Which to me, absolutely defeats the purpose of trying to make such a deck work; "Don't play minions so that you have access to spells that summon minions".
Let's look at the star cards that will go into this sort of deck:
Now, my question to you guys is, is this really what a "minionless deck" should be doing? 10 out of those 14 cards summon minions, so are you really "hunting alone"?
This would be like a Mage Archetype being "Don't play any Spells", but your deck is full of cards like Steam Surger (without the elemental clause). It kind of defeats the purpose.
There's so much more they could do with the idea that it's kind of painful to see it as it is. Since your not using the Game Board, they could easily add in more Permanent effects (like Nether Portal) that grant buffs/bonuses/abilities to Hunter in much more interesting ways; Prepared Quiver with "At the beginning of your turn, add a random Arrow card to your hand" with Arrows being spells that improve the Hero Power (Freeze a random minion, can target a minion this turn, refresh the hero power, etc), or even something like Know the Land with "Draw a card at the end of your turn, secrets you play cost (1) less".
I just feel like as it is now, Spell Hunter is a wasted opportunity. Not because it's not good (we don't know), not because it's different, but because it honestly doesn't live up to the idea of what a "I hunt alone" Hunter should be; the Hunter doing all of the work himself.
And as an aside, there's a ton you could do with every class being Minionless, honestly; Shaman gets a Permanent that deals damage to a random minion whenever you overload, Warrior getting a Bladeflurry type card, Rogue gaining access to more Stealth effects and free Backstabs, Paladin gaining more Seal of Light type cards, and on and on.
But if all specifically not playing minions is going to get us is more minions, is that even worth having the archetype?
Interesting ideas. Seem a little too complex for blizzard’s “basic” class however. Also, playing an entire deck without minions or the ability to summon minions, you better be pressing that hero power a LOT and gotta give hunter a lot more damage spell options.
Interesting ideas. Seem a little too complex for blizzard’s “basic” class however. Also, playing an entire deck without minions or the ability to summon minions, you better be pressing that hero power a LOT and gotta give hunter a lot more damage spell options.
There's nothing wrong with summoning some minions (Animal Companion, To My Side!, and Call of the Wild at the very least, and I'd expect "Minionless" Paladin to have Silver Hand synergy and Shaman to have Totem synergy), but if all "You can't play Minions" is gonna give you is..... more minions, that's not worth it in the strictest design perspective.
Take Reno Jackson, for instance; Would the card have worked if the powerful payoff of the deck was "Shuffle a Copy of every card in your deck into your deck". No, and while you won't be dying to Fatigue any time soon that completely invalidates why you play Reno.
And honestly, the I really hate and kinda doubt that Blizzard wants Hunter to be the Basic Class, just that it's convenient for them to remain so as of right now.
Shaman Doomhammer + 2x Rockbiter Weapon + Burn says hello. There are ways to do it, and Deathstalker Rexxar is one that would work beautifully for Minionless Hunter.
There is nowhere wrote that you cant have minions in your deck... as I said before you can made a good deck with all that early aggression minions bcs your main spell hunter abilities are at high mana cost. Than when you want to play rhokdelar or whatever just use card Hemet the jungle king and you can ez switch to spell hunter for late game ;)
Until one of those is the last card in your deck and all your cool stuff is useless.
How are you supposed to win without any way to play minions? Stall out the game and slowly chip away at them with your hero power until you draw enough damage spells to point them at the face and kill them? Decks that win through stalling the game until they draw damage aren't an original concept and are really uninteresting to play against. I feel like we've seen this tried for years with freeze mage being the most popular example. It turns out that without minion combat and trading, hearthstone is just a solitaire game, and that's not really fun if your on the other side of the board.
How are you supposed to win without playing minions? Stall out the game and slowly chip away at them with your hero power until you draw enough damage spells to point them at the face and kill them? Decks that win through stalling the game until they draw damage aren't an original concept and are really uninteresting to play against. I feel like we've seen this tried for years with freeze mage being the most popular example. It turns out that without minion combat and trading, hearthstone is just a solitaire game, and that's not really fun if your on the other side of the board.
It's almost as though the purpose of playing a Spell Based Hunter should be focused on playing Spells. There are plenty of ways to make spells engaging, and it's not by giving deck 60 different ways to Freeze things.
@OP - I disagree with everything in your long-winded post. Spell Hunter will be fun, especially with all the added support. In Wild, with Lock and Load and all the actually pretty decent removal Hunter has, the archetype will be revived. I'll be including Yogg of course and new the Hunter weapon and have no doubt that it will be a competitive meme deck at the very least.
A deck without the ability to summon any minions wouldn't just be unplayably bad, it would also be obscenely boring
You just don't know this game very well do you? It will be anything but boring when your hand is filled with random spells. It will be a meme deck for sure, but meme decks are generally quite entertaining to pilot.
@OP - I disagree with everything in your long-winded post. Spell Hunter will be fun, especially with all the added support. In Wild, with Lock and Load and all the actually pretty decent removal Hunter has, the archetype will be revived. I'll be including Yogg of course and new the Hunter weapon and have no doubt that it will be a competitive meme deck at the very least.
Spell Hunter is just Beast Hunter with actual support, due to how the spells are panning out. It's actually really funny, because any sort of Beast synergy you run would actually be the Support, rather than the other way around.
As opposed to you know, casting spells that do things, you might as well skip the weapon and To My Side! and run cards that benefit you running beasts like Tundra Rhino and Houndmaster since your casting spells that only replaced your minions.
Interesting ideas. Seem a little too complex for blizzard’s “basic” class however. Also, playing an entire deck without minions or the ability to summon minions, you better be pressing that hero power a LOT and gotta give hunter a lot more damage spell options.
Great idea, i'm always looking for ways to abuse Beardo :D
Should be interesting with Lock and Load in wild. Whether or not its a viable deck, this is the first time I've been excited to play Hunter since...well...since Hearthstone began.
Question is, is it worth using Yogg? It'll reduce the effectiveness of To My Side! and Rhok'delar until he's drawn.
A deck without the ability to summon any minions wouldn't just be unplayably bad, it would also be obscenely boring
You just don't know this game very well do you? It will be anything but boring when your hand is filled with random spells. It will be a meme deck for sure, but meme decks are generally quite entertaining to pilot.
A deck without the ability to summon any minions would leave you with two options: hit your opponents minions, or hit your opponents face. I can't think of anything less exciting. Random spells from the weapon would be fun, but it would also have the chance of summoning minions, which is exactly what OP doesn't want. I honestly think minionless Hunter would be fun, but OP's vision of not having anything on your side of the board ever sounds awful.
Also, don't insult people, it weakens your argument.
Which to me, absolutely defeats the purpose of trying to make such a deck work; "Don't play minions so that you have access to spells that summon minions".
Let's look at the star cards that will go into this sort of deck:
Wandering Monster
Venomstrike Trap
Animal Companion
To My Side!
Unleash the Hounds
Cat Trick
Lesser Emerald Spellstone
Flanking Strike
Deadly Shot
Call of the Wild
To name the main ones. With wild you add in Snake Trap, Lock and Load, Powershot, and Quick Shot.
Now, my question to you guys is, is this really what a "minionless deck" should be doing? 10 out of those 14 cards summon minions, so are you really "hunting alone"?
This would be like a Mage Archetype being "Don't play any Spells", but your deck is full of cards like Steam Surger (without the elemental clause). It kind of defeats the purpose.
There's so much more they could do with the idea that it's kind of painful to see it as it is. Since your not using the Game Board, they could easily add in more Permanent effects (like Nether Portal) that grant buffs/bonuses/abilities to Hunter in much more interesting ways; Prepared Quiver with "At the beginning of your turn, add a random Arrow card to your hand" with Arrows being spells that improve the Hero Power (Freeze a random minion, can target a minion this turn, refresh the hero power, etc), or even something like Know the Land with "Draw a card at the end of your turn, secrets you play cost (1) less".
I just feel like as it is now, Spell Hunter is a wasted opportunity. Not because it's not good (we don't know), not because it's different, but because it honestly doesn't live up to the idea of what a "I hunt alone" Hunter should be; the Hunter doing all of the work himself.
And as an aside, there's a ton you could do with every class being Minionless, honestly; Shaman gets a Permanent that deals damage to a random minion whenever you overload, Warrior getting a Bladeflurry type card, Rogue gaining access to more Stealth effects and free Backstabs, Paladin gaining more Seal of Light type cards, and on and on.
But if all specifically not playing minions is going to get us is more minions, is that even worth having the archetype?
Interesting ideas. Seem a little too complex for blizzard’s “basic” class however. Also, playing an entire deck without minions or the ability to summon minions, you better be pressing that hero power a LOT and gotta give hunter a lot more damage spell options.
A deck without the ability to summon any minions wouldn't just be unplayably bad, it would also be obscenely boring
QQ
You can't win without any minion anyway
How are you supposed to win without any way to play minions? Stall out the game and slowly chip away at them with your hero power until you draw enough damage spells to point them at the face and kill them? Decks that win through stalling the game until they draw damage aren't an original concept and are really uninteresting to play against. I feel like we've seen this tried for years with freeze mage being the most popular example. It turns out that without minion combat and trading, hearthstone is just a solitaire game, and that's not really fun if your on the other side of the board.
@OP - I disagree with everything in your long-winded post. Spell Hunter will be fun, especially with all the added support. In Wild, with Lock and Load and all the actually pretty decent removal Hunter has, the archetype will be revived. I'll be including Yogg of course and new the Hunter weapon and have no doubt that it will be a competitive meme deck at the very least.
Should be interesting with Lock and Load in wild. Whether or not its a viable deck, this is the first time I've been excited to play Hunter since...well...since Hearthstone began.
Question is, is it worth using Yogg? It'll reduce the effectiveness of To My Side! and Rhok'delar until he's drawn.
OP, you're in luck... Snake Trap is in the Classic set so you can include it in your Standard Spell Hunter deck!