Mulligan Strategy For Control Priest
I'm currently having a lot of success with my control priest. The one issue I'm having is during the mulligan phase when I draft 2 scenarios.
Scenario 1: I draft a circle of healing against aggressive decks (warlock zoo, pally zoo, enrage warrior). Should I hard mulligan and look for an Auchenai for mass board clear around turn 4? This may force me to give up a Cleric for the early game, but I may also draw into a Dark Cultist/Injured Blademaster.
Scenario 2: I draw well AND I have a Thoughtsteal. Along with sometimes just winning the game outright because of the cards that I get with the Thoughtsteal, it can sometimes be a dead card if I have a better play. It does give me card advantage (2 for 1) and it can draw dead cards that I can't use (shield slam). Should I keep it if I draw well or I'm up against a slower opponent?
Deck List:
- 2x Circle of Healing
- 1x Silence
- 1x Power Word: Shield
- 2x Northshire Cleric
- 2x Acidic Swamp Ooze
- 2x Shadow Word: Pain
- 2x Injured Blademaster
- 1x Shadow Word: Death
- 2x Thoughtsteal
- 2x Dark Cultist
- 2x Auchenai Soulpriest
- 1x Shadow Madness
- 2x Sludge Belcher
- 2x Holy Nova
- 2x Cabal Shadow Priest
- 1x Holy Fire
- 1x Sylvanas Windrunner
- 1x Ragnoros
- 1x Ysera
Best Answer
When you mulligan, you have to base the decision off of what your deck wants to be doing early and mid-game. In a control deck, you tend to have less options early game than most decks, especially decks like zoo. Taking a look at your deck list, cards that you'll want early game (aka turn 1-3) are:
Turn 1:
- Maybe Northshire Cleric, but often just dies to a 2 drop if you don't have the Power Word: Shield to back it up on turn 2.
Turn 2:
- Acidic Swamp Ooze, if you're not against Warrior and maybe Hunter.
- Power Word: Shield a Northshire Cleric.
- Shadow Word: Pain
- Coin -> Turn 3 play if on the draw.
Turn 3:
- Injured Blademaster -> Circle of Healing
- Dark Cultist
- Thoughtsteal
Looking at your early game options, in scenario 1, if you KNOW you're against an aggressive deck and have a circle of healing, mulliganing anything that's not an Auchenai or an Injured Blademaster isn't the worst idea, as turn 3 Blademaster -> Circle and turn 4 Auchenai -> Circle are both excellent against zoo. In addition, the only other cards you might want to draw against these decks early game are Dark Cultist, maybe Shadow Word: Death, and Acidic Swamp Ooze.
In Scenario 2... it's a bit more difficult. It varies significantly from matchup to matchup. If an opponent's deck tends to be good against itself, then keeping the thoughsteal isn't the worst idea, especially if you have some of the turn 1 and turn 2 plays listed above, but no other turn 3 plays. In addition, turn 3 thoughtsteal is good against a number of control decks, including the mirror match. However, against decks like deathrattle hunter, zoolock, etc, I would recommend mulliganing it away in hopes of getting a stronger turn 3 play, like Dark Cultist, or a turn 2 play.
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