Lets take a moment to take a step back and have a good overview of the new generally good all round cards hunters have at their disposal now, starting with the new reveals:
These 4 cards I see having a significant long term home in most hunter decks.
Candleshot finally gives hunters a decent 1 mana option to combat swarmy aggro decks while preserving your hp.
Cave Hydra serves as another option for fighting an early swarm and offering a solid body for follow up Houndmaster play.
Flanking Strike serves as a something hunter decks desperately needed, an alternative turn 4 option to regain board control and tempo.
And Lesser Emerald Spellstone which after just 1 upgrade makes for an incredible turn 5 option which can also force bait board removal from an opponent at the cost of a single card.
But the love doesn't stop there, introducing our new neutral friends:
Dire Mole and Cackling Razormaw just became BFFs. Something hunter has lacked desperately is a resilient 1 drop minion and despite it's vanilla body the synergy potential that early for hunter is a huge game changer.
Plated Beetle may find a home in the slower midrange decks as an option to help them survive against hype aggro that tries to burn you out asap. It having a deathrattle is also nice as you can dump it for tempo plays with corpse widow.
Dire mole is the best addition. Amazing target for razormaw, and at long last 1/3 drop which can compete with mana wyrm/ void walker and not just die for free like fiery bat or cat.
That neutral 1 drop is increadibly huge, believe me.
Cheap weapon kinda great too, 1 copy might be staple in agressive build.
Dire mole is the best addition. Amazing target for razormaw, and at long last 1/3 drop which can compete with mana wyrm/ void walker and not just die for free like fiery bat or cat.
That neutral 1 drop is increadibly huge, believe me.
Cheap weapon kinda great too, 1 copy might be staple in agressive build.
Amazing cards overall
Don't forget the value of Hunter's Mark + Candleshot
I agree Hunter got some really interesting cards this expansion. Although they aren't glaringly overpowered, they help Hunter a lot. I'm really excited that Hunter got another archetype which seems fun to play at least.
The new cards do seem to give Hunter a different and stronger early game. Pretty good 1, 2 and 3 mana drops released for Hunter. But will they be good enough for Control Hunter? I hope so. Or a different style MR Hunter.
For now I believe MR Hunter will be stronger, run secrets and spellstone, with DK and Highmane as end game. Something like this.
The candle is actually really bad given the hunter legendary is pretty much unplayable. The meta will be filled with weapon removal and with hunters only viable weapons being candleshot and eaglehorn means everyone will just dump the ooze on turn 2 removing the weapon before you get to ping with it. Would have been great if it came out in a different expac before the weapon meta.
The hydra is ok. Not amazing but it will see play. Probably on par with bear shark which is pretty meh.
Flanking strike is pretty bad, It's a slightly stronger version of the kodo. Kodo doesn't see play now and I don't think 1 extra damage would save it from being mediocre.
Spellstone is good if you can fit at least 4 traps, wandering monster is fantastic so it will probably be playable with freezing/explosive but even then most of the time its a 5 mana 6/6 which isn't that great. Especially when split between 2 bodies.
The real winner here is dire mole, that card alone will be a massive boost for hunters. It's hard to deal with on turn 1/2 and with single buff from just about anything it becomes very dangerous very quickly. A turn 2 4/3 + 3/2 will absolutely devastate slower decks.
Overall it's pretty bad though. Dire mole is 10/10 but everything else is pretty average. There is still no reliable aoe, no spells hunter is going to be terrible in till it gets some real support, Not enough support to make secret hunter a thing yet (a secret tutor would be great). Hunter will continue to be a MR or face deck in standard and barely any new cards are going to be used.
Why the meta will be filled with ooze effects? All legendary weapons are crap, too expensive for their slow or useless effects. Nobody will play the hunter or warlock one in a serious deck, for example.
Why the meta will be filled with ooze effects? All legendary weapons are crap, too expensive for their slow or useless effects. Nobody will play the hunter or warlock one in a serious deck, for example.
Almost every deck will want at least one ooze. The warlock one is only bad because it can be removed before it gets value. If ooze is barely played, the warlock weapon is very very powerful, even if it last one turn you can pull a 5+ mana minion with no downside. Same can be said for the priest one, getting a 5/5 dragon every turn for essentially free is game winning. Hell it even screws druids over because you can remove their weapon the turn before the last hit and screw them out of the +10 mana in one turn.
Even if the ooze only removes a 1 mana weapon, it has already gotten a large amount of value. People still play golaka crawler even though its a completely dead card against druid/priest/warlock which are the top tier decks just because rogues and the occasional shaman run patches. The sheer value of a 2 mana removal + body is 10/10. Especially in control decks which can afford a couple of early game tech cards.
Lets take a moment to take a step back and have a good overview of the new generally good all round cards hunters have at their disposal now, starting with the new reveals:
These 4 cards I see having a significant long term home in most hunter decks.
Candleshot finally gives hunters a decent 1 mana option to combat swarmy aggro decks while preserving your hp.
Cave Hydra serves as another option for fighting an early swarm and offering a solid body for follow up Houndmaster play.
Flanking Strike serves as a something hunter decks desperately needed, an alternative turn 4 option to regain board control and tempo.
And Lesser Emerald Spellstone which after just 1 upgrade makes for an incredible turn 5 option which can also force bait board removal from an opponent at the cost of a single card.
But the love doesn't stop there, introducing our new neutral friends:
Dire Mole and Cackling Razormaw just became BFFs. Something hunter has lacked desperately is a resilient 1 drop minion and despite it's vanilla body the synergy potential that early for hunter is a huge game changer.
Plated Beetle may find a home in the slower midrange decks as an option to help them survive against hype aggro that tries to burn you out asap. It having a deathrattle is also nice as you can dump it for tempo plays with corpse widow.
Dire mole is the best addition. Amazing target for razormaw, and at long last 1/3 drop which can compete with mana wyrm/ void walker and not just die for free like fiery bat or cat.
That neutral 1 drop is increadibly huge, believe me.
Cheap weapon kinda great too, 1 copy might be staple in agressive build.
Amazing cards overall
I agree Hunter got some really interesting cards this expansion. Although they aren't glaringly overpowered, they help Hunter a lot. I'm really excited that Hunter got another archetype which seems fun to play at least.
Only free on the weekends :(
The new cards do seem to give Hunter a different and stronger early game. Pretty good 1, 2 and 3 mana drops released for Hunter. But will they be good enough for Control Hunter? I hope so. Or a different style MR Hunter.
For now I believe MR Hunter will be stronger, run secrets and spellstone, with DK and Highmane as end game. Something like this.
The candle is actually really bad given the hunter legendary is pretty much unplayable. The meta will be filled with weapon removal and with hunters only viable weapons being candleshot and eaglehorn means everyone will just dump the ooze on turn 2 removing the weapon before you get to ping with it. Would have been great if it came out in a different expac before the weapon meta.
The hydra is ok. Not amazing but it will see play. Probably on par with bear shark which is pretty meh.
Flanking strike is pretty bad, It's a slightly stronger version of the kodo. Kodo doesn't see play now and I don't think 1 extra damage would save it from being mediocre.
Spellstone is good if you can fit at least 4 traps, wandering monster is fantastic so it will probably be playable with freezing/explosive but even then most of the time its a 5 mana 6/6 which isn't that great. Especially when split between 2 bodies.
The real winner here is dire mole, that card alone will be a massive boost for hunters. It's hard to deal with on turn 1/2 and with single buff from just about anything it becomes very dangerous very quickly. A turn 2 4/3 + 3/2 will absolutely devastate slower decks.
Overall it's pretty bad though. Dire mole is 10/10 but everything else is pretty average. There is still no reliable aoe, no spells hunter is going to be terrible in till it gets some real support, Not enough support to make secret hunter a thing yet (a secret tutor would be great). Hunter will continue to be a MR or face deck in standard and barely any new cards are going to be used.
Why the meta will be filled with ooze effects? All legendary weapons are crap, too expensive for their slow or useless effects. Nobody will play the hunter or warlock one in a serious deck, for example.
dire mole and flanking strike are best hunter cards in this xpac
candleshot and spellstone look decent but i dont think hunter really need them
Don't forget the new additions to the build-a-beast pool. I am looking forward to making some beasts with Cave Hydra, Shimmering Courser, and Stoneskin Basilisk.
actualy some beasts realy makes Smuggler's Crate looks viable now. Both Cave Hydra and Dire Mole are great targets for this long-forgotten buff.