Avalon's 12 Wins Dragon Priest

Hearthstone Duels Choices

Hero

Hero Power

Treasure

I was having a really bad day at Hearthstone: doesn't matter what I played, I always ended up with terrible results, and my self-esteem was quite tanking. Not having offered any of my 'comfort classes' in the initial pick, I decided to give karasawa1600's 12 Wins Dragon Priest a shot. I do not own Midnight Drake, so I opted for Twilight Acolyte.

What's funny is that this run was a 1-2 due to terrible matchups (another Dragon Priest that beat me in fatigue for 1 Health total and the usual Mind Tether Priest), but I started clapping everyone after getting at a higher health total, as well as receiving Battle Totem.

Passive Treasures Chosen

First pool - Dragon Affinity

Second pool - Battle Totem

Deck Overview

Strong effects and big bodies. That's the recipe for your wins. Dragon Priest is not the fastest decks out there, but if you manage to get some breathing room, then chances are you're gonna overwhelm your opponents and eventually grind them to dust, which is such a satisfying feeling for those who like these kind of games.

While this starting deck is obviously Dragon-centered, there are some other tools to help you against the Duels meta:

• Cult Neophyte and Loatheb are good against the multitude of spell-based decks out there.
• [Hearthstone Card (Animate Broomstick) Not Found] speeds up your slow bodies a little bit, providing you more proactivity.
• Mankrik is never going to be bad in a game mode with short decks.

Mulligan Tips

Always Keep - Faerie Dragon and Cult Neophyte (cheap and annoying units).

Possible Keeps - Duskbreaker (Lord Barov for Priest: must keep against Aggro), Netherspite Historian (if you already have a 2/3 Cost Dragon in hand).

Playstyle Tips

Overdraw - Do not be afraid to overdraw: the value you're able to generate is so big that it doesn't really matter if you cannot squeeze out every single drop of resource you can from your generations tool. Sure, milling good units like Alexstrasza the Life-Binder, Herald of the Scaled Ones and Duskbreaker hurts, but it's not the end of the world. Therefore, greed is not always the move.

Lady Prestor - I was surprised to notice that it was actually a good card in this deck. It helped me close the game in more than one occasion, and I can see myself running it again in the future.

Duskbreaker - My dear is as nutty as it was a couple years ago, when it was still in Standard. Get as many copies of it as you can.

Draconic Studies - Keeping it in the mulligan is an absolute bait. Unless you already have Dragon Affinity, Dragons are usually high-costed, and therefore you'll almost always get nothing playable out of it: better mulligan it for something actually playable and impactful.

Hero Power, Signature Treasure and Active & Passive Treasures

Everyone's mad at Mind Tether for being an overpowered Hero Power, but I think Shadow Mend is the real deal. You basically get rewarded with card draw for healing yourself (and you heal more than Lesser Heal allows you to), which also discourages attrition opponents to deliver chip damage to your face. I suspect that when Miracle Priest will get toned down once again, Shadow Mend will become the undisputed Hero Power pick for the class.

This Signature Treasure fills up your hand a little bit in the early matches, and gives you a chance to win the attrition game you might be facing in that moment. However, after a few games the value generation it provides is just obscene. You'll almost always get good stuff, and chances are you'll also receive Deathwing, Dragonlord, which represents an absurd board swing effect in case your opponent is short on options.

Being able to play your Dragons 2 turns earlier than usual does make the difference, trust me. Not a mandatory Passive for a good Dragon Priest run, but it certainly helps a damn lot.

The sheer amount of value this Passive gives you in a Dragon deck is borderline obscene. I don't want to list what every single double Battlecry means, but I'll just remember a few impactful ones:

• Alexstrasza the Life-Binder becomes a 16 damage burst card.
• Twilight Drake becomes a huge meat wall, even if you don't have a large hand.
• Herald of the Scaled Ones will almost always fill your hand with powerful units.

If this is not your first time reading my Duels guides, you might know that Loyal Henchman is like a brother to me. Always good to have him by your side, doesn't matter what you're playing.

Dragons are usually high-costed, so an Evolve on steroids after some clever value trades saved me from a couple of difficult situations. Not exactly the most synergistic Active Treasure you can get offered, but a welcome one.

Reverse [Hearthstone Card (Shadow word:void) Not Found] in a deck that wants to go to the distance. Landing it on a 5 Health unit is good enough, and from that point it becomes outright nutty. Solid, especially in the early games, when the life total is pretty low and you can be OTKed with relative ease.

At this point I already had Battle Totem secured, so I thought that Blade of the Burning Sun would've made a cute combination with it. However, I have to be honest and say that it was always a win-more Treasure, with very fringe use.

Final Observations

The first few matches may be quite difficult, since you have a little deck and not much health to work with, but if you manage to survive your first opponents then you'll be the one dictating the game's pace.