Deck Spotlight: Resurrect Priest

“Onyx Bishop is bad”, you all complained. “Priest got the sharp end of the stick on this expansion, yet again”.

In case any of you check reddit, this has suddenly not appeared to be the case.

Instead of the “4 mana 7/7” craze, now it’s resurrecting Injured Blade Masters, and all because of this deck – let’s check it out, shall we?

Resurrect Priest’s main archetype comes from running 2 Onyx Bishops and 1-2 Resurrects, depending on your personal choice. Much like a more classic version of control Priest, this deck also runs 2 Injured Blade Masters, only this time, with no Circle of Healing to compliment it. Instead, this deck gains value from the Blade Master being destroyed due to the fact that he can be re-summoned by any of your various Resurrection effects.

This deck also runs just about every means of early game that Priest has available to it right now. 2 Holy Smites, 2 Shadow Word Pains, and our new friend Barnes, along with Ragnaros the Firelord and Ysera to compliment him. While the early game is not fantastic in this deck, as this is still an issue Priest is struggling with a lot in this Meta, it has all the means necessary to make it to late game and win by sheer out-controlling your opponent.

The fun part, however, is in the fact that this deck can certainly win late game scenarios, but there’s a good chance you can win in the early-mid game too. Turn 3 first minion Injured Blade Master, followed by a Coin + Onyx Bishop can lead to plenty of value – and besides, if your opponent doesn’t remove the Blademaster, use turn 4 for a tempo play instead, get some card draw in, or just play Barnes. Removal is your friend in the early game – in a lot of scenarios, it’s better to just let it happen.  

Another condition of this deck that happens more than you may expect is the good old ‘Barnes 1/1 dies and is resurrected to full value’ switchup. Picture this – your first minion is Barnes, and it summons a 1/1 copy of your Ragnaros. Yes! Value! However, due to some unfortunate stroke of bad RNG, your opponent removes it his turn and passes. Ah, well. Paradise lost. Nope! Just resurrect it for 2-5 mana and get the full 8/8 Ragnaros in all his glory!

Long story short, this deck may not be top tier, but it sure is fun to win with, both early and late game.