Hearthpwn

Fair warning: This deck loses to Shudderwock Shaman hard. Don't play this if that becomes meta. Like that ever would happen.

The Idea: Do I really think this is a control deck? Not exactly, but I don't know how else to classify it as the premise is around controlling the board state to allow you time to find Deathstalker Rexxar and then proceed to steamroll your opponent out of removal or board presence. (My personal name for this deck is "Beast Boy")

I started playing this deck around the fact that I was annoyed with facing taunt/spiteful druid quite frequently, so I opted into trying to build a control deck. Unfortunately for me, I don't have any key control cards for the major decks and thus I tried to build a control deck around the one class I had a lot of their cards for: Hunter. I've played a good number of games to get a feel for this deck and I have to say, it feels like there's something missing that would otherwise make this a good deck. Even if I don't win against most meta match-ups (but I get really close), I still have fun beating all the non-meta decks with moderate difficulty as I still don't really know how to mulligan for this deck. Regardless, I feel like this has potential and as such I felt like sharing it to see what others think this deck needs.

Pointers: To start off, there's two familiar combos in this deck that most people have probably seen. Lesser Emerald Spellstone + a secret package and Dire Frenzy + Vicious Scalehide. Those should be mostly self explanatory, however, there's a few others in this deck that you should keep in mind. Most notably being the single Cult Master as it has tremendous synergy with the rest of the board presence this deck can achieve with it's spells. It's actually the unsung hero of the deck that usually gets me my win condition in the hero card. It's not something I thought about until I realized how crucial it was that I get Deathstalker Rexxar. Between that card draw Stitched Tracker, and Tracking, it's actually quite easy to reliably draw answers for most situations. 

The card I will draw attention to next is Blackwald Pixie, as I'm sure there are few questions surrounding it (some being mine at first). I didn't think much of this card at first, however, the more I played with it the more I realized how much of an impact this card makes at all stages of the game. Sure it's best if it's played with rexxar, but that's just the best case use of the card. It's really good at contesting boards versus aggro and it can be a sneaky way to guarantee lethal when they least expect it. Still, it's not the most insane card in this deck (that's clearly the spellstone), it's just a good tool for the deck.

In-Game Strategy: In a normal ranked game, I usually just mulligan for the spellstone and secrets and rarely keep any other card except rexxar. I'm still debating whether it's better to keep cards that actually deal with the class I'm facing, keep any potential card draw engines or hard mulligan for rexxar/spellstone. Either way, after I mulligan, I normally start out trying to draw out my secrets as long as possible even if I have the spellstone as sometimes it doesn't grant my victory outright. Some secrets are useless in a specific match-up other than being spellstone empowerers, so those usually get tossed as soon as they can. From the spellstone turn onwards, the game plan differs based on match-up. In all cases though, digging/stalling for Deathstalker Rexxar is always the idea I have in mind.

In aggro match-ups, I'm usually digging for either minions (usually from spells) to play with Cult Master or my Dire Frenzy + Vicious Scalehide combo as I just need to survive for as long as possible to freeze the game in my favor. When I get rexxar in play, the beasts I'm looking for have to be playable or aoe board clears to keep my opponent from ever getting the momentum again.

In control match-ups, I actually try to hard mulligan for Rexxar on most occasions where I don't have a spellstone in the opener as these match-ups are all about drawing out each player's resources as far as they will reach. Rexxar is just the best answer to any and all removal the opponent could play and likewise, they will have answer to most things I will play regardless of how slow I play out the rest of my cards. The value generated from Rexxar is just so insane that it's almost an immediate loss if you can't draw it at a reliable time.

Combo match-ups are about the same as the control ones, with one notable difference. It's better to have a wide board than a board of big minions. Most combo decks will have easy answers to single target threats, it's multiple threats that they can't deal with normally (a deck that shall not be named here is the exception).

Conclusion: There's something about this deck that keeps it in the running yet prevents it from winning when it matters the most. I can't really figure out what that is without playing many more games with it, but the gist of the deck is: play Deathstalker Rexxar, win game.