Hearthpwn

Intro

This deck is a lot of fun and decently competitive. Made it to rank 13 from 20, then fell back due to aggro. Struggles against very aggressive decks without lucky mulligan, but other than that it works quite smoothly. The basic 4-5-piece combo (24-30-dmg) can also be pulled off very consistently after you draw most of your deck, using Witchwood Piper and to find  pieces of your combo and thing out the deck. Alternatively, to dig for an early Subject 9 to go for midrange pressure.

In many control matchups the goal is to OTK your opponent as soon as possible anyway, so drawing will always be part of the main strategy.

If you have it, Stitched Tracker allows you to draw either a 2nd Emperor Thaurissan or Prince Taldaram. He block prince activation though. Sometimes though, you gotta use two Emperors in consecutive turns early game (he also functions as quasi-taunt since people need to kill him) to pull off a combo on turn 8 or 9 at the earliest:

 

 By the power of Gray..err Ragnaros (x 2)

 

Gameplan

This deck plays out as a control hunter against early aggro using tools like Candleshot, Rapid Fire, Wandering Monster and Explosive Trap. Hunter's Mark with Candleshot and Freezing Trap are great against early Mountain Giants. The goal is to maximise draw against most decks, so getting Subject 9 early can be crucial for applying pressure and making your topdecks better going forward.

It also helps against control decks to double discount your 2-mana direct dmg spells, in case they take away On the hung and Rapid Fire with Skulking Geist. It's okay in most cases to use Rapid Fire for removal, as Zul'jin will give you two copies back.

The basic combo without copy shenanigans and with one emperor discount:

Malygos + Prince Taldaram + 2 x Rapid Fire + On the Hunt= 33 dmg (10 mana)

Alternatively, you can get a single discount on several cards and combo them with Malygos alone, if you cannot trigger prince:

Malygos + 2 x Rapid + On the Hunt + 2 x 2-mana spells = 32+ dmg (10 mana)

Every other addition to that should be coming from additional discounts of Emperor. The Die Hard combo (it becomes increasingly hard to have higher card numbers for bigger comboes, but sometimes miracles happen):

Malygos + Prince Taldaram + 2 x Arcane Shot + On the Hunt + max 3 additional 2-mana spells  = 63+ dmg

This is reserved for stubborn control druids and warriors as it requires an extra emperor tick via 2 stacks of discounts on several cards. Keep count of how much mana everything costs.

 

Mulligan

Control

Look for draw, Subject 9 is not a bad keep on the coin alongside two very cheap things like Candleshot and a trap (so the secret draw on turn 4 does not clog your hand). Alternatively you can look for Stitched Tracker and search for a 2nd Emperor, hopefully to get a few reductions on spells that you might accumulate while the game goes on and collect your other pieces. Specially in heavy control decks, get a 2nd Emperor Thaurissan in case of Dirty Rat. A 2nd Malygos can also be an option, but it's very hard to play without discounts.

If it's pure control matchup, you can always still win with Deathstalker Rexxar in the mid to late game if the combo doesnt work out. Getting Rexxar is vital against control warriors though and many other non-combo control heavy decks. If you're certain you are facing one of those, hard mulligan for Rexxar and do not draw your secrets with Subject 9 as it will just bring you closer to fatigue and fill your hand where there could be zombeasts.

Aggro

Here you want to mulligan aggressively for all your low cost removal. Candleshot, Explosive Trap, Arcane Shot, Wandering Monster. Even Rexxar can be useful on coin against odd paladins.

You do not need the combo in these matchups, since that will not win you the game anyway. Just survive until you get Zul'jin or Rexxar to stabilise the game. In these matchups dropping Emperor or (if you make it that far) Malygos for tempo is no problem.

 

Substitute

There aren't many things I would replace, but the secrets you can play around with, depending on the meta you are facing. For obvious reasons the amount of 3-mana things needs to be at a minimum to make Prince playable sooner rather than later. You go through your deck quite fast with all the draw and Zul'Jin on top of that.

Bear Trap is perhaps the least necessary. You can replace it with a 2nd copy of Flare, Misdirection, a 2nd copy of Hunter's Mark or maybe a spellstone if the meta allows. Call Pet is also nice for draw but less useful than Flare and will rarely get value since 1/29 other cards are beasts.

Tracking is also a cheap option to replace Master's Call with, helps you find your Hero cards faster, but it could also burn your combo pieces (spells and minions), while MC specifically tutors what you need.

Deathstalker Rexxar can be replaced by a spellstone, but he can be crucial in control matchups if they Geist you.

Rhok'delar can be inserted anywhere for fun in the late game (replace Crushing Walls for example). If you end up using all your spells, you might still get some from Rhok. I really love the value CW adds to Zul'jin though :) Since I'm not running Deadly Shot (for 3-mana ban reasons), CW seems necessary against slower decks though.

Master's Call could be used to fish for prince. This will activate your prince by depleting your 3-drops faster. Tip: Zul'jin also replays Master's Call randomly.

Stitched Tracker is also another option, just be careful when playing it before Master's Call might then pull minions you do not want yet, like a 2nd Stitched Tracker. The last two are both draw/tutor cards, so you might want to drop some other draw for it, like 2 x Witchwood Piper, as it does the same thing more or less, but cheaper.

Honorable mentions. I played around with these cards as substitues for Subject 9(in which case I would also run less secrets and add a second Flare): 2 copies of Cobra Shot is cool to get in there as 5-mana slot. Explosive Shot is sometimes nice, I found it often not cutting it against aggro due to it being expensive and too weak vs control and it doesn't go face (Zul'jin RNG), while Baited Arrow could and is also a cheap alternative. Wing Blast is also an option for single target removal, but again, no face value and it has an annoying requirement.