Hearthpwn

Hi guys, just started Hearthstone a couple months ago and decided to try ladder a week ago. At first I was getting destroyed since my decks were poorly made out of cards I had lying around. I bit the bullet and bought the Welcome pack + Mammoth, which helped me build some better decks.

After some experimentation, and seeing problems in my first few decks, I managed to come up with a deck that breezed its way into rank 15. This is my deck: https://www.hearthpwn.com/decks/1043051-arcane-secret-hunter-mark-ii, it's also very fun to play. But I can't break past rank 14 with it. It seems to destroy Secret Mages, does decently against other Hunters, Druids, and Shamans but does poorly against the following:

- Warlocks (unless I beat them early, Voidlords are usually the problem later on, especially with Bloodreaver)
- Paladins (Sunkeeper Tarim with a full board of Silver Hand Recruits, or Murlocs that buff each other)
- Priests (the problem is usually Barnes spawning Y'Shaarj which then spawns Obsidian Statue, or Twilight Drake that doesn't seem like a threat until the opponent suddenly buffs it to 20/20 and goes face)

I'm also noticing a pattern where I naively play my 4-pack of wolves (Lesser Emerald Spellstone) right into the opponent's AoE, this has become a problem around rank 15, prior to that opponents rarely had an answer to them. Perhaps I should replace Bearshark with Tundra Rhino to give them charge?

Based on my losses, it seems like the main problems with my current deck are:

- Inability to take down taunt minions with high hp quickly enough
- Lack of decent AoE aside from Explosive Trap

I have over 100 replays now logged on HDT, but still not sure if the problem is the deck or my own skill. I tried replacing Arcane Giant with the more popular Savannah Highmane (hoping it would do better at surviving removals), but the deck started doing worse. Not only that, it became less fun to play, and less fluid than the Arcane Giant version, where they basically function as much stronger Corridor Creepers.

I did replace Kindly Grandmothers (since they had no synergy) with Deadly Shot, which seems to work better but only when the card I'm trying to kill is the only one on the board (but more often than not, it has high hp, taunt, and there are 3 other mobs on the board hiding behind it). I'm considering swapping in Spellbreakers or Hunter's Mark.

I'm hoping to reach rank 10, and trying to understand what I'm doing wrong. Is this deck too weak to advance past 15 or is it just that I'm not able to take full advantage of it due to my skill?

Thanks! I crafted the Highmanes, but so far they don't seem to work better for me than Arcane Giants. I was hoping their deathrattles would survive removals better, but haven't been impressed so far. My deck also seems to play less fun without Arcane Giants, almost like part of the synergy is missing. Perhaps I should swap Highmanes in for Scalebanes instead.

I do actually have the Avian Watchers, but rarely find myself needing taunt. I'll try them out but not sure they'd help unless I'm already behind and this deck struggles to catch up when that's the case.

I'm also wondering if Spellbreakers would help since I find this deck struggle against Voidlords and Obsidian Statues.

The deck also seems a bit underpowered against Paladins, Priests, and Warlocks. I can't break past rank 14 with mine. It could also be my skill, or maybe my variation of the deck isn't as good.

I built a similar Secret Hunter deck to yours (but not exactly). At this point I'm still not as advanced in the ladder and was hoping to get your advice. I'm considering swapping some cards I have so my deck looks more similar to yours, but I'm on a budget. For example, I'm curious about performance of the following:

- Savannah Highmane: I see it recommended a lot for midrange hunter decks, but it seems like it's not crucial to the secret hunter. In fact, I see some top tier secret hunter decks eliminate it. Is this a card you recommend crafting?

- Secretkeeper: this card seems to have a great synergy with the rest of the deck, but I already find myself spread thin trying to make sure my bow is equipped and emerald spellstone is in my hand, my guess is I wouldn't be able to have the secret keeper on the board often enough to benefit from the secrets. Is this a card you recommend crafting?

- King Krush: I got this from a recent card pack, but it seems like most secret hunter decks are designed to have this card recruited by Kathrena Winterwisp (and often by the Oozeling who steals her Deathrattle instead). I excluded it from my deck because turn 9 to play it seems too slow. How do you find it, do you recommend including it? My win condition instead is a pair of Arcane Giants who function like bigger versions of corridor creepers in this deck (because of all the spells).

My current deck is at https://www.hearthpwn.com/decks/1043002-noob-secret-hunter, HDT claims 55% win-rate (the problem may also be my own skill). I have about 500 dust (need 820 to craft your deck), what would you recommend I change?

EDIT: looks like my main problem was lack of 2nd Lesser Emerald Stone, as soon as I crafted it I started winning more consistently. I also added King Krush in, which really improved my win condition. Before, I'd fizzle out towards the end and scrape by, either dying or barely killing the opponent. Updated my deck with some inspirations from yours: https://www.hearthpwn.com/decks/1043051-arcane-secret-hunter-mark-ii and breached rank 15 with ease today. Win rate (when subtracting the wins and losses from previous version) went up to 68%. Will try to go for rank 10 tomorrow. For Mark III, I'm considering replacing my Grandmothers with Secretkeepers.

Can I swap Kooky, Potion of Madness, and Kabal Talonpriest with some other cards that won't get rotated out in a month? It doesn't sound like it's worth crafting them now but I do want a cheap ladder deck. I finished all of Karazhan, but would prefer to only craft cards from the expansions that aren't getting rotated out this year. For Kooky replacement, I'm thinking Crazed Alchemist (which I already have), not sure about others.

If you wasted "1700k" dust on a deck that only costs 940, sounds like the problem is with your crafting ability, not the deck.

This works great until he plays Gnomeferatu and burns your good Kingsbane.

Quote from FromBeyooond >>

Guys, he's right, this is garbage. If you don't draw in the right order you are essentially playing a 28 cards deck if you put 2 of these inside.

In the deck search page, all of the columns except the "Needed" dust are sortable, including total dust "Cost" column. When crafting, however, the total "Cost" isn't as relevant as the "Needed" cost, because I'm not going to craft the cards I already have. However, when deciding how to upgrade my deck without it costing an arm and a leg, being able to sort by the "Needed" column would be very useful.

Battletag: R3N3G4D3#1601

Region: NA

Trade Only?:   yes, you go first