The Comprehensive Into The Emerald Dream Preview

 

Lunarwing Messenger

Priest’s Imbue hero power is the strongest when it comes to value generation, fitting with the class’s late game identity as an attrition powerhouse. The ability to discover and discount either a Priest minion or a spell, depending on whether we want to be reactive or proactive, is clearly powerful. The discount eventually makes it easy for us to play the card on the turn we discover it, which is the only major drawback of the hero power.

Messenger just needs to be a serviceable 2-drop, which it is. Its major weakness is that it can be killed with a ping, but any sort of trading into it heals us. That can be annoying for an aggressive deck that wants to pressure us but cannot ignore an early game Messenger. We like Priest’s Imbue hero power, so we like this card too.

Score: 3

Weaver of the Cycle

An active Weaver is strong. Dealing 3 damage, which can even go face, while developing a 3/3 for 3 mana, is more than worth the cost. The big-spell condition makes things a little awkward. Does Priest want to run expensive spells in this expansion? Priest’s Imbue hero power discourages that direction a little, as its guaranteed late game value makes us want to prioritize a cheaper, defensive curve.

Priest also does not have a lot of high-quality spells that cost 5 or more post-rotation. The best ones are the two in this set. We suspect that Weaver will be a solid inclusion in a deck that runs Tyrande, but otherwise, it is not worth building around.

Score: 2

Wish of the New Moon

A 3-mana spell that deals 6 damage to a minion is just okay. Compared with Mage’s Starsurge, Priest’s spell seems better. 6 health is a breakpoint that deals with any mid-game minion. The only threats that Wish cannot kill in the mid-game are either giants, or ones the opponent is more likely to develop in the very late game.

Should we hold this card in hand, we can give it lifesteal after casting 3 other spells. That makes Wish significantly more powerful, as it now gives us a burst of healing on top of removing a threat. However, the process of upgrading it can be slow. Considering it is serviceable without the upgrade, we do not mind this one. Doubling it with Tyrande after upgrading it also makes it more enticing.

Score: 2

Twilight Influence

Shadow Word: Pain that has a proactive Choose One effect. SW:P is a weak card because it is a conditional removal spell that can sit dead in our hand if we do not have a target for it. Twilight Influence can be used to develop our board, so it is never dead in hand.

That still does not make it perfect, as this proactive option is unfortunately weak. Summoning a random 2-drop is not worth a 2 mana investment. For 2 mana, we want to play a worthy constructed 2-drop! This is the price for the card’s flexibility.

If Twilight Influence summoned a random 3-drop, it would be a staple in almost every Priest deck and could arguably be too strong. Instead, it is a more fringe competitive card that only the most defensive Priest decks will utilize.

Score: 2

Kaldorei Priestess

Priestess’s ability fits an Imbue Priest deck very well. The archetype is guaranteed to win the card advantage battle in any faster matchup, so all it needs to do is stall. A 4 mana 4/4 that casts a weaker form of Serenity sounds excellent for that purpose. We are not removing anything in play, but if the opponent has three minions in play, Priestess negates 6 damage from hitting us the next turn, which is a lot. Priestess can also turn into harder removal with Gravity Lapse.

This minion is hardly ever dead in hand. In slow matchups, its ability might not be as useful on curve, but in this case, we are happy just spending the mana on Priestess and counting on our hero power to grind out the matchup.

Score: 3

Selenic Drake

A 4 mana 3/6 with Elusive is sticky and hard to remove from play, which makes Selenic Drake’s persistent effect more powerful on paper. We do feel that it needs to be sticky, as the effect is not that amazing. Random dragons have a very high variance of outcomes, so there is hardly a guarantee we will get a dragon that is useful for our game plan.

In any case, we do not think a slower deck ever wants to run this minion. Imbue takes care of our value proposition there. We do not need more value cards. The only deck that may utilize it is Zarimi Priest, as it is a dragon that generates dragons, which helps fill up the Zarimi activation quota.

Score: 2

Ritual of the New Moon

Summoning two random 3-cost minions is weak for 5 mana. It might be a better rate than Twilight Influence, but Ritual is not as cheap or versatile. We feel this spell needs to be upgraded to be useful, as two 6-cost minions for 5 mana becomes a genuine board swing. If we can find Ritual in the early game and upgrade it by the time we hit 5 mana, it can help us turn the corner in faster matchups. Remember though, that it needs to be in hand to get upgraded.

In slower matchups, this card can serve as a secondary win condition. Since we can take our time against slower decks, Ritual should be less stressful to upgrade and there is no need to play it on curve. Ritual following up Tyrande becomes a sizable board of 6-drops. This can end games if the opponent does not have mass removal.

We suspect this card will only see play if Tyrande proves to be competitive.

Score: 2

Moonwell

Dealing 4 damage to all enemies is worse than Flamestrike, as the face damage in a defensive Priest deck should not matter, while the heal is small. Moonwell looks even worse when we compare it to Holy Nova, which does half the damage and healing, but only costs 3 mana.

If we want a stronger standalone board clear that can deal with any threat, Repackage is a better card. In some situations, even Shadow Word: Ruin or Lightbomb will perform better.

Where Moonwell gets crazy, and why it might have been strictly balanced, is when it is played after Tyrande. Wiping a board for 8 damage, hitting the opponent’s face for 8 damage, while healing ourselves for 8, can win us a lot of games on the spot. The mana investment on Tyrande can set us behind, but all initiative we give the opponent is wiped out immediately after. In that respect, Moonwell is the strongest Tyrande payoff in Priest’s card collection, but it is so bad without her. We are conflicted, but we trust the Priestess to carry us through.

Score: 3

Tyrande

Tyrande is an exciting legendary, at the very least. Her effect is not limited to a turn. Once we play the card, our next 3 spells, on any turn, are doubled.

The obvious targets for Tyrande are Moonwell and Ritual of the New Moon, which provide recovery and pressure. A more subtle target is Furious Fowls, which turns into a 12-damage burst card that can go right to the dome. Corrupted Awakening from Shaladrassil is another game winning option, though it does require us to have a greedy curve.

Even cheaper spells can be extremely impactful when they are doubled. Wish of the New Moon can heal us for 12. Holy Nova and Hot Coals become powerful and cheap board wipes. Rest in Peace is an interesting target too.

Priest has plenty of tools to leverage Tyrande into a game winning scenario. The main challenge is playing her without dying. Spending 7 mana on a plain 5/7 is difficult to do. Parrot Sanctuary might be a mandatory inclusion in Tyrande decks, as a turn 6 Tyrande allows us to play a doubled Moonwell on curve.

Tyrande makes for an evocative design. Should Priest find itself in a format centered on swing turns, it may need a late game card of her potential. If the format is more about incremental advantages, focusing on a cheap curve and letting the Imbue package do all the work, Tyrande may be pushed to the fringes.. We do think her competitive place is either immediate, or inevitable.

Score: 3

Aviana, Elune’s Chosen

Aviana starts up a clock that, once it ticks down and triggers, casts a permanent aura effect on our cards to make them cost 1 mana. This includes cards we generate even after the aura is applied. Every single card, without exception, costs 1 mana.

This effect can be best described as a one-sided, more powerful Celestial Alignment. You would expect a late-game-oriented deck that hits this clock to have a very high likelihood of winning the game through the immense mana advantage it will have on the opponent. There are some ways we can OTK the opponent immediately too once the full moon rises.

But Aviana is also incredibly slow. We are talking about turn 12 as the timing when our cards are discounted to 1 mana. Perhaps turn 11 with a well-timed Parrot Sanctuary that lets us play Aviana for 8 mana. This is comparable in timing to Wheel of Death, yet Wheel is a significantly stronger card, which is guaranteed to end the game with no other requirements and had immediate stabilizers that could follow up on it (Reno, Symphony, Fanottem etc.). There is nothing we can immediately do to make up for the fact we have just spent 9 mana on a 7/11.

This legendary is a legitimate finisher in control matchups, while looking useless in other matchups. That could be enough for Priest, a class that is focused on survival but often lacks a killer instinct.

Score: 2

Final Thoughts

Into the Emerald Dream Set Rank: 6^th

Overall Power Ranking: 7^th

Priest’s Emerald Dream set is a turning point for the class. Priest mains have been clamoring for the return of their loved one, their Control Priest archetype. They have ignored countless Tier 1 aggressive archetypes over the last year, as these were not the Priest decks they wanted to play.

Control Priest is receiving two important packages that it can build around.

With the Imbue package, Priest gains access to an infinite source of value that is powerful and flexible. What is interesting about Priest’s Imbue hero power, is that it does not require a maximized Imbue package. We can see a Control Priest deck running just 4 Imbue cards and being content with it, as it should have plenty of mana to spend in the late game. It can also run Aviana, which makes the discount moot. The more important thing is surviving to that point, and Priest does have good survivability tools that can answer different threats.

With Tyrande and the big spell package, Priest gains something it does not often possess, which is consistent blow out potential. In fact, Tyrande gives Priest the opportunity to build a Control Priest deck that is not strictly focused on attrition. We can build a Control Priest deck that kills opponents as early as turn 8-9, while still possessing the value potential of the Imbue package.

This is an archetype that should take time to perfect and refine but looks incredibly flexible. If the format is fast and demands us to pressure, we can win through Tyrande. If the format is slow and grindy, we can pivot to full attrition.

As for other Priest archetypes, there is no reason why Protoss Priest cannot compete in a slower format. Zarimi Priest is retooling with some promising new cards. The archetype could become a slower deck thanks to Naralex, which enables a crazy Zarimi OTK combo with Ysera and Briarspawn Drakes.

Mark it down, Priest mains. In the Emerald Dream, you are finally getting what you want.