Jade Druid and Highlander Priest are the two of the most popular decks right now and if you have been looking for counters to either deck then you’ve come to the right place. Exodia Mage has always been a viable counter to slower decks and you are supposed to have a very high winrate against anything that is not hyper-aggressive. There also aren’t real direct counters to the deck aside aggro and the only way people can shut you down otherwise, is through milling important pieces of your combo or using things like Death Grip from The Lich King to steal one of your combo pieces. This variant of Quest Mage is very aggressive at drawing cards and finding the pieces in time unlike older lists. This particular list is by blitzchung who finished Rank 23 Legend last season.
Card Choices
Babbling Book: Babbling Book is one of the cheapest ways to generate spells to play outside of your deck and get your quest progression started.
Open the Waygate: One of the most viable Quest cards to come out in Un’goro and its reward allows you to potentially end the game in one turn if you put together all of the combo pieces.
Arcanologist: While the card might not be as appealing as Mad Scientist from Curse of Naxxramas, which allowed you to directly draw and play a secret when the minion died; it still is a very good card and allows you to draw specifically secrets and thin out your deck.
Primordial Glyph: Another cheap and efficient means of completing your quest quickly. You also have the potential to draw Primordial Glyph off the card or other spells like Cabalist’s Tome to help you progress with your quest.
sorcerers-apprentice: One of the combo pieces of the deck, the goal is to have 4 copies of the minion on board and then play the Quest reward, followed up by Archmage Antonidas and any spell at all to chain infinite fireballs.
Arcane Intellect: A cheap and efficient way to draw through your deck and find your combo pieces in time as quickly as possible.
Frost Nova: Frost Nova on its own can block a lot of incoming damage from big boards when you need it to, but aside that you ideally want to combo it with Doomsayer to wipe out enemy boards and prevent them from playing anything.
Ice Barrier: Our only form of healing in the deck is Ice Barrier which allows you to gain 8 life (Armor)for 3 mana. We run only one copy of the card but if you happen to face a lot of aggressive decks you can consider running a second copy of Ice Barrier as well.
Ice Block: Ice Block allows you to be immune for a turn when you take lethal damage and gives you the extra bit of survivability that you need with the deck and find time to find your combo pieces.
Simulacrum: Simulacrum is an alternative to Molten Reflection in the deck and gives you an extra shot at putting together your combo pieces fast enough.
Ghastly Conjurer: Ghastly Conjurer is a very good addition to Quest Mage’s arsenal as it allows you to generate Mirror Image, which furthers your quest completion for just 1 mana and the 0/2 Taunts also help you prevent some face damage in the process.
Molten Reflection: Molten Reflection is part of your Exodia combo and you want to either get a third Apprentice from Simulacrum or copy 2 of your Sorcerer’s Apprentice on board using Molten Reflection.
cabalists-tome: Cabalists Tome allows you to draw 3 card to play towards your quest progression and potentially also draw answers to what your opponent plays.
Blizzard[/card]: Blizzard is used as an AOE / stalling mechanic. While Flamestrike might be the better card when it comes to actually clearing minions, against boards that cannot be dealt with by Flamestrike, Blizzard does a much better job at mitigating damage and stalling until you are able to finish off your opponent.
Archmage Antonidas: Your source of infinite Fireballs. Once you setup your 4 Sorcerer’s Apprentice and play Time Warp, you’ll be able to spam Fireballs infinitely (until your turn timer allows you to of course)
Doomsayer: Doomsayer works great as a follow up to board clears as well as a combo piece with Frost Nova. You should play it early on against aggressive decks to buy time and potentially wipe out their board. Even if they do manage to clear your Doomsayer it is still 7 healing that you receive for 2 mana!
Novice Engineer: Novice Engineer allows you to cycle through your deck quickly and despite the weak stats compared to the next most popular option Loot Hoarder; the battlecry effect is better in desperate situations as Loot Hoarder would require you to waste 2 mana pinging the card.
Coldlight Oracle: Coldlight Oracle is a great card for cycling through your deck rapidly while also having the potential to mill some of your opponent’s cards. It is a very tricky card to play in mirror matchups however as you might potentially draw too many cards and allow your opponent to use his Coldlights to mill your cards and burn important combo pieces.
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Mulligan
High Priority
- Open the Waygate (guaranteed draw on Turn 1)
- Arcanologist
- Novice Engineer
- Doomsayer (Keep Frost Nova too if you have Doomsayer)
Medium Priority
- Babbling Book
- Primordial Glyph
- Arcane Intellect
Conclusion
Ice Block is most likely to be rotated out to Wild next year unless Blizzard change their minds about it, which means we only have a handful of months until we can play Quest Mage in its prime as Ice Block is one of the strongest tools in the deck that ensures you will have 2 extra turns of immunity almost always. The deck is extremely powerful against both Highlander Priest and Jade Druid and if you face either deck a lot then you should definitely give the deck a shot to counter the top two decks of the meta.
Published: Sep 8, 2017 06:58 pm