Combo Priest has been around in the Hearthstone meta since the beginning of the game. More recently, with the oppressiveness of the deck in Hearthstone Grandmasters, the community has been asking for a change to the deck. In a recent discussion between caster Simon “Sottle” Welch and the lead card designer for Hearthstone, August “IksarHS” Dean Ayala on Twitter, issues with Combo Priest came to light.
What is the problem with Combo Priest?
There are several problems that the current version of Combo Priest creates for the competitive meta. At this point, at the highest level of play, Combo Priest has no unfavorable matchups — with the exception of Mage. Mage currently is not in the greatest spot against the other decks, following the nerfs to the Mage cards Luna’s Pocket Galaxy and Conjurer’s Calling. Because of this, with the current competitive format, both players have no incentive to play any other strategy than to protect their Priest and figure out the rest from there.
The main cards that Combo Priest is built around are part of the classic set. Because of this, the problem won’t be going away anytime soon unless a change happens. Iksar mentioned this in one of the tweets in this discussion that the team does not like Divine Spirit and Inner Fire to be used as a win condition for the Priest class forever.
So what is their solution going forward?
Iksar further explained that the team is currently working on a larger set of changes. These changes will include the removal of Divine Spirit from the classic set. However, as the tweet further explains, the team is waiting to make these changes until the next standard rotation. The next standard rotation is not set to happen until the first expansion of 2020.
For more news surrounding Hearthstone, be sure to check out our recent coverage of the next Master’s Tour location, in Arlington!
