Hearthpwn

Intro:

Hey everyone. This is a decklist and guide for a fun little N'zoth Resurrect Priest that I've been messing around with to try to have some fun in the current meta with an unconventional deck.

Edits:

1. -2 Northshire Cleric, -2 Circle of Healing, +2 Flash Heal, +1 Priest of the Feast, +1 Ysera. (Corrections made to not dilute resurrect pool.)

Reasons for Cards:

• Circle of Healing: This card can be combo'd with Northshire Cleric as for mass card draw, as well as it's synergy with Injured Blademaster to produce a large threat early that can help fight for board control.
• Silence: Although I initially ran Purify just to mess around with the idea of silencing my own Moat Lurkers, I found that the flexibility offered by Silence was far more valuable. On top of being able to silence your own Moat Lurkers on 6 mana instead of 8, it can also shut down a lot of popular meta choices like Twilight Drake or Edwin/Questing just to name a few.
• Northshire Cleric: A staple of many priest decks, a nice, fairly reliable source of card draw.
• Potion of Madness: Good anti-aggro, can be used effectively against the large majority of decks to swing control of the board in your favor.
• Power Word: Glory: I tried a lot of different cards in this slot. The problem I kept running into was being able to include enough low-cost spells to get myself through the early game without struggling too much in the late game. I tried running a second Potion of Madness but I usually ended up having one in my hand at the end of the game vs control, or not being able to use both effectively enough against aggro. Holy Smite was good anti-aggro but suffered hard against control as the 2 damage never really ended up mattering vs most big creatures. I chose Power Word: Glory to effectively function as a stall card, since most of the power in this deck involves it's ability to generate immense tempo through resurrect effects after one of your 3 or 4 drops dies. You just need to not get overwhelmed until you can take back board control.
• Power Word: Shield: Another Priest staple card, cheap cycle + a health buff.
• Resurrect: One of the key cards of the deck. This allows you to generate crazy tempo by bringing back cards like the 4-7 Injured Blademaster or even some of your powerful deathrattle effect cards for just 2 mana.
• Shadow Word: Pain: Cheap, good, standard Priest removal.
• Injured Blademaster: The bread and butter of your opening with this deck. It has synergy with resurrect when played early, and can be played with Circle to get a 4-7 on the board for 3 mana.
• Shadow Word: Death: More classic Priest removal.
• Barnes: Although this card can backfire, the benefit greatly outweighs the possible downsides. Pulling Sylvanas, Cairne, or even Shifting Shade can give you a lot of extra value. Not to mention that it has the possibility of adding more powerful deathrattles to your N'Zoth's battlecry.
• Priest of the Feast: A primarily anti-aggro card, it also has solid stats so it will not dilute your resurrect pool.
• Shifting Shade: A great value card, it can help give you card advantage and almost guarantees you will get something usable since you will be generating cards based on your opponents deck.
• Excavated Evil: 3 damage is an important break-point to meet as this is the only AoE in the deck. Holy Nova at just 2 damage unfortunately does not clear enough of the early game power-house minions that are out there right now.
• Onyx Bishop: Fitting the resurrect theme, this card is a bit less powerful but can still be quite good provided you are smart about how you manage your resurrect pool.
• Cairne Bloodhoof: An extremely good value card for a deathrattle deck.
• Moat Lurker: Mostly just put in for fun, it has some surprisingly good uses given the current metagame where minions with powerful effects on board, as well as minions with strong buffs, are so prevalent. When combo'd with Silence, it can be a 6 mana hard removal for cards that Priest traditionally has trouble dealing with. The benefit to running it instead of Entomb is that it can be more flexible. You don't HAVE to draw the opponents minion later (like you would with Entomb), and you can also use it to proc your own deathrattles to snowball a lead. On top of that, It can be quite effective on it's own against cards that are vulnerable to silence effects, since the resummoned minions will be devoid of buffs (i.e. Edwin coming back as a 2-2). It is greatly out-shined by Entomb when dealing with opponent deathrattle minions, however aside from Aya Blackpaw, there aren't a lot of deathrattle minions being used in the current meta.
• Sylvanas Windrunner: A staple of any deathrattle deck, the effect is extremely powerful.
• N'Zoth, the Corruptor: The card speaks for itself. It's a great value card given how many powerful deathrattles this deck runs.

Mulligan Guide:

Aggro: Against aggressive decks it is best to mulligan for any early game removal spells like Shadow Word: Pain, Potion of Madness, or your stall card: Power Word: Glory. Injured Blademaster is also a good keep if you happen to also have Circle of Healing, or Resurrect (best when going second). Being able to drop down a 4-7 on turn 2 makes it easier to control the board and mitigate the early, aggressive, snowball minions. Priest of the Feast is also a good keep (best again when going second) if you happen to already have cheap spells like Potion of Madness in hand. Being able to develop a high-health 4 drop with a pseudo-taunt as well as gaining a lot of health can be a great way to take back the game.

Reno: Against slow decks it is usually better to mulligan for cards like Shifting Shade to keep up with their card advantage, or hard-mulligan for blademaster/resurrect as most reno decks cannot efficiently deal with the mass of early 7 health minions. Provided you keep up the pressure, you might be able to force them to Kazakus early for a low-value potion, and grind out their AoE with your unending waves of deathrattle minion value. Unfortunately this deck does not fair too well against reno decks, as mass-poly potion from Kazakus will decimate your deathrattle value. However you might be able to generate even more value of your own if you happen to get some good value cards off of Shifting Shade.

Jade: Against Jade you want to mulligan for the most aggressive openers you can muster (usually involving the early Blademaster + Circle or Resurrect) do not keep reactive cards as you might against other decks since if you lose board control to one of these decks you are likely not going to get it back quickly enough to rush your opponent down before the tides of jade golems become too overwhelming.

Overall: Without a doubt, any combo you can open with involving the Injured Blademaster is a good keep. Being able to summon a 2 or 3 mana 4-7 early in the game is extremely strong. You should keep reactive cards if you anticipate fighting an aggresive deck as being able to stop their board from growing makes the tempo-swing you get off of resurrect effects all the more devastating. This deck aims to fall behind as little as possible in the first couple turns, and seize the board with an onslaught of high-tempo resurrect plays in turns 3 through 6. Against slow decks you may want to shift your focus to being able to cycle through your deck a bit so you can keep up the pressure with more proactive cards.

Again this deck was mostly made for fun but I was able to use it to some decent effectiveness against some of the prevalent meta-decks so I figured I'd share my fun times with the Hearthstone community here. This deck can be a hilarious clown fiesta sometimes given the randomness of cards like Barnes and Resurrect, and it's incredibly satisfying to propel your lead by landing a Moat Lurker on your Sylvanas or Cairne after some efficient trades to get the maximum value out of each card. I hope you all have fun with the decklist and let me know what you think!