Hearthpwn

 

 @ Rank 4 

  Welcome to Control Meta, m8

 

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Deck Overview

 

• Core Cards

Houndmaster Shaw × 1, Deathstalker Rexxar × 1, Kathrena Winterwisp × 1 

• Pings and Removal

Candleshot × 1, Flanking Strike × 2,  Wing Blast × 2, Deadly Shot × 2, Unleash the Hounds × 2

• Board Clears

Grievous Bite × 2, Wild Pyromancer × 1, Deathstalker Rexxar × 1

• Sustainers

Rotten Applebaum × 2, Plated Beetle × 2, Deathstalker Rexxar × 1

• Card Draw

Acolyte of Pain × 1, Tracking × 1

• Value Generators

Stitched Tracker × 1, Dire Frenzy × 1,  Deathstalker Rexxar × 1, Witch's Cauldron × 1  (In testing!)

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 Match-up Strategy

 

• Baku Hunter

▼Mulligan▼

▼Course of Action▼

Baku Hunter is super aggresive, but very inconsistent. It runs no card draw whatsoever (you may run into something like Tracking, but that's about it) and is very dependent on mulligan. 

What you need to do is to bait his Ironbeak Owl and race him. They usually run only one silence card, so the stratagem here is to use your Houndmaster Shaw, Witchwood Grizzly or Plated Beetle and then hide behind Rotten Applebaum.

Deathstalker Rexxar in this matchup is just 5 health for 6 mana + board clear. Beasts are usually too slow to play or don't have have invaluable lifesteal on them.

Acidic Swamp Ooze should always aim Eaglehorn Bow, but that goes without saying

Do not ever overlook Bittertide Hydra in this matchup, for it works in your favor rather than your opponent's. You have a decent amount of pings and cheap minion-only damage to potentially push for lethal where you otherwise could not. 

▼Common Mistakes▼

This comes solely from my own experience here, so don't take it close to heart. Mere consideration would do.

• Conceding too early.

My god if it isn't the most ungraceful thing you can do. The first thing you should remember - Baku Hunter matches will always be clutch for you. You will always end up with little to no health, so don't give it up ever.

• Too much trading.

 You cannot possibly outpace 3 damage every single turn with little sustainment we have here just by always trading your minions into his.

Things like Huffer should always push for face damage, same goes for Unleash the Hounds, but here you would only want to trade into things with higher attack value than a Hound itself. (i.e. Acherus Veteran)

• Too early Applebaum.

If you are impatient or forced to play Rotten Applebaum before baiting out Ironbeak Owl you might just lose your precious healing and fail to outrace your opponent as a result of that. Make no mistake, silencing your dude is a losing play for Baku Hunter if he has no other minions, but you might simply not have enough burst to outrace him in time, cause you lost 9 effective health there.

• Ignoring Unleash the Hounds

I often find myself in a situation where i dominate the board and have leathal next turn, but because i overextend the board too much i get absolutely crushed by Unleash the Hounds. You might end up in a winning situation with a big board without any taunt and then BAM! - you dead.