Posted: 21 Mar 2018 08:00 AM PDT

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Play by Play #3 - Wild Combo Priest vs. Warlock

Posted: 21 Mar 2018 01:52 PM PDT

Hello again, the game I am breaking down today can be found here: https://hsreplay.net/replay/BjEWwwDsh66xp4Z6JMEase

This game was played at rank 6 on the EU ladder but could have easily been up in legend. As promised, I'm playing Combo Priest. The deck code is here: AAEBAa0GBO0BpQn7DLW7Ag34AuUE9gfRCtIK1wryDNkN/g2PD/C7AtHBAtjBAgA=

I'm not going to pretend that this is an easy deck to play, or that I played it perfectly. This particular version of Combo Priest has a much higher skill floor than dragon variants and there is a ton of room for error or not playing it optimally. I'm 81-33 since rank 25 (though I got better with the deck as I climbed so it's been close to 80% wins since rank 15). I'll do my best to go over as many possible lines as I can, but I'm confident that there were other lines that were just as viable as the one I took. Get comfortable because this will be a long post!

Mulligan
Generally speaking I'm looking for low cost cards, particularly minions like Northshire Cleric, Zombie Chow, and Radiant Elemental. I'm playing against a Warlock, however, and that means I can afford to take a more greedy hand. I happen to like Shadow Visions and Power Word: Shield in this hand because in my experience it's reasonable that I draw an early minion...not to mention Shadow Visions basically allows me to take any spell from my deck...very powerful. Without early pressure, it doesn't matter if it takes a few turns to draw one. I do toss the Potion of Madness though, as it's often dead against Warlock. Silence is a card I normally don't keep, but it's game-winning against Warlocks, allowing me to easily avoid a taunt...so I keep it. The mulligan returns me a Talonpriest...which is fine. One additional note is that I have run into the occasional Zoolock, and I'd have been punished if this one was Zoo.

Turn 1
My opponent tosses down a Librarian, which is common to the point that I don't really think about it. It doesn't threaten me at all.

My greed pays off and I draw a Zombie Chow. If my opponent has Mortal Coil, he can make a nifty trade, but since I'm Priest, I assume that he would have tossed it in the mulligan due to it normally being dead against Priest.

Turn 2
The Tap here confirms that my opponent is very likely a Cubelock or Giantlock. Either way, my gameplan doesn't change. I want to try to snowball a minion out of their reach. Control Warlock is the only one with answers to a fat minion. I also don't care that my opponent goes face. They have no way to apply any sort of early pressure to follow up on those hits.

Already, I have multiple options. I can play Shadow Visions to grab a spell, but since I don't know what I want, it's not the best play. PW:S is not really an effective use of mana. Using the coin, I can either Velen's Chosen my Chow or play the Talonpriest. I choose to further develop my board and buff my Chow by playing the Talonpriest. This saves my other buff for later and provides an additional buff target. Any minion on the board is one that I can use to combo off, so I prefer to create additional threats instead of going in on one minion, if possible. Additionally, I don't care about the Librarian. Chip damage will mean I can combo off with fewer spells and maybe not even require a Divine Spirit. There's also no likely way for my opponent to deal 4 damage and kill the Chow as a punish.

Turn 3
Another Tap. Another face hit! Wow! The horror!

Again, in an effort not to go all-in on one minion so early (without the combo), I choose to draw a card with PW:S and then tutor for a spell. Drawing cards is crucial in a combo deck. I want as many options as possible. With my Shadow Visions I decide to choose a Divine Spirit. Generally speaking, buffing minions out of range of killing them is better than grabbing an Inner Fire to combo off when I'm not going to have an immediate lethal. A 12/12 or 10/10 next turn would be quite threatening, but in my experience, most opponents have an answer to a 'medium-sized' Inner Fire minion like that. For some reason, I also tend to draw another Inner Fire soon after the first (no joke) which is awkward. It's also worth noting that Warlocks do run Giants, which can compete with a minion of that size. Divine Spirit is flexible enough that I will sometimes keep it in my opening mulligan!

Turn 4
Sure enough, my opponent has a Mountain Giant, which suddenly appears rather threatening. My Chow is knocked down to 2/6 by a trade.

I swear I wasn't joking when I said I draw Inner Fire right after being offered it in Shadow Visions. It happens regularly...like it did here. It's a fortuitous draw though, as I can Velen's, then Inner Fire my Zombie Chow in order to challenge the Mountain Giant. I read from the trade the turn before that my opponent is probably holding Hellfire, so I'm expecting to lose my Zombie Chow here. May as well get the face damage in. I don't regret having chosen the Divine Spirit though. I was confident that the choice would pay off later. My opponent is now down to 7, and a Hellfire would put them dangerously low (and fail to clear the Talonpriest).

Turn 5
My opponent thinks for quite a while and then plays a Mistress of Mixtures in an effort to save some life after the impending Hellfire. The Chow trigger and Mistress trigger to set my opponent back up to 10 with only 3 damage on the board.

I draw Northshire Cleric which is great because it allows me to immediately draw another card, which I do. Circle of Healing is basically 'draw 1' here, so I do so as well. I wasn't expecting to draw my second Circle, however. I play my Wild Pyromancer, intending to draw a bunch of cards next turn if my opponent doesn't clear me out again. Combo decks are all about drawing through your deck until you can blow up your opponent. It won't take much here, as I knock my opponent down to 7. I actually have lethal on board.

Turn 6
Lackey into Pact is a pretty common turn 6. My opponent thinks they're safe at 15 with a Voidlord. Game over, right...?

Some of you out there may call me 'lucky', given that I've been drawing pretty well in this game. There are a few things to bear in mind here. This deck is extremely flexible. I have a bunch of different ways to draw cards, and a couple alternate ways to win the game. Most draws are serviceable. This one (Auchenai Soulpriest) just happens to be really good.

I Silence the Voidlord, triggering Wild Pyro, following up with Circle to draw me 4 cards. I bop my opponent with the Wild Pyro, intending to kill it now. To prevent my opponent from Cubing or trading with his silenced Voidlord, I also Shadow Word: Pain it. The reason I used my Silence earlier was to avoid dealing with the three Voidwalkers...particularly since I don't have any more Circles to combine with Auchenai.

In order to take advantage of the draw from my Cleric, I play Radiant Elemental and heal my Talonpriest. This is an extremely threatening board now. Radiant Elemental enables some absurd combos and I have the ability to draw even more cards next turn. Again, I have lethal next turn if my opponent can't clear the board.

Turn 7
This is a pretty sad turn 7 for my opponent as they have to use both Defiles to clear my board. They did clear it though. Tapping down to 6 life is fairly ballsy, but not unreasonable. They need to stabilize, fast.

I drop Deathlord and Auchenai Soulpriest. Both minions can easily combo my opponent out next turn if they stay on board. Auchenai in particular is dangerous because it can kill my opponent through taunt.

Turn 8
The Sylvanas + Pact takes me by surprise and I find myself hoping they don't take the Deathlord...which it does. In hindsight it was kind of a dumb thing to hope for. The Auchenai was my ticket to winning through taunt (and it was getting more and more likely that they start dropping taunts). Without combo-ing the next turn, I'd probably lose with the Deathlord, as I had used my Silence already.

Divine Spirit doesn't win me the game like Inner Fire would (and I'd have won had I chosen Inner Fire earlier), but that's okay. I Pain the Deathlord, which is basically like drawing another card. It pulls a Cleric out. I Talonpriest the Soulpriest and then heal my opponent's face for 2 damage. More threats on the board and my opponent down to 9 again after the face hits. I've gone through more than 2/3 of my deck already so another Inner Fire or Shadow Visions is right around the corner if I need it.

Turn 9
Voidlord comes down now, basically confirming that I have no way to win with the combo. I've used both SW:Ps and the Silence. Three Voidwalkers would probably be able to stall me out until N'Zoth or Gul'Dan. I suspect one or both are in my opponent's hand, as two cards have been sitting in my opponent's hand for most of the game.

I draw PW:S, which I immediately play to draw yet another card. Zombie Chow is exactly what I want, and I drop it, following up by healing my opponent's face. I also choose to trade my minions into my opponent's Voidlord, which in hindsight might have been an error.

At the time I was concerned that I'd have to punch through the Voidlord, so I wanted to clear it and hope to win off the combo still. This opened up the opportunity for my opponent to kill his own Voidlord on one of my minions in order to prevent me from trading off my Zombie Chow.

Additionally, I bluff that I have the combo by going all-in on my Auchenai Soulpriest...also doing so to keep it alive. There's no way he's killing it without hard removal.

Turn 10
I'm not entirely sure what my opponent is thinking here, as they Tap and play Librarian, putting them easily into range of dying from my Zombie Chow no matter what (3 life). Double Doomsayer seems to be desperation, trying to clear my buffed Soulpriest. The trade into my Cleric seals his fate. Had my opponent not tapped and traded his Voidlord away, he'd have survived another turn for sure.

On my turn, I trade my Chow into his Voidlord and the 5 heal to his face is lethal.

Post-Mortem
This game has been a marathon to break down for you, but it should give you a pretty good idea of how Combo Priest approaches the game. I won the game on turn 10 with only 6 cards in my deck. This version is rather unassuming. There are no flashy or expensive cards. What makes it powerful is its flexibility. There are a lot of ways to win the game out of nowhere and a lot of ways to draw through your deck.

If you have any questions, please feel free to fire them at me. Aside from taking the Inner Fire instead of Divine Spirit earlier in the game, I can't really find an alternative route that would have won me the game sooner. I still stand by my decision to take the Divine Spirit though, as most of the time it's the correct play.

--As an aside-- The best way to tell me you want my content is to either upvote or comment. If I notice less engagement with my posts, I will stop posting. These posts take a very long time to put together and I want to make sure you all appreciate them.

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Tavern Brawl Thread | Wednesday, March 21, 2018

Posted: 21 Mar 2018 08:06 AM PDT

This will be the megathread where Tavern Brawl strategy and discussion for this week's brawl should take place. Only discussion related to optimally playing the Tavern Brawl should take place on here. Tavern Brawl constructed decks can be discussed in here.

Since I am a bot and don't know what the brawl is, could someone help me out and post a top-level comment with a description?

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First time legend with Giantlock

Posted: 21 Mar 2018 06:02 AM PDT

I know this deck (Naga Sea Witch in particular) generates lots of hate and it might requires some nerf but I found it interesting to play and far from being brainless. Therefore, I wanted to share my first climb to legend, the tech choices I made and some key decisions.

Without further ado, here is my deck:

Giantlock

Class: Warlock

Format: Wild

2x (1) Kobold Librarian

2x (1) Mistress of Mixtures

1x (1) Mortal Coil

2x (2) Darkbomb

2x (2) Defile

2x (2) Doomsayer

2x (4) Hellfire

1x (4) Spellbreaker

2x (4) Voidcaller

1x (5) Loatheb

2x (5) Naga Sea Witch

1x (9) Alexstrasza

1x (9) Mal'Ganis

2x (9) Voidlord

1x (10) Bloodreaver Gul'dan

2x (12) Clockwork Giant

2x (12) Mountain Giant

2x (25) Molten Giant

AAEBAf0GBsUE8gXECPoOwg+X0wIMigG2B+EH3AqODq0QuRHeFt7EAufLAvLQAujnAgA=

To use this deck, copy it to your clipboard and create a new deck in Hearthstone

and legend proof / stats

Tech Choices

6 Giants (no Sea Giant)
Alextrasza: used for suprised lethal and life gain against secret mage
1x Spell Breaker: my favorite tech choice. Most people don't expect you running one, so you can bypass a taunt for lethal or suicide your Voidcaller
2x Dark Bomb, 2x Hellfire: direct damage for more reach
1x Mortal Coil: I used to have two and 1 Defile but with so many eggs paladin, I believe Defile is better

Win Conditions

Obviously, Naga Sea Witch + Giants. The dream scenario of 3/4 Giants on turn 4/5 is pretty rare but even 1 Giant is enough to put some pressure and Naga Sea Witch has a soft taunt.
Demon synergy, VoidCaller into Voidlord / Malganis and Guldan to revive everyone.

Match Ups

I played half of my games on mobile, so they haven't been recorded.

Paladin (10-8 slightly favored): Most of the ladder right now is egg/aggro paladin (35% of my matchups during the climb). Here you want to mulligan for your 1 drop (Kobold librarian and Mistress of Mixtures), Defile, Doomasayer, Voidcaller. The key is not to take too much damage before turn 5, you can use your 1 drop to setup a Defile clear or Doomsayer to delay their Call to Arms. Force them to use their Spellbreaker on Doomsayer or Voidcaller. Be mindfull of Sunkeeper Tarim tour, so try not to commit all your Giants at once and try to keep their board as small as possible. Most of the game I won is when I run them out of steam and manage to have one Voidlord to die. Last thought, Egg Paladin is far less explosive than Dude Paladin, so you can often delay your board clear.

Warlock (7-3): Here you have either Giantlock or Cubelock. The main issue is that it is difficult to know which one it is before their turn 5 (Naga or Lackey). In this match up, you want to draw as much as possible and if you face giant, delay their Naga turn using Doomsayer. Do not play Mistress of Mixture early on, as you want to be at 25 health or less when you play your Naga (the only exception is if you have 2-3 Giants and none of them is a Molten Giant).

Druid (6-1 extremely favored): Probably the easiest match up, I believe if you add my games on mobile I still have only lost one game. Two type of druids: fast (aggro druid), slow (maly or fatigue druid). Aggro druid is tougher so mulligan for it (like Paladin). If it is a slow druid, you're almost sure to win because you apply too much pressure, so you force them to be on the defensive all turns (Poison Seeds, Spreading Plague, Malfurion) such as they cannot play their draw (Nourish or Ultimate Infestation). Be mindfull of Poson Seeds, they probably run two and it cost only 4 mana, so don't play all your Giants at once.

Priest (4-2): Mainly Combo/Dragon Priest or Big Priest. Against combo you are favoured because it is more likely you have Naga + Giant before they have their combo. Nevertheless, try to not to let them have one minion with a lot of health on board (use HellFire or Darkbomb). Again Big Priest, it is more complicated. Try to keep your mistress of mixtures for additional targets when they have Obsidian Statue in play. In this match-up, you are on the clock as they will almost always win late game.

Mage (3-2 slightly unfavored): I think I got lucky on the recorded game. The main issue is you don't have much heal and they have a lot of burn. I mostly won when the mage spent their burn to put me in lethal position next turn and then I played Alextrazsa.

Key Decisions

I believe the main differences in piloting this deck revolve around:

when to tap: tap early and often but don't be too greedy when you're low on health or have enough answers
when to play mistress of mixtures: Against aggro it is probably good idea to play it on turn 1 if it is unlickely they can kill it next turn. Against slow deck, you probably want to keep it to guarantee having 25 health on your naga turn.
which giant to keep in your mulligan: Molten Giant is good against aggro, other giants are better against control. In particular, ClockWork Giant is great in mirror match. Only consider keeping giant if you have already Naga See Witch.
when to take damage and when to board clear: ideally you want a clean board for your naga turn and Doomsayer is the best tool for that
do not over commit when they can have an answer to your Giants: e.g. Poison Seeds for Druid, Lightbomb for Priest, Sunkeeper Tarim for Paladin.
don't try to get perfect board: Naga See Witch + 1 Giant is a lot to handle and you have many threats.

Final Thoughts

Giantlock is a strong deck, mainly thanks to Naga Sea Witch, VoidCaller and Kobold Librarian. Naga Sea Witch is only OP with Warlock because you can get so much draw between your hero power, Kobold Librarian and Mortal Coil. However, the deck has very little heal so it is weak against Secret Mage or Pirate Warrior which are currently a small part of the meta.

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