Jericho - outdraw your opponent

[Pat Jay]

Hi all,

Hi my name is Pat Jay and i've been ranking 260+ (never been over 280)

I've been playing priests since the days decks were 30 and Jericho could dispell for 2 shadow points. Ah the goooood old days!

Well i'm here to share with you a deck that i've found to be most effective. The deck is based on one simple goal - that is to outdraw your opponent. Hope you'll like it!

Contents
1. Zhanna or Jericho?
2. Deck
3. Walkthrough
4. Sacrifice tips
5. Deck analysis -based on probability
6. Deck analysis -based on rule of 6
7. Deck analysis -examing each card
8. Other cards to consider
9. Other cards not to consider
10. Tips against specific heros

1. Zhanna or Jericho?

I think it's clear to say priests are no longer tier one. They just don't have the draw power as they used to. But who cares? They are still fun to play due to their versitility. When it comes to the question of choosing Zhanna or Jericho... I think you would have to choose Jericho for one simple reason - he can dispell that overpowered card called "blood frenzy". Without an effective counter to that card... taking on warriors can be extremely difficult. Especially when you ain't got no TO or WS or any other draw engine.

2. Deck

Jericho

Allies:
Brigitte x 4
Kris x 2
Puwen x 4
Blake x 1
Aldon x 3
Jasmine x 1
Tainted Oracle x 2
Lily Rosecult x 2
Sandworm x 3

Spells:
Healing touch x 3
Tidal wave x 4
Destroy arms x 4

Items:
Wizent's staff x 4
King's pride x 2

40 cards

3. Walkthrough

Turn 1: brigitte or kris (preferably brigitte, use kris if your opponent has kirs on the board)
Turn 2: puwen or blake (preferably puwen, consider blake if going second and you have brigitte on the board)
Turn 3: aldon or jasmine (preferably aldon if other allies on board)
Turn 4: Wizent's staff or tainted oracle or lily (preferably Wizent's staff)
Turn 5: wave or sandworm
Turn 6: any combo of 2-3 cards
Turn 7: kings pride

4. Sacrifice tips

1. sacrifice the cards that you are unlikely to use in the near future i.e. kings pride on turn 1
2. keep the cards that will help you outdraw your opponent (i.e. Wizent's staff, tainted oracle, lily, wave)

5. Deck analysis -based on probability

Look at the Hatts' post on the probabilities of drawing cards:

http://www.shadowera.com/showthread....card-deck-size

If you refer to this table, then the deck by analysis has the following probabilities of being able to execute the walkthrough described in section 3

Chance of turn 1 success: 66.05% (because 6 cards = 4 briggite + 2 kris)
Chance of turn 2 success: 65.02% (because 5 cards = 4 puwen + 1 blake)
Chance of turn 3 success: 61.75% (because 4 cards = 3 aldon + 1 jasmine)
Chance of turn 4 success: 90.49% (because 8 cards = 4 Wizent's staff + 2 tainted oracle + 2 lily)
Chanse of turn 5 success: 89.85% (because 7 cards = 4 wave + 3 sandworm), this chance is higher with Wizent's staff in play
Chance of turn 7 success: 52.63% (because 2 kings pride), this chance is higher with Wizent's staff in play

Therefore, one of the strengths of this deck is having a 60% chance of getting a good draw. A good start is always crucial against tier 1 decks because without any advantage early... your opponent will build on his advantage to the point where it is GG by turn 5

6. Deck analysis -based on rule of 6

Loosely based on Cruxx's article:

http://www.shadowera.com/showthread....he-Rule-of-Six

Here are what i think are the deck's 6 goals:

1. to have board presence on turn 1 - 4 brigitte + 2 kris
2. to have board presence on turn 2 - 4 puwen + 1 blake
3. to cast allies with 4+ health - 3 aldon + 1 jasmine + 2 lily + 3 sandworm
4. to survive - 3 healing touch + 4 wave
5. to disrupt the enemy - 4 destroy arms + 2 kings pride
6. to draw cards - 4 Wizent's staff + 2 tainted oracle

... with the ultimate goal being to outdraw your opponent of course

7. Deck analysis -examing each card

Brigitte: for 1 resource, this mini aeon is excellent value and will help keep your other allies alive.
Kris: more effective late game with kings pride and aldon down.
Aldon: allows your puwen and brigitte to do 4 damage, which can often get you board control
Jasmine: only there to increase the chances of draw 3. Her ability can be useful
Tainted oracle: helps you draw 2 cards and gives you board prescence
Lily: can give you that all important staff back in your hand. Or she can give you kings pride back also
Sandworm: can survive supernova and evil ascendent
Healing touch: helps you survive those rush eladwen decks
Waves: probably the best priest card in the game, helps you regain board presence. Often you can cast this and a turn 1 or turn 2 card also... if you are to do this try to put down kings pride first.
Destroy arms: best destroy item card in the game. use this to destroy anything!
Kings pride: helps you survive and boosts attack
Wizent's staff: allows you to outdraw your opponent and can hit for 1 four times

8. Other cards to consider

curse: great on turn 3, helps you survive
smite: good attacking card
ice storm: helps you get rid of those pesky cards with 2 life
erika: great against logan

9. Other cards not to consider

aeon: too susceptible to logan's ability, crippling blow, retreat, captured prey. Thus to cast it is to risk wasting 6 resources
retreat: the idea is to outdraw your opponent, thus giving your opponent the card back into the deck doesn't help this goal
raven: sandworm is a better choice since it can survive better
ghostmaker: Wizent's staff is a better choice since it helps you acheive your ultimate goal of outdrawing your opponent.

10. Tips against specific heros

Against eladwen:

- destroy research and bazaar
- keep healing touches to survive rush
- kings pride not so useful in helping you survive since eladwen relies on spells rather than melee damage to hit you

Against amber rain and logan:

- dispell blood frenzy, if he casts blood frenzy again... match his draw power with your Wizent's staff.
- use wave to increase your card advantage
- destroy his weapons
- aim to get as many allies on the board

Against dark claw (lone wolf strategy):

- save your 4 destroy arms for his 4 what big teeth
- save your shadow points to dispell his speedstrike and captured prey, don't use Wizent's staff to draw
- aim to get your 3 sandworm onto the board to survive any evil ascendent
- use kings pride x 2, make that x 4 by using lily to get that back

Against moonstalker:

- destroy any bazaar
- use wave to regain board control and moonstalker's ability will make it hard for you to get this

Aginst gravebone:

- destroy any draw engine inclding portal
- use wave to regain board control and gravebone's ability will make it hard for you to get this

Against heros in general:

- destroy their card draw engine
- cast Wizent's staff to outdraw your opponent.
- use wave when in trouble and to avoid opponent's ability to decrease Wizent's staff durability


If any of this doesn't make sense let me know! go priests!!!

Your sincerely,

Pat Jay

[Yvan Antoine]

Nice deck, although IMO ghost maker works really well with tainted oracle and honored dead works well with winnies. A few of them gives you extra heal. In doing this you don't need to use wizents as much giving you more shadow points for remove cards. It's not necessary but sand worm works well with ghostmaker and kings pride.

[Pat Jay]

Hi Yvan, i agree that "ghost maker works really well with tainted oracle and honored dead works well with winnies. A few of them gives you extra heal. In doing this you don't need to use wizents as much giving you more shadow points for remove cards. It's not necessary but sand worm works well with ghostmaker and kings pride."

but i've found both ghost maker and honored dead to be too situational.

i.e. ghost maker depends on your opponent not having any armor and you can't always revive the ally you want i.e. tainted oracle or sandworm as it depends on what your opponent kills last. it also depends on not having any of your oppenent's allies hitting you and taking out your ghost maker!

i.e. honored dead depends on you having 5 allies in graveyard. which is not always the case when you got board control

also with ghostmaker you have to loose 1 durability point in order to get the draw card benefit ... so in essence you can only benefit from it max 3 times. whereas with wizent's staff it is not dependent on you hittting, just shadow points so you can benefit from it theoretically infinately so as long as it still has 1 durabiliity point. making it better suited for the ultimate goal of outdrawing you opponent

if you have any ideas on how to make these two cards more realiable. let me know. i'd be very interested! thanks!

[iClipse]

Hmm, the deck seems a bit lacking in some departments. You have 1x of some allies, but too many of them. 1x Kris doesn't work, 1x Blake doesn't work and 1x Jasmine doesn't work. Choose either of those and stick 3-4x of that one in your deck and remove the others. I suggest 4x Jasmine. Having a turn 3 drop is pretty crucial, and she IS the best one out there right now.

[Pat Jay]

sorry i made an error it should be 2 x kris and i've included 1 jasmine and 1 blake just to increase the chances to 60% + of a good draw for an early advantage. and getting an advantage early helps preserve my wizent's staff.
i agree having 1 of a card makes it hard to utilise the full benefits of the card properly.

[Yvan Antoine]

Well honored dead works better late game but I don't often get the chance to use it. Tainted oracle works well enough on its own and like you said situational, but I've played several games where I didn't need my wizents at all leaving more points open to use. But ultimately ur right wizents works the best overall

[akratch]

Honored dead is hardly playable...5 allies? Come on...Surely a priest can find a better way to heal? I'd also like to attest to the usefulness of ghostmaker with TO, birgette, sandworm, blake, kris and aldon. All benefit greatly from ghostmaker and even the one with no real bonus (blake) is great because he only has 1 toughness/health anyways.

[Yvan Antoine]

Honored dead is problematic but in the late game 5 allies is nothing and 2 immediate cards and 2 health is decent, it won me a game before. Although it may be a bit situational to be reliable a couple in your deck isn't that bad.

[Caitlyn0]

honored dead is getting better. only need 3 allies in the graveyard.

but he isnt using it, he has 4 wizent and 2 tainted oracle. he does need more draw. but i would suggest no oracle (or 4 and add ghostmaker... you could add honored dead when 1.3 is released) and add a few bad santas

and i agree with IClipse (oh god )

too many allies and no focus. go with 3-4 copies of like 4 or 5 allies (maybe just 2 if one of them is big like sandworm unless you have a certain theme based around him).

[Nizaris]

Honored dead is problematic but in the late game 5 allies is nothing and 2 immediate cards and 2 health is decent, it won me a game before. Although it may be a bit situational to be reliable a couple in your deck isn't that bad.

Honored Dead is not a good card. And putting bad cards in your deck is not a good gameplan.