change based on how the game goes. If you get out to an early lead and they spend their time tapping you should try and push damage through by building up a large minion each turn. If you take this line of play you typically want to pilot much like an aggro deck where you ignore their threats and make them deal with your board rather than the other way around. You don’t have a lot of direct damage, but you can race if given the chance (especially once you get to turns four and five). That being said, if Renolock gets some of their early minions or manages to stall early you should prepare to try and drag this one out.

As mentioned, discover minions are going to be vital for the grindier matches. While Renolock can answer one, two, or three big minions, they won’t be able to keep up with much more than that. Museum Curator is very strong at setting up hard-to-deal-with threats and Netherspite Historian is good at just getting down bodies. You want to play at least one of these with Brann Bronzebeard if possible, but if you have the luxury of time you should get two. Drakonid Operative is also good at generating things to put onto the board, but you should also look for removal if you’re preparing to go long. An extra way to kill a big minion can be very important for when you run out of deaths.

Dragon Priest

The mirror match is an odd game that will almost always come down to value. You have a slight advantage through your Museum Curators (find Sylvanas Windrunner!) but this is basically going to look the same from each side of the table. This game is going to be a tug-of-war, back-and-forth affair with each of you attempting to take control of the board in anyway possible. All that matters is getting ahead and then keeping that leverage for as long as possible. For that reason, Book Wyrm is by far the best card against you in this matchup. Be aware of that and do your best to bait it out on small or low-priority minions. Beyond that, make good trades and always kill any threat, no matter how small, to limit your opponent’s health buffs. Also note that Dragonfire Potion is almost always going to be useless. Look to get value out of it where you can and do not hesitate to take out just a few minions.

Tip and Tricks

Never underestimate the power of keeping something on board. Though your early threats are rather weak stat-wise, you are a midrange deck and you need to keep your focus on your minions. Having one extra damage on the board is the different between being able to take out an Azure Drake with a Blackwing Corruptor and losing the board.

Brann Bronzebeard doesn’t need a lot of value to be good. Against control decks you want to use him with a discover cards but most of the time he works quite well with just one extra threat. Holding him off to get more value later on is often wrong in games where you’re fighting for board. While you do want to get something from his ability, don’t wait to go all-in.

The most notable addition to this deck is Museum Curator, which adds a lot of flexibility alongside Netherspite Historian. Each of these cards work well because they allow you to put something onto the board early while helping you. Just know how you need to use them when they come down early. Against faster decks you want to lower your curve and take any small minions or taunts, while when playing slower lists you need to hyper focus on big threats, regardless of their cost. Just note that Drakonid Operative is almost always the best Netherspite pull.

Do not be afraid to hold off on removal. It is very easy to run out your pains against one drops, or your deaths against the first big threat you see, but there is often going to be something juicier the next turn. You should always ask yourself if your minions can deal with any certain threat, and at what cost. That will help you decide if just taking it out with a spell is better.

Always weigh how important holding a dragon is versus putting down a minion. Sometimes having a 2/6 Twilight Guardian is going to be essential, and other times you absolutely need to trigger your turn five Blackwing Corruptor. Always see what your other plays are, and then weigh them against having your dragon for a future turn.

Mulligan Guide

Did someone say curve? You need to be able to start this game one turn or turn two. No exceptions. Keep all of your early cards and only venture up into your three and four drops when you have the early cards to support them. You cannot stumble here, and that means getting rid of anything you can’t play early.

Must Keeps:

Northshire Cleric Twilight Whelp Museum Curator Netherspite Historian Shadow Word: Pain Wyrmrest Agent

Situational Keeps:

Power Word: Shield is a solid keep if you have any opening plays to go along with it, but it’s too weak on its own.

Shadow Word: Death should be kept alongside early minions when facing against Shaman or Druid.

Kabal Talonpriest should be kept with early minions or with the coin.

Twilight Guardian is a very strong card to keep with a good curve, especially if you have the coin.

You can also keep slower dragons if you really need to trigger an early dragon card.

Replacements

There are a couple routes you can go if you want to build out Dragon Priest. Though this version has a lower curve, you can easily switch that so yours has more late game. While maybe not optimal against some of the faster decks, it is a way to go if you find yourself being outclassed by slower or more control style decks.

Museum Curator can be replaced with several other threats if you want more dragons or bigger bodies. One such option is Twilight Drake. I would only suggest subbing in the four drop if you’re seeing a lot of slower decks, but it is one of the best ways to fight midrange.

If you want to up the curve, you could cut a Kabal Talonpriest for a larger threat, and Dragonfire Potion can become Holy Nova or Excavated Evil if it feels too slow.

In the original version Alexstrasza was Chillmaw. I prefer the nine drop, but you could switch back if you find yourself lacking AOE. Deathwing also does well if you’re seeing a lot of rogue, but most big dragons, from Ysera and Nefarian, will do. You do want something to top off your curve though.

You can also find room to sub in one Entomb. While the card has become more useless as the deck has gotten faster, it is another good options if you’re seeing more midrange or control.

Book Wyrm can also be added in if you’re seeing a lot of aggro.

Conclusion

Sweet, sweet dragons. I have loved Dragon Priest since I used it to curve up Midrange Shaman before Mean Streets and that has not changed. This list is particularly cool because it fixes some of the more glaring issues the deck has had in the past month and a half. Lowering the curve makes everything feel tighter and it pilots very smoothly. I would suggest taking this into battle if you’re looking for something that does well against the more popular cards. Until next time, may you always curve out.

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