Board 8 > Hearthstone Discussion Topic: Journey to Un'Goro

(+) Yeah! (+)

I'm playing quest Priest on both ladders. I think it's 0-5 on standard and 7-1 in wild for me so far? Thankfully I keep getting matched up with Exodia Mage in wild, think it's 5-0 against that alone.

Honestly, if I'm playing against aggro I feel doomed before the game starts, but I feel incredible against anything that is willing to let the mana crystal bar fill up.
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I think I might make an actual push this month if this hunter deck keeps performing above 85% like it has been.
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List? =P

Want to see what you are running that mine isn't.
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You aren't running a Hydra? Also I run only 1 Hunter's Mark and I run 2 Unleash. Otherwise very nearly the same.
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look it's a poverty deck

ain't nobody got 400 dust to waste on a win more card
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Win more? It's the new Fel Reaver. Some people just get wrecked by it's tempo.
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if I'm not in a position to win by turn five there's nothing that hydra is going to do to change that tbqh

and the only game I lost tonight was against a healadin with equality consec on t6 so the hyrda would have been a net negative there

I mean, science should be done and if it works for you, roll with it. I just don't think it's necessary. Plus, again, poverty deck.
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I'll give it a shot your way. Under what circumstances do you trade or is it 99.99% face?
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Despite looking like it's an all face deck, you do have to fight for the board in the first few turns so you can maintain it later.

Alleycat on t1 into adapt on t2 is almost ensured to take out their first play and you can usually snowball from there.

This deck eats Quest Rogue/Mage, is favorable against Priests and Pirate Warrior, lol Druid, tends to go even or slightly better against everything else. Shaman can wreck with AOEs, but I haven't seen a lot of those lately.
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I tried the Hydra in my Murloc Pally as a closer once, queued up a Rogue that Burgled Stand Against Darkness and I had like 15 health. D:

But I think it could be good in Hunter because of Razormaw (Windfury seems good) and Druid for the same reason Fel Reaver is good in Aggro Druid.

I play Rocs as my 5 drop in Hunter but with less Pirate Warrior I might flip to Tiger
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Quest warrior seems like a near auto lose, but your mulligan priorities don't really change depending on which warrior you are running into so that's nice. I guess you could potentially sneak a win out with timely Hunter's Marks.

I hate playing against classes where the mulligan strategies are complete opposites based on what they are running.

Also my hunter deck tends to lose to quest mage. But in my experience Quest mage plays Frost Nova and Ice Block approximately nineteen times each, so I'm sure that's something that could change.


I think throughout this week I'll finish my climb to rank 5 alternating between this deck and my quest warrior. I'm excited to play it more seeing it working so well for you :D
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Yeah I'm really surprised with how well it's doing. I've gone from 19 to 7 in just a few days of casual playing. Which isn't like groundbreaking, but it's better than I've done in the past few months of casual playing.

Roc, Hydra, and Rhino are all valid 5 drop choices depending on what you're running into I think. I know people questioned Rhino the last time I talked about this deck, but it's done some serious work for me since I got to rank 10.
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Oh and Quest Mage is just too slow in my experience. Same as Rogue. They can get the nuts and find like four ice blocks, but even then it seems I'm able to outvalue them before they can time walk.

Also the ONE WEIRD TRICK mages hate right now are the people that don't attack minions into their secrets at the end and just KC/Hero Power them through barrier.
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If they ever let Rhino stick then they are done for, so it seems fine. It might as well have taunt.
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Yeah I think my struggles against quest mage have more to do with my personal sample size of games rather than the intrinsic nature of the match up.

But I am sorely tempted to run a flare just to make that match up better. Sometimes it feels like I play that deck half the time.
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Yeah Rhino is good if only because of Hyena and the amount of Deathrattles/cheap beasts you run. If it sticks and you play Highmane next turn it's GG (Just like the old Dream of it sticking before Call of the Wild)
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Yeah I've lived many Rhino dreams in my climb so far.

Rhino -> Highmane = Ow (several times)
Rhino -> Hyena + trades into taunt = 12 to face
Rhino -> Adapt (Shroud) = instaconcede
Rhino -> Adapt (+3 attack) + Adapt (Windfury) = 16 to face
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So much F(F)D in this thread!

My list!

It all works together extremely well. The razorleaf is straight up better than the Eerie Statue. 1 more health which is what really matters, 3 less attack, but costs 1 mana less. It curves out so well. Even if you can't silence it, Razorleaf on turn three and Shambler it on turn 4, and you have two 4/8's. And then you just keep buffing them.

Most aggro decks just crumble before the wall. Pirate Warrior is a free win. Even Crystal Core rogue always fails to get through the wall *even after they've completed the quest*.

Has some weaknesses though. Equality is my bane. Taunt warrior is kind of hard because Execute can easily kill a big dude and if you play multiple big dudes you risk playing into Brawl. The Rag hero power is honestly no problem though - it's amusing watching them ping my 26 health minions and not care about it. Miracle rogue is kind of a pain though, Sap, Vanish, and that combo slayer are all trouble.

I used to run Acolyte of Pain over Radiant Elementals but I couldn't get a lot of use out of that draw anyways. The radiant helps with combos and in a pinch if I don't have a big dude to buff I'll just throw down a sunfury or a radiant and start kabal talonpriesting or divine spiriting it. The 1 extra attack helps a ton in those situations.

I'm 50/50 on keeping Lyra. A lot of times she's kinda useless because it's hard to play her 5 cost and start comboing, but there have been qutie a few games where she got out of control and just won me the game.

I just really love playing this deck


Silence × 1
Inner Fire × 2
Northshire Cleric × 2
Power Word: Shield × 2
Ancient Watcher × 2
Divine Spirit × 2
Purify × 2
Radiant Elemental × 2
Shadow Visions × 2
Shadow Word: Pain × 1
Sunfury Protector × 2
Humongous Razorleaf × 2
Kabal Talonpriest × 2
Defender of Argus × 1
Faceless Shambler × 2
Kabal Songstealer × 1
Lyra the Sunshard × 1


purifier

PURIFY
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the unicorn lives

I'm starting to think Quest Rogue fear was overhyped by how well it did Day 1. A lot of things are coming out that pound it and still hold up to the rest of the meta.
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I've been trying a variation of the Kun/Cthun Druid deck, taking out the now wild cards for some of the new stuff Druid got (and a couple more Chtun activators). Obviously, losing Aviana hampers the final combo you would do but it still works pretty well from what I have played.
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Aviana, Kun, C'Thun, Brewmaster, C'Thun, Brewmaster, C'Thun?

Seems good.
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#5 - Midrange hunter
Hunter is back, but not due to the quest. Turns out the hoops to jump through are just too inconsistent for quest hunter, but just a couple of good early cards in jeweled macaw and crackling razormaw coupled with a lot of meta defining cards rotating out (none that really affected hunter) was enough to see rexxar back in the mix. Hunter is pretty solid vs most the field over-all and is the only non-aggro deck that beats Quest Rogue. Its still got a very poor match-up vs Shaman though so beware.

This sounds about exactly right. Shaman is the only class I fear.
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Crackling Razormaw is the new Axe. I have yet to play a Hunter that didn't have it on turn 2.
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played more of my C'thun Rogue today. beast Quest Rogue and Quest Warrior.



lost to Shaman, because everything loses to Shaman.
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Turn 3 Devilsaur Egg into turn 4 Ravenous Pterrordax feels so good.
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https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/127676496079880192/301642862590689280/unknown.png

If ever there were a use for the thinking emoji....
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seriously how is a deck with a sub 50% win rate so well represented, and also making it into the top ranks?

well actually I have a theory but I'd like to hear what others think first
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Meh I don't think it means it's bad. Jade Druid had a similar winrate and was pretty common too

Mainly think it's because

1) It is skill intensive (I've faced a lot of bad Quest Rogues)
2) The right build for it hasn't been discovered yet
3) Metagame has adapted to it.

I put a vanish in mine and it might actually be worth considering just to reset Board and play your cheap minions
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I think it's because when it wins, it generally does so impressively and overwhelmingly, which got the attention of reddit and the like. It also beats taunt warrior, the other breakout deck. It just sucks vs everything else.
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I dunno if it beats Taunt Warrior, especially because they all are running Rat now
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I crafted my first cards of the set this morning to build a Taunt Warrior, and the one Quest Rogue I faced got absolutely dumped on.
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MariaTaylor posted...

seriously how is a deck with a sub 50% win rate so well represented, and also making it into the top ranks?

well actually I have a theory but I'd like to hear what others think first

Patron Warrior back in the day also had a >50% winrate on ladder. It was absolutely the best deck (and cheap!), so more people play it. But those people don't necessarily know how to play the deck optimally. Caverns has a similar issue where it's not necessarily linear and can have weird lines of play.

In this case I don't even think Caverns Rogue is the best deck, but Reddit spent a solid 48 hours circlejerking that it was, and the thread complaining about it is still stickied, so people still think it is.
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had an annoying match at lunch today. I had around 20 minutes which I figured would be long enough for a game. proceeded to queue into a Paladin who roped every single turn, turning a 5-10 minute match into a 20+ minute match. it was so absurdly inconvenient for my exact circumstances at that exact time that it almost felt like he somehow knew if he dragged the match out I would have to forfeit and leave. anyway I can usually afford to dawdle until around 11:48, which is coincidentally the exact time when he conceded.

VeryInsane posted...

1) It is skill intensive (I've faced a lot of bad Quest Rogues)

this was my theory, yeah. I think it has a high potential but also a high skill ceiling. basically high skilled players can get a very high win rate, but low skill players get a very LOW winrate. this drags the overall average of the deck down.
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I dislike this Tavern Brawl
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I love when you're playing a deck just to finish quests, and your opponent figures it out and plays along. Had quests for both destroying minions and playing battlecries, so I just made a deck with 30 battlecry minions and always traded for board. Never used my hero power, never went face even when the board was completely clear, trying to tip off my opponent to what I was doing. After seven or so turns I think he figured it out, because he traded two double digit Frothings into both parts of my Alley Cat. Was able to play through the entire deck before conceding.
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I find the best way to let an opponent know you're trying to finish a quest is to never hit their face.
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Apparently the quest rogue has a below 50% winrate even from ranks 5 to 1 and in legend, so that kind of hurts the idea that it's bad players bringing down the average. It does require some finesse to pull off consistently though.

It seems like it just has too many weaknesses.

I think the main reason it sees so much play is early exposure. Everyone thought it would suck.then on day one a streamer hit legend with it immediately and it was all anyone on reddit could talk about. So tons of people started playing it and then tons more people got wrecked by it. So they were like "holy shit that's OP I better play it too".


And now inertia just has tons of people playing it and trying to make it work. Cause honestly, despite its weaknesses and how ridicously easy it is to complete the quest... it feels really satisfying to actually do it. You feel like you just pulled off some high level combo shit. And then you feel so powerful when you win.
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Quest Rogue is fun to play but poor in design in the sense that it's "did you draw well? Gratz on your win. Did you draw poor? You lose".

If it gets the right starting hand, you lose and that's all there is to it.
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Man, I want to know which quest rogue deck you guys are playing against.

The first two games I played against it, I won and assumed it was just a bad deck. Turns out I had a really fast opening in those games. Every time I've played it since, I have lost. We're talking 10-15 games, across several different decks. The rogue seems to always finish the quest on exactly turn 5, always preps it out, and from that point forward, you're fighting a battle against a deck that has nothing but cheap minions that generally draw or summon more cheap minions, or they bounce the charge minions so they can attack again (and refresh their health).

Yeah, I'm not especially amused, and I'm wondering what these supposed weaknesses in the deck are so I can exploit them. Short of playing an aggro deck, I'm not sure how to combat this one.

quest rogue is p bad

they can draw the nuts like any deck can, but it's a sub 50 deck for sure even when played optimally

the stats seem to back that up so far
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Sub 50 usually means tier 2/3 which is probably where it's at

Ways to beat it are just beat it down fast or get enough of a board presence, wipe out their threats, then manage to take out the first couple waves of 5/5s when they complete the quest with your board wipes

Looking at the same stats, it suggests that the best matchups against Quest Rogue are Pirate Warrior (72%), Token Druid (70%), Midrange Hunter (59%), and Zoo (64%) which are all incredibly good for obvious reasons. You get board and pressure before you just burst them down
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Quest Rogue decimates me because I don't particularly like playing fast decks, so when they finish the quest I haven't done enough yet to win from there on out. I'm generally just sitting there with a lot of options that don't really do anything for me in that matchup, so once I see that Rogue quest hit I'm pretty certain I've lost the game already.
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So, basically, you have to rush them.

Yeah basically

Or you just make favorable trades so they have to deal with your board instead of doing their combo shenanigans
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Favorable trades don't matter if you don't have a firm board presence. They don't really worry about the board until they get Crystal Core off. If you're only playing 1 minion per turn, they can basically handle/absorb that until they can get their army of 5/5s up and running. On either 5 or 6, you get hit with 3 charging 5/5s usually. Either they eat your board, spreading the damage safely, and then bouncing their guys so you can't finish them off, or they just begin the assault on your face.

So I have to play aggro. And so does anyone else who doesn't want to lose to this deck. Which means everyone's just going to go back to playing pirate warrior. Sigh.

Sometimes you just have to accept your deck has a shitty matchup or two. You can at least play a deck that is good against decks that are good against Quest Rogue.
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Control Priest is favored against Quest Rogue too, apparently. So that could be a really good option give or take (But as stated earlier it is expensive to make)

I've heard good stuff about Secret Mage which should be cheap if you wanna build that as it is different from a traditional aggro decklist
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Turn 1 do nothing.
Turn 2 radiant guy(2) + power word shield(0)
Turn 3 humongous razor leaf(3)
Turn 4 visions(1) + purify(1) + divine shield(1) + discovered divine shield(1) + topdecked inner fire(0)

32 damage to face on turn 4.
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