Control Priest is a Priest deck type that relies on the use of Priest's plentiful removal spells to exhaust and out-value other decks. The deck aims to maintain board control and get a serious card advantage through their resource-generating cards like Palm Reading or Sethekk Veilweaver. Prior to the introduction of the Core set, cards like Northshire Cleric and Circle of Healing, providing consistent draw, were also used to outlast the opponent in the late game.
For the Year of the Raven, the deck used the burst direct damage potential provided by Shadowreaper Anduin, Mind Blast and Alexstrasza to close out the game. The deck also ran a small Dragon package with Duskbreaker, Primordial Drake, and Twilight Drake as well as Alexstrasza, herself, being a Dragon. The Control Priest's ability to survive aggressive strategies in the early and stabilize into the late game made it ideal to climb with against aggro decks.
For the Year of the Dragon, Control Priest changed to running Activate the Obelisk, with the quest reward giving Priests a consistent way to buff their minions into much bigger threats.
With the advent of the Year of the Gryphon, and the rotation of much of Priest's Burst damage, Dragon cards and late-game bombs like Murozond the Infinite, the deck switched to a straightforward Fatigue-oriented gameplan.
Common cards[]
The following cards are usually in the deck.
Core cards[]
The following cards are played in most or all versions of the deck:
Optional cards[]
The following cards are played more than occasionally, but not always:
Wild cards[]
Wild cards that fit well into this deck type: