Introduction
Alright, you can stop bugging me for a Control Priest, it is finished, my own monster is back into hunting because of you guys! 😀
I know you all wanted this, I have been even poked on facebook about this so I just couldn’t help myself but start playtesting Priest builds over and over again and I finally came up with the final version, which is the one you guys are seeing.
Building a Priest Control deck wasn’t easy, because most of the deck’s tools were lost in the format rotation, so I had to build a functional deck from scratch, and one that actually worked at least as good as the previous format one.
Well, fear no more, cry no more, because Control Priest is finally back to life and in an awesome new shape!
Finding the Correct Choices
So, the way Control Priest operates is a mystery to anyone that isn’t completely addicted to the class. When I first saw the expansion cards the Control Priest theme concerned me: There was no apparent way to make the deck work. I knew darkshire-alchemist was good but it had the same problem the C’Thun Priest deck appeared to have and I completely disliked the way they worked – They had no defenses and no way to play from behind.
Sure, healing yourself might sound like a defense, or a way to play from behind, but every version I saw until I finished my own suffered from the problem “I can’t beat charge/weapons”.
Ever asked yourself why C’Thun Priest didn’t work? It had quite a few powerful minions, healing them didn’t seem like a problem because their health was high, C’Thun Priest also had that twilight-darkmender that heals you for 10, but everything was just too slow, what is the good side of healing yourself for 10 when the board’s problem hasn’t been dealt with?
So when you guys asked me for a Control Priest, I just said to myself “Not possible” because there was no real “stabilizer” besides always being ahead and playing the dream game every game.
So I saw the numbers, how many of you guys really wanted a Control Priest, and I went to the drawing board, there was obviously something I was missing. forbidden-shaping was an obvious addition to the deck, a spell that summons a minion, fills your curve and synergizes well with wild-pyromancer can’t be taken lightly, and so was the Alchemist, the deck was already good, but not good enough, not something I would want to play to hit Legend so I would never share that crap with you guys.
I kept browsing through my collection with the “Taunt” keyword on it, but there was just no low cost taunt, nothing good enough to be the substitute of our long gone deathlord, until then I realized “Wait a second, there are higher curves than 1-5!” and I went up on the collection, maybe I would see a good high-cost taunt that is strong enough to justify competitive play?
It was there, it was there all along and I didn’t see it: bog-creeper. I loved that card since the second it was announced and I didn’t even bother remembering about it, damn the deck was complete!
So, with the deck finished I simply brought it to ladder and started demolishing all those Zoo, Shamans (!!!) and Hunters I was seeing all around, no Patron Warrior would survive as well, the deck was just too oppressive.
I did it! I was able to make a powerful Control Priest deck out of scrap just for you guys! 😀
Going Deeper in the Card Choices
So, I talked a little about the WOG cards but I didn’t go much into details about them.
So, we all know how cards like power-word-shield and northshire-cleric go and how they should be played, this has been said multiple times in so many priest articles around the internet that it shouldn’t be a problem finding the Priest basics.
Now, to forbidden-shaping – the card is decent, not absurd but I like how it works in Priests in general. It is a non-conditional card that can be played whenever you want, different from mostly all Priest cards for this matter, and that is what I like about it. Sure, you could play acolyte-of-pain instead and it wouldn’t be a problem, but Forbidden Shaping gives you some extra fuel against Control decks as well as the flexibility you’ll need in case you get bad hands, and that is why it is my card of choice. Whenever I am playing it, I like to cast it as a 3-cost spell against Aggro (or wait for the wild-pyromancer turn in case I have a Pyro in hand), and against Control I usually want to play this on 8, but 9 should be the ideal cost (however, it is not common to cast this for 9 at all).
darkshire-alchemist dispenses introductions here, the card is powerful, a mega-earthen-ring-farseer with a bigger body, I love this card and so should you. The great part about this card is the healing’s flexibility which can be used on our own minions and our opponents (in case we have auchenai-soulpriest) which is a great addition to the emergency healing you might be needing. This card’s body is strong, which is the reason why this is a card you can run in your deck without feeling bad about it.
excavated-evil is the ideal board removal now that the metagame is so filled with 3-Health minions. Sure your own minion will be damaged in the process, but it is a fine price to pay when you so desperately need to survive.
And the latest addition to Control Priest, and the reason why I believe this deck to be so powerful, bog-creeper is basically the Neutral ancient-of-war Control decks have been waiting for so long. So, to resume things and why I was looking for this card so much in my collection? When playing Control Priest against Aggro decks, there is always that turn where you stabilize, but sometimes you still lose because of a lucky Charger of top the of the opponent’s deck, or for that doomhammer that kept hitting you despite your board superiority and you couldn’t stop it because you had no taunt – there was no deathlord to completely stabilize the board anymore. Well, Bog Creeper does that in a much better job because of how big it is and how it can also be used as a game-finisher threat.
The Deck’s Matchups
So, I haven’t played more than 40 games with this deck yet, so I don’t have accurate numbers, but in general this deck should be stomping Tempo-oriented decks such as: Zoo, Shaman (any kind), Tempo Mage, Hunter (any kind) and Patron Warrior. Different from post-rotation matchups, this time these decks are in a even bigger disadvantage (for multiple reasons, strongest ones being less persistency on their part and more consistency on yours), and your odds of winning are just too high.
Meanwhile, this deck seems to lack the power to deal with a Midrange-sized board, like: Druid, Reno Lock and N’Zoth based decks. This happens because this deck lacks lightbomb, so if your opponent can drop a few 5+ health minions on the board you don’t have many ways of coming back from that (you do have some though, so a perfect hand can win you any game here).
Meanwhile, Control oriented decks should be an even matchup against this one, since this deck isn’t made to fight for the Fatigue Factor, but can still pull the punches against those very greedy decks with strong removal, elise-starseeker and forbidden-shaping being part of this deck’s core.
Well, so, this deck is strong against the best decks in the ladder and weak against the inconsistent ones? I’ll take it, easily.
Closing
And this is it, I would like to thank you guys for pushing me into building something like this, despite the brainstorming being long it was actually pretty satisfying to see that a deck like this was still possible.
I hope you guys enjoyed this deck, it was made for you!
Love you all,
Cuddles,
Nuba
