My take on Questline Shaman (70% WR)
- Last updated Aug 19, 2021 (Incanter's Nerfs)
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Wild
- 15 Minions
- 15 Spells
- Deck Type: Ranked Deck
- Deck Archetype: Quest Shaman
- Crafting Cost: 5760
- Dust Needed: Loading Collection
- Created: 8/19/2021 (Incanter's Nerfs)
- SirJohn13
- Registered User
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- 3
- 6
- 24
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Battle Tag:
Sirjohn#21529
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Region:
EU
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Total Deck Rating
91
So I've been playing this deck at around ~2000 legend and I've been winning a lot more than I've been losing (my record is 24-10 versus a diverse pool of classes - everything except Warrior actually).
Since my deck is somewhat different than the most popular versions out there and my playstyle is also a bit different from what I often see from opponents playing this deck, I thought to write this guide.
About the deck
We run a lot more 'discover' cards: Entrapped Sorceress, Marshspawn and Panadaren Importer. Instead we do not run some underwhelming spells like Investment Opportunity or some situational ones like Primordial Studies or Feral Spirit. Higher curve and more discovery (+ possibility to discover high-cost spells) means that we don't run out of resources so easily (which happens a lot to other builds of this deck). Pandaren Importer is there for two reasons: (a) discover some of those situational spells that we have cut from our deck and (b) offer better early game curve as we do not really have any other 2-drops. It seems superior to Wandmaker to me. Finally, by cutting some non-nature spells we significantly increase the chances to draw 2 cards from Primal Dungeoneer (and very often drawing the Canal Slogger is the difference between life and death)
Gameplan
We don't rush to make progress with the quest as overload is bad and messes up our future turns. Instead we look to make some good tempo+value plays early (playing stuff like Marshspawn and Entrapped Sorceress) and aim to finish the first part of the questline a bit later on a single turn or on two consecutive turns. This fully negates the overload effect (as we unlock all our crystals) allowing us effectively to cheat quite a bit of mana. A powerful play for example could be: t1 the quest, t2 coin Marshspawn, t3 Primal Dungeoneer (see, no rush to play overload stuff) and then t4 Diligent Notetaker into 2x Lightning Bloom into Serpentshrine Portal into Entrapped Sorceress - cheating 5 mana and unlocking all those 5 crystals in the process
For the second part of the quest, it really depends on the match situation as well as the resources we have in our hand. On later turns overload is less punishing, which allows us to make steady progress with the quest, but ideally we'd like to set up for another such 'miracle' turn which we end by casting Overdraft, to get the 3/3 on board and unlock once again all our crystals.
For finishing the quest there is often a dilemma: which overload spell to use to complete it and which to save for next turn to double up
Other comments: Charged Call is a great play when it can give us an 8-drop as very often we get offered Al'Akir the Windlord. Combined with a previous discovery of a Rockbiter Weapon or Totemic Reflection, this can be an alternative win condition.
Mulligan
Great keeps (always): The quest, Pandaren Importer (especially when going first), Entrapped Sorceress, Primal Dungeoneer and if on coin also Marshspawn
Good keeps: Guidance, Lightning Bloom,
Situational keeps: Diligent Notetaker if you already have Bloom + a plan for a big mana cheat turn and a curve till then
Versus Hunter: Perpetual Flame (always), Canal Slogger (only if you can curve into it on t4)
If you have any feedback, you are welcome to comment below. Enjoy;)
I tried this stuff and many other variances.
I have played a LOT of Quest Shmn this last week and here is what i have seen.
You MUST have feral spirits.Zapper doesn't do anything to answer the board,sure he moves quest forward but when i tried him i was already facing 6/7/8 dmg on board from say Hunter and could not afford a dead turn.In otherwords Zapper was NEVER useful.His best use is if your playing Landslide which could be a consideration figuring how often you face aggro.
Pandarin is again slow,does not answer board and most often gives cards i don't need.Sure it MIGHT get you a tidal surge but not reliant.
Sorceress was often a completely useless card if already done the quest which happened a LOT.At turn 7/8/9 you can't simply play a 3/4 that does nothing.It is also a SLOW card,you can't just toss down minions that do nothing right away when facing minion heavy boards.
The tough aspect of quest shaman is that it just doesn't have "consistent" answers for Hunter and NO answers for buff PLD.The other aspect is that quest really has NO great matchup as EVERY game is a challenge.I have managed around a 60% WR but it has not been w/o stress lol.
The positive side is that although no great matchups it also can beat any deck with the right draws except maybe Mage but not many mages right now.
Actually I've also updated my list since I posted it here. I cut 1 Zapper (was a bit underwhelming relative to the rest of the cards). I cut 1 Sorceress for the same argument as the one you make. It can be a dead card if drawn late. I cut 1 Overdraft as it seems quite situational. (It's useless early thanks to the 1st Part reward). I added Feral Spirits as it seemed to be one of the best-performing cards in 'standard' Quest Shaman builds. I replaced Pandarin with Wandmakers as all 1-mana spells you might get are generally good (Revolve is the only one that is likely a bad outcome). Finally I added one Earth Elemental and I have to say even though it would also be a dead draw late, cheating it out early with Bloom (and exploiting to maximum the 1st reward) has led to a few insta-conceded by opponents
I have to say Aggro (Hunter in particular) doesn't seem like a problem matchup. With the AOE of Perpetual Flame and the healing from Canal Slogger I feel like the matchup is very favorable. Buff Paladin is indeed one of the toughest matchups. There you only hope for randomly generated Devolving Missiles and/or Revolves, but again that's often not enough a Paladins stagger threats.
sorry but i just cant believe you did that in legend. this is just to slow for the meta. its a value deck, almost like a control one. theres no space for such thing nowadays, unfortunately
Actually the meta in legend seems a bit 'easier' to me. People mostly play the decks they enjoy (which leads to a large variety of decks, some of course are the best ones some others are less good) and not everyone is playing the best 'tryhard' decks. You can see my reply to fabjx below for some example games. I'd never call this a control deck though. The value generators are there because the deck otherwise tends to end up with an almost empty hand and they also come with a premium-statted body (generally 3-mana 3/4) which is good for fighting the board early vs aggro decks
i can see your point.
dont get me wrong, im not saying it doesnt work, im just saying its not optimal. and by optimal i mean over the meta, not over the class or even over the deck. theres not much more somebody can do with the new quest shaman in standard. the faster versions are simply outclassed by elemental shaman, so this slower version seems fair, despite 24-10 being something i think doesnt accurately represent the deck quality
That is why you should always specify NOT FOR CLIMBING in the description
We don't rush to make progress with the quest…
Yes really nice strategy vs mage and warlock……
Some example matchups vs Mages:
https://hsreplay.net/replay/Dp8khWfCQ25QQWBisibR4f (guy played double Flow on t2 & t3 - pre-nerf, I won by Chaged Call into Al-Akir rather than completing the quest)
https://hsreplay.net/replay/bAz7hCZbqe7gML5ycjCNQo (again early pre-nerf Flow, I survived 4 turns after Mage completed the questline)
By not 'rushing' I mean that in both games I played minions on t3 & t4 and played all 3 overload cards on t5 for example
And here is a Warlock:
https://hsreplay.net/replay/Z2aNyb4X3q2mn75mSujh6G I played no overload cards until t5. I played 3 of them on t6, then 3 more + Overdaft on t7, then discovered Al'Akir again from Charged Call to win on t8. Never completed the quest
Great deck, sooo much fun!
Whenever I see a new deck posting, I rarely try it out when there is no deck explanation.
So I want to complement you on the write up for this deck.While I won't be playing it till later today,the information you gave will undoubtedly help me in playing it correctly.
Great job!
Only 1-2 thus far with the deck but it's definitely my favorite variation of Quest Shaman. Nice job.