Hearthpwn

Archetype: Tempo Midrange Combo

Skill Cap: High

Description:

If you've seen my comment on The Marsh Queen, you know how much I hate this card. In an ironic twist of fate, I opened this card from a pack, which meant I HAD to find a way to get it to work.

The all-in Quest Hunter decks that run nothing else but 1 drops doesn't work. If you complete the quest, and play a Carnassa's Brood on turn 6+, and it doesn't draw another Carnassa's Brood (the chance of drawing another is < 50%), it will instantly lose you the game.

After much experimentation, I found that the deck performed better if The Marsh Queen was NOT the primary win condition of the deck. The deck plays out like a slower typical Deathrattle Hunter. The Marsh Queen instead functions as a high tempo 5 mana 8/8 body, a late game draw engine, and a potential combo piece.

Usually, you will want to gain tempo with Play Dead/Feign Death/Stitched Tracker/Princess Huhuran by playing them on Kindly Grandmother/Devilsaur Egg/Savannah Highmane/Sylvanas Windrunner (remember, completing the Quest is secondary). Only when you have nothing else to play/target, or you are low on cards in hand, should you aim for generating value/completing the Quest.

With the exception of Raptor Hatchling, you will usually want to play higher cost cards like Kindly Grandmother instead of x2 1 cost Deathrattle minions, so that you may play a bunch of them together with Feign Death. There are, of course, exceptions to this (eg. when you need the card draw/generation, or when you suspect the opponent has Potion of Madness in hand).

This deck has a few powerful combos to swing the board or finish the opponent:

• Tundra Rhino+Carnassa's Broods: Potentially up to 20 damage to face.
• Tundra Rhino+Play Dead/Feign Death/Stitched Tracker/Princess Huhuran(on Kindly Grandmother/Devilsaur Egg/Savannah Highmane)
• Tundra Rhino+Queen Carnassa: 5 mana King Krush?

Mulligan:

• Always keep the The Marsh Queen.
• Mulligan hard for 1 drops, Kindly Grandmother, or Devilsaur Egg.

Card Choices:

Raptor Hatchling: Because we don't run that many 1 drops, we need a way to add more 1 drops to our deck. Raptor Patriarch is also a strong body for its cost, potentially negating the tempo loss from Stitched Tracker/Tol'vir Warden and other card draws. Also very strong when played with Tundra Rhino.

Webspinner/Runic Egg: Generates cards for us so that we will always have something to play even if Carnassa's Brood fizzles. Chosen over Jeweled Macaw due to the Deathrattle synergy.

Igneous Elemental: Most efficient way to generate 1 drops without actually running too many of them in the deck. 1 copy is enough.

Tundra Rhino: 2 copies are included because they kept getting discarded by Tracking. It is also possible to pull off more than 1 combo in a single game.

Savannah Highmane: Only 1 copy is included because we don't want to draw this early, and we already have plenty of value to fully utilize our mana late game.

Tracking: Too good a card draw to exclude. The downside is that it very frequently forces you to pick between 3 very important cards, eg. Feign Death, Savannah Highmane and Sylvanas Windrunner. This card really tests your ability to pilot this deck as the best answer can be very situation-dependent.

Defender of Argus: Tech against hyper-aggro decks. Can also be used to suicide Devilsaur Egg if the tempo gain is desperately needed.

Card Substitutions:

Jeweled Macaw: Not included because of lack of Deathrattle synergy, but is a good 1 drop substitute.

Deathstalker Rexxar: Great against aggro decks. Can potentially Discover very powerful Deathrattle Zombeasts. Excluded because this deck is very tempo oriented, Steady Shot does a better job of finishing off the opponent, and also because this deck already has plenty of late game value generation.

Houndmaster: Very powerful high tempo card. The Taunt is also good against Aggro.

Call of the Wild: Very powerful, however excluded because we want to avoid running high cost cards. Drawing a high cost card that you cannot afford to play after playing multiple Carnassa's Brood with no other cards in hand will result in you floating all your remaining mana.

Rat Pack: Tundra Rhino and Deathrattle synergy.

Infested Wolf: Tundra Rhino and Deathrattle synergy.

Nerubian Egg: An inferior substitute to Devilsaur Egg, because of the lack of Tundra Rhino synergy. Running both usually leads to your board being flooded with Eggs that you cannot kill off, which will hinder you from spamming Carnassa's Broods.