Editor’s Note: With the new Standard Format in 2016 for Hearthstone, we highly recommend going for cards in the Classic set and Whispers of the Old Gods (Standard Format). Here are budget guides, also from Sheng, to get you started!
- Budget Standard Standard C’Thun Druid
- Budget Standard Midrange Hunter
- Budget Standard C’Thun Mage
- Budget Standard  Aggro Paladin
- Budget Standard C’Thun Priest
- Budget Standard C’Thun Rogue
- Budget Standard Midrange Shaman
- Budget Standard Zoo WarlockÂ
- Budget Standard Combo Warrior
Introduction
Greetings, I’m Sheng, a Legend rank constructed and 7.5 win-average arena player. I run HearthstoneCoaching.com where our coaches have helped students around the world reach many of these same achievements.
If you’re new to Hearthstone, or just have a limited collection of cards—I feel your pain. It is often difficult to find cheap but viable decks to play on the Hearthstone ladder. Given this dilemma, I’ve set out to help those of you with a limited collection by creating budget decks for each class.
Requirements
- Reach Level 10 to unlock all of the Basic cards for this class.
- Complete the Naxxramas, Blackrock Mountain, and League of Explorers expansions.
Deck Playstyle
- Raptor Rogue is a deck focused around the Deathrattle mechanic. Most of the cards in this deck are designed to synergize with a new card from League of Explorers called unearthed-raptor, which has the ability to clone Deathrattles from friendly minions.
Minions – 22
2x zombie-chow
- The Zombie Chow is strictly an early game minion used to pressure your opponent’s board early. The goal of casting a Zombie Chow onto the board early is to trade with your opponent’s more expensive minions before its deathrattle becomes a liability. There’s very little downside to killing off your own Zombie Chow when your opponent is close to full health, but playing him later in the game might just put your opponent out of reach if he has a way to deal with it.
2x haunted-creeper
- This spider is our counter to aggressive decks that like to drop multitudes of 1 health minions. He’s a mini harvest-golem that spawns two 1/1 tokens instead of a single 2/1 token. The spawned tokens become nice targets for buffs.
2x huge-toad — New!
- An upgrade over bloodfen-raptor, Huge Toad is a mana efficient 2 mana minion with a useful Deathrattle.
2x jeweled-scarab — New!
- Jeweled Scarab is a good way for our deck to discover cards that are outside of the adventure card sets. This class has many good 3 mana minions and spells so it’s a good inclusion to our limited deck.
2x shattered-sun-cleric
- 3 mana for 3/2 isn’t mana efficient, but the battlecry more than makes up for it. The downside is that if you don’t have a minion on the board, this card suffers.
- The ideal scenario is to play this on the same turn a minion you control can trade with something equal in value and survive, or can trade up to kill something more expensive.
2x unearthed-raptor — New!
- 3 mana for a 3/4 is already incredibly good as far as stats, but the ability to clone Deathrattles of friendly minions puts this card over the top.
2x chillwind-yeti
- The Yeti is the benchmark on which all other 4 mana minions are compared. Not only does he pass the Vanilla Test with flying colors, he trades favorably with most other 2, 3, and 4 mana minions. The Yeti has no downsides and is a welcome sight whether you’re behind or ahead in the game.
2x tomb-pillager — New!
- Lauded by Kolento as one of the best cards in League of Explorers, Tomb Pillager is in many ways like paying 3 mana for a 5/4, which is incredible value. One sneaky play I like to do when I get the chance is to kill off my own Tomb Pillager on turn 7 to get the-coin while kelthuzad is in my hand. Opponents never expect me to coin out kel-thuzad to resurrect my Tomb Pillager on that turn.
1x loatheb
- Loatheb is an amazing card… when played correctly. 5 mana for a 5/5 is fair, but it’s Loatheb’s ability to shutdown opponent’s spells that makes him so valuable. Play Loatheb on turn 6 before a mage can cast flamestrike on turn 7 and he’ll win you the game.
2x sludge-belcher
- If you thought the senjin-shieldmasta was good, well just wait until you see his bigger brother, the Sludge Belcher. Sludge Belcher is an extremely annoying card to deal with, because when he dies, he leaves behind a smaller taunt. This effectively shuts down very aggressive decks, that are generally forced to use silence to get around him. Another benefit to the Sludge Belcher’s deathrattle is his synergy with kelthuzad. Good luck getting past that wall of taunts when both are on the board at the same time!
2x wobbling-runts — New!
- While 2/6 for 6 mana doesn’t seem great at all, we care about Wobbling Runts because of its Deathrattle and great synergy with unearthed-raptor. Being able to clone a Deathrattle that spawns three 2/2s is just too hard to pass up.
1x kelthuzad
- Kel’Thuzad is probably the best win condition in our deck. If you have any semblance of a board going into turn 8, he has a good chance of winning the game for you. His value only goes up when you have deathrattle minions on the board that spawn more minions.
Spells – 7
2x backstab
- Amazing tempo card. Can often kill a 2 mana minion by itself.
2x deadly-poison
- Either use this on your assassins-blade to deal 5 damage (which can finish games), or on your hero power to deal 3 damage to enemy minions.
1x sap
- Because this card is fairly situational, I only run one copy. Its cheap casting cost means you can play sap and a few other minions on the same turn. I keep this card in my starting hand against Druid to bounce back big taunts.
2x fan-of-knives
- Not much cheap removal in the basic rogue set. This card by itself isn’t too valuable, but chained with an ogre-magi or kobold-geomancer can be amazing. I usually try to save this card until I have one of those two cards to increase its spell power with.
Weapons – 1
1x assassins-blade
- A great card that will win you games by itself. Only play one copy because of its high durability. Having two in your hand at once isn’t an ideal situation.
Mulligan Guide
In general, you want to mulligan to setup your first three or four turns. Please note that there is a distinction between going first and going second in Hearthstone, and this should factor into your mulligan choices.
When going first, your advantage is the ability to play first. In addition, you gain mana crystals before your opponent. To take advantage of this, you want to be aggressive in your mulligan to put minions on the board.
When going second, your advantage is mainly the-coin, which gives you tempo over your opponent for a single turn, and also an extra card. Depending on the nature of your deck, whether it’s Aggro, Midrange, or Control, you’ll be looking for different things.
- When playing an aggro deck, you’ll be looking for the same cards going second as you would going first. The objective is to quickly populate the board and bring down your opponent’s life total.
- When playing a midrange deck, you’ll also be looking to get onto the board early, with the caveat that you can keep a single copy of a situational minion or spell that you think may be useful to counter an opponent. This spell might be something like a kezan-mystic to counter classes with Secrets or removal like frostbolt.
- When playing a control deck, you’re looking to save the coin until much later in the game, generally when you can bring out a large late-game threat earlier than usual.
While I won’t make an exhaustive list, these are some of the cards you should consider keeping in your opening hand when playing this deck. In general, your goal with this deck is to get onto the board as soon as possible. It’s important to dig for an early 1 or 2 mana minion to play so you can begin to pressure your opponent’s life total.
Minions
- 1 Mana: zombie-chow
- 2 Mana: haunted-creeper, huge-toad, jeweled-scarab
- 3 Mana: shattered-sun-cleric, unearthed-raptor
Spells
- 0 Mana: backstab
- 1 Mana: deadly-poison
Gameplay Video
Upgrades
Here are some substitutions that will improve this budget deck. If you’re looking to craft cards to play this class, it’s best to start with the “Key Substitutions” first before working your way to the “Nice-to-Have” Substitutions. Unless stated otherwise, you can substitute a single copy of an upgrade card instead of two if you don’t have both.
Key Substitutions
- 2x jeweled-scarab ? 2x eviscerate
- 2x shattered-sun-cleric ? 2x si7-agent
- 2x chillwind-yeti ? 2x piloted-shredder
Nice-to-Have Substitutions
- 2x zombie-chow ? 2x leper-gnome
- 2x huge-toad ? 2x loot-hoarder
- 1x wobbling-runts ? 1x sylvanas-windrunner
- 1x wobbling-runts ? 1x dr-boom
Personal Preference
- 1x assassins-blade ? 1x blade-flurry
Conclusion
I hope you enjoyed this guide! If you have questions, feel free to use the comment sections below. Our team at HearthstonePlayers would be happy to answer them.
Coaching Lessons
If you’re interested in reaching Legend rank, or earning unlimited gold from arena, my team at HearthstoneCoaching.com would love to help! We’ve provided over a thousand hours of excellent coaching to students around the world. 
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