Tuesday, May 26, 2015

Shadow Dragon Deck (Priest, 70% Win Rate. Meta-Counter) by MatiasValero - Hearthstone

The Shadow Dragon Priest

1 Holy Smite x2
1 Power Word: Shield x2
1 Twilight Whelp x2
2 Shadow Word: Pain
2 Sunfury Protector
2 Wild Pyromancer x2
3 Shadow Word: Death
3 Shadowform
3 Dark Cultist
4 Defender of Argus
4 Hungry Dragon
5 Holy Nova x2
5 Antique Healbot
5 Azure Drake x2
5 Blackwing Corruptor x2
5 Vol'jin
6 Holy Fire
6 Lightbomb x2
8 Chromaggus
9 Nefarian
9 Ysera
This is my Shadow Dragon Deck.

The deck shores up all of the weaknesses that people associate with the Dragon-deck meta, thriving around massive board clear and taunts followed by strong/game-ending minions.

Wild Pyromancer, Holy Nova, and Lightbomb along with Smite, Vol'jin, Shadow Words, Holy Fire and Blackwing Corruptors provide ample board clear, and the Sunfury/Defender combined with dragons make for excellent control. Power Word: Shield/Azure Drake+Chromaggus for fun card duplication, as well as Nefarian. Despite the lack of Northshire and Thoughtsteal, the deck rarely seems to run out of cards, mainly because so many of the cards trade up in value.

Most games end up with a hand full of AoE and dragons that eventually just outpace whatever sort of opponent you're up against. Shadowform provides an extra clincher that seals the game against most aggro decks while providing overbearing board control late-game. More often than not opponents will get you down to 10-15 health before turns 5 and 6, and by that point you'll have enough control in your hand to turn the tables on them.

Some tech that I've looked at include Volcanic Drakes vs Azure Drakes, since they've made for some fun AoE+Drake turns in the past. But they're too squishy and conditional for my taste. Bloodmage Thalnos is a solid early game card to combo with Smite and Holy Nova. Putting in more win conditions is always an option, too, whether that's Ragnaros, Sylvanas, Sneed's, etc.

Most common problems this deck faces are paladins and control warriors. It's not easy to deal with divine-shielded minions or the set of tools that control warriors bring to the table. Patrons aren't a huge problem vs Azure+Holy Nova/Smite, Lightbombs, or Corruptors. The deck does really well vs aggro of all kinds, though, in my experience.


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