“Kurosawa” Resurrection Control – aka The Seven Samurai

Hello all and thank you for reading 🙂

I have been working on this deck for a while now, refining the card choices and finding out the exact numbers that work for me. I didn’t start playing Hearthstone till early this year, when they introduced Standard – however, in terms of experience, I have been a GP level MTG player for a long long time as well as a multiple champion in UFS tournaments from days past. Now I focus on Hearthstone and this deck allows me to do what I do best – control, with patient and exacting play.

This is a complex, difficult deck to play correctly and I will explain it in detail. I will also add that it is expensive, dust wise, and there is a reason for each card selection and it’s important – and why certain “obvious” cards are excluded. My goal with this deck was to focus on the strengths of Priest as a class – that is, healing, stealing, direct damage and resurrection – and abuse that with powerful, game ending legendarys wherever possible.

This deck does NOT want to do anything till turn 5 – or later, if possible. If that is antithetical to how you view Hearthstone, remember this one basic fact of Priest – you cannot heal damage that you did not take. So you will have to sit there and eat perhaps 12-15 damage before playing a single card, and then note perfect play is required to manage your life total in order to get to your superior endgame – and make no mistake, there are plenty of ways to cheat that endgame quickly, brutally, and with unexpected raw power.

Ideally in most matchups you will have an opening hand sweeper, hopefully Circle of Healing/Soulpriest or Embrace the Shadow – which is vital to the deck for a variety of reasons. It kills all x/4s immediately for 2 mana and 2 cards and with 4 mana up, you can heal first before shadow mode OR take out an annoying x/6 if needed. That quickly. Flash Heal, in this deck, functions as everything from removal to it’s intended purpose to ALSO being a game ending combo piece.

Yes, this deck looks odd at first glance, however it is for a reason. Onyx Bishop and Resurrect are extremely powerful, broken cards that people don’t want to seem to abuse fully. I don’t care about bringing back injured blademasters – no disrespect to the poor guy – or Darkshire Alchemists (bleh). I want Ragnaros! Sylvanas! Ysera! I want Barnes to drop a legendary into play, have it die and bring it back immediately, if possible.

Brann + Barnes is absolutely brutal in this deck, and it is designed to mitigate RNG as much as possible. Only one copy of each of Priest of the Feist and Azure Drake are needed – both are utility creatures that are self-explanatory. Remember, with shadow or soulpriest active, and a PotF out, you will lose 3 if you play a spell – however, having an active Soulpriest at all times is the BEST midgame outcome of the deck.

Several combos are in the deck, aside from the obvious Barnes tricks (all minions except Onyx Bishop and Medivh have an effect while in play).

Velen + Embrace the Shadow – Flash Heal x2 = 20 damage, and if you get coin even without Thaurissian you can go off from your hand without ever showing any of them. If Velen is on the board when you have this then it is 7 more from him + 4 more from hero power for a total of 31 damage in one turn. Velen’s heal and interactions with Holy Nova and Azure Drake among others are ridiculous – if he is on the board even ONE turn then you should be far ahead in the game.

Brann + Barnes, Azure Drake or especially Onyx Bishop – so so godly good in this deck. If you hit the jackpot then this could be Ragnaros or Ysera.

Sylvanas + Shadow Word: Death  – best late game strategy against many opposing Legendarys. Your opponent will often concede when you pop your own Sylvanas immediately.

In an ideal game, you will sit and be around 24 when you clear the board (18 if it going badly) and then establish an active Soulpriest control or go for the jugular with Barnes immediately if you have him. Anything that dies is now 100% RNG guaranteed in this deck, so remember that. if you Atiesh active while sitting on Entomb, then you probably win off the free 6 cost minion. Once control is established, keep the board clear and if you have Medivh, play him and go from there – or of course other strategies are open. 

Speaking of Medivh, I found him to be a spectacular last addition that puts your endgame over the top. If you have the allowance to play him straight on turn 8, then your 5 cost sweepers or Entomb will wreck your opponent. Rag, Ysera, and Velen along with him will immediately end the game if left unchecked or brought back.

There are many sub options available for that last card slot, however – everything from simply the second Shadow Word: Pain (not needed, honestly) to Malygos for even more otk. 

This deck is hard to pilot, and for big dreamers who like tight, high value play and skill-testing though and patience. If you are that kind of person then I suggest trying it out 🙂 and enjoy 😉

Best matchups – Shaman and Warlock flood get wrecked hard by this deck, and usually they run out of gas at which point you can comfortably select a legend of your choice to finish them off. Shaman – sweep the board and save SWD and Entomb for the Flamewreaths and TFB. Warlock – lol, it is so fun to play against them 😀 they can’t do anything once they have no dudes out, at which point Soulpriest destroys them entirely. The toughest version of Shaman for this deck is Evolve, actually, due to the RNG involved.

Most other matchups are winnable or in your favor, especially Druid – another class that cannot handle this deck at all, as long as you save that Entomb.

Dragon Paladin with a high level player is the most fun and rewarding because of the Tyrion Test that goes on, a sub-game within the game where the Paladin player is desperately trying to bait Entomb. Never bite, ever. The ONLY things you should entomb aside from Tyrion are other legendaries (notably Lightlord, rag, syl).

Dragon Warrior is hard because they can put enormous pressure out but you can survive past the midgame wave of Azure Drakes and Blackwing Corrupters, then you should win as long as again you kept Entomb up.

Opposing Priest decks with thoughtsteal are your worst matchup – they get their deck plus all your shiny toys, too. Burgle Rogue can also be tough. Mages are fine if you can sweep turn 4-5 and settle into a long control game – you should win as long as they didn’t hit too many Fireballs on Antonidas (even Alexstraza you barely care about). Medivh mages are harder though.

All else gets rocked pretty hard by the overwhelming power of holy fire. 😉 have fun, you dreamers…