Advertisement

Hearthstone designer on Quest Rogue: ‘Having decks like that is really important to us’

Maiev Shadowsong is getting a lot of use out of the Rogue Quest (Blizzard)
Maiev Shadowsong is getting a lot of use out of the Rogue Quest (Blizzard)

After its initial reign of terror during the early days of Hearthstone’s latest expansion Journey to Un’Goro, Quest Rogue has established itself as one of the most reliable decks in the meta. Thanks to the ease of completion for The Caverns Below and the absurd numbers of low-cost 5/5’s that come with it, this deck has all the makings of a top-tier combo deck for the foreseeable future.

As with many combo decks in Hearthstone, playing against Quest Rogue can feel like a coin flip. If they pull off the Quest early and start dropping an onslaught of 5/5’s, you lose. If they don’t you’ve got a chance. There’s been no end of vocalized frustration from the community and Hearthstone personalities alike.

Despite the outcry, Blizzard doesn’t see a problem with the deck. Yet. Yahoo Esports spoke to Hearthstone game designer Dean Ayala about the perceived problem.

“Having decks like [Quest Rogue] is really important to us,” he said.

“Certainly, the Rogue deck is one of the more dangerous [Quest decks] for us. Most of the decks that result in a combo of ‘a lot of damage’ in one turn, especially from hand, it’s something that is harder to interact with. Those ones are pretty dangerous. But also want to push those kinds of decks because they’re pretty interesting to play. They’re the kind of decks that, when you play against them – like Freeze Mage and Patron Warrior – it makes you think, ‘Oh, Hearthstone is also about this totally crazy stuff that you can do.’”

But, that doesn’t mean that the Hearthstone designers aren’t keeping their collective eye on the deck.

“On the flip side of it, when you have stuff that is harder to interact with, that can be really dangerous. When your opponent is making a bunch of 5/5’s, one of the questions you might ask yourself, ‘What do you do against that?’ And the answer is not exactly clear.”

Based on what he’s seen so far, Ayala doesn’t think the deck is a problem, especially when compared to the overpowered decks of previous metas.

“In the past, we’ve had Patron Warrior and Midrange Shaman, where we’re looking at all the matchups and saying, ‘What can I play against this?’ Are there options out there? In those cases, their bad matchups were 50 percent. There’s not really a deck that you can play where you’ll have a really good matchup against it. Whereas Quest Rogue doesn’t really have that problem as much. There’s a variety of aggressive strategies [against it]. Midrange Paladin does fairly well against it. It’s one of those things where time will tell.

“Of course, it’s not just about win rate. We talk about win rate a lot because that’s sort of a barometer for if something is very, very powerful. If something has a 60 percent win rate, that’s probably something that’s going to stand the test of time. It’s going to be there a month from now. Whereas with Quest Rogue, it’s middling. It’s like 50 percent.”

For now, Rogue players should breathe easy. Their most powerful deck seems to be safe from the nerf bat. But Ayala says that could change if people work out even more effective versions of the Rogue archetype.

“If it turns out to be not a super high population deck and is showing up like two or three percent of the time and is very good against the kind of decks that are very control-oriented and aren’t really doing anything for the first six or seven turns of the game, I think that’s okay. But if it turns into something that is very high populace and there are adjustments made to that Quest Rogue deck that make it good against a variety of strategies, that’s particularly the kind of deck that we would step in and change.”

In other news, Blizzard will be supporting Wild tournaments in 2017 and are considering sealed formats. Meanwhile, Dan “Frodan” Chou has been breaking down the new Journey to Un’Goro archetypes. For more, stay right here on the Yahoo Esports Hearthstone hub.


Taylor Cocke will continue stomping Rogue Quest dorks as often as possible. Follow him on Twitter @taylorcocke.