The Hearthstone team have revealed a new combo similar to playing the Old Blood of the Ancient Ones in order to summon The Ancient One. This time we have Highkeeper Ra, who must be summoned by having seven Mogu Cultists on board. When Highkeeper Ra is somehow summoned, he is a 20/20 that does 20 damage to all enemies at the end of the turn. We are tasked with finding a way to pull off this combo and kill the opponent.
Necessary Pieces
Let’s get this out of the way: Highkeeper Ra decks are going to be neither good nor viable. We are charting into meme deck territory. However, that being said, everyone is going to want to see streamers pull off the combo.
The most difficult thing is first finding a way to summon seven Mogu Cultists. You can run two copies of the card in the deck, but you need minimally five more. Fortunately, they only cost one mana, and we have a fair amount of cards with the ability to copy minions.
We can run Augmented Elekks with Baleful Bankers. Barista Lynchen allows you to run the combo on a single turn when combined with Jepetto Joybuzz. Realistically, we’re looking at Shaman and Priest having the best chance of getting the most copies of Mogu Cultist. Priest, has Spirit of the Dead that can shuffle extra copies with Elekk. Then the new Shaman Quest allows Battlecries to trigger twice, so Baleful shuffles two copies and Barista Lynchen adds two copies to the hand.
The second thing is that Ra only does 20 damage on his own. You’re unlikely to do much damage throughout the game, so at least 30 will be needed in most cases. Shaman’s Quest will automatically fulfill that requirement because two Highkeeper Ras will be summoned by the Mogu Cultist Battlecry. While Priests can spend seven mana to summon Ra, and three on copying it with Vivid Nightmare.
Highkeeper Ra Priest
This form of the deck will have to be a control deck that cycles to get to its combo. So we can take from an existing deck that does that, Nomi Priest, and change out some cards for the Ra combo. We can, of course, cut the Seances and Chef Nomi, because we don’t need those cards to win.
The core of cycling with the deck is using cheap spells with Northshire Cleric, Acolyte of Pain, and Wild Pyromancer to draw all of the combo pieces. Then we have to add more copies of Mogu Cultist into the deck. We do that by reaching a turn where we can play Magic Carpet, Augmented Elekk, Spirit of the Dead (or two), then sacrificing the Mogu Cultists with Rush into the Opponent’s minions.
Then to setup the OTK turn, you can play Bwonsamdi, the Dead to draw all of the Mogu Cultists that got shuffled into the deck. Lastly, you play seven Cultists, then Vivid Nightmare on Highkeeper Ra for 40 damage at the end of the turn.
Part of the problem getting to that turn is surviving. We have some healing through Divine Hymns, board clears with Wild Pyromancer, and Grave Horrors for Taunt defense. Nomi Priest is by no means a winning deck itself, but in the right hands can be piloted to legend. There might be some promise with Ra Priest.
Highkeeper Ra Shaman
The Shaman deck that can summon Highkeeper Ra would likely have to be a control style deck as well. Though because we need the Quest to summon two Ras, it’s kind of a Token Shudderwock Shaman as well.
So we need Battlecry minions to complete the quest. We put in Sludge Slurpers because they are great cards. Menacing Nimbus gives decent value, Electra Stormsurge gives us better Lightning Storms and Far Sights, even Earthquake. Storm Chaser draws Scheme and Earthquake. Novice Engineers cycle towards the combo, and draw two after quest completion.
Questing Explorer is just a broken card, and Witchwood Piper guarantees we draw Mogu Cultists. Our combo after the Quest is complete is to play the Mogu Cultists, then Baleful Banker them and Barista Lynchen them. Hopefully, you can save Piper until after you Banker so that you can play the combo right away to end the game.
We lack a little health gain so we run Walking Fountain, and maybe something else gets cut for Witch’s Brew. This deck would love to run Hagatha the Witch, but it would have to be played before you complete the Quest. Shudderwock gives us decent value if we ever run out of draw in the mid-game, and can also complete the Quest.
We will definitely have to revisit this idea and see if there is some other form of deck that can pull off the Highkeeper Ra combo once Saviors of Uldum releases.
Images courtesy of Hearthpwn and Blizzard Entertainment via their official website.Â
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