Summary: 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.
