I’ve always enjoyed milling. This is why I played so much Tickatus Warlock in the past. This deck, Selfish Shellfish Priest seems more complicated. To add insult to injury, I’ve never played it before.
So, I’m really hoping some of you could give me tips and tricks, if there are any. Really, any information will be appreciated.
(Please don’t hate on the deck. I know many players absolutely hate milling, and that’s totally acceptable. Decks like this are not for everyone.)
Lastly, I’d like to thank each and everyone of you, in advance, that take the time to give me some further insight.
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Wild or Standard?
I wonder if Warlock’s version might be better/faster? Warlock can mill more cards, but perhaps it is overkill and that’s why Priest does it better because they have more survival only need to mill like 12 cards instead of some crazy 20+ that Warlock can do.
Oh, this is in ranked standard – that’s all I play. As for Mill Warlock, I believe it has a disadvantage to Selfish Shellfish Priest in that this deck has insane drawing capabilities, for one. I’ve kind of lost my taste for Phylactery, unfortunately. Another reason I want to learn and excel at this deck is because it feels like an underdog. That might sound a bit silly, but I have an internal issue in using top tier decks, at times.
Edit: @Schyla. Do you see any cards you reckon I should replace? And what should I replace them with? Forgive me for asking so many questions. I know that you’re both skilled in piloting and in deck building, and so figure asking you these questions is my best bet.
Edit #2: @Schyla, I forgot to add the decklist. One moment. It will be below.
Summary
Shellfish Priest
Class: Priest
Format: Standard
Year of the Gryphon
2x (0) Illuminate
2x (0) Desperate Prayer
2x (1) Whispers of the Deep
2x (1) Shard of the Naaru
2x (1) Gift of the Naaru
2x (1) Cleric of An’she
2x (2) Thrive in the Shadows
1x (2) Shadow Word: Death
1x (2) Condemn (Rank 1)
2x (3) Switcheroo
2x (3) Handmaiden
2x (3) Amulet of Undying
1x (4) Xyrella
2x (4) Selfish Shellfish
2x (4) Lightmaw Netherdrake
2x (4) Azsharan Ritual
1x (8) Xyrella, the Devout
AAECAa0GBJ7rA9TtA+iLBMGfBA2Z6wPo7wOH9wOMgQStigSKowTUrASitgSjtgSktgS4tgS+3AT28QQA
To use this deck, copy it to your clipboard and create a new deck in Hearthstone
Gotcha. I haven’t gotten the deck to work so I don’t really have any tips and tricks unfortunately. My original idea was Quest Priest with Mailbox Dancers. This would allow you to always have a coin so you could Brann > Hero for double battlecry to set off the Shellfish. You would only need like 4 Shellfish to die and they would be drawing 16 cards. The Quest is more to help you draw more cards more than anything. Current deck lists like yours need you to have like 6+ Shellfish to die and most of those rely on copying a Shellfish, which means you can’t play a Shellfish unless you have the copy spell in hand or if you have amulet+copy spell in hand to combo that.
The biggest problem with the current deck list is that it lacks survival, which is what all Priest decks have in common.
My tip would be to try to build one with trying to double battlecry the Hero and include mailbox dancers. The mailbox dancers also fill the enemy hands for more mill effects so it combos nicely.
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If you don’t mind. I’ll play a few more games with the deck, and post some replays. That’d probably be most useful way to correct, as much as possible, my playing.
The only advice I would have is… Don’t play the deck. lol, however, if you enjoy it, Than go for it. I honestly can’t give you any pointers on this deck as I tried it, didn’t like it. It’s more of a meme deck.
Do you guys think I might have better luck with Mill Warlock?
I feel that Priest and Warlock mills decks are okay if you’re looking to just enjoy the deck, but I would not use either of them to climb with. However, If I had to pick between the Warlock or the Priest… I’d go with Warlock. And Priest is my second most played class. I feel that warlock has the better mill deck.
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Right on! I’ll give it a shot. Warlock is mostly my main class, so thanks for justifying my using it. 
you could find languagehacker and nohandgamers video of playing this deck on YouTube. they teach on mulligan and some in game decisions. and both of them said it’s a difficult deck to pilot. you have to put time into it
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Honestly this. I don’t think there’s a way to make Shellfish Priest good enough. I know Boar Priest isn’t really putting up the numbers, but I honestly think that deck has more potential.
That’s what I am trying to do. Despite losing almost all matches, so far, practice makes perfect. I’ll continue using the deck until I learn the ins and outs. What I’m also enjoying is the ability to play priest, which is my least played class. I am hoping I don’t fall into the pitfall of giving up on the deck and switching to something else. A very big problem of mine is that I hardly stick to one class and deck when climbing. I switch classes far too frequently. This perpetuates a limited and lack of familiarity for specific classes (in this case, that’s priest).
In other words, I need to start sticking to one class at a time until I reach my skill ceiling with said class.
I hope you get a tons of slow control warrior decks to practice. You probably going to have a worse time against Aggro DH lol
Yeah, Boar priest is better than shellfish.
I don’t believe that’s true. I’m looking at the D4-D1 ranks, and Boar Priest overall is only superior in winrate to Selfish Shellfish by about 2%. It’s not a very significant difference. Moreover, I don’t think I’d enjoy Boar Priest. First, the deck’s required skill-level to perform well surpasses my skill-level. Selfish Shellfish is an easier deck for me to pilot. And so in the end, my best bet is definitely SS Priest, while learning match by match how to use it more and more optimally.
I’m not a very good player, admittedly. I’d rather not run Boar Priest when, even at top legend, it’s low to mid tier 4, just above Selfish Shellfish Priest. I also very much enjoy the milling strategy, which Boar Priest lacks. Lastly, I’ve decided to stick with Selfish Shellfish Priest to help me to better understand the deck and how to play it properly. Practice makes perfect (sometimes). That’s my goal.
The thing is that Boar Priest and Shellfish Priest are designed to beat the same decks. The question is which one is faster.
I’d imagine one big component as to why Mill Priest is more consistent due to its insane draws. Warlock has unfortunately lost most of its draw potential, causing getting to the mill OTK a longer process in warlock. Additionally, I adore the healing capabilities with Selfish Shellfish Priest.
Unfortunately, priest even as boar is not competitive right now.
I’m not sure if you find this fun, but sometimes when a class I like to play is uncompetitive, I look to take a meta deck for that class and narrow it’s scope by refining it for certain matchups, of course at the cost of losing to other matchups.
This allows you to be “competitive” in a very narrow meta, for example you could tech the entire deck to counter DH and examine how well it does.
This process greatly improves your own refinement and teching ability, if you perform it consistently.
Unfortunately, the meta is extremely narrow right now, aggro DH and control Warrior, so you really have to pick one and only one deck to specialize against. As priest you might be able to specialize beating aggro DH if you tech hard enough, but I’m not clear, aggro DH is insanely overtuned. If you have no success with aggro DH you can focus on control Warrior.
This process basically means you favor one matchup over another, so be prepared to lose a lot more in other matchups. I personally find this fun, but it may not be fun for you.
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