The Happy Hearthstone

Hello! Craig is on the show this week Topic: Deck Battle! Reasons to be happy this week News: Dreamhack What is a Deck Battle? Once a month, a guest host brings their favorite deck onto the show to battle the current reigning champion deck for control of the Happy Hearthstone Deck Battle Throne! If the challenger wins the best-of-3 series, their deck becomes the new Reigning Champion Deck and will fight off future challengers until it loses, or until it’s earned its place in the Happy Hearthstone Hall of Fame! View the Deck Battle Archive + The Happy Hearthstone Hall of Fame Defending Deck: Chris’ Warlock Dreadsteed deck just earned its spot on the throne in the previous episode and faces its first challenger today! Challenger Deck: Craig’s Dragon Priest Deck puts an aggressive twist on the standard control class. Creatures 2x Northshire Cleric 2x Twilight Whelp 1x Museum Curator 2x Wyrmrest Agent 1x Blackwing Technician 2x Auchenai Soulpriest 2x Twilight Guardian 2x Azure Drake 2x Blackwing Corruptor 1x Justicar Trueheart 1x Sylvanas Windrunner 1x Chromaggus 1x Ysera Spells 2x Circle of Healing 2x Power Word: Shield 2x Shadow Word: Pain 1x Shadow Word: Death 1x Shadow Madness 1x Holy Nova 1x Entomb Substitutes In case you don’t have some of the ideal cards, here are some quality back-ups and alterations you can use, which all keep with the same theme and strengths of the deck. Mass Dispell Holy smite Thoughtsteal Elise Starseeker Shifting shade Excavated Evil Harrison Jones Nefarian Cabal Shadow Priest The Duel Josh’s Perspective Craig’s Perspective (No Audio) Community Questions: Classic Legendaries, Wild Mode iTunes Reviews Donations (More info) Card of the Week Farewell Contact Craig and get inspired by his fitness journey on his blog! What do you want to see in future episodes?   DECK GUIDE: Are you ready to have your face mauled by angry dragons? Doesn’t sound pleasant, does it? Maybe you should just play this deck so you’re the one doing the face-mauling! Note from Josh: The rest of this article was written by Craig. Thanks! Dragon Priest A lot of Priest decks tend towards the control side of the spectrum, but I like decks that get started quickly. So this Dragon Priest deck has a hint of aggro in it that lets it race out against control and out-punch another aggro deck thanks to its Taunts and heals. Minions Northshire Cleric: Decent stats for a 1-drop, and the incredible potential of the card-draw effect that even your opponents can unwillingly trigger makes this card high value. Twilight Whelp: Sometimes Zombie chow, sometimes Worgen Infiltrator, many times best held to enable dragon synergy in mid to late game. Museum Curator: The discover mechanic is great for Hearthstone. Giving a random choice allows you to mold each game according to your needs. I swap between this card and Shadow Word: Pain based on the relative speed of the meta. Wyrmrest Agent: The best proactive turn-2 play in any priest deck, this card enables the deck to show presence early and compete against zoo and aggro for board control. Blackwing Technician: Playing a 3/5 on turn 3 is better than playing one on turn 4, this is an “it’ll do” card not so much a strong contributor in this slot. Auchenai Soulpriest: Here to make up for the loss of Light Bomb, Auchenai offers AoE, unexpected burst potential and increased potency for board control. Twilight Guardian: A 3/6 with taunt is a good friend to any priest. Azure Drake: 3 damage Holy Novas are really strong. Keep in mind that when healing is converted to damage, spell damage is also included. Auchenei Soulpriest + Azure Drake + Circle of Healing does 5 damage. Blackwing Corruptor: Cheaper, slightly weaker Fire Elemental? Yes please. Justicar Trueheart: When the game goes into extra innings, the increased healing on your basic hero power is a great way to keep your minions and yourself in the mix. Sylvanas Windrunner: Make their late game into YOUR late game! A pro-active option to confuse the board for your opponent and much stronger in a meta with less silence options. Chromaggus: A refuelling tool for slower match ups. Ysera: The strongest dragon in the deck. Many games she’ll just activate your other options, but sometimes she’s your only option for a chance to win and the ruler of the dreamworld delivers. Spells Circle of Healing: This is here to replace Velen’s Chosen by restoring lost stats instead of buffing. Great synergy with Northshire and Auchenei. Power Word: Shield: Excellent card that allows cycle and draw in one step. Shadow Word: Pain: The flexible nature and low cost of this removal card is great, there are very few decks that avoid providing worthy targets. Shadow Word: Death: BGH without the minion, flexible removal. This is a strong card. Shadow Madness: An interesting removal tool that uses the priest mechanic of turning your opponent’s strength against them. Holy Nova: When your minions take a bruising early, this spell and Circle of Healing keeps them going, and can keep your hand filled with Northshire Cleric. Entomb: Make their late game, YOUR late game (again)! The Substitutes Mass Dispell: A subjective inclusion. AoE silence can be very strong for maintaining or establishing board control against sticky creatures. Holy Smite: Flexible as damage or removal of early minions. Shadow word pain is more flexible, so slot this in when having trouble with fast starts Thoughtsteal: For a meta of slower opponents, “borrowing” resources from your opponent can give you insight into their strategies, and add more value to your deck. Elise Starseeker: Useful against much slower decks to provide more threats in heavier control matches Shifting shade: Like Thoughtsteal, this card gets you a peek in your opponents deck and value to add to your list. Excavated Evil: Great against “flood” decks, a reasonable alternative to the Auchenai circle combo. Harrison Jones: An excellent tool against Shamans and Warriors, less consistent against Hunters. Try to aim for buffed weapons with Rogues. Nefarian: A Ysera alternate. Nefarian produces immediate value with the spells, while being a threatening minion. Cabal Shadow Priest: With the nerf to Keeper of the Grove, and loss of Shrinkmeister, there are less minds to change these days, but Cabal is still a great value when you land the battle cry on a good minion.  

Sometimes, large scaly beasts don’t want to lounge around at home and wait for prey to show up. Sometimes they go on the hunt and actively seek those faces they’re so fond of shredding. That’s the plan with Craig’s versatile Dragon Priest deck this week! Subscribe to The Happy Hearthstone Podcast on iTunes or via […]

Last episode, we divvied up the best and worst of the neutral Old Gods cards and now we’re ready to lay down the verdict on every class’ cards as well! Plus, we open an absurd number of card packs sent in by our awesome listeners! Thanks to everyone! Check out Scott’s upcoming game Plants vs. […]

Last episode, we divvied up the best and worst of the neutral Old Gods cards and now we’re ready to lay down the verdict on every class’ cards as well! Plus, we open an absurd number of card packs sent in by our awesome listeners! Thanks to everyone! Check out Scott’s upcoming game Plants vs. […]

The Old Gods have spoken. They’ve revealed their true natures to us, and it’s time for us to judge them. And judge their followers. And judge the random murloc that wandered in. And judge that robot someone unwisely built to be even more annoying than the last one. And judge… well, pretty much everything. Scott […]

The Old Gods have spoken. They’ve revealed their true natures to us, and it’s time for us to judge them. And judge their followers. And judge the random murloc that wandered in. And judge that robot someone unwisely built to be even more annoying than the last one. And judge… well, pretty much everything. Scott […]

My brother may have beat me into the world by 4 years, but it’s taken me almost as long to convince him to come onto the podcast with me! Finally, on the verge of a big Hearthstone shake-up, he brings his older-brother wisdom onto the show to help us all understand the nuances of all […]

My brother may have beat me into the world by 4 years, but it’s taken me almost as long to convince him to come onto the podcast with me! Finally, on the verge of a big Hearthstone shake-up, he brings his older-brother wisdom onto the show to help us all understand the nuances of all […]

We’re back with another round of tips, tricks, and roundtable discussions on topics from the community! We do these strategy potluck episodes a few times a year, and it’s all about talking about whatever you want us to talk about! This time we tackle card advantage and weapons, deckbuilding, and have our mind blown by […]

We’re back with another round of tips, tricks, and roundtable discussions on topics from the community! We do these strategy potluck episodes a few times a year, and it’s all about talking about whatever you want us to talk about! This time we tackle card advantage and weapons, deckbuilding, and have our mind blown by […]

We talked about the awesome Dreadsteed card in our last episode, and pointed out all of the potential synergy it has. But now it’s time to see it in action! Chris’ Dreadsteed deck battles through the Gauntlet of Hall of Fame decks that have been retired on Happy Hearthstone! Subscribe to The Happy Hearthstone Podcast […]

We talked about the awesome Dreadsteed card in our last episode, and pointed out all of the potential synergy it has. But now it’s time to see it in action! Chris’ Dreadsteed deck battles through the Gauntlet of Hall of Fame decks that have been retired on Happy Hearthstone! Subscribe to The Happy Hearthstone Podcast […]

It flies, it burns, it dies a thousand deaths but never dies! It’s the terrifying Dreadsteed! We’re trying a completely different format for the show this week — an episode devoted entirely to a single card. We hope it’ll provide some insight into deck-building, playing around specific cards in your own deck or your opponent’s […]

It flies, it burns, it dies a thousand deaths but never dies! It’s the terrifying Dreadsteed! We’re trying a completely different format for the show this week — an episode devoted entirely to a single card. We hope it’ll provide some insight into deck-building, playing around specific cards in your own deck or your opponent’s […]

I had so much fun this episode. Our old friend, Kevin from Darkmoon Herald brings his own personal twist on the infamous Secret Paladin deck onto the show to challenge the most dominant deck that we’ve ever had on this show! Will the Paladin’s Mysterious Challenger be the one to finally exorcise this show’s demons? […]