Guys. Screw the introduction. It’s time to get serious. This is probably the most fun I’ve had with a deck in a very very long time. I actually can’t remember the last time I had this much fun with a deck. It has everything! It has control. It has mini deathrattle aggro. It has memes. And best of all, it has Weasel Tunneler. THAT’S RIGHT. Today, I bring to you a special gem from the dark underground of Hearthstone, Savjz’s “Awaken the Weasel” Priest.
This deck is crazy fun. It has some really fun synergy that makes the deck work like a machine and also does a decent job standing up to most of the current meta decks around right now. This is probably the most I deck tested with a deck before writing an article and I have to say I played at crap ton of matches. Over 3 or 4 revisions of the deck, the average win rate is literally like 50% and that has increased since I started. The more I get a feel of the deck and create new tricks, the higher my rank keeps going. This is the perfect mixture of semi-viable that can allow you to grind ranked at a slow pace but with something you can enjoy the entire time. I’m not going to lie, I’ve literally laughed and had fun during matches where I got beaten!
I don’t know the full history of the decklist but from what I gathered on Reddit, a guy had posted about how he was enjoying this deck and apparently Savjz’s built it on his stream at one point. Other than that bit of information I don’t know how well he did with it, but a decklist was posted and after looking at it I was like, wow, this looks really interesting, and had to give it a try. I’ll admit I had to dust a few legendaries that are about to rotate out this year from Old Gods but honestly, it’s worth it to save money and recycle the stuff you probably won’t use ever again. So before we go any further I just want to give props for this decklist to Savjz, a pro Hearthstone player and streamer, you can probably google his name and find his Twitch channel if you’re interested. And also a shout out to reddit user JoonaMikkonen who posted about this deck and brought it to my attention. Honestly if I hadn’t seen that reddit post I would have never have heard about this deck because in all my games testing with it, I never had a mirror match! Here’s a little sneak peek at what to expect from this deck, and then let’s get to it!
Decklist: Fuskee’s Weasel Priest
First I’m going to go over my decklist and discuss all of the cards that I use and then in the next section I will show you the changes I made to Savjz’s original deck so you can try out some of his ideas as well. This deck is really good at being a toolbox of answers so there’s a lot of changes you can make as well as removing a lot of the legendaries since all they really do is add a little extra power, they aren’t a necessity (except maybe Shadowreaper Anduin).
Deathrattles
The Deathrattles are one of the most important parts of this deck because of Awaken the Makers. They’re all very cheap and easy to put into play so they can start dying and giving you effects.
Awaken the Makers: A huge part of the deck. This is basically the new Reno Jackson in my opinion. I was surprised to see how fast this deck can activate this quest. Twilight’s Call makes this super easy as long as you can get your Deathrattles killed early. I also like holding on to Amara, warden of hope until I need a big heal rather than dropping her down as fast as possible. An 8/8 Taunt is great but in this meta it’s pretty easy to deal with and just dies easily, the most important part is the battlecry effect. I personally like holding on to her until I can get Zola the Gorgon to copy her for another 40 life.
Crystalline Oracle: Great quick 1-mana Deathrattle minion that will activate your quest and have all sorts of Deathrattle synergy with the rest of the deck like making copies and resurrecting them. Each time they die, you get to steal stuff from your opponent’s deck to use against them. I would say this Deathrattle is less important than card draw because you want to get into the important cards in your deck but in the late game this is actually a funny card because you can sometimes get copies of Weasel Tunneler that you’ve put into your opponent’s deck, giving you more Weasels to play around with. Mainly this card is just great because it’s a fast Deathrattle that gives you card advantage.
Runic Egg: In early versions of the deck I didn’t run these but once I gave them a try it’s hard not to run them when they’re so good in this deck. Using Doomsayer you can guarantee that they die and get the card draw while also setting up for Twilight’s Call. You can also just use Mirage Caller on it to get a 1/1 card draw that will help filter through your deck. This card along with Loot Hoarder and all the resurrect/copy effects in the deck will help you draw through your deck super fast, like there are times where your hand will start to fill up and you won’t want to use Carnivorous Cube on an Egg because you’ll end up actually drawing too much, haha.
Weasel Tunneler: The MEME of the deck! This card makes this deck HILARIOUS to play as. It’s super effective in this deck because it’s a quick minion that helps your quest but with all the extra Deathrattle shenanigans, you actually start to infect your opponent with all these Weasels that don’t really do much for them. The more you can control the game and activate a few of these guys, you really start to see it pay off in the late game when players just sit there and literally do nothing. I’ve played opponents and right when they’re about to lose, they’ll play all the Weasels in their hand and it’s SURPRISING how good this deck works! Like I have SO many games where it’s just Weasel, Weasel, Weasel, turn after turn, haha. Like I said, once you see how well it works, it really pulls you in to try it out some more. I like to try and mulligan pretty aggressively for these guys because it’s important to get them early to copy or resurrect and get the ball rolling.
Bloodmage Thalnos: In Savjz’s version of the deck, this is basically just another Runic Egg or Loot Hoarder that just draws you cards because without Spirit lash there’s not actually any spells that deal damage unless you take something with Crystalline Oracle. In my version of the deck, he actually pumps up Spirit Lash and can turn it into a HUGE life gain spell. Because of this, I don’t like to play him too early in the game like I would with other Deathrattles unless I don’t have anything and need to draw into stuff. He’s also fun to copy with Mirage Caller before a Spirit lash for more minions to hit and even more spell damage. Like I said though, if you don’t have any other 1 or 2 mana Deathrattle minions to play on curve, don’t hesitate to drop him down and get the card draw, the spell damage is not as important as Deathrattle/Draw.
Loot Hoarder: Basically just like Runic Egg except it can also get itself killed for more card draw. This deck just runs anything cheap with Deathrattle and a card advantage effect like card draw or stealing a card from your opponent’s deck. The card advantage replaces the card you used so you’re not really “losing” anything when you play it but you’re also increasing your quest count and getting closer to your big heal and your safety.
Carnivorous Cube: I’ve used this card the entire decktesting but I’m tempted to try and not running them. They do work but because of Cubelock being such a popular deck right now, a LOT of people have answers for Cube, mostly Silence effects. It doesn’t really hurt that much to lose the Deathrattle effect, you still got the effect of your minion’s Deathrattle and a trigger on the quest from the Cube, but the amount of mana you have to spend to do that is rough sometimes and Cube seems to be stuck in my hand a lot. On the other hand, it’s great for forcing Runic Egg triggers and is also great to play around two pesky cards, Doomsayer and Explosive Runes. You can drop Cube down and get a Deathrattle trigger, get it killed, and then get your dudes back with a copy. Because of this reason I’ve found it hard to take out so I haven’t yet but it’s on my list of things to try, so if you find that you’re not using this card that well maybe it’s worth taking out for some other toolbox answers or maybe more legendaries.
N’zoth, the corruptor: Not much else to say about this guy in a Deathrattle deck, haha. He’s a bomb that will bring a lot of your tiny stuff back, sometimes a decently sized Carnivorous Cube. Beware of the card draw though, if you’ve been getting card draw Deathrattles killed and you haven’t drawn Shadowreaper Anduin yet, be warned, you will revive a lot of them and a board wipe can force you to overdraw. After a few games playing with this card you’ll get a feel for when it’s a good time to use it, refilling your board and then your hand when everything dies.
Control Spells
There are only a few spells in the deck for one reason, Shadow Visions. Savjz’s build runs 1 less spell which means it only has 4 in the deck, making Shadow Visions a powerful toolbox card since it can grab any of your big or small answers that you need. I run 1 extra spell, Spirit Lash, because it’s great at keeping me alive while killing aggro and also killing my own minions for their deathrattle effects. You’re welcome to be the judge if you want to run it or not, but I wouldn’t run many more spells than just 5.
Potion of Madness: This card is great on its own because it counters aggro really well and also certain control minions, but my favorite thing to do is steal a Weasel Tunneler that I’ve put into my opponent’s deck and then swing it back at one of their minions to throw it back into my opponent’s deck. Another fun trick is using Carnivorous Cube on it while you have it stolen so you can get two copies when it dies. Another trick you might want to know about is using Mirage Caller on the stolen minion but be warned, if you do this the potion of madness “effect” will be copied on the extra minion which means at the end of the turn it will go back to your opponent’s side, but the potion of madness effect also gives the minion charge so you can attack with it immediately. Potion a Weasel Tunneler, copy with Mirage caller, have two 1/1s with Charge and then attack them into your opponent’s minions to shove more Weasels into your opponent’s deck.
Shadow Visions: This card is perfect in this deck because of how streamline the spells are in this deck. If you take out the Spirit lash you pretty much have 4 choices, Visions again, Potion of Madness for small early minions, Twilight’s Call to get minions back and make a board, or Psychic Scream to mass removal big minions. It’s rare not to get what you need when you need it, this deck makes sure of that. One bit of advice, try to get copies of Psychic Scream if you don’t need the other spells, it will help you a lot late game to have multiple screams to use on your opponent to keep shuffling cards back into their deck and forcing them to chance drawing into another Weasel instead of something useful. I’ve started to just use them early and grab a scream as long as I have other things in my hand to keep the tempo going.
Spirit Lash: This is my tech card for the deck and it has proven itself time and time again to be way too useful to take out. There’s always a lot of aggro decks in Ranked because of people wanting to climb ranks quickly and this card is the ultimate anti-aggro card. Even when it doesn’t kill things, it still gives you so much life that it’s basically a Greater Healing Potion that also can kill stuff. Combine this with Bloodmage Thalnos or copies/revives of him and you can get some pretty big life gains. I would say of all the spells this is probably the least necessary one so if you really want to streamline the deck and make Shadow Visions more consistent, you’re okay to take this out and give it a try but I love it.
Twilight’s Call: The best part about this card is that in the right tempo, this is two Deathrattle triggers in one for your quest. It also helps you get multiple copies of Weasel Tunneler so you can start throwing more and more of them into your opponent’s deck. You really only NEED to use one in the game, just to get the double quest trigger, I wouldn’t waste a Shadow Visions to grab one of these unless you really need to revive some draw effects.
Psychic Scream: This card is AMAZING in this deck. I try not to use it early and wait until late game when there’s a big board so I can shuffle everything into their deck and start forcing them to draw bad cards. Even shuffling things like Runic Egg or Crystalline Oracle is okay because if you can catch them overextending and dropping a lot of their hand and then shuffle it all in, they waste SO many turns having to draw really mediocre cards like Runic Egg that won’t help them against your Shadowreaper Anduin and other stuff. These are super powerful so hold them as long as you can but if you’re against aggro, don’t hesitate to use it early just to reset the board and then save your other ones for late late in the game.
Other Minions
These are minions that help out your Deathrattle minions by making more or getting them killed so they can be brought back.
Doomsayer: Awesome anti-aggro card that also helps you kill some of your early Deathrattle minions if you can’t attack them into stuff or get a Runic Egg to die for Twilight’s Call. This card is tough to run but if you’ve used it before in other control decks then you should be alright. You can’t really combo it with anything to guarantee a board wipe so make sure you’re planning this card carefully because you will get caught off guard with things like Devolve and it can mess up a whole turn for you if you’re not careful.
Mirage Caller: A great card for this deck since it allows you to make multiple copies of Weasel Tunneler and also helps you abuse the draw effects of your Deathrattles from Runic Egg and Loot Hoarder. I mentioned this earlier but be warned, if you use Potion of Madness on a minion and then copy it with this, you will get the minion with 2 extra effects, Charge and the potion’s effect where it returns to the owner at the end of the turn. If you do decide to make a copy, make sure it dies, like I enjoy stealing a Weasel Tunneler then making a copy and using both to attack into my opponent’s minions. It also works great with Carnivorous Cube because it copies the cube’s Deathrattle and will give you bonus minions. This means eating one Weasel Tunneler could quickly change to four of them! Perfect card synergy for this deck.
Extra Legendaries
These are legendaries that make the deck much stronger but aren’t really necessary if you want to make this deck on a budget. You could probably replace them with cheap Deathrattle minions but if you want to have the most fun with this deck, make sure you have these or can at least craft one or two of them like I had to.
Zola the Gorgon: MY FAVORITE ADDITION TO THE DECK. So after making a basic version of the deck and trying it out, I decided to craft some legendaries and give them a shot, Herald Volazj, Archbishop Benedictus and Zola the Gorgon. After using Zola the Gorgon on Amara, warden of hope I immediately fell in love. You’re basically getting two Reno Jackson effects! ITS INSANE! I’m sure my opponents don’t like it but every time I do it, it makes me smile knowing I just gained 80 life, haha.
Archbishop Benedictus: The deck has such good control that pretty much every game goes through my entire deck. The first versions of this deck didn’t have the Archbishop and I kept running out of cards. I always wanted to try him so I threw him in and he just works PERFECT. My advice, make sure you don’t use him until you’ve drawn Shadowreaper Anduin but other than that, there’s nothing really important in your deck to wait for, use him to refill your deck with your opponent’s Psychic Scream‘d minions and Weasel Tunnelers and then use those cards with Shadowreaper Anduin to deal steady damage. This is also a great tech card against a card a lot of Cubelock/Warlock decks are using right now, rin, the first disciple. I’ve already had 3 out of 4 games where they destroyed my deck, I Psychic Scream the Azari back into their deck and then copy it. This card isn’t necessary so if you don’t own it or don’t want to craft it, don’t bother, the deck is fine without, but it fits in really well. I would say if you don’t run it, try running some of the other optional legendaries like the ones in Savjz’s list below.
Shadowreaper Anduin: There’s nothing to say about this card, it’s overpowered and the damage you can deal with it slowly over time is what this deck is all about. Infect your opponent with lots of Weasels, shuffle their minions into their deck a few times and then transform into your death knight and start dealing slow damage while they draw into 1/1s over and over. Make sure you try to draw into this card early so you don’t overdraw at some point and lose him, he’s pretty much the only win condition.
Savjz’s “Awaken the Weasel” Priest
Here are the changes that you need to make if you want to try out Savjz’s original version of this deck.
-2 Spirit Lash, -1 Runic Egg, -1 Archbishop Benedictus
+1 Youthful Brewmaster, +1 Elise the Trailblazer, +1 Plated Beetle, +1 Herald Volazj
I already explained the reasoning for my choices so let’s talk about some of his cards that I think are actually great in the deck, I just can’t find room for them. We’ll go from worst to best in my opinion.
Youthful Brewmaster: I never put this in my deck and I don’t plan to. I understand why it’s in there, it has a lot of tricks it can do with Battlecry and getting multiple effects from things like Zola the Gorgon but I’m just not a fan. I feel like it ends up being a dead card that waits in your hand all game, so I cut it first to make room for my choices.
Herald Volazj: I actually crafted this card and ran it in the deck for a version of the deck but it didn’t do that great. The extra minions are nice but none of them are game-winning and they just draw you into more of your deck, which is great but not for how much mana he costs and how much you waste having to use him. During one of my decklist changes I had to make room and it was a tough decision to remove him but it’s been fine without him.
Elise the Trailblazer: I actually don’t own this card so I’ve never really played with it but the few times I see it used on me, it’s pretty good. Free cards are always nice and they can help fuel Shadowreaper Anduin to do more damage with his hero power too. Without Youthful Brewmaster it becomes less usable in the deck but it’s still good and if I owned one I would probably try it out, but she’s a bit of a filler in any deck that has room for a random legendary so I don’t think she’s NEEDED in this deck.
Plated Beetle: I ran 2 of these in some early versions of the deck and they’re GREAT against aggro. Savjz only runs one and I tried two, and they’re great but I needed room for the big legendaries so I decided to cut these after trying to cut Loot Hoarder first. The card draw from Loot Hoarder is just too good and the armor I was getting from the beetle honestly never really mattered since I had a 40 life gain card. I would highly recommend these if you want to do two things: if you’re running a budget deck with less legendaries, throw these in their place, or if you want to try and run a deck with less spells like taking out Spirit Lash so Shadow Visions can always hit good stuff, I would put these in their place too.
Conclusion: SECRET WEAPON
One of my favorite things about this deck right now is that I don’t see ANYONE else using it which means that most people have no clue how to fight against it or what to expect from it. It’s a very unique deck that actually has amazing synergy and even though it’s not the perfect build, because of how weird it is, people are having trouble fighting against it. Like I said right now I’m sitting at 50% win rate or so but I’ve still gained ranks as I’ve played and every single game is fun. It’s so funny to see your opponent play weasels over and over and never seem to run out of them when you really have the deck going. If you have the cards or the dust to try this deck out please do it and let me know what you think, I really think that it’s probably my favorite Hearthstone deck ever, haha.
That’s it for me this week, I’m trying to get into the habit of writing again with my busy work schedule and hopefully I can start making more time to do so. I’m really happy something unique like this popped up on Reddit so I could give it a try and share it with you guys. I really enjoy unique decklists like this and especially ones that are still viable against competitive decks in ranked.
I’m not going to throw my little advertisements at you today because I’ve been so inactive on Twitch for awhile that I just don’t deserve it. Hopefully like I said, I’ll get my schedule straightened out soon and make some time to hop on and give you guys some videos of me playing these decks so you can see how they work before having to try them out yourself. Keep an eye out for my future articles and once I start streaming again I’ll be sure to let you guys know then! Thanks for reading and I will see you all again soon, peace!
Published: Jan 19, 2018 08:59 pm