Introduction
Man, do I loooove me some combo Priest. Divine Spirit/Inner Fire has always been one of the most fun pairings in Hearthstone. However, the meta has always been either too fast or too strong for the two-card combo to do any real damage. Now that things have gotten weaker with Un’goro, the health buffs (and Priest) finally have their time to shine. This week we are going to take an in-depth look into Silence Priest and study the different paths it can take to victory. While it appears like a traditional midrange build at heart, it is actually built off of a whole slew of interesting and powerful combo pieces. Understanding the minions and their silence interactions is the first step to learning this deck, but you need to hyper focus on the combo pieces to get a real idea of how it plays.
The Deck
There are a few versions of silence running around, but I am a man of simple tastes. The list we are breaking down today is Ostkaka’s deck he took to rank 1 legend. It is a pretty straightforward build that uses a bunch of over-statted minions and cheap spells to control the early game and then burst for massive damage out of nowhere. While there are a few tech cards here and there, it is mostly a strong silence core backed up by combo spells. Unlike other Priest lists, there is no removal or AOE here. All of that has been replaced with card draw and efficiency. It may not seem like the best plan on paper, but being able to cycle is all you really need to do. If you trade well and draw quickly there will come a time where your opponent cannot answer a threat. When that happens, you burst them down.
Early Game
As odd as it may seem for a combo deck, the early board is vital to this list’s success. You’re entire philosophy is built off of burst damage, and you cannot get that burst damage without a threat on the board. If you start out slow or have no way to clear out your opponent’s minions you are really going to suffer. That does not mean you cannot come back, but it makes your game much harder. For that reason, you want to power out your overstatted threats right away and then use those to build into a strong middle game.
The biggest part of these turns is setting up your silence minions. Both Ancient Watcher and Humongous Razorleaf are fantastic cards, and once you turn them on they should be able to trade with anything your opponent can play. You want to protect your combo pieces, but you typically want to spend your early turns trading with big minions. It does not take a lot to do damage with this list. If you have the board at any point in the game you can get lethal. However, that isn’t going to happen if you let your opponent dictate trades.
Middle Game
For all intents and purposes, the middle game is your late game. That is because this is where you are going to go big, and this is the part of the game where you want to close things out. Lethal comes up in all sorts of different ways with this deck, but if you do have the Inner Fire/Divine Spirit combo you always want to push if possible. Getting twenty plus damage is not too hard, you just need to work to set it up. Get board for the first three turns and then close it out here.
Know when and how to push. As your deck has so much potential for burst it is very easy to play the tempo game. Your opponent is going to try to answer anything you put down, which is a great way to dig further through your deck without taking too much damage. If your opponent is playing spells or trading they are not hurting you, and that can come in handy when you’re looking for a certain card.
The other key here is card draw. There are many cards in Silence Priest that are terrible on their own but extremely powerful together. For that reason, you never want get caught doing nothing. It is very easy to have dead hands here, and that can be disastrous against decks like Hunter or Paladin. Always look for ways to turn on Northshire Cleric or Acolyte of Pain. You specifically want to drop the 1/3’s while ahead so they can get as much value as they possibly can.
Late Game
If you make it to the late game with this deck, you need to have a lot of patience. At this stage of the game you are either going to be digging for combo, playing defensively, or working to get a minion down. As mentioned, you can go from zero to thirty in a second with this build. For that reason, there are going to be many games where you simply need to take your time. If you didn’t get a great draw you should just try to clear your opponent’s threats and bait out their removal one minion at a time. Play a card, see what they do. If they don’t have a taunt or an answer, go big. If they do have an answer, you then drop down the next one and repeat the process. The only exception to that is when you have to apply pressure to take the game over. In those cases, you just put out all the bodies you can. These turns are typically you looking for an opening, and one will come if you play it right. Prioritize card draw, protect your board, and do what you can to get a hold of priority.
Matchups
A breakdown of the different decks I see while playing ladder.
Pirate Warrior
Pirate Warrior is a very tight game. You have to get a taunt up as fast as possible and clear their early threats or this is going to rapidly slip away. The way you take this one is by clearing in the opening turns and then dropping a monster threat that puts you in control. Do not hesitate to go in here. While you normally want to hold back on things like Inner Fire until you can use them for the final blow, having any threat on the board is going to put Pirate Warrior in an awkward position. They are either going to have to use their weapons on your minions or they are going to have to ignore it. Either way you come out ahead. As soon as they ignore your minions you want to buff them up and hit your opponent’s face. Pirate is fast, but they won’t be able to race a 15/15 Ancient Watcher.
Set up Faceless Shambler. The 1/1 is your only taunt minion and one of the best trump cards in your deck. Most of the time Pirate does simply not have the resources or the time to clear out your “can’t attack” minions. Rather, they are going to use their damage to push for face. That gives you ample opportunities to set up a big minion or taunt wall. You cannot be afraid to take some extra hits in the matchup. Being proactive is strong, but most of the time you are going to have to spend a turn dropping Humongous Razorleaf or Ancient Watcher to set up your next turn. Those lines are key and you should take them when they appear. Also remember to try and heal your face throughout the game. Every point of damage matters.
Midrange Paladin
This game should be one of your better ones if you can get out ahead in the first two or three turns. Today’s Paladin decks are very explosive, but when they do not have a strong curve to lean on, their middle game falls apart. Any of your bigger silence targets do a good job of trading into early murlocs, which then forces Paladin to some awkward turns. That is all you need in this game because as soon as you get out ahead of Paladin they are not going to be able to match your burst. Just remember that they do have a lot of strong taunts, which can directly shut down Divine Spirit/Inner Fire. If you’re moving towards the end game you should do what you can to save a Silence for those walls. Always clear turn five before Spikeridged Steed.
This is a combo matchup through and through. Paladin’s only real options to fighting against gigantic threats are Equality and Sunkeeper Tarim. Things like Aldor Peacekeeper do not affect you because you don’t care about attack for your combo. As a result, you can take your time and tune your board until you play a minion that Paladin cannot answer. Humongous Razorleaf is your best threat here because it can be combined with double Divine Spirit and an Inner Fire to go over thirty. Work hard to bait out Paladin’s clears and as soon as they blank you have to push for lethal.
Midrange Hunter
Midrange Hunter is another matchup where you are favored as long as things don’t get too out of control. Most Hunter builds these days pour everything into beast synergy and board control. That has led many to cut removal spells for minions, leaving them vulnerable to big bodies like the ones you have. In this game you want to play a midrange list that slowly grinds out your opponent. Do not take Hunter for granted and do not try to push before you are ready. Once you lose the board in this game you are going to get run over. As a result, you should pace this carefully and only go big once you have a comfortable lead. Even though most Hunter’s have shaved removal you can run into things like Deadly Shot or Hunter’s Mark. Do not try to apply pressure only to get blown out.
A big part of this matchup comes down to preserving your life total. Hunter’s only true burst is Kill Command, but they pack Unleash the Hounds alongside Eaglehorn Bow. And that does not include Tundra Rhino or Huffer. All of that, combined with Steady Shot, can put you on the ropes very quickly. Your trades should focus on keeping damage away from your face. This will help you get to the later stages of the game in once piece and enable you to be proactive. Remember the value of your hero power. While it is not more important than minions, look to get two life wherever you can.
Discover/Secret Mage
Jaina continues to be as popular as ever, but instead of focusing on one deck, I am going to look at the class as a whole. Both Secret Mage and Discover Mage are very common right now and you are going to beat them both in very similar ways. Mage is at an interesting spot because they can take down just about anyone from just about any life total. Ice Block is very powerful, and they have a seemingly endless amount of burn. For those reasons, to win against them you have to go all-in. This is not a game that you want to take slow. Mage simply has too much power, and they will steadily wear you down if you give them the opportunity to do so. Instead, it is best to get out threats early and force them to react to you.
As with so many decks on the ladder right now, Mage has quite a few awkward turns. These typically come during four through six, where they are forced to make strange mana choices. This is the point in the game where you want to try to wrap things up (or at least pop and Ice Block). It is going to be tricky for Mage to answer your bigger minions. They may have Polymorph or Meteor early on, but if they don’t have those options they are likely going to try to freeze you out. For this reason, try to hold onto a silence effect towards the end of the game if you can. This will take off the freeze and allow you to kill Mage when they least expect it.
Quest Rogue
We end out matchup discussion with one of the trickier spots in the current meta. Quest Rogue continues to reign supreme for Valeera, and it is a deck that is going to be very hard to beat. Most of this game is largely going to come down to your mulligan. Do not keep anything that is not an early threat. Things like Wild Pyromancer are interesting from this standpoint because, while the ability is not very powerful against Rogue, the 3/2 body can get in quite a bit of damage. However, the two drop also makes your spells weaker and dies to Backstab. For this reason, I would not keep this on its own. Rather, you want to look for giant bodies. This is a game where you go in as soon as you possibly can and hit your opponent very hard. You are only trading here if you need to live or if you want to clear out before The Caverns Below. Point your big bodies at your opponent’s face and buff up everything. Getting your Northshire Cleric to a turn two 5/5 may not seem strong, but quest just has no good answers to that type of body.
Tip and Tricks
Silence can be used on your opponent. This is obvious, but it is very easy to forget. Almost every deck right now has some type of big silence target, ranging from Savannah Highmane to Edwin Vancleef to Tirion Fordring. That does not even include the various large taunts that can step in the way of your combo burst. Recognize those threats. There are also going to many games where you don’t have a good start and you need to shut down a Mana Wyrm or Frothing Berserker before it gets out of control.
Do not forget to buff after you silence one of your big threats. This is a small note, but it is very important. You always want to silence first before trying to go in on a minion. Nothing is worse than investing health only to take it away. For this reason, try to Power Word: Shield your attack minions only if you need to draw.
Radiant Elemental has a lot of versatility. Yes, you typically only want to use the 2/3 when you can combo off, but there are many situations where this acts as a psuedo-Gadgetzan Auctioneer. That is to say, it is a tempo play that puts down a strong threat and also nets you a few cards. If you can go in with this and Shadow Visions on an empty board you probably should.
Know that you do not always have to use your combo cards for the combo. Though most of the time you should hoard one or two spells for the last burst, Inner Fire and Divine Spirit are both great ways to control the board. Always look how to get tempo with these cards if they are in your hand and do not be afraid to use them to trade early.
Faceless Shambler does not have to be huge. The 1/1 is fantastic when it is a 20/20, but against faster decks sometimes a simple 4/4 or 3/3 taunt is all you need. When you are under fire you do not want to hold back a taunt trying to go big.
Mulligan Guide
You are a combo deck that is built off of strong minions. As a result, you want to look aggressively for your early bodies and throw back all of your combo spells. Yes, there are some games where you can end things with a perfect draw on turn three, but most of the time you are going to close this one out in the middle of the game. To do that, you have to get ahead early, and that won’t be possible without minions. Once you see your threats, then you can start keeping spells.
Must Keeps:
Northshire Cleric Ancient Watcher Radiant ElementalSituational Keeps:
Silence should always be kept anytime you have an early target for it. This includes an on-curve Humongous Razorleaf.
Power Word: Shield, like Silence, should always be kept with an early minion.
Potion of Madness should be kept against any aggressive class (Warrior, Hunter, Paladin, Druid).
Wild Pyromancer is another card that you want to keep against aggro, but it is too slow against everything else. The only exception is if you want to trigger an early Acolyte of Pain.
Purify follows the same rule that Silence does.
Shadow Visions can be kept if you have a good early curve or strong opening bodies, but it is usually too weak to keep on its own.
Acolyte of Pain, Kabal Talonpriest and Humongous Razorleaf should all be kept with the coin or the curve.
Replacements
Honestly, there really isn’t a lot of wiggle room in this one. Though there are a few versions of Silence Priest, they all only differ on a few cards. The package does not lend itself too well to experimentation. You need the silence cards and you need their targets. Beyond that, the choices you can tweak largely come down to how you like to play the deck.
Circle of Healing is a viable choice here for people who want to hedge all of their bets on the combo. This card helps keep your larger minions alive and also helps you double down on Northshire Cleric. If you find that you don’t have enough draw this could be a good tech option.
You could also run double Potion of Madness or cut a Wild Pyromancer in favor of more defensive options like Tar Creeper. Kabal Talonpriest can become a one-of as well if you want to focus more on spells.
Some decks have cut Faceless Shambler, but I think this is a mistake. The taunts are very powerful and give you ways to instantly trump games where you would normally succumb to damage. There are some other large silence targets (like Bittertide Hydra) that you could try, but I would not recommend it.
Lyra the Sunshard is also not essential here. While she is undoubtedly powerful, she can be replaced with other value cards or strong spells. Yes, she is going to win you some games on her own, but she could become a tech card if you do not have her.
Conclusion
June is almost here, and what better way to celebrate than silencing our minions. I’m not sure what that connection was, but it’s late and I’m tired. Honestly, Silence Priest is one of the most fun decks around if you like combo. Some people may not like the push of taking people from thirty to zero, but it is something I’ll never get tired of. I would highly recommend this for any Priest player. Until next time, shhhh!
Published: May 31, 2017 09:29 am