In theory you could open a channel in advance and it will start playing when the broadcast starts. In practice, Twitch isn't all that reliable and playback can hang when switching video (broadcast start or from/to commercials). I don't know if that matters for pack drops though: it would depend on whether you're actually disconnected from the channel or only from the video feed.
In general, it seems most people (myself included) first try to make decks that complete the quests as soon as possible. For some quests that might be the right way, but in other cases it might be better to build a deck that completes the quest eventually, so treat the quest as a package and not as an archetype. clawz161 already mentioned this for the Paladin and Warrior quests. Although personally I would call the old Druid deck (Malygos/Togwaggle/Mecha'thun Druid) a template rather than a package, since those decks had about 25 fixed slots and 5 variable slots in which the win condition could be inserted.
An upside to completing quests later is that Questing Explorer is more likely to draw you cards.
Druid
In theory the Druid quest is crazy good, but when I'm playing against it, it doesn't feel exceptionally powerful. I've gotten wins against it playing decks that honestly weren't all that good. Maybe what is happening is that the plays that can be made with a completed quest have good tempo, but not insane tempo like the late-game options of some other decks. And the quest reward doesn't kick in until turn 5 (coin) or 6, while tempo has a bigger impact in the earlier turns.
I'm wondering if a quest variant of Token Druid is possible. Cards like Power of the Wild, Tending Tauren and Cenarius become significantly better with the quest reward and maybe that's the extra pressure you need to defeat the likes of Control Warrior.
Warrior
The Warrior quest is easier to complete than I thought. But it is also more mana intensive to use than I realized: let's say you want to use your new hero power twice on turn 7, then you spend 2x2 mana on golems and can therefore spend only 3 mana on cards.
I tried a variation on Pirate Warrior at first and while I won, the quest was pointless in that deck. Now I'm trying a rush variant.
Priest
Completing the Priest quest with small heals takes a long time, so maybe it's better to focus on a few big heals instead. If you play Zilliax and two copies of Divine Hymn, that's enough healing. That would leave more card slots and mana to do other things: if your entire deck is geared towards quest completion, then the cards you can play in the late game are not good enough. While the quest reward is very nice, it's not a game winner: you do need a late-game plan in your deck.
Shaman
The Shaman quest I haven't played yet, but it seems easy enough to use since battlecries are something that Shaman is already good at and the original hero power isn't very good in the late game anyway.
I'll probably try Dragon Shaman at some point; dragons and dragon synergy cards often have battlecries. It's a pity there is no class dragon for Shaman though.
Elemental Shaman could also work with the quest, although I don't know if there are enough good elementals left in Standard; maybe this is more viable in Wild where the Un'Goro elementals are also available.
The package approach won't work here: this quest takes too long to complete without Plot Twist and playing Plot Twist in a deck not built around that card is not very good.
For something that takes so much effort, the quest reward isn't all that great. Maybe part of the issue is that the base Warlock hero power is already very good, so something that replaces it must be extremely good to be worth its cost. That's why Odd Warlock was hardly played at all, while there were enough good odd-costed cards to build it.
Hunter
As YJHS2000 writes, this is hard to complete without Swarm of Locusts. And that card has the potential to fill up the board so Zul'jin cannot summon any other (stronger) minions. I think that for decks already running Zul'jin, the quest is not worth either replacing him or running the risk of the battlecry fizzling.
Maybe there is hope for a mech variant of Token Hunter: there are a lot of cards that summon microbots and goblin bombs, for example Replicating Menace contributes 3 or 4 to the quest (assuming magnetizing doesn't count as a summon), while SN1P-SN4P on turn 6 would contribute 5 or 6. Still, getting to 20 will take a while.
Rogue
The quest seems easy to complete. I'm not sure what kind of decks it would fit in though.
While the immunity is nice, it doesn't scale to the late game like Spectral Cutlass does. So you might not be able to play games long enough to make Tess Greymane worthwhile (or to even draw Tess in time most games).
For a more aggressive game plan, this doesn't have the burst potential that Waggle Pick + Leeroy Jenkins does.
Perhaps it could work in a tempo deck in which the weapon is used to remove opposing minions while your own minions go face repeatedly. Maybe some kind of Captain Hooktusk deck, minus Raiding Party.
Mage
I think I've only seen one opponent play this so far, in a highlander deck. It wasn't very impactful there since it look a long time to complete. Mage already has a lot of value generation options; I'm not sure this is good enough to wait that long for.
It might be a good addition to a Mana Cyclone deck, since you could delay playing the quest until the Cyclone turn, assuming you draw Cyclone early.
Paladin
I don't have much of an opinion on this quest yet: I don't have it myself and I haven't seen it played except in some very early streams.
Run both lackeys and self damage packages, I tried it, it's quite effective, yet to face warrior or paladin though
You can combine lackeys with self-damage, but fitting demon synergy in there as well would be difficult. EVIL Genius needs something cheap to sacrifice, so you need tokens and/or deathrattles and once you have those, you probably want to capitalize on that by adding more typical zoo cards like Dire Wolf Alpha.
I ran into one Warrior so far and while I lost, it was pretty close until Omega Devastator came online. That's what led me to include Mojomaster Zihi.
Sure, but just pick the best of both worlds. Having too many self-damaging cards can be very dangerous and there are plenty of safer options too.
There is quite a bit of healing in the deck, so you have a lot more than 30 health to work with. The current list has around 20 to 25 points of healing, depending on how much value you get from the Spider, Zilliax and when you draw the Broodmothers. If that is not enough, you could replace a Flame Imp by a second Crystallizer and add a second Rotten Applebaum.
As long as you can deal more damage than you receive, you'll be fine against most decks. Pure burn decks are rare these days: most aggressive decks rely on repeated minion damage before being able to finish you off. If you win the minion war, you're likely outside of their burn range and then they'll have to use their burn on your minions just to stay alive.
I am trying a Lackey/Pain hybrid, and it's not so strong as one would expect. Very hand-dependant, so i find it inconsistent, although not bad overall. At least it's a viable archetype now.
eg i could beat a Quest Druid, but a Quest Priest overpowered me.
At least this is my impression so far.
I also beat a Quest Druid: they got their quest online but by then I had 3 demons on the board and Ectomancy turned that into a board they couldn't deal with.
Quest Priest with a completed quest was too much to handle, even with Lord Jaraxxus. And I'm not sure it's feasible to finish them off before they complete the quest, since the earlier you start pushing damage, the earlier they can complete the quest. I think you can always get a win if you have a strong start, but with a mediocre start it's going to be tough.
Please try this deck and share your experiences and improvements. I certainly had a blast finishing off my opponent with a 15-attack Frothing Berserker.
I got Hack the System in my very first pack, but a few packs later I got a golden Zephrys the Great, so overall I think Yogg was in a good mood. He also gave me a puzzle box and two pilgrims...
The quest reward looked very powerful in the streamers' games, especially with Oasis Surger. But you do have to spend the first 4-5 turns playing behind the curve and the question is whether the meta will allow that.
That's not going to be very effective tech: it would only disable Zephrys from the moment both Bombers are played until the moment the first bomb is drawn. So for much of the game, Zephrys would still be active.
Any particular bosses you're having trouble with? I have not defeated Thaddius and Kel'Thuzad yet, but did defeat all the other Naxx bosses and I've saved my decks for about half of them. This was around the time of K&C, I think, so the decks do include modern cards but aren't fully up-to-date. But they would be a decent starting point for tuning.
It's probably pretty common to q up, mulligan immediately, and then run off to the bathroom or grab a snack. I know I'm guilty of doing this as it's the only semi-predictable length of time between matches.
It's not a big deal, but you could take a break of any length before queuing up. I understand that streamers want to get their viewers invested in a new match before they run off to the bathroom or kitchen, but most of us don't risk losing viewers if we take a break between matches.
Besides Blink Fox and Hench-Clan Burglar there is also the new Bazaar Mugger. And you can use Shadowstep of course, or discover more copies of Pilfer through lackeys. Face Collector can give you cards from other classes, but only about half of the time, since there are a lot of neutral legendaries.
Technically Academic Espionage also works, but then you're not playing a tempo deck and I'm not sure whether the upgraded hero power is all that useful in a value game.
It doesn't do anything the turn it's played though, so it's more like Beneath the Grounds than like Fal'dorei Strider. Being able to pick the minion might be useful enough for it to be included as a one-of in some decks, but I don't expect it to be a staple like Strider was.
Half your pings are from the token, so you don't take face damage for those. If you often spread the attacks, you can face-tank the smaller damage, while if you often direct both attacks at the same target you would be taking a lot of face damage indeed. My guess is that reborn and lackeys will play a significant role in the meta, in which case spreading attacks is often possible and useful, but it's hard to predict a meta.
One concern I have is that unlike Candleshot and Springpaw, you can't play this on turn 1, so you'd either have to find a different 1-drop or don't play anything on turn 1 and thereby give up on 1 "free" mana.
Another comparison is Muster for Battle: that's also 3 mana, gives you a comparable weapon (one charge more) and 3 tokens with possible synergies. Not receiving all your tokens at once is both an advantage and disadvantage: it makes you less vulnerable to AoE and gives you the opportunity to summon a beast for 0 mana when you need it for synergy, but it doesn't put as many offensive stats on the board immediately. In terms of synergy I think beasts are better than dudes were in GvG: Quartermaster wasn't played much until more dude cards came out.
I think you're right: Warlock is unlikely to get enough value from Tekhan. But when a Rogue discovers him off Hench-Clan Burglar, it will bring back the memories/nightmares of Crystal Core.
I think Nefarian will be the Big Bad of the third expansion. There were some hints towards that in the Fire Festival: the reward cards were Bronze Herald (a dragon) and Recurring Villain, plus Nefarian says "I'll be back" when you defeat him.
It's quite a bit more flexible than a 2/3 weapon: you can hit two targets, you can react to deathrattle summons and reborn, if you only need one damage or run the token into a 0-attack minion, you get to keep the token. And that's even before considering the beast synergies.
I see this as Candleshot and Springpaw in one card and both of those saw a lot of play.
A board of buffed taunt minions can be a win condition in itself. Against aggro, if you stabilize, you win. Versus control you can accept the tempo loss during the early turns to get a tempo advantage when you start playing buffed minions in later turns. The question then becomes whether your pressure can outlast their removal and minion generation does help with that.
One of the things Handbuff Paladin struggled with is keeping their hand size up. Drygulch Jailor helped a lot with that: it took the deck from hopeless to almost viable. This time around, both the minion generation and the buffs are better, so it might actually work now.
Another issue with handbuff is that because you can only buff minions, you want to have a minion-heavy deck, which in turn makes it harder to react to what your opponent does, since most reactive cards are spells. I don't know yet how Taunt Warrior would solve that: maybe using rush (like Zilliax and Amani War Bear), or maybe the buffs are strong enough now that you can afford to run more spells and still get enough value from them.
I think the stealth will make this trade better instead: Cursed Disciple would often get traded into by 1/1s and/or targeted by hero powers; the stealth on this will give the owner a better chance of picking trades instead of the opponent.
I don't think it's worth 5 mana though, especially since Cursed Disciple at 4 saw little play (mainly with Jungle Giants which itself wasn't played a lot). Another similar card, Shadow Rager, also saw little play for 3 mana, so while high-attack stealth has potential in theory, it wasn't all that great in practice.
In theory you could open a channel in advance and it will start playing when the broadcast starts. In practice, Twitch isn't all that reliable and playback can hang when switching video (broadcast start or from/to commercials). I don't know if that matters for pack drops though: it would depend on whether you're actually disconnected from the channel or only from the video feed.
In general, it seems most people (myself included) first try to make decks that complete the quests as soon as possible. For some quests that might be the right way, but in other cases it might be better to build a deck that completes the quest eventually, so treat the quest as a package and not as an archetype. clawz161 already mentioned this for the Paladin and Warrior quests. Although personally I would call the old Druid deck (Malygos/Togwaggle/Mecha'thun Druid) a template rather than a package, since those decks had about 25 fixed slots and 5 variable slots in which the win condition could be inserted.
An upside to completing quests later is that Questing Explorer is more likely to draw you cards.
Druid
In theory the Druid quest is crazy good, but when I'm playing against it, it doesn't feel exceptionally powerful. I've gotten wins against it playing decks that honestly weren't all that good. Maybe what is happening is that the plays that can be made with a completed quest have good tempo, but not insane tempo like the late-game options of some other decks. And the quest reward doesn't kick in until turn 5 (coin) or 6, while tempo has a bigger impact in the earlier turns.
I'm wondering if a quest variant of Token Druid is possible. Cards like Power of the Wild, Tending Tauren and Cenarius become significantly better with the quest reward and maybe that's the extra pressure you need to defeat the likes of Control Warrior.
Warrior
The Warrior quest is easier to complete than I thought. But it is also more mana intensive to use than I realized: let's say you want to use your new hero power twice on turn 7, then you spend 2x2 mana on golems and can therefore spend only 3 mana on cards.
I tried a variation on Pirate Warrior at first and while I won, the quest was pointless in that deck. Now I'm trying a rush variant.
Priest
Completing the Priest quest with small heals takes a long time, so maybe it's better to focus on a few big heals instead. If you play Zilliax and two copies of Divine Hymn, that's enough healing. That would leave more card slots and mana to do other things: if your entire deck is geared towards quest completion, then the cards you can play in the late game are not good enough. While the quest reward is very nice, it's not a game winner: you do need a late-game plan in your deck.
Shaman
The Shaman quest I haven't played yet, but it seems easy enough to use since battlecries are something that Shaman is already good at and the original hero power isn't very good in the late game anyway.
I'll probably try Dragon Shaman at some point; dragons and dragon synergy cards often have battlecries. It's a pity there is no class dragon for Shaman though.
Elemental Shaman could also work with the quest, although I don't know if there are enough good elementals left in Standard; maybe this is more viable in Wild where the Un'Goro elementals are also available.
A Control Shaman deck with the quest also seems possible. Shaman has great board clears in Hagatha's Scheme and Earthquake and healing in Witch's Brew and Walking Fountain. It would mean giving up Hagatha the Witch though.
Warlock
The package approach won't work here: this quest takes too long to complete without Plot Twist and playing Plot Twist in a deck not built around that card is not very good.
For something that takes so much effort, the quest reward isn't all that great. Maybe part of the issue is that the base Warlock hero power is already very good, so something that replaces it must be extremely good to be worth its cost. That's why Odd Warlock was hardly played at all, while there were enough good odd-costed cards to build it.
Hunter
As YJHS2000 writes, this is hard to complete without Swarm of Locusts. And that card has the potential to fill up the board so Zul'jin cannot summon any other (stronger) minions. I think that for decks already running Zul'jin, the quest is not worth either replacing him or running the risk of the battlecry fizzling.
Maybe there is hope for a mech variant of Token Hunter: there are a lot of cards that summon microbots and goblin bombs, for example Replicating Menace contributes 3 or 4 to the quest (assuming magnetizing doesn't count as a summon), while SN1P-SN4P on turn 6 would contribute 5 or 6. Still, getting to 20 will take a while.
Rogue
The quest seems easy to complete. I'm not sure what kind of decks it would fit in though.
While the immunity is nice, it doesn't scale to the late game like Spectral Cutlass does. So you might not be able to play games long enough to make Tess Greymane worthwhile (or to even draw Tess in time most games).
For a more aggressive game plan, this doesn't have the burst potential that Waggle Pick + Leeroy Jenkins does.
Perhaps it could work in a tempo deck in which the weapon is used to remove opposing minions while your own minions go face repeatedly. Maybe some kind of Captain Hooktusk deck, minus Raiding Party.
Mage
I think I've only seen one opponent play this so far, in a highlander deck. It wasn't very impactful there since it look a long time to complete. Mage already has a lot of value generation options; I'm not sure this is good enough to wait that long for.
It might be a good addition to a Mana Cyclone deck, since you could delay playing the quest until the Cyclone turn, assuming you draw Cyclone early.
Paladin
I don't have much of an opinion on this quest yet: I don't have it myself and I haven't seen it played except in some very early streams.
You can combine lackeys with self-damage, but fitting demon synergy in there as well would be difficult. EVIL Genius needs something cheap to sacrifice, so you need tokens and/or deathrattles and once you have those, you probably want to capitalize on that by adding more typical zoo cards like Dire Wolf Alpha.
I ran into one Warrior so far and while I lost, it was pretty close until Omega Devastator came online. That's what led me to include Mojomaster Zihi.
There is quite a bit of healing in the deck, so you have a lot more than 30 health to work with. The current list has around 20 to 25 points of healing, depending on how much value you get from the Spider, Zilliax and when you draw the Broodmothers. If that is not enough, you could replace a Flame Imp by a second Crystallizer and add a second Rotten Applebaum.
As long as you can deal more damage than you receive, you'll be fine against most decks. Pure burn decks are rare these days: most aggressive decks rely on repeated minion damage before being able to finish you off. If you win the minion war, you're likely outside of their burn range and then they'll have to use their burn on your minions just to stay alive.
I also beat a Quest Druid: they got their quest online but by then I had 3 demons on the board and Ectomancy turned that into a board they couldn't deal with.
Quest Priest with a completed quest was too much to handle, even with Lord Jaraxxus. And I'm not sure it's feasible to finish them off before they complete the quest, since the earlier you start pushing damage, the earlier they can complete the quest. I think you can always get a win if you have a strong start, but with a mediocre start it's going to be tough.
It could be a hidden treasure, it could be a mirage... Does the self-damage Warlock archetype finally work?
Please try this deck and share your experiences and improvements. I certainly had a blast finishing off my opponent with a 15-attack Frothing Berserker.
I got Hack the System in my very first pack, but a few packs later I got a golden Zephrys the Great, so overall I think Yogg was in a good mood. He also gave me a puzzle box and two pilgrims...
The quest reward looked very powerful in the streamers' games, especially with Oasis Surger. But you do have to spend the first 4-5 turns playing behind the curve and the question is whether the meta will allow that.
That's not going to be very effective tech: it would only disable Zephrys from the moment both Bombers are played until the moment the first bomb is drawn. So for much of the game, Zephrys would still be active.
Any particular bosses you're having trouble with? I have not defeated Thaddius and Kel'Thuzad yet, but did defeat all the other Naxx bosses and I've saved my decks for about half of them. This was around the time of K&C, I think, so the decks do include modern cards but aren't fully up-to-date. But they would be a decent starting point for tuning.
It's not a big deal, but you could take a break of any length before queuing up. I understand that streamers want to get their viewers invested in a new match before they run off to the bathroom or kitchen, but most of us don't risk losing viewers if we take a break between matches.
Besides Blink Fox and Hench-Clan Burglar there is also the new Bazaar Mugger. And you can use Shadowstep of course, or discover more copies of Pilfer through lackeys. Face Collector can give you cards from other classes, but only about half of the time, since there are a lot of neutral legendaries.
Technically Academic Espionage also works, but then you're not playing a tempo deck and I'm not sure whether the upgraded hero power is all that useful in a value game.
It doesn't do anything the turn it's played though, so it's more like Beneath the Grounds than like Fal'dorei Strider. Being able to pick the minion might be useful enough for it to be included as a one-of in some decks, but I don't expect it to be a staple like Strider was.
Half your pings are from the token, so you don't take face damage for those. If you often spread the attacks, you can face-tank the smaller damage, while if you often direct both attacks at the same target you would be taking a lot of face damage indeed. My guess is that reborn and lackeys will play a significant role in the meta, in which case spreading attacks is often possible and useful, but it's hard to predict a meta.
One concern I have is that unlike Candleshot and Springpaw, you can't play this on turn 1, so you'd either have to find a different 1-drop or don't play anything on turn 1 and thereby give up on 1 "free" mana.
Another comparison is Muster for Battle: that's also 3 mana, gives you a comparable weapon (one charge more) and 3 tokens with possible synergies. Not receiving all your tokens at once is both an advantage and disadvantage: it makes you less vulnerable to AoE and gives you the opportunity to summon a beast for 0 mana when you need it for synergy, but it doesn't put as many offensive stats on the board immediately. In terms of synergy I think beasts are better than dudes were in GvG: Quartermaster wasn't played much until more dude cards came out.
I forgot that the Burglar only gives you spells; I haven't played Rogue in a while. Anyway, thanks to the Mugger the point still stands.
I think you're right: Warlock is unlikely to get enough value from Tekhan. But when a Rogue discovers him off Hench-Clan Burglar, it will bring back the memories/nightmares of Crystal Core.
I think Nefarian will be the Big Bad of the third expansion. There were some hints towards that in the Fire Festival: the reward cards were Bronze Herald (a dragon) and Recurring Villain, plus Nefarian says "I'll be back" when you defeat him.
It's quite a bit more flexible than a 2/3 weapon: you can hit two targets, you can react to deathrattle summons and reborn, if you only need one damage or run the token into a 0-attack minion, you get to keep the token. And that's even before considering the beast synergies.
I see this as Candleshot and Springpaw in one card and both of those saw a lot of play.
If I open one, I'd try it in Muckmorpher Shaman.
A board of buffed taunt minions can be a win condition in itself. Against aggro, if you stabilize, you win. Versus control you can accept the tempo loss during the early turns to get a tempo advantage when you start playing buffed minions in later turns. The question then becomes whether your pressure can outlast their removal and minion generation does help with that.
One of the things Handbuff Paladin struggled with is keeping their hand size up. Drygulch Jailor helped a lot with that: it took the deck from hopeless to almost viable. This time around, both the minion generation and the buffs are better, so it might actually work now.
Another issue with handbuff is that because you can only buff minions, you want to have a minion-heavy deck, which in turn makes it harder to react to what your opponent does, since most reactive cards are spells. I don't know yet how Taunt Warrior would solve that: maybe using rush (like Zilliax and Amani War Bear), or maybe the buffs are strong enough now that you can afford to run more spells and still get enough value from them.
I think the stealth will make this trade better instead: Cursed Disciple would often get traded into by 1/1s and/or targeted by hero powers; the stealth on this will give the owner a better chance of picking trades instead of the opponent.
I don't think it's worth 5 mana though, especially since Cursed Disciple at 4 saw little play (mainly with Jungle Giants which itself wasn't played a lot). Another similar card, Shadow Rager, also saw little play for 3 mana, so while high-attack stealth has potential in theory, it wasn't all that great in practice.
The 4/5 summoned when tapping, is that an unrevealed card? I don't recognize it and there are also no 3-mana 4/5 in the card database.