Hooray! My Priest Deck that I drafted (see page 4) went 8-3! My best performance yet! The deck worked pretty much as expected. If I could survive the early game I won. 2 of the 3 losses happened before Turn 8 and the third one on Turn 10. Mind Control is a ridiculously strong card. I wrote up a debriefing of every game but looking back at it it's not a terribly interesting read.
I did track all of my questionable picks to think about whether they were the right decision or not. Obviously you want to avoid too much of ex post reasoning here - what matters is the process not the particular outcome over a small number of matches. But this can still be illuminating for the sort of trade-offs you should be thinking about.
- Silence vs. Booty Bay
Silence is a lousy card that is dead too often and kills your advantage when you use it. I think this even though I used it nicely 4 or 5 times. I don't like Booty Bay but it would probably have been better. I'm downgrading my evaluation of Silence. It was even worse because often times I would have both Silence and my Owl in hand. Total overkill.
- Holy Fire vs Wild Pyromancer vs Lightwell
Lightwell was okay in my deck but not much more. Given my curve Wild Pyromancer would have been much better. I'm not sure my valuations changed that much.
- Raid Leader vs Temple Enforcer
Temple Enforcer is an absolutely amazing card in Arena and this run further solidified this. In no cases would I have wanted to have Raid Leader instead, even with my lousy mana curve. I think Raid Leader is only worthwhile in constructed where you can protect it plus combo it.
- Holy Nova vs Shadow Word: Death
Given my deck Holy Nova ended up being super useful. SW:D would only be situationally useful for a ridiculous early buffed card like an enraged Worgen. Any late game monster is going to be dealt with by my own amazing late game. Holy Nova, on the other hand, is exactly what this deck needs: big board clear in the midgame to power through to the late game. This decision should have been easier given my deck.
- Ironfur Grizzly vs Worgen Infilitrator vs Murloc Tidehunter
I got a lot of value out of the Grizzly but I think the Worgen would have been, on net, better. Anything to help me on turns 1 and 2.
I did track all of my questionable picks to think about whether they were the right decision or not. Obviously you want to avoid too much of ex post reasoning here - what matters is the process not the particular outcome over a small number of matches. But this can still be illuminating for the sort of trade-offs you should be thinking about.
- Silence vs. Booty Bay
Silence is a lousy card that is dead too often and kills your advantage when you use it. I think this even though I used it nicely 4 or 5 times. I don't like Booty Bay but it would probably have been better. I'm downgrading my evaluation of Silence. It was even worse because often times I would have both Silence and my Owl in hand. Total overkill.
- Holy Fire vs Wild Pyromancer vs Lightwell
Lightwell was okay in my deck but not much more. Given my curve Wild Pyromancer would have been much better. I'm not sure my valuations changed that much.
- Raid Leader vs Temple Enforcer
Temple Enforcer is an absolutely amazing card in Arena and this run further solidified this. In no cases would I have wanted to have Raid Leader instead, even with my lousy mana curve. I think Raid Leader is only worthwhile in constructed where you can protect it plus combo it.
- Holy Nova vs Shadow Word: Death
Given my deck Holy Nova ended up being super useful. SW:D would only be situationally useful for a ridiculous early buffed card like an enraged Worgen. Any late game monster is going to be dealt with by my own amazing late game. Holy Nova, on the other hand, is exactly what this deck needs: big board clear in the midgame to power through to the late game. This decision should have been easier given my deck.
- Ironfur Grizzly vs Worgen Infilitrator vs Murloc Tidehunter
I got a lot of value out of the Grizzly but I think the Worgen would have been, on net, better. Anything to help me on turns 1 and 2.