The full Forged in the Barrens set has been revealed and it's time to look at all the new cards and look at how Priest will be doing this expansion. We'll be breaking each of the Priest cards down,
- You can see all the new cards in our Forged in the Barrens.
- Our deckbuilder will let you theorycraft your own decks using the new cards before the expansion arrives.
- You can simulate pack openings in our Forged in the Barrens Pack Opening simulator.
- You can do your best Kazakus impression by trying out our Build-A-Golem Simulator.
Keep in mind that this is an early look at the class before we've been able to play with the new cards, so while we try to be as accurate as possible in our predictions of what is to come, no one can perfectly predict the Hearthstone meta.
Priest Deck Themes in Forged in the Barrens
We've got some great support for existing themes in the Priest class and we can look forward to more Shadow support in the future though it is notably absent from Forged in the Barrens despite Blizzard teasing us about it leading up to the expansion reveal.
- Healing - Xyrella, Priest of An'she, Lightshower Elemental, Desperate Prayer.
- Spells - Void Flayer, Soothsayer's Caravan, Power Word: Fortitude.
- Control - Serena Bloodfeather, Condemn (Rank 1), Lightshower Elemental, Void Flayer, Devouring Plague, Desperate Prayer.
- Minion Combat - Serena Bloodfeather, Power Word: Fortitude.
There are a lot of minion buffs in the mix, as I've said in my review of the Core set for Priest, the class can almost pass as Paladin, but the lack of dude-on-demand makes all the difference. Still, if you can stick a minion down, I guess a midrange Priest can work?
Xyrella
The Light, or the Shadow, that is the question.
A bit of a throwback to Auchenai Soulpriest, will work mostly in a similar fashion and while you can certainly combine it with your Hero Power, you might want to use cards like Flash Heal or Desperate Prayer to get off more damage. Having a Lifesteal minion would certainly help things as well.
Serena Bloodfeather
She will smooch you up, one peck at a time, just like your grandma.
A bit of a weird take on Priest's "steal minion stats" mechanic that we've seen few times in the past. You will always end up with a bigger minion, but will it provide a big enough tempo swing? I'm not entirely sure this card will be even worth a deck slot, but it could surprise us. At the very least, it is a playable card.
Priest of An'she
No light-weights allowed.
Now this card can be a huge power play, just a 5/5 Taunt for 5 is ok, and if you can activate it, it becomes a better Earth Elemental without Overload. Definitely a card I could see making it into several archetypes.
Condemn (Rank 1)
If you can't beat 'em, join 'em.
As far as board-clears go, this one is ok. Problem is, it scales way too slow to help you against early aggression, but with the sparsity of options at the start of Year of the Gryphon, you will be happy to have this in your deck.
Lightshower Elemental
This joke is just too easy, I will let you figure it out.
Another big Taunt with a pretty strong effect. Healing is never bad, and it can also heal your board, that sounds like a good deal. Decent body for the cost too. While 6 Mana is getting a bit too expensive, what it provides will still be worth it most of the time. Interesting card for Wild mode, might help you finish that quest on its own, or be resurrected a hundred times over.
Void Flayer
Donkey, is that you?
This is a card that I feel might push Spell Priest to become a thing. It will be about as annoying as Dark Skies and it comes in with a body. But chances are you might not get the full 9 damage, this card is a minion itself and you will probably want to run at least few other minions in the deck too, but even getting like 5-6 damage out of this is already a pretty good value because of the body and will not become a dead card as Dark Skies could. I guess a better comparison could be something like Dyn-o-matic.
Soothsayer's Caravan
Better be careful, she spits!
I personally hate this card because it is probably the reason why Thoughtsteal didn't make it into the Core set. Not only does the Caravan have to survive to give any value, but it can only get you spells. Yes, it could get more value over time, but be realistic. I would be surprised if the card even sees play to be quite honest. But it might find its place, at least initially, in a possible Spell Priest archetype; Or maybe later on, when/if new cards that would be worth focusing on the spell synergy would be introduced. Honestly, if the effect was end of turn instead, then it would actually be a decent contender, but as it stands, it just feels too weak.
Power Word: Fortitude
Read a book, it will last longer.
Another card that wants to be played in a Spell Priest archetype, and this time it is a spell itself, the buff is nice and all, but you would need to discount it by at least half to get it to a playable Mana Cost, and even then why not just play Power Infusion instead? In a spell-heavy deck, where you can lower the cost to 3 or less, it can be a really nice buff, but will you actually have a target to use it on? I have to see this card in action how it performs, but I think that it might be a dud for the Barrens launch. It could, however, become good with new cards introduced later in Year of the Gryphon.
Devouring Plague
Feeding time!
Four damage that can clear small things or one bigger thing, and heals you while doing that, which can also activate some nice synergies. A good card that will most likely find its home in the majority of Priest decks for a very long time.
Desperate Prayer
In Yogg we trust.
I think when we first saw this card, most of us just sighed really loud and were kinda annoyed with it, but now, I think it might actually see play. The reason is the 0-Cost heal, which can combo well with Xyrella, Priest of An'she and whatever else might come in the future. Spellburst synergy is also a no-brainer.
Theorycrafting Priest in Forged in the Barrens
I might be crazy, but could Aggro Priest finally work? Unnerfed 2/1 Leper Gnome, Shadowed Spirit and Rally! potential can make for a lot of face damage. I chose not to rely on that combination alone though, to keep a consistent value out of Rally! One more very good 3-drop is in the mix - Dragonmaw Overseer. Either you can Rally! a lot of face damage, or a decently sized board for just 4 Mana. Then there is the good ol' Knife Juggler who also got his nerf reverted, so as a 3/2, it will find its place into aggro decks once more. Bonus points for Rally! synergy. To tie up the Rally! shenanigans, one Thrive in the Shadows is thrown in to help you fish for the spell, since when you draw this one copy, only 3 unique spells are left in your deck at most.
The general theme of the deck is to just stick a minion on a board and keep buffing them. We have Power Word: Feast, Wriggling Horror, Dragonmaw Overseer, and I guess Dire Wolf Alpha does technically count as a buff too.
But there are a decent amount of face damage and cards with Oasis Thrasher and Knife Vendor further advancing that potential, while Maiev Shadowsong is just a really nice tool to have in general to let you go through a Taunt for a final push or just keep up the tempo by denying an enemy minion for 2 turns. Depending on the situation, Rally! can then serve as a means to get back to the board, or restock your Deathrattle minions after you suicide them in. Same goes for Raise Dead.
I can't say how good can this deck be, the obvious lack of card draw might be its main issue, as ever, but there is a decent amount of card generation/resurrection and if you can keep a minion alive, you might snowball hard with early buffs. We shall see how will it perform once the expansion launches. This deck might even make me play Ranked just so I can see if I did good or not, which is an achievement in itself! :)
Closing Thoughts on Priest in Forged in the Barrens
Priest will lose a lot of tools during the rotation, but it gains new ones, and it was always the problem, either there are too many, or too few, the balancing act is not easy. The Shadow theme is a bit underwhelming given how much it was hyped up, but with the introduction of Spell Schools and Blizzard stating we'd have to wait, there is a large window of opportunity to expand upon the archetype in the future, so we can't dismiss it quite yet.
Control Priest got hit hard, if your best board-clear options are Holy Nova or Baron Geddon, it is saying something, but there are still tools to make the deck work.
Midrange Priest got a lot of toys to play with, so that might be the most common direction for Priest in the next few months unless someone finds a broken combo with all the spell synergy woven into it.
Aggro Priest might actually be a reality now, but it will suffer from lack of card draw, like all the other Priest archetypes, because there simply are almost no cards that draw from your deck. Plenty that generate cards, but very few that draw.
I think when all is said and done, people might like where Priest will land in Forged in the Barrens, it isn't going to be the scourge of the ladder, but it will be playable enough for people to take it for a spin.
What do you think about Priest in Forged in the Barrens? Let us know in the comments below!
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Comments
Never dust a Golden Lightshower.
Priest is more than dead. I would never consider it playable. We were tenth place and we would be 11th if that was possible.
Priest got sent to the "card gen is bad, but you can't draw as well" Heaven because the 2 mana cicles we get are not going to be usable when other classes have 1 mana draw 4 or 0 mana draw 2.
Chakki being in the final design Team sucks because they keep adding this Priest Tax where cards in the class actually cost 1 extra and not 1 less like most other class cards and its getting stupid.
Why does Priest get the "2 card strong combos that don't give advantage without Draw" im 2021?
Hoping to stick one minion to the board and endlessly buffing it is something that Tempo/Aggro Priest already tries to do and they fail hard at it. Lack of draw is another issue that hasn't been addressed. Card generation doesn't work well for fast decks unless they work under a very synergistic archetype (Underbelly Angler, Librams). Priest only generates random stuff with no way to predict or control what gets added to hand. It works in Control Priest because they have time to figure out what to do with whatever garbage gets added to hand. Tempo/Aggro Priest doesn't have such a luxury. It needs to get on the board immediately and stick to it in order to get the buffs going. It lacks ways to get back on the board (Rally is the only thing available), it lacks ways to close out games, it lacks reliable reloading, it just lacks everything.
The only thing that Priest has going for it in this set is some sort of Spell Control archetype. But it no longer has the infinite potential of Galakrond to last throughout the game and they didn't really give the class any win conditions. That shadow archetype tease felt like a slap in the face. They added one source of direct damage and it was the worst possible one with a pathetic minor buff. They kept a terrible legendary in the core set. They took away several important tools and added a bunch of useless stuff. I don't have any hope for anything other than Control Priest going forward and even that is going to be lacking. My opinion is extremely negative but they didn't really give me any reason to believe in any of the changes they made. The legendaries from the set are decent, at least.
Nice druid article we have here 😋
Busted 😅
Cool review, just one thing about your deck, is it meant to be wild, because knife juggler and leper gnome are rotating
Well, that's embarrassing, I guess you can look at it as a Wild deck then, yes :/ 100% oversight on my part, sorry. I changed the name, given how I already talked about those cards rather than to replace them in the list.
I think the idea would still hold, Knife Juggler is nice, but losing Leper Gnomes would hurt more. I was also thinking adding Shadowform in there, might do just that now that 4 cards need to be cut :/ You would still want some 1-drops as replacements, so maybe Crimson Clergy for the stat-line and possible buffs, or even Reliquary of Souls.
I think it was just an oversight, making most of the theorycrafted deck unusable
I personally don't have much faith in Power Word: Fortitude. Realistically, I don't think there will be any deck that A) is able to consistently hold 5 or more spells in their hand to get a decent mana discount. B) is running enough minions in conjunction to all of the spells that they are able to consistently have a target for the buff. And C) is playing the kind of deck that actually wants a slightly above average buff. If you are holding onto enough spells that you are able to get this to the desired mana cost, then you are probably playing a slower grindy control deck and would rather play something else instead.
I don't play a lot of priest though so I could be wrong.