Tempo Silence Priest

Wild Hearthstone has thousands of cards, and a wide variety of possible decks. This incredible deck diversity is sometimes lost when only looking at the few decks common in the highest ranks. Wildest of Wednesdays is a series aiming to highlight a different off meta deck each week with an in depth guide into its strategy and gameplay. The decks are selected for having interesting synergies and using rarely seen cards.

Do you have Najak Hexxen sitting in your collection ever since the latest expansion? One deck that can make full use of his effect, where he actually feels really powerful, is Tempo Silence Priest. This is a tempo version of Silence Priest, aiming to win on turns 6-8. The goal is to develop a large board of overstatted can't attack minions early in the game, silence them so they can attack, and go face and win early. If that doesn't work, you have a lategame with Lady Prestor where your can't attack minions in the deck will instead be dragons. They will still have great stats for the cost like a 2 mana 4/5 or 4 mana 7/7 but will now have useful dragon text instead of can't attack. You can even silence these dragons if you have a dragon like Deathwing to boost its stats up to 12/12. Overall, Silence Priest is a unique Priest archetype with a tempo gameplan that makes great use of rarely seen cards like Najak Hexxen (where along with Silence he is a 4 mana Mind Control) and Lady Prestor.

Now, let's get into a guide on playing the deck. It's going to go through major overarching strategies to keep in mind, how to mulligan, gameplay tips on key synergies, and card choices.

Strategies

You will first play some minions that have good stats for the cost, with the downside that they can't attack. Then you silence them to remove this downside and attack with them to dominate the early game. For the late game, you have Taelan Fordring which can tutor out Lady Prestor which removes this can't attack downside from your entire deck, and instead replaces it with powerful dragon battlecries and other useful text.

Silence Tempo - You have a lot of minions costing 2, 3, and 4 that have significantly above average stats for that cost - for example, a 2 mana 4/5, 3 mana 4/8, 3 mana 5/6s, and a 4 mana 7/7. Their downside is that they can't attack, but that's why the deck runs silence cards. By silencing those minions, they are now able to attack and use their stat advantage to dominate the early game board and push for a quick victory. Loatheb helps block board clears on turn 5 to give your minions an extra turn to push damage. Najak Hexxen along with a silence effect helps you control the board by stealing an enemy minion.

Dragon Endgame - If your early game offensive has stalled and you have reached turn 6, you may have drawn either Lady Prestor or Taelan Fordring. Taelan can tutor out Lady Prestor if you haven't drawn her. Playing Lady Prestor improves your deck by quite a bit, as your minions still have great statlines (such as a 5/6 for 3 mana) but now instead of not being able to attack, they will have some text from a dragon. As a bonus, you may even generate Kazakusan, and if you do he will be able to activate since all minions in your deck will be dragons. You can use your silence effects on the dragons to potentially boost their stats - if you have a former 4/5 Ancient Watcher minion that is now a 4/5 Deathwing, you can silence it to boost its stats to 12/12, potentially dealing 12 damage with Whispers of the Deep.

Tempo Silence Priest's twin strategies of massive stats for low cost plus a Lady Prestor dragon endgame allow it to have both an aggressive opener and lategame value.

Mulligans

• You want to keep 2 or 3 minions that usually can't attack but have large stats, and balance that with keeping 1 or 2 spells or minions that silence.

Gameplay

The key to playing this deck well is to balance trading and keeping board control with being aggressive pushing face damage.

Below are gameplay tips regarding many of the synergies in this deck and how to use them effectively.

Some of your silence cards only affect one minion (Azsharan Ritual, Whispers of the Deep, Purify, and Unsleeping Soul) while others affect two (Dalaran Librarian) or your entire board (Smothering Starfish). Try to plan your turns based on your hand to use your silences efficiently so that you have enough to silence your entire board.

Sometimes, if your hand is low on silences, you may want to miss one attack but ensure that you will be able to silence more minions. For example, you may want to play an additional can't attack minion on turn 4 and then silence your entire board turn 5 with a Smothering Starfish instead of playing Smothering Starfish turn 4 if you see that you don't have any other silences in hand.

Out of all the can't attack minions, there is one that can sometimes attack and you should look out for it. Eerie Statue can attack if it's the only minion on the board. This doesn't happen often, but especially against spell based control and combo decks that don't play many of their own minions you may be able to have it attack without having to silence it.

Be aware that Azsharan Ritual and Smothering Starfish can be used on enemy minions as well. This can be very useful to get through Taunts or summon a large minion with Ritual.

Power Word: Shield provides a health buff that may be removed by further silences. Therefore, make sure you don't target minions that have this buff with Dalaran Librarians, and try to use those buffs after a Smothering Starfish full board silence if possible.

Gift of the Naaru is great to heal your board after trades. Your minions should have larger stats than enemy minions in the early game and survive trades. After damaging them, healing them back up can solidify your board position.

Sometimes it's better to avoid trading and instead rush face with your big minions. Whether you should trade or go for a quick victory can depend on the board state and whether you have Gift of the Naaru or Loatheb in hand. If you have Loatheb, you're more likely to succeed in such a rushing attack.

You can use Najak Hexxen on an enemy minion to steal it, then silence Najak to avoid having to give it back. This is very powerful and like a cheap Mind Control that can get rid of Taunts in the way of lethal or generally steal a big minion for a massive tempo swing. You can use Najak on Rush or Charge minions and potentially trade whatever you steal into another enemy minion the turn you steal it. If you do this, you won't have to silence Najak.

Taelan Fordring will draw Lady Prestor from your deck. If you already have her, he will get Loatheb.

After Lady Prestor has been played, silence cards are still useful even though the dragons will be able to attack. Specifically, if you rolled into a big dragon like Deathwing but it's on one of your 2 mana 4/5 or 3 mana 5/6 minions, you can silence it to boost its stats from 4/5 to 12/12. This can be especially powerful with Whispers of the Deep as it will deal a lot of damage.

When you see that you have Lady Prestor in hand, you may want to save card draw (Purify, Power Word: Shield, and Gift of the Naaru) for after you have played her to be able to draw the dragons faster.

Card Choices

This section is going to go through the main packages of cards in the deck. Each package has cards that help the deck with a specific goal. When playing the deck, it's useful to know what purposes each card serves and what other cards in the deck have synergy with it or help achieve the same purpose. This section might also be useful if you're interested in the reasoning for why each card was included in the deck.

Big Minions Package

These minions have amazing stats for the cost but can't attack. Play them early and then silence them for a massive tempo boost.

Silence Package

Use these cards to silence the minions from your Big Minions package so they can attack.

Support Package

These cards support your gameplan in various ways. Power Word: Shield is great for giving a minion health and for card draw. Najak Hexxen lets you steal an enemy minion. Gift of the Naaru heals minions after trades and draws a card. 

Lady Prestor Package

Use Taelan Fordring to tutor Lady Prestor from your deck. She will turn your low cost, can’t attack minions with high stats into low cost minions with high stats that can attack and can have powerful dragon abilities. In addition, you can silence the dragons to get their full stats.

Lethal Package

Use Loatheb to prevent enemies from casting removal spells. Often you are close to lethal on turns 5 and 6 and he prevents major removal and ensures your victory.

Tempo Silence Priest is a deck where you will play big minions that can't attack early on, then silence them to be able to dominate the early game. In addition, it has a dragon endgame with Lady Prestor that is both powerful and adds replayability as it can be different each time. If you have a question or comment, or are wondering about a card substitution, post below.

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