The Comprehensive March of the Lich King Preview

 

Data Reaper Report - Priest

Undying Allies

Undying Allies

This spell works on every undead minion you play this turn, so you could theoretically play Undying Allies and then flood the board with them, giving you a lot of value from a 0-mana spell. However, when looking into the rest of Priest’s undead synergy, it seems like the class is not highly encouraged to run a high density of undeads. In fact, a more curated package is likely to perform better. With how mediocre the neutral undead pool is, and the small upside of Undying Allies on a single minion or two, we likely pass.

Score: 1

Crystalsmith Cultist

Crystalsmith Cultist

This is a 1 mana 2/3 if you have a Shadow spell in hand. It has the potential to be one of the strongest 1-drops in the format, but the condition is not easy to meet. An aggressive Shadow Priest deck is not exactly filled to the brim with spells, as it is important to run a lot of threats and flood the board to take advantage of Voidtouched Attendant. So, Cultist is not going to be 100% consistent, but it is going to be a very good card for the deck. One last hurrah of Darkbishop Benedictus could be in the cards before it rotates.

Score: 3

Mind Eater

Mind Eater

Though this is a cheap undead, we don’t think it is good enough to run in an aggressive Priest deck. It’s a vanilla 2 mana 3/2 with a deathrattle that’s not too likely to give you useful value, especially in slow matchups. Mind Eater could be in Thief or Quest Priest. This is likely a good 2-drop for quest progression in the early game, and fits Thief Priest’s general game plan of stealing as many cards as possible from the opponent. However, we question these decks’ ability to compete in an increasingly powerful format, so Mind Eater is likely to be a fringe card.

Score: 2

Animate Dead

Animate Dead

This card is insane, and it’s not too difficult to understand why. If you’re playing an aggressive Priest deck, Animate Dead re-summons one of the 1-drops you actively chose to include in your deck. For example, it resurrects Irondeep Trogg or a Voidtouched Attendant. In a stronger scenario it summons a bigger body, perhaps one of your 3-drops. The point is that the floor of this card is already extremely good.

And then there might be other decks that focus on exclusively resurrecting threatening 3-drops, such as Scourge Rager. Animate Dead could make such Priest decks possible. It is an incredibly versatile card and the strongest build-around in the Priest set.

Score: 4

Bonecaller

Bonecaller

Speaking of Scourge Rager, now isn’t this the perfect card for it? Bonecaller is a 2/4 taunt with a highly valued deathrattle that can be directed to specifically resurrect powerful undead minions. If Bonecaller resurrects a 3-drop, then it is easily worth the cost. You can think of it as a reverse Psychopomp, which had far worse stats but resurrected on a battlecry while giving it reborn. Bonecaller makes Priest more selective of the undead minions it wants to run and could be an important mid-game card for both Shadow Priest and an Animate Dead Resurrection archetype.

Score: 3

Shadow Word: Undeath

Shadow Word: Undeath

If this spell meets its condition, it turns into a Chaos Nova that hits face. This is a legitimate nuke for Priest decks carrying undead synergy that also clears the board, making it highly valuable in faster matchups. It completely outclasses Void Shard in Shadow Priest and should be a staple for an undead resurrection archetype. It might be a little tricky to activate it at times, but we think Priest can improve its consistency with some clever card choices. We’re not sure it’s good enough to encourage some utilization of the undead tribe in slower Priest archetypes, since Clean the Scene is already so good.

Score: 3

Haunting Nightmare

Haunting Nightmare

This is a difficult card to evaluate, partly because it introduces a new mechanic but we think it has potential. If this was a 3/3 that summoned another 3/3 on a deathrattle, then everyone would agree that it would be very good. That’s a lot of stats on a 3-drop. Instead, the 2nd 3/3 is attached to a card in your hand, and when you play that card, the 3/3 is summoned. So basically, this is a 3/3 that summons a 3/3 as a delayed deathrattle. That delay shouldn’t be long in an aggressive deck with a lot of cheap cards. If the delay takes one turn, then this is a bit worse than a card that everyone would have agreed was very good.

There might be better 3-drops to resurrect, but this is a solid one.

Score: 2

Grave Digging

Grave Digging

A 1 mana spell that draws 2 cards in activated form is very strong. Every deck with undead synergies is going to run this card. Even decks that don’t have high density of the tribe should be able to utilize it well enough, and it might encourage the utilization of the tribe in slower Priest decks too. It’s a good glue card for the consistency of multiple possible archetypes and we’re quite happy that card draw in Undead Priest was not forgotten like it was for Enrage Warrior in Castle Nathria.

Score: 3

High Cultist Basaleph

High Cultist Basaleph

This card seems like it encourages a flooding undead Priest archetype, and it’s certainly theoretically strong in that scenario. But it doesn’t need that to be good. It’s enough for this card to resurrect a single valuable undead 3-drop to present good stats for its cost, and once you resurrect a couple of minions, it becomes a very powerful play.

Picture this situation. We play Scourge Rager on turn 4 alongside Animate Dead. Our opponent clears all the Ragers. We play Basaleph the next turn and it summons three Scourge Ragers. Our opponent mimics Scourge Rager’s battlecry and dies.

This is the best-case early scenario, but it shows that Basaleph has a lot of potential.

Score: 3

Sister Svalna

Sister Svalna

Svalna provides you with a permanent card in your hand that costs 3 mana and discovers a Shadow spell. You can play this card multiple times a turn, as it never goes away. The potential value of Vision of Darkness is infinite, but it’s clearly very slow. We normally don’t want to spend more than 1-2 mana on such an effect, even in the slowest Priest decks. While it is a nice value card for an extremely grindy Control Priest deck, it needs to enable something more dramatic to see more than some fringe play.

And it can. Thanks to Radiant Elemental and Animate Dead, we can potentially APM our way into an OTK or infinite value that can come down as early as turn 7. This potential deck carries some serious deckbuilding flaws that may end up being too great to overcome, but its win condition has serious promise.

So, either Svalna is just a good card in slow Priest archetypes, or it’s the hottest new win condition.

Score: 4

 

Final Thoughts

March of the Lich King Set Rank: 6th

Overall Power Ranking: 7th

Priest is as confusing as ever. You look at its set initially and it’s a bit odd. What is Priest supposed to do with these new cards? There isn’t anything that immediately strikes us as something that could support a Control Priest shell, such as Thief or Quest Priest, or the established faster and very successful decks of Bless and Naga Priest that not many care to play. We’ll try to provide some clarity.

The most obvious archetype being supported here is Shadow Priest. The Stormwind menace could return for a final showdown thanks to some impactful additions that could add to its longevity. An undead package is highly likely. It could be large, or more curated just to abuse Bonecaller as well as take advantage of Grave Digging and Shadow Word: Undeath.

The other theme in the Priest set is of resurrection, but of cheaper minions rather than the “Big Priest” we’re familiar with. The question is what do we want to resurrect with Animate Dead? Well, there’s a harmless looking neutral in the set called Scourge Rager, and this bad boy is a 3 mana 5/4 with reborn that doesn’t kill itself when it’s resurrected. There are other good candidates, such as Shadowed Spirit in combination with Amulet of Undying, High Cultist Basaleph and Xyrella the Devout, to stack more and more of its deathrattle until the opponent suffocates. There’s a lot of very subtle potential here.

But there’s more crazy stuff out there if you’re into infinite value. Radiant Elementals in combination with Sister Svalna can lead to a situation where you can have three Radiant Elementals on the board and a 0-mana, permanently present Vision of Darkness. You could add a Psyfiend to the equation to OTK the opponent, but we don’t believe this is necessary and could just end up… killing yourself.

The idea is to discover as many Shadow spells as possible in the allotted time, clear your opponent’s board, heal yourself, generate value (these options all exist in the Shadow spell pool) but most importantly, find at least three copies of Animate Dead. That means you can do it all over again the next turn!

Indeed, Priests frustrating their opponents into concessions by discovering infinite cards forever is the hacked version of Barrens Control Priest with an APM twist. If you’re into that sadistic playstyle, it might be back on the menu.