Doctor Draw

Stratégie UPDATE 2014/09/04: - Removed an Ogre Mage to put in a Mind Control. It gives nice late-game power against fat legendaries, and it's just too much fun to keep out. OM is a little situational anyway. (Thanks, Sheng!)

UPDATE 2014/04/24: - Removed Ironforge Rifleman to put Ironfur Grizzly back in. Still having a hard time filling this slot.

UPDATE 2014/04/23: - Removed Novice Engineer and Mind Control, which have been nerfed to pieces - Removed Ironfur Grizzly, which was never that great - Removed Gnomish Inventor, which was a bit too passive

- Added Acidic Swamp Ooze - Added Ironforge Rifleman, partly to answer the popularity of Divine Shield, but I'm not thrilled with this card - Added Ogre Magi (Thanks for the suggestion, commenters!) - Added Boulderfist Ogre

Who made this deck? Warbaker did, who played 'coop' with a friend (buzzedmonkey) to reach Top 50 in North American constructed pre-wipe.

What is this deck? It's a draw engine focused around Priest healing and mana-efficient cards, but despite being basic-only it's strong enough that we could ride it to 1-star Master nearly undefeated after the wipe.

Why basic only? It lets the deck serve as a good jumping off point for people looking to get into constructed without a large collection, and it proves Hearthstone absolutely is not pay-to-win.

So, what's in this deck, and how is it meant to be used?

* Cheap removal. Shadow Word: Pain, Shadow Word: Death, and Holy Smite are a little awkward, but they're ridiculously cost-effective when you can find good targets.

* High-health minions. But the deck doesn't overdo it with cards like Oasis Snapjaw. They're tough enough that they can frequently make use of healing, but not so tough that they have uselessly low attack. In particular, the 2/3 River Crocolisk and the 3/5 Sen'jin Shieldmasta do a great job mopping up early aggression with a little healing support.

* A hilariously strong card engine provided by Northshire Cleric.

With all the high health minions in this deck, it's easy to at least get one card from Northshire Cleric by attacking an enemy minion and using Lesser Heal. Because she just costs one mana, you can play her on the same turn as a mass-healer like Holy Nova or Darkscale Healer, yielding piles of cards. It's also easy to play both Nortshire Clerics at once for some truly absurd card draw. Seriously, in many games you have to reign it in to avoid exceeding the 10-card hand limit.

Because Northsire Cleric counts healing for ALL minions, she has some other fun properties. She essentially shuts down your opponent's ability to heal minions, and you can sometimes get away with healing an opponent's minion yourself, especially if you plan to use a Shadow Word on it anyway.

It is critical to play her carefully, though. Because she's so inexpensive, it's best to save her for when she can draw cards immediately, ensuring you get your draw even if your opponent has the appropriate removal card in hand.

If you have her on turn 1, playing her tempting but dangerous. You'll need at least a Holy Smite or Shadow Word: Pain to protect her from a 2-cost 3/2 minion, and most decks can remove her with a turn 2 spell regardless. However, because she gains cards if the opponent plays something with 1 or 2 attack, and because even if she gets removed you've gained some tempo, I still recommend playing her if you have appropriate support in hand.

Awesome. But what's weak about this deck, and what are some good ways to improve it?

* It's weak against tough 4-attack minions. It has no good answer to Druid of the Claw, Goblin Auctioneer, Ysera, Twilight Drake, Sunwalker, or Malygos. Opponents will carefully buff minions into the 4-attack safety zone using cards like Shattered Sun Cleric, so watch out.

* It has no silence. This exacerbates the 4-attack weakness, as a lot of 4-attack minions are weak to silence. Ironbeak Owl and Spellbreaker are efficient silencers, and even Silence is great for maintaining tempo. I'm not a fan of Mass Silence because of its cost, but it's good lategame when you have plenty of mana.

* Aside from Mind Control, It has no cards costing more than 6 mana. To survive the lategame, you'll need to rely on a strong board and card-advantage from the earlygame and midgame.

* It lacks good 1-drops. Lightwarden is an obvious potential addition, but Elven Archer can work as well, especially because midgame she can enable Northshire Cleric by targeting your own minions.

Good luck, and happy drawing!

For more analysis and some example games, see Sheng's guide: https://hearthstoneplayers.com/beginner-deck-tech-basic-priest/