Igneous Elemental Quest Rogue

Ah, Quest Rogue, the true cockroach of Hearthstone. One year and two nerfs later, the deck has once again managed to warp the meta and may end up being nerfed for a record third time. However, it plays incredibly differently then it used to, and is much, MUCH slower. Rather then relying on bouncing chargers, Quest Rogue is all about creating an infinite amount of 4/4s that will eventually stick. So while it’s still a control killer, it’s a much more grindy deck. Giggling Inventor only adds to that.  

This makes the standard version that you’ve seen a little bit worse. Boars are basically superfluous unless you’re using them in a big Sonya turn. Wax Elementals are alright at stalling, but Giggling Inventor is generally good enough in that role now. Even worse, they’re absolutely atrocious bounce targets, but if they’re in your deck you’ll have to use them to complete the quest at some point. And it feels BAD. 

Sometimes in order to move forward you have to look backwards, and that’s exactly what this version aims to do. I’ve dropped Boars and Big Waxy for the Flame Elemental Package of Fire Fly and Igneous Elemental. This has several advantages: 

1. More Proactive Plays: Quest Rogue has always been unfavored vs aggro, but this version is slightly better because there’s an actual 1 drop in the deck. Against Zoo or Odd Rogue, it’s often correct to play Fire Fly on 1 and play the Quest on a later turn. Having something to fight for board against bad matchups is better then nothing. Igneous Elemental is also a better tempo play on turn 3 then most of Quest Rogue’s 3 cost cards in aggressive or board-focused matchups. It doesn’t trade particularly well, but once again it’s better then doing nothing or having to rely on 2 card plays. 
2. Larger Post-Quest Boards: You’ll likely be flooding the board with Flame Elementals to complete the quest, and post-quest all those tokens can quickly create board states your opponent can’t answer, no Zola Train required. This makes it easier to beat control decks when Zola or Valeera are at the bottom of your deck (typically the only out Odd Warrior has against the standard version). 
3. Increased Consistency: The Flame Elementals make it much easier to complete the Quest, and you can use your bounce effects on Fire Fly or the Flame Elementals that are generated and it gets you the same result. This lets you keep more minions on the board, which is useful against all decks. Since you don’t need Zola to create massive boards, it frees her up to be used as a bouncer, even against control decks, which helps you complete faster and start beating them up. And since you have enough tokens to complete the quest without ANY bounce effects, you can use them on cards like Novice Engineer, Glacial Shard, or Giggling Inventor and not have to worry about completing using them or having to find Sonya. 
4. Slightly better against Tempo Mage: Okay, you’ll probably still lose, but throwing one of your token generators into an Explosive Runes is less bad then having any of your other minions proc it. 

Obviously, the deck can complete the quest with Sonya, so don’t rule that out. Sonya + trading in token generators is also a pretty sweet value play depending on the matchup and game state. In terms of tech cards, I’ve gone for a fairly middle of the road choice with one Mimic Pod and one Fan of Knives. Obviously you can sub one out for the other depending one what decks you’re seeing. 

So far, the only problem I’ve had with this deck is keeping my hand size pretty low, but I think it’s a solid variant of Quest Rogue for the current meta. Try it out before it (probably) gets nerfed for a third time and let me know what you think!