Hearthpwn

My Twitch is: Twitch.tv/KRUPSSTONE 

My Twitter is: @IamKRUPS

During the October 2014 season I hit Legend using this Face Hunter build.  I have beaten some pretty big name pros with this deck like Reynad and Tides of Time.  I went from rank 4 to #92 Legend in about 8 hours using this list.  

I will be streaming the deck as well as other Hunter variants almost daily, and whenever I am streaming I will put a note at the top indicating that I am.

Proof of Legend:

A little about my experience with Hearthstone and Magic:

This was the second season I played Hearthstone.  My handle on Hearthstone is KRUPS and I play on the Americas server.  I had only been playing Hearthstone for about 8 weeks before I went legend with this deck.  I am a Magic: the Gathering pro, having played in three StarCityGames Invitationals, one Pro Tour, one National Championship, qualified for one World Championship (I couldn't go because it was in Japan and I live in the United States) and cashed in two Grand Prixs.  Before I started playing Hearthstone I played Magic Online a lot and was ranked #42 in the world in Constructed before I quit playing (stay away from Magic: Online, it is a terrible money sucking pit of despair).  My previous experience with Magic: the Gathering has helped me tremendously with understanding Hearthstone.  I have played in a couple Hearthstone tournaments, and qualified for the the elimination rounds of the $1500 DKMR cup, only to lose to Kaldi.  Although he knocked me out of the tournament Kaldi is a nice dude and chatted it up with me quite a bit and gave some helpful pointers after our match.  

General Strategy and Mulligan Tips:

I almost always play my Haunted Creeper before my Knife Jugglers.  The reason for this is because your opponent will usually never attempt the kill the Creeper, and the next turn you can play juggler then attack into their creature killing your Creeper and triggering the Juggler twice.  This often results in generating a decent amount of tempo and card advantage. 

Hold back your Owls for your opponents biggest threats; huge taunt minions, Sylvanus, Cairne, Edwin VanCleef, etc...Huge taunt minions are one of this decks' biggest downfalls so using Owl at the right time is very important.  Sometimes it will be the right play to play Owl in the early game to shut off a Haunted Creeper but you just have to make the correct judgement call.  I see a lot of Hunter decks running one Owl and I while this is probably ok in more mid-range builds, I think that it is necessary to run two in an aggro build because you really need to utilize Owl to create a path to your opponents face.  All this being said, Owl is a very reactive card and you really don't want it in your opening hand unless the rest of your hand is good.  If your hand is kinda weak then you should probably mulligan Owl.  Ideally you want to draw into Owl in the early-mid game.

More often than not you will want to hold back Knife Juggler and play him later than turn one or two.  The reason for is if you drop him early your opponent will almost certainly have a way to deal with him.  It's generally better to play him after your opponent has played a couple removal spells, you want your Knife Juggler to stick so you can dominate the board.  If you have board control already and then you play Juggler it can be very difficult for your opponent to recover.  Turn 5 Juggler into Unleash the Hounds or Turn 4 Juggler into Snake Trap is very powerful and can really dominate the board.  There are some instances where you want to play Juggler on turn one or two, for instance it is really good against Priest on turn one because you will be able to immediately answer their Cleric, and most Priest decks only run one Holy Smite so the chances of them having it in their opening hand are fairly low.  

Almost Always keep Bow in your opening hand.

Almost Always keep Undertaker in your opening hand.

Almost Always keep Animal Companion in your opening hand.

Play your Animal Companions at the right time, you generally want to play them before you attack because if you get Leeok your other creatures will deal more damage.

Mulligan Cult Master unless you can curve into it well.

Always mulligan your traps, they are too reactive.  Ideally you want to play your traps off of a Mad Scientist, and you should always keep Mad Scientist in your opening hand.

Always keep Leper Gnome and Webspinner unless you are playing against Mage or Rouge, but if you are on the coin against Mage or Rouge and have Leper Gnome or Webspinner with an Undertaker then you should keep the Leper Gnome and/or Webspinner.  

When you play against priest you need to have an answer for Northshire Cleric in your opening hand and you should aggressively mulligan for a card that deals with it. These cards are Knife Juggler, Bow, and Kill Command.  If you are on the coin and your opponent plays a turn one cleric and you do not have Knife Juggler in your opening hand but have a Bow or a Kill Command you should refrain from playing a one drop and just pass the turn, and then on turn 2 use the coin to play the Bow and attack the Cleric or use Kill Command on the Cleric.  This way they do not get to draw any cards off their Cleric.  Priest also generally does not have a turn 2 play so on turn 2 they will just attack you for one with their Cleric and then pass, so you aren't really giving them any tempo advantage by just passing the turn.  This strategy also applies to Zombie Chow because since Zombie Chow has 3 toughness it will generally kill two of your creatures before it dies, and Priests can heal the Zombie Chow which can make a turn one Zombie Chow a total nightmare for this deck.

THERE ARE A LOT OF INSTANCES WITH THIS DECK WHEN THE RIGHT PLAY IS TO JUST HOLD YOUR CREATURES IN YOUR HAND AND SIMPLY PASS THE TURN.  You cannot just blindly throw creatures on the board.  People like to discredit decks like this deck and Zoo as being easy to play but to play said decks well you really need to have a good understanding of your matchups and couple that with playing well.  If you miss one point of damage or lose one creature when you should not have it can cost you the entire game.  A lot of people try to say that Hearthstone is a lot of luck, and while luck is a factor in this game, Hearthstone games are generally very close and one small slip will cost you.  It becomes easy to play a deck like this very fast due to it's nature but try to take your time and really assess the state of the game and figure out whether or not you should go to the face or attack your opponents creatures.  While this may be an aggro deck you often you will end up playing the role of the control player by controlling the board.  Do not blindly attack the face.

A little bit about Cult Master:

In a Hunter deck like this you do not have nearly as much late game as some of the other Hunter decks and this is where Cult Master comes in.  In this particular Hunter deck I think that Cult Master is the best card in the deck.  Cult Master can completely change the outcome of a game and can generate insane amounts of card advantage.  Cult Master is basically the answer to Buzzard being nerfed, and he combos well with Unleash the Hounds and Snake Trap.  There are often times when you you want to run a random 1/1 into another creature to draw a card instead of doing the damage to the face.  Cult Master is fairly fragile at 2 health so a lot of times you need to hold him back to find a good spot to play him.  I got the idea of playing Cult Master in this deck from playing him in Zoo, because I played him in Zoo quite a bit and he was really solid, but in this deck he is far more than solid, he is amazing.  Plays like attacking with a Webspinner into a 1 health creature and drawing a card as well as getting the beast off Webspinner is really powerful and nets 3 to 1 card advantage.  If you are going to alter this deck at all, Cult Master is the last card that you should consider cutting.  

A little bit about Webspinner:

You can only get beast cards that actually exist as real cards that you can own in the game, which for now basically means that you can't get the three beasts that you can get from Animal Companion.  Getting a King Krush against control Warrior, control Paladin, Mage, or Priest is usually really damn good because those games usually go to to turn 9 or later and your opponent will never see King Krush coming.  Honestly if King Krush cost one less mana I would consider running one in the deck just to have a huge late game finisher.  I would say that having him cost 9 mana is almost a mistake on Blizzard's part because it makes him the weakest class Legendary but Hunter is already really good and doesn't really need any help.

MATCHUPS:

Mage:  You crush secret mage but freeze mage is a little bit harder.  Flare is key in this matchup, keep it in your opening hand if the rest of your hand is good, however if the rest of your hand is weak you should probably mulligan Flare (Do keep in mind that we only run one Flare so if you do mulligan it your chances of drawing it a bit lower than a typical Hunter deck, this is a design choice that I have purposefully made to make room for more aggresive cards).  Don't play around flamestrike, it is slow and cumbersome and they probably only run one, and if they are running two you are probably at an even greater advantage because it will make their deck clunky.

Druid:  Owl is super key in this matchup, save it for their big taunt creatures.  You are favored in this matchup but they can get an edge on you if they ramp up really quickly and drop some fat creatures.  Hunter's Mark is also super key in this matchup.  Be careful not to play stupidly into Swipe as it can wreck you since this hunter build has so many creatures with one health.

Shaman:  One of the great benefits about playing against Shaman is that they really don't have any way to gain any life, you want to go to face more so than any other class because of this.  Your Kill Commands should often go to their face instead of their creatures.  This matchup is pretty close because of the amount of removal they have, Lightning Bolt and Lightning Storm are both really good against this build of Hunter but overall you are favored against Shaman because they are pretty slow and can't gain life.  Hex isn't as good against this deck as opposed to the more midrange Hunters because they can't get a tempo advantage from Hexing a 5 or 6 drop.  A lot of times the Shaman player will be forced to Hex a creature that cost less than 3 mana resulting in you getting a mana advantage on your opponent.  Basically, Hex just isn't that efficient against you.  You really want to try to control their board, attack their tokens even if they seem non-threatening because they can really wreck you with Defender of Argus or Flametongue Totem.  Don't over extend into Lightning Storm.  Be wary of Shaman players being able to "burn you out" with Lava Burst and Lightning Bolt, and be wary of being alpha struck by the card that cost 5 mana and gives all their minions +3 (the name of the card is escaping me right now.)

Other Hunters:  There is a lot of play to this matchup.  Bow is super key in this matchup and if one player draws bow and the other doesn't the one that draws the bow is at a distinct advantage.  Play very carefully around their traps, because explosive trap can wreck you.  Flare is really good in this matchup and like Mage you should keep it in your hand if the rest of your hand is good but if the rest of your hand isn't good then you should probably send it back.   You are really just racing each in this matchup and the person who draw the most Kill Commands and Bows is probably going to win.  Out play your opponent and cross your fingers and hope that your RnG is good.  Use your Owls on their Sludge Belchers (if they have it) and on their Mad Scientists and Haunted Creepers.  Using an Owl on an early Mad Scientist can very well mean the difference between winning and losing.  Attack in a manner that triggers their traps in the correct way.  If you are almost certain that they have an Explosive Trap then you will want to attack their creatures.  If you are almost certain that they have a snake trap then you will want to attack their face unless you have an answer to the tokens generated from the trap.  If you are almost certain that they have Freezing Trap then you should generally attack with your weakest creature first.  If they have any other traps then you shouldn't be worried because unless they are a total masterminds and have figured out something that the rest of the Hearthstone community hasn't then they are probably terrible.  If you lose to other traps then you are bad and you should feel bad ;-).

Warrior:  This is a terrible matchup for you and you are going to lose to Warrior a lot, if you are facing a lot of Warriors on ladder then you probably shouldn't be playing this deck.  Honestly my only advice is to just play as aggro as possible, this includes playing Knife Juggler ASAP.  Be wary of their removal, try not to damage the wrong creature in combat because it can get executed and try to keep their armor as low as possible to weaken their Shield Slam.  KILL THEIR ACOLYTE OF PAIN ASAP.  KILL THEIR ARMORSMITH ASAP.  Don't play around Brawl because they probably only run one and you have to try to kill them quickly.  Most Warrior decks don't run Cleave, but if they have it in their deck you are probably screwed.  A lot times victory will be within your grasp and they will drop an Alextrasza and reset their health to 15.  You just gotta suck it up and face the facts that you are probably going to lose to Control Warrior around 70-75% of the time.  There are some strange aggro variants of Warrior running around but they are so fringe that I really don't have much insight to give concerning them, but you shouldn't really have to worry about them because like I said, they are fringe.

Warlock:  This matchup can go either way.  Owl and Hunter's mark are super key against Handlock but are not so good against Zoo.  The fact that Zoo and Handlock are so vastly different from each other in the way that they approach killing you makes mulliganing against Warlock a bit of a crap shoot but currently I am seeing more Handlock at higher levels of the ladder.  If you are playing lower on the ladder it is more likely that you are playing against Zoo.  Classes like Warlock that have two completely different deck strategies are a big reason to why you should pay attention to user names when you get higher on the ladder.  Once you get higher on the ladder you will often play the same person 2-3 times in a row, or again at a later time, so it's not a bad idea to take a mental note of what people are playing.  

Handlock:  Rush their face, hold back your Owls and Hunters Marks for their huge guys and their taunt guys.  You gotta really rush them early and try to get them down to like 16-18 early in the game.  You pretty much have to kill them before they play Lord Jaraxxus or they kill you with their 8/8's.  When calculating how much damage they can do to you remember that they can Soulfire you for the kill if they have it.  This last part goes for Zoo as well.  

Zoo:   Against Zoo you want to be making optimal attacks to clear their board and making good trades.  Bow is crucial in this matchup because it will let you get two creatures off the board.  Your Owls are really good against their deathrattle guys, and the general Owl mulligan theory I proposed earlier applies in this matchup as well.  If you have Bow and Animal Companion you usually wanna play the bow first to make a path for your Animal Companion. 

Paladin:  Paladin isn't really that popular on the higher levels of the ladder but Paladin players can beat you if they draw a lot of their life gain spells.  DO NOT OVEREXTEND INTO CONSECRATION.   If you can, save your Owl for Tirion Fordring otherwise you will spend way too many resources getting Tirion off the table and the 5/3 Equipment he gives the Paladin player upon his death is a force to be reckoned with.  If they are playing a trap it is probably Noble Sacrifice so keep that in mind and play around it accordingly.  If their board is full Noble Sacrifice cannot trigger (I actually won a game because of this once).  I would say this matchup is around 50/50 which means that it is really skill intensive, so play tight.  

Rouge:  You are favored in this matchup.  Just go to the face and try to kill them before they kill you.  If they play Auctioneer you need to deal with it immediately because if they start "going off" with Auctioneer you are going to be in a world of pain.  Some decks run Malygos and if they play it you should Owl it or Hunter's Mark it because if they start playing direct damage spells with him in play your almost certainly going to lose.  There are some variants of Rouge that go to the face and are more aggro-like and you should treat these decks kind of like how you would treat a Zoo deck; by attacking their creatures optimally and going for board control whilst chipping away at their life total.  Against the typical build of Rouge though it's really just a race, so just try to kill them fast and and try to prevent them from doing crazy things with Auctioneer.  Also, Hunter's Mark and Owl are very important because they keep VanCleef in check.  VanCleef is arguably the most powerful creature in the game due to the amount of value it yields for such a low mana cost.

Priest:  This matchup requires the most amount of skill and they are favored against you but if you play really well and get good draws you can definitely win this matchup.  Keep in mind what I said earlier about Cleric and Zombie Chow.  If they play Dark Cultist on an empty board you should probably kill it immediately.  You shouldn't go to the face with Kill Commands unless it will undoubtedly result in lethal damage because they can just heal themselves (the same goes for Warrior, I forgot to mention that earlier).  Sometimes you will need to play conservatively and sometimes you will need to play really aggressively, it really just depends on the draw. 

Earlier I said that you should not just blindly throw creatures out on the table, but one of the most important aspects of playing this deck is utilizing your hero power to it's full potential.  I believe that the Hunter's hero power is what makes Hunter one of the best classes in the game and a lot of times you win games by mitigating potential damage that would dealt to your face by throwing creatures on the board and then activating your hero power to keep your opponent on a clock.  Learning how to differentiate between when to use this damage mitigation strategy becomes crucial when the games are really close. 

I am currently testing an updated build of this deck and will post an update when I have more results.  I will also post a stream link later so people can watch me playing the updated build of the deck.  Until then I hope that you guys enjoy this deck, I have had a blast playing it, and with a little bit of luck and a lot of thinking anyone should be able to ride this deck to the top of the ladder.  

I hope this write-up ends of being of some use to whomever ever may read it, and I apologize for any grammatical errors.

Cheers,

KRUPS