The Comprehensive Saviors of Uldum Preview

Embalming Ritual

A neat little spell that would require other cards to carry it to playability, but this is potentially powerful with Wretched Reclaimer and can also be used as a cheap spell in a cycling Priest deck.

Score: 2

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Penance

A strictly better Drain Soul. This is just a strong card that most classes would love to have because it’s somewhat overtuned for its mana cost. Priest needs the help.

Score: 3

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Sandhoof Waterbearer

Upgraded Lightwell. Very good stats for its cost with an effect that can’t be ignored. Since aggressive decks cannot afford to leave it up, it’s essentially a taunt. While it’s a good minion on paper, it does need healing synergy to be worthwhile in a deck. If Quest Priest doesn’t take off, it may struggle to find a home, but it is a good card.

Score: 3

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Holy Ripple

Another nice spell that can be very powerful in the context of a Pyromancer/Cleric combo. It’s not as strong by itself, so we don’t think it’s as good as Spirit Lash, but it’s a nice addition to the kit. Anduin won’t complain.

Score: 3

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Grandmummy

A strong early game minion that’s very annoying to remove and can snowball early board control. Pushes for a more aggressive Priest deck that runs a bunch of 1-drops and looks to pressure through buffs. We’re not sure this card will be played immediately in Priest, but it would have been played immediately in many other classes.

Score: 3

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Wretched Reclaimer

Terrific card. Very good with reborn minions, both before and after they initially die. This card has the potential to push several archetypes of Priest. Aggressive decks that flood the board with sticky minions, and resurrecting decks that want to focus on multiplying a few big minions can make use of this card.

Score: 3

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Psychopomp

Can be easily abused to generate strong tempo plays. Much like Reclaimer, Psychopomp is a card that can work in different types of decks, though it generally wants to work with minions that don’t inherently have reborn. Resurrecting Priest decks in standard missed a card that can give them an earlier push.

Score: 3

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Plague of Death

A fair version of Psychic Scream. This is a pretty powerful board clear but one that is quite slow. Turn 9 might be too late to deal with some of the things we would like to clear with Plague of Death. Nevertheless, this card should always be a consideration if the meta is slow and silence effects are important.

Score: 2

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High Priest Amet

Another card that promotes something that Priest normally doesn’t do, which is flooding the board with small minions. We’re less interested in the OTK aspects of this card with Stonetusk Boar and Divine Spirit, since combos with the same number of cards and the same amount of mana are available today, and they’re not very good. We would have rated Amet higher if Confuse or Void Ripper were in the format, but right now Priest doesn’t have a way to leverage wide boards in the same way Druid, Shaman or Warlock can do.

Score: 2

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Activate the Obelisk

Restoring 15 health is a lot even if we take into consideration that we can heal our opponents. It requires us to build a deck with a lot of healing effects which we would be comfortable with if the reward was exceptional, but it’s not that great. A persistent 3/3 buff is weaker compared to other late-game plans that currently exist or could potentially exist in the future. It’s the type of incremental value that wouldn’t translate well into beating some of the strongest decks we see today. However, we do like the support cards it has received in the set and think there’s a chance it could find a way to abuse its hero power in a more intimidating fashion. We’re not writing it off as harshly as some of the other quests that look clearly bad.

Score: 2

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Final Thoughts

Saviors of Uldum Set Rank: 3^rd

Overall Power Ranking: 7^th

Priest needed a powerful set in order to rise from the dumpster it currently resides in. We think it did get one of the strongest sets in Uldum. Power level wise, Priest’s starting spot was far behind the other classes, so this set’s quality might not be enough to make a huge impact on the meta. However, it might be enough to lift the class back into competitive relevance.

Priest’s set looks very versatile, and many of its cards can support multiple strategies. Resurrecting Wall Priests, Healing Priests and even a new kind of aggressive Priests could enter the fray. We were optimistic about Priest before Rise of Shadows and have been burnt by it. We underestimated how terrible its foundation was when entering the Year of the Dragon, but this doesn’t stop us from remaining hopeful about the class’ prospects in Saviors of Uldum. It got some cool and new stuff to play with.