Dirty Rat Control Priest (Season 38)

Why play this deck: The meta is currently flooded with Aggro decks with the occasional sprinkling of Quest Rogue, Burn Mage and Control Paladin or Warrior. This deck is a very board centric control deck which allows for an utter steamrolling of aggro decks with an ability to play faster against control decks to present more threats that then can remove. The high quantity of high value minions combined with strong board flips to come back from a very poor early game in the few events this happens. Its also just a lot of fun to play (and its pretty memey).

Weird card choices:

Dirty Rat: Improves your Quest Rogue matchup dramatically and gives you a much better chance against them

Mana Geode: This is such good value but it is sort of hard to describe how good it is until you actually play the card. People will either bust a gut to kill it and often overcommit or waste resources OR will ignore it and die to the value that it creates.

Kabal Courier: The most recent addition but its high value and ability to create burn, removal or minions that you can use as further resources is  exceptional. The body, while only a 2/2 is VITAL to this decks plan to be able to commit to the board while getting high value and generally mid-large size hands.

Mass Dispel: Often almost acts like a 3rd strict board clear/wipe. Even if you use it on one high value minion (eg Tirion Fordring) then it still feels ok because of the draw.  EVEN when silence holds little value, it still cycles so its not a dead card.

Recent Changes:

v5.1:

 – Silence is super powerful and Amber was too often a dead card.

v5.2: 2x

– Through a friend playtesting (shoutout to wickedgood) realised that its main job (taunt) was now taken by Dirty Rat (the inclusion at v 5.0) so its replaced with a higher value draw minion here.

v5.3: 

– Value from Medivh was limited due to cutting Free From Amber at version 5.1. Ysera is a card generation tool but also just a super strong card that can finish games if you wait til after they’ve spent their removal.

Matchup guide:

Mulligan: Use the standard aggro mulligan in case of token druid as it is more popular and requires a faster response. Mana Geode is excellent as it is very good vs slower druid decks as well. Dirty Rat is worse and should not be kept however. 

Token Druid (Highly Favoured): Control the board and don’t ever look to hit face. They will run out of resources and you have enough early game to counter everything they play. MVPs are Potion of Madness and Mana Geode for this game plan. Dirty Rat is ok but you should play it when they have a clear board or when you have Shadow Word: Death in hand to counter Bittertide Hydra which is seeing a reasonable amount of play in the deck. Often playing a body over using a removal spell on one minion (even sometimes two minions if they’re small and the other player has a small hand) is more advantageous.

Jade Druid (Slightly Unfavoured): You are the aggressor here unless they have a really bad start. You cannot play this like the Token matchup because their Jades will become bigger than your minions and you don’t have enough removal to cope. Once again Mana Geode is the MVP with Dirty Rat doing some work to disrupt their jade curve. You must ensure you have removal in hand when you use it though because you can get destroyed by a big pull otherwise.

Mulligan: Aggro mulligan with no exceptions.

Mid Range Hunter (Favoured): Control the board and prepare to heal in big bursts with Priest of the Feast. You are able to win the game by dropping Elise the Trailblazer, Lyra the Sunshard and Ysera but don’t be greedy and play it when they have a board or a way to kill you. 

Mulligan: Use the general mulligan and also keep Dirty Rat.

Burn Mage (Strongly Favoured): Generally control the board although sometimes you just need to push for lethal when they get behind with a few draws that can flip the game. Although you have a number of ways to get so far ahead in the early game its hard for them to come back. First is a Mana Geode start. Second is the combo of Dirty Rat and Shadow Word: Death. This is the one that needs the most explanation. This combo is so good it justifies keeping Dirty Rat on mulligan for it. If you hit their Medivh, the Guardian or Alexstrasza then they can’t really win the game anymore. Also hold Priest of the Feast and spells for a post  Alexstrasza turn if you don’t pull it. Try to avoid committing more than 2-3 minions (tokens off mana geode excluded) into a Flamestrike if possible (sometimes you just have to take it in order to stay ahead) and play around Meteor.

I am yet to play against a freeze mage but I imagine the matchup is more or less exactly the same as Burn Mage above.

Secret Mage (Unfavoured): This one is very dependant on draws and what secrets they play. Play like you play against aggro and be aware of their outs. You need to count their burn and play around counterspell to get your Shadow Word: Death onto their big minions. Don’t be afraid to loose a Shadow Visions or Power Word: Shield or any of your minions below 4 mana to be able to proc the secret early as it will deactivate a lot of their deck.

Mulligan: Aggro Mulligan if you don’t know what they are but I will include separate advice for if you know what they are as I have found that the type of paladin usually come in clusters.

Control Paladin (Even): (Disclaimer I haven’t played much of this matchup) Standard control mulligan. Play for value over anything. You ideally want more than one Ongoro pack through Elise the Trailblazer and Shadow Visions, but at worse discover high value cards off Kabal Courier. Save Mass Dispel for either Tirion Fordring or Ragnaros, Lightlord unless you’re desperate. Use  Dirty Rat only with Shadow Word: Death incase you’re able to pull Tirion Fordring or Ragnaros, Lightlord. Try to not commit too much into an Equality clear if possible, but again sometimes it is not. Be aware that they will often spend Consecration and Equality to clear your high value or big minions (Mana Geode, Radiant Elemental, Priest of the Feast, Elise, Lyra or Ysera) if you have a couple on the board so you don’t need to commit much to bate them.

Mid Range Paladin (Unfavoured): This mainly depends on the exact build. You are favoured in faster lists and unfavoured in slower lists as they can consistently hold a higher tempo than you can quite put up with. General mulligan and just try to stall them until you are at a comfortable life to their board/hand state when you can start focusing on getting ahead of them. Getting ahead on board is usually very good unless you’re playing into a clear as above.

Murloc Paladin (Favoured): Aggro mulligan but be wary of using Dirty Rat until you are certain they don’t run Tirion Fordring or Ragnaros, Lightlord or you have Shadow Word: Death in hand with the mana to play it afterwards. Same as other aggro decks, focus on the board and prioritise murloc killings over non-murlocs and hold Mass Dispel and Dragonfire Potion for Murloc Warleader or Gentle Megasaur turns. Grind them out and you win.

Mulligan: Standard control mulligan.

Dragon Priest (Slightly Unfavoured): Use the standard control mulligan, save Dirty Rat for use with Shadow Word: Death again and play for value (aiming for 2+ Ungoro packs, Mana Geode insanity and Dirty rat killings). Dragonfire potion is usually pretty useless so don’t worry about dropping it on a small board of non-dragons.

Haven’t played against Highlander Priest either but I imagine it is just a standard control matchup.

Also haven’t played against Miracle Priest or Purify Priest but I imagine they both play like an aggro matchup where you control the board to not give them an Inner Fire target.

Mulligan for quest rogue, as set out below.

Quest Rogue (Strongly unfavoured): This is a very strange matchup that is usually out of your control. You want to mulligan hard for Dirty Rat, Power Word: Shield, Northshire Cleric and Mana Geode. Feel free to drop dirty rat as soon as you can because you can pull bounces and any copy of a card you pull does not count towards the deck. You need to try and stall them while building a board which is where Mana Geode is excellent as they often don’t have a non-minion way to kill it. It is certainly a winnable matchup but you need to get lucky.

Miracle Rogue (Favoured): Anything from the god draw from them will hand you the win pretty handedly. Control the board and generate resources. If you can keep their board clear while building pressure and getting damage through to face then that is always a good play. If you can get them on low health pre-actoneer then you will win. As long as you can kill an auctioneer then drop that Dirty Rat. Its as simple as that. Mass Dispel is also super good vs Auctioneer or Sherazin. The reason this matchup is not better is because if they can get a very good auctioneer turn then they may just win and you may not be able to do too much about it. Be careful of the Vilespine Slayer‘s and don;t drop Ysera or buff something like crazy until you see them both.

Tempo Rogue (Favoured): Just play this like an aggro matchup and don’t drop Ysera or buff something like crazy until both Vilespine Slayer‘s are gone.

Mulligan: Standard Control matchup

Aggro Shaman (Strongly Favoured): This deck plays far more like a midrange token deck then a true aggro deck so its relatively easy to win by just controlling the board. Its super rare and I’ve only played 1-2 but doesnt require super strong responses so the control mulligan is just fine for this matchup. Your board clears are super important as they will usually only be able to win through Bloodlust.

Control Shaman (Favoured): There are so many builds of this that the winrate can vary from deck to deck but for all of them you win this by just out tempoing them on the board. Get on the board early, don’t overcommit (They have an abundance of board clears) and just keep hitting face. Usually Mass Dispel should be saved for a high value board with strong deathrattles or for silencing a board of taunts to hit lethal. 

Elemental Shaman (Strongly Favoured): This one is way to slow for them to win. You just get the board early and keep it  and you will never loose to them.

Mulligan: This is an exceptionally hard class to mulligan for because your matchup is superb vs Pirates with a decent hand and really bad against taunt warrior. I’m still not 100% sure what the optimal strategy is but I currently use the aggro matchup with a priority on Mana Geode.

Pirate Warrior (Strongly Favoured): Exactly the same as murloc paladin above.

Taunt Warrior (Strongly Unfavoured): So for this one you need one of fourwin conditions, otherwise you just can’t get through their taunts AND outvalue the Quest. First, Mana Geode can win you games on its own if you get an early buff on it. Second, a couple of huge Lyra turns. Third, 3+ Ongoro packs from Elise and Shadow Visions. Fourth, Ysera sticking. Just try and play the matchup as aggressively as possible without overcommitting to Brawl.

I have not seen a single Warlock on ladder but if you see one VS says its probably Zoo so just mulligan and play the matchup as if it is Aggro and you’ll be fine.