New Player Needing Zhanna Mist Deck Advice Please

[waterdamaged]

Hi all, I was wondering if I could possibly get some advice on a deck I am looking to build. I am new to this game but I am a long time MtG player so I know a fair bit about strategy. This is the deck I am looking to build, but I have no idea if it would be any good. The deck list follows, any advice would be very welcome. Thanks in advance.

***HERO***
Zhanna Mist

***Allies (18)***
4x Jasmine Rosecult
4x Aldon the Brave
4x Tainted Oracle
2x Aeon Stormcaller
4x Devoted Knight

***Abilities (11)***
4x Tidal Wave
1x Ice Storm
2x Resurrection
4x Glimmer of Hope

***Items (6)***
2x Book of Curses
4x Glass Chalice of Knowing

***Armors (1)***
1x The King's Pride

***Weapons (4)***
4x Wizent's Staff

TOTAL: 40 cards + Hero

[bobrossw]

Hi, welcome!
It looks mostly standard - one thing that strikes me as missing is Focused Prayer - this card is very useful in many matchups.

Things that could go:
Resurrection - I rarely see this played because 40 cards should usually be enough.
Book of Curses - this is a solid card, but it works best with decks that are on the high side of the resource curve. It's up to you whether to keep it or ditch it, but pay attention to how often it makes a difference. If the answer is not often, then I'd ditch it.
Glimmer of Hope - I'm seeing how maybe you're trying to combo this with resurrection. Fill your graveyard with allies, then you can resurrect them later in the game...it's not a bad idea, but I'm not sure that it'll work out better than simpler strategies. Also the drawback is that you wind up with a block of allies with no utility in the middle. Glass Chalice can at least let you shuffle that.

Cards you could add:
King's Pride - you've got one, but 2 is probably a good bet. It is the standard Zhanna win condition. 1 can get destroyed, having 2-3 is better. It also helps if you draw it in your opening hand, so you can resource it.
Forgiveness - I really like this card, as it makes your games much more consistent. If you get 3 Tidal Waves or King's Prides in your opening hand, resource 2 and then wait around for your Forgivenesses to get them back. You don't need 4 in a deck, even 1 or 2 can make a big difference.

[Heimdall]

Welcome, Sir!

You have too much draw in my opinion, and a bit unorganized. I wouldn't use Glimmer of Hope on this kind of deck. You will need your items and abilities, sending allies to the graveyard and getting them back later with Resurrection will be too slow, fast decks will overrun you.

If you run 4 copies of Glass Chalice, you can cut down the number of Wizent's Staffs. I also love to run 4x Glass Chalice, but alongside following constellation: 2x Wizent's Staff, 2x Tainted Oracle and 2x Elizabeth Winterborn, 1x Forgiveness. I prefer a more balanced draw, 4 Tainted Oracles for example will be extremely vulnerable against Warriors because of Crippling Blow, you would need to Tidal Wave them to get the draw. In the last months I wasn't very active, but I was quite successful with my Zhanna on season 19 where I played again, I got 2nd in the first Pop-up I participated after about a year of pop-up inactivity and got a QM rating of 330+ with it.

I think spending 3 resources on Book of Curses is not worth it, also Ice Storm will require allies of you alive to deal the final blow. You are clearly missing a very important card: Zail's Hymn. Use it instead. The opponent will regularly not play too much allies anyways as he expects a Tidal Wave, and Zail's Hymn is a very powerful single-ally control card which can shut down most threats and leave them in this state. Book of curses will just reduce the damage output a bit, but an opposing unstopped ally will still hurt you alot over various turns, a Zail's Hymn would stop that ally and the damage output will also be lower on the long run.

Another important thing: You miss some fatties in your deck in my opinion. There are some fatties suiting Zhanna really well, keep an eye especially on this guy: Braxnorian Soldier. The value of him is really great, weenies can't attack him and you deny hasted allies of the opponent. Other great fatties for Zhanna: Viska, Raven, Nathanias

Some cards you are completely missing: Focused Prayer. A reason to play Priest is especially Focused Prayer, as it the most versatile item destruction in SE. Taking out key cards will slow down your opponent while giving you more time to set up your assault.

Other tweaks: I would only run 1x Resurrection as an emergency for longer matches. Otherwise resource filler. Having 2 is an overkill. Just 1 King's Pride will be too less, 2-3 will be your best friend.
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I left out some things, but hopefully it still helps you a bit finding a better direction on Zhanna. The best thing is to play and test with card constellations and their outcomes on your own, everyone has different strategic approaches in mind. The great thing about Zhanna is, that she can be really versatile and be as good as the other possible Zhanna setups. For example the cards like Ice Storm or Book of Curses which I didn't recommend for your type of Zhanna, can actually be useful in other Zhanna decks prusuing a different strategy.

[Pteronophobic Wizard]

Hi welcome to shadow era. Priests are my favorite class and I have played them with decent success. Seasons 19 I placed 67 in total score playing only zhanna the whole season. I also maintained a rating of over 300 throughout the whole season, which is difficult when you play enough to make top 100.

I agree with a lot of what others have said.

Focused prayer is a must and it's hard to think of a reason to have less than 3 at least.

Glimmer of hope is interesting in a priest as often you have to dig for that tidal wave, but glass chalice of knowing does the same but better. It's not as consistent as wizent's staff (you can't use it every turn), but it essentially fills the same role as GoH, without the resource cost and the card from hand. That being said, you probably don't want 4 of each as you will only be able to use 1 at a time because of the shadow energy costs. I'd say pick whichever you like better and run 4 of that and 2 of the other.

You need only one Resurrection, but a second might help against praxix. (you will also be fine without any resurrections 95% of the time)

You probably don't want 4 aldons since he is unique, but it isn't a big deal. Taking some of him out would make room for some other strong allies though, like braxnorian soldier, as Heimdall suggested. I also like Spirit Warden and Champion of Irum in priest decks.

you definitely need more King's Pride. That is your win condition as zhanna. Basically your plan is to outdraw them and control their allies (especially with wave) until you have card advantage and endless fatties with kngs pride.

ice storm and book of curses are rarely used, and in my opinion, underrated cards. 1 ice storm probably won't help you much. The book of curses are actually a nice alternative drop on turn 3 if you didn't get devoted knight, and help against rush mages, which are a bad match up.

The last thing to consider for this deck is control. As Heimdall mentioned, zail's hymn is an excellent choice. Banish and retreat are others to consider. I personally like a mix of zail's hymn and banish. Banish is better against humans who have a legend rises, and zail's hymn is better against shadow as it is cheap and they have no answer (except the rare superfocus)

[waterdamaged]

Thank you guys for the replies, they are very much appreciated. I have taken on board what you guys have suggested and tinkered with the list a little and have come up with...

***HERO***
Zhanna Mist

***Allies (20)***
4x Jasmine Rosecult
2x Aldon the Brave
4x Tainted Oracle
2x Aeon Stormcaller
4x Braxnorian Soldier
4x Devoted Knight

***Abilities (11)***
4x Tidal Wave
3x Focused Prayer
1x Resurrection
3x Forgiveness

***Items (4)***
4x Glass Chalice of Knowing

***Armors (3)***
3x The King's Pride

***Weapons (2)***
2x Wizent's Staff

TOTAL: 40 cards + Hero

How does that look?

[Hrinkell]

Much better

From here, it is about minor tweaks, adjust numbers and add tech if needed.
For example: x4 Braxnorian Soldier seem to many to me, but if you're facing haste-based decks 70-80% of the time, it's ok.
If it's item-based decks you struggle with, make room for the 4th Focused Prayer... It's easy.

[Pteronophobic Wizard]

Looks much better. This kind of deck can be very strong if played well. I would have one more tweak though:

-1 braxnorian soldier
-2 forgiveness
+3 banish/zail's hymn

Forgiveness is a debatable card. A lot of people don't like it, but 1 is ok.

Good luck with your deck!

[Hrinkell]

I've recently noticed that 3rd and 4th Forgivness don't retrieve back the card from the pile (even if you get +1 SE), so keep it at max x2, at least until the bug gets fixed.

If including Zail's Hymn, you may consider Champion of Irum for its great synergy. But, again, these kind of tweaks are more a matter of taste.
Your deck is now strong enough to be highly competitive.

[dranjo]

If including Zail's Hymn, you may consider Champion of Irum for its great synergy. But, again, these kind of tweaks are more a matter of taste.
Your deck is now strong enough to be highly competitive.

How does champion of irum synergize with Zails hymn? Did you mean Zailen Crusader?

[JohnnyCRO]

How does champion of irum synergize with Zails hymn? Did you mean Zailen Crusader?

CoI requires opponent to have fatties out. But since high-cost allies aren't the nicest thing to see on the other side of the field, it's rather unpleasant condition for CoI to get boost.
But if you play Hymn on their Worm, Brax or sth like that, you just disabled that ally AND ensured that any CoI you play from that point on will be 2/4 without being voulnerable to the fatty you just neutralized, and that is great.

Can't help much more with the deck because I'm more of a Threbin guy, but I played against Zhanna a lot and I agree with everything guys said earlier. Only thing I can say for sure is that 1 Forgiveness is really great help, but any more might end up being dead draws later.

P.S.
Welcome to the game!