F2P Legend 1-Day Grind! Retard-Proof Huntard
- Last updated Sep 30, 2020 (Scholomance Academy)
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Wild
- 12 Minions
- 16 Spells
- 2 Weapons
- Deck Type: Ranked Deck
- Deck Archetype: Secrets Hunter
- Crafting Cost: 2240
- Dust Needed: Loading Collection
- Created: 9/16/2020 (Scholomance Academy)
- SikiCro
- Registered User
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- 7
- 17
- 23
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Battle Tag:
SikiAndDomi#2728
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Region:
EU
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Total Deck Rating
573
Guide
During your peaceful walk through the ranks you might stumble on an unsuspecting Rogue, Warrior, Paladin or even Pedop-Priest attempting to slow down your ascension towards godhood silver or whatever rank you want. What do? Break. His. Fucking. KNEES.
Who DARES stand in the way of your SKILL??
Hunter being this simple (me go face) tests your actual base game understanding, as this deck will punish you for taking any non-value trade. You are an aggro-burn deck. Every single card should be seen as a mix of potential and certain damage, with card advantage and mana costs only seen as restrictions to both and a line which separates them. An uncontested 1/1 is a lot of potential damage, but no certain damage (translated to huntard: certain = always smash face, potential = sometimes smash face).
Top decking a Kill Command is certain 3 damage and potential 5 damage if you wait to draw a beast, but holding a 1-cost Cub beast generated by Adorable Infestation turns the burn spell into certain 5 damage (translated to huntard: more smash face is good).
Crashing a 1/1 into another 1/1 to have your 2/1 survive the turn creates more potential damage, but less certain damage (translated to huntard: sometimes not smash face is more smash face later).
Another important reminder: Every hero power you do not use wastes 2 certain damage - which can be a good trade-off at times when preparing larger amounts of potential damage (translated to huntard: arrow smash face good).
While this concept may seem extremely simple, putting it into practice to always make optimal decisions is what separates different players. Be mana efficient. Stay card efficient. Analyze, compare and decide which course of action is always the best. You need a perfect balance between cunning and retardation to play huntard well.
Card choices
This segment of the guide is made to explain card choices and possible replacements in-depth.
Power cards
This sub-segment details the cards that make this deck so powerful.
Adorable Infestation - a 2/2 block of stats for 1 mana that also gives you a 1 mana 1/1 extender that just so happens to be a beast you can keep in your hand to always have Kill Command live? Fantastic and huntardastic.
Dwarven Sharpshooter - best 1-drop in standard. Not only is it a 1/3 for 1, it also allows you to blast anything turn 2 and keep the board uncontested.
Phase Stalker - humans fear the unknown. How many secrets can this pull? Which secrets do you play? They won't fuck around and find out. You don't need to get that much value from this card, the important thing is how much pressure it puts on them to remove it.
Voracious Reader - card advantage is beautiful. This card gives it to you for free. Drop it to draw 1 when you have nothing better to play.
Intrepid Initiate - broken. Can combo off with coin.
Scavenger's Ingenuity - hope to tutor out Wolpertinger, but it's never bad. You can play it turn 2, but minions are better. Turn 3 you can fire this off if you have nothing better or already have a 1-drop in hand in case you miss Wolpertinger. Otherwise I like this card turn 4+, but a turn 3 empowered Wolpertinger just feels a bit... naughty... ;)
Complex(n't) cards
This sub-segment touches upon cards that are a bit more difficult to completely understand at first (for a huntard deck that is) and shouldn't be taken at face value.
Demon Companion - While not particularly shocking, this card plops down bonuses from the 3 mana Animal Companion spawns onto 1 mana minions. As we all know, giving the same ability to a lower costed minion grants it more power on per-mana basis. While these minions aren't beasts, they are still some of the most powerful 1-drops there are. What really solidifies this deck being degenerate is that these minions are still bad 1-drops in this deck.
Tour Guide - This card is only good turn 1 when you have nothing else to drop. Good to pair it up turn 2 with another 1-drop and a turn 1 Dwarven Sharpshooter to blast a minion for 0 mana. This card can allow some free reach. When you have only this and 3+ open mana, make sure to hero power first, then play this.
The reason this card is "complex" (good joke, I know) is because it has highly inflated value due to its synergy with both Dwarven Sharpshooter and Toxic Reinforcements.
Wolpertinger - literally a better version of Alleycat. The reason this card is here is because I want to point out that power creep made this deck a sub-optimal 1st turn 1-drop. If you don't open your other 1-drops, keep this in the mulligan phase, otherwise get rid of it.
Reach
Cards that allow this deck to finish off a low health opponent in combination with your hero power.
Eaglehorn Bow - also great removal. Keep a charge unless you have lethal potential if you topdeck a second copy or already have another one in hand. Also expend your last charge when necessary for a good trade.
Kill Command - Adorable Infestation's card generation makes this card even better.
Crap
Bad cards in the deck.
Unleash the Hounds - a very sub-par reach card. Playing 1 is ok-ish. Obviously, playing 2 worked for me and will work for you, but I doubt it's optimal.
SECRETS - they are horrible but necessary. Only play them from your hand when you have nothing better or you smell nice value from them (yes, hero powering is usually something better). You can play up to 3, but I find that to be needless handicapping of your deck.
Don't play 2 of the same, as it increases the chance of Phase Stalker not empowering your hero power. I advise you to toy around with playing different ones than me since people will start to expect this combination.
Pack Tactics is really good. Explosive Trap gives you reach and wins the mirror match. Freezing Trap and Pressure Plate are very inconsistent, but have the most potential for a swing. I prefer the first as it is a bit more consistent (but less powerful). Snipe is in the same category as the last 2, but I haven't tested it out this format so I wouldn't like to comment on it too much. Snake Trap appears to be completely outclassed by Pack Tactics on paper. However, you could play Pack Tactics and Snake Trap in combination.
Play whichever and don't think too much about it - you're playing huntard and you will hurt yourself by thinking.
Other choices
This sub-segment contains cards that I have considered playing in the deck.
Dragonbane - play this (if you have the dust). Cut out crap like Unleash the Hounds. This card gives huge reach.
Imprisoned Felmaw - I didn't like it. You might (you won't).
Deadly Shot - more like Deadly Shit. Might improve certain matchups such as HippieDruid slightly, but I found that a positive matchup without it.
Cult Neophyte - solid 2-drop.
Kobold Sandtrooper - really good in theory, but I can't guarantee it.
Manafeed Panthara - thought about it, but looks too clunky. It's a 2-drop that you don't really want to play it turn 2, unless you dropped Tour Guide turn 1. That would be a good combo if not for the fact that you do not want to drop Tour Guide turn 1.
Acidic Swamp Ooze - ok-ish meta call, but simply outclassed by your other options.
Blazing Battlemage - actually not bad, but I believe it to be outclassed by all other 1-drops, except for Demon Companion and Tour Guide on turn 1. However, those cards have their value grow with game length, while this card's decreases. Still, solid option.
Other 1-drops - don't.
Proof of legend:
Shout-out to Hermione, Tupfschnabak and Cerbykins for hitting Legend with this guide!
Mega shout-out to Cerbykins for the greatest positive comment I ever got!
At 50 upvotes I'll give free coaching to the first few lower-ranked folks that PM me!
SMOrc
IMPORTANT INFORMATION:
This deck officially got useless. I finished Diamond 1 with a bit of a grind but this seriously is absolutely unplayable at the moment. Last season winning against DH was almost impossible already but right now either I´m the unluckiest person in this game or this simply is not good anymore (which I'm expecting). Switching to Paladin again to get Legend this season.
Please correct me if I´m wrong and if its just me havin the unluckiest phase of my life apparently.
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I hope you realize the deck is 2 months outdated by now.
Love this deck. I swapped one Unleash the Hounds with Dragonbane (as suggested), plus as an experiment I swapped a Freezing Trap with Misdirection.
Reason: opponents usually clear my side of the board by trading smaller minions before attacking my face, so they often have a single high attack minion on the board when triggering Misdirection, smashing themselves in the face with it. Even better when they attack your face with a weapon and hit their own minion(s), clearing their side of the board plus taking damage in the process. Or unintentionally hitting your Leper Gnomes generated by Toxic Reinforcements (taking 3 damage).
Phase Stalker may activate Misdirection too early, but it is rarely a problem: absolute worst case scenario is they hit a minion they did not want to hit, but they take damage to the face more often than you'd expect.
Have you considered Teron Gorefiend with Animated Broomstick?
I didn't. The two don't seem to contribute to the strategy of high-value solo cards that deal face damage for very low mana cost and setup. It does look like an interesting concept for a different deck tho. Cool catch!
First-time Legend. Don't give a crap it's dumpster legend. :p (You do not want to know how long I've been after it...actually you do, you'll die laughing, but I ain't telling) Didn't use this exact deck, but when my run went sour and moved off DH to try face hunter (or anything cheap and viable, that's just what I went for) - this is the place I came to looking for help when my win rate was obviously sub 50% and I was still scraping the bottom of D5 a time or two a session. "It's brainless face hunter, they must be doing something I'm not." (Having a single brain cell? :p )
I kept Imprisoned Felmaw despite it being against recommendation. One of the things I worked out looking at your list vs mine was not much was different, so obviously I needed to MOAR aggressive about mulligan and risk getting a dead hand. Go for broke, not good enough is still a loss. Felmaw was one of the things I mixed up, I made it a T2 priority and T1 + coin, and stopped going for Scavenger's Ingenuity. Awesome but TOO SLOW, that's a later move, if that's your first you're probably already screwed. T1 + coin Felmaw can be really disgusting, and that's when the tide finally started to turn, but it feels like it's a liability in the mirror when it will probably just eat a Freezing Trap or be only after you lost the battle to get the killing window.
I wasn't sold on Dragonmaw, but it's everything it's promised to be. Like Felmaw, sooner is better, straight on T4 with a Tour Guide power is even more disgusting and if it lives (rare) it will go on a rampage. For that matter, Lorekeeper Polkelt turned out ok as well, but only in combo. Bomb warriors laugh as you unload the bombs on your own face, but they stop laughing when you suddenly have a direct line to theirs and it's lethal....js. Health is a resource, even for the huntard.
Toxic Reinforcements seems like it cannot be a bad card, since it gets through when the shutters come down - but I never got to try it. I had a spare Polkelt on hand already (otherwise would not have tried it) - if I did not, this would be in it's place. You NEED that reach.
Companions work better on a fuller board, but that's easier said than done. Should be obvious, but if it's so brain-dead and obvious, why isn't everyone legend then? We don't all have TCG pedigree to draw on, and I definitely don't.
I dumped Pressure Plate because it wasn't....well, face enough. It also didn't work as much as I'd like. Took Explosive Trap even though it made me like you and you said 'don't do that, it's too obvious' but sucking in the mirror hurt even more. Also, Plate wasn't fully effective vs Guardian Animals, but that's been nerfed now, so maybe the trap prefs will change again, as the meta shifts.
Cult Neophyte was REALLY tempting for a while on a string of Mages, but having thought about it (bad huntard! BAD!) the problem was actually that I wasn't aggressive enough. It was fundamentals, you were right, I can own that, and I owe you my shiny back and this legend monkey off my back AT LAST. On that note, between 'certain' and 'potential' there is also 'how likely is my crap to be blown up -anyway-', 'how likely am I to be shut out and stuck on burst', and 'does any of this matter anyway, should I just go for it and hope, do I lose anyway if I play around these'. Again, it sounds like really braindead obvious TCG stuff, but ya know, again, it's so obvious it isn't to a lot of people, and even to some of the top diamond bracket (who mostly seem to sport legend backs, so they HAVE done it and SHOULD know it).
You were right about Phase Stalker too and I was not, I overvalued it. The terror value is worth more most of the time. Having 2 and not 3 secrets also is a big deal (right again, don't enjoy it too much), especially if you've drawn one, because it gives you that much more say in what comes out, and that control matters when you need a bow charge (rare in this deck and meta, but it happens) or you could use the mana elsewhere, like on a pair of nice buffed 3/3 wolfies. That's a win % raising decision right there, so again I owe you for it and I'll give you the credit.
Clearly braindead huntard is not that braindead. Or maybe it is and I just grew half a cell? Whatever, not my problem any more, but I'm leaving this for anyone else wanting out the trap.
The mulligan help mattered even though I changed it a bit (dat coined felmaw :D ), better use of Tour Guide probably made a difference, realising he was bottom of the order, shooter was great and I wasn't giving him the chance to be, and Wolpertinger is actually a preferential T1, though the value is obviously a lot less if you're going second and you NEED to be seeking a power start, 'good enough' is not good enough with this deck.
Last, Pack Tactics looks promising and might be better for the mirror. On the other hand, a few of the mirrors I won, that was their last secret and I was -happy- to see it (because it wasn't bomb or freezing or even Misdirection, bye bye damage), so maybe not. Weirdly, for a brainless deck, I still have more unknowns and question than answers - and the meta will have moved again before I would find out anyway.
Normally I would not write anyone a big-ass wall, not least on brainless huntard, but I feel like I owe ya big, and since this is now the one that finally made it, I feel like I owe team huntard too now as well. So laugh and hate away folks, but I got what I wanted - partly cos of this guy, but every little helped - and this is just the gift in return.
Oh! I also owe you for pointing out infestation cub synergy as well, it hadn't occurred to me it would save skill command from being dead from that point on FOREVER. Also, I heard like, yearrrrrs ago that it's 90% face and 10% trades, but trust me people, the 10% is NOT EVEN SLIGHTLY OPTIONAL and if you choose the wrong 10%, you're also screwed.
First of all, I want to begin by thanking you for writing such a well-thought-out and lengthy comment full of actual substance, with beautiful formating to boot.
I'm glad you hit legend, welcome to the club mate! :)
As for the fundamentals and how easy the deck is or isn't to play - we can all improve on that front. I catch myself making questionable or outright horrible decisions all the time and I learn from it. This humility, as seen in your comment, is what makes us better at anything! Judging by the negative comments on this deck post, the average Hearthstone player thinks he's perfect at the game, which, even if they are good, limits space for growth.
On the topic of card choices, I have tried Imprisoned Felmaw, but decided against it. It could be that I'm just biased against the card, but it left a sour taste in my mouth - by no means an objective measurement of its value.
Toxic Reinforcements, as you have noted, is only here because of the much needed reach, which I lacked greatly without the legendary. To my surprise, the card really exceeded my expectations, but I would still wager the legendary is better.
I agree on what you said about the face and trade, people reaaaaally underestimate how much these decisions make or break a win, with card games being all about butterfly effect decisions.
There is no need to thank me (but I do appreciate it, and accept this generous comment). Enjoy your new card back and thanks again for the comment and positive feedback! :)
Just before I went looking for info, I got a string of mages (mentioned this). Supposedly mages are meant to be prey for face hunter, but instead I was prey to -them-. It's mostly the same list, and only a couple of decisions different, and yet that's the difference between being on the back foot all the time and having games where you're doing the oppressing. The line is paper thin and a single screwup can put you on the wrong side of it.
The thanks are fully necessary, because what I needed wasn't the list, it was the clues on where to look for holes. HSReplay's 'average turns to win', 1-drop preference order, what hand is good enough vs throwing away a good hand, stuff like that. There isn't a manual for that, you can only piece it together from clues everyone else leaves behind - it's not like some city-builder where you get a bunch of clues on where the hole might be. The whole thing is obfuscated by a ton of RNG and made hard to see, and the community is full of 'IT'S ALL LUCK' to make it even harder to find. So, I give the thanks for the people who were good enough to leave the missing pieces. :D
I really appreciate it mate!
It means a lot to get words of support.
While HS is obviously luck based, people like to blame every loss on luck, which simply isn't a good mentality.
I'm glad to have helped and wish you good luck on further grinds. Cheers!
https://prnt.sc/upfunx
I commented before, and after reaching legend for the first time with this deck & spell mage I want to thank you. My game from rank 2 to legend were with this deck and with a result of 6-0 against 3 druids, a hunter, priest and a paladin, I finally did it.
Good job mate! Really glad you liked the deck and it helped! I'm proud of your success. :)
Sorry if I broke your bubble, but I don't think your deck is cool or worth to brag about. But be positive, you did reach legend with such boring deck. Thumbs up!
Ummm... Thanks, I guess?
Very nice deck for the dust. Thank you OP.
Thank you for the feedback mate! Wish you luck!
Hi, thanks for that. Can you give a muligan guide plz? Or if not a guide something on what to keep what to discard with or without mana coin? thanks! I have crafted it and will try tomorrow ;)
Sure thing buddy.
Interprid Initiate is your best 1 drop with coin or Adorable Infestation.
Without those it's the 1/3 Dwarf fella. You are simply mulliganing away everything if you don't have a 1-drop and you're trying to have a curve going (turn 3 1-drop + hero power is also really nice).
Never keep secrets. I rarely kept Ingenuity. Only keep the side-quest if you have another 1-drop so you play the quest turn 3 with a hero power (or turn 2 with a second 1-drop). You can also combo it out with the minion that makes your HP cost 0 (sorry for not looking up the names, I'm on mobile in a tram).
Hope that helps buddy! :)
Ironically Toxic Reinforcements is the one of the most toxic cards in HS.
I have to agree there! It gives an insane 6 damage reach to aggro huntard!