The Current State of: Priest

Prior to Whispers of the Old Gods, Priest was a great deck, especially in control. The late game, fatigue friendly play was not only very strong, but was frequently seen in both ladder and tournament format. It was effective and a highly skillful deck. So what went wrong?

How do you Win?

One of the biggest issues with Priest right now is the current state of how ‘control’ decks are defined. Before the expansion, Priests used to be able to shred through their opponents cards, spells and minions with no problem, healing and using their own tools to maintain control of the game with ease. Now, however, most decks that are classified as ‘control’ include heavy late game win condition, such as N’Zoth or C’Thun. These, successful or not, typically result in a game ending from either its success or its failure. The problem is that these threats usually come down long before fatigue is in sight.

Losing is too Easy

I mean, it is. The Meta is inherently Aggro/Midrange dominated right now, and seeing as how much of Priest’s old win condition was cycling through your opponent’s entire deck towards fatigue, this makes playing against aggro incredibly difficult. Have you ever played against a Midrange Shaman who went through every card in his deck? If so, you didn’t have a good time.

The sad truth is, losing is too easy. With so many greedy late game powerhouses involved, and not enough early game, you’ll either lose to Aggro decks, or lose against a N’Zoth or C’Thun push in the late game anyways. Attempts have been made to incorporate N’Zoth or C’Thun into Priest decks, but the synergy is simply better with other classes. Don’t misinterpret this, however. Cards like Entomb should still be watched out for, and can do damage to a N’Zoth deck. I’m not saying its impossible to lose against a Priest – I’m saying it’s certainly not top tier right now.

What do you all think? Be sure to let us know in the comments below! Priest is certainly not top tier, but people like Ben Brode have hinted that they think there are some Priest decks that are strong in the Meta right now, we just haven’t discovered them yet. Most of the top tier decks since the Old Gods released were played within the first week of the expansion. Is it about time we find something new?