The full set of cards for Murder at Castle Nathria has been revealed a little while ago, and we're nearing the time when they can finally become a part of our collection. Still not sure what to make of Priest or what kind of decks to play? We've broken down all class archetypes for the upcoming expansion and gathered a variety of theorycraft decks from streamers, pros, and community members to guide you on Day 1.
First off, there is a lot of other relevant content that you might be interested in:
- You can find all important information about the upcoming set in our Murder at Castle Nathria expansion guide.
- You can also build decks with all these new cards in our deckbuilder.
- The new Rewards Track has been fully detailed. Get a head start on the early XP gains!
- Major Patch 24.0 (plus hotfixes) prepared the ground for the expansion with various game mode updates and features.
- Need a more detailed overview of new themes and mechanics? We've also covered the Infuse keyword.
- This time around, you'll be able to open your packs faster than before - should you wish to!
Now, onto what's right around the corner. Before we jump into a variety of potential decks, here is a quick look at the class in the upcoming expansion:
Castle Nathria Priest - Quick Impressions
- Priest has some new buff tools for their tempo and midrange decks.
- Thief Priest is back and thief-ier than ever!
- Not much to create new archetypes, but very powerful additions for both Naga and Questline Priest.
Castle Nathria Priest - Expansion Cards & Archetypes
For Priest, two archetypes have asserted themselves as the favorite to play on Day 1: Buff and Value.
Buff Priest
The Buff Priest cards will likely see play in tempo or midrange decks looking to put pressure on the opponent early, but some of them might be flexible enough to find a home in slower decks as well. Pelagos is a powerhouse card, effectively adding Inner Fire to any Health-buffing spell and allowing targeted spells to restore health up to a minion's Attack.
Priest doesn't normally dabble in many Attack buffs, but Cathedral of Atonement provides an exception to the rule and even comes with a very handy card draw, making it very good at keeping up hand advantage. Cathedral works especially well with Partner in Crime, offering an immediate buff at no extra cost the turn Partner is played for a whopping two 4/7's on turn 4. Boon of the Ascended is a bit of the odd one out, having some anti-synergy with Pelagos since the Kyrian is summoned before Pelagos' buff. It is not as clear of an inclusion in some decks as the other cards in the package, but a big Taunt could still be valuable for a variety of decks.
Value Priest
Most of the value created by these cards is from stealing from the opponent, but value is value. The Harvester of Envy is a very unique design, seeing as it is one of the few cards that can truly take something for good. Notably, if you play the copied version of a minion your opponent has in play, you will gain control of theirs as well. While playing the copied cards can be tricky to do on the same turn you play Harvester, Mysterious Visitor's discount eases a bit of the pain.
Identity Theft is the most flexible of the stealing cards and might see play in Seek Guidance decks, since you can Discover cards to fill out the Questline requirements. Suspicious Usher is the only value card that doesn't steal, and is also relegated to Priest and Neutral legendaries, which is nice as you are more likely to find synergistic cards; but it's also less fun than cross-class shenanigans.
Other Priest Cards
Clean the Scene is yet another Priest board clear, and a potentially decent one at that. There could be a lot of decks running around with minions that have 3 or less Attack, such as Imp Warlock or Volatile Skeleton Mage, but reaching that juicy Infuse bonus could prove to be quite hard. Control decks that want to clear the board probably aren't running enough minions to Infuse it easily, and decks that can Infuse it easily don't want to be board wiped themselves.
The Light! It Burns! is potentially incredibly efficient removal, only spending 1 mana to remove large threats. Any cases involving large health minions are obviously a little trickier to deal with, but Clean the Scene covers this card's weaknesses and vice versa.
Castle Nathria Priest - Top Neutral Cards
Questline Priest can have difficulties matching up to the lethality of rival Control decks or Combo decks, but Theotar, the Mad Duke helps alleviate some of these troubles. Theotar can swap out enemy win conditions or combo pieces, such as Kazakusan, Wildheart Guff, or even a rival Xyrella, the Sanctified. This can quickly swing a long drawn out game back in your favor and help stall until you can find your own win condition.
Sinstone Totem, despite being a Totem, might be far more valuable for Priest than for Shaman. It has 4 health at the end of your turn, and has the potential to become a 6/6 with Bless on your second turn. Pelagos can also buff the totem to a respectable statline with any other targetable spell. Even spamming a Serpent Wig or two onto it could make it a growing threat that is difficult to deal with.
Castle Nathria Priest - Day 1 Decks to Try
Not sure what to play for the class once it's time to enter Castle Nathria? We've gathered a handful of early deck ideas from all across the Hearthstone tavern just to help you out:
Tempo Priest
Jambre's Tempo Priest, as featured by NohandsGamer, utilizes Pelagos and whole slew of buff spells to create very powerful minions early in the game. Serpent Wig combined with Pelagos is enough to warrant no Nagas and Kobold Taskmaster's Armor Scraps also work quite well in buffing up the board.
Renathal Thief Priest
Trump tried his darndest to make his extremely greedy version of Thief Priest work during the theorycraft streams. The deck might need a bit of additional tuning for optimization, but who doesn't love a greedy value-oriented deck during the first few days of a new expansion?
Renathal Questline Priest
Old Guardian revamped Seek Guidance Priest with a fresh coat of Nathria paint. Theotar, the Mad Duke helps beat out other Control decks while Sketchy Stranger provides some extra early board presence with the potential to fill out the quest more if it Discovers a Mage secret.
Wild Mode - Buff Priest
Blutrane's Wild take on Buff Priest was featured by the Born to be Wild Podcast and utilizes Cathedral of Atonement for extra consistency plus Partner in Crime for a powerful buff option. Pelagos provides redundancy for Inner Fire effects and makes the deck more consistently dangerous. Big minions can be scary in Standard, but imagine an enormous Crabrider swiftly crushing the opponent. Terrifying.
More Class Coverage for Murder at Castle Nathria
Want to look at what we've put together for another Castle Nathria suspect class? The navigation links below can take you there in an instant!
What do you think of Priest's card package for the upcoming expansion? Which decks are you going to take for a spin once Murder at Castle Nathria goes live on August 2? Is there something else from your favorite content creator that we didn't include here? Let us know in the comments!
Comments
There's also Steamcleaner, which does the job almost perfectly to stop QL Priest. That is unless Priest can draw their shuffled card in the same turn.