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Nomi Priest deck list guide - Rise of Shadows - Hearthstone (June 2019)

Here's how to get to grips with Nomi Priest in the Rise of Shadows meta.

Nomi Priest is a Hearthstone deck that we’re going to be seeing a lot more of from now on. Built around the new Chef Nomi legendary from the latest Rise of Shadows expansion, it expands upon a few similar ideas seens in Mecha’thun and Miracle decks to create a new and successful archetype.

The name may have given it away already, but the deck is built around Chef Nomi, a minion that will summon six 6/6 elementals onto the board if your deck is empty when played. Your goal, then, is to set up a situation where this effect can trigger, which should be enough of a significant board presence to take down your opponent before they can clear it.

Over the last few weeks the strength of Nomi Priest has become more apparent and many top players are expecting it to have a significant presence in the meta for some time to come. For that reason, we’ve fully expanded and updated our Nomi Priest guide to include the latest version of the deck being played. We’ve also got detailed strategy advice, Mulligan tips and a card combo breakdown so you’ll be able to master the deck in no time. Bon appetit!

UPDATE - JUNE 2019 #1

Only a subtle change for Nomi Priest this month, with Acidic Swamp Ooze being ditched for an extra Forbidden Words. This is a low-tier deck at the moment, however, so don't expect a strong climb with it.

This article contains additional reporting by James Pickard.

Nomi Priest deck list and strategy

Here is the version of Nomi Priest seeing the most success in Hearthstone at the moment. Expect further refinements over the coming days and we’ll be sure to update this page as and when they happen.

PaladinNeutral
2 x Circle of Healing2 x Wild Pyromancer
2 x Forbidden Words2 x Acolyte of Pain
2 x Lazul's Scheme2 x Gadgetzan Auctioneer
2 x Regenerate1 x Chef Nomi
2 x Silence
2 x Topsy Turvy
2 x Northshire Cleric
2 x Power Word: Shield
2 x Divine Hymn
2 x Seance
1 x Mass Hysteria
2 x Grave Horror

Select and copy the long ID string below, then create a deck in Hearthstone to export this deck into your game.

Deck Import ID: AAECAa0GApeHA9KZAw7lBKQH9gelCdIK8gz7DL3zAtD+AuaIA+uKA+qMA7CRA5ibAwA=

More great Priest guides:

General strategy

As this deck is built around Chef Nomi, your main goal throughout each game is to draw through your deck as quickly as possible so you can activate the card’s powerful Battlecry effect. To do that, you have cards such as Acolyte of Pain and Gadgetzan Auctioneer to empty your draw pile as fast as possible using damage effects and cheap Priest spells. Once your deck is completely clear you can drop Chef Nomi to establish a massive board in a single turn.

If you have any experience playing the Miracle style decks of old then you should click with the strategy of Nomi Priest pretty quickly. You’ll also be used to playing the control game for most of the match in between your big card draw turns, something that’s especially important for this deck so you don’t fall too far behind. You’ll have to be cautious of your opponent’s control options too, as you don’t want to play Chef Nomi into a board clear on the very next turn!

Early game: Card draw. That’s all you care about. Get Northshire Cleric and Acolyte of Pain onto the board. Then, find ways to orchestrate as many card draws from them as possible. You can use spells such as Power Word: Shield in order to buff their Health so you can get more value from them, for example. You can also use the area of effect damage from Wild Pyromancer to trigger Acolyte of Pain while keeping your opponent’s side of the board under control.

Mid game: Keep up with the card draw and board control. Once you reach six Mana and drop Gadgetzan Auctioneer the card cycling can truly begin. Burn through all of your zero Mana spells to thin out your deck as fast as possible. Be cautious of overdrawing, though, as you don’t want to risk trashing Chef Nomi if you try to draw it into a full hand. If your opponent is looking in a good position, use Mass Hysteria to try and clear up the board a little.

Late game: As you enter the late game you should be reaching the point where you’ve drawn through your deck. When that stack of cards to your right is just a fiery haze, throw down Chef Nomi and watch as it fills the board with 6/6 Greasefire Elementals. What a glorious sight. If you’re concerned the first board is going to be hit by removal, wait until you can combine Chef Nomi with Seance so you have another copy ready to go next turn. Eventually, that should be enough to overwhelm your foe.

Aggro opponents

Here are some tips to keep in mind when facing aggro opponents on ladder:

  • 1. Use Wild Pyromancer to burn through all of their little creatures when they’ve gone wide on the board.
  • 2. A heavily discounted Grave Horror is a serious nightmare for most aggro decks to deal with as they’ll need to waste many resources getting through it.
  • 3. You can turn all your opponents minions against each other using Mass Hysteria. Wait until they have a particularly strong board established before casting the spell and watch them take each other out.
  • 4. Though Forbidden Words is best saved for big creatures, don’t be afraid to use it on something smaller against aggro decks if the minion could be particularly troublesome.

Control opponents

These tips can help you get the upper hand against control decks:

  • 1. Don’t rush to get minions on the board against control. Instead, take your time until you know you can get the most out of them, especially for card draw.
  • 2. You have both Forbidden Words and Lazul’s Scheme as ways to deal with their biggest threats, while a Silence can shut down minions with powerful abilities.
  • 3. When you first play Chef Nomi, you should fully expect them to have a way to reset the board. With that in mind, you should absolutely wait to play the card alongside Seance so you have a second drop ready.
  • 4. With control decks often favouring weapons, keep Acidic Swamp Ooze on hand to destroy their arms when they come into play.

Nomi Priest Mulligan guide

To get your card cycling going as fast as possible you’ll want to look for these cards in the Mulligan phase:

  • 1. Northshire Cleric: One of the Priest’s best card drawing tools so you’ll want to get this down early to start thinning out your deck.
  • 2. Acolyte of Pain: Another massive card draw engine. You can make it even more efficient using some of the other cards in your deck.
  • 3. Wild Pyromancer: A good minion to contest the board but you’ll want to combine it with your spells to help activate Northshire Cleric and Acolyte of Pain.
  • 4. Power Word: Shield: Cycles a card for you but this is also perfect on Northshire Cleric and Acolyte of Pain to get more card draws.

Nomi Priest tips, combos and synergies

There are a couple of very important combos to get to grips with in order to play Nomi Priest successfully, many of which long-time Priest players or veterans of Miracle decks will be well aware of:

- Lazul's Scheme will reduce the Attack power of an enemy minion by one at its base level. However, for every turn the card is in your hand that number increases, so you can seriously impair a minion’s Attack after waiting for a few turns.

- If you’ve reduced an opponent’s minion down to zero Attack you can follow that up with Topsy Turvy as an abstract way to immediately remove them. When you swap their Health to zero they simply die immediately.

- When you play any spell while Gadgetzan Auctioneer is on the board you will also draw a card. Use this with all the cheap spells in the deck to thin out your draw pile as fast as possible so you can activate the effect on Chef Nomi.

- Whenever Acolyte of Pain takes damage you’ll draw a card from your deck. You can buff the minion’s Health in order get more draws from it or use the single point of damage effect from Wild Pyromancer to get even more value.

- Chef Nomi has a big impact on the board when dropped for the first time, but to give you some added security you can cast Seance immediately after you play it to add another copy of it to your hand to play again!

- When any minion – yours or your opponent’s – is healed while Northshire Cleric is on the board you will draw a card. Look to get multiple draws by healing many minions at once using Circle of Healing.

- You can reduce the cost of Grave Horror significantly throughout the game due to all the spells you play, all the way to the point where you can drop the minion for free.

Card choices and substitutions

There are a number of key cards to making Nomi Priest work. We’ve listed them all for you below:

  • Circle of Healing: Used on a wide and damaged board with Northshire Cleric in play and this can help you draw through a lot of you deck very quickly.
  • Regenerate: The heal is nice but you’re including this in the deck as another zero cost spell to cycle using Gadgetzan Auctioneer.
  • Northshire Cleric: With clever heals you’ll be able to get a lot of card draws off this minion and get towards you win condition with Chef Nomi much faster.
  • Seance: Offers a way for you to create additional copies of Chef Nomi so you can refill the board if your opponent has a way to wipe it out when first dropped.
  • Wild Pyromancer: With all the cheap spells in the deck this serves as an excellent way to clear off enemy minions. It can also be used damage some of your own so you can heal them for more card draws alongisde Northshire Cleric.
  • Acolyte of Pain: Use this to draw as many cards as possible. Use Wild Pyromancer to damage it or buff its Health with a Power Word: Shield in order to get more draws.
  • Gadgetzan Auctioneer: Use this and all your cheap spells to help draw through your deck incredibly fast and set yourself up for Chef Nomi.
  • Chef Nomi: The card the deck is built around. Everything else in this deck works towards drawing through all your cards so you can activate this effect.
  • Grave Horror: As you’ll be casting a lot of spells this can be reduced in cost considerably for a strong tempo play.

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