Preview
In this cold October month I defended Reno Priest as one of the underdogs of the format. And since that was the case I decided to tryhard a little bit and bring my approach to Reno Priest deckbuilding. First thing first. Here is a proof of Legend rank on EU server
http://imgur.com/gallery/IF9CHsY
Now let's move on to the mindset behind the deck. The spine of the deck is still the same. Raza, Shadowreaper,Reno,Kazakus and Spawn of Shadows. Abracadabra and you have core of Reno Priest. However, in Uldum Priest received Zeprhys which pushed his powerlevel quite a lot. As you wouldn't be pretty functional with spine only,you need other important parts of the skeleton=Same as this deck. The deck is a modification of my old Legendary build which I was playing back in the day.
After rebuilding and figuring out the new Legend worthy build,this is the final result
Winconditions and Explanations
There are 3 winconditions for this Control Combo varriant:
1 is exhaustion of opponent. That usually happens against matchups like Secret Mage or Mechapaladin. In this case you just act as Control deck with ton of removal and 3 waves of healing(Thalnos+Spirit Lash,Priest of the Feast+Cheap spells,Reno the Jackson). Kazakus and Zephrys are good as always either it be for heal,clear,tempo,draw. The cards are insane
2 is OTK. That happens against matchups like Even Shaman,Odd Rogue,Mechathun,Shudderwock Shamans or Reno decks sometimes.(Or SNIPlock as well sometimes) There your Spawn of Shadows and Raza cards are crucial. Even though there are some cases where you can still deal 30 damage without discounted Shadowreaper heropower.
3rd is Outvaluing+Outempoing. This usually happens against Reno decks,Jade Druids,Odd Warriors,DMH Warriors. That's where Benedictus shines. His Battlecry puts you into better position in fatique and gives you way more gas. Then you just switch to a Control Reno Priest with discounted Hero Power,removals and whatever your opponent has in their decks(bonus points to you if you activated Kazakus and Zephrys for something juicy as well). Brann+ Benedictus is also game winning in some cases. Against the decks like Mill Rogue or DMH Warrior you are absolutely negating their game winning strategy
Which cards are important in order to make this deck work?
The most important ones are Raza,Spawn, Shadowreaper,Reno,Kazakus and Zephrys. Those should be the core even for a non OTK varriants.
Then of course Priest boardclears. Psychic Scream is insane. Mass Hysteria is crazy good. Dragonfire Potion makes Odd Rogue and Secret Mages cry. Mass Disspell destroys Mech decks dreams and destroys non OTK SNIPlock boards as well.
Then there are some clearly underrated cards which are just surprisingly good:
Twilights Call= acts as an amazingly vertisale tool,which gives you either coin,clears or draw card. In terms of usage this can be described as slightly worse Shadow Visions
Mirage Caller= An amazing card. Copies aura effects, deathrattle,Thaurissan,Spawn of Shadows. Basically a card with great opportunities to use.
Priest of the Feast= This is your Reno number 2. Soft Taunt. Good stats. Amazing effect. In this particular build puts Zilliax in shame.
Arcbishop Benedictus= This is your chance to combat a lot of matchups that you have no business winning: Odd Warrior. Jade Druid,Mill decks. Reno decks which think they are safe when they Rated your Spawn of Shadows. This is an incredible Priest legendary.
Dirty Rat= Is your Togwaggle Druid drawing to their combo faster? Is Mechathun Opponent bming you turn before playing his combo? Don't you worry. You have this little fella to shatter their dreams. Dirty Rat= one of the best hate cards in the game since Gadzetzan.
How is this doing against SN1Plock
It all depends on RNG draws. You have a ton of card draw here. You have a removal that clears his board. You have OTK. You have Psychic Scream to slown down his Mechathun. You have Potion of Madness etc to combat his early mechs. However it's SN1Plock which can just steal games. At the end of the day it all depends on you and your opponent how well you play and how "skillfully" you will draw. This deck definitely has a punching force.
Conclusion
Reno Priest/Razakus is a blast to play. The fact that it's so rewarding when it's played correctly puts it into one of my most favourite Reno decks. This Control Combo build might be a little trickier to play at first, but it definitely feels rewarding and interesting to do so. I wouldn't recommend this version for a people who are not familiar with a Reno Priest,but for the ones who have some experience already: feel free to it and tell me about your results :)
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Comments
I've been tweaking with Reno Priest for a while now. Have you ever considered running the old quest? You already have a lot of deathrattles, and Amara is a great survivability tool. It makes the early game a little weaker, but you add the N'Zoth win condition.
Amara Nzoth Reno Priest is a good deck,however it is weaker than Combo Control varriation because of the aggro matchups. About the question if I considered adding Amara Quest and N'Zoth into this deck my answer is: Never. Amara Quest takes up 1 spot in a mulligan which is quite important due to faster matchups and if you mulligan it away you have a dead draw in the future. In addition to that you have no way to complete the quest reliably without Nzoth outside of 4 Deathrattle minions,twilight call and second copy of tqilight call from shadow visions. So the quest reward itself is pretty hard to archieve. Running Nzoth as lategame bomb in this particular build is suicidal. By looking at which minions you summon with him you will get a pretty clear picture: Hes not worth the spot in the deck.
I see your point. I'll try your deck on ladder today. Probably gonna add Madame Lazul, since I love that card. Thanks.
Any suggestions Vs renowock? Against aggro you survive, against fatigue you use Benedict, if you can't pull a combo with dirty rat then you can't do 30 damage in a turn
I havent quite understood your statements about this deck not being able to deal 30 damage since it's one of the winconditions of the deck. Oh well. Let's move to the Renowock matchup.
Against Renowock you're aiming for OTK. Shadow Visions are often used for Psychic Scream since the more minions you shuffe into his deck,the less are the chances that he plays his Shudderwock combo. The Spawn OTK is reliable wincondition. It's the race who gets the combo first. You should be able to do it first since card draw and Psychic Scream. Also not only Arcbishop is the wincondition. The Spawn is tireggered trough cheap token generated spells like Coins or 1 mana Kazakus potions or trough cheap spells in the deck
Thanks for the response, I get that you can OTK with this deck, but to do it requires to have at least 6 health more (thinking you have spawn, a clone, then HP face 3 times for 30 damage to them, taking 24 damage in the process) meaning it's a several turn set up to make sure the enemy hasnt taken you below 24 health. I've only started playing renopriest over the last month though so maybe it's just familiarity and getting used to small decisions. As you need this health for the OTK the old quest (as in munchausen's message) sounds like it'd work well.
No problem).The OTK part is pretty tricky but reliably archievable. You will get used to it)
About the Amara quest itself I will quote my response from above and add second point:
1. Amara Quest takes up 1 spot in a mulligan which is quite important due to faster matchups and if you mulligan it away you have a dead draw in the future. In addition to that you have no way to complete the quest reliably without Nzoth outside of 4 Deathrattle minions,twilight call and second copy of twilight call from shadow visions. So the quest reward itself is pretty hard to archieve.
2. Without the Amara you have already 3 big heal effects in form of Thalnos+Spirit Lash,Priest of the Feast+Cheap spells and Reno the Jackson. In addition to that you have small healing waves from Zephrys and Kazakus as well,espeacially when paired with Brann.
As I said in my conclusion. This deck is even harder to play than usual Reno Priest but even more rewarding due to the fact that you have outs against every matchup. ^^