Hearthpwn

Hey gang, 

You can watch me pilot this deck to a 9-0 win streak, finishing the night 11-3 for a whopping 79% win rate on my twitch channel at https://www.twitch.tv/lucerohs

Sharing my variation on quest hand lock because I've had crazy success with it (75% win rate over 60 games), and I mean it when I say Soul Rend is bad. All the lists on HS Replay contain this card, and I think the deck categorically performs better without it. There are bountiful draw tools in the deck as is, and destroying our cards isn't necessary to thin out our deck.

We replace Soul Rend outright with Full-Blown Evil. Even the other versions online that are running Full-Blown Evil are still running Soul Rend. It's craziness. So that's why I felt this was worth sharing. Full-Blown Evil, sometimes paired with a Mortal Coil or Touch of the Nathrezim, has potential for essentially the same board-clearing effect and does not destroy cards we need for survival and/or to complete our quest in this meta.

Prior to obtaining Dreadlich Tamsin, I was still running Cult Neophyte in the deck, and it performed just as well under that version too. So if you don't have the hero card yet, this deck is still highly viable without her. That version had both neophytes and no Unstable Shadow Blast.

That's most of what I'll highlight since the quest hand lock strategy is pretty well known beyond this.  But a few other pointers - Generally, mulligan for removal you will need early. I do like to keep a Goldshire Gnoll in my opening hand if I get one, and sometimes a Flesh Giant on coin. Hero power early, remove what you have to, and use your self-damaging cards wisely. Try to get maximum effect out of them. For instance, if you've hero-powered up to 6/8 or 7/8 for part 1 of The Demon Seed, it's best to hero power to complete before playing Backfire. 

If you haven't played this deck archetype before, you often do not need to complete the quest to win. It has strong board control and can close out games way earlier than quest completion. Quest completion is there to switch into control mode against mage, priest, so on. 

Have fun and let me know what you think about removing Soul Rend from this archetype in the comments below. In my experience, with the nerfs to the class, our curve to complete the quest is too tight to be destroying cards we may need to close out games. 

P.S. I rarely ever need Tamsin Roame when things are going well. She almost always sits in my hand, waiting to be used when I need healing in a pinch. That time rarely comes. So do not be afraid to throw her down early just for survivability against faster decks if you don't draw enough removal to clear without her. There's always a chance you get her back through Raise Dead. This also suggests if you don't have her, the deck likely functions pretty well without her.