diary of a tiller

today i played 38 games starting from diamond 5 with tiller priest.

my first 10 games were with this list. with 1 of each combo minion, 2x insight and 2x witchwood piper if you draw any 3 of those 7 cards you draw all the combo minions.

1x (0) Forbidden Words

1x (1) Wretched Tiller

2x (1) Wave of Apathy

2x (1) Renew

2x (1) Holy Smite

1x (2) Shrinkmeister

2x (2) Shadow Word: Pain

2x (2) Penance

2x (2) Insight

2x (3) Palm Reading

2x (3) Hysteria

1x (3) Deathspeaker

2x (3) Breath of the Infinite

2x (4) Witchwood Piper

2x (4) Mass Dispel

2x (4) Holy Nova

2x (5) Mass Hysteria

AAEBAa0GBJAPmssCnssCmJsDDZcCyQbWCtcKpvACl4cDmakD8qwDk7oDy80D4t4D+98D+OMDAA==

i went 6-4 and the only reason i didn't go 5-5 is because the quest mage with ice block didn't know to close and restart the client to not get their turn skipped.
my losses were:
1> malygos rogue. they just otkd faster.
2> reno mage with ice block that turned out to not even be needed because i didn't draw the combo by turn 9 after they rnged a grand finale summoning 3 8/8s i had no answer for.
3> renolock with dirty rat in the first half of the deck.
4> reno priest with dirty rat and seance first 10 cards, first rat hit witchwood piper, second rat hit nothing, then they played illucia

so i decided the 1-of each combo minion plan was trash since it gives dirty rat a free win and switched to this version.

2x (1) Wretched Tiller

2x (1) Wave of Apathy

2x (1) Holy Smite

2x (2) Shrinkmeister

2x (2) Shadow Visions

2x (2) Penance

2x (2) Novice Engineer

2x (2) Insight

2x (3) Palm Reading

2x (3) Hysteria

2x (3) Deathspeaker

2x (3) Coldlight Oracle

2x (3) Breath of the Infinite

2x (4) Mass Dispel

2x (5) Mass Hysteria

AAEBAa0GAA+XApwC+AfWCpAP0cECmssCnssCl4cDmakD8qwDy80D4t4D+98D+OMDAA==

i went 15-13 with it and again the only reason i didn't go 14-14 was because a mage with ice block up didn't know to restart the client to not get their turn skipped.

my losses were:
1> big priest with t5 shadow essence into t6 shadow essence, managed to survive to turn 11 but didn't draw the combo
2> secret mage. smorced down and counterspelled.
3> quest mage with randomly generated counterspell. it's possible i could have waited a turn to play around it but i lose to ice block anyway and this deck apparently maindecks it now.
4> kingsbane. smorced down. can't tech for it because it's only 5% of the meta, or can you?
5> aggro druid. smorced down.
6> discolock. smorced down.
7> tiller priest. this pepega wasted the coin to play palm reading on turn 2 then drew thaurissan and combod on turn 7 anyway.
8> kingsbane. ok 2 questions, why does anyone play any other aggro deck and why are we not running double stickyfinger? right, becuause rigged matchmaking means we never face kingsbane if we do that. is that still worth it though? if kingsbane is 5% of meta? no. if kingsbane is 10% of meta? yes. ok, cutting shadow visions for 2x kobold stickfinger.
9> tiller priest who didn't have coin but had t7 lethal after double palm reading on hysteria.
10> kingsbane. t5 stickyfinger. still dead next turn. dead on turn fucking 5 after i played stickyfinger on my turn 5. remind me again why anyone plays any aggro deck other than this one. are they memeing? it's the only explanation.
11> secret mage. smorced down.
12> secret mage. i survived to turn 9 this game and would have won if they didn't have explosive runes up but of course they did.
13> galakrond rogue with spectral pillager otk. didn't draw combo by turn 10 so lost to theirs on turn 11.

when i found out this combo had actually gone live i was convinced tiller priest was going to be a tier S deck. i was wrong. there is no way to build it to counter a relevant amount of the ways you can lose and just not drawing the combo is a consistent lose condition in any matchup even when you build for max draw. kingsbane is a far more effective free win button.