Personally, I'm running a "combo priest" with the quest, and it's definitely above 50% winrate. Not sure yet if it would better without the quest, but the quest DEFINITELY gives better endgame, and MUCH better options for playing around hunter secrets. Basically, without the quest, the combo priest is just a combo with no other way to win. With the quest, it has an alternate wincon.
It's worth noting that, if you need to clear your opponent's board, Zephrys on turn 6 is a guaranteed board wipe spell (pretty much) - it will offer either Swipe or Consecration (or both).
Again, in order to get the Upgrade!, it does not have to be the mulligan. You get two draws before you have to play a card on turn 2. Also, stop comparing it to the [Hearthstone Card (woodsman's axe) Not Found]. I did not advocate trading out the axe for a First Mate. I suggested trading the worgen. All of the moves you are advocating are still possible if you swap one worgen for one First Mate. But you get double the chance of a much better opening. As I said, your choice.
Getting two specific cards in the mulligan, or in the first two draws, is not that unreasonable. As for why it's better to play a minion on turn 1 with a tempo oriented deck, surely you can see that the point of playing the First Mate is that it's a body on the board. Turn 1 quest does nothing for the board state. Turn 1 First Mate does. AND you have the advantage of a possible huge upside with the move I mentioned in my comment. I apologize for the patronizing tone, but you seem to think I don't have a valid point. When you responded as though I hadn't considered that the quest has to be played, it irritated me that you assumed I had no idea what I was talking about, when in fact, I do.
I played a lot of pirate warrior back in the day - having a First mate down turn 1 has ALWAYS been the best possible turn 1 play with the deck. That should still be true, even if you're trying to focus on swinging weapons. And even back then, I did not always swing on turn 1 with the rusty hook.
Summary: If you play N'Zoth's First Mate on turn 1, and wait to play the quest turn 2 and then swing, here's what you get:
-A 1/1 pirate on the board (if it sticks it can help to activate your Bloodsail Cultist - unlikely, but possible)
-A 1/3 weapon that could possibly be upgraded, and which can trigger a 3/3 2-drop with the Bloodsail Raider if you have the coin.
-3 guaranteed swings toward the quest, and possibly a 4th (unless your opponent oozes it, which is fine, since that means they didn't ooze your higher attack weapons)
If you play the quest on turn 1 you get ... none of that. You equip a weapon turn 2, and still have no minion on the board until turn 3, unless you coin a 1-drop on turn 2.
Or you can play N'Zoth's First Mate on turn 1 and, you know, wait to swing the weapon until you play the quest on turn 2, possibly alongside Upgrade!. A turn 2, 2/4 weapon is not better than a 2/2 weapon at all (nor does it complete the quest entirely on its own). But you do whatever you like. If I open a copy of the quest, I'll be dropping a Rabid Worgen that is not a pirate and has no weapon synergy, in favor of another N'Zoth's First Mate which is a pirate and creates a weapon out of thin air.
Hey, it's a highlander deck I might actually be able to make! I have a golden Brann, and I've been wanting to try him out, but don't have enough dust to craft both Zephrys AND Subject 9. But just Zephrys - that I could get behind. I have everything else in this list (mostly). I think I'll try this out! (P.S. - do you think Shieldbreaker is better than Whirliglider? I've been severely unimpressed with Whirliglider as a 2-drop; feels like there are much better options than her, and as a smorc deck, you really want a way to get thru taunts.)
Quest priest was surprisingly bad in the early days, but I think good lists are being figured out, so it's going to be a viable deck going forward, in some form.
I know guys, I didn't mean to be so salty here. Was the first time I even saw the quest and that happened.
Op I am glad you took the correct message from that post 😂. It is literally a steamroll or a get rekt deck with no inbetween.
I've played a fair bit of quest priest. It depends on how you build the deck. Completing the quest on turn 5 is not that insane; just look at how much healing is in some of the lists. Sure, it seems insanely lucky when it happens for your opponent, but it's objectively not as insane as, say, quest rogue finishing theirs on turn 3 (when they did the quest turn 1).
Also, I've had some long games that went back and forth, gotten blown out sometimes, and done the blowing out sometimes. But the bottom line is that it can be built a lot of different ways. Just because the version you've been playing is very slow at completing the quest, that does not mean every version is slow.
You need to drop something and put another N'Zoth's First Mate. I'm stunned that you want to complete the quest super early, but then only include one copy of your best way to get a weapon up and running on turn 1.
When they first released this card, I said it was probably the best 1-drop they ever printed. And now in the start of SoU, he's in almost literally every single warrior deck, whether it is hardcore control, or smorcing aggro - all of them use this guy.
So, umm, congrats on the ez 12 wins I guess? Meanwhile I got completely steamrolled and went 0-3. At least one of the decks that beat me was just bad (crocolisk and swamp ooze both made appearances), and one was a weird dragon warrior. So yeah, tip for others - don't go Zayle.
@Sykomike - You could try this version that I've had some success with. But no promises whether it works well or not. I've only been able to play a handful to games so far, but it seems like it's pretty close to the right list for that style of playing the priest quest.
For the original thread post, this is the deck I've been using so far. It feels pretty strong, but loses to insane RNG from the opponents.
Personally, I'm running a "combo priest" with the quest, and it's definitely above 50% winrate. Not sure yet if it would better without the quest, but the quest DEFINITELY gives better endgame, and MUCH better options for playing around hunter secrets. Basically, without the quest, the combo priest is just a combo with no other way to win. With the quest, it has an alternate wincon.
It's worth noting that, if you need to clear your opponent's board, Zephrys on turn 6 is a guaranteed board wipe spell (pretty much) - it will offer either Swipe or Consecration (or both).
Again, in order to get the Upgrade!, it does not have to be the mulligan. You get two draws before you have to play a card on turn 2. Also, stop comparing it to the [Hearthstone Card (woodsman's axe) Not Found]. I did not advocate trading out the axe for a First Mate. I suggested trading the worgen. All of the moves you are advocating are still possible if you swap one worgen for one First Mate. But you get double the chance of a much better opening. As I said, your choice.
Getting two specific cards in the mulligan, or in the first two draws, is not that unreasonable. As for why it's better to play a minion on turn 1 with a tempo oriented deck, surely you can see that the point of playing the First Mate is that it's a body on the board. Turn 1 quest does nothing for the board state. Turn 1 First Mate does. AND you have the advantage of a possible huge upside with the move I mentioned in my comment. I apologize for the patronizing tone, but you seem to think I don't have a valid point. When you responded as though I hadn't considered that the quest has to be played, it irritated me that you assumed I had no idea what I was talking about, when in fact, I do.
I played a lot of pirate warrior back in the day - having a First mate down turn 1 has ALWAYS been the best possible turn 1 play with the deck. That should still be true, even if you're trying to focus on swinging weapons. And even back then, I did not always swing on turn 1 with the rusty hook.
Summary: If you play N'Zoth's First Mate on turn 1, and wait to play the quest turn 2 and then swing, here's what you get:
-A 1/1 pirate on the board (if it sticks it can help to activate your Bloodsail Cultist - unlikely, but possible)
-A 1/3 weapon that could possibly be upgraded, and which can trigger a 3/3 2-drop with the Bloodsail Raider if you have the coin.
-3 guaranteed swings toward the quest, and possibly a 4th (unless your opponent oozes it, which is fine, since that means they didn't ooze your higher attack weapons)
If you play the quest on turn 1 you get ... none of that. You equip a weapon turn 2, and still have no minion on the board until turn 3, unless you coin a 1-drop on turn 2.
Or you can play N'Zoth's First Mate on turn 1 and, you know, wait to swing the weapon until you play the quest on turn 2, possibly alongside Upgrade!. A turn 2, 2/4 weapon is not better than a 2/2 weapon at all (nor does it complete the quest entirely on its own). But you do whatever you like. If I open a copy of the quest, I'll be dropping a Rabid Worgen that is not a pirate and has no weapon synergy, in favor of another N'Zoth's First Mate which is a pirate and creates a weapon out of thin air.
Glad to see Reno Mage is nice and cheap! I'm only missing, like 5 out of the 9 legendaries!
Hey, it's a highlander deck I might actually be able to make! I have a golden Brann, and I've been wanting to try him out, but don't have enough dust to craft both Zephrys AND Subject 9. But just Zephrys - that I could get behind. I have everything else in this list (mostly). I think I'll try this out! (P.S. - do you think Shieldbreaker is better than Whirliglider? I've been severely unimpressed with Whirliglider as a 2-drop; feels like there are much better options than her, and as a smorc deck, you really want a way to get thru taunts.)
Quest priest was surprisingly bad in the early days, but I think good lists are being figured out, so it's going to be a viable deck going forward, in some form.
I've played a fair bit of quest priest. It depends on how you build the deck. Completing the quest on turn 5 is not that insane; just look at how much healing is in some of the lists. Sure, it seems insanely lucky when it happens for your opponent, but it's objectively not as insane as, say, quest rogue finishing theirs on turn 3 (when they did the quest turn 1).
Also, I've had some long games that went back and forth, gotten blown out sometimes, and done the blowing out sometimes. But the bottom line is that it can be built a lot of different ways. Just because the version you've been playing is very slow at completing the quest, that does not mean every version is slow.
I've played some quest priest, murloc shaman, murloc paladin, and quest shaman. Only a few games of each. They are all pretty fun :)
Such a great article, well done!
You need to drop something and put another N'Zoth's First Mate. I'm stunned that you want to complete the quest super early, but then only include one copy of your best way to get a weapon up and running on turn 1.
When they first released this card, I said it was probably the best 1-drop they ever printed. And now in the start of SoU, he's in almost literally every single warrior deck, whether it is hardcore control, or smorcing aggro - all of them use this guy.
Holy cow guys! This article is featured on the Battlenet Desktop App newsfeed! Congratulations!
So, umm, congrats on the ez 12 wins I guess? Meanwhile I got completely steamrolled and went 0-3. At least one of the decks that beat me was just bad (crocolisk and swamp ooze both made appearances), and one was a weird dragon warrior. So yeah, tip for others - don't go Zayle.
I'd try this, but waaaay out of my price range.
Does Zayle still give the same 5 decks that he used to give, or are they different after SoU?
The RNG insanity is real. Both of these games, I had a reasonable chance to win if opponent RNG had not been absolutely bonkers good.
https://hsreplay.net/replay/sMNd2GgE6JuFKJExXS8uSf
https://hsreplay.net/replay/cwSb6ffpsYsvgSZiS4ELhg- especially this one
@Sykomike - You could try this version that I've had some success with. But no promises whether it works well or not. I've only been able to play a handful to games so far, but it seems like it's pretty close to the right list for that style of playing the priest quest.
For the original thread post, this is the deck I've been using so far. It feels pretty strong, but loses to insane RNG from the opponents.
Activate the Obelisk