I was anticipating playing some hunter for a long time. I am really enjoying the expansion full of powerful beasts, and i am going to share with you the list i have been playing recently.
I was losing a lot while trying various things but as soon as i started to play this deck i just won every god damn game for a while. There is just a lot of value packed in here. Originally i did not play Vicious Fledgling, but after getting it randomly a few times i realize that card is nuts. If it gets to attack face more than once and live it can quickly become your win condition right there.
Check out the rogue replays for how to beat a quest rogue. Let me know how it works out if you decide to try it!
I have a similar deck (doesnt everyone say that?) that im enjoying as well. The midrange suits hunter best, and i completely agree about the fledgling.
I also use the 5 mana 8/8 hydra as a one of. If you can get a crackling razormaw on it for windfury its just stupid, and people REALLY misplay badly trying to "punish" you, same as fel reaver. Hasnt worked for them yet:)
My one issue is card draw and sustain. I have a cult master, but how is the buzzard working for you? And the infest? Had not thought about that.
I have a similar deck (doesnt everyone say that?) that im enjoying as well. The midrange suits hunter best, and i completely agree about the fledgling.
I also use the 5 mana 8/8 hydra as a one of. If you can get a crackling razormaw on it for windfury its just stupid, and people REALLY misplay badly trying to "punish" you, same as fel reaver. Hasnt worked for them yet:)
My one issue is card draw and sustain. I have a cult master, but how is the buzzard working for you? And the infest? Had not thought about that.
True, i was playing the hydra in druid but for some reason overlooked it in this deck! I did go ahead and put one in for an infested wolf. I really like that card, and it can be nuts when you have a rhino out as well. The buzzard works pretty well usually as long as i have at least one beast to summon somehow. It has great synergy with rat pack and alleycat.
About carddraws: Lets keep this a secret between you and me guys! Try Stampede. One of the best cards I have played so far. It is RNG, Yes, but if you are at least medium lucky, the effects from the Stampede ritual are overwhelming :D
Play Stampede in midgame so you have many mana crystals to play with. Against aggro it is worth to play Stampede in early game.
I haven’t played Stampede so much and tested it fully yet, so my details are kind of vague. Sorry about that. But when you have drawn and played 4-5 cards during the Stampede ritual your randomly drawn bests gets Overloaded so they will costs more mana during this and your next turn :D But when that happens you have probably won the game!
Anyone knows if we get golden beasts if we have a golden Stampede?
I just love this beast deck in Standard mode. The most fun deck I have played in Hearthstone.
PS. If you have the dust, craft 2 golden Jeweled Macaw. It is so much fun to get all those beasts in golden :D
I do really like stampede, but i just felt like there weren't enough cheap minions in my deck to use it reliably. That's basically the reason i went with an infest instead, because even with just a rat pack i can get some tokens easily and get at least 2-3 beasts in my hand from it, rather than hoping i have enough beasts to continue triggering stampede. I think that card works a lot better in a quest hunter deck. I am pretty sure that you will get them golden if stampede is golden though!
I believe i opened a golden jeweled macaw in a pack and it is certainly awesome! I will have to get around to crafting another at some point, it's a very good card.
Made a couple small changes while playing this the last couple of days. I am running just one Houndmaster in favor or Nesting Roc. I think the Roc is a card that has pleasantly surprised me after playing it for a while.
I've also played this deck to finally achieve my 4th golden class, so that's pretty awesome =D
I'd argue replacing the buzzard with a cult master makes a lot more sense with this deck. The deck doesn't have a lot of cheap activators (only 4 one drops and 2 two drops, no unleash the hounds) and most of those cheap activators will be used by the time you want to play buzzard (why keep a good one drop in till turn 6?). On top of this the deck has a lot of big 5+ drops, some of which have no synergy with buzzard at all.
Chances are you never want buzzard in your opening hand so you either end up top decking it with no board (basically a dead card), top decking with a board and no hand (again no impact) or it ends up competing with Savannah or rhino and generally not getting played in till its to late and you have already lost. The only real synergy is with the death rattles, but you often end up with your opponent removing them leaving you board of tokens that buzzard can't use.
Cult master works better in all of these regards, it can combo easier (4 mana vs 5 mana), has a better stat-line if it comes on its own and as long as you have the board it can have an impact. Its not uncommon to have a board of 4+ minions in this deck. Also works better with the rats as your opponent can often remove the initial body but leaves the 1/1's up afterwords. Meaning you can get good value out of this on turn 4.
Honestly it just comes down to the fact that you can play cult master at 4 mana and still get good value out of it. If you get buzzard you usually need to wait in till turn 8 to get any value out of it as the chances of having both alley cat and buzzard by turn 6 is super low(alley cat synergizes with so much stuff its silly to hold on to it for a buzzard) and you need to get at least 2 cards out of it otherwise its just a worse loot hoarder.
Fair enough. I believe my line of thought for deciding on a buzzard was that i can buff the buzzard easily with Dinomancy or a Houndmaster for example. Cult master could be a very valid alternative.
Midrange hunter is great right now...it really is curvestone at it's finest. I find that if by turn 4 I can houndmaster anything at all, the opponent tends to panic a bit and try to clear you...but then the hydra comes down...
One thing I'd really try to find room for is scavenging hyena...the tokens left behind by things like rat pack and alley cat can very easily set the stage for a huge win condition early in the match. Just a little food for thought.
As BabyMC said, it does refresh the hero power so that you can use it twice in one turn if you want. That is a bonus to increasing the chance of drawing it early on.
I do think that Scavenging Hyena is definitely right for this sort of deck, and you could easily include one instead of Dred or even a Roc if you like. I like playing on the slightly slower end of midrange and Vicious Fledgling is more than enough power already, as far as minions that get out of control quickly go.
Fair enough. I believe my line of thought for deciding on a buzzard was that i can buff the buzzard easily with Dinomancy or a Houndmaster for example. Cult master could be a very valid alternative.
The logic there doesn't really work out, while the "beast" tag is nice, it won't help much with any of the beast combo's. The two you mention in particular are really bad.
Hound-Master + buzzard = 9 mana 9/6 split with two bodies and cost 2 cards buzzard + dinomancy = 7 mana 5/4
Not to mention this deck is very much about keeping the board in your control in till your opponent concedes. So if you run into a situation where the only card you can buff with houndmaster is buzzard, you've likely already lost.
As an aside the deck is good, I just found when I had buzzard in my hands I'd often wished it was a cult master instead as I'd have a board of 1/1 that'd I'd be trading and a mostly empty hand (or it would be filled with expensive 5+ mana beast)
It's doing an amazing job in my deck and makes Dinomancy less of a dead card when I'm going second and they have a turn 1. Alley cat and jeweled macaw going second are really really bad, especially against pirate warrior, quest rogue and quest mage, which are literally the 3 decks I see the most.
Trying to mix these ideas into 1 deck made everything a lot worse for me, but separately they are super strong decks.
Emerald Hive Queen has potential but I don't think stampede works in slow mid-range (this deck). The main problem is that because of the random nature, you need 3 draws to get value out of it (Good shot of getting 2 garbage beast with only 2 draws). This deck runs mostly 3+ mana beast, and the one/two drops are used to supplement the big beast and fill out the curve. Thus you are often going to be left with only getting 2 draws.
The reason I say it needs 3 draws is because otherwise you are better off just using a good beast in the first place. With only 2 draws there is a very good shot at getting really bad beast. If you were going to get useless beast anyways, you may as well just added a good beast to the deck in the first place.
It's honestly the same problem as buzzard in that it requires a hand to make use of it. If you have a hand then its great, but as a hunter you rarely ever have the opportunity to be a bit greedy with your hand. Often its better to play the 1 drops to smooth out turn 4 or turn 5 then it is to save them as a combo piece later. If you save the 1 drops for later you often end up with the opponent just wiping your board out, and then it becomes hard to come back.
Well, looks like this deck had its run. Hunter is back to the bottom with priest and paladins. The meta is nothing but pirate warriors, quest rogue, zoo locks and generally pure aggro. Hunter just can't flood the board like these decks can, even with a perfect alley cat into adapt raptor into animal companion just doesn't give the deck enough tempo to maintain the board against a murloc rush or pirates. Even getting a perfect grievous bite off just did nothing to stem the flood of 1/2 drops.
If some really good control decks start popping up and destroying the aggro/tempo decks I think this might be worth looking back at, but right now the meta just shifted back to hyper aggro again. Really disappointing since this deck was really fun to play when you could infest for 3+ random beast.
I really like Stampede by the way, I only run one copy but it is worth it. Even if you only get to play two minions with it I consider it worth it, because you've still just paid 1 mana for 2 extra beasts which can make all the difference as Hunter. If you get more than two beasts out with it you're laughing.
I like Stampede too, but the cost is 1 mana and 1 card. It's always important to remember that cards in hand are also a resource. If you didn't have it, you'd have another card in it's place.
If you can only play one beast after playing Stampede, then you've essentially spent 1 mana to transform Stampede into a random beast that you still have to spend mana to play. Is that more valuable than just having the beast you want in your deck? Probably not.
With two beasts, it essentially replaces itself like a novice engineer without the body and without cycling your deck. Is two random beasts better than cycling your deck for one more mana? Maybe. High variance, but guaranteed beast tag for synergy. Could be argued either way.
I think it takes three beasts for Stampede to have clear value that can't be questioned.
How many beasts will you likely be able to play after this card in this deck? Ten are 3 mana or less. One third of the deck and slightly more than half the total minions. Four 3 mana minions. Two 2 mana minions. Four 1 mana minions. How many of these are you likely to have in hand to enable your refill in the mid-game when you have the mana to play them all at once? And what would be the cost in tempo for playing a bunch of 1,2, and 3 drops then? I think you'd have a better than even chance for two and a very small one for three. Is that worth it? Depends on the board state.
The last issue with Stampede is you have to have beasts to play beasts. The smaller your hand (ie. the times when you need a refill) the more you have to rely on chaining the beasts you get from stampede. Awesome when you get a bunch of 2,3,4 drops. But brought to a halt if you draw a large beast. So again, high variance.
It's a really cool and finely balanced card when you examine it. I honestly think the god-play for this card would be in Quest hunter. After you've completed the quest and have one of the 15 raptors in hand. You could play Stampede and then chain raptor after raptor to completely refill your hand.
I was anticipating playing some hunter for a long time. I am really enjoying the expansion full of powerful beasts, and i am going to share with you the list i have been playing recently.
I was losing a lot while trying various things but as soon as i started to play this deck i just won every god damn game for a while. There is just a lot of value packed in here. Originally i did not play Vicious Fledgling, but after getting it randomly a few times i realize that card is nuts. If it gets to attack face more than once and live it can quickly become your win condition right there.
Check out the rogue replays for how to beat a quest rogue. Let me know how it works out if you decide to try it!
Replays
Warrior
Shaman
Rogue
Rogue
Priest
Hunter
Rogue
I have a similar deck (doesnt everyone say that?) that im enjoying as well. The midrange suits hunter best, and i completely agree about the fledgling.
I also use the 5 mana 8/8 hydra as a one of. If you can get a crackling razormaw on it for windfury its just stupid, and people REALLY misplay badly trying to "punish" you, same as fel reaver. Hasnt worked for them yet:)
My one issue is card draw and sustain. I have a cult master, but how is the buzzard working for you? And the infest? Had not thought about that.
I believe i opened a golden jeweled macaw in a pack and it is certainly awesome! I will have to get around to crafting another at some point, it's a very good card.
Made a couple small changes while playing this the last couple of days. I am running just one Houndmaster in favor or Nesting Roc. I think the Roc is a card that has pleasantly surprised me after playing it for a while.
I've also played this deck to finally achieve my 4th golden class, so that's pretty awesome =D
I'd argue replacing the buzzard with a cult master makes a lot more sense with this deck. The deck doesn't have a lot of cheap activators (only 4 one drops and 2 two drops, no unleash the hounds) and most of those cheap activators will be used by the time you want to play buzzard (why keep a good one drop in till turn 6?). On top of this the deck has a lot of big 5+ drops, some of which have no synergy with buzzard at all.
Chances are you never want buzzard in your opening hand so you either end up top decking it with no board (basically a dead card), top decking with a board and no hand (again no impact) or it ends up competing with Savannah or rhino and generally not getting played in till its to late and you have already lost. The only real synergy is with the death rattles, but you often end up with your opponent removing them leaving you board of tokens that buzzard can't use.
Cult master works better in all of these regards, it can combo easier (4 mana vs 5 mana), has a better stat-line if it comes on its own and as long as you have the board it can have an impact. Its not uncommon to have a board of 4+ minions in this deck. Also works better with the rats as your opponent can often remove the initial body but leaves the 1/1's up afterwords. Meaning you can get good value out of this on turn 4.
Honestly it just comes down to the fact that you can play cult master at 4 mana and still get good value out of it. If you get buzzard you usually need to wait in till turn 8 to get any value out of it as the chances of having both alley cat and buzzard by turn 6 is super low(alley cat synergizes with so much stuff its silly to hold on to it for a buzzard) and you need to get at least 2 cards out of it otherwise its just a worse loot hoarder.
Fair enough. I believe my line of thought for deciding on a buzzard was that i can buff the buzzard easily with Dinomancy or a Houndmaster for example. Cult master could be a very valid alternative.
Is the second Dinomancy a dead card in the deck, or does it actually do something if you play it?
Forgive me, friend. I have failed.
Midrange hunter is great right now...it really is curvestone at it's finest. I find that if by turn 4 I can houndmaster anything at all, the opponent tends to panic a bit and try to clear you...but then the hydra comes down...
One thing I'd really try to find room for is scavenging hyena...the tokens left behind by things like rat pack and alley cat can very easily set the stage for a huge win condition early in the match. Just a little food for thought.
The second dinomancy isn't a deadcard, but all it does is refresh your hero power when you play it. But people still use 2 copies for consistency...
As BabyMC said, it does refresh the hero power so that you can use it twice in one turn if you want. That is a bonus to increasing the chance of drawing it early on.
I do think that Scavenging Hyena is definitely right for this sort of deck, and you could easily include one instead of Dred or even a Roc if you like. I like playing on the slightly slower end of midrange and Vicious Fledgling is more than enough power already, as far as minions that get out of control quickly go.
Hound-Master + buzzard = 9 mana 9/6 split with two bodies and cost 2 cards
buzzard + dinomancy = 7 mana 5/4
Got Dinomancy in an Arena run, aboslutely destroys other decks. I only had like 10 beasts in the deck too
Well, looks like this deck had its run. Hunter is back to the bottom with priest and paladins. The meta is nothing but pirate warriors, quest rogue, zoo locks and generally pure aggro. Hunter just can't flood the board like these decks can, even with a perfect alley cat into adapt raptor into animal companion just doesn't give the deck enough tempo to maintain the board against a murloc rush or pirates. Even getting a perfect grievous bite off just did nothing to stem the flood of 1/2 drops.
If some really good control decks start popping up and destroying the aggro/tempo decks I think this might be worth looking back at, but right now the meta just shifted back to hyper aggro again. Really disappointing since this deck was really fun to play when you could infest for 3+ random beast.
I think it takes three beasts for Stampede to have clear value that can't be questioned.
How many beasts will you likely be able to play after this card in this deck? Ten are 3 mana or less. One third of the deck and slightly more than half the total minions. Four 3 mana minions. Two 2 mana minions. Four 1 mana minions. How many of these are you likely to have in hand to enable your refill in the mid-game when you have the mana to play them all at once? And what would be the cost in tempo for playing a bunch of 1,2, and 3 drops then? I think you'd have a better than even chance for two and a very small one for three. Is that worth it? Depends on the board state.
The last issue with Stampede is you have to have beasts to play beasts. The smaller your hand (ie. the times when you need a refill) the more you have to rely on chaining the beasts you get from stampede. Awesome when you get a bunch of 2,3,4 drops. But brought to a halt if you draw a large beast. So again, high variance.
It's a really cool and finely balanced card when you examine it. I honestly think the god-play for this card would be in Quest hunter. After you've completed the quest and have one of the 15 raptors in hand. You could play Stampede and then chain raptor after raptor to completely refill your hand.
Do you keep dinomancy in your mulligan? It seems a slow inadvisable as it would be hard to actually use it on a minion before turn 4.