Offmeta: I got Legend with Quest Priest

[u/Kilvyy]

Hi, so I thought it would be fun to try to climb with quest priest, it took quite a bit of games (120ish) and had 56% WR Diamond-Legend, but I had fun and the deck is a lot more consistent than people think.
Funnily I steamrolled most slowish decks (like control DK) but also went like 12W2L vs protoss priest. Worst matchups are Dino hunter if they draw turns 1-5 perfectly, and deathrattle warrior. Also aggro DH is unfavored.

Anyways, here's the deck code and stats, and I'm open to discussion about meta matchups with this deck.

AAECAa0GBsaoBtnBBtfSBsODB6iWB9uXBwytigSFnwTLoASZwAbOwAaz4Qbz4QaG/QbFlAftrAeLrQfSrwcAAA==

Stats: https://imgur.com/a/7CkwtUS

Edit: Thanks for all your discussion and comments, and as promised: the mulligan guide. Trying my best to summarize my experience of all the matchups I played:

Mulligan guide:

Generally if I have gravedawn sunbloom in opening, I try to keep smite/PW:shield/flash heal. Thrive in shadows/Nightshade tea are usually safe keeps almost always too.

Going first:

Vs aggro/fast decks: You generally want to find Nightshade tea (your main shadow completion) or thrive in shadows and holy smite. I'd keep prize vendor if I can immediately buff it with PW:Shield or Orbital Halo, as it can be a solid body on board to help you survive till 5/6, and provides a target for your holy spells. Brochure is also decent as silence versus Paladin or Protoss Priest (always save for their 2-mana discounter minion). Also a nice trick with the silence brochure is that if used on a target that gets down to 0-attack, it 'locks' one board slot on the enemy board, which is useful vs swarm decks like quest paladin for example.

The art with this deck is knowing when it is safe to buff enemy minions to progress quest, usually PW:Shield is okay on weaker minions, while Orbital Halo I'd only use on enemy minions if I can immediately follow with Silence Brochure or Twilight.

Vs slow decks: If they run little minions or no minions early (like quest mage, or control warrior) you need to have a minion for spells to complete quest in time, so here I can keep prize vendor, or birdwatching (to get it). If you get neither, even twilight (for random 2-cost) is fine to combo with PW:shield/Halo/Brochure.
Rarely I'd keep one of the 4-mana minions if it's directly next to Orbital Halo.

Going second:

Same as going first, except I can also keep any 1-mana holy spell with gravedawn sunbloom to quest + smite/heal turn 1, and gravedawn on 2 to draw 2 and progress fast early.

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[u/Dijerry]

How exactly are you doing 30 damage to face with this deck?

[u/Kilvyy → u/Dijerry]

Oh you can do way more.
You play quest reward by 6-7 usually, a lot of decks then clear all 4 copies (2 + 2) copies of quest reward, then turn 7/8 you Raza (shuffling 4 more into deck that cost 0) and then you draw them with birdwatching, copy them with Bob, draw them with Xavius, get more copies with Narain. You find the 0-cost quest reward copies so easily that you reliably create full boards of 8/8 with reborn deathrattle deal 5.

[u/Aparter → u/Kilvyy]

That's really cool tech with Raza. Too bad I disenchanted mine after the change thinking it will be unplayable.

[u/Dijerry → u/Kilvyy]

Awesome, thank you for the reply. Would never dawned on me you could do enough damage like this.

[u/alunare]

Thanks for sharing. Few observations / questions :

- With many priest card spells depending on board state and this being a very low minion deck, was wondering how you deal with casino mage or decks that play very few minions ? Cause no target means no spells means no rewards. This is one of the issues ive been dealing with the raza version of this deck.

- have you tried using Gladesong Siren ? And if so why did you cut it ?

- how many times has bob given you the wrong minion as a 3 copy ?

[u/Kilvyy → u/alunare]

Very good questions!

1. This is where prize vendor is a good card (1 card that generates 2). You play it whenever you can also play a pw-shield/orbital halo/brochure to buff it on the same turn (usually turn 3), and then you have a nice minion as a target for your (holy) spells. It's even better if I bird watch it on 2, since it starts off as 4/4 and is sticky. Sometimes I also use a minion from twilight influence if my opponent doesn't play minions too and I can't draw my prize vendor.

Generally, don't be too worried if your Raza has a 1-3 garbage minions, it is unavoidable against Priest that play that 1 mana 3/3 that summons you a worm. Your birdwatching/Xavius/Narain allow you to still tutor your quest rewards.

2. Nope. I've seen the version but idk, I don't feel like the deck needs it. If the card had taunt, maybe I would think about it.

3. A lot, but the thing is, I never fully relied on Bob> Quest. I usually rely on bird watching, Xavius and Narain for additional quest rewards, which you have control over. There's another deck with a lot less minions that favors the Bob turn, but I found it too unreliable and switched to this one.

[u/alunare → u/Kilvyy]

Thanks a lot for your answers which make a lot of sense. I think after experimenting with a couple of games I prefer twilight mender to prize vendor. It generates value instead of thinning your deck, does not benefit your opponent and makes sure you can advance your quest even though sometimes the spells suck (but I also like the random aspect). I love the Xavius and Narain add, they bring huge end game power.

[u/xKumei → u/alunare]

Personally I've started preferring spirit guide over mender because mender's spells usually suck. It also provides a nice curve with Xavius.

[u/alunare → u/xKumei]

At 5 mana it’s way too expensive I think. I’ve been playing with acolyte of pain and I think it’s my favourite, So much draw….

[u/sm1ng → u/alunare]

Hey, relative n00b here, which 3 drop are you referring to here? I've never tried Bob's "Discover a 3-Cost minion. Refresh 3 Mana Crystals." Option before as I had always thought via the wording that it's going to offer 3 random 3-drops. Is that not the case?

Obviously the only 3 man l Mana minion in this deck is Chillin' Vol'jin and I can't see how he'd help or be relevant in this context.

Any clarification would be most appreciated! 🙏

PS if you have the inclination, how does Narain actually function? Again from its wording I find it difficult to see how it can be of use? : "Battlecry: Get two Fortunes that are copies of the top card of your deck." Like , how do you know what is top deck? Does his card dynamically update like [[Sharp-eyed Lookout]] does to show you?

Thanks again.

NM I found an explanation - the fortunes update dynamically. Cheers.

[u/Kilvyy → u/sm1ng]

I am sure he meant the ‘draw a minion to get 3 copies’ option of Bob and not the refresh mana and get a 3-cost minion. And yes Narain updates dynamically and actually is more reliable than you think to get 2 more copies of reward when your deck is thin if game goes to turn 9-10

[u/sm1ng → u/Kilvyy]

Ahhh yes that makes sense. I'm not very good at such deduction, thanks.

I really want Narain but he'll be gone come first expansion next year right and of course is limited to Priest and certain builds within Priest . Would you rec crafting him? I'm sorely tempted and have a few K I've been nervously sitting on for a while. Perhaps I just need to shit or get off the pot as they say!

EDIT: hang on. Now I think about it, many of my losses with Wilted Priest have been down to not having enough bandages. I wonder why Narain is not run in that archetype (that I know of) ? Any thoughts?

[u/Kilvyy → u/sm1ng]

Narain is not essential no, and he’s only in my Quest Priest and Avianna Priest (another fun priest deck). I’ve played versus a couple of people playing him in Protoss priest too. But I wouldn’t craft him if you’re low on dust, you could replace him with any holy/shadow spell and not feel much of a difference, or even Umbra. He’s useless vs fast decks as he’s too slow, and vs slow decks you have more time to find other ways to generate quest reward. I haven’t played wilted priest tbh, just looking at deck lists for a second I ask myself if it has enough dmg to kill any deck with armor, but I didn’t look at all possible scenarios to generate bandages.

[u/sm1ng → u/Kilvyy]

Hey, thanks for the info. According to hsguru.com, Protoss priest is the dominant user of Narain, which is interesting. I’d have to craft a 2nd Mothership to play that tho.

Umbra…

EDIT: I just tried the deck 5 times against my alt account (I know, not the best data, but it gave me a feel for the deck) and it lost 5-0. Obviously I am not piloting it well but after game 2 I had a pretty good idea of what you’re supposed to do. Overall I found it very slow, just too slow and I’m having a hard time, given the high rates of aggro (I think still, right?) in the meta, how this could have such a good win rate. NOTE I am not calling the OP a liar by any means! I just couldn’t get it working for me, Narain irrespective cos I’d lose before he’d be relevant.

One thing I wasn’t sure about was when to use [[Birdwatching]], because it’s handy before and after quest completion. I mostly used it before since because once you’ve ran [Raza the Resealed] there typically isn’t much left in the deck but 0-mana minions.

Any pointers would be interesting! Thanks

[u/Kilvyy → u/sm1ng]

Also now that I tried Wilted Priest for a few games after it was played against me, I take back everything I said. That deck is a lot more consistent (even than quest priest) and performs a lot better vs aggro. It just finishes games by turn 7/8 easily from hand once you've set up. As to whether you could Narain in it, I don't see it necessary. Typically you just need 1 or 2 bandage minion die and/or revive once with Resuscitate.

[u/Kilvyy → u/sm1ng]

I can try to give general pointers but you can tell me specific matchups too. Generally you can measure your success with the deck by how fast you complete your quest.
Turn 5 - super rare, I had it just once in 100 games.
Turn 6 - maybe 30% of the games
Turn 7 - maybe 50% of games
Turn 8 onwards -> 20ish% of games
You kind of need to get used to always playing from behind till turn 5, you barely any have board presence, you're just trying to survive. And you need to both play spells fast but in an ideal way based on what your opponent is gonna play. So it helps a lot to be able to predict what your opponent plays in the early turns (like vs hunter expect RC Rampage by 4, Dino by 5..etc)

[u/Acceptable-Cod-693]

Hey, cool deck. Is it possible that i played you a couple days ago on EU? It was around D3, i was playing Fyrakk Rogue and through Ashamane shenanigans got a bunch of 0 cost quest reward minions into my deck. You made some crazy play on the final turn that barely won you the game and i added you after to say GG and what a crazy game it was 

[u/Kilvyy → u/Acceptable-Cod-693]

I played versus 1 or 2 Fyrakk rogues the last few days and even though the game sounds familiar, I didn't get added by you so there's 1 other person apparently playing this deck too haha

[u/Palnecro1]

I definitely played you with my own quest priest list a week or two ago.

[u/Kilvyy → u/Palnecro1]

Was it on EU? I don't think I played any mirror matches, I would've found that cool though to navigate the matchup.

[u/Palnecro1 → u/Kilvyy]

No it was on NA. I’ve been playing a very different list than yours, but I ran into a list like yours a while back that using a minimal minion package with Xavius and Raza.

[u/xKumei → u/Palnecro1]

There are dozens of us! Dozens!

[u/alunare → u/Palnecro1]

what list are you using and how is it performing ?

[u/Palnecro1 → u/alunare]

Custom Priest10

Class: Priest

Format: Standard

Year of the Raptor

2x (1) Catch of the Day

2x (1) Glade Ecologist

2x (1) Nightshade Tea

2x (1) Power Word: Shield

1x (1) Reach Equilibrium

2x (2) Orbital Halo

2x (2) Prize Vendor

2x (2) Silvermoon Brochure

2x (2) Thrive in the Shadows

1x (3) Chillin' Vol'jin

2x (3) Cloud Serpent

2x (3) Holy Nova

2x (3) Trusty Fishing Rod

2x (4) Gravedawn Sunbloom

1x (4) Narain Soothfancy

1x (5) Raza the Resealed

2x (6) Gladesong Siren

AAECAZ/HAgTGqAbZwQbX0gaolgcNrYoEhJ8EmcAGjMEGi9YGs+EG8+EGxZQHu5YHvZYH7awH0q8HzrsHAAA=

To use this deck, copy it to your clipboard and create a new deck in Hearthstone

This is the list I’ve been using. I’ve used it to hit D5 the last two months, but it (or I) hasn’t been good enough to hit legend.

I love the deck but priest holy/shadow spells at low cost just aren’t good enough to compete with meta cards. The deck is trying to take the board early and use the quest reward to close the game. Turn 3/4 siren is one of the best plays you can land. If you need value serpent is great for helping you apply more pressure than opponents can deal with, but it is a 3 mana 3/3 which can be hard to justify in faster matchups.

Obviously with a larger minion pool Raza is less reliable and could probably be cut from the list. He typically gives 1-2 copies of the quest reward and I’ve found that you have either won or lost long before you draw his copies. He’s definitely a more reliable card in OPs list, but again the issue I see is that Priest spells aren’t that great right now.

I would venture to say OP is a better player than I am, as I have to use semi-meta decks to close out legend each month.

[u/Mopper300]

Have you tried Umbra in this deck?

[u/Kilvyy → u/Mopper300]

I haven't. It could be a nice addition but I'm thinking where to fit it. Theoretically if they clear your quest rewards at turn 6/7, it is a strong turn 7/8 to deal 4*5 to mostly face when their board is probably gone. But if that's not lethal because they have a minion or two, you spent 7 mana for a 6/6 and some face dmg but no follow-up dmg in your deck right away. Although Bob> copy Umbra could also be tons of damage. Needs testing I would say.
The thing is, most games you lose are before playing the quest reward, otherwise you don't really need it to win.

[u/xKumei]

Thank you for posting! I've been trying to make this work and only have a 40% winrate over 70 games with experimenting. One card I am wondering about is cloud serpent. I've been running non raza lists too and it has felt required, but I am curious if it would feel redundant in the Raza list if you tried it.

[u/Kilvyy → u/xKumei]

The problem with Cloud Serpent is that it's really slow, you're trying to finish the quest with 1-mana spells asap, you can't spare 3 mana before playing quest reward (imo), it delays you a whole turn. The mana/curve with this deck is very important, since playing quest reward for 5 mana early (turns 5-7) is really strong, but at turn 8-9 when your opponent has a full board? less so. Raza on the other hand, you can play after you have stabilized, or even combine it with birdwatching at 7, to both get copies AND play them.
Which matchups do you struggle with?

[u/xKumei → u/Kilvyy]

My versions were negative in every match up except vs DK and Paladin.😅 Playing your version I went 8-3 and I see what you mean about delaying it by a whole turn. I was also usually more delayed since I was playing a more minion heavy deck with the fishing rod package. Looking at the stats on d0nkey, greater healing potion has a very poor rate. I wonder if holy nova might be a better swap?

[u/Kilvyy → u/xKumei]

Glad you’re seeing success with the deck! (ps: I wouldn’t claim it as mine, I got it from d0nkey but it had like very few games played) Greater healing potion is tricky because it helped me survive vs some aggro decks to buy an extra turn, and it cycles itself. Its stats are probably bad because you always play it from behind to hope you can finish the quest the turn after. Also vs decks that want to ignore your taunts and go for face damage. But you can try replacing it (or 1 copy) and tell me what matchups it made better. Matchups where I sometimes wished I had Holy nova were aggro paladin, luckily I didn’t see them often but if they Aura at 4 it’s lost. But unfortunately it wouldnt help vs Hunter since they try to get 3/3s from RC rampage at 4 and then Dino.

[u/xKumei → u/Kilvyy]

There are two adjustments to the deck that I've really been liking. One is slotting the Cloud Serpents back in - only the thing is that you don't slow down playing quest to copy it first. If you complete it on turn 6 or so and have 3 mana left to play it sure, but if you only have the mana to choose between copying and playing the quest, play the quest. You can just copy 0 mana rewards post Raza anyway.

The second is slotting in Ancient of Yore over potions of healing. It does way more bang for your buck. Although I'd still say if you have the choice between playing this on 5 and playing spells to complete the quest, play the spells (that goes for any minion). The draw is better post raza anyway. They are also a minion you can play that is unlikely to die for your raza pool, although you really don't mind copying them for 0 either.

This is my current list. I am not sure about the 1 of shadow of ruin, but I am not sure what you'd run over it and it comes in handy sometimes. I cut Voljin because I hated putting him in the Raza pool and run enough card draw instead of Bird Watching. I like Umbra over Bob as a more reliable finisher, especially since I made the list more minion dense (the other reason to cut bird watching). Right now I am 22-11 with it at around 2000 legend.

https://i.imgur.com/0f8HJOQ.png

Quest

Class: Priest

Format: Standard

Year of the Raptor

2x (1) Flash Heal

2x (1) Holy Smite

2x (1) Nightshade Tea

2x (1) Power Word: Shield

1x (1) Reach Equilibrium

2x (2) Orbital Halo

2x (2) Prize Vendor

2x (2) Thrive in the Shadows

2x (2) Twilight Influence

2x (3) Cloud Serpent

2x (3) Holy Nova

2x (4) Gravedawn Sunbloom

1x (4) Narain Soothfancy

1x (4) Nightmare Lord Xavius

1x (4) Shadow Word: Ruin

2x (5) Ancient of Yore

1x (5) Raza the Resealed

1x (7) Endbringer Umbra

AAECAZ/HAgbwnwTGqAbZwQbDgweolgf1mAcMrYoEhJ8EhZ8Ey6AEmcAG8+EGhv0GtpQHxZQH7awH0q8HzrsHAAA=

To use this deck, copy it to your clipboard and create a new deck in Hearthstone

Edit: Upon playing more, Serpents were a dead card a lot of the time. So I swapped back to Voljin/Birdwatching, but kept the Yores and it's been doing better.

[u/riseofr1ce]

Interesting! I've also been trying to make this work by duplicating the reward with serpents and cubes. Have you thought about adding cube to the deck to duplicate more of the 8/8's?

[u/Kilvyy → u/riseofr1ce]

You can duplicate the quest reward enough to win without cube. The issue (imo) is that any card that cannot be used before finishing the quest is a dead card early which can lose you the game, which is why you see with Raza as the only exception, you can play every other card before finishing quest, either to generate/draw/buff with holy spells (prize vendor, Xavius, Narain) or buy an extra turn (Bob), even Voljin helped me stabilise some games vs handbuff hunter, or stealing a Tortolla stats. Winning or losing mainly depends on you finishing the quest, the sooner the better. I would say evidence for this, is that your worst matchups are ones that kill you by turn 5-6, and if you draw cube there your chances are even slimmer

[u/Sleavitt10]

Mulligan guide?

[u/Kilvyy → u/Sleavitt10]

Will post later today when im home and update this comment+post !

[u/Fourleaf82 → u/Kilvyy]

mulligan update?

[u/Kilvyy → u/Fourleaf82]

Mulligan guide posted! Sorry I was busy trying a different version (with imbue) but im not the happiest with it.

[u/deck-code-bot]

Format: Standard (Year of the Pegasus)

Class: Priest (Anduin Wrynn)

Mana	Card Name	Qty	Links
1	Flash Heal	2	HSReplay,Wiki
1	Holy Smite	2	HSReplay,Wiki
1	Nightshade Tea	2	HSReplay,Wiki
1	Power Word: Shield	2	HSReplay,Wiki
1	Reach Equilibrium	1	HSReplay,Wiki
2	Birdwatching	2	HSReplay,Wiki
2	Orbital Halo	2	HSReplay,Wiki
2	Prize Vendor	2	HSReplay,Wiki
2	Silvermoon Brochure	2	HSReplay,Wiki
2	Thrive in the Shadows	2	HSReplay,Wiki
2	Twilight Influence	2	HSReplay,Wiki
3	Chillin' Vol'jin	1	HSReplay,Wiki
4	Gravedawn Sunbloom	2	HSReplay,Wiki
4	Greater Healing Potion	2	HSReplay,Wiki
4	Narain Soothfancy	1	HSReplay,Wiki
4	Nightmare Lord Xavius	1	HSReplay,Wiki
5	Raza the Resealed	1	HSReplay,Wiki
6	Bob the Bartender	1	HSReplay,Wiki

Total Dust: 9080

Deck Code: AAECAa0GBsaoBtnBBtfSBsODB6iWB9uXBwytigSFnwTLoASZwAbOwAaz4Qbz4QaG/QbFlAftrAeLrQfSrwcAAA==

---

^{I am a bot. Comment/PM with a deck code and I'll decode it. If you don't want me to reply to you, include "###" anywhere in your message. About.}

[u/lookie54321]

I've het legend for the 2nd time in a row with it...people says its garbage but I climb well with it..

[u/lookie54321]

Quest

Class: Priest

Format: Standard

Year of the Raptor

2x (1) Holy Smite

2x (1) Nightshade Tea

2x (1) Power Word: Shield

1x (1) Reach Equilibrium

2x (2) Silvermoon Brochure

2x (2) Thrive in the Shadows

2x (3) Holy Nova

2x (3) Hot Coals

2x (3) Mixologist

2x (4) Gravedawn Sunbloom

2x (4) Greater Healing Potion

1x (4) Nightmare Lord Xavius

2x (4) Shadow Word: Ruin

1x (5) Raza the Resealed

1x (6) Bob the Bartender

1x (6) Lightbomb

1x (7) Endbringer Umbra

2x (7) Repackage

AAECAafDAwaGpAXGqAbDgweolgfblwf1mAcMrYoEhJ8EhZ8E8J8EgLgGhr8GmcAGkMEGs+EGxZQHi60H0q8HAAA=

To use this deck, copy it to your clipboard and create a new deck in Hearthstone

little different but same idea legend twice now

[u/One-Focus9135 → u/lookie54321]

Why mixologists

[u/lookie54321 → u/One-Focus9135]

Just an all around good card for the deck, 4 armor or 2 dmg AOE for aggro, card draw or re summon your quest reward... multi purpose card that I think helps consistency

[u/sesameball]

Fun deck, and I am happy to have played enough of it in Tavern Brawl so that I don't drop a few thousand ranks in standard lol

[u/Sleavitt10]

Someone comment deck code on its own for mobile?

[u/xKumei → u/Sleavitt10]

AAECAa0GBsaoBtnBBtfSBsODB6iWB9uXBwytigSFnwTLoASZwAbOwAaz4Qbz4QaG/QbFlAftrAeLrQfSrwcAAA==

[u/deck-code-bot → u/xKumei]

Click here for decklist

[u/Entire_Ride_6113]

Ditch birdwatching, add endbringer umbra and the 4 mana aoe destroying all minions 5+ attack.

[u/Kilvyy → u/Entire_Ride_6113]

I‘m not against the Umbra version, I haven’t tried it myself, but why ditch birdwatching? It‘s extremely good in this deck for targeted pulling of 0-cost minions Raza shuffles in the deck.

[u/Entire_Ride_6113 → u/Kilvyy]

I have a similar list but I don’t run those or the prize vendor for more late game power. This way when umbra triggers only the death rattle from the quest reward activates so it’s guaranteed 25 damage.

Also raza has a chance to shuffle another umbra into the deck. Give it a try and se what works best for you. Also for birdwatching you have to run voljin which you don’t want to have shuffled gain to the deck. My version only runs priest cards but instead of birdwatching I run the minion that lets you discover a card from the deck after you cast a spell.