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Our Odd Quest Warrior deck list guide will go through the ins-and-outs of the potentially viable deck from The Witchwood Expansion! This guide will teach you how to mulligan, pilot, and substitute cards for this archetype! For now the deck guide is theorycraft, but as soon as the expansion goes live we will start updating it right away!
Introduction to Odd Quest Warrior
With the upcoming expansion, one deck that has been receiving a lot of buzz is Odd Quest Warrior. Many players, longing for the old days of Tank Up! with Justicar Trueheart, are hoping that Baku the Mooneater can help Garrosh accumulate insurmountable amounts of armor.
Once a dominant force in the Standard metagame, both Quest Warrior and Control Warrior have fallen out of favor in recent months. However, thanks to a far more limited card pool after rotation, this combination of the two widely popular archetypes should be in a good position to return to fame.
The Witchwood
This archetype takes advantage of a slew of new cards from The Witchwood. Obviously, Baku helps enable the deck’s upgraded hero power, but cards like Phantom Militia are crucial in filling in the deckbuilding gaps of only including odd cost cards. The repeatable nature of this card can increment the Quest multiple times and fill in awkward, late-game curves. Once you get the Quest completed, Blackwald Pixie offers multiple Rag shots for substantial burst. Finally, Rotten Applebaum and Witchwood Grizzly provides the perfect combination of odd mana cost and anti-aggro tools.
Read on to see some details about Mulligans and General Strategy for this new The Witchwood archetype!
Odd Quest Warrior Mulligan
The deck building restrictions of only including odd cost cards make for some awkward mulligans. Perhaps more than ever, you need to map out your turns to ensure you have reasonable plays beyond the Quest.
In slower matchups, you definitely want to hold Fire Plume's Heart. Beyond that, a solid curve of Taunt minions can help you complete the Quest in time to pressure your opponent. Blackwald Pixie can be used as a finisher in these games and, despite the low cost, should be pitched away in favor of more Taunt minions. Instead, Stonehill Defender should be prioritized thanks to his ability to double up the quest progress. From there, five drop taunts can apply enough pressure to set up the kill with the quest reward.
Without enough anti-aggro cards in hand, there may be an argument for ditching the Quest against faster decks. Incidentally, the mana increase to Fiery War Axe makes in available in this deck, giving Odd Taunt Warrior the ability to manage early minion pressure. In aggro matchups, Fiery War Axe can be the real MVP. Likewise, Tar Creeper can put up a frustrating roadblock for aggressive decks, so always hold this valuable three-drop.
Odd Quest Warrior General Strategy
As you might expect from a Control Warrior deck, Odd Quest Warrior typically plays a slow, grindy game. With few one cost cards in the deck, typically you’ll lead the game with Fire Plume's Heart. Unfortunately, the deck building requirement means that you’re unlikely to have a follow up on turn two. Fear not! Your recently upgraded Hero Power now grants you four armor!
From there, early turns are spent making progress on the Quest with a full stable of high-value Taunt minions. Card like Stonehill Defender, Phantom Militia, and Direhorn Hatchling represent multiple ticks on the Quest progress.
In any matchup, you want to weave in hero powers as frequently as you can. Sacrificing even cards is pointless if you don’t take advantage of the upgraded hero power. Likewise, the extra two mana spent can help fill in awkward curves to better utilize your mana crystals.
Numerous Tank Ups over the course of the game can pull you out of range of aggressive and combo decks alike. Lacking some of the removal cards Control Warrior is used to, Odd Quest Warrior does have a handful of reset buttons available. Reliable ol’ Brawl is playable at five mana and Reckless Flurry can trade armor for a board wipe. Even with no armor at the start of your turn, the upgraded hero power turns this into a five mana, four damage AoE. Likewise, Gorehowl steps in for the even cost Execute as single-target removal.
Finally, with the quest complete, the deck is capable of massive burst. Alexstrasza can reduce an opponent to 15 and set up a kill (assuming, of course, you didn’t need to frantically heal yourself with her ability). From there, Blackwald Pixie gives you multiple Ragnaros shots for eight damage each. The dream here is that you still have a bit of remaining armor from tanking up and can play Reckless Flurry to clear the board, followed by Hero Power, Pixie, Hero power to close out the game. Even when these stars don’t quite align, eight damage for two mana is nothing to sneeze at!
iron hide is such a trash card… play mind control tech instead
Currently I am 10-4 with a version of the baku quest warrior around rank 7. The hero power is best against palladin, and I only lost 1 game to baku hunter. The hard matchup is cubelock of which I won 1, and lost the rest. Baku is still really good, but the worst feeling is first then drawing baku. I ran a town crier, 2 rabid worgen, and darius Crowley in my build. Also remember to always keep at leasylt 1 iron hide or shield block after you use sulfurus to still be able to reckless fury.
Found that not using baku way more consistent
I dont have the list on me but i was watching Rdu and used his list that doesnt have baku. My winrate went way up
Please let us know if you find it. If it really is better I’d certainly much appreciate being able to play warrior more.
I’m running Kripp’s non Bali quest warrior and I’m doing great so far. Just watch his latest vid where he uses it, he has the deck code in the description.
As did I. I started with Baku and lost consistently. Switched him out and my win rate improved and the deck was more stable.
I don’t run gorehowl nor do I think it really necessary. Rare have I got to turn 7 and thought I needed gorehowl. Also I think the sprite is greedy and is crap early when you want to be playing taunts instead. Alex also seems greedy. The 8 damage is consistent and well eventually exhaust their resources. I think board presence is more important than their actual life total. Remove Alex and add oakheart. Also I think whirlwind+voodoo doll has more use than blowing 15 armor on reckless flurry. Tar lord could be something else as well.
completely agree with gorehowl comment. When defending you want to protect face with taunts, not taking damage also on your turns. and when winning,… well, you are winning, and you can smack for 8 every turn. Do you really need gorehowl?
I also dont run alex (though i have not tried playing with him), and only one reckless furry. but i am not so sure about the latter.
I think the value of a single Gorhowl is sumed up in its flexibility. When your back’s against the wall, it’s a single target removal that will prevent your opponent from vomiting his best minions onto the board until you’re down to like 4-3 attack because you’ll simply slice them.
When you’re ahaid, it’s basically a total of 15 damage starting turn 9. People really undervalue Gorhowl’s ability to just go face. You don’t really care of losing all its durability if you can close the game with it.
I can see the reasoning behind that but it’s just the worst feeling drawing it early. Also, with the abundance of baku hunter and paladin on latter I just cant place too much value on hard single target removal. Gorehowl excels at single target removal but falls short when dealing with a swarm of 3/3 dudes.
Good point. Quite honestly Odd Taunt Warrior in general seems like a deck that falls short to make an impact.
I’m considering the possibility of “regular” Quest Warrior instead, but I’m still skeptical of how practical such a deck would be with the current threats.
I agree on cutting gorehowl. I did not get the voodoo kit and kept the rekless fury(cus i was hoping i would go against a lot more aggro). But I do agree with you on gorehowl because the deck already has shield slam which usually is a really strong single target removal and gorehowl cant go through taunts while shield slam can. Shield slam could also be used much easier as it is only one cost and you get 4 armor per 2 mana which usually stacks up to more damage than gorehowl(gorehowl will usually do more damage overtime as it is 7+6+5… but shield slam has the more burst capability that gorehowl has but is not as strong).
I can see making the move to regular taunt warrior. It could be more successful with access to bloodrazor and warpath. I’m not sure tank up is really needed with the extra survivability of rotten applebottom jeans and value of grizzly. Could open up more use for acolyte as well.
What would be good replacements for Reckless Flurry & Gorehowl? I don’t own them and am currently using Darius Crowley, Ironbeak Owl (x1), and Iron Hide (x2).
Personally I run molten blade, theres no bad weapons right now in the meta that you wouldnt want to potentially get (outside a few of the legendary ones). reckless flurry is hard to replace tho. that card has some massive removal. you could do something like whirlwind king mosh combo, but its pretty ineffective. you could also try abominations, they help with the quest and deal 2 to all things. even if it gets silenced, thats one less silence you need to deal with. clockwork automaton could be used as well to do 16 damage with your hero power
Tech options are possible as well, harrison jones if youre running into a lot of weapons (warlock), mind control tech or baron geddon for large board deck (odd paladin), acolyte of pain for card draw (this deck seems to lack that a bit). Elise is a great control card to throw in
http://www.hearthstonetopdecks.com/decks/quest-warrior-47/
Guys Check this one out. I m sure baron gedon doesnt belong there.i put him for a 7-drop…i would like some help with deck
I can NOT seem to win with is deck at rank 10
I have spent last 24 hours testing odd control warrior and tested about 5 different versions, realizing the heavier cards like King Mosh, Alexstrasza and Tar Lord have to be cut. They just kill the deck if you draw them any earlier, and when you get your quest hero power, you always want to use it so everything that costs 9 is really bad. Besides it slows the deck and you really need to draw cards to get to your 6/9 taunts. You don’t really need Tar Lord to complete the quest and even though powerful, it’s really only defensive minion. I also cut Witchwood Grizzly because it doesn’t seem to be efficient enough and again, you don’t need it to complete the quest. You also definitely want to play only one copy of Gorehowl, having 2 on your hand is just awful. So now we stripped it down to what certainly works… now what to add to make it good?
My best version so far includes 2× Acolyte of Pain, Zola the Gorgon, Harrison Jones and Elize the Trailblazer. I was also trying to put in Big Game Hunter, Faceless Manipulator and Whirlwind. The question is what will be the new meta after they nerf Shudderwock, but I think it will be aggressive. In this case we might even see cards like Earthen Ring Farseer, Rabid Worgen or Wax Elemental… but that is yet to be seen. I would also like to add the potential return of Ironbeak Owl, it brought me many victories agains cubelocks.
Nerf shudderwock? Because the deck is OP at 40% averrage win rate…
no you dolt, because its ruining the games where your stuck against it, and on there turn have enough time to make a sandwich, raise a small orphan boy to the age of ten before brutally murdering him and burying him in the garden in your backyard before the guilt overtakes you and you dig up his bleached skeleton and treat it as if nothing has changed while your wife cries, then come back to your game only for shuddercock to still go through its animation and now having three more in its hand from its messed up synergy, leaving you a crying mess on the floor as you await a fate YOU COULD NOT HAVE PREVENTED BY PLAYING ANY DECK IN THE GAME, NONE AT ALL cant even have that tiny chace to dirty rat now hes gone. doesnt sound like it needs a nerf to me at all.
All because Blizzard, a multi billion dollar company cant design cards better than any fan of the game, lazy ass ben brode, the devil i say
A life, you should get one yoggdamned blizzard apologist
I am trying this deck, currently at 7 wins 2 losses. I traded out the witchwood grizzly quickly as I could never use it- comes out to late and clunky against aggro decks and control decks have hands full of cards. I also consider removing the rotten applebaum but leave it in because I assume they only seem bad because people are trying new things and I never need that extra sliver of health.
Its done well against cubelock and rush, but I feel real control decks will just stomp this. Its too slow to get combo pieces together, and even in ideal cases where you alexandra after a gorehound everyone is playing so much anti-aggro they landslide more minions out or heal up. My success is because no one knows what is working right now I think.
What replacements did you make?
I tested this deck, turns out it isn’t very good. I was hoping it would be better, too bad the meta is such a weird place rn
You need Azalina Soulthief in Control Warrior
Two Gorehowls feels like overkill, what do you think?
If you wanna beat Cube (sometimes) 1x Harrison Jones is surely needed.
depending on meta and other considerations, maybe it’s worth thinking of also substituting alexstrasza with master oakheart? playing oakheart comes at a loss of value from not getting taunts to count towards your quest, possibly hitting blackwald pixie, not getting the echo effect from phantom militia, and losing battlecry from stonehill, but can very quickly fill up your board with a wall of taunts in a pinch (and could hit witchwood grizzly for a 3/12 with taunt). i guess this is dependent on whether this deck finds itself needing a bit more time to survive to finish the quest or could use the burst from alexstrasza, albeit each option has a bit of flexibility with the board presence from oakheart potentially being able to close out the game and alexstrasza potentially being able to bring you back from the brink when you’re close to death. although between these two options, alexstrasza comes at a lower loss of resources so idk.
+2 ironbeak owl
– 1 alextraza and tar lord
PUT 2 ironbeak 3 manas to counter cubelock
can’t wait to try this !
Me too! I think the archetype has some serious potential even if this particular list needs a bit of refinement.
This could be the counter to Cubelock we needed, the amount of armor gained from Tank up ! will probably surpass the amount of heal warlock can have in a fatigue situation (which let’s be honest will happen 75% of the times these decks will face each others), Witchwood grizzly will almost alway be as strong as a Voidlord in this match-up, and once you complete the quest, you can just wait for lethal while keeping your armor too high for Warlock.
I definitely see this as THE counter to cubelock, Tempo might be very good too, but realistically, you can’t lose the control vs control match-up with this deck.
this’ll need some tuning ofc, but the base idea of the deck seems rly strong imo.
How are you killing does voiddaddys? And if you get to play sulfuras you can’t gain more armor. Not running many card draw either, not very high minions and sulfuras heropower is RNG. I’m hyped for playing baku on warrior but may not be good yet this year, till gul’dan and other dk’s rotates from standard :C.
Pd: Actually cubelock can rush you with weapon on 5 + some demons, can’t clear them all.
I feel like against a slower Warlock deck, you wouldn’t play Sulfuras until after their Bloodreaver. You can hopefully save a Reckless Fury or Brawl for that swing, too. You just have to make sure you’re at a high enough life total that their Hero Power can’t kill you before your quest one does.
I’d say that you could replace 1 of the less important taunts for a Whirlwind in order to play it with King Mosh to have a guaranteed board clear at turn 10
Good catch! That was originally a direction I was taking the deck and shifted focus a bit. King Mosh was a remnant of this and has been removed. I think that, like Acolyte of Pain, he may not be worth a spot in the deck without more consistent Whirlwind effects.