I know there are a lot of threads in this forum about the Unleash the Hounds deck, but most of them are centered around critiquing specific decks instead of analyzing the choices that go into making the deck. I think it would be more constructive to take a look at the cards people tend to include in this type of build and discuss the best way to put them together.
For those who don't know, the game plan for this deck is to keep the board clear/stall the game until you have enough mana/cards to combo out. On your combo turn, the plan is to lay down a Starving Buzzard followed by a slew of one-drop beasts, give them all charge with Unleash the Hounds, and swing in for a one-turn kill.
The Must-Haves
2x Unleash the Hounds
2x Starving Buzzard
2x Timber Wolf
2x Young Dragonhawk
2x Tracking
These cards form the core of the deck's combo kill, and are all essential for the deck to work. Unleash the Hounds is self-explanitory. Starving Buzzard allows you to draw enough minions on your combo turn in order to combo out. Timber Wolf and Young Dragonhawk are the two best one-drop beasts for your combo kill, and Tracking gives your deck the consistency it needs to go off reliably.
The Removal Spells
Arcane Shot
Multi-Shot
Deadly Shot
Explosive Trap
Kill Command
Explosive Shot
These are the Hunter's main options for board control, all of which have various strengths and weaknesses. Arcane Shot is cheap but doesn't pack much of a punch, while Explosive Shot is effective, but on the expensive side. Kill Command is efficient, and the price is right, but this deck rarely keeps a beast on the board before the combo turn. Deadly Shot and Explosive Trap are probably the two best choices, but which removal spells should take up the other slots?
The Trap Suite
Eaglehorn Bow
Snipe
Freezing Trap
Misdirection
Snake Trap
While Explosive Trap is essentially an auto-include in the UTH deck, the same cannot be said for the other traps. Eaglehorn Bow is a great weapon that can help you control the board before your combo turn, but it needs a suite of good traps for optimal usage. However, most of these traps are generally worse than the removal spells they are competing with for slots in the deck. Snake Trap in particular is a lousy fit for this deck, since it's rare that you'll have minions out to be attacked. Depending on whether or not you run Eaglehorn Bow, some of these traps could be pretty viable.
Other Beasts
Stonetusk Boar
Ironfur Grizzly
Hungry Crab
Dire Wolf Alpha
Ironbeak Owl
Jungle Panther
Stranglethorn Tiger
These are other beasts worth considering for rounding out the deck, since you'll need more than just Buzzards, Timber Wolves, and Dragonhawks to finish your opponent off. The question then is, which to include? The two options for 1-drops are Stonetusk Boar and Hungry Crab. The Boar is handy for being able to occasionally pick off one-health minions or turning on Kill Command, and in the mirror match, you can have it charge in to set off any potential traps before you combo out. Hungry Crab is handy against Murlocs, and still a decent combo piece in other matchups. Dire Wolf Alpha, while more expensive, is also worth consideration as a combo piece.
Ironbeak Owl is handy for doubling as a removal spell, in addition to turning on Kill Command. Ironfur Grizzly is also handy for removing minions or buying you extra time. Lastly, the two stealth beasts, Jungle Panther and Strangethorn Tiger, can be dropped the turn before your combo kill to give you some extra power. Which beasts should make the cut?
Other Cards to Consider
Flare
Novice Engineer
Loot Hoarder
The card draw from these cards can help the deck more consistently draw the combo pieces it needs. The question is, which to include? Flare is good for drawing a card cheaply, but it also works wonders against other Hunters (or Priests that can Thoughtsteal your traps). It also has the added bonus of hosing pesky cards like Blood Imp and Ice Block, which otherwise give this deck trouble.
Novice Engineer and Loot Hoarder are solid minions that have their respective strengths and weaknesses, and are good choices for extra card draw coupled with a few points of damage.
So which cards are worth including in a UTH Hunter Deck, and which don't make the cut?
IMO, don´t bother with non-beasts minions. Ironbeak Owl is a must (you can clear out any taunt minions standing in the way). Dire Wolf Alfa can also give you that extra boost (dop it next to a dragonkawk!) you might need to finish things off. I like Ironfur Grizzly for stalling. Flare could work but I find it too situational.
My hunter deck is an UTH deck and Ive done really well with it. To the point where I stopped playing it because its sort of boring at some point. Ive played against it too and it sucks when you see the hunter stocking up on cards to finish you off on turn 7 or 8.
I don´t use traps on that deck, I preffer direck removal, and try to use steady shot to lower my opponents health. You dont have to "win" with the hounds though, you can leave the low enough for steady shot to finish the job or for a kill command with a beast down + SS.
Honestly, UTH is way too strong, and the cultrip is the charge component.
Great thread. I have been using several iterations of Hunter as my main deck, and I'm happy to discuss my experiences below. In general, my experience with a "OTK" deck has been inconsistent, getting the required cards for a 20+ damage hit, whilst stalling sufficiently is slow, risky and too easily blocked. I'm currently favoring a direct damage/control deck which finishes with a much smaller (thus easier to draw) UTH combo.
Firstly, the UTH does not need to be a one-turn kill card. UTH with one dragon hawk, one timber wolf and a dire-wolf alpha hits for 15 damage at the cost of 5 mana. Not enough to kill, but enough to maim certainly ;). Whittle them down before the UTH, then SS, direct damage and your second UTH may be able to finish the job.
I would consider the DWA as a "required" card. It does essentially the same as the TW, but gives you more opportunity to draw a good combo. As the point of the combo is to buff primarily the dragon hawk, place it next to those. At least one owl is required to clear taunters prior to, or during the combo. The primary defense to UTH is a taunt-wall.
The Starving Buzzard is there to draw cards for current combo or to resupply next turn. It's quite expensive for the damage it gives the combo. Separation of the SB from the combo allows you to come out earlier if you have the cards.
The Stonetusk boar seems too weak in my hands, and the Stranglethorn tiger too slow. I've used Ironfur grizzly and jungle panther successfully, but I find the grizzly trades poorly with 2-drops and most spells and the jungle panther is slow. I'm using the animal companion as a stalling 3-drop with good results.
Eaglehorn bow is great. Synergy with the traps is fantastic. I'm currently using 2 explosives, 2 freezing, one snipe. MD is possible, but snake trap sucks. The snake-trap combos with SB but only works against nubs, it is too easily countered.
For direct removal I dislike deadly shot (too random) and explosive shot (too expensive, and not enough damage to guarantee a clear board). Multi-shot is great and Arcane is versatile (offers early cheap removal or additional 2 dam on the opponent). Kill command has nice synergies with non-UTH combo beasts such as the stealthed jungle panther, iron-fur grizzly or animal companion, and does a targeted 3-damage at worst.
I disagree with caballitomalo; I don't think UTH is too strong, I think it's working as intended. The UTH combo minions, specifically the TW and YD won't survive one turn on the board as they are too easily AOE'd, so have to come-out with charge.
@Lenor, to keep things constructive, have you had much success with a hunter deck without using UTH?
I like the idea of Direwolf Alpha, and he definitely helps the consistency, but I'm finding that a lot of the time I just don't have the mana to drop him, while also dropping a Buzzard and my one-drops. I'll need to test further, but his mana cost is definitely something that worries me.
IF you insist on playing this deck you're going to regret not having flare anytime you come against real hunter deck in a mirror match. For that matter any control mage will be ready for this and let the armor pop when you try and go for the kill and then wipe your board. It's very gimmicky and a lot of people know how to play around it already, quite frankly in a card game you want an extremely flexible deck, and this does not give you that.
Similar principles but am seeing a 90% win rate on 3* Masters today with it ... built it for the Daily and might keep it. Has good answers to almost everything in the current meta and can pull off a UTH OTK if the situation is right - otherwise - it just whittles away at opponent while they struggle to deal with your board. In order for the deck above to be successful though, you cannot hesitate to use UTH to clear boards or create a 10-15 hp deficit and tempo disadvantage for your opponent. May drop the Flare and add another weapon or maybe a Captain Greenskin - thoughts?
Tracking, especially 2x Tracking, is a waste of deck space imho - if you are planning on going OTK - practice it and play vs Mage/Priest counters before going on ladder with it as even in 3* Masters, most of the hunters I see running it end up losing - and for God's sake, please don't use Tracking for card draw on turn 1. Please!
Edit: To OP - Ironfur Grizzly and the stealth'd Panthers IMHO are a waste of a deck spot - run houndmasters or defenders for taunt. You really only want 1 cost minions for the UTH combo - perhaps a Mukla. Lastly, Loot Hoarder is far greater choice to run in ANY deck over Novice Engineer, any day.
IF you insist on playing this deck you're going to regret not having flare anytime you come against real hunter deck in a mirror match. For that matter any control mage will be ready for this and let the armor pop when you try and go for the kill and then wipe your board. It's very gimmicky and a lot of people know how to play around it already, quite frankly in a card game you want an extremely flexible deck, and this does not give you that.
I completely agree - it's on par with a Murloc + Bloodlust deck.
I like the idea of Direwolf Alpha, and he definitely helps the consistency, but I'm finding that a lot of the time I just don't have the mana to drop him, while also dropping a Buzzard and my one-drops. I'll need to test further, but his mana cost is definitely something that worries me.
Why would you drop a Starving Buzzard on your OTK turn? Your buzzards are basically fodder and for card draw earlier. You NEVER drop buzzard on your otk turn..
It's 2 mana and if you can avoid it, you shouldn't be playing it on the combo turn. You should be using it for draws (ie: turn 5 Starving Buzzard + Animal Companion). Don't get me wrong, if you draw into a Starving Buzzard and it pushes you over to the kill or you have to do your combo or you'll lose and are a card short, by all means, go for it - but generally speaking, it's in the deck to help you draw your combo.
Tracking, especially 2x Tracking, is a waste of deck space imho - if you are planning on going OTK - practice it and play vs Mage/Priest counters before going on ladder with it as even in 3* Masters, most of the hunters I see running it end up losing - and for God's sake, please don't use Tracking for card draw on turn 1. Please!
What is the problem with turn 1 Tracking? Tracking is so essential for this deck because it lets you dig 3 cards deeper into your deck than you could otherwise; this is so, so crucial for a deck that is literally guaranteed to lose when it doesn't draw one specific card. How could you possibly justify not running it? And what play would you rather be making on turn 1?
Tracking, especially 2x Tracking, is a waste of deck space imho - if you are planning on going OTK - practice it and play vs Mage/Priest counters before going on ladder with it as even in 3* Masters, most of the hunters I see running it end up losing - and for God's sake, please don't use Tracking for card draw on turn 1. Please!
What is the problem with turn 1 Tracking? Tracking is so essential for this deck because it lets you dig 3 cards deeper into your deck than you could otherwise; this is so, so crucial for a deck that is literally guaranteed to lose when it doesn't draw one specific card. How could you possibly justify not running it? And what play would you rather be making on turn 1?
Because you are discarding 2 cards - say you draw a UTH and two Young Dragonhawks - well what would you draw? Most likely the Unleash the Hounds but the Young Dragonhawks are super crucial for the OTK... turn 1 Tracking is silly. In fact, the whole reason you have Starving Buzzards in the deck is so you can draw what you need - once you have 3-5 of the 1 drops but are lacking a Unleash the Hounds - well that's when you'd drop tracking in hopes of the UTH followed by a OTK
with tracking u discard 2 cards and just keep 1 of 3 so if u use tracking at turn 1 and get 3 cards which u need for your combo, u will auto lose.
use tracking only when u need to draw combo cards just before u combo...
The whole point of the deck is that there is only one necessary card for the combo. The only card that you absolutely need in order to win is Unleash the Hounds. You have plenty of redundancy when it comes to beasts; you can combo off without Dragonhawks, you can combo off without Timber Wolves. I've done both of those plenty of times. The only auto-lose scenario is when you don't draw Unleash the Hounds, and this is a scenario that Tracking helps to prevent.
Because you are discarding 2 cards - say you draw a UTH and two Young Dragonhawks - well what would you draw? Most likely the Unleash the Hounds but the Young Dragonhawks are super crucial for the OTK... turn 1 Tracking is silly. In fact, the whole reason you have Starving Buzzards in the deck is so you can draw what you need - once you have 3-5 of the 1 drops but are lacking a Unleash the Hounds - well that's when you'd drop tracking in hopes of the UTH followed by a OTK
That scenario, while quite unlikely, is still a winnable game. You build this deck with enough redundancy that it doesn't matter which minions you draw, as long as you draw enough. It's so important to draw Unleash that if you have to discard a few, so be it.
I think people focus too much on the "one turn kill" part of the deck (and while we´re at it, aren´t all kills on 1 turn?) and forget that you can win my maintaining control and just shooting your opponent. I´ve wont by kill command many times.
Tracking on turn 1 its not a bad move but its chancy because ever so often you get 3 good cards, but that´s par for the course in this game, don´t tell me you never used arcane missiles with fingers crossed? I find that with a good opening hand it can really help to build up the combo or helps you dig for a solution to an immediate threat. Flare could be a reasonable replacement but I wouldn´t use both.
I like dropping buzzard on the combo turn but I´ve done it without it too. It can be a bit of a gamble dropping buzzard then a bunch of 1 and 2 drops hoping to draw UTH... which some times back fires XD.
Lastly, like ALL decks, theres a chance you just draw the wrong cards all the way and just hands down loose, or your opponent draws the perfect counter and beats you to the punch. I know I´ve been beaten by ¨bad decks¨ and I know I´ve won matches with decks that are no good either. I once beat a mage because I dropped a faery dragon on turn 2 and managed to buff it all the way to victory... and my deck was crap. Some times luck is not on your side.
OTK decks are a blast to play. Between the Molten Giant Warrior deck, Alexstrazsa Warrior Deck, and Hunter OTK, they all fit pretty snug into the "fun" category. Even moreso since taunts are becoming rarer and rarer. The opening post got the basics down perfectly, missing Leper Gnomes and Summon Companion for cards to consider imo, direct damage is delicious and you can't pass up that good of a 3 drop card.
I actually run Angry Chicken and Hungry Crab for kicks, can never have enough mill with Buzzard.
The new unleash the hound does not synergize with other cards as well as people think it does. People repeatedly say, "Buzzard, hyena, knife juggler, FE Ghoul, etc!" but those cards have one thing in common:
They're weak and they trade poorly.
In a game where the average turn looks like this:
Me: Play minion Opponent: Kill minion, play minion Me: Kill minion, play minion
... those cards trade poorly compared to the standard set used by other decks. If you start stocking your hunter deck with non-beasts, then the synergy is no longer necessary, as I have found.
I tried to use the new UtH; i gave it a fair handful of games, but it's too slow, and too weak at the turn it can be played, and FAR too weak by the turn it can be combo'd with.
The new unleash the hound does not synergize with other cards as well as people think it does. People repeatedly say, "Buzzard, hyena, knife juggler, FE Ghoul, etc!" but those cards have one thing in common:
They're weak and they trade poorly.
In a game where the average turn looks like this:
Me: Play minion Opponent: Kill minion, play minion Me: Kill minion, play minion
... those cards trade poorly compared to the standard set used by other decks. If you start stocking your hunter deck with non-beasts, then the synergy is no longer necessary, as I have found.
I tried to use the new UtH; i gave it a fair handful of games, but it's too slow, and too weak at the turn it can be played, and FAR too weak by the turn it can be combo'd with.
Well I wish I could record some of my matches. There are certain times it will win you the game. But, yes its definitely weak to setup and the hunter feels really weak right now. Awesome spells, bad minions, must need higher cost minions ie:legendaries and neutrals to fix.
I know there are a lot of threads in this forum about the Unleash the Hounds deck, but most of them are centered around critiquing specific decks instead of analyzing the choices that go into making the deck. I think it would be more constructive to take a look at the cards people tend to include in this type of build and discuss the best way to put them together.
For those who don't know, the game plan for this deck is to keep the board clear/stall the game until you have enough mana/cards to combo out. On your combo turn, the plan is to lay down a Starving Buzzard followed by a slew of one-drop beasts, give them all charge with Unleash the Hounds, and swing in for a one-turn kill.
The Must-Haves
These cards form the core of the deck's combo kill, and are all essential for the deck to work. Unleash the Hounds is self-explanitory. Starving Buzzard allows you to draw enough minions on your combo turn in order to combo out. Timber Wolf and Young Dragonhawk are the two best one-drop beasts for your combo kill, and Tracking gives your deck the consistency it needs to go off reliably.
The Removal Spells
These are the Hunter's main options for board control, all of which have various strengths and weaknesses. Arcane Shot is cheap but doesn't pack much of a punch, while Explosive Shot is effective, but on the expensive side. Kill Command is efficient, and the price is right, but this deck rarely keeps a beast on the board before the combo turn. Deadly Shot and Explosive Trap are probably the two best choices, but which removal spells should take up the other slots?
The Trap Suite
While Explosive Trap is essentially an auto-include in the UTH deck, the same cannot be said for the other traps. Eaglehorn Bow is a great weapon that can help you control the board before your combo turn, but it needs a suite of good traps for optimal usage. However, most of these traps are generally worse than the removal spells they are competing with for slots in the deck. Snake Trap in particular is a lousy fit for this deck, since it's rare that you'll have minions out to be attacked. Depending on whether or not you run Eaglehorn Bow, some of these traps could be pretty viable.
Other Beasts
These are other beasts worth considering for rounding out the deck, since you'll need more than just Buzzards, Timber Wolves, and Dragonhawks to finish your opponent off. The question then is, which to include? The two options for 1-drops are Stonetusk Boar and Hungry Crab. The Boar is handy for being able to occasionally pick off one-health minions or turning on Kill Command, and in the mirror match, you can have it charge in to set off any potential traps before you combo out. Hungry Crab is handy against Murlocs, and still a decent combo piece in other matchups. Dire Wolf Alpha, while more expensive, is also worth consideration as a combo piece.
Ironbeak Owl is handy for doubling as a removal spell, in addition to turning on Kill Command. Ironfur Grizzly is also handy for removing minions or buying you extra time. Lastly, the two stealth beasts, Jungle Panther and Strangethorn Tiger, can be dropped the turn before your combo kill to give you some extra power. Which beasts should make the cut?
Other Cards to Consider
The card draw from these cards can help the deck more consistently draw the combo pieces it needs. The question is, which to include? Flare is good for drawing a card cheaply, but it also works wonders against other Hunters (or Priests that can Thoughtsteal your traps). It also has the added bonus of hosing pesky cards like Blood Imp and Ice Block, which otherwise give this deck trouble.
Novice Engineer and Loot Hoarder are solid minions that have their respective strengths and weaknesses, and are good choices for extra card draw coupled with a few points of damage.
So which cards are worth including in a UTH Hunter Deck, and which don't make the cut?
IMO, don´t bother with non-beasts minions. Ironbeak Owl is a must (you can clear out any taunt minions standing in the way). Dire Wolf Alfa can also give you that extra boost (dop it next to a dragonkawk!) you might need to finish things off. I like Ironfur Grizzly for stalling. Flare could work but I find it too situational.
My hunter deck is an UTH deck and Ive done really well with it. To the point where I stopped playing it because its sort of boring at some point. Ive played against it too and it sucks when you see the hunter stocking up on cards to finish you off on turn 7 or 8.
I don´t use traps on that deck, I preffer direck removal, and try to use steady shot to lower my opponents health. You dont have to "win" with the hounds though, you can leave the low enough for steady shot to finish the job or for a kill command with a beast down + SS.
Honestly, UTH is way too strong, and the cultrip is the charge component.
My advice, just don't. You're just embarrassing yourself with such a deck.
Arena Tips
Great thread. I have been using several iterations of Hunter as my main deck, and I'm happy to discuss my experiences below. In general, my experience with a "OTK" deck has been inconsistent, getting the required cards for a 20+ damage hit, whilst stalling sufficiently is slow, risky and too easily blocked. I'm currently favoring a direct damage/control deck which finishes with a much smaller (thus easier to draw) UTH combo.
Firstly, the UTH does not need to be a one-turn kill card. UTH with one dragon hawk, one timber wolf and a dire-wolf alpha hits for 15 damage at the cost of 5 mana. Not enough to kill, but enough to maim certainly ;). Whittle them down before the UTH, then SS, direct damage and your second UTH may be able to finish the job.
I would consider the DWA as a "required" card. It does essentially the same as the TW, but gives you more opportunity to draw a good combo. As the point of the combo is to buff primarily the dragon hawk, place it next to those. At least one owl is required to clear taunters prior to, or during the combo. The primary defense to UTH is a taunt-wall.
The Starving Buzzard is there to draw cards for current combo or to resupply next turn. It's quite expensive for the damage it gives the combo. Separation of the SB from the combo allows you to come out earlier if you have the cards.
The Stonetusk boar seems too weak in my hands, and the Stranglethorn tiger too slow. I've used Ironfur grizzly and jungle panther successfully, but I find the grizzly trades poorly with 2-drops and most spells and the jungle panther is slow. I'm using the animal companion as a stalling 3-drop with good results.
Eaglehorn bow is great. Synergy with the traps is fantastic. I'm currently using 2 explosives, 2 freezing, one snipe. MD is possible, but snake trap sucks. The snake-trap combos with SB but only works against nubs, it is too easily countered.
For direct removal I dislike deadly shot (too random) and explosive shot (too expensive, and not enough damage to guarantee a clear board). Multi-shot is great and Arcane is versatile (offers early cheap removal or additional 2 dam on the opponent). Kill command has nice synergies with non-UTH combo beasts such as the stealthed jungle panther, iron-fur grizzly or animal companion, and does a targeted 3-damage at worst.
I disagree with caballitomalo; I don't think UTH is too strong, I think it's working as intended. The UTH combo minions, specifically the TW and YD won't survive one turn on the board as they are too easily AOE'd, so have to come-out with charge.
@Lenor, to keep things constructive, have you had much success with a hunter deck without using UTH?
I like the idea of Direwolf Alpha, and he definitely helps the consistency, but I'm finding that a lot of the time I just don't have the mana to drop him, while also dropping a Buzzard and my one-drops. I'll need to test further, but his mana cost is definitely something that worries me.
IF you insist on playing this deck you're going to regret not having flare anytime you come against real hunter deck in a mirror match. For that matter any control mage will be ready for this and let the armor pop when you try and go for the kill and then wipe your board. It's very gimmicky and a lot of people know how to play around it already, quite frankly in a card game you want an extremely flexible deck, and this does not give you that.
I kind of agree in that if your plans on success rely on UTH / OTK then most of the aggro/mid-range decks on ladder these days will dominate you
Similar principles but am seeing a 90% win rate on 3* Masters today with it ... built it for the Daily and might keep it. Has good answers to almost everything in the current meta and can pull off a UTH OTK if the situation is right - otherwise - it just whittles away at opponent while they struggle to deal with your board. In order for the deck above to be successful though, you cannot hesitate to use UTH to clear boards or create a 10-15 hp deficit and tempo disadvantage for your opponent. May drop the Flare and add another weapon or maybe a Captain Greenskin - thoughts?
Tracking, especially 2x Tracking, is a waste of deck space imho - if you are planning on going OTK - practice it and play vs Mage/Priest counters before going on ladder with it as even in 3* Masters, most of the hunters I see running it end up losing - and for God's sake, please don't use Tracking for card draw on turn 1. Please!
Edit: To OP - Ironfur Grizzly and the stealth'd Panthers IMHO are a waste of a deck spot - run houndmasters or defenders for taunt. You really only want 1 cost minions for the UTH combo - perhaps a Mukla. Lastly, Loot Hoarder is far greater choice to run in ANY deck over Novice Engineer, any day.
I completely agree - it's on par with a Murloc + Bloodlust deck.
Why would you drop a Starving Buzzard on your OTK turn? Your buzzards are basically fodder and for card draw earlier. You NEVER drop buzzard on your otk turn..
'Go home and be a family man!'
Decks (Current as of 12/28):
Sonic boom! | Iron Juggernaut | Rogue
It's 2 mana and if you can avoid it, you shouldn't be playing it on the combo turn. You should be using it for draws (ie: turn 5 Starving Buzzard + Animal Companion). Don't get me wrong, if you draw into a Starving Buzzard and it pushes you over to the kill or you have to do your combo or you'll lose and are a card short, by all means, go for it - but generally speaking, it's in the deck to help you draw your combo.
'Go home and be a family man!'
Decks (Current as of 12/28):
Sonic boom! | Iron Juggernaut | Rogue
What is the problem with turn 1 Tracking? Tracking is so essential for this deck because it lets you dig 3 cards deeper into your deck than you could otherwise; this is so, so crucial for a deck that is literally guaranteed to lose when it doesn't draw one specific card. How could you possibly justify not running it? And what play would you rather be making on turn 1?
with tracking u discard 2 cards and just keep 1 of 3 so if u use tracking at turn 1 and get 3 cards which u need for your combo, u will auto lose.
use tracking only when u need to draw combo cards just before u combo...
Because you are discarding 2 cards - say you draw a UTH and two Young Dragonhawks - well what would you draw? Most likely the Unleash the Hounds but the Young Dragonhawks are super crucial for the OTK... turn 1 Tracking is silly. In fact, the whole reason you have Starving Buzzards in the deck is so you can draw what you need - once you have 3-5 of the 1 drops but are lacking a Unleash the Hounds - well that's when you'd drop tracking in hopes of the UTH followed by a OTK
x2
'Go home and be a family man!'
Decks (Current as of 12/28):
Sonic boom! | Iron Juggernaut | Rogue
The whole point of the deck is that there is only one necessary card for the combo. The only card that you absolutely need in order to win is Unleash the Hounds. You have plenty of redundancy when it comes to beasts; you can combo off without Dragonhawks, you can combo off without Timber Wolves. I've done both of those plenty of times. The only auto-lose scenario is when you don't draw Unleash the Hounds, and this is a scenario that Tracking helps to prevent.
That scenario, while quite unlikely, is still a winnable game. You build this deck with enough redundancy that it doesn't matter which minions you draw, as long as you draw enough. It's so important to draw Unleash that if you have to discard a few, so be it.
I agree 100% I beat all OTK out there and in high competitive play it doesn't work
Or you can just get shit draws and they get great draws - it's a CCG after all, winning "all" x isn't a realistic statement.
'Go home and be a family man!'
Decks (Current as of 12/28):
Sonic boom! | Iron Juggernaut | Rogue
I think people focus too much on the "one turn kill" part of the deck (and while we´re at it, aren´t all kills on 1 turn?) and forget that you can win my maintaining control and just shooting your opponent. I´ve wont by kill command many times.
Tracking on turn 1 its not a bad move but its chancy because ever so often you get 3 good cards, but that´s par for the course in this game, don´t tell me you never used arcane missiles with fingers crossed? I find that with a good opening hand it can really help to build up the combo or helps you dig for a solution to an immediate threat. Flare could be a reasonable replacement but I wouldn´t use both.
I like dropping buzzard on the combo turn but I´ve done it without it too. It can be a bit of a gamble dropping buzzard then a bunch of 1 and 2 drops hoping to draw UTH... which some times back fires XD.
Lastly, like ALL decks, theres a chance you just draw the wrong cards all the way and just hands down loose, or your opponent draws the perfect counter and beats you to the punch. I know I´ve been beaten by ¨bad decks¨ and I know I´ve won matches with decks that are no good either. I once beat a mage because I dropped a faery dragon on turn 2 and managed to buff it all the way to victory... and my deck was crap. Some times luck is not on your side.
OTK decks are a blast to play. Between the Molten Giant Warrior deck, Alexstrazsa Warrior Deck, and Hunter OTK, they all fit pretty snug into the "fun" category. Even moreso since taunts are becoming rarer and rarer. The opening post got the basics down perfectly, missing Leper Gnomes and Summon Companion for cards to consider imo, direct damage is delicious and you can't pass up that good of a 3 drop card.
I actually run Angry Chicken and Hungry Crab for kicks, can never have enough mill with Buzzard.
http://www.youtube.com/user/vtxaishi
You're not going crazy, I edit 2~3 times each post
End of thread :(
Good news is that you can d/e golden UTH for 400 dust apparently.
well now we need a new deck.
King Krush
The new unleash the hound does not synergize with other cards as well as people think it does. People repeatedly say, "Buzzard, hyena, knife juggler, FE Ghoul, etc!" but those cards have one thing in common:
They're weak and they trade poorly.
In a game where the average turn looks like this:
Me: Play minion
Opponent: Kill minion, play minion
Me: Kill minion, play minion
... those cards trade poorly compared to the standard set used by other decks. If you start stocking your hunter deck with non-beasts, then the synergy is no longer necessary, as I have found.
I tried to use the new UtH; i gave it a fair handful of games, but it's too slow, and too weak at the turn it can be played, and FAR too weak by the turn it can be combo'd with.
Well I wish I could record some of my matches. There are certain times it will win you the game. But, yes its definitely weak to setup and the hunter feels really weak right now. Awesome spells, bad minions, must need higher cost minions ie:legendaries and neutrals to fix.
King Krush