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.
- Have approximately ~1200 ± 200 Dust for crafting.
Note: Don’t forget to check out our New Player section – featuring Crafting/Disenchanting and Free to Play guides!
Guide Breakdown
Now that you know the criterion for building these decks, here’s what each guide includes, for every class.
- Introduction
- Requirements
- Deck Playstyle
- Card Choice Breakdown
- Mulligan Guide
- Gameplay Video
- Upgrades
- Conclusion
I’ve spent significantly more time on these guides this time around, and recorded and edited myself playing each deck, as I’ve received feedback that this is helpful.
I’ve also brought back the upgrades section in case people want to see what an unhindered version of the deck looks like that may be capable of reaching Legend rank. This time it includes direct substitutions, so you don’t have to wonder about what cards to keep or take out. It’s very clear.
The Guides
Budget Aggro Druid (LoE Edition)
- Aggro Druid utilizes the mana acceleration of Druid cards like darnassus-aspirant and innervate to quickly gain tempo over opponents.
- This deck is very similar to Midrange Druid, but focuses less on value and more on killing our opponent as quickly as we can. Thus the inclusion of cards like leper-gnome and charge minions not typically found in Midrange Druid variations.
Budget Face Hunter (LoE Edition)
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- Face Hunter’s goal is to beat your opponent down as quickly as possible. The general theme of the deck is to get onto the board extremely quickly with minions like leper-gnome and worgen-infiltrator, and then finish opponents off with direct damage spells and charge minions.
Budget Tempo Mage (LoE Edition)
- Tempo Mage’s goal is to control the board early on with extremely cost-efficient minions that synergize remarkably well with Mage’s cheap class spells. Minions like mana-wyrm, sorcerers-apprentice and flamewaker all accelerate or benefit directly from the casting of spells.
- With this early game lead, Budget Tempo Mage seeks to end games early through the burst provided by fireball and argent-commander.
Budget Aggro Paladin (LoE Edition)
- Aggro Paladin seeks to claim the board early and never put the foot off the gas. The goal of the deck is to play small cost-efficient minions that benefit from each other and to overwhelm your opponent before they have answers.
- In the early game, you want to establish a board quickly. Unlike Face Hunter, the goal isn’t to do damage as quickly as possible, but rather to control and dominate the board throughout the course of the game.
- Try to empty your hand before playing divine-favor to maximize the amount of cards you’ll be able to draw.
- Utilize equality and muster-for-battle or ironbeak-owl to deal or bypass your opponent’s bigger threats and taunts.
Budget Control Priest (LoE Edition)
- Control Priest is a deck that utilizes Priest’s ability to heal as an offensive and defensive weapon. The two key minions in our deck are northshire-cleric, which serves as a card draw engine and auchenai-soulpriest which allows us to use circle-of-healing, zombie-chow, and our hero power offensively.
- In the early game, control the board with zombie-chow and combo spells like power-word-shield with wild-pyromancer to clear the board.
- In the mid game, utilize combos with northshire-cleric and auchenai-soulpriest to clear your opponent’s board to draw multiple cards to gain card advantage.
Budget Raptor Rogue (LoE Edition)
- 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.
Budget Aggro Shaman (LoE Edition)
- Aggro Shaman’s goal is to beat your opponent down as quickly as possible. The general theme of the deck is to get onto the board extremely quickly with minions like leper-gnome and tunnel-trogg, and then finish opponents off with direct damage spells, charge minions, and weapons.
Budget Zoo Warlock (LoE Edition)
- Zoo Warlock is an aggressive deck that relies on the synergies between its many small minions. In addition, cards like imp-losion simultaneously help build board for you while eliminating opponent’s threats.
- In the early game you want to get onto the board early with cards like flame-imp and voidwalker.
- In the mid game, after establishing an early board, try to setup a turn where you can trigger knife-juggler with imp-losion to eliminate your opponent’s minions while building up your own board.
- By late game, you can bring out doomguard or a large frostwolf-warlord to kill your opponent.
Budget Patron Warrior (LoE Edition)
- Patron Warrior is one of the most synergistic decks in the history of Hearthstone. Each card in this deck works towards our strategy of surviving until we can bring out grim-patron or a raging-worgen with charge to kill our opponent in a single giant turn.
Don’t have dust?
Don’t worry, I’ve got you covered. Check out my previous Starter deck series that don’t require any dust to build.
Decks with Basic + Naxxramas Cards Only
Decks with Basic + Naxxramas + Blackrock Mountain Cards Only
Decks with Basic + Naxxramas + Blackrock Mountain + League of Explorers Cards Only
Conclusion
Deck construction was one of the hardest things for me to learn when I first picked up this game, so I hope this will help you newer players bridge that gap faster than I did. As always, I’d love to answer your questions on this thread or on the guides themselves. Enjoy!
Editor’s Note: Be sure to check out the New Players section, other Beginner and Budget Decks, and our most popular section – Monthly Top Meta Decks.
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. 
Want to Become Better at Other Games?
I also run RankOneCoaching.com, where our top coaches will develop a personal plan for you to achieve your dreams in other games. Personal lessons are an in-depth experience and most students improve significantly after just one full session!
