Do you love Dragons? Do you love bursting your opponent down, machine-gun style? Then I have the deck for you. I'm Avarice, and I'd like to share with you one of my favorite decks: Reno Dragon Priest. This is a fun and flavorful deck that can beat virtually anything if piloted correctly. I'll give you some of the tips you need to play this deck properly. Let's dive right into it!

Card Choices

Bloodmage Thalnos cycles himself and provides Spell Damage +1. Combined with Spirit Lash, you can gain massive amounts of health and remove wide boards.

Dirty Rat is absolutely crucial against combo decks such as Togwaggle Druid or Mecha'thun Warlock. These decks are able to reach their win condition faster than you can, so they need to be disrupted. Play him alongside Brann Bronzebeard or Zola the Gorgon in order to remove combo pieces from your opponent's hand. Have removal ready for what you pull. If you hit their Aviana or Mecha'thun and cannot remove it, you might get punished.

Netherspite Historian generates additional Dragons for our synergy cards. Her 1/3 statline is also useful for contesting early boards.

Penance answers early game threats such as Ship's Cannon or Kirin Tor Mage and maintains your life total.

Shadow Visions is a copy of whatever spell you may need.

Shadow Word: Pain is useful for removing bulky Minions such as Voidlord or Zul'Drak Ritualist. It can also be used similarly to Penance.

Spirit Lash removes tokens and maintains your life total. It is very powerful in combination with Bloodmage Thalnos or Azure Drake.

Zephrys the Great is the most versatile card in Hearthstone. He can generate anything you might need. You are most often using him to find removal such as Shadow Word: Death, Brawl, Twisting Nether, and Shadowflame. Against Reno Mage you should almost always use him to find a SI:7 Infiltrator for Ice Block; this prevents the Mage from getting a free opportunity to play Reno Jackson. Removing Aluneth or Skull of the Man'ari is easily done with Acidic Swamp Ooze. Hex is useful for high value Deathrattle Minions such as Carnivorous Cube. Leave up exactly the Mana you need to get what you are looking for.

Brann Bronzebeard doubles whatever Battlecry you need. Use him alongside cards like Kazakus, Dirty Rat, and Zephrys the Great.

Breath of the Infinite removes early, wide boards. It is great at removing slightly tougher Minions like Parachute Brigand.

Shadow Word: Death removes larger Minions such as Flamewreathed Faceless, Mal'Ganis, and Kabal Crystal Runner.

Twilight Acolyte turns your opponent's threats against them. He can neutralize large Minions in the absence of hard removal. He combos nicely with Shadow Word: Pain.

Zola the Gorgon serves a similar role as Brann Bronzebeard. She can generate you another Reno Jackson or Kazakus.

Duskbreaker is premium early game removal. It should almost always be kept against aggro. The 3/3 body on top of an AOE can swing the board in your favor.

Kazakus lets you create a spell to fit the situation. You can choose a 1 Mana spell for Shadowreaper Anduin synergy or removing small minions. The 5 Mana spell is useful for polymorphing a random enemy Minion or drawing you cards. If you take a 10 Mana spell, you are likely looking for the mass polymorph option.

Mass Dispel is our silver bullet against Mech Paladins. It essentially deletes the all of the buffs on their Minions. No more Windfury, Deathrattles, or Divine Shield. It removes Carnivorous Cube Deathrattles as well. This card helps buy us time and cycle.

Spawn of Shadows is our win condition against control decks. When combined with Raza the Chained and Shadowreaper Anduin, we are able to deal massive face damage from hand. We need to hoard some low cost cards in order to keep refreshing Voidform and triggering the Inspire effect. At 6 damage per use of Voidform, we can easily kill from hand with enough cheap cards. We will also be taking a ton of damage, so we need to be relatively healthy in order to attempt this strategy.

Twilight Guardian is a well-statted Taunt that helps slow down aggro.

Azure Drake cycle itself and gives us Spell Damage +1. Like Bloodmage Thalnos, it synergizes well with Spirit Lash.

Cobalt Spellkin adds cheap spells to your hand for use with Voidform.

Drakonid Operative has an amazing 5/6 statline on top of Discovering a card from your opponent's deck. It provides excellent value and tempo in slower matchups.

Mass Hysteria removes most boards efficiently. It is useful against Darkest Hour Warlock as you can afford it even if they manage to summon Nerubian Unraveler.

Raza the Chained reduces the cost of our Hero Power so we are able to use Voidform more times per turn. This translates to higher endgame damage output. Remember that you are able to use Lesser Heal if you play him on turn 6.

Zilliax is a mixture of removal and lifegain. It is an excellent stabilization option against aggro.

Dragonfire Potion is often a one sided clear for you due to the amount of Dragons in the deck. It is a great way to clean up a Spreading Plague.

Emperor Thaurissan reduces the cost of our hand. Against control, you often want delay playing him until drawing cheap spells. This is very useful with Voidform. Against more aggressive decks, we can often just play him on curve to access our removal earlier.

Reno Jackson keeps you alive against aggro, especially Secret Mage. Generating more copies of him can shut down certain decks.

Psychic Scream removes even the stickiest boards. It helps buy you the time you need to stabilize. It just wins you the game against Even Shaman if you are able to survive until that point.

Shadowreaper Anduin clears all large Minions, which is powerful in and of itself. On top of that, you gain Voidform. This Hero Power is deadly when combined with low cost cards. You are able to chisel down your opponent's life total each turn. You can then finish off your opponent with a Spawn of Shadows turn. Aggainst aggro, you can use Voidform to control their board.

Dragonqueen Alexstrasza adds 0 Mana Dragons to your hand. You can use them with Voidform, or you can tempo play the Dragons. The Dragons can also be saved to play after a board clear.

Mulligan

Aggro: Penance, Zephrys the Great, Spirit Lash, Breath of the Infinite, Reno Jackson and Duskbreaker. You are just looking for ways to slow your opponent down in the early game. If you can reach your endgame removal, you usually just win from there.

Control: Raza the Chained and Shadowreaper Anduin. You want to start using Voidform as quickly as possible against control. You aren't winning the long game, you just want to burn them out quickly.

Keep Dirty Rat against Druid or Warlock. As mentioned before, these decks are too fast to kill with burn. It is either disrupt their combo, or lose.

Keep Mass Dispel against Paladin. Excellent into Mech Paladin, decent into Odd Paladin. It deletes Magnetic, Quartermaster, and Never Surrender! buffs.