Questline Priest - Master Duelist 1.2: From Zero To Hero

I theorycrafted this starting deck for Master Duelist, our Duels community challenge that requires you to build a starting deck each time with a different restriction. This month's theme is "From Zero To Hero", and requires you to build a starting deck containing at least one card from each mana cost, from 0 to 10. While this may seem a different condition to meet, there are still a lot of possibilities, and Seek Guidance was obviously one of my first ideas.

I hit 12 wins with my absolute first try, which hyped me up a lot. I later tried another run and ended 10-3, meaning that we may be onto something.

Passive Treasures Chosen

First pool - Crystal Gem

Second pool - Meek Mastery

Deck Overview

My opinion is that you need to have clear in your mind what your game plan is. Xyrella, the Sanctified's Purified Shard will definitely be useful in some occasions, but completing the Questline isn't your main goal. Think about it as a tool for a psychological warfare against your opponents: with each step progression, they know you're getting closer and closer to a "I win the game" type of card, so they are pushed to hunt you down through pure aggression. Little do they know, because your deck is filled with healing and stalling tools, making said aggression rather difficult!

Most of the times, you're gonna win games by exhausting your opponents or smacking them with sheer stats.

Mulligan Tips

Always Keep - Seek Guidance, Pandaren Importer (early body + Discover a card that may fill your curve/answer your opponent's stuff), Cult Neophyte (there are too many spell-based decks, and this unit improves that match significantly), one between Mankrik and Venomous Scorpid (solid 3 drops with an upside).

Possible Keeps - Xyrella (if you're against Aggro) Desperate Prayer (only if you already have Xyrella), Loatheb (if you're against Mind Tether Priest).

Remember that you're playing a Quest deck, so you have one less available spot in the mulligan hand: risky keeps may backfire!

Playstyle Tips

Take it slow - The slowest the game goes, the better it is for you. Privilege healing and defense to anything else, and when your opponent's pression diminishes start chocking them out of the game. The only instance where going to the distance may be a risk is against Magnetic Mines Bomb Warrior, but unlike that deck you don't plan to sit back and wait: you are able to build a board and create pressure, and they'll always have to answer you if they want to keep shuffling Bombs in your deck. Be sure to not go all in when they still have most of their removal, but otherwise a couple big bodies per turn could suffice.

Don't care about the Quest - Remember: you don't need to complete Seek Guidance in order to win the game. Sure, Purified Shard is a guaranteed W, but my opinion is that you should consider your Questline as a secondary win condition, the first one being killing your opponent the good old way. Let's make an example, if your opponent just completed Sorcerer's Gambit in an [Hearthstone Card (Ooops, all spells!) Not Found] Questline Mage deck, and Mutanus the Devourer is the only 7-Cost card you have, don't think about preserving it for later: taking Arcanist Dawngrasp out of the game is a much bigger result than progressing Seek Guidance.

Don't overcommit - You're not Miracle Mind Tether Priest: you don't want to go ham as soon as possible, but you want to (literally) control the game's pace. Play cards on curve and focus on removing your opponent's stuff. In the late game, try to always play the most impactful unit each turn.

Cult Neophyte - As I said in the "Mulligan Tips" section, today's Duels meta has a lot of spell-heavy decks, and making your opponent's cards cost 1 more may be crucial, if timed correctly. Unless you have some kind of plan, I advise you to not play Cult Neophyte on turn 2 just for the body, but to keep it based on what your opponent is doing. Do you think they will complete Final Showdown or Sorcerer's Gambit next turn? Then drop Neophyte, so that they won't be able to play their reward right away and they'll have to wait one more turn.

Hero Power, Signature Treasures and Passives

With a deck like this you don't want to burst down your opponent: healing and card draw is the best you could ask, so Shadow Mend is just perfect. Being able to constantly cycle through your deck means that you'll be less likely to run our of resources, which also means that you'll be able to sustain your board pressure and, if needed, complete Seek Guidance.

To be completely honest, the Signature Treasure choice is up to you: if you're not going with Miracle Mind Tether, you actually have multiple valid picks.

Shadow Word: Void is never going to be bad, but since Questline Priest is not very aggressive I preferred Herald of the scaled ones, which provides another 5 for the quest completion as well as a number of discounted Dragons which, most of the times, are going to help you with the 6+ steps.

Crystal Gem turned out to be more useful than I originally thought, but it's still not a top tier treasure. Unfortunately it's the best that I got offered, so... Yeah. All Together Now, Open the Doorways and Rocket Backpacks are other good choices.

It was the first time I met Meek Mastery since it got moved to the Tier 2 pool and boy, it's still as strong as I remembered it to be. Sure, it made Seek Guidance's completion quite more challenging, but I was able to take control of the board with much more ease, even against Party Replacement, Death Games and From Golden Light decks. Just nutty.

A Patches the Pirate for your hand: you always draw it, it guarantees you the 2-Cost step of Seek Guidance and helps quite a bit against aggressive opponents. Since games are not going to be very fast, you'll also have the chance to keep it in your hand for a while and then jam it on the board as an insurmountable wall for an opponent that is already short of resources. Pretty glad I picked it in the first draft.

As I already mentioned, you don't sit back passively, but you are pretty proficient at building your board: with that being said, Blood Moon isn't a bad pick at all, especially if you can stack it on some Taunts (which you have) or after playing N'Zoth, God of the Deep in order to create a board very hard to deal with for your opponent. Good treasure.

3 mana Greater Healing Potion that ignores your HP cap is nice, even more when it helps towards Seek Guidance's progression and can be fetched/multiplied with the likes of Thrive in the Shadows, Shadow Visions, or Seek Guidance itself. Probably one of the best tier 1 Active Treasures in this meta.

This little fella has two different functions in this deck, and does both wonderfully:

• More resource generation, which also means more chances to progress your Questline.
• Information about your opponent: if you know what they are drawing, then you'll have more chances to play around their stuff.

Also, N'Zoth, God of the Deep brings it back, which is very good, especially when your other Murloc is Mutanus the Devourer, excellent throughout the game but not so much when it comes to resurrecting a plain 4/4.

You may be a little skeptical about this, but hear me out: landing this Active Treasure on Lightshower Elemental or Mo'arg Forgefiend (as well as Crossroads Watch Post if you're feeling cute) just slaps. Mass Silence is rare stuff, so you'll always be guaranteed to receive a Reno Jackson-like effect, in a mode where the Health total is 40 - just nutty. I was able to pull off this combo at least 3 times in the run, and it saved me every single time. If you don't get offered any better treasure, go for it with no regrets.

I picked it because the other two choices were pretty bad (I think one was Amalgamation, but I might not remember correctly) and Meek Mastery made my 5 mana stop pretty weak, so Bubba helped me. Moreover, it is a 6 mana (5 in my case) deal 6 damage, which is not bad at all.

Final Observations

Overall a solid deck, one that you don't see every day but that may deserve more attention.