I have stopped using my hunter for now. I hate being part of the problem, and right now, hunters are a problem. It really is ridiculous how prevelant they are.
Congrats on making Legendary! I haven't had much time to play in the last few days, so I'm still hovering around 5-6. I'm hoping to put in a final push over the next week. Maybe... we'll see.
In the few games I have gotten to squeeze in lately I've been playing around with Shaman. Once I finished Heroic Naxx, I dusted a bunch of cards (I was holding on to some oddball stuff just in case it might come in handy). My Hunter and Pally decks weren't really in need of anything, so I decided to finally fill some holes in my Shaman collection. I had played VERY little Shaman before then (I think he was only at level 15 or so). It's a fun class, I'll probably spend some more time playing it next season. But right now it's time to get focused again and see how far I can push this deck.
I have stopped using my hunter for now. I hate being part of the problem, and right now, hunters are a problem. It really is ridiculous how prevelant they are.
Back to Shaman and non-zoo/ non-handlock warlock.
I know what you're saying, but I honestly don't think Hunters in general are the problem. The Mad Scientist/Trap Hunter is the perceived problem, but I think most people are blowing it way out of proportion. Yes, they can be annoying, and there certainly are a lot of them... but people are overreacting. They aren't as hard to counter as most people seem to think. This deck does very well against them. With other classes, just try slotting in Acidic Swamp Ooze or Harrison Jones. As I said above, I've been playing a little Shaman lately. I have two Acidic Swamp Oozes in that deck and it does very well against the Trappers.
Plus, just take a look at how much they are whining about Flare being OP. That's also an overreaction. Flare is extremely good against someone playing traps, but in other match ups it's costing you one mana to cycle and taking up a card slot in your deck that could be filled by something actually useful. It will all balance out. Just give things a couple of weeks to settle down and people will realize these are all just options with strengths and weaknesses... kind of like Zoo. It's a good deck, but it is not the unbeatable behemoth people make it out to be. The meta shifts, you have to adjust.
Nice congrats! Where would you fit in loatheb in this deck? Maybe for a boar or dire wolf alpha?
Honestly if I was to fit in Loatheb I'd cut the snapjaw. I feel like he's kind of clunky costing 4. A lot of times I find myself not being able to make great use of him because if I do play him on 4 on 5 I usually want to play a 3 cost spell + a 2 or hero power. Playing another 4 and losing a mana tends to not be the best play. Also with the coin I almost always would rather coin houndmaster onto a creeper than try to coin snapjaw and then houndmaster it.
All of that being said Snapjaw does tend to be a decent card if nothing else because it tends to draw some good removal out that would have targeted the Highmane.
I'll revise that statement a little bit... if you are seeing a lot of priest, and other hunters I'd drop the snapjaw since it can be easily taken out with a single card in those matches. If you are not seeing much warrior at all and seeing a lot of miracle and druid you could drop the Kodo since it's pretty bad in the miracle match, loatheb would be better against druid and kodo's really great use is against warrior.
Some of it is going to be feeling it out I think. A lot of these cards are great in certain matchups and less great in others, and so it's all about making that 1 or 2 card tweak for the meta. For example deadly shot is very good against taunt druid, handlock and control warrior, however Kodo fits the same need in the warrior match and the other 2 are not popular enough to warrant playing 2 Deadly shots. Similarly the Ironbeak owl is great in some matchups but it's situational so it's stuck as a 1 of for now... if Deathrattle shennanigans became popular enough that might have to be bumped up to 2.
I don't expect others to follow suit, but I got a Hunter Dominance quest for 60 gold, so of course I had to get that done. Went into ranked (was hanging at 15 playing very explorative builds), and rattled off 7 wins in a row...easily. My 3 year old son was being a pain in the arse the whole time too so I wasn't fully concentrating. I guess this should make me happy, but I don't know, I must hate winning...lol. Oddly enough I beat a trapper/hunter twice, the other two were a priest and two druids, a ramp and one I couldn't identify, maybe he got a horrible draw...I played the other two to see how far this could go, beating two zoo in a row, then hgad to go to work.
I am not worried about Flare, myself. I get their point, it is ridiculous to play that trapper hunter with shaman. I never get enough on the board to cause enough damage to take them down before they plink me to death over time. Every. Time. The. Same. Sure, a flare would help that, but it would gut the secrets altogether. Unless it was like 8 mana, then secrets would be dead if there was some neutral card that gets rid of them. I don't want any nerfs or knee jerk reactions. I didn't with zoo either (holy lord this deck obliterates zoo and they hate me), and I find zoo to be very contained nowadays. Same will happen with hunter.
I just don't want to be a bandwagon rider. Perhaps if I engineered those decks I could feel proud in using them, but I didn't, so I don't feel much pleasure in playing them. Clearly I am differnt than most, and I don't expectanyone else to follow suit. Oddly enough I started playing hunter because it was an underdog. ALso playing a non-zoo Warlock. Man that angers people, they just don't understand why I choose "inferior" when I could so easily win. Yup, I am clearly playing this for every different reasons lol.
Can you guys give a beginner some tips against zoo? If I don't have unleash the hounds at turn 3, I loose most of the times. Also, timber wolf vs. alpha wolf, which one is the better choice? Two timbers vs one timber+one alpha.
I don't expect others to follow suit, but I got a Hunter Dominance quest for 60 gold, so of course I had to get that done. Went into ranked (was hanging at 15 playing very explorative builds), and rattled off 7 wins in a row...easily. My 3 year old son was being a pain in the arse the whole time too so I wasn't fully concentrating. I guess this should make me happy, but I don't know, I must hate winning...lol. Oddly enough I beat a trapper/hunter twice, the other two were a priest and two druids, a ramp and one I couldn't identify, maybe he got a horrible draw...I played the other two to see how far this could go, beating two zoo in a row, then hgad to go to work.
I am not worried about Flare, myself. I get their point, it is ridiculous to play that trapper hunter with shaman. I never get enough on the board to cause enough damage to take them down before they plink me to death over time. Every. Time. The. Same. Sure, a flare would help that, but it would gut the secrets altogether. Unless it was like 8 mana, then secrets would be dead if there was some neutral card that gets rid of them. I don't want any nerfs or knee jerk reactions. I didn't with zoo either (holy lord this deck obliterates zoo and they hate me), and I find zoo to be very contained nowadays. Same will happen with hunter.
I just don't want to be a bandwagon rider. Perhaps if I engineered those decks I could feel proud in using them, but I didn't, so I don't feel much pleasure in playing them. Clearly I am differnt than most, and I don't expectanyone else to follow suit. Oddly enough I started playing hunter because it was an underdog. ALso playing a non-zoo Warlock. Man that angers people, they just don't understand why I choose "inferior" when I could so easily win. Yup, I am clearly playing this for every different reasons lol.
I completely get where you're coming from. In fact, I like this deck so much for almost the exact reasons you gave for not being that attached to it. The Hunter was the very first class I played after doing the tutorials. It was the first thing I was attracted to, but I just felt it was somehow limited and put it aside for a while. I always intended to go back and hone it in, though.
And then Webspinner happened. I loved that card instantly. It's just flat out fun. The next morning I made a deck that was about 90% similar to this one. I eventually came across the Kolento deck and used it to further refine and tune mine. So basically, I guess I do have a sense of "ownership" with it.
But again, I totally understand what you're saying. Best of luck with whatever you play next (and with that 3 year old... I've been there. They are so much fun once they get to around four or five, though).
Quick aside about the Webspinner: I liked it enough to actually craft a gold version almost immediately. It's the only gold card I've ever crafted, and it's almost certainly the only gold card I'll craft until I have every other card I even slightly want. But... if you use the Webspinner frequently, I would highly recommend the gold version. Any card that you get from it's deathrattle is also gold. It's just way too much fun to slap down that gold King Krush for lethal, or that gold King Mukla on turn 3. 800 dust well spent, in my opinion.
I actually recommend against having a golden Webspinner unless your whole deck is golden. There are a lot of random beasts people play in their decks, so you never know what they got off of Webspinner and what's in their deck (unless it's Angry Chicken or Hungry Crab lol) so you need to play around every beast in the game after a Webspinner dies. If they play a golden beast right after when the rest of the deck is normal you can rest easy again and stop playing around King Krush or whatever.
Can you guys give a beginner some tips against zoo? If I don't have unleash the hounds at turn 3, I loose most of the times. Also, timber wolf vs. alpha wolf, which one is the better choice? Two timbers vs one timber+one alpha.
Others in this thread have disagreed with me on this, but I actually don't like Unleash in my opening hand against Zoo. I prefer cards that are immediately playable in order to keep up tempo. Unleash is almost never a good play on turn 3 (they will often have Flame Imp, Voidwalker, and Haunted Creeper out by then). I like having Webspinner and Haunted Creeper out early, ideally with a Dire Wolf to make the most of the Creeper's non-beast Spectral Spiders. I look to get Unleash and one of the Wolves on or after turn 5. By then, they've got a full board and an empty hand. Even if you get Unleash later, you still almost always wipe the board and leave them top-decking, at which point you've already won. I'll admit you are taking somewhat of a chance doing it my way, but keeping up tempo early is so important that it's well worth it. Whichever way you go, make sure to hold unleash until you can get excellent value from it. Getting overeager with it and using it too soon is the best way to lose to Zoo.
I like one of each Wolf. As for when to play Dire Wolf vs. Timber Wolf, it depends entirely on what you have on the board/plan to play on the next turn. When you have beasts, Timber Wolf is the clear winner. With Unleash, they are exactly the same (with the exception that Dire Wolf leaves a bigger body on the board). If you've got Houndmasters out, Dire Wolf is often better. Just keep in mind that Haunted Creeper's Spectral Spiders are not beasts, and always be careful with placement (try to keep Dire Wolf's right side open, or have the minion most likely to suicide on the right, that way you can get value when you play Unleash or Animal Companion).
I actually recommend against having a golden Webspinner unless your whole deck is golden. There are a lot of random beasts people play in their decks, so you never know what they got off of Webspinner and what's in their deck (unless it's Angry Chicken or Hungry Crab lol) so you need to play around every beast in the game after a Webspinner dies. If they play a golden beast right after when the rest of the deck is normal you can rest easy again and stop playing around King Krush or whatever.
There is definitely some truth to this. That is certainly the downside, but it's a fairly minor one most of the time. I always assume most opponents are familiar enough with the deck to figure it out in other ways, but you are 100% correct.
To beat Zoo, you have to have tempo/board presence. The most effect way to do this is with some form of a unleash combo (buzzard, dire, timber). I try to mulligan for Unleash or tracking as it will get you that much close to the combo I need, but I won't pass up a web spinner or a haunted creeper. I'd much rather be stuck with two beasts on turn 1 and 2 rather than mulliganing for the combo and coming up empty handed. That being said, the combo is clearly the superior way to win against zoo, but as mentioned above you have to be smart depending on what items you get in your oppening hand. If you run traps, explosive, freezing, and the bow can work wonders as well.
Handlock is just devastating if I don't have the cards to counter the giants+faceless. And as I always mulligan for zoo, I loose those games almost every time. Faced more handlocks than zoo today around rank 11. Add a leeroy and they kill me around turn 6 easily.
I have stopped using my hunter for now. I hate being part of the problem, and right now, hunters are a problem. It really is ridiculous how prevelant they are.
Back to Shaman and non-zoo/ non-handlock warlock.
Congrats on making Legendary! I haven't had much time to play in the last few days, so I'm still hovering around 5-6. I'm hoping to put in a final push over the next week. Maybe... we'll see.
In the few games I have gotten to squeeze in lately I've been playing around with Shaman. Once I finished Heroic Naxx, I dusted a bunch of cards (I was holding on to some oddball stuff just in case it might come in handy). My Hunter and Pally decks weren't really in need of anything, so I decided to finally fill some holes in my Shaman collection. I had played VERY little Shaman before then (I think he was only at level 15 or so). It's a fun class, I'll probably spend some more time playing it next season. But right now it's time to get focused again and see how far I can push this deck.
I know what you're saying, but I honestly don't think Hunters in general are the problem. The Mad Scientist/Trap Hunter is the perceived problem, but I think most people are blowing it way out of proportion. Yes, they can be annoying, and there certainly are a lot of them... but people are overreacting. They aren't as hard to counter as most people seem to think. This deck does very well against them. With other classes, just try slotting in Acidic Swamp Ooze or Harrison Jones. As I said above, I've been playing a little Shaman lately. I have two Acidic Swamp Oozes in that deck and it does very well against the Trappers.
Plus, just take a look at how much they are whining about Flare being OP. That's also an overreaction. Flare is extremely good against someone playing traps, but in other match ups it's costing you one mana to cycle and taking up a card slot in your deck that could be filled by something actually useful. It will all balance out. Just give things a couple of weeks to settle down and people will realize these are all just options with strengths and weaknesses... kind of like Zoo. It's a good deck, but it is not the unbeatable behemoth people make it out to be. The meta shifts, you have to adjust.
Nice congrats! Where would you fit in loatheb in this deck? Maybe for a boar or dire wolf alpha?
Honestly if I was to fit in Loatheb I'd cut the snapjaw. I feel like he's kind of clunky costing 4. A lot of times I find myself not being able to make great use of him because if I do play him on 4 on 5 I usually want to play a 3 cost spell + a 2 or hero power. Playing another 4 and losing a mana tends to not be the best play. Also with the coin I almost always would rather coin houndmaster onto a creeper than try to coin snapjaw and then houndmaster it.
All of that being said Snapjaw does tend to be a decent card if nothing else because it tends to draw some good removal out that would have targeted the Highmane.
I'll revise that statement a little bit... if you are seeing a lot of priest, and other hunters I'd drop the snapjaw since it can be easily taken out with a single card in those matches. If you are not seeing much warrior at all and seeing a lot of miracle and druid you could drop the Kodo since it's pretty bad in the miracle match, loatheb would be better against druid and kodo's really great use is against warrior.
Some of it is going to be feeling it out I think. A lot of these cards are great in certain matchups and less great in others, and so it's all about making that 1 or 2 card tweak for the meta. For example deadly shot is very good against taunt druid, handlock and control warrior, however Kodo fits the same need in the warrior match and the other 2 are not popular enough to warrant playing 2 Deadly shots. Similarly the Ironbeak owl is great in some matchups but it's situational so it's stuck as a 1 of for now... if Deathrattle shennanigans became popular enough that might have to be bumped up to 2.
@ Loyal33
I don't expect others to follow suit, but I got a Hunter Dominance quest for 60 gold, so of course I had to get that done. Went into ranked (was hanging at 15 playing very explorative builds), and rattled off 7 wins in a row...easily. My 3 year old son was being a pain in the arse the whole time too so I wasn't fully concentrating. I guess this should make me happy, but I don't know, I must hate winning...lol. Oddly enough I beat a trapper/hunter twice, the other two were a priest and two druids, a ramp and one I couldn't identify, maybe he got a horrible draw...I played the other two to see how far this could go, beating two zoo in a row, then hgad to go to work.
I am not worried about Flare, myself. I get their point, it is ridiculous to play that trapper hunter with shaman. I never get enough on the board to cause enough damage to take them down before they plink me to death over time. Every. Time. The. Same. Sure, a flare would help that, but it would gut the secrets altogether. Unless it was like 8 mana, then secrets would be dead if there was some neutral card that gets rid of them. I don't want any nerfs or knee jerk reactions. I didn't with zoo either (holy lord this deck obliterates zoo and they hate me), and I find zoo to be very contained nowadays. Same will happen with hunter.
I just don't want to be a bandwagon rider. Perhaps if I engineered those decks I could feel proud in using them, but I didn't, so I don't feel much pleasure in playing them. Clearly I am differnt than most, and I don't expectanyone else to follow suit. Oddly enough I started playing hunter because it was an underdog. ALso playing a non-zoo Warlock. Man that angers people, they just don't understand why I choose "inferior" when I could so easily win. Yup, I am clearly playing this for every different reasons lol.
Can you guys give a beginner some tips against zoo? If I don't have unleash the hounds at turn 3, I loose most of the times. Also, timber wolf vs. alpha wolf, which one is the better choice? Two timbers vs one timber+one alpha.
I completely get where you're coming from. In fact, I like this deck so much for almost the exact reasons you gave for not being that attached to it. The Hunter was the very first class I played after doing the tutorials. It was the first thing I was attracted to, but I just felt it was somehow limited and put it aside for a while. I always intended to go back and hone it in, though.
And then Webspinner happened. I loved that card instantly. It's just flat out fun. The next morning I made a deck that was about 90% similar to this one. I eventually came across the Kolento deck and used it to further refine and tune mine. So basically, I guess I do have a sense of "ownership" with it.
But again, I totally understand what you're saying. Best of luck with whatever you play next (and with that 3 year old... I've been there. They are so much fun once they get to around four or five, though).
Quick aside about the Webspinner: I liked it enough to actually craft a gold version almost immediately. It's the only gold card I've ever crafted, and it's almost certainly the only gold card I'll craft until I have every other card I even slightly want. But... if you use the Webspinner frequently, I would highly recommend the gold version. Any card that you get from it's deathrattle is also gold. It's just way too much fun to slap down that gold King Krush for lethal, or that gold King Mukla on turn 3. 800 dust well spent, in my opinion.
I actually recommend against having a golden Webspinner unless your whole deck is golden. There are a lot of random beasts people play in their decks, so you never know what they got off of Webspinner and what's in their deck (unless it's Angry Chicken or Hungry Crab lol) so you need to play around every beast in the game after a Webspinner dies. If they play a golden beast right after when the rest of the deck is normal you can rest easy again and stop playing around King Krush or whatever.
Others in this thread have disagreed with me on this, but I actually don't like Unleash in my opening hand against Zoo. I prefer cards that are immediately playable in order to keep up tempo. Unleash is almost never a good play on turn 3 (they will often have Flame Imp, Voidwalker, and Haunted Creeper out by then). I like having Webspinner and Haunted Creeper out early, ideally with a Dire Wolf to make the most of the Creeper's non-beast Spectral Spiders. I look to get Unleash and one of the Wolves on or after turn 5. By then, they've got a full board and an empty hand. Even if you get Unleash later, you still almost always wipe the board and leave them top-decking, at which point you've already won. I'll admit you are taking somewhat of a chance doing it my way, but keeping up tempo early is so important that it's well worth it. Whichever way you go, make sure to hold unleash until you can get excellent value from it. Getting overeager with it and using it too soon is the best way to lose to Zoo.
I like one of each Wolf. As for when to play Dire Wolf vs. Timber Wolf, it depends entirely on what you have on the board/plan to play on the next turn. When you have beasts, Timber Wolf is the clear winner. With Unleash, they are exactly the same (with the exception that Dire Wolf leaves a bigger body on the board). If you've got Houndmasters out, Dire Wolf is often better. Just keep in mind that Haunted Creeper's Spectral Spiders are not beasts, and always be careful with placement (try to keep Dire Wolf's right side open, or have the minion most likely to suicide on the right, that way you can get value when you play Unleash or Animal Companion).
There is definitely some truth to this. That is certainly the downside, but it's a fairly minor one most of the time. I always assume most opponents are familiar enough with the deck to figure it out in other ways, but you are 100% correct.
Let me have fun, damn it! LOL
is there a place for Mukhla here?
I cant beat priests. Games take ages, I go out of cards and loose. Gosh I hate this class :P
To beat Zoo, you have to have tempo/board presence. The most effect way to do this is with some form of a unleash combo (buzzard, dire, timber). I try to mulligan for Unleash or tracking as it will get you that much close to the combo I need, but I won't pass up a web spinner or a haunted creeper. I'd much rather be stuck with two beasts on turn 1 and 2 rather than mulliganing for the combo and coming up empty handed. That being said, the combo is clearly the superior way to win against zoo, but as mentioned above you have to be smart depending on what items you get in your oppening hand. If you run traps, explosive, freezing, and the bow can work wonders as well.
Handlock is just devastating if I don't have the cards to counter the giants+faceless. And as I always mulligan for zoo, I loose those games almost every time. Faced more handlocks than zoo today around rank 11. Add a leeroy and they kill me around turn 6 easily.