Hearthstone Anti-Hunter Priest Deck
Hearthstone Anti-Hunter Priest Deck by Dvlxuk
Ok, so a few weeks ago I made a post about my Priest deck, but since I wasn’t at legend yet, it wasn’t taken particularly seriously.
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Circle of Healing x 2
Holy Smite x 2
Power Word: Shield x 2
Northshire Cleric
Shadow Word: Pain
Wild Pyromancer x 2
Shadow Word: Death x 2
Thoughtsteal x 2
Harvest Golem x 2
Injured Blademaster x 2
Auchenai Soulpriest x 2
Spellbreaker
Holy Nova x 2
Holy Fire x 2
Cabal Shadow Priest
Cairne Bloodhoof
Sylvanas Windrunner
The Black Knight
Ragnaros the Firelord
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Since then, I made it to legend without too much trouble (rank 1 took a whole night because aggro Warrior made a bizarre comeback for that night, and that is one of the only hard counters for this deck).
They say that Hunters are overpowered, but I just don’t think they are. The only overpowered thing is the card draw from Buzzard, which should be limited to 1 card per turn each time a beast is summoned. This deck (unless you have a terrible hand for most of the game or they have an exceptional starting hand), just brings them to their knees whilst they empty their hand. You have all the tools in this deck to efficiently keep their side of the board clear whilst maintaining a board presence of your own.
I played every single game in ranked as Priest, except one game I accidentally queued with a stupid Rogue deck I made that I was meaning to try in Casual mode.
I have absolutely no respect for anyone playing Hunter or Zoo in ranked. None at all. I don’t see the point in furiously looking up the most in fashion decklist and rolling it out in ranked, yet the majority of players rank 10+ do exactly that. In all the games I played, I think I came across a grand total of 3 unique decks (props to the Druid running Magma Rager). The key part of my climb up the ladder was adjusting my deck to counter the decks I was facing, that’s also a large part of the enjoyment in the game.
There are threads on here on a daily basis from people who reached legend with a relatively unique deck. Given there aren’t many cards in the game, there’s only so much you can do, but by actually running your own deck, the advantage you gain can be enormous. Every time I faced an opponent, I knew within 1 or 2 turns exactly what each of his next plays were likely to be because he netdecked. Whereas my opponents never had a clue what I was likely to play. Moreover, since I’m a Priest and they’re the rarest class on the ladder, it’s likely my opponents also had very little experience of playing their deck against Priest. There was a good few times when I’d roll out a minion, only to watch my opponent hover over it for a few seconds to read what it actually did.
The only class in the game I believe is overpowered is Warlock, purely because of their insane hero ability. But because Hunter is also so prevalent, I’m going to give you a guide on how to beat both Mid Range Hunter and Zoo with this deck.
Hunter
A massive factor on winning this match is knowing what they are likely to play each turn. If you don’t actually know the Mid Range Hunter deck particularly well, then you have no justification in moaning about how overpowered it is, since this’ll be the reason its beating you so badly. Watch Kolento or Reynad or Lifecoach stream some games to get a feel for the deck and understand how it’s played. There are a few variations in each of their decks, but the general build and concept is the same.
Muligan: You’re looking for early game minions. Ideally Wild Pyro + Smite or SW-P. If you’re going first, Northsire Cleric is also ideal. If you’re going second, then Auchenai Soulpriest is also a good option. Soulpriest is a minion you’ll get a lot of mileage from in this matchup.
Turn 1 always starts with them using a Flare or Tracking. If you have the coin then ideally you want to be able to drop something on your turn. This will prevent them from dropping a minion on turn 2. However, if you don’t have a minion to drop, chances are their turn 2 drop is either a River Crocolisk or Scavenging Hyena. If you can’t remove it, their turn 3 play will be an Animal Companion, followed by a Houndmaster, so it’s key that you’re removing each of his minions the turn he drops them. You don’t want to use Circle of Healing on your Blademaster in this matchup, just drop it on the board as a 4-3. It will simply be Hunters Marked or Deadly shotted if you heal it to max. Your circles should be reserved for Auchenai.
If they manage to get board control then this is where you use Auchenai + Circle to full effect.
Only ever commit more than 1 solid minion on the board if you have board clear in your hand for Unleash + Scavenging. Wild Pyro + Enablers is ideal for this.
The Black Knight will allow you to remove any of their taunted beasts and put a beefy minion on the board.
If you’re playing you cards right and don’t get stupidly unlucky then Savanna Highmane is never a problem. Once you’ve taken care of them and the Hyenas, then they are pretty much out of gas and your hero power negates theirs, so you should be able to close the game out.
Zoo
This game entirely comes down to how good your opening hand is. Forget Injured Blademaster in this matchup, you’re looking for Wild Pyro + Smite + Power Word Shield. That combo there (and coin if you are lucky), is an entire board wipe as soon as you can roll it out. However, if you get either Circle of Healing or Auchenai, then you should Mulligan for the other part of the puzzle. That’s an entire board wipe of turn 4.
The simple key to this matchup is having board control. Once you wipe their board and have 2-3 minions out of your own then you’ve won. However, if you don’t have the cards to wipe the board before turn 4-5, then it’s game over, which is why Warlock is the most overpowered class in this game.
Taunts don’t help in this matchup, which is why I don’t run any. If your only play on turn 4 is a Senjin, it’s only going to delay the match by 1 turn, and it’s probably going to be removed without them losing any minions. Other taunts are too slow.
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