Aggro Zarimi Priest

Aggro Dragon Priest took me to Legend this month. It's a fun deck with more flexibility than it seems at first glance. I almost hesitate to call it "aggro" because it has ways to engineer wins if games go long, but it has the "perfect draw" blowout potential of an aggro deck, so I'm okay with it.

 

The Dream: Summon a wide board, double your turns, and double your beatdown.

 

Timewinder Zarimi is the typical kill card. Bonus turns have always been stupidly powerful, and this is no exception. Zarimi functions like Bloodlust, if you're familiar with Shaman play patterns, but has additional tricks. If you already have a board, that board can swing twice; if you don't, you can build one on your Zarimi turn and then swing with it in the bonus turn. Zarimi costs 5, which is not an overwhelming amount, and the curve of the deck is so low (and has 0-cost minion potential) that you can build a board on the same turn you drop Zarimi. This means that, for a minion-based deck with no Charge, this deck has surprising reach and can score some ambush kills.

Zilliax: with the Ticking and Pylon modules. This deck prefers wide boards over tall boards, which works great with the Ticking-Pylon combo: a wide board makes Zilliax cheap, and Zilliax then buffs the wide board. This is another key to making the deck's otherwise unthreatening minions lethal. Zilliax is a *great* target for duplicating with Power Word: Synchronize and Celestial Projectionist. Because you don't need to attack with him to benefit from him, you can drop him on your bonus turn to buff the board you built on the Zarimi turn. On rare occasions, you can attach a Magnetic bot from Drone Deconstructor to Zilliax.

Funnel Cake: an unassuming card, but key to some of the deck's most ridiculous shenanigans. This deck loves to go wide, and if you get three minions on the board, the Cake nets to a double Innervate; if one of those minions is Crimson Clergy, you even draw a card for your trouble! This lets you dump your hand quickly, which can outright overwhelm decks that are short on cheap or multi-target removal. Alternatively, you can use Funnel Cake to max out your tempo the turn you drop Zarimi to get max effect out of the following bonus turn. If you're behind on board and your enemy has two or three minions, you can cast Funnel Cake on their minions for the same purpose, which can be clutch.

My favorite single play with this deck was when my opponent had cleared my board and dropped a massive taunter I would struggle to get past with a board. I waited until my opponent had three minions, then dropped Zarimi, cast Funnel Cake on the enemy minions to restore mana, and followed with Aman'Thul to copy the enemy taunter. On my bonus turn, Aman'thul zapped the taunter and I swung for lethal with Zarimi and the copy. Hilarious.

 

Thirsty Drifter: this deck uses a ton of 1-drops, meaning Thirsty Drifter can very easily discount to 0. As with Funnel Cake, this can let you out-tempo your enemies early, or you can drop it on your Zarimi turn for "instant board". Makes a great duplicate target in either case; I've dropped four of these in a single turn!

 

The dragon package: Whelp Wrangler, Gift-wrapped Whelp, Ship's Chirurgeon, Astral Whelp. This doesn't seem like a lot of dragons, and it really isn't, especially in a deck with below-average draw, but it's usually enough to get Zarimi's condition active without extraordinary trouble. In a pinch you can use a duplicate card to generate that last dragon. Whelp Wrangler can sometimes get you two, three, even four dragons by itself; a turn one Coin into Wrangler can put a lot of pressure on your opponent if they can't answer immediately, especially other board-based decks.

 

The draw package: Scale Model, Crimson Clergy, and Magatha, Bane of Music. Crimson Clergy works best with Funnel Cake, but you can also use it the old-fashioned way with your hero power, though that's terrible tempo. Scale Model is vital for tutoring Zarimi and another dragon to help meet Zarimi's condition. (This is the killer change from the Deck Recipe that makes the deck sing; if you had more expensive dragons, Scale Model wouldn't work as a Zarimi tutor.) The deck is so light on spells that you usually get little blowback from Magatha, and when you need her, you really need her. You could count Miracle Salesman as part of the draw package, since trading the Miracle Cure can be oxygen in some games.

The duplicate package: Power Chord: Synchronize, Celestial Projectionist, Pip the Potent. Before you ask, no, duplicating Zarimi won't get you multiple bonus turns (it says "once per game" for a reason). That said, copying minions can save or break games. Zilliax and Thirsty Drifter are great targets; we're rarely fussed about the Projectionist's "temporary" condition because most of our minions are so cheap, with Zilliax and Drifter often being free. In a pinch, you can use these cards to duplicate dragons to let you meet Zarimi's condition. If the game goes *really* long, you can duplicate Aman'thul to cosplay as a control priest. Don't forget that Snychronize can target enemy minions, too, which can let you nab power cards like Sargeras to recover a game that's getting away from you. The Projectionist is extra powerful in executing your Zarimi swings because it is, itself, a body that can swing on the bonus turn, and it works well with Funnel Cake.

Speaking of Funnel Cake: Pip's ability to duplicate one-drops can give you more bodies for your "overwhelm" strategy, but duplicating Crimson Clergy and Funnel Cake can create absurd tempo swings. That's a bit of a dream scenario, but it does happen, and can turn a game into a blowout on turn three or four. You can even duplicate Pip!

 

Miracle Salesman: cheap aggression and some extra draw on demand. What's not to love? Also duplicates with Pip.

Drone Deconstructor: double the one-drops for Pip and Thirsty Drifter, and the potential for silliness with poison and such. On rare occasions can combo with Zilliax.

Benevolent Banker: this and the Deconstructor are the most questionable cards in the deck, and the ones that get swapped out first if you have some other bright ideas. That said, the Banker can let you seize key cards in the enemy deck (like removal or power spells like Symphony of Sins), or fish up a Scale Model to unstick you. Duplicating it and playing immediately activates the Quickdraw effect, which is tasty.

Early on you want your one-drops to hit the board ASAP to start pecking away at the enemy's health. With the right draw and the right matchup, just going wide with a bunch of fast cheapies can put the enemy in trouble. Giftwrapped Whelp and Miracle Salesman are good for early aggression. Crimson Clergy and Funnel Cake can accelerate your tempo into cheap or free Thirsty Drifters and Zilliax. Sometimes this can win the game outright, and Zarimi either slams the door or is unnecessary.

Note: if you have Pip and a Funnel Cake early, you can be greedier and not play your one-drops right away. Duplicating the Funnel Cake will let you recover the tempo loss with some truly spectacular turns on 3 or 4.

A lot of the time, your early aggression will get cleared away, having taken some nibbles out of the enemy, and now you have to start calculating how to get lethal. Consider how much face damage you can put through on your Zarimi turn *plus* the bonus turn. Use cheap minions and deeply discounted Drifters and Zilliax (duplicated as necessary) to build/buff a board in a hurry, then swing for victory. It's really hard for the enemy to anticipate just how much damage you can push on them, which can lead to them taking more risks than they should. At this point, you're trying to set up an ambush to catch them, which can be a lot of fun.

The deck has limited and conditional draw. While helpful in the Plague matchup (can't draw plagues if you just don't draw!), this is a problem overall. At times it will feel like you overly depend on the Clergy-Cake combo to breathe at all. At least the Cake has tempo utility outside of the combo, but the Clergy without the Cake can feel like an anchor.

The deck has exactly one source of removal: Aman'thul. All other minion-clearing duties come down to smacking them with your own minions. This can strain you, since you also need those minions to be going face to set up your ambushes. Enemy minions with taunt and lifesteal really ruin your day.

Every so often, you'll be stuck with inactive Zarimi in your hand and no dragons or way to draw dragons as the game slips away from you. It doesn't happen a ton, but it happens, and when it does it feels bad.

 

Aggro Dragon Priest is the most I've cackled while playing a game since Thief Rogue. It can sneak wins out of seemingly-hopeless situations. Like other aggro decks it has the potential to blow a game open and force those delicious Turn Four concessions, but it can find ways to snatch a game back even after losing control. I don't think I'd craft Zarimi just to play this deck, but if you have Zarimi lying around, give it a spin. It's a good time.