Zerek’s Dragon Quest

I love wacky Priest decks, and Test Subject is probably my favorite card in Hearthstone right now. So much so that I decided to craft Zerek, Master Cloner. I despise the combo version that uses Stonetusk Boar with 5 copies of Divine Spirit and Topsy Turvy because it doesn’t really interact with your opponent. It’s hard to pull off, and when you do, it’s boring. 

I first built this with Devilsaur Egg which was cool when I could play Power Word: Replicate on it, however I consistently lost against aggro decks. Then I played a fellow priest who ran hybrid of quest with Malygos + Mind Blast and it got me thinking about Swamp Dragon Egg. Duskbreaker is huge against most decks but it doesn’t fit into quest Priest. Or can it?

Dragon Egg can be buffed with Extra Arms turn 3 instead of playing Devilsaur, meaning we can attack for board control. The same deathrattle from Bone Drake means we actually have 6 other dragons for our Duskbreaker or more if either gets brought back with Twilight's Call. Sure, it may not be as consistent as control Priest, but nobody is going to expect Duskbreaker and that’s why this is awesome. The best way to beat quest Priest is to go wide and to go face, so the value of a surprise board clear is massive. 

It’s hard finding the balance between minions and spells. This deck list only has 13 minions, but it can generate 4 random dragons, 4 random deathrattle minions that died, 2 copies from Vivid Nightmare and Amara from the quest. Theoretically that’s 24 minions, but the problem is having enough minions for early game.

Against Flame Imp it makes more sense to hold onto Dragon Egg and Test Subject until turn 4 when we can also buff it. This is why I preferentially keep Dead Ringer for my starting hand. I may have committed sacrilege by only running a single copy of Shadow Visions, but multiple times I’ve really needed a Shadow Word: Pain and come up empty because I have too many different spells. Loot Hoarder is a direct threat to Flame Imp and Lightwarden so your opponent will instead trade with Kobold Librarian. The advantage here is it gets me closer to completing the quest, replaces itself with card draw, and removes damage coming at my face all for 2 mana. 

This deck aims to win through card advantage. There aren’t many late-game threats besides Shadowreaper Anduin, Amara, Zerek, Bone Drake and random dragons so this deck has to make good trades by buffing minions and gaining board control. Zetalot and Lowseeker run Mind Blast as a finisher along with Alexstrasza. Maybe I should sub out some of my buffs, but so far this has been fun even if my win rate is lower.