The Beast Guide - Midrange Sunshine

I hope your opponents has found some nice cold cream, because they're about to get BURNED this summer, with the super fresh and hip Unleash the Sunshine deck, mid-range Hunter!

Table of Contents

1. Introduction

2. Card Choices

3. Meta replacements

4. Mulliganing

5. Card Discussion

1. Introduction

I've been playing since mid-beta, as soon as I could get my hands on a key, with my favourite classes being Warrior, Paladin and Hunter. I've reached Legend every season, since the new system has been put in. I've spent very little amount of money on this game, and thus has always been attracted to cheap decks (Although, I have basically all cards at this point). This is a cheap Hunter deck that I've modified to match the meta, and that I've been playing with to great success at high Legend ranks.

2. Card Choices

Hunter's Mark: Hunter's Mark has almost always been in the traditional mid-range hunter deck. This is your bread-and-butter for anything big, and can potentially kill a Deathwing for 1 mana. It combo's extremely well with Buzzard/Unleash combo, Stonetusk Boar and Explosive Trap.

Flare: Flare has never been my favourite card, since you rarely get value out of it. Usually, it's just a 1 mana thin the deck. However, when you do get value out of it, it's immense. This card is crucial against freeze mages and other hunters. Remember it also removes stealth for a Concealed Gadgetzan Auctioneer. Note that it removes ALL stealth, so it includes your own stealthed guys aswell.

Tracking: One of my favourite cards, and almost always useful, be it early game to set up your early minions to not fall behind, mid-game to get the answer you need or late game to fish for the final finisher, this card always comes out strong. There are a few situations where you might end up getting something like 2 Savannah Highmanes to pick from, or have to choose between two strong cards against the deck you're up against, but these situations are less than common.

The biggest effect of this card is choosing what part of the deck you want. As a mid-range hunter, you have alot of answers to every deck in the meta, and most of the time, your cards are either extremely good against the deck you're up against, or absolutely awful. Getting Unleash the Hounds sucks against a miracle rogue, but the fact that you can just discard it and get something good, is what makes me prefer this card over 2 flares.

Webspinner: This guy can seem super random and not very good, but he really gets your early game fixed up, and since most of the games beast are low mana cost, he'll usually keep being useful after dead. This guy usually secures your early game, and is insane if you can get him to hit a Hunter's Marked target. The times that he gives you an Angry Chicken doesn't outweigh the times he gives you Savannah Highmane or Stampeding Kodo!

Stonetusk Boar: Simple card that seems bad at first, but gets alot better when you think about it. It combo's with so much in your deck, that it's a crucial part of it, no matter the meta. Can be combo'd with Hunter's Mark for removal, Buzzard for the 1 mana draw (It's like a flare, but with a 1/1 charge!!), Houndmaster for a 3/3 charge with a 4/3 for 5 mana, and so on.

Explosive Trap: A card I really dislike, but am forced to run because of Zoo and Aggro rogue. This card can actually be pretty hard to use properly, and can end up doing nothing if you use it too late, but be bad if used too early. Always look for this when playing against aggro.

Freezing Trap: The single-target brother of Explosive Trap, insanely good removal for one big minion. This card is essential for beating Druids and Hand locks. While this card is not actually killing the creature, increasing a yeti's (Or similar) mana cost from 4 to 6 makes it basically unplayable, and gives you a huge amount of momentum.

Scavenging Hyena: This dude is a worse River Crocolisk, but with a huge upside. While it's a worse early game drop, it still stays really powerful in the mid-game, when combo'd with several different cards. A common misconception, in my opinion, is not playing this guy on turn 2. I would almost always play it on turn 2 over using my hero power, if nothing else is available.

Starving Buzzard: The big draw engine of this deck. A big necessity for this deck to be viable. Combos insanely well with Unleash the Hounds, and is still useful mid/late-game without Unleash. Alot of players never use this minion without using an Unleash aswell, and in my opinion, this is not always correct. Assuming you have 2 buzzards in your hand, I would play one of them to draw just one card. Otherwise, using buzzard to draw 2 cards is more than acceptable, assuming you won't have a strong Unleash anytime soon and don't have any other good options.

Haunted Creeper: A 3/4 "beast" for 2 mana. These stats are really powerful, but kinda similar to Harvest Golem, the stats are split up through the deathrattle minion. This little guy is really strong against control decks or ultra-aggressive decks, often luring out the silences, so that your Highmane is safe later in the game. If they don't have the silence to deal with this minion, they'll often ignore it, ending up fairly badly for them when they get hit by a Houndmaster or Kill Command. Killing it is very inefficient for the opponent, meaning this minion is just super annoying to deal with, which is great for you - Saying that, this minion is not very good against zoo, since it doesn't actually do much against their minions, and often ends up not really having an effect, unless it gets a Houndmaster buff.

Animal Companion: A 3 mana beast with high stats for it's mana cost? Why not?! This card is almost always strong on turn 3, putting you in aggressive stance with the Huffer, controlling stance with the Misha, and crying stance with Leokk. Just kidding, even Leokk is okay to get on turn 3, assuming you can buff one other beast at some point in the game. After all, it's still an unbound elemental, which is widely accepted as an OKAY card, right?

Eaglehorn Bow: Like a worse Fiery Winaxe, but with benefits! While this weapon is only OK without any traps being used, it's really strong once atleast one trap has been used. Usually used as removal, and can be good to keeping up with a Zoo deck, it can also be used for 6 damage to the opponents face, once you start getting aggresive. Memorize your traps used/discarded through the game, so you know if it's worth it to save the last charge instead of killing a minion.

Kill Command: Deal 5 damage for 3 mana, are you a mage? No, but you certainly still have the huge burst potential, and with a few minions out, it's not rare to randomly kill your opponent at half health because of this card. Usually takes the opponent by surprise, before they consider healing or taunting. Also loves to eat Sen'jins, Ancient of Lore's and Yeti's! Almost never use for removal against hand lock, so you can burst them through the taunts with a potential of 12 damage for 8 mana.

Unleash the Hounds: Used to be the big baller of the hunter deck, but has fallen pretty far off the spotlight since the 1 mana nerf. In some cases, this card is absolutely amazing (Zoo lock, shaman, even hand lock), while in other cases, it's like a 3 mana stonetusk boar (Druid, miracle rogue). Combo's amazingly with Scavenging Hyena and Starving Buzzard. Often used for digging through your deck for Hunter's Mark versus hand locks, while it's used as excellent removal (Sometimes without buzzard or hyena) against Zoo. Beware of overestimating this card, if you see a good spot to use it, get it used, so you don't end up with an unusable Unleash in your hand.

Houndmaster: An absolutely amazing card, with really high stats for its cost, assuming you can buff something with it. Helps you stay alive versus aggro decks, gives you a tiny bit more burst, lets you trade more favorably. An all-around great card for the beast synergy. Not actually a beast, though....

Stranglethorn Tiger: Alot of mid-range hunter's undervalue stealth, in my opinion. It allows for you to guarantee your beast synergy to get triggered, and a big guy like Stranglethorn Tiger is insane for getting pressure against opponents such as Miracle. A super underestimated 5-drop!

Loatheb: This guy is amazing. Learn when your opponents keyturns are, and ruin them. Set up the perfect aoe, and then pop Loatheb to kill their day, delay the Force/Savage or the Miracle, or simply just use him as a 5-drop for pressure. While he's not a beast, he's definately worth it.

Savannah Highmane: Certainly the king of this jungle, considered to be one of, if not THE, best 6-drop in the game. Almost impossible to answer to efficiently, and nearly every class will have issues dealing with this guy. The only issue with him is that he can be too slow, and is an obvious target for Sap. Aggro decks will often simply ignore him, but if you can taunt him up with Houndmaster, this shouldn't be too big of a problem. If he stays up for a turn, or if the opponent wastes alot of cards on him, this guy is certainly worth it.

Once the Highmane has come out, you will usually start going very aggressive and try to kill the opponent soon, since, once that he's been dealt with, you don't have a ton of threats left in the deck, and you'll likely be running low on cards. At this point, you'll usually have switched to being a very aggressive deck.

 3. Meta Replacements

This deck is naturally very versatile. It can answer to almost every type of deck extremely efficiently. With Tracking, you can choose exactly what cards you want for the deck you're playing against, which is a huge strength. Because of this versatility, you'll also often have dead cards versus certain decks. Examples are:

• Unleash versus Miracle
• Freezing Trap versus Zoo
• Explosive Trap versus Druid

And so on. Depending on what you're meeting alot on the ladder, you'll often have to switch some cards around in the deck. The most common replacements are the following:

• In case of a lot of aggro, replace 1 Freezing Trap for 1 Explosive Trap.
• In case of a lot of miracle, replace 1 Unleash for a Jungle Panther, Stranglethorn Tiger or Oasis Snapjaw.
• In case of a lot of Ramp druid, replace 1 Explosive Trap for Deadly Shot or Freezing Trap.
• In case of a lot of Control warrior, potentially replace 1 Eaglehorn Bow for 1 Stampeding Kodo.

These replacements are the most common, I've found, although this is obviously not the limit. If you think a replacement makes sense in your meta, try it out and see if it works! Finally, some legendary cards you can try out if you'd like are Leeroy Jenkins and King Mukla. Both are weak against aggro deck, but fairly powerful against control. I've decided that I do not like either of these legendaries in the deck, because I'm personally meeting a lot of aggro at the moment.

4. Mulligans and Match-up win ratio's

Mulliganning is a big part of winning a game, especially since you have Tracking. By having bad cards for a certain match-up in your hand, it actually gets worse, since it means you have a higher chance of discarding the good cards with tracking, and a lower chance of discarding the bad ones. The opening hand is crucial, so it's important to know how to do it.

Despite these following mulligans, it's almost always correct to keep a single tracking. It basically ensures you atleast have a decent opening hand.

Win ratios marked by an underline has a small sample size and all games has been tracked by Heartstonetracker.

(~60% win rate) Miracle Rogue (Usually replaces almost, if not all, of their hand): Eaglehorn Bow, River Crocolisk, Haunting Creeper, Jungle Panther, Deadly Shot

(~30% win rate) Aggro Rogue (Usually doesn't replace a lot of cards): Explosive Trap, River Crocolisk, Haunting Creeper, Unleash the Hounds

(~75% win rate) Ramp Druid (Assume it's these): Freezing Trap, River Crocolisk, Haunting Creeper, Animal Companion

(~50% win rate) Token Druid (In case you know your opponents deck): Unleash the Hounds, River Crocolisk, Haunting Creeper, Freezing Trap, Explosive Trap (In case you don't have Unleash)

(~60% win rate) Warlock Zoo (Usually doesn't replace a lot of cards in their hand): Explosive Trap, Unleash the Hounds, River Crocolisk, Eaglehorn Bow

(~80% win rate) Hand Warlock (Usually replaces almost, if not all, of their hand): Freezing Trap, Deadly Shot, River Crocolisk, Animal Companion, Jungle Panther

(100% win rate) Shaman: Unleash the Hounds, River Crocolisk, Scavenging Hyena, Haunting Creeper

(~40% win rate) Control Warrior: River Crocolisk, Animal Companion, Jungle Panther, Haunting Creeper

(50% win rate) Priest: Freezing Trap OR Deadly Shot, River Crocolisk, Animal Companion, Jungle Panther, Haunting Creeper

(100% win rate) Freeze Mage:Flare.

 

5. Card Discussion

This section will be updated according to comments and similar, containing my personal opinion on specific cards that you might want to consider adding.

Leeroy Jenkins: Leeroy has a lot of synergy with Unleash the Hounds, and a very popular move before the Unleash nerf was Leeroy Jenkins > Unleash the Hounds > Timber Wolf or Starving Buzzard. However, since the nerf, this combo is a lot more difficult to set up, and without Unleash, Leeroy really is just a worse Fireball. I don't like him in the deck because he's often just a dead card, but I can certainly see the use of him if you meet A LOT of miracle rogues. Against basically any other deck, I would not say he's worth it.

King Mukla: The first minion I considered when I concluded the deck had too many situational cards and needed more minions that are good by themselves. Mukla is a beast, and can certainly work in this deck extremely well, however, he is not very good against Zoo, which I'm personally meeting a lot, even in Legend ranks. He really is very weak against any aggro deck, especially if they're playing with Nerubian Eggs, just giving them another way of activating it. I love this guy against Miracle and Hand Lock, but the deck already has a favorable match-up against these, so I don't actually think it's necessary to reinforce the match-ups.

Maexxna: It's a GIANT SPIDER MUAHAHAH! It really is a giant spider, which I honestly think, after having played with it myself for a bit, is just a glorified Boulderfist Ogre. It either soaks a major removal spell, or it goes something like 2-for-1. Boulderfist Ogre does basically the same, except he has the potential of also doing actual damage to the opponents face. Sure, Maexxna can be combo'd, since she is a beast, but it simply costs too much for that to be a reasonable option. Maexxna, in my opinion, is simply too slow, and too big, to be useful in the current meta. If you're in a weird, very slow, meta with a lot of control Paladins and ramp Druids, you should maybe consider this legendary. If you're, like me, in a Miracle rogue/Zoo Warlock/Hand Warlock meta, I would not consider this being worth it.

Ironbeak Owl: An almost definite addition to the deck - later. It's a beast and it's a silence, and I'm certain we all know that silence will be crucial now, in Naxxramas. However, so far, I don't find it to be worth it. When we come to the point where most of the Naxx cards has been released, and people are making their Undertaker/Deathrattle decks, Owl will certainly be added, but for now, there's simply not enough silence targets for this to earn a spot in the deck.

I hope you've enjoyed the long read, and have learned, if not how to play this deck, atleast how to counter it! I recommend trying it out, considering the natural cheap cost of the deck. Have fun!

Proof of Rank: http://i.imgur.com/vEqKxrB.jpg