Evaluating the Quests of Un'Goro in a New Meta - Awaken the Makers

Evaluating the Quests of Un'Goro in a New Meta - Awaken the Makers

Aside from the one-turn-kill Mage archetype borne out of its quest Open the Waygate, class quests have largely fallen under the towering shadows of the more popular Death Knights. A few archetypes built around the Quests enjoyed a short stint atop tier lists, like Taunt Warrior or the once overpowered Quest Rogue, but most don’t see play.

In the wake of a fresh round of nerfs and just months before an anticipated expansion, all this prompted us to wonder what might help each class quest thrive. In the first part of an ongoing series, we’ll be looking at the Priest quest Awaken the Makers.

 

Amara Underwhelms

Reno Jackson fans hoped Awaken the Makers and its reward, Amara, Warden of Hope, might fill the void left in their hearts when the adventurer's time was up in the Standard format. They were, in a word, disappointed.

A neutral legendary minion, Reno enjoyed the flexibility of being used by whichever class had cards to mitigate its downsides. Warlock could draw cards to improve the chances of pulling Reno out of a deck of 30 single copies, Mage and, more recently, Priest both could stall until he swung into action. Powerful cards like Ice Block, Kazakus, and Raza the Chained helped along the way.

Players quickly realized the Reno-esque Battlecry effect offered by Amara was simply too slow within the framework of a Deathrattle-focused Priest deck. I promptly built my first Wild deck after the sting of disappointment set in.

Recently, the wildly entertaining Weasel Priest archetype managed to take advantage of Awaken the Makers, in a fatigue/demoralize-your-opponent-into-submission gameplan. That’s not exactly a sustainable win condition, though.

Savjz Weasel Quest Priest Control Priest Deck by Gustable - Jan 10, 2018
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Minion (20) Ability (9) Playable Hero (1)
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An Obvious Omission

So what does Quest Priest need?

First and foremost, Priest needs better class-specific early-game deathrattle minions. Currently, fulfilling the quest does not pressure the opponent. This makes Quest Priest vulnerable to aggro decks that want to rush us down and control decks that can out-value our 80 or 120-health hero.

Better early-game deathrattle minions would allow us to fulfill the quest without forfeiting pressure. Of course, early-game deathrattle minions can’t have good stats across classes — this should be a gift to Priest specifically, in hopes of enabling the mostly dormant quest Blizzard introduced more than a year ago. I'm not asking for another Zombie Chow, but I am advocating for a Priest equivalent.

Such an addition would serve a dual-purpose. While it would strengthen the terrible early-game offered to Quest Priests right now, it would also strengthen one of its primary win conditions: N'Zoth, the Corruptor. After committing so much of our decklist to cards that fulfill the quest and help us survive into the late game, we need win conditions that don’t require quite so many resources. The Old God N’Zoth is just that, but reviving two Crystalline Oracle, two Loot Hoarder, two Plated Beetle, and a Cairne Bloodhoof won’t compete.

Rather than ditching the Standard format for the myriad great deathrattle minions in Wild — Sylvanas Windrunner, Deathlord, Sludge Belcher, Chillmaw — Priest needs the good deathrattle cards to extend into the midgame, too. That will keep the Quest archetype if not competitive at least viable into the near future.

Reawaken the Makers

As it stands (Weasel Priest being an occasional outlier), Quest Priest results in aggro matches that end before the quest matters, or the opposing control deck functions in such a way that Amara, Warden of Hope and its effect doesn’t threaten them. In the latter, Amara only matters to an opponent short on resources and nearing fatigue (With Jade Druid rotating to Wild soon, this will be more of a consistent possibility.)

The archetype needs better early-game deathrattle minions to apply pressure and make N’Zoth better. What those minions look like, whether we’ll get them in the next expansion, whether other cards might improve the Quest Priest’s win conditions, whether the meta allows for such an archetype in the first place — all that remains to be seen. But at least we know what we need to make the quest playable.

For now, we’ll have to settle for Carnivorous Cube, Weasel Tunneler, and an abundance of memes.

What sort of deathrattle minions do you think can answer Quest Priest's woes? Let us know in the comments

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