I’m really sorry, I thought that I have this in my article already. I had to remove it by mistake!

I had a passage that the lower on the list the Legendary is, the lower it has priority to craft in the current meta. So Jaraxxus has the lowest priority crafting of all of the Classic class Legendaries, but I just think that it’s still there somewhere.

I’m editing the article and adding it once again.

Thanks for the comment, let me explain my choices quickly!

N’Zoth is definitely out there, I’ve seen it in the Control Paladin, Deathrattle Priest and even in Taunt Warrior. It’s definitely not a top tier Legendary right now, but it’s playable + the main reason I’ve included it is that it will most likely carry well into the rest of the year. It’s the only Old God that has seen competitive play in every expansion since its release.

And Jaraxxus is necessary when playing Handlock. Or well, probably any slower Warlock build. I’ve mentioned that in his description – those decks aren’t very strong right now, but if you want to play something else than Zoo, you most likely need that Jaraxxus. And I’m 100% sure that it’s a safe craft in a way that it will see play in the future, it’s one of the most powerful Legendaries after all.

It’s hard to help you without seeing the games. Could you record them and upload to YT or at least share a HSDT replay?

Getting rushed down is the biggest problem with this deck and you can’t really help that. But “outvalued”? This deck doesn’t even play for value – it plays for the tempo. Once you rush your Quest, you put a bunch of 1-2 mana 5/5’s and closes the game in 2-3 turns. The only way you can get outvalued is your opponent hitting the perfect AoE wipes or you doing too much trading after the Quest is finished.

Also remember that this deck is very draw-dependant. While the player’s skill obviously matters, even if you play perfectly you won’t win much if you’re constantly getting bad draws. 17 games sample size is pretty small and very susceptible to draw RNG.

I never ever look at the “target” of the Quest (the one you see when you hover over the “!” icon). It doesn’t matter at all. I think it just shows a minion that’s “closest” to finishing the Quest. So e.g. if you play only a single copy of Swashburglar, it shows Swashburglar. Then if you play 2 copies of any other minion, it will show that minion. Then it would change again if you played 3 copies of yet another minion.

Target is flexible, there is no one target that you need to bounce X times. You can start the Quest with one minion and finish it with something completely different. So you can just ignore whatever’s shown there and continue the bouncing. It will definitely work.

Yes, that’s true. But to be fair, it’s pretty hard to burn it. You’d need to have a full hand and play Novice Engineer or Swashburglar as your 4th minion. Having 10 cards in the hand doesn’t really happen often (I don’t remember ever having that much with this deck) :p

Oh wow, that’s a lot of questions 😀

1. If you draw Hallucination on turn 1, you usually play it if you have nothing better to do. The only time I don’t play it is when I’ll need it to combo with something. E.g. if I’m going first and I have SI:7, then I can use Hallucination + SI on turn 4. Or if i’m going second and have Edwin VanCleef, then I’ll save it for turn 3 Hallucination + Coin + VanCleef (+possibly Backstab/Prep).

2. In fast matchups, you don’t really rely on the Auctioneer draws that much. And in the slow ones, you usually want to wait until turn 7-8 to play it. I play it right away on turn 6 only if I have guaranteed 3-4 draws in my hand and I will probably get even more. E.g. if I have 2x Coin and Prep, I will definitely play it on turn 6, because I can open with 2 Coins, then Prep something out, then still have 2 mana for let’s say Evis, then I might draw Backstab… And about saving Backstab/Prep for Auctioneer, there is no general rule, it all depends on the match. If you’re one turn away from Auctioneer and you can afford to let’s say not answer that minion for one extra turn, then you definitely keep it. But if your Auctioneer turn is still 3 turns away, you don’t keep it.

3. I recommend using some sort of deck tracker and then looking through the matchups you face at your rank, because it really depends. Like you’ve said, Warrior can be slow or fast, but in Legend I usually mulligan for Taunt, because it’s much more common there. I’d say that, from my experience, in general that’s how the matchups look. Druid – fast (most play Aggro), Hunter – fast, Mage – slow, Paladin – slow, Priest – slow, Rogue – fast, Shaman – slow (unless more people play Murlocs at low ranks), Warlock – fast, Warrior – depends on the rank (slow at Legend).

4. Turns 3-4 are pretty weak in this deck, that’s true. You usually survive through them by using some combination of cheaper things. E.g. if you play Lasher on turn 2, you might dagger up + play the 1 cost spell on turn 3. You can try to combo out the Edwin. You can play Fan of Knives (cycling it on turn 3 in slow matchup is okay). Mimic Pod is a great turn 3 play in slow matchups. If you drew/played Hallucination, you can try to pick some 3/4 mana card to fill the curve. Small drop + Eviscerate can be another play. Swashburglar/Hallucination + SI:7. Sometimes even Coin + Vilespine Slayer… Those turns are awkward, but I rarely found myself without plays.

5. You should probably watch the girl who created and hit rank #1 Legend on Chinese server with this deck, Eloise 🙂 You can find her latest VoD here: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/134671421?t=01h35m01s (he plays the same deck on NA server). Other than that, Savjz was playing it recently, but only for a few games – then he switched to the Malygos version of the deck. You can still watch it, because the decks share a lot of similarities: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/134523159?t=05m40s

Good luck with the deck and have fun! Miracle Rogue used to be my favorite deck back in the Beta, but I’m not playing it too much recently. Maybe I should start again.

Not so important in slow matchups, very important in fast ones. It lets you control the board better in the early game.

Taunt Warrior is sadly one of the worst matchups for the deck. I’m pretty sure that against the deck you want to win as quickly as possible, you can’t afford to take the longer game, because the late game Taunts are too valuable. You often have to go all-in and not play around the AoEs too much (I mean, you do to some extent, but you can take more risks than you normally would). I can’t really speak about the Silence Priest, because I’ve played against it once with Zoo and I won quite easily, but he had pretty slow start. I think that the matchup is very draw-dependant, if they get amazing opening like Humunous Razorleaf into Divine Spirit + Faceless Shambler you pretty much win. But if they miss either the huge minions or their activators, you should be able to find the opening.

Zoo is not the strongest deck in the current meta, because Taunt Warrior is pretty popular, but it’s a good budget option to climb the ladder. It does much better against other decks, e.g. Deathrattle Priest, Aggro Druid, Quest Rogue or Murloc Shaman.

Yes, they’re really important. If you want to play this deck seriously, you should craft them.

It’s one of the best decks in the current meta, but it’s impossible to say how it will look like after the meta stabilizes. I suspect that the deck will stay in the meta, but no one can be sure. If you really want to be safe, I’d wait another week or two before crafting things.

I don’t really think that Cult Master is a good choice. It’s incredibly clunky in the faster matchups and slower decks usually have a way to deal with it through spells or Battlecries.

Battle Rage seems like a better choice for that. It costs 2 so it’s easier to play against Aggro and you can set up 4+ draws vs slow decks in the late game.

You can add Deathwing, but definitely not instead of the Primordial Drake. Primordial is still good, because it’s an AoE you can curve into after The Curator. Sometimes you just need it on turn 8.

Deathwing is a good comeback mechanic after you’ve already played the Quest and you’re running out of Taunts to play.

There is really no direct replacement, as there are no more good, cheap AoEs in Shaman. The card is really powerful and can win the games against Aggro by itself, so I would recommend getting it.

However, as a temporary solution you can play pretty much anything. Depending on whether you face more Aggro or more Control. If Aggro, then add some more early game or removal heal. Good options are: Glacial Shard, Tidal Surge or Jinyu Waterspeaker. If you face more Control decks, then add some late game power (big Elementals like Fire Elemental/Blazecaller or more Jade generators like Jade Spirit) or card draw (Mana Tide Totem is pretty much the only good option here).

Elemental Shaman is really hard to play against if they hit the right curve, but they can struggle hard even if they miss one turn. Sorry, but I can’t really help you with that matchup too much, because I’m not playing against almost any of them in Legend 🙁

“It feels like Blizzard is encouraging aggro decks lately” – wait, what? They’ve printed so many anti-Aggro tools this expansion, they don’t really encourage Aggro. It’s just that Aggro is the most efficient way to climb the ladder, because your decks don’t last 100 turns.

There are multiple viable Control decks in the early Un’Goro meta. Here are some examples of great or at least decent Control decks I’ve seen on the ladder so far: Taunt Warrior, Control/Dragon Priest, Handlock, Control Shaman. Vlps hit Legend with N’Zoth Paladin as far as I know and there is even more if you count the slower Midrange lists like the Savjz’s Handbuff Elemental Paladin or Elemental Shaman.

It’s still hard to say how the meta will look a month from now, but I really think that we will have some good Control decks. Taunt Warrior alone is good enough vs the Aggro because of the Taunts while also having good slower matchups because of the reward.

Savjz is playing one right now. The Maly version might not be stronger than the regular one, but it’s definitely fun!

I’m writing a guide for the deck right now, it should be out tonight or tomorrow!

You can’t bounce around multiple minions, it won’t count. You need to play a SPECIFIC minion (or rather a minion with specific name) 4 times. E.g. bouncing Swashburglar 2 times and Novice Engineer 2 times won’t finish the quest. You need to play one of them 4 times in total.

Another thing is that you don’t get +1 on Quest when you BOUNCE the card back to your hand, you get it when you replay it.

Maybe one of those is your problem?

The fact that one card is Gold and other isn’t has nothing to do with it 🙂

You mean in a mirror matchup? It really depends on the build, but I’d say that the one with Jades should generally be favorite if both builds are slow.

Bottom of the guide, “Midrange Beast Hunter Card Substitutions”.