Hearthstone
I think I fixed Quest Hunter
So Quest Hunter has been my favourite competitive deck during the DoD meta because of how versatile and unique it was. Thanks to Leeroy Jenkins it basically played like a combo deck, but instead of just burning through your deck like a lobotomite until you have lethal you had to use your ressources as efficiently as possible and get in chip damage until you get into a position where your opponent can't possibly win anymore.
After Leeroy got HoF'd the deck just kind of fell apart because despite having a strong payoff it now struggled to actually close out the game (and the lack of Zilliax certainly didn't help either). During AoO the deck was essentially dead. The only support it received was Zixor, Apex Predator which just wasn't a good enough replacement. So I just kind of accepted this deck was a one-expansion gimmick and moved on..
However, due to me being bored by the current trend of Hunter being either a braindead face deck or an equally brain dead amalgamation of overstatted cards (also known as Highlander Hunter) I tried to find new ways to play the class. After trying (and failing) to build some from of Deathrattle Hunter (and wasting 3600 dust on Vectus and Teron Gorefiend in the process) I eventually ended up in a situation where I realized that Nine Lives works exceptionally well with Zixor, effectively giving your 4 additional Primes over the course of the game. I then continued testing with a Quest Hunter build where I ended up cutting all the Deathrattle stuff (which was just too slow and pointless) and instead went hard on a Zixor package aiming to just simply outressource the opponent by spamming Cyborg-lizards until they are out of removals...and it worked surprisingly well.
Priest absolutely cannot deal with it (unless you let them steal Zixor or are dumb enough to play into Mindrender), Warrior's only actual out is Rattlegore (which is actually pretty effective and you can't deal with it), Demon Hunter, Hunter, Shaman and Highlander Mage all have a chance but you can most certainly push them off the board and set up lethal. Druid is...broken...but still manageable if they don't get the perfect curve (Veranus is key, but an early Lake Thresher just fucks your shit completely). Paladin can be difficult if they snowball but I have put in the tools to somewhat deal with it. Only Rogue is a truly terrible matchup based on the fact that Stealth counters Rush.
At the end of they day it's a counter deck to specific matchups, but at the very least it's fun.
Anyways, I'm genuinely proud of this build and surprised it works as well as it does:
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So Quest Hunter has been my favourite competitive deck during the DoD meta because of how versatile and unique it was. Thanks to Leeroy Jenkins it basically played like a combo deck, but instead of just burning through your deck like a lobotomite until you have lethal you had to use your ressources as efficiently as possible and get in chip damage until you get into a position where your opponent can't possibly win anymore.
After Leeroy got HoF'd the deck just kind of fell apart because despite having a strong payoff it now struggled to actually close out the game (and the lack of Zilliax certainly didn't help either). During AoO the deck was essentially dead. The only support it received was Zixor, Apex Predator which just wasn't a good enough replacement. So I just kind of accepted this deck was a one-expansion gimmick and moved on..
However, due to me being bored by the current trend of Hunter being either a braindead face deck or an equally brain dead amalgamation of overstatted cards (also known as Highlander Hunter) I tried to find new ways to play the class. After trying (and failing) to build some from of Deathrattle Hunter (and wasting 3600 dust on Vectus and Teron Gorefiend in the process) I eventually ended up in a situation where I realized that Nine Lives works exceptionally well with Zixor, effectively giving your 4 additional Primes over the course of the game. I then continued testing with a Quest Hunter build where I ended up cutting all the Deathrattle stuff (which was just too slow and pointless) and instead went hard on a Zixor package aiming to just simply outressource the opponent by spamming Cyborg-lizards until they are out of removals...and it worked surprisingly well.
Priest absolutely cannot deal with it (unless you let them steal Zixor or are dumb enough to play into Mindrender), Warrior's only actual out is Rattlegore (which is actually pretty effective and you can't deal with it), Demon Hunter, Hunter, Shaman and Highlander Mage all have a chance but you can most certainly push them off the board and set up lethal. Druid is...broken...but still manageable if they don't get the perfect curve (Veranus is key, but an early Lake Thresher just fucks your shit completely). Paladin can be difficult if they snowball but I have put in the tools to somewhat deal with it. Only Rogue is a truly terrible matchup based on the fact that Stealth counters Rush.
At the end of they day it's a counter deck to specific matchups, but at the very least it's fun.
Anyways, I'm genuinely proud of this build and surprised it works as well as it does:
I tried having fun once.
It was awful.
Nice innovation just using Nine Lives with zixor as a win condition. But the more I look at it the more Im convinced that the quest is expendable. Just doesn't seem like your deck is using the quest to do anything other than cheese a win with Unleash the Hounds.
I tried a combo variant to abuse zixor along with a dragon shell but wasn't too successful with it. Maybe I can try your idea of abusing Nine Lives and go with it again.
Consider adding Pressure Plate in your deck. Its just nuts in this meta.
Thanks for sharing; I'm happy to see Quest Hunter alive and doing well on the ladder!
What would think about running Ramkahen Wildtamer instead of 1 or both Nine Lives? I found some success with it in a Zixor heavy deck last season and you're not running expensive beasts that would make it hard to isolate Zixor. Just thinking it may be a little better in aggro matches and not too much worse against control.
And is it safe to say that Shu'ma is too slow in the higher ranks? Or does Nine Lives just make that unnecessary?
Thing is, Zixor alone doesn't really work as a win condition by itself. It's really the mounting pressure of the Quest Hero power that does it (Unleash is really just a last resort). Any time multiple minions stick the opponent takes extra damage.
Quest Hunter is also the only deck that can reasonably bring a lot of draw to Hunter through Cult Master, which you absolutely need. Nine LIves is already kind of clunky because it's a dead draw before you play Zixor.
I experimented with a Secret package early on but it was just too slow. Then again, maybe there is a way to combine the two and still keep the Quest around. Lately I have been runnning into a lot of trouble against the rising tide of Stealth Rogues and I was considering finding a way to squeeze in Explosive Trap
I tried having fun once.
It was awful.
Tamer only gives you one extra zixor instead of two. The main reason I like Nine Lives is because it guarantees we have enough value for any decks.
Shu'ma I haven't tried so far but from pastt experience it's not proactive enough. It's only good against slow control decks and even then it's basically just for quickly finishing the quest without having to waste Locust Swarm.
I tried having fun once.
It was awful.
So all you have to do is not play Zixor until you can trade it off, while also playing Zixor immediately to play around an early Mindrender... check! ;)
Would it be an option to include Ironbeak Owl or would that mess up Scavenger's Ingenuity?
Since most of their stealth minions have 1 health, maybe Knife Juggler is a viable counter? It has synergy with the rest of the deck against other opponents as well.
Another option could be Flare, but that's probably too situational. Although Flare + Gryphon would counter Twilight Runner.
Last time I played Quest Hunter, Clear the Way was a bit of an awkward card, since you lose its benefit if it overlaps with Swarm of Locusts. Maybe one copy would be enough?
Is there a place for Tracking in this deck? Post-completion there are quite a few cards that you would rather skip, while in the early game it can be useful if you didn't draw a good curve.
I might give it a go, but I'm missing Veranus. Perhaps that's just worth crafting though, if it's good enough to be played outside of dragon decks as well.
Man you got me on the brink of crafting the quest again. Maybe I'll dust my golden Lord Barov.
I notice I am confused. Something I believe isn't true. How do I know what I think I know?
Harry James Potter-Evans-Verres, hpmor.com
Last season i almost made to legend using a Highlander version of Quest Hunter that i created. The deck traded the consistency of duplicates for the sheer power of the Highlander cards. Dinotamer Brann is a powerful finisher and is also two bodies in one card. Pre-nerf Dragonqueen Alexstrasza was three bodies in one card and Zephrys just does a lot of different things. I could also experiment with some slower cards like Nagrand Slam and it was a very powerful finisher with a great synergy with the quest. DH was the main problem that prevented me from achieving legend.
I tried rebuilding the deck but this meta has too many giant minions and mana cheating and the deck can't deal with all that stuff. Dragonqueen Alexstrasza is too slow and weak now and we don't have enough time to complete the quest or even get to 10 mana to play Nagrand Slam. I like the idea of having multiple Zixors but those giant boards and big high rolls are really discouraging. Professor Slate could be a decent tech against such big threats but he lacks support to do his job properly. It will take some serious meta shifts for the deck to become a stronger contender once again.
"True mastery takes dedication."
I've been having a blast (and quite a few wins) with Quest Hunter since DoD came out. My deck runs King Krush, Beastmaster Leoroxx, Scavenger's Ingenuity and Ramkahen Wildtamer as a win condition. With a little luck, you can blast 36 to face on turn 10. I can share the list if anyone's interested.
"Be excellent to each other." -Bill and Ted
please do. I actually ran into a list like that while testing and I actually beat themm (though I suppose they drew rather poorly). My list was always intended as a value deck first and foremost, but maybe going full finisher is the better choice
I tried having fun once.
It was awful.
Owl is a fine tech choice, Ingenuity is mostly there for draw anyways. It's just a bit situational in my opinion. I'd only run it if the Warrior and Paladin are extremely prevalent.
Veranus is kind of a staple for Quest Hunter (and Highlander too if I recall correctly) so if you're really interested in the playstyle it's a must.
I do have to warn you though, Stealth Rogue is on the rise and Quest Hunter just can't beat them...at least not unless you gimp the deck hard by running Explosive Traps
EDIT: Completely forgot, yeah, Clear the Way is a bit awkward at two, it's probably better at one (or ditched entirely, maybe even for the aforementioned Explosive Trap). Without Springpaw it'S gotten a bit too clunky for my taste. I'm also thinking of doubling up on Cult Master because I really need the draw.
Knife Juggler could work but is probably too slow. You wanna use it early but can't stick it on the board against rogue so it only really works in the midgame where you're most likely already losing
Tracking is a bit of a hate card of mine. I jsut don't like the discard effect. It also has anti-synergy with shuffling multiple Zixors.. I'd rather just run more draw.
I tried having fun once.
It was awful.
Wouldn't do that yet. If Stealth Rogue continues to rise Quest Hunter won't be a lot of fun to play.
I tried having fun once.
It was awful.
Isn't the quest just a downgrade at that point? The whole point is to get the reward quickly and pressure with it, wouldn't running only 1 of each token card make it kind of...pointless? Dinotamer Brann doesn'T exactly benefit from the Quest in any particular way.
I tried having fun once.
It was awful.
Dinotamer Brann is very commonly used to apply pressure instead of finishing the opponent in regular Highlander Hunter. I decided to take advantage of that as it would be helpful for completing the quest, apply pressure and act as a finisher. Those two points of damage could make a difference. I find regular lists of Quest Hunter to be too dependent on the opponent's mistakes or inability to remove a board to win the game. You have to wait for them to run out of answers or hope they play into your Unleash the Hounds. I decided to go for this route because it provides more ways to reliably finish off the opponent.
My list preyed on slower decks. I had over 90% win rate against Priests and they were responsible for my success for the most part. The quest reward doesn't give them enough time to stabilize. Highlander Mage was also a good prey but they could still find a way out through their RNG shenanigans. Galakrond Rogues were close to 50/50. DH and Warrior were the bad matchups. They were more efficient at applying pressure and dealing damage but Warriors were kinda rare outside legend. DH was all over the place though and that was enough to ruin the dream. It was the first time i got this close to legend. This sealed my distaste toward that class.
"True mastery takes dedication."
Here ya go! Would love feedback, or to hear that you're having fun with it!
https://outof.cards/hearthstone/decks/18877-krushs-quest
"Be excellent to each other." -Bill and Ted
Alright I guess I'm gonna blow some dust and try out both decks. And I'll also try out to sneak in Ace Hunter Kreen because I really like that card and got a golden copy from the preorder bundle. Rush minions + Kreen might actually work out.
I notice I am confused. Something I believe isn't true. How do I know what I think I know?
Harry James Potter-Evans-Verres, hpmor.com
Kreen is definitely a good addition (I updated the list recently and you can easily use him to replace Teacher's Pet). I just didn't have him yet and didn't want to craft him just for an experiment.
I tried having fun once.
It was awful.
I used to run Clear the Way, but too often I'd play something like Swarm of Locusts and not even get the gryphon. It's a very good quest support, but can contradict some of your other choices.
"Be excellent to each other." -Bill and Ted
yeah I learned that the hard way too. It really was Springpaw that made that thing work
I tried having fun once.
It was awful.
Adorable Infestation
It's still not Highlander Hunter so it's still probably bad. But here's a cleaned up version of your idea.
I don't think Adorable Infestation is any good. It's a horrible topdeck and doesn't help trading because almost all our stuff is at 1 health anyways.
I also haven't really been impressed by Kragg's performance overall, but maybe I'm just unlucky.
Vectus and Shu'ma are pretty slow and only work as win-more cards in my opinion.
I still hate TRacking, it always drops something important.
I tried having fun once.
It was awful.
Alright, after now being beaten by Priests even I have decided to give up on this type of deck. Apparently 5 Zixors isn't enough if they can just copy 3 of them out of your deck and spam about 6 Cabal Acolytes.
Since going full value isn't working out against the decks it's supposed to I guess full combo might just work better, so I'm gonna try again to adopt Pezman's Krush build and try to make it work as a legit lategame 30-damage combo with the early game focussed on full defense.
I tried having fun once.
It was awful.
Can blame ya for losing to Priests. Priest is OP right now.
Even pros agree, as priest is currently the most banned class in GM.
I personally find that class toxic, especially Mindrender Illucia.
Agreed that mindrender feels really bad to play against. Its perhaps the greatest mistake made by team5 since Patches the Pirate and Jade Idol, but since its printed we all have to just live with it.
Priest is good, but far from the best. That class is most likely warrior
Its only the most banned because everyone is targeting druid. Since kael'thas is effectively gone, we will likely see more hunter, aggro druid, or even shaman, so warrior will most likely be the class to ban next.