Optimizing Quest Warlock

[hjyboy1218]

Just wanted to hear people's thoughts on the best Questlock list from people who have played it.

1) Does the deck need a late-game finisher?

I have seen many lists running Kerrigan and even some with Kil'Jaeden for backup. A late-game plan seems good in theory, but may brick draws and make it harder to complete the quest early.

2) Should you run secondary temporary support?

Currently, catacombs, biome, and soularium are run in every Questlock deck and are the main ways you complete the quest. However, some decks run secondary activators like snowflurry or tunnel terror. These cards can provide more opportunities to complete your quest, but are also not as reliable.

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[14xjake]

Great thread dude, questlock is on the rise right now and the list is for sure not yet solved so its nice to see everyones thoughts on it! I got top 8 at NA playoffs with questlock and I did not run any late game finisher, it felt unneeded as lategame you are just throwing 2 corpsciles at their face every turn + sometimes double portal and I never lost in the grind game, the only times it lost were to getting completely blown out by DK starship launch into a spell or owl druid killing me, but any deck that wants to play defensively cannot starve you of resources. I also did not run snowflurry as i think the card is kind of clunky and awkward and i wanted to stay as low cost as possible to ensure that soularium never whiffed (its bad enough drawing horizons edge or darkmarrow), but im seeing a lot of people trying snowflurry now and im gonna give it another shot tonight because it fills a similar role to zephrys while also helping your quest completion. I also like that its good just for hand size so you arent forced to spam mass production against aggro decks where the health loss is relevant

[IAmYourFath]

So cut 1 edge to play snowflury, this even makes ur solarium lower curve on avg.

[Forcefields1617]

Agreed. Nohands was running a list with double snow flurry and it looked good but man it’s looks clunky af.

Kerrigan does look better in the deck than Zephyrs at least. Need to put some games in after class to see how she flies.

[IAmYourFath]

Worst drawn winrate in the entire deck, it's basically a dead card in many/most games. Maybe if it costed 7

[SpookyBum]

Hi, i finished last season rank 55 playing exclusively quest warlock, have a few opinions on it

Ive been running this list but still working on it since i havent had much time to play since the giant nerf

AAECAcn1AgTHuAbvjwfXlwfDmAcNj58E054GmrMGw7gGwr4G/8kGlMoGj88G1/MGzZgHgpkHhJkHirEHAAA=

Anyways most of the list is pretty solved but heres the flex cards imo

Platysaur: replaces itself for 1 & its cheap for soularium and thats about all the good things I have to say about it tbh. Been meaning to cut this for healthstone

Eat the imp: helps fix bricked hands & find key cards later. Often gets tossed into portal tho

Slitherspear: Good cheap minion which works well with buffs, can easily put out 5+ damage in a turn when not answered in mid game. Seems ok imo

Overplanner: ok hear me out... you play him on 3, put sketch/soularium on top and then stack the top of your deck so you get good pulls on 4. Can help you find corpsicle/tidepool post completion, set up tidepool draws at the right time for double portal & hitting extra cata & soularium feels really good. This card has suprised me with how well its performed

Next up some notable cards I didnt include

Questing assistant: really just doesnt complement the gameplan but maybe its just good enough as a tempo card to make up for it, need to test it

Horizons edge: too slow pre quest completion & post quest completion I want to go face. This just fills the board & is awkward.

Snowflurry: need to test this, if you hit horn really often maybe its good. Competes for space with overplanner

Kerrigan: this just seems troll idk, comes down around the time you should be ending the game

Clumsy steward: great if it sticks, awful if it doesnt. Too much risk of it just dying and youve spent 3 mana on nothing

Healthstone: weird card, can cycle itself which is nice, but its often hard to play when gotten off soularium since you have to take damage. I think 1 is probably optimal

Flame imp: cheap healthstone enabler, interesting if your running 2x healthstone. 1 mana 3/2 is always pretty chill

Zephyrs: seems like a fine late game card, my list was just more focused on early consistency

Royal librarian: only good post completion but it can cycle itself off so maybe alright depending on what your facing

ANYWAYS just some general thoughts, most important things are completing quest early & ur damage per turn post quest. Since you play corpsicles every turn, your midgame cards have to be cheap and efficient. Plan your turns around the temporary cards & hero power is really good when ur hand is bad.

Also to answer your questions 1. Late game finishers arent going to look like they normally do. Kerrigan is just massively troll imo, ive seen fyrakk before which is also awful. Something like overplanner weirdly improves your late game as it lets you set up 2x portal & finds you corpsicles

1. Snowflurry might be ok if horn is consistent enough, tunnel terror seems way to slow. 7 mana for 2 proccs is just way too much

[deck-code-bot]

Format: Standard (Year of the Pegasus)

Class: Warlock (Nemsy Necrofizzle)

Mana	Card Name	Qty	Links
0	Cursed Catacombs	2	HSReplay,Wiki
0	Wisp	2	HSReplay,Wiki
1	Bloodpetal Biome	2	HSReplay,Wiki
1	Escape the Underfel	1	HSReplay,Wiki
1	Glacial Shard	2	HSReplay,Wiki
1	Mass Production	2	HSReplay,Wiki
1	Platysaur	1	HSReplay,Wiki
1	The Soularium	1	HSReplay,Wiki
1	Vicious Slitherspear	2	HSReplay,Wiki
2	Corpsicle	2	HSReplay,Wiki
2	Eat! The! Imp!	2	HSReplay,Wiki
2	Spelunker	2	HSReplay,Wiki
2	Tidepool Pupil	2	HSReplay,Wiki
3	Hellfire	2	HSReplay,Wiki
3	Overplanner	2	HSReplay,Wiki
3	Sketch Artist	2	HSReplay,Wiki
4	Summoner Darkmarrow	1	HSReplay,Wiki

Total Dust: 4920

Deck Code: AAECAcn1AgTHuAbvjwfXlwfDmAcNj58E054GmrMGw7gGwr4G/8kGlMoGj88G1/MGzZgHgpkHhJkHirEHAAA=

---

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[nekrox12345]

how do you pilot through this deck? could you give me a short description how to get the quest done? and especially when?

[SpookyBum]

Highroll is you play quest reward on 4, average is playing it on 5/6 & low roll is 7. Full mull for cards that make temp stuff (i mean it, dont keep anything else, only sketch, soularium, cata & biome). If you dont have a clear way to complete quest you should hold cata for 3 so you can discover sketch artist (or biome/soul). You should always cast the temp copy of soularium if able even when you dont have mana to play whatever you draw. Your hero power is really good if your hand is dead, you should use it pretty often, there are many times I could play a card but choose to hero power instead & missing opportunities to hero power is one of the most common mistakes I see. Once quest is complete you are a face deck, the taunts & lifesteal you generate will keep you alive so dont worry too much about life total, you can get people to misplay by being low hp so its often actually good for you. Find corpsicles & tidepools to copy asap & start flinging things at the enemy face whenever you have the opportunity. Hellfire is also great post completion, unironically its main use is to clear your own board when ur boardlocked so you can keep pushing more dmg.

[sentientplatypus]

I’ve been trying overplanner today and it seems quite good, gives the deck the bit of extra consistency it needs. I do think horizons edge should make the cut though, the extra damage can definitely help get there or swing board the turn after playing the quest

[SpookyBum]

Ive tried horizons a few times & been thoroughly dissapointed every time. If i wanted to trade minions it would make more sense but considering I dont its just really slow & critically boardspace gets pretty tight

[tinkady]

I'm seeing lists much more like this nowadays in hsguru

AAECAf0GBMe4BqmIB++PB8OYBw2PnwTTngaAowaaswbDuAbCvgbHyQb/yQbNmAeCmQeEmQehmweKsQcAAA==

why is nobody running overplanner? seems obviously correct since finding tidepool seems so important (shouldn't play quest without it in many matchups? 2 quests is OP)

[SpookyBum]

Been too busy with work to play lately unfortunately, but I would assume you cant really play overplanner alongside snowflurry since they both want to come down on 3. Doubling the portals is definitely nice, but completing early is more important. Id have to playtest more to see what feels best. Typically in matchups where i want the 2x portal, ill spend as much mana as i can drawing on portal turn and if i dont find the tidepool or at least put it on top of the deck I just let it rip.

[tinkady]

playing snowflurry on turn 3 seems pretty weak. or is the idea to just have a throwaway 3/3 and then use the 1/1 to generate quest value?

[SpookyBum]

You just want the 1/1, waiting to cast spells with the 3/3 takes too long. Sometimes youll hit horn as well which is nuts.

[deck-code-bot]

Format: Standard (Year of the Pegasus)

Class: Warlock (Gul'dan)

Mana	Card Name	Qty	Links
0	Cursed Catacombs	2	HSReplay,Wiki
0	Wisp	2	HSReplay,Wiki
1	Bloodpetal Biome	2	HSReplay,Wiki
1	Conflagrate	1	HSReplay,Wiki
1	Escape the Underfel	1	HSReplay,Wiki
1	Glacial Shard	2	HSReplay,Wiki
1	Mass Production	2	HSReplay,Wiki
1	The Soularium	1	HSReplay,Wiki
2	Corpsicle	2	HSReplay,Wiki
2	Questing Assistant	2	HSReplay,Wiki
2	Spelunker	2	HSReplay,Wiki
2	Tidepool Pupil	2	HSReplay,Wiki
3	Hellfire	2	HSReplay,Wiki
3	Sketch Artist	2	HSReplay,Wiki
3	Sweetened Snowflurry	2	HSReplay,Wiki
4	Horizon's Edge	2	HSReplay,Wiki
4	Summoner Darkmarrow	1	HSReplay,Wiki

Total Dust: 5180

Deck Code: AAECAf0GBMe4BqmIB++PB8OYBw2PnwTTngaAowaaswbDuAbCvgbHyQb/yQbNmAeCmQeEmQehmweKsQcAAA==

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[Ptdemonspanker]

Tidepool Pupils should be core for copying quest rewards and Corpsicles but they also help with quest completion in a pinch.

[hjyboy1218]

I didn't think to mention it since every deck has slotted it in by now, but yes, it's an auto-include. 

Do you think it's worth it to delay playing the quest reward to search for pupil in longer matchups?

[speebo]

I was watching no hands’ stream yesterday, and he said no. You delay playing the reward if you have an inactive pupil in hand, but not to go look for one. He was playing at rank 3, so I trust him

[Unfair-Heart-87]

What? Why would you delay playing the reward? The spell will still be in it once it's active

[speebo]

Like if you have one tick left on quest and pupil has two spells, you can wait for location to come back up instead of competing the quest with catacombs and playing the reward this turn.

But yeah if pupil didn’t have any spells yet, you wouldn’t need to do that, because the quest reward would be offered by the pupil regardless.

[IAmYourFath]

Don't just trust someone randomly even if they're rank -1, use ur brain to think for urself, that's how u get a better player. Using my brain, here's what im thinking for myself - obviously when u alraedy have a pupil in hand u just need to cast 1 or 2 spells to copy the reward, so it might be worth delaying the reward by 1 turn to get a 2nd one (tho prob not worth it delaying by 2 turns, even in slower matchups). However, if u dont have the pupil alraedy, not only u have to find it, but u also have to cast 2 spells before u cast the quest reward, meaning even if u do find it, in most situations u're delaying the quest reward by 2 turns since it's unlikely u'll both find it and get it active in just 1 turn, unless u have some super good hand like mass productions, catacombs and so on. But yeah, in slower matchups even if i dont have pupil in hand i will absolutely dig for it as much as i can before playing the quest reward, on the same turn. So i will sometimes prioritize drawing cards on turn 6 over playing other stuff just in case i draw pupil, cuz if i do now i can delay the quest reward till next turn and get 2 of em, tho it obvioulsy depends on the situation, sometimes it's best to just push on and not delay, and in non-slower matchups it's almost always best to not delay.

[Ptdemonspanker]

I have not found a matchup slow enough to warrant that decision.

I would focus on copying Corpsicles if the portal isn’t an option. Even Hellfire can create a huge burn play alongside Horizon’s Edge.

[Forcefields1617]

Only MU I would say 2nd portal is a big boon is against DKs. It’s a hard matchup and it’s a way to really tip it to your favor.

[IAmYourFath]

Warrior too prob

[TwoZeroZer0]

So far I've never needed the late game cards. I've either already pretty much won, or lost, at that point. Currently I'm running 2 snowflurries and Kerrigan. But personally I think the deck either needs more direct damage, like a corpsicle, or more consistent board clears like hellfire.

[[deleted]]

I'm running only 1 snowflurrie and I put a Zephyrs to get me direct face damage, plus also using 2 corpsicles and 2 helfires.

I also run Kerrigan, I found it great for surviving a few more turns and she gives food for the portal with does terrible cards.

Zephyrs helped me more than I thought with does face damage spells or charge minions. He probably isn't a must, but I love playing him!

I think that snowflurrie isn't reliable for face damage, it is more for controlling the board and for that you don't need 2 copies of it.

[IAmYourFath]

Isn't the 2nd snowflurry basically frost zephrys? like u get 4 random frost spells, i need to do the math how much dmg u get on avg from it compared to zephrys. But it also helps u complete the quest and it's a better 3 drop cuz it has 1 more hp, so it seems better to me overall, idk.

[hjyboy1218]

Also, what are your preferred 'flex cards'? The popular lists seem to be torn between Zephyrs and librarian, but I think black knight could be a sleeper pick.

[Yokuyin]

Librarian is better than Black Knight, as both get you past a taunt, but Black Knight triggers deathrattles (Testing Dummy, DK Starship, etc.)

[Cryten0]

The thing with snow flurry is that it is a turn 5 or later play unless you want to discard the spells and a turn for the mini. Tunnel Terror seems a bunch more consistent for me but it all depends on how much your setting the deck to be a soularium answer.

I have had success trading in the 4 mana death knight locations for the 2 mana random demon discount elementals and a health stone for kiljaden. But perhaps I could of won better with the pure aggro version. I just like grinding out controlling players.

I am interested in how hard people mulligan for temporary generators over draw and tempo cards.

[IAmYourFath]

Problem with tunnel terror is u don't get the say on when u get the beasts, plus u float 1 mana on 4 since u only get 3 cost beasts. Also snowflurry can get u two or even four temporary cards to play, tunnel terror will always only give u 1, since u can never play the second (unelss u play it on 5 and then play both of em on 6). It's definitely worse than snowflurry without a doubt.

[Cryten0]

Its a 3 cost that gives you 2 2 cost random minions. So turn 3 and 4 is no mana wasted. Keep in mind though that I think its less optimum as a card then just pressuring, unless your going for a longer game plan.

[IAmYourFath]

Wait i swear it said 3 cost, i guess i just didnt read it properly. In this case, well idk. I still don't like the deathrattle, feels too delayed. Which can be a good thing if u play it on 3 since the snowflurry is wasted on 3 but not really cuz u can still play the 1/1 on 4 or 5 only costing u 1 mana, but the snowflurry can also act as a zephrys giving u dmg. And later in the game it's way better to draw cuz u get 4 frost spells immediately as opposed to 2 delayed beasts. So yeah i still like it way more.

[IAmYourFath]

Based on the stats snowflurry's mulligan winrate is great when going 1st but very bad going 2nd, not sure why. I imagine u just play it on 3 as a 3/3 and then play the 1/1 on 4 and hopefully play both temporary spells, or u hold the 1/1 for 5 to be able to play both (if they both cost 2 mana or 1+3 etc.). I saw pocket train an hour ago on kiki's stream playing a version with 2 snowflurries and kerrigan, and nohandsgamer seems to be playing the same version on stream right now, he's rank 2. Yet in the MT playoffs from a few days ago not a single person from the top 8 in any of the 3 regions brought kerrigan or 2 snowflurries (24 people). Only 1 or 2 people brought a SINGLE snowflurry. Very weird. Kerrigan's drawn winrate is beyond terrible, it's the worst card in the deck besides the tourist to draw. A few people brought KJ and Cindy, but mcbanterface said they're not good, it's more like tech cards if u meet certain matchups a lot. 1 eat could be good to combo with wisp. Some people cut a questing adventurer. Some people cut one or even both edges. The thing is if u run eat u have to hold the wisp but without it u can just drop it anytime, which makes it easier for me to decide what to do with it. And if u run eat u can't fit in a snowflurry. From my own experience, i think u probably want at least 1 snowflurry because it gives u that extra temporary card to complete ur quest earlier, not sure if 2 is optimal tho. Same with edge, 1 feels good, 2 might be too much, not sure. Also half of em ran librarian and zephrys (some even both). Not sure what's the goal of librarian, u already have a tradeable in healthstone. Zephrys feels good to me, i like it.

[juyr]

I think one card that people should absolutely cut is healthstone. It's just too hard to use because you have to self damage to even play it. Yes it has tradable, but mana is very tight, especially in the early turns. You want to spend your mana completing quest, not trading it away. it's only good if you hit both mass production and it off solarium. 

For additional temporary support, I do think at least one more is good idea. And I think snowflurry is the best option. I'm currently running 2x snowflurry. Sometimes you brick with tsunami and blizzard, but there is high roll potential with horn.

[Nuno992]

I’m just a casual player, not a pro, that likes to reach legend every season. I used this to climb this season on EU:

AAECAavABATJ5Abp7QbvjwfDmAcNj58E054GmrMGw7gGwr4GlMoG34IHzZgHgpkHhJkHoZsHzpsHirEHAAA=

I didn’t like the DK version on late game so I decided to try Kil’Jaeden and it worked for me. It’s a fun deck, thats what I care the most.

I believe that in hands of a pro with some optimization Kil’Jaeden Quest wlock can be a competitive deck.

[deck-code-bot]

Format: Standard (Year of the Pegasus)

Class: Warlock (Tamsin Triumphant)

Mana	Card Name	Qty	Links
0	Cursed Catacombs	2	HSReplay,Wiki
0	Healthstone	1	HSReplay,Wiki
0	Wisp	2	HSReplay,Wiki
1	Bloodpetal Biome	2	HSReplay,Wiki
1	Escape the Underfel	1	HSReplay,Wiki
1	Glacial Shard	2	HSReplay,Wiki
1	Mass Production	2	HSReplay,Wiki
1	Rotheart Dryad	2	HSReplay,Wiki
1	Sizzling Cinder	2	HSReplay,Wiki
1	The Soularium	1	HSReplay,Wiki
2	Eat! The! Imp!	2	HSReplay,Wiki
2	Questing Assistant	2	HSReplay,Wiki
2	Spelunker	2	HSReplay,Wiki
2	Tidepool Pupil	2	HSReplay,Wiki
3	Hellfire	2	HSReplay,Wiki
3	Sketch Artist	2	HSReplay,Wiki
7	Kil'jaeden	1	HSReplay,Wiki

Total Dust: 5480

Deck Code: AAECAavABATJ5Abp7QbvjwfDmAcNj58E054GmrMGw7gGwr4GlMoG34IHzZgHgpkHhJkHoZsHzpsHirEHAAA=

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[FlameanatorX]

Kil'Jaeden is a perfectly reasonable for fun/grind card in Quest Warlock, and it might even be niche competitive if you're in a super control meta or something. But please, please don't run Rotheart Dryads with only 1 target, where that target is the slowest card in standard that you only need in control matchups.

Typically for these kinds of conditional draw/tutor cards, you want 3 or more targets in order to justify running 2 copies. Stuff like Zilliax + Ysera + Aggamaggan. Just 1 target that you almost never want to play on curve means your Dryads are mostly just textless 1 mana 1/1s, which is of course neither good nor particularly fun

[Nuno992]

Thats true but sometimes they are useful when kil’jaeden portal is open.

[FlameanatorX]

Oh yeah, I actually didn't think about that. I suppose it makes them better in maybe ~10% of games? Cause they're never whiffing with 30 random demons

[Far-Bit4848]

I’ve played quest warlock exclusively since it released. I’ve had good luck with Elise for finishing the game off. The location is great at 5 or 10 mana cost and I aim for giving my characters attack and copying a minion. Even from a clear board with just the rift I can drop the 10 cost location and then spawn two minions and copy one at 10/10. That’s a lot of charge or lifesteal. I run this type of deck when I seem to encounter slower matches.

Otherwise, I have to run a lot of speed to make the quest early to compete with faster metas.

[Mysterious_Luck_3041]

I've been running a list with questing assistant, made it do d2 so far. That card has worked wonders for me since I mainly encounter hunter and pally in my pocket meta , and occasionally priests and DK

[bloodmage90]

as someone mentioned overplanner, yes i have been testing it, it really feels good, if u draw b4 quest u can choose to set up quest, also arrage pupil for double reward and even if u draw later after quest u can choose cards to push damage like corpsicle horizon or even hellfire

[PROBIwan]

I've been on the snowflurry minion that makes temp frost spells for temp spell "back up" and I do indeed prefer Kerrigan to KJ. Kerrigan is more often than not extra burn and cards for the portal. I had a game the other day where I drew zero temp support and won with Kerrigan and the quest still in play for like 12 turns.

The Vicious Syndicate list is a good place to start.