Our guide to climbing higher on the Wild ladder with Control Priest.
Wild N’Zoth Control Priest is a Hearthstone which is heavily focused on taking charge of the board from the earliest stages of a match, and the preventing the opponent from making much future progress either. The longer a Control Priest match goes on, the stronger the Priest’s overall position becomes, and so holding back the enemy is a fundamental part of the strategy involved.
It’s also crucial that you understand your opponent’s likely plays so you can evaluate the worthiness of healing minions out of range of potential damage. This deck is therefore best suited to those with a strong grasp of the broader metagame, and who can make educated reads about their opponent’s likely deck list. More casual Hearthstone players will struggle to climb the Wild ladder consistently with this deck, but those deeply embedded in the game will find it a blast to field on the road to Legend!
In our Wild Control Priest guide we’ve outlined one of the strongest deck lists that you can play right now, although you should keep in mind that the format is evolving rapidly and you may enjoy experimenting with alternatives. If you’re playing our preferred version, however, then we’ve got a great strategy outline to help you get on top of the match from the very start, including some tips for the Mulligan phase. Finally we’ve got a list of some of the most important combos that you must wrap your head around if you’re to succeed with this deck.
If you have any questions about playing Wild Control Priest then do ask in the comments and we’ll do our best to help you out!
(For the Standard version of this deck, make sure you take a look at our Control Priest (Standard) deck list and guide)
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Wild N’Zoth Control Priest deck list and strategy – Gadgetzan
You’ll find a few variations on the classic Control Priest archetype on the Wild ladder right now. Nevertheless, we’ve had the most success with the N’Zoth, the Corruptor deck list tha we’ve outlined in this section.
If you play around with any of the alternatives, let us know how you get on in the comments!
| Priest | Set | Neutral | Set |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2 x Circle of Healing | 2 x Zombie Chow | NAX | |
| 2 x Flash Heal | TGT | 1 x Doomsayer | |
| 2 x Northshire Cleric | 1 x Wild Pyromancer | ||
| 2 x Power Word: Shield | 2 x Deathlord | NAX | |
| 2 x Shadow Word: Pain | 2 x Sludge Belcher | NAX | |
| 2 x Shadow Word: Death | 1 x Sylvanas Windrunner | ||
| 2 x Auchenai Soulpriest | 1 x N’Zoth, the Corruptor | TOG | |
| 2 x Holy Nova | |||
| 2 x Entomb | LOE | ||
| 2 x Lightbomb | GVG |
This deck achieves much of its strength from your ability to heal your own minions with both spells and your Hero Power. As a result, they are able to do more work on the board than your opponent’s minions are capable of. As we’ve mentioned already, having a decent understanding of the broader metagame is very helpful with this deck, as it allows you to heal minions out of range of otherwise deadly attacks, and continue to frustrate the opponent.
In the early game you have cards like Zombie Chow and Deathlord which can be played at the first opportunity, along with empowering spells which help them live longer. Your other early plays like Northshire Cleric and Wild Pyromancer are almost always better of being saved for later on in the game when you can extract true value from them. Still, don’t let the game get away from you entirely if you have limited plays at your disposal – better to have something on the board than nothing.
Until you reach the mid-game, focus on minimising the opponent’s threat as best you can while maintaining as much of your own presence as possible. As you transition into the mid-game you have a healthy number of removal combos and spells at your disposal, while Entomb allows you to pinch your opponent’s biggest threat. Sylvanas Windrunner can be used for this purpose too – just make sure you set the board up as well as you can to get a value grab with this minion.
There are other ways to finish your opponent too. Aucheani Soulpriest can be used to turn all of your healing spells into damage-dealing spells, for example. Then there’s N’Zoth, the Corruptor, who will resummon every Deathrattle minion of yours that died earlier on in the match. Between these two strategies, you should be able to carve a path towards victory, but practise makes perfect with this kind of deck. Experience will take you much further than a guide!
More Priest guides:
- The best Standard Hearthstone decks
- The best Wild Hearthstone decks
- Hearthstone: Deck Tier List
- Wild Control Priest deck list and guide
- Wild Dragon Priest deck list and guide
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Wild N’Zoth Control Priest Mulligan guide – Gadgetzan
In general, you will find cards like Wild Pyromancer, Zombie Chow and Doomsayer invaluable in the early stages of a match. Power Word: Shield is another prime keep, as it’ll help your minions make more trades against their opposite numbers – if you get this card, you can think about keeping Northshire Cleric too.
For the majority of opponents, you’ll also benefit from hanging onto a Shadow Word: Pain as well. You never really know what you might face on the Wild ladder, but this can be a lifesaver if you have it in your back pocket.
Wild N’Zoth Control Priest tips, combos and synergies – Gadgetzan
Here are some of the most important combos available in Wild Control Priest. Some of them require a little forward-thinking to play effectively, so double-check your maths before committing to the first stage of a big turn!
– If you need to clear down the opponent’s side of the board, chuck out a Circle of Healing while Auchenai Soulpriest is out in play. Note that this will also damage your own minions, including the Soulpriest!
– Try to maximise the card-draw advantage from Northshire Cleric if you’ve many minions out on the board and you can cast Circle of Healing or Holy Nova. It may well be worth roughing up your minions a little in order to draw extra firepower into your hand.
– Every spell you cast while Wild Pyromancer is out on the board will cause one point of damage to be afflicted against all minions. Two things to keep in mind: firstly this effects all minions including the Pyromancer, and secondly the damage is applied after the effect of the spell itself has been applied.
– Remember that your Hero Power always becomes a source of damage when Auchenai Soulpriest is on the board. Be careful you don’t deny yourself some game-saving healing potential though!
– Every Deathrattle minion that dies during a match will be resurrected by N’Zoth, the Corruptor when he’s played in the late-game.
