Sentry
A 2 mana 2/2 with lifesteal is not a playable constructed 2-drop. The healing isn’t particularly meaningful in the early game, while the card has no immediate impact on the board. When you compare it to Thornveil Tentacle, Sentry is clearing lacking.
Does the ability to discount Protoss redeem the card? It would if the payoff was powerful, but we just don’t think it is.
Score: 1
Hallucination
There are four Protoss minions available to Priest. Sentry doesn’t seem like a good target for Hallucination, as the deathrattle isn’t worth a 1-mana investment. Copying a Void Ray seems like a decent way to swing the board, but it is reliant on a full discount to copy the buffed stats. Mothership is clearly the main target for Hallucination, but this play also requires a huge discount to execute at an early enough stage of the game.
The final, more subtle way to use Hallucination is with summoned Zealots. A 1 mana charge minion is nice, but the Protoss package doesn’t promote aggression to the point a 1 mana spell that deals 3 damage is particularly valuable.
Ultimately, this card is dependent on Mothership’s competitive chances, so it doesn’t look good.
Score: 1
Mothership
Priest’s late game Protoss minion is a bundle of value. It generates 4 random minions, which could be Protoss from any class. These Protoss minions will benefit from your discount cards, so every Protoss discount is worth five total mana for a single Mothership.
That doesn’t sound bad in theory, but we’re talking about a scenario in which we’ve dropped Mothership, without thinking about when that can realistically happen. Mothership costs 12 mana, which means it is slower than Druid’s Carrier when considering the tools available to accelerate it. It is extremely dependent on Warp Gate, but Warp Gate does not discount the generated Protoss minions.
And while Carrier’s impact on the board is immediate, Mothership is less reliable. The vulnerability to single target removal, as well as the weakness of current Control Priest shells, make us very skeptical of this card’s competitive impact in the immediate term. If rotation ushers in a format of value and grindy decks, Mothership has a much better chance.
Score: 1
Final Thoughts: The most likely scenario for the class after the mini-set is that we’ll keep talking about how good Zarimi Priest is and you’ll keep ignoring us.
