Quest Rogue Deck List Guide – Witchwood – May 2018

Our Boomsday Project Quest Rogue deck list guide will help you learn how to better pilot this deck. Our guide features mulligan, play, and card replacement strategies!

Introduction to Quest Rogue

Love it or hate it, Quest Rogue is a deck hardly anyone can feel lukewarm about. Introduced to the game with Journey to Un’Goro and The Caverns Below, Quest Rogue took Hearthstone by storm, bouncing minions back and forth to complete the quest and receive Crystal Core, which turned all of the Rogue’s minions into 5/5s, and enables the Rogue to finish off the opponent with a barrage of Charge minions or simply playing board after board of cheap minions, all with 5/5 stats.

Its entry was so dominant that The Caverns Below was soon nerfed to require playing five minions with the same name instead of the original four. At first sight, this condition seems difficult to accomplish, and with played requirement instead of mere summoned requirement to boot – meaning that cards such as Saronite Chain Gang only count as one minion played. Indeed, Quest Rogue does not play cards that summon multiple minions, but relies on cards that bounce minions back to hand or create new playable copies of minions to complete the quest.

Despite being nerfed once, the deck became part of the meta again in The Witchwood, which lead to the second nerf of the Quest card – now instead of turning the minions into 5/5’s, you turn them into 4/4’s. Given that they can no longer clear 5 health minions (e.g. Spreading Plague), and are susceptible to 4 damage AoEs (e.g. Flamestrike), it looked like the deck will no longer be viable.

However, believe it or not, even though the card was already nerfed twice, it has made another comeback in Boomsday Project. Introduction of Giggling Inventor alongside the meta change made it viable again, especially in the higher ranks, where you face slow decks more often than Aggro (which is the deck’s weakness).

Deck List

Deck Import

Quest Rogue Card Choices

The tech cards of Quest Rogue are mainly focused on aggro matchups. There are three main anti-aggro options right now: BackstabHungry Crab, and Fan of KnivesBackstab can help against some aggro decks that do not flood the board, Hungry Crab is good in a heavy Murloc meta, and Fan of Knives helps survive token decks. The number of such cards used depends on the meta.

Another tech card is Sap, which is more flexible. It can deal with aggressive decks that have buffs and it can also help deal with Taunt minions to push more damage after the quest is completed.

Other than those differences, Quest Rogue decks largely consist of the same cards.

Preparation works with all of your spells, enabling you to go for more tempo or possible lethal with plenty of Charge minions and Prepped Vanish.

The general bounce and copy package helps complete the quest and push for damage with Charge minions after the quest is completed:

  • Shadowstep – single-target bounce that makes the target cheaper
  • Youthful Brewmaster – single-target bounce 
  • Sonya Shadowdancer – multiple copy effect, especially useful with a Charge minion, able to complete the entire quest if played when on seven mana and the opponent has minions on the board, Sonya + four copies of a Charge minion, with one left over in hand to complete the quest the following turn
  • Zola the Gorgon – single-target copy effect
  • Mimic Pod – both card draw and a copy effect, does not always land on a minion though
  • Vanish – returns all minions to hand, removing multiple Taunt minions or bouncing back multiple Charge minions at once – can also be used to complete the quest if needed

Then, there is the Charge minion package that is often used for lethal:

The card draw package helps look for bounce effects and additional resources:

The defense and freeze package buys you time:

Quest Rogue Mulligan Strategy & Guide

As a Quest Rogue, you always want to keep the cards that help you complete the quest. Unlike some other Quest decks, you never mulligan your quest away. Quest Rogue lives by the quest, and dies by the quest.

Quest Rogue is one of the most difficult decks to mulligan with – almost all cards are kept in some situations. Look for a way to complete your quest and survive. Think about how various cards work together, and keep good fits.

VS Fast Decks

Higher Priority (Keep every time)

Lower Priority (Keep only if certain conditions are met)

  • Vicious Scalehide – Keep against fast decks for some early board control and healing.
  • Vanish – Keep if the rest of your hand is okay, can really save your life on curve.

VS Slow Decks

Higher Priority (Keep every time)

Lower Priority (Keep only if certain conditions are met)

  • Vanish – Keep against decks that might drop some big minions early, like Even Warlock.

Quest Rogue Win Rates

Winrate stats are currently unavailable for this deck at the moment!

Quest Rogue Play Strategy

Win by the quest, die by the quest.

The key question is how to complete the quest, and there are several answers to it, which makes Quest Rogue a complex deck to pilot. In order to complete The Caverns Below, you need to play a minion with the same name five times. This is play, not summon, so only minions played directly from hand count (which is why Quest Rogue decks don’t include any summon effects).

Let’s start with the most straightforward plan: Novice Engineer. The advantage of completing the quest with Novice Engineer is that it draws you more cards each time it is played, and thus provides you with new opportunities to draw more bounce effects, making it easier to complete the quest. A word of warning! Do not complete your quest by playing Novice Engineer when your hand is full! The card is drawn before the quest completes, thus burning Crystal Core. Yes, we’ve seen this happen even in top-level tournament play.

The second clear plan is to complete the quest with Sonya Shadowdancer and a Charge minion. Charge into an opponent’s minion with Sonya on the board, and you get another one-mana Charge minion, and you charge it in again, and get another one-mana Charge minion, and so on. When you do this with seven mana available, you can charge four times that turn and have another one-mana copy ready in hand to complete the quest on the following turn. Variations include bouncing the Charge minion either before or after the Sonya turn, or bouncing Sonya itself back to your hand, for example with Shadowstep, which also makes it cheaper.

Another good card to bounce is Glacial Shard. In many matchups, if you can find Glacial Shard and some bounce effects, you can keep the opponent’s board frozen while you advance your quest.

Furthermore, sometimes you hit good bounce targets with Mimic Pod. Having two copies of the card already in hand to start with can make it easier to complete the quest with whatever minion you happened to pull.

A rare option is to use Youthful Brewmasters to bounce each other. This requires too much mana to do from scratch, but if you can throw in a Shadowstep somewhere along the line, it is yet another viable way.

Whichever way you go for, keep in mind how many more copies of the minion you need to play to complete the quest. Avoid leaving your final copy vulnerable on the board, because if you lose it, you need to start all over again with another minion.

It is best to complete the quest with cheap minions: Elven Minstrel, for example, is in the deck for card draw, not for quest completion. One-drops are the best, but Novice Engineers effect makes it a worthwhile target even despite its cost.

After you have completed the quest, the next question is how to kill your opponent.

There are two main strategies: either you create wide boards of 4/4 minions that enable you to push damage from board, or you win with Charge minions.

The most common strategy is to use your Charge minions, Southsea Deckhand and Stonetusk Boar, to push the necessary damage. If you have any leftover bounce effects, you can use them to add more damage, and you can also use Vanish to get rid of any Taunt minions and/or to return your Charge minions to your hand. For example, at 10 mana, you can play two Charge minions, hit face, Vanish them back to hand, and play them again to hit face again. If you have Preparation to go with that Vanish, you can play similar combos earlier or with more minions. Remember that you need to have your dagger equipped in order for Southsea Deckhand to have Charge!

One key observation about Vanish: It returns minions to hand in the order they were summoned. Any that do not fit in the hand are destroyed, triggering any Deathrattle effects. As an upside, you can burn Mountain Giants from a Warlock whose hand is very full, but as a downside, you may end up killing Voidlords and triggering their Deathrattle effects, and thus summoning Voidwalkers on the board that prevent your Charge minions from connecting to face.

You can also use Sonya Shadowdancer to good effect after completing the quest. If the opponent has any minions with five attack or more and you have a Charge or Rush minion available, you can simply attack that minion, get a copy from Sonya and attack the minion again – even the Sonya copies are 4/4 minions once your quest is done. It is possible to clear huge boards with this strategy as long as you get your minions to die to get the copies rolling. With Vicious Scalehide, it is also possible to heal a ton after completing the quest as long as the opponent has minions on the board: Vicious Scalehide has Rush, not Charge, so it cannot immediately hit face, but it can mow down minions.

If you go for board strategy, Giggling Inventor is an amazing card after the Quest is complete. Even though it costs 5 mana, it summons three bodies, two of which have Taunt and Divine Shield. Since it’s very hard to get through it, you can use it to protect your life total while you try to kill your opponent with the rest of your minions. Or you can just use it to stabilize on the board. Yet another card that becomes very powerful after finishing your Quest is Vicious Scalehide. 2 mana 4/4 with Rush and Lifesteal can be used for the board control as well as regaining health you lost throughout the game. If you’re low on health, you try to keep it alive for as long as you can – bounce it after attacking, copy it or even better – play Sonya and run it into a big minions, both clearing the board and usually getting back to full health.

Once you play Valeera the Hollow, you can pretty much go for infinite board thanks to a few cards. For example, dropping 2x Sonya Shadowdancer means that you get two copies of every minions that dies. But it gets even better – if your opponent decides to kill one of the Sonya’s, you will still get a 1 mana copy of it thanks to the other one! However, against some decks it’s worth it to play safe and bounce the second Sonya to have it in your hand whenever you need to copy some minions again. Copying Giggling Inventor is especially powerful, the copy will cost 1 mana and still summon three powerful bodies.

VS Aggro Decks

The general strategy of Quest Rogue detailed above remains the same in all matchups, but the details can vary.

Against aggressive decks, you need to survive. This often means throwing Wax Elementals on their path, and using some of your Charge minions to clear key parts of the board.

Healing with Vicious Scalehide is often crucial as well. Depending on the opponent, you may need to use the Scalehide early for healing and board control – and possibly try to bounce it to restore it to full health – or use it immediately after the quest is completed to rapidly restore your health.

Glacial Shard can also put in work. Using it to complete the quest can buy a lot of time with repeated freezes on the opponent or their minions, or both.

VS Control Decks

The general strategy detailed above still remains the same, but the emphasis against control decks is completely different than against aggro decks in the early game.

In short, you want to draw. Novice EngineerMimic Pod, and Elven Minstrel are you best friends as you assemble your hand to overcome the control deck’s defenses and typically destroy them with multiple Charge minions after completing the quest. Do not throw away your Charge minions against control decks, they are a key asset to push that damage once you’re all set and ready to go.

Quest Rogue Card Substitutions

A meta Quest Rogue deck costs over 8,000 Dust. It is possible to cut the cost a bit for the budget version, but some Legendary and Epic cards are mandatory and have no replacements. Also, keep in mind that replacing some of the cards will definitely have a negative impact on your win rate, and Quest Rogue games are usually very close – delaying your Quest finish by one turn will often lose you the game.

The mandatory package:

As most of the deck comprises of common cards, that leaves only a couple of expensive cards that can be replaced:

  • Zola the Gorgon – Powerful card, but still just a somewhat regular bounce effect. Ancient Brewmaster can be a replacement if you really have to replace Zola.
  • Valeera the Hollow – It’s great in the slower matchups, and since you play the deck mostly to win against slower decks, it’s an amazing card. However, you don’t absolutely have to run it – you can at least try the deck first without it, but your late game can get much worse. You can try running Lab Recruiter instead to shuffle some more threats (probably Giggling Inventors) into your deck for the late game.

Leave a Reply

136 Comments

Discuss This Deck
  1. Brb
    May 19, 2018 at 3:38 pm

    Wow nerf 4/4

  2. Brb
    May 1, 2018 at 4:18 pm

    Is really quest rogue and cube a cáncer.in the game ? Becose :
    Cubelock have 56% of wr and 10% of popularity
    Quest rogue have 53% of wr and 1% of popularity / 63% again control ( only if you can finish the quest) and 34% again agro and mid range
    Evidence what yoy thinck ?

    • SEBO23
      May 2, 2018 at 9:02 am

      I wouldn’t call any deck cancer (it’s just a game, there’s no reason to be salty). It depends on what players prefere (if they like to play fast they pick aggro, if slow control). People have problem with this deck, because unlike cubelock if you face good player running this deck as a control deck, no matter what you do you’re almost sure you just lost without putting any card on the table.

      • Brb
        May 7, 2018 at 7:53 pm

        I see your point, I am a rogué beta player, miracle was my first deck, and the problen whith this quest is the control that give you after you finish, nerf this deck is not the solution, sooo rework?

  3. ScarKrow1956
    May 1, 2018 at 11:08 am

    Does anyone know if Echo cards will count towards the quest?

    • Helioshadow
      May 1, 2018 at 2:06 pm

      Yes, Echo minions will, but the only echo minions available to Rogue at the moment cost 3, which is a pretty hefty cost for a below-average body and little instant effect.

  4. lanakias
    April 29, 2018 at 4:34 am

    When Blizzard “Nerf” the quest rogue ppl dont play him because the “word nerf” and only,it was terrifying. And the funny is after the “Nerf” quest rogue again was good against control decks. One turn later is it so much time the control decks can beat him? But ppl dont play him (that was good for the game) no because the deck was bad but they not want play decks that gets a nerf. And now ALL surprised how good is the quest rogue on this meta. Quest rogue ALWAYS was good and always dominate control decks. A control deck has NOT any chance to beat that deck because after the quest is complete you are dead without 1 hope. And that is very bad for you. To feel dead and all your skills are useless. This quest must be change soon from blizzard. No delay the quest reward but change the whole reward. This is a bug. So lets stop Blizzard to be discreet and change this time this bug. Nobody serious person can hurt about this deck. It is no fun. It works only for counter q. Nothing else. Please fix the game. Make updates. Make moves more soon to fix the game. Please.

    • Prg
      May 1, 2018 at 2:25 am

      Three things

      (1) read the Vicious Scalehide part.

      (2) Mage’s quest is just as bad. The idea is not to let the quest be done. Pressure hard enough for the pieces to be spent.

      (3) Think win rates not selective memory of terrors you faced.

      • Blodia
        May 12, 2018 at 6:24 am

        I agree, most quest rogues can’t handle aggro properly.

        And if quest rogues should be nerfed, I believe the others like quest warriors should be nerfed as well.

        Just because control decks aren’t able to survive does not mean that they need to nerf other decks to make it viable again. It isn’t any fun either to see Voidlords at turn 6 repeatedly.

        • Hayes
          May 21, 2018 at 3:21 am

          Sorry, you think Quest Warrior- a fringe deck- should be nerfed just because Quest Rogue- a tier 1 deck- is? That’s the most flawed logic I’ve seen in a fair while

  5. ashe
    April 25, 2018 at 2:52 am

    I struggle a lot against Aggro (paladin, hunter, Druid and odd rogue). Any advice or card replacements ? I find fan of knives useless against minions in general.

    I played the version with Valeera & FOK but I got crushed by aggro. Now, I replaced those 2 cards by two Swamp Leech, not sure it will help…

    Should I stop playing this deck if I face many aggro decks ?

    Thanks !

    • Éspy
      April 25, 2018 at 7:07 am

      At the moment, I am 14-7 with the deck. Aggro decks are tough obstacles when attempting to climb ladder. We are in a relatively slow meta right now, but I am sure as time goes on aggro decks will find something to pierce though these slow decks, and Quest rogue is no exception.

      What I have found useful is hard mulling for ice breaker when I face another rogue or potential aggro matchup. You don’t get very punished against control because we feast on those match ups, and instantly lose the aggro ones should we have no answer to their boards.

      Prep vanish package is also a great answer in halting agression, and on turn four can even give you a potential bounce on a 1-drop minion.

      Utilizing sonya early alongside a developed board or charge minions in hand is also a good idea. You don’t have to explode with her ability and pop quest in one turn, and in aggro match ups she could very well tank damage for our face.

      My seven losses were all against aggro, aside from one mind blast priest. I believe this deck is situated very well in the meta at the moment, and in our loses we also learn from our mistakes. Plus, aggro is just a very unfavored matchup! I suggest you keep playing.

      P.S. Swamp leech needs to be cut. It is a one drop that does nothing the turn it is played. At the very least, fan can cycle a card for you when it needs to. Also, Valeera is a very strong card atm. Even against aggro decks it can buy you another turn of respite in order to collect resources. Just keep practicing the deck!

      • Ashe
        April 25, 2018 at 7:45 am

        Thank you for this very complete answer.

        I will keep fighting the dark side of the meta !

        I am sure I can improve my winrate by removing all the mistakes I make.

    • Prg
      April 26, 2018 at 3:13 am

      I’m experimenting with this

      -2 Novice Engineer
      -2 Wax Elemental
      + 2 Voodoo Doctor
      +1 Fan of Knives
      +1 Sap

      I mean we still need some drawing effect to dig through the deck when bad draws happens like when 4 of the deck’s best cards (Vanishes, Sonya, and Valeera) are piled up in the last 5-10 cards of the deck or something. That and Fan of Knives is a direct dmg. That aside, my defense for Voodoo Doctor is that if you complete the quest with it which is quite a often for me, it would be 10 healings that has no time restrain unlike other cards that need to battlecries on your board on specific turns. For this reason, Wax Elemental is worthless as a quest completer since you rarely afford to let it stay on the board to be killed. Despite saying this, sometimes against fast aggro I do left some creatures on the board to bait the dmg away from hitting face. Brewmaster, Zola, and Elven to be exact. But if you by any chance of the back up of any quest completer, dropping some on the board to bait dmg is very preferable since they will not know which one is your bet (for example, Shard and Voodoo when you have a back up Voodoo in your hand maybe from the pod or the second one you drew). The deck force opponent to kill everything you dropped on the board anyway otherwise you can drop Sonya next turn and let all of them suicide and fill your hand. Just don’t worry too much on completing the quest if you face fast aggro. If you don’t misplay really really bad you are unlikely to run out of gas.

    • Ghost Dragon
      April 28, 2018 at 1:01 am

      If you’re seeing a lot of aggro you should probably switch decks. This deck excels against cubelock and most priest variants right now. It has solid matchups against most druid decks as well. Even paladin isnt a total loss either, especially if they dont have call to arms on turn 4.

      Odd paladin, Odd rogue, odd hunter, tempo mage…forget about winning

  6. JAM
    April 23, 2018 at 2:04 pm

    Played against this deck literally card for card earlier today as quest warrior. What a total nightmare to deal with in the late game! I got them down to fatigue damage but it was not enough since they managed to keep a scalehide and Zola in their hand at all times. Would definitely recommend you trying it out if you have the dust/cards for it.

  7. Aleixo#1203
    April 23, 2018 at 8:49 am

    I made some modifications, Elven Ministrel is very slow for this deck, I replaced it for Bloodmage Thalnos and one SAP ( against cube and taunt druid is a good card to keep on Muligan), I went from rank 5 to rank 4 with this deck, I am still looking for changes on this deck.

    • Prg
      April 23, 2018 at 12:36 pm

      I did replace Elven and found out it was a mistake. This deck is supposed to be a full control not semi-tempo/combo. Elven will be your toolbox against everything. you only need to survive and eventually all the piece that you have left will do it for you.

  8. Edd
    April 23, 2018 at 8:02 am

    Hit legend today with this exact list. Took @50 wins from rank 3 to legend. Hunter and pala are your worst nightmre. For baku hunter u need to finish fast and use the lifesteal murloc to survive and for pala u need vanish and fan of knives. Druid priest mage are decent matchups. Warlock is hard if they get the weapon going early. Ow and expect alot of cancer wished upon you and your family if u play this deck. 3 or 4 opponents added me to curse.

    • Prg
      April 23, 2018 at 12:40 pm

      Yes! some games just seem so bs attacking with 6 5/5s charge after attacking with 6 5/5s lifesteal rush the turn before.

    • Pickler
      April 25, 2018 at 4:30 am

      Man, I love making new friends on ladder. This is usually the comment that spurs me to craft a deck.