Omedus the Punisher

Being a priest in the World of Warcraft MMO game always seemed like a poor choice to me. Personally, the idea of 'melting faces' seemed weak relative to the burst damage of a mage or the longevity of warriors. However, the same is not true in the World of Warcraft Trading Card Game.
While priests are typically assumed to be passive healers who camp out behind a bigger fighter, they do have their offensive side. In fact, the priests in the TCG have just as much offensive ability as healing. This can be especially seen in Omedus the Punisher.


The real advantages Omedus has over his Alliance counterpart, Boris Brightbeard, is that his flip ability allows him to deal up to seven damage to an opposing hero all by himself. Boris, on the other hand, can heal any amount of damage (provided you can pay that many resources) from any hero or ally. Technically, Boris can heal more than Omedus can dish out, but Omedus, being the only Shadow priest in the pair, also has access to Shadowform. That, coupled with Chromatic Cloak, can give your opponent nightmares for weeks to come.

Shadowform isn't particularly spectacular on its own or even in combination with Odemus' flip ability. But mixed with Chromatic cloak, it makes every ability a heavy blow to the opposition. While Chromatic Cloak only affects abilities and Shadowform only works with Shadow damage, the fact that there are some good priest abilities which deal shadow damages makes both cards worth every resource. The key abilities for Odemus to take full advantage of his Shadowform and Cloak are Shadow Word: Pain and Mind Spike. While Mind Blast is also a potent ability (essentially working as two Mind Spikes) the cost is more than twice a single Mind Spike and when using the cloak and form, it's better to play as many individual abilities as possible.

Now we get into the real benefit to the priest over other characters. Shadow Word: Pain will slowly work on an opponent's health until either the attached character is destroyed or the ability is. Even more importantly, it's instant and can be played during your opponent's turn, provided he or she plays something that would be start the chain. Once attached, with Shadowform and Chromatic Cloak, the Pain will triple. Two Pains on a single hero would deal 6 shadow damage at the beginning of each of your turns. Over the course of just a few turns, that can easily overwhelm an opponent.
While there are other cards that force a discard, Mind Spike lets you do damage at the same time. On top of that, when it's coupled with Shadowform and Chromatic Cloak, it does three damage and causes your target's controller to discard three cards. The similar card, Mind Blast, would only gain you one more damage and card for an additional three resources, so it wasn't quite worth the cost.

The real trick to making this combo click is in timing the discards you throw at your opponent. If you can hold on to a discard ability until your opponent forgets (or can't) play the card they draw, you're practically guaranteed to get it out of their hand. No cards in their hand means that you can see all of their options on the table and stop them from using any real strategy. That is what control is all about.