Free to Play Priest, Part 1
Background
During the September 2015 season, Trump will once again attempt to take a brand new account with no cards to Legend without spending any money. For playlists of Trump’s previous F2P runs, check out his Mage F2P, Shaman F2P, and Rogue F2P on Youtube.
In this run, Trump didn’t decide beforehand which class/classes he would play, but instead will let the cards that he gets from packs determine what he’s playing. He may switch classes several times during his run, so he will attempt to avoid crafting any class-specific cards at first.
The Evolution of the Deck
The first deck Trump used in his September 2015 Free to Play run. Trump chose to start out with Priest because, in the first 6 or 7 packs he opened, he pulled a cabal shadow priest.
Added September 2, 2015
The list after Trump reached Level 10 and unlocked all basic Priest cards, including Mind Control. Trump also crafted his first card, a Piloted Shredder. Also not shown in this image are +2 Holy Smite:
Added September 2, 2015
After opening up a few packs and getting both an Injured Blademaster and Shadow Madness, Trump decides that Priest is definitely the direction he wants to take for this F2P, so he goes on to disenchant some cards to craft 2xCircle of Healing, another Injured Blademaster and 2xAuchenai Soulpriest.
Added September 3, 2015
After a successful 12-win arena run, Trump bought several packs and disenchanted some more cards in order to craft the second cabal shadow priest, another wild pyromancer, piloted shredder and shrinkmeister.
Trump’s next craft was a Light of the Naaru, which replaced a Sen’jin.
Added September 7, 2015
2 Mind Controls were clunky so Trump dropped one for a second Shadow Word: Death.
September 18–Trump decided that Resurrect would be a powerful addition to the deck (to capitalize on Injured Blademaster), so he bought the first wing of Blackrock Mountain with 700 gold he had accumulated. He also felt that Dragon Priest was the natural direction for the deck to eventually take, so starting on BRM–which has many of the important Dragon Priest cards–made sense.
Since he also got Thaurissan as part of this wing, Trump decided to use it instead of a Strangethorn Tiger. So, he ended up removing a Shrinkmeister, a Mind Control Tech and a Tiger for 2 Resurrects and Thaurissan. Trump expects this version to be the “final form” of the deck.
Note: While most decks would be better suited to get Naxx before BRM, Priest is the exception, where the Dragon Priest deck relies upon the dragon cards in BRM, and doesn’t need Naxx.
September 28–Inspired by Zetalot, who managed to get Rank 1 Legend with a Priest deck without Dragons, Trump decided to add 2 Holy Champions to the deck. He also added a Thoughtsteal, which he had been considering for a while. To make room for those additions, he cut a Tiger, Sen’jin and Emperor Thaurissan.
In what Trump thinks might be the final revision for the deck, he replaced the Holy Smite for a Lightbomb.
September 29–Trump replaced one Resurrect with another Thoughtsteal.
September 29–Although he peaked at rank 3, Trump fell back to rank 4 by the end of the day. At that point, he made the calculation it wouldn’t be possible to make Legend over the next day. So, he changed his plan. He intends to use the same account to reach Legend next month, building towards a Dragon Priest deck by earning more gold to get the next BRM wings.
This month’s effort was handicapped by Trump’s extensive travel schedule, which included trips to Pax Prime, ATLC, Blizzard, and TwitchCon, which collectively consumed half of the month. Next month will still be busy, with trips to southern California for a tournament, as well as the extremely important BlizzCon Regional Championships, which should make the F2P journey even more challenging.
Continuation of the Free to Play Priest: See Free to Play Priest, Part 2