Jericho - Aggro/Control - 40 Cards

[sp8cemonkey83]

Hello Folks!

I'm still fairly new to this game but I have a strong MtG background. I've been tooling around with this deck and have won 8-2 matches so far.

Hero (1):
1x Jericho Spellbane

Allies (17):
4x Puwen Bloodhelm
2x Blake Windrunner
4x Jasmine Rosecult
3x Aldon the Brave
2x Raven Wildheart
2x Aeon Stormcaller

Abilities (17):
1x Bad Santa
4x Smite
3x Destroy Arms
3x Healing Touch
1x Ressurection
2x Plague
3x Tidal Wave

Items (5):
4x Wizent Staff
1x The King's Pride

So the deck has pretty nice curve and consistently is able to just curve out.

T1: sac, go.
T2: sac, Puwen.
T3: sac, Jasmine or Aldon.
T4: sac, Staff, draw.
T5: sac, draw, Raven or Plague+Puwen/Blake.

At this point strategies diverge. If I played Raven, then I want to play Aeon and then TGP in that order. If I have board position at Turn 5, I will Plague especially if I played first. Against opposing Priest decks or Mage decks it's so vital as to keep them off of Tidal/Supernova.

Overall it plays very well. Jericho's ability really hurts Warrior decks at the moment and serves such a great support roll. I am aware of the changes enroute to Heroes and this deck may turn into a Zhanna deck in lieu of the buff they gave her. If so then I may add the last Healing Touch (the last thing I want to do is Heal the Warrior hero but I don't want him outdrawing me via Blood Frenzy). We will just have to see how that turns out.

Lastly a few small tidbits:
-I hate Bad Santa in this deck and don't know that to replace it with. Any suggestions? I see a lot of people running 1x Curse... don't know how I feel about that card.
-Marshland Sentinel seems like a perfect fit in this deck. The only reason I am running Blake is because having 6x turn 2 allies helps to ensure I hit one AT TURN 2. Not sure if I will cut him for two of these bad boys or something else. It kind of fills the same roll Raven does and I think it may be even more efficient at that job. Another thing we shall have to wait on.

[Enacut]

I'm playing a plaguebuild myself. At the moment i wouldn't run less than 3 Plague and 3 Retreat! for boardcontrol. Obviously Plague when going first and Retreat! + (Jasmine/Raven) when going second. This will change in 1.27 with low-cost allies making the plagueplan slightly worse. I'll opt for Ice Storms to deal with the wave of weenies that the new update will bring.

Personally i was unhappy with Smites performance during testing, always felt they were 1 damage short of doing the job. How are they working for you? The list seems solid from my point of view, even though my cardchoices are somewhat different.

[chainsawash]

I'm a fan of Retreat as well. It's also more versatile than something like Smite. Raven survives a Supernova and has one health left. On your turn attack with Raven, Retreat her back into your hand and then recast. Bam, a nice fresh 6 health Raven! I'd definitely get rid of Bad Santa and replace with a Retreat, but also consider replacing a Smite or two as well.

[iClipse]

Healing touch doesn't work on enemies unfortunately. (it should imo)

Further, I would remove the smites and plagues. Plague is imo something you either commit do, or you don't. If it works fine for you as it is, good for you =)

[Rakno]

I actually run something very similar to this except i have 2 ice storms, i also dislike bad santa cuz imo if ur working so hard to control why would u want to give ur opponent 3 free draws to possibly turn the game around.

Something i am wondering tho is what cards u tend to sac sometimes i feel like my entire hand is godlike and i dont want to drop anything, a small list of how u would prioritize ur sacs would be sweet.

[StrayDogStrut]

Welcome to Shadow Era!

There seem to be two types of priest decks... the "standard" aggro/jack-of-all trades variety, and the "resource denial" variety. Yours is a reasonable example of a "standard" Jericho build.

It's a very strong deck, with answers for almost everything. Its primary weakness, as you may have discovered, is that it can struggle if you don't draw a Staff or can't keep one on the board. The second weakness is that it can have a hard time taking board control away from the opponent. Your main options for this are Tidal Wave (which good opponents will anticipate) and sometimes Raven.

Without judgement, I'd mention that the cards you include which aren't so standard are...

• Plague - This is sometimes useful, but conventional wisdom is it isn't good enough unless you're going to build a deck around it. Much like MtG'ers don't just throw Armageddon into every white deck, and it isn't as strong as Geddon. Note that it's only useful if you have the lead, and Jericho is already good at sitting on leads.
• Bad Santa - Seems very situational for a priest deck.
• Ressurrection - Some ppl like this, some ppl don't. Personally, I think it ends up being less useful than it feels like it should be.
• Blake - This is really up to you. I don't think many people run 6 2-drops in this deck.

As for the card suggestions you asked for... I'd consider a second King's Pride. If you draw it early, you'll probably sac it, but it can break a game open later. Consider Retreat; I prefer it to Smith or Healing Touch, but actually include all three in my Jericho.

Really though, you're in good shape. I'd keep playing and experimenting, and decide which of the above applies to you. Try not to draw hard conclusions too early... the nature of SE is that you'll play a lot of "iffy" opponents, especially at first. Anyone who has tried to tune their deck should have a strong record.

[sp8cemonkey83]

Thanks for all the info guys! I appreciate the feedback. Things I have taken from this.

-Plague wins me games. Hands down. Whether I start out strong by dropping early threats and then Plague or if I am on the backfoot and Tidal then build board position then Plague... it's consistently paved the path to victory so I am going to pull out the Bad Santa for a 3rd Plague.
-Just thinking about it conceptually, Retreat! seems like a much better plan then Smite. With any card game, tempo is an important concept and Retreat! just does it better.
-The King's Pride really swings games... it's just so high in cost it's very hard for me to justify running 2. Will experiment.

Current Build:

Hero (1):
1x Jericho Spellbane

Allies (17):
4x Puwen Bloodhelm
2x Blake Windrunner
4x Jasmine Rosecult
3x Aldon the Brave
2x Raven Wildheart
2x Aeon Stormcaller

Abilities (16):
4x Retreat!
3x Destroy Arms
2x Smite
1x Resurrection
3x Plague
3x Tidal Wave

Items (6):
4x Wizent Staff
2x The King's Pride

[ertai88]

Nice guide, i trust it would be helpful. You could do well to take the advices on Plague too. It's not an easy card to use

[arebelspy]

Nice guide, i trust it would be helpful. You could do well to take the advices on Plague too. It's not an easy card to use

wrong. it's very easy to use.

play it when you are are already winning, and it helps you win.

it's just not worth playing because it's worse than useless if you are behind, and if you are already winning, you will likely win anyways and don't need it.

[ertai88]

That's what I mean by not easy to use. Good players like u won't give your opponents an opening opportunity to cast Plague often. Ur tuned deck would be tight game play for board control first