Hearthpwn

I've been playing Hearthstone since open beta and this is the first time I've ever reached legend. I'm ecstatic to say that I did it with one of my own homebrews (a personal dream of mine) and especially one as fun and hilarious as this deck.

I piloted this deck from rank 10 to legend in two days. I was at one point on a 22 win streak (from rank 9 to 3 I think?). I struggled a bit around rank 3 and struggled a lot around rank 1, but managed to pull 5 in a row to finish off my legend run. I'd like to thank my buddy Jon for his help in gameplay decisions (this guy watched me for probably 20 or so games to debate plays with me!) and all the people I played against who were such good sports.

Proof of Legend

What on earth is this deck?

When I opened Subject 9, I knew I wanted to make a deck with him. The only place worth doing it though was wild. I decided to say "screw it" to pretty much everything that wasn't secret synergy aside from Tracking, Quick Shot and Deathstalker Rexxar. There's an absurd number of secrets in here and it forces your opponent to always keep guessing.

The main goal of the deck is to rush your opponent down with massive tempo plays. Huge Secretkeepers, 3-4 secret plays with Huntress, and comeback pulls with Subject 9 are all crucial to maintaining constant pressure. In the occasional matchup where speed no longer becomes a factor and staying power is better, Deathstalker Rexxar is the MVP.

Why should I play this deck?

So there are tons of great decks out there. Why should you be playing this one? Here are a few reasons to play it

1. Aggro crusher: This deck destroys aggro decks since they need to interact and thus pop the secrets. I lost to Even Shaman once in around ten games, Tempo Mage twice in around ten games and never lost to odd paladin. Aggro decks are some of the most frustrating to play against so this helps soothe the rage.

2. Fairly easy to pilot: Some key choices come in later on when you decide whether to overextend with wolves or whether to play a secret or drop a Mad Scientist, but for the most part, the deck isn't all that difficult to pilot. The exception being once you drop DK Rexxar and have to make tons of tough decisions.

3. Difficult to play against: I didn't lose a single game between rank 9 and 3 and only began playing the deck at rank 10. People were making tons of misplays, mostly because they didn't know how to react when 4-5 secrets were on the board. While this was successful at the higher ranks as well, it absolutely destroys inexperienced or unskilled players.

4. Quick-ish games: Your games will almost never go to fatigue. Some games you can shut out very quickly and others might drag on a bit with DK Rexxar plays. Regardless, playing a somewhat faster deck like this allows you to play more games and thus ladder faster.

5 It's fun: Holy crap is this deck fun. There's huge tempo swings and tons of reliance on DK Rexxar to provide what you need. I've done things like Sniped Flamewakers to totally ruin a mage's day, pulled Poisonous Dreadscale from DK to full clear the board, and made two 5/6 Secretkeepers by T5. The deck is refreshing and you won't see it anywhere else on the ladder unless this list gets popularized.

6. Nobody's running Eater: Right now, tempo mage doesn't really run many secrets, mech hunter runs none, and pally runs none. For one of the first times in wild, nobody is running Eater of Secrets which means they have to slog through your secrets every time. I'll give credit to wild legend player and deck innovator RenoJackson because, after he kept getting matched with this deck and just barely losing, he tech'd in two Eaters and completely destroyed me. Aside from him, not a single secret tech was played in over 50 games.

Secret Choice

As much as it looked like I just went through a selected every single secret I could, many of them were chosen carefully to help with matchups.

Snipe: Incredible against T3 Flamewaker or T2 Totem Golem.

Cat Trick: Comes in after board clears allowing you to regain tempo.

Wandering Monster: Clears a pally/shaman token and leaves a body behind.

Freezing Trap: Stalls tempo mage's big wyrms.

Explosive Trap: Pally token killer.

Rat Trap: Massive threat against tempo mages and occasionally pallies and shamans.

Venomstrike Trap: Excellent for destroying Flamewreathed Faceless, Thing from Below or Mountain Giant

Dart Trap: Controversial and mostly useless against shaman and pally but amazing at bringing down druids and warlocks to lethal.

Snake Trap: Extra aggression and allows for trading with pally tokens.

Bear Trap: The most "meh" of them all but still has its place against aggressive decks.

Matchups

The main matchups that showed up on my climb were tempo mage, odd pally, kingsbane mill rogue, renolock, evenlock, various forms of OTK druid, mech hunters, control warriors, pirate warriors, big priests and even shaman. This deck excels against board based decks, including aggro and midrange but also some control decks, but struggles hard against uninteractive decks. By this I mean decks like druid, big priest and renolock that can choose to not attack with minions and just sit back healing and setting up big threats to finish with. I'll try to give some insight into each matchup as I go:

Even Shaman: While it may be sometimes considered the king of wild, it struggles immensely against this deck. DK Rexxar is absolutely crucial as it clears much of their board, and I will always keep Wandering Monster against them. They have no way to heal so deciding when to switch to face is really key. If you can get a T1 Secretkeeper and they don't draw Murlspark Eeel or Jade Claws, you can snowball to victory pretty quickly. Always clear their board so that they have a hard time using Flametongue Totem. I will often try to hold a Cloaked Huntress and some secrets for a nice T3 tempo swing.

Odd Pally: Always clear the board, no matter what. Getting a bow up can be amazing especially if they play into secrets as it allows you to blow up their buffed recruits. Snake Trap, Explosive Trap and Wandering Monster are very nice to keep in the mulligan and they don't have anything they can do against Secretkeeper except hit with tokens. If I can afford to do so, I keep spellstone in hand as they can't clear the wolves and you can use them to keep trading with the tokens.

Tempo Mage: Tempo mage is generally a win for this deck provided you can deal with some of their early board. An early Mana Wyrm will be problematic, but most often, they kick things off T3/T4 with Flamewaker spell spam. Because of this, you want to try to get Snipe so that you can pick off a Sorcerer's Apprentice, Stargazer Luna, or FW. Additionally, Cat Trick works very well because it can trade into either of these. Rexxar isn't great in this matchup as mage aims to kill you ASAP so don't mulligan for it. Same with the spellstone. While it's pretty great to get it on T5, you need an explosive start to properly handle mages. They have a hard time clearing Cloaked Huntress efficiently so a T3 Huntress is always a good play (even coining one out T2).

Control Warrior: I saw this a few times as I ranked up. While the cards varied, they were often recruit-based. CW is pretty slow and they have a hard time dealing with an early Secretkeeper. However, they have some good clears and are the kings of recovery (well maybe druids are now). Because of this, you either need to burn them fast or get Deathstalker Rexxar out to outvalue them. This is generally a good matchup for us as we can go toe-to-toe with them on big threats. Aim for poisonous minions to clear what they put out. Thankfully, not many are running The Boomship but it can be a devastating T9 if they do. Do not use your spellstone if you already have two minions down as the warrior can either Brawl or use the echo whirlwind to clear everything.

OTK Druid: While there are variants of druids all over the place, the most popular as of now is Star Aligner OTK (who would have guessed?). This is a terrible matchup for us as they have the draw, removal and stall to beat us most games. The best bet is an early and big Secretkeeper. You'll need to spellstone at your own discretion as you can play right into Spreading Plague. You're on a timer all game so don't feel bad about throwing Quick Shot into their face just for more damage. While DK Rexxar can give some nice beasts to contest later on, it can sometimes be too slow to use.

Renolock: This is another brutal matchup. Your goal is to burst as fast as possible. Spellstone isn't great as it plays into Hellfire and Defile at times, but if you get lucky it might be your way to win. As weird as it seems, I will sometimes keep Dart Trap as it really pressures them and might give enough for you to gain lethal. Don't bother keeping any secrets that deal with the warlock attacking your face as they are essentially useless. Same with Dirty Rat. Freezing Trap is a decent choice to keep here because if they get a T4 Voidcaller, they won't be able to kill it by trading into your minions. The entire matchup comes down to whether you can burst them down before Reno or whether they draw him in time. Put tons of damage into face and avoid trades if possible, the only exception being Brann Bronzebeard due to the extra Kazakus potions and Antique Healbot double heal. If you don't win the early game, DK Rexxar can sometimes be your saving grace, but Renolock has far too many board refills to handle most of the time.

Budgetary Concerns

Now this isn't the cheapest deck around but it's also not terribly expensive. There are only five epic/legendary cards in the deck. Here are my thoughts on replacing them:

Snake Trap: This card helps out the pally matchup but can hurt you in the warlock/druid one. If you want a similar effect, put in another Cobrastrike Trap.

Rat Trap: This card is great in the mage and shaman matchup and often catches opponents off guard. I love using it and would recommend having one, but it's definitely not essential and can be replaced by another Secret Plan.

Deathstalker Rexxar: Irreplaceable. This card is a one card win condition and helps take back boards from pallies, shamans and mages while providing the fuel to beat out control decks. If you don't have this card, I recommend you craft it. If you don't want to, I recommend that you don't play this deck as your win rate will be significantly affected. I would say that at minimum, 1/4 wins that I get are due entirely to this card.

Subject 9: A very hard card to replace. If you want a similar effect, Genzo the Shark is kind of like this but not near as good. The upside of this card is that you can play it with a Cloaked Huntress down and then play five secrets for free. He also thins your deck to allow you to get to DK Rexxar. Not essential but very highly recommended.

Professor Putricide: While I really like him, I would say I only get value off of his effect 2/3 times that I play him. This still makes him very strong but you could still do well without him. If you want to replace him, put in another Secret Plan.

Rest of the Guide?

I will be posting full matchups, justification for cards, and tips and tricks over time. I really want to put in the time to make the guide good but I would also love to see some upvotes as I've invested a lot in this already. Please discuss in the comments and try the deck out!