Hearthpwn

Hi, my name is David (in game nim007) and this is my first attempt at a write up for a deck I built. OK... modified. I had a win rate of about 75% from rank 15 to 5 with this.

Concept

I've been playing with the idea of adding inner fire and other such shenanigans to a dragon tempo deck for a while. With the new expansion comes an OP dragon appropriately named Drakonid OP that legitimizes Priest dragon decks in general and a solid 3 drop Kabal Talonpriest whose instant health boost to another minion works perfectly with an inner fire style deck.

After a bit of experimenting I found that going full inner fire was just leaving too many good cards off the list and the best balance was a single copy of confuse. I also decided to run 2 holy novas and 2 clerics to increase the likelihood of a big draw turn to find confuse in time to use it as a finisher. With a decent board you can burst big time while killing that pesky taunt totem and weakening other big taunt minions (all playable taunts have much higher HP than attack).

Playstyle

This deck plays just like a regular Dragon midrange tempo deck (notice no big clunky dragons). You try to take the board and keep it by healing your minions or increasing their health. You then push for lethal with a big confuse turn that surprises your opponent. I can't tell you how many times Reno decks got too low (probably with Reno sitting in their hand), thinking I couldn't finish them, and then emoted "wow" when I played bran into talon priest to buff a minion and confused. Confuse also plays out well against aggro, as if you manage to stabilize, there will always be a point where the aggro deck decides it can win in a few turns and starts going face, leaving your board alone. That is when you strike.

Key Cards

Northshire Cleric : Your draw engine to find confuse and answers to the opponent's board

Kabal Talonpriest : A great 3 drop in the earlygame/midgame with a decent body and helps keep your minions alive and trading. In the late game he acts more as a booster for confuse or to top off your taunts against aggro.

Brann Bronzebeard: Against control you try to combo him with Drakonid OP and/or Netherspite Historian for insane value. He also allows for extra damage from Corrupter (A common finisher for me is Brann, Corrupter face, confuse, board face). You can also coin Bran on turn 2 and then use Kabal Talonpriest on turn 3 to create a 2-10 un-killable (well mostly) Bran.

Confuse: 90% of the time this will be used to push for lethal so if you have it in your hand always count its potential burst before making a play. I’m a decent player and I have missed lethal a few times because I didn’t notice that PW:S sitting in my hand that would have given me the extra 3 I needed. The other 10% of the time it will be used to clear a board that would otherwise kill you. With a bit of thought and some clever trading you can sometimes pull sick confuse holy nova plays where you turn a highly unfavourable board into one where you have the advantage.

Omissions

There are lots. Basically any card with a lot of health and a decent effect could work.

Twilight Drake: Soooo good against control as it forces hard removal. If not, it trades multiple time midgame Late it adds insane reach when combined with confuse. I chose not to play it because it is too slow against aggro and realistically it is not going to be more than a 4-6 when played on turn 4 since you should be playing cards on turns 1,2, and 3. This isn’t a control deck.

Second Book Wyrm: A good card with the right stat line for this deck. I often wished I had it in my hand and cursed myself many a time when the only copy was buried deep. I think it is just a bit slow for some of the fast matchups, so I settled on 1.

Priest of the Feast: I love this card and the body would work well with the confuse mechanic. It ended up not making the cut because I don’t run that many spells (no SW:P or resurrect). It may be worth testing out though because even aggro knows they can’t ignore it and so is basically a 3-6 with taunt.

Ysera: very tempting because of the stat line and its effect is great. Against control I am very happy to pull this from Netherspite. It just seems to fit a control deck better than a midrange one. We don’t have any big boys and so she would get picked on by hard removal.

Shadow Word: Pain: A staple in a lot of dragon decks as it can create a lot of tempo when used correctly and can deal with some pain in the ass cards in the more aggressive matchups as well (I’m looking at you Frothing Beserker and Small-Time Buccaneer). I just didn’t have room and decided to go more minion centric to be less reactive and more pro-active.

Others: Any high health charger could be good for more wombo combo surprise damage, as could shadow madness to steel a taunt minion, confuse it, and then send it to face as part of your final burst. However all these types of cards push the deck to a more combo based one and less of a midrange tempo based one. I don’t think we have the draw to do this.

Flex cards

The core dragon guys stay but there is some room for flexibility. Azure Drake for example helps keep us going with nice draw and can be comboed with Holy Nova or Dragonfire for big board clears. However, they are a 5 drop and we have plenty to do on turn 5. They also have a small body for their cost and won’t help us with confuse damage. Blackwing Technician is good but could be swapped out for more starting hand consistency (another 1 or 2 drop for example), or for specific tech cards if you find they are needed. I find 2 Northshire Cleric very useful however some argument could be made that 1 is enough. Dragonfire Potion is too slow against aggro and sometimes has trouble getting value against good control players who will play around it after turn 5. It also doesn’t kill our old 4 attack enemies Azure Drake and Twilight Drake. Entomb is mostly dead against aggro but gold against control so I guess it is a meta call. I like running one.

Hope you enjoyed my write up. I was going to write a mulligan guide as well but I think it is pretty straightforward. If anyone has any questions about that aspect feel free to pm me.

David