Wild Reno Priest

Heya,

With the coming of Zephrys the Great, I was thinking of playing some variant of Reno Priest in wild. This would involve crafting some key legendaries including Raza the Chained and Kazakus. I understand Razakus Priest isn't what it once was, but could it still be a tier 2/3 deck?

Thanks y'all.

Hard to predict, in the same way it was hard to predict that Reno decks would have been pushed to bottom tiers in Wild.

If things won't change, if Wild meta keeps being squeezed between Aggro/Tempo and Midrange/OTK, i think the old Reno decks are bound to stay marginal.

However, with Zephrys the Great, and Kazakus for Kabalists, we could finally conceive Highlander decks as something that is not constricted to the Control archetype.

Reno has always warped Highlander towards a slow style, because basically all he does is delaying the game (and that used to be enough in the past, not now) but that is not necessarily the case anymore: what if Zephrys could finally seal the availability of Tempo or Midrange for the Highlander scheme? Maybe not for all classes, but some?

Afterall, both Zephrys and Kazakus provide versatile Tempo swings. That's not necessarily a Control thing. The only game delayer is/was Reno. But he's not the Highlander definer anymore...

You can see my version of RenoPriest

It should still be around tier 3ish if piloted well enough. It's just that little to no people play it anymore so there's not a whole lot of data on it. 

Edit: Oh and it looks like even shaman might be getting some buffs. Reno priest has always been a good counter against even shaman so that might help as well.

Obviously it's still sad that Raza was nerfed but if he's played AFTER the Priest hero power is upgraded he still reduces the cost to 1.  Food for thought for the new quest.

It's ok but not great. Still really good fun, though.

Quote From RavenSunHS

availability of Tempo or Midrange for the Highlander scheme

Highlander decks have always been control/combo archetype because an aggro/midrange deck want first of all consistency and a singleton deck provide the opposite. Actually the only 3 cards that have enough value to justify a 1x deck are Reno Jackson, Kazakus and now Zephrys the Great and the two older ones are pure value card that are terrible tempo playes.

Quote From Lightspoon

 Kazakus and now Zephrys the Great and the two older ones are pure value card that are terrible tempo playes.

I disagree with this. Kazakus is an immediate Tempo loss, but overall he provides a huge Tempo swing in the form of the potion (including face damage).

The only pure value card there is Reno, hence my point.

But i agree about your consistency point for Tempo/Midrange. The hope is that Wild growing larger + more Swing Highlanders (like Zephrys the Great) may actually make the whole thing real. Like, not top tier, but viable.

If that's wrong, then Highlander decks can only really hope in a huge meta revolution (ie. the wipeout of BP, QMage, Secret Mage), external factors that are honestly unlikely.

Quote From JawsLoanCompany

Obviously it's still sad that Raza was nerfed but if he's played AFTER the Priest hero power is upgraded he still reduces the cost to 1.  Food for thought for the new quest.

I'm pretty sure it doesn't matter if Raza is played before or after the quest is competed. He just sets the cost of your hero power to 1, and that didn't change if Anduin was played afterwards

I play something really greedy with Awaken the Makers quest/reno/razakus. Also Elysiana and Saraad for more value

i think in wild renolock is by far the best highlander deck 

if u want to craft best highlander deck i suggest do it with warlock

if u dont care about the power level reno priest is fine too

Thanks to all for their feedback, and to RavenSun for the detailed analysis. I think I will go ahead with the deck, win rate be damned :)

I'm also looking at Activate the Obelisk for an alternative to Shadowreaper Anduin's hero power. Might it improve Reno Priest's mid-game?

The viability of Raza the Chained over Inkmaster Solia and Krul the Unshackled does lead me wonder to if we would be better off with highlander class cards that provided ongoing value rather than a one-time (and highly conditional) swing. If so, then Sir Finley of the Sands would have the most potential among the new highlander class cards.

Shaman and mage are the two big expectations of wild, other than a good number of trolls playing mill decks on opening day of the expansion.

Slower shaman decks are prepared for Big Priest (and so might be murloc ones), and 9 out of 10 mages will be Un'Goro Quest, which puts any deck on the clock.

Keep that in mind and good luck. I dusted Raza a long time ago for the full refund, but the idea of a 1-mana buff has its appeal.

/I'm wondering if a Reno Big Spell Mage can exist, with Chef Nomi as the final card.

//Big Priest will probably try to squeeze Colossus of the Moon in

Quote From Stile

 If so, then Sir Finley of the Sands would have the most potential among the new highlander class cards.

 

Again, it depends on the gameplan.

If you go for Midrange, Dinotamer Brann is far superior to Finley, who can only provide some HP-based survival/delay, waiting for a better wincondition to be drawn (ie Combo/OTK).

Ideally, one could even conceive an Aggro Highlander Paladin (considering Hunter, Rogue or Paladin upgrades), but in that role Baku is just immensely more reliable than Finley, especially considering the arsenal of game-warping synergies of Paladin with Dudes.

Quote From Stile

Thanks to all for their feedback, and to RavenSun for the detailed analysis. I think I will go ahead with the deck, win rate be damned :)

I'm also looking at Activate the Obelisk for an alternative to Shadowreaper Anduin's hero power. Might it improve Reno Priest's mid-game?

Reno priest is a combo deck more than anything. It looks to survive against aggro decks thanks to its healing spells, hero power, board clears and Reno Jackson. It looks to cycle through its deck as fast as possible in slower matchups to get to its combo pieces.

Activate the Obelisk has no place in a combo deck as the few minions that it runs either serve as card draw or survival.

Quote From ShotgunSoul

//Big Priest will probably try to squeeze Colossus of the Moon in

No.

My reno priest deck uses dragons to keep pressure on other control decks and keep agro at bay. When surviving long enough you'll burst your opponent down from around 21/23 health (depending on your setup etc) the best thing is that you have a "backup" of burst damage whenever one of your pieces isn't there/triggered. 

I have no idea how competitive it currently is. I have reached r5 a couple of months ago but that was before the last expansion if I'm not mistaken.

Just focusing on draw doesn't work anymore I think because you can't do an otk ... 

Quote From Stile

Heya,

With the coming of Zephrys the Great, I was thinking of playing some variant of Reno Priest in wild. This would involve crafting some key legendaries including Raza the Chained and Kazakus. I understand Razakus Priest isn't what it once was, but could it still be a tier 2/3 deck?

Thanks y'all.

This is wild, everything is playable.

Kazakus is a very good card in the right meta, and all 3 renozakus deck are almost always playable to some degree. Think that if you craft Kazakus and you own Reno Jackson, Kazakus open to you both Renolock and Renomage.
Raza is very good either alone, with the death knight or with the new quest (if the new quest will be good, it's a matter we can't know yet).

However, the meta is more diverse then people think, in wild you can play and have fun with almost anything, unless until you are at a very high rank.

Raza'a effect actually attaches to the player, not the hero power. It should stay at 1 mana even after it upgrades or changes completely.