Hearthpwn

Introduction

Hello everyone ! I'm Spark, Legend player from France.

With the release of LOE, I was particularly interested by 3 cards : Tomb Spider, Unearthed Raptor and Tunnel Trogg. By chance, they all got released this week !

I already updated my Shaman list with the new 1-drop card, you can check it there if you're interested : Elemental Spirit Tempo Shaman 
I also posted my Rogue list centered around Unearthed Raptor recently. I definitely recommand to give it a try as it is probably one of the best Deck out there currently : Deadly Zoo Tempo Rogue

Today we'll be taking a look at my updated Midrange Hunter with which I hit Legend this season. Tomb Spider is an awesome addition that allows us to focus even more than before on Beast synergies. The card allows to keep some steam while going through the game and keep Beasts on the board and your hand for all your interactions with them. The discover mechanic is particularly strong here because Hunter specific Beasts are generally pretty awesome. You may find some situational cards that you don't run initially but could help a lot like Timber Wolf, Scavenging Hyena, Stampeding Kodo, Dreadscale or even King Krush.

General Strategy & Mulligan

You are not playing Face Hunter ! You should always control the early game with your cheap minions. Eaglehorn Bow and your secrets will help you keep momentum in the midgame to begin pressure the opponent's life with your Midrange minions and hero power. 

Remember to always check for lethal before doing your play. If you don't have it, you should probably work towards setting it up for the next few turns as you'll then run out of steam. Else, keep fighting for board control.

Always mulligan for Webspinner, Mad Scientist and Haunted Creeper as your early plays. Keeping Knife Juggler and Ironbeak Owl is also pretty standard. Animal Companion and Eaglehorn Bow should be kept if you have The Coin or some good early already. Hunter's Mark is not bad to have in your starting hand against Priest.
Always throw out the rest, especially your secrets !

Match Ups

Here are my winrates around Rank 5 to Legend with the Deck

Druid is generally a favorable match up as long as they don't go into amazing Innervate plays. Always be careful of their combo, Loatheb can help preventing it.

Hunter is a tied match up, you really want to mulligan hard for early minions to gain board control and start winning the race. 

Mage is a really favored match up. Unless it is Mech Mage, then you'll really need strong hand and draws to counter it. Always keep Eaglehorn Bow to fight early stuff.

Paladin is not that hard to handle but Shielded Minibot and Mysterious Challenger can be really painful sometimes.

Priest is a tied match up. You'll need to play on curve and snowball into Houndmaster and Savannah Highmane to put your opponent in a reactive state. Be careful about an early Northshire Cleric, Eaglehorn Bow is a must have here.

Oil's Rogue is generally a hard match up due to their early control and late game Sap, but the class is not really played anyway. I didn't faced enough Raptor Rogue yet to evaluate this match up.

Shaman can be painful when they have perfect Lightning Storm and Hex, but your sustain damage will generally be too overwhelming for them. A strong Knife Juggler into Unleash the Hounds play should do the job to snowball the game.

Warlock is generally a favored match up. Handlock can be hard to finish if you don't plan your lethal correctly. Don't give them free Molten Giant turn unless you have a good lethal plan with Kill Command.

Warrior is really easy to handle. If you have a negative winrate against them, you are definitely playing it wrong. Control Armorsmith and Acolyte of Pain with weapon and early stuff, then they'll just take damage by controlling with their weapons. Savannah Highmane is just too good in that match up because they can't deal with it properly. Be careful about Brawl plays, Loatheb can help in that regard.

Tech Cards & Replacements

The most flexible spot is Tundra Rhino. I often used Stampeding Kodo here because it has many targets in the current meta. Kezan Mystic or Harrison Jones are also pretty efficient tech cards and even Big Game Hunter can be considered ;) You can also try to tech a Cult Master like I did in the past if you want some more draw power but it doesn't really feel necessary anymore due to the free value you got from all your spiders.

With the inclusion of Tomb Spider, Tundra Rhino becomes a very viable tech, you'll often have some Beasts to charge with it and it interacts amazingly well with Savannah Highmane, either for the 6 burst damage or to make use of Hyena right away. That's still a replacable card anyway, even a simple Stranglethorn Tiger or Sludge Belcher could fit the spot nicely.

I also experimented a lot with Ram Wrangler, it is more viable now that you have access to more Beasts thanks to Tomb Spider. The card can lead to amazing situations but it's too much of a gamble to stay in the final list for me. If you want some more fun, it's perfectly fine to run it ;)

Our beloved Piloted Shredder had to let his spot for Tomb Spider. It has a more consistent board presence when it comes into play but as I explained in the Introduction, the discover mechanic and Beast status provided by Tomb Spider is just too good for this Deck to be ignored ;) If you don't have LOE wings yet, you are perfectly fine running Piloted Shredder for this spot.

Flare can be used if you really face a lot of Secret Paladin. But as you can see, I already beat them pretty easily and Flare won't gain you enough tempo against Mysterious Challenger because of its solid body. It could also help in the Mage and Hunter match ups.

Quick Shot is a good tool to have if you find a spot for it in the Deck. King's Elekk isn't convincing enough in my opinion due to the relatively low curve and load of 2 drops already, I would even prefer running Huge Toad over it. 

Explosive Trap or Freezing Trap are some easy replacements for Snake Trap. Speaking of which, you shouldn't hesitate to tweak the trap set up according to your meta but always follow the 3 trap rules ;) 2 Freezing Trap can be used against a Midrangy meta while Explosive Trap is great against Aggro Decks. I like my current set up to focus entirely on the Beast synergies.

If you don't have Dr. Boom, why are you even playing Hearthstone ? You should definitely craft it as soon as possible ! Sylvanas Windrunner, Ragnaros the Firelord, Sea Giant, Piloted Sky Golem or any of the card mentionned above can be used while working on it ;)

Gameplay Videos

I recorded my last session to Legend using the Deck. I highly recommend to check it to see how I'm piloting the Deck ;)

Closing

That's it for the guide guys, I hope you'll enjoy the Deck as much as I do ! 

Don't forget to show your support by upvoting the Deck if you liked and don't hesitate to discuss about it or ask any question in the comment section below ;)

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