Mastering the Hybrid Hunter: Beginner Guide

Top tier deck that combines strengths of Face and Mid-Range Hunter. Overview, card choices, strategy.

radek

Published: Jun 18, 2015 09:00 am

Introduction

Summary

Strengths

Great early game
Good transition into mid-game
Sticky minions
Good reach to finish enemy off after he Taunts up
Games are fast enough to use it while laddering
Pretty consistent draws
Good against most of the popular decks on the ladder
It has no terrible matchups

Weaknesses

It may get rushed down by faster decks like Face Hunter
Unlike Face Hunter, you might end up with too slow starting hand (everything 4+)
Might get crippled by a lot of Taunts
Bigger drops have slow tempo

As you can see, the deck doesn’t have too many weaknesses. That’s the reason why it’s rated so high. For more information on specific matchups, see Advanced Guide.

Favored Against

Mid-Range Druid
Freeze Mage
Mid-Range Paladin
Mech Shaman
Handlock
Patron Warrior

Even Against

Mid-Range Hunter
Tempo Mage
Oil Rogue
Zoo Warlock
Control Warrior

Unfavored Against

Ramp Druid
Face Hunter
Aggro Paladin

Card Choices

Card choices in Hybrid Hunter are really flexible. We’re gonna go through the standard deck list. For more Alternate Cards / Tech Choices, visit Advanced Guide.

Leper Gnome

This little guy is one of the main reasons why Face Hunter was so strong. His mana to damage ratio is always good. Common scenario: you play it on turn 1, enemy coins out Hero Power. It’s 2/3/4 damage (against Mage/Druid/Rogue) for 1 mana, enemy lost the coin and didn’t develop anything. You still have board initiative, enemy doesn’t have the coin, you’ve dealt 2 damage. And that’s pretty much the best way to deal with your Leper Gnome (the only one that is arguably better is earth-shock, because Shaman doesn’t take damage). Dropping him on turn 1 is always good, as sometimes he might deal up to 8 damage.

Abusive Sergeant

You usually don’t want to drop him on turn 1, especially against the classes that can ping him, because he doesn’t get enough value compared to Leper Gnome. His basic role is, similarly to the other 1-drop, deal 2 additional damage. You’re often gonna use him on a 2 or 3-drop to deal 2 additional damage to the face. That’s usually a good play, because pushing for damage is important. However, Hybrid Hunter, unlike Face Hunter, wants to trade minions. That’s why Abusive Sergeant has great synergy with both haunted-creeper and unleash-the-hounds. The 2/1 body is also good enough for aggressive 1-drop.

Glaivezooka

This deck runs 2 copies of Glaivezooka and only one of eaglehorn-bow). It’s because of how flexible the card is. It’s good when pushing for damage, but it also helps with keeping your minions alive and early game trading. The +1 attack buff might make your minions trade up for their bigger minions. The 2 attack of the weapon kills many of the early drops – it protects your 1-drops and 2-drops. Which translates to tempo and board advantage – two things you want in the early game. The attack buff allows cards Leper Gnome or Haunted Creeper to trade more effectively on turn 2. And if you need to top deck some damage late game, it’s 4 damage over 2 turns, even without any minions on the board.

Freezing Trap

Freezing Trap is one of the strongest secrets in the game. When you freeze a slow card, you might as well consider it killed, because enemy won’t have a time to play it again. It protects your board really well and gains you a lot of tempo. If you freeze 4-drop, it means that it costs a total of 10 mana if enemy wants to get it back on the board. You’ve paid 2 mana for the trap. You’re losing a card advantage, but enemy lost a lot of tempo. If he wants to play a 6 mana 4-drop, you don’t really care, you’re probably even happy with the outcome. Freezing Trap is pretty bad if enemy has some cheap minions or tokens he can freeze. The timing is important, Freezing Trap is best when you have board control and enemy has no small minions.Sometimes you’re gonna Freeze a treant, but overall, the trap is great. The trap also stops the combos. It’s one of the best cards in Patron Warrior matchup – if you push enemy hard enough early in the game, he might often have to try the combo on turn 8 and pray that the secret is not a Freezing Trap. Beware, however, the Freezing Trap may sometimes backfire. You might want to kill the minions that enemy wants to get back into his hand. Good examples are antique-healbot or sunfury-protector, as you don’t want enemy to get those back and get the Battlecry value again. It will probably tell the enemy exactly that the trap is, but that’s fine, because you’re blocking his attack with a big minion and you make his turns awkward anyway.

Quick Shot

The early removal of the deck. To make things clear – it won’t draw you a card. Just imagine the card text doesn’t exist. With this approach, you’re gonna win much more games. It’s best when used as an early removal, not when kept in the hand to wait for the draw value. The draw is an additional thing, especially since you’re often keeping situational cards in your hand, it might happen once in a ten games or so. Use it to kill their early drops. First turns are really important, and you don’t want enemy knife-juggler or mechwarper to live, because the game might just snowball in opponent’s favor because of them. If you don’t draw it at the start or won’t have opportunity to play it early, it’s good as a reach to finish off the enemy. Don’t use it on enemy’s face early, because it’s completely not worth, especially when your Hero Power costs the same amount of mana and deals 2 damage.

Haunted Creeper

Haunted Creeper is really sticky, which is good in an Aggro deck. To remove it, enemy often has to sacrifice a lot of damage, and that means he won’t use that damage on something else. It’s usually just ignored, which is also fine for you, because your 2 mana investment will pay if it’s in a few turns. You might trade it if you want, because you get two 1/1’s anyway, so power of the board is even higher. It’s good against AoE clears, so you don’t feel bad about overextending on the board. It has synergy with knife-juggler, because it throws 2 knives on Creeper’s death. It activates kill-command, because it’s a cheap Beast that often won’t get removed. It combos with abusive-sergeant, because you might trade it with some 3-drop and still get tokens from Deathrattle. It sometimes baits a Silence, and that means your piloted-shredder or savannah-highmane won’t get Silenced. It’s great thing to drop early when you think that enemy might have early removals like fiery-war-axe. Haunted Creeper is inconspicuous, but really consistent and sometimes deadly. A pain for your opponent.

Ironbeak Owl

Silence is one of the strongest mechanics in the game, and Owl is a great source of Silence. That’s why we opt to run two. Owl gets value in every matchup – any top tier deck runs something worth Silencing. Silencing mad-scientist or nerubian-egg can often change the whole outcome of the game. But, in this deck, you often don’t want the “value” Silence, you rather use it to get through the Taunts. Considering how popular sludge-belcher is, Owl becomes good counter. If you don’t Silence it, it absorbs at least 7 damage (usually more), and we don’t want that. With two Owls, can use them more liberally, and don’t need to save the first one for key cards. It also makes the Ramp Druid matchup a little more bearable because you can Silence ancient-of-war. Besides dealing with the Taunt, it reverts him back to 5/5.

Knife Juggler

The amount of value (and damage) Knife Juggler can get is really immense. One of the highest priority targets in your deck. Enemy WILL throw a removal at him if he has any. He gets executed, he gets fireballed, Warlocks sometimes even siphon-soul my Jugglers. Which isn’t necessarily bad for you. The reason is that you have Shredders and Highmanes, which will be much harder to remove, as enemy has thrown some of their removals on those guys. They can easily deal 5 damage per turn, sometimes even more. They soften enemy minions so you can trade your small guys. They have good synergy with haunted-creeper. They have GREAT combo potential with unleash-the-hounds. And if you manage to get two on the board at the same time every minion you drop will have much higher value. However, don’t get baited into playing all your small minions just because you have Jugglers on the board. Think about whether juggles are worth even if you board gets cleared by an AoE. And don’t get your hopes too high. because this gnome could as well have a Taunt printed on it.

Mad Scientist

Mad Scientist gets you value by both tempo and card advantage. Tempo thing is pretty obvious – your 2 mana trap gets casted for free, so you essentially gained 2 mana when he dies. The trap, however, didn’t come from your hand, but from your deck. It means that you also drew it first. He’s the sole reason why Secrets are ran in every Mage and Hunter deck. His stats are pretty standard. 2/2 for 2 is neither good, nor bad. He is pretty susceptible to Silence. But, that means one less Silence for Shredders and Highmanes, and in the end something will get Silenced anyway. If you manage to trade him with another 2-drop and get a free trap (or he eats the removal from your opponent), you get 2 for 1 value. Enemy can’t just ignore him forever and he’ll have to kill it after some time. Dealing 2 additional damage every turn is not something you can take against Hunter. Mad Scientist works great with eaglehorn-bow. Turn 2 Scientist into turn 3 Eaglehorn Bow means that you almost guarantee to get free Bow charge.

Eaglehorn Bow

Since you have only 1 copy of Eaglehorn Bow, you want to get as much value of it as you can. It means that you’re gonna stay at 1 charge pretty often, waiting for enemy to proc a trap (or for you to draw a trap). Your bow can potentially have up to 4 charges (12 damage!), and it sometimes happens. Don’t waste your charges on enemy face, though. Killing enemy 2-drops, 3-drops and Shredders is the main purpose of your weapon. Only if you don’t need to control the board, this card has a potential to deal a lot of damage to enemy. At the base, it’s a worse version of fiery-war-axe. But even the base 6 damage for 3 mana is rather fine when it comes to the Hunter. If you get a good opportunity to kill a minion, hit even with your second charge, don’t wait. If you’re already pushing for damage, you feel that enemy might Taunt up the next turn and you won’t have the opportunity to hit his face, you might also consider doing it to push closer to lethal.

Animal Companion

Animal Companion is exceptionally good, especially if RNG is on your side. We like to compare this card to 3 Basic cards. At random, you summon boosted versions of wolfrider (huffer), ironfur-grizzly (misha) or raid-leader (leokk). They all have +2 stats in comparison to their basic card versions. Every outcome is great for 3 mana, but some are better in certain situations. Misha is the most safe one. If you get 4/4 Taunt on turn 3, it’s never bad. It’s pretty hard to remove so early, it’s a big threat with 4 attack and it might protect your Knife Juggler. Huffer is the most aggressive one. You charge instantly for 4 damage. On the other hand, Huffer has only 2 health, which makes him much easier to remove. Usually the most wanted option against slower decks, as pushing damage early is important. If enemy hasn’t got a way to remove it and you hit with it second time, it’s really great. But even one hit + removal wasted from enemy is fine. Leokk on the other hand is the least wanted one. Probably because of it’s stats – 2/4 is not enough on your 3 drop when you play aggressive deck. Leokk might be the best one if you already have some board presence, or if you use it in conjunction with unleash-the-hounds. Remember that Animal Companion is a spell. It means that it won’t proc mirror-entity, but will proc counterspell. It’s also affected by loatheb‘s effect.

Kill Command

Your main way to finish off the opponent. Enemy often stabilizes when he’s around 10 HP. Combined with your Hero Power, this card can kill him even when he Taunts up or takes complete board control. It also helps to deal with the Taunts. It kills the first body of sludge-belcher, the most popular Taunt. Don’t worry about using it on minions. Keeping your board alive is the first priority, as in the long run your minions are gonna do much more damage than 5.

Unleash the Hounds

Your main Anti-Aggro tech. May be used in both offensive and defensive way. The existence of this card has impact on the match – even if you don’t have it in your hand. Enemies are often scared to play more than 2-3 minions against Hunter. It’s great against other Hunters and Zoo. It’s also good against Paladin and Shaman, since their Hero Power spawns tokens. In general, it’s great against any deck that wants to flood the board. It combos nicely with abusive-sergeant and knife-juggler. It also somehow combos with glaivezooka, as it gives you a minion with charge to buff. The card is bad, however, against slow decks, as they tend to not play too many minions. Don’t wait to get high value, and using it to get 2-3 hounds against slow decks is fine. If you’re putting much pressure on enemy, going for the face with hounds might be a good tactic. If he’s low on health, he’ll be forced to take inefficient trades and kill all your hounds. It also helps with the reach if enemy overextends on the board.

Arcane Golem

Arcane Golem is a really interesting card. The stats are great, but it has a downside that severely limits its uses. You don’t want to draw it too early. Dropping it on turn 3, especially when second, is often losing play. Unless you have a really fast start and you think that you can afford to give enemy 1 mana, you want to keep him for the reach or to drop him on later turns. The closer it gets to turn 9, the better he gets. One additional mana on turn 3 is huge, but on turn 7 or 8 it’s not as good anymore. If dropped from turn 9 upwards, opponent gains nothing. Great card later in the game, but surely you won’t mulligan for it.

Wolfrider

Wolfrider is one of the “fast” aspects of the deck. A really aggressive card, with only 1 attack and a charge, he’s a decent turn 3 play most of time. Wolfrider’s boon is that he is a minion. He needs to get removed. Even if by ping, opponent has to waste 2 mana to kill him. It may completely cripple his turn 3. Even better if enemy can’t actually remove it. It might hit for 3 more damage or trade with something. If you have other means of killing enemy minions – don’t use Wolfrider. It’s much better if enemy has to remove it himself and waste resources. However, if you have no other way to keep the board control, use him to trade on turn 3.

Piloted Shredder

One of the strongest 4-drops in the game, probably the strongest in Fast decks. His stats are fine and he’s really sticky. If you drop it on turn 4, enemy probably won’t be able to deal with both him and the minion you get from his Deathrattle. Most of the minions he drops are fine. There are two best outcomes, millhouse-manastorm and succubus. There are a lot of good outcomes, with all the 3/2’s, 2/3’s and 2/2’s. There are couple of bad outcomes, where you get a 1/1. And finally, there are other outcomes. doomsayer, lorewalker-cho or explosive-sheep are really situational and might be good or bad. nat-pagle can either be taken out for free or draw you couple of cards. ancient-watcher may be completely useless, but you may also Silence it and get a 4/5 minion. You usually don’t want any outcomes from the last category as a Hunter, though. Even if you get the bad case (which is rare, as there aren’t many 1/1 2-drops), Shredder is still a good card. It gets 5/4 in total stats, which is fine. And if you get something from the good outcomes list, Shredder gets immense value. He often gets Silenced, but out of the three biggest Silence targets in your deck (Mad Scientist, Piloted Shredder, Savannah Highmane), you usually prefer Shredder to be the one Silenced.

Loatheb

One of the biggest minion in your deck. 5/5 for 5 mana are good stats. But what you play it for is the effect. You want to have the board control, and you often will on turn 5. When you drop Loatheb, opponent’s options get limited. He can’t remove it with spells, he can’t AoE your board, he might drop something big, but you usually just sneak free damage on the turn after you’ve dropped Loatheb. He’s great against spell-heavy decks like Oil Rogue or Freeze Mage. One of the best turn 5 plays, but against some deck you might want to keep it and drop when the good opportunity strikes.

Savannah Highmane

The biggest threat in your deck. The card is pretty slow, but it has immense power and value. 6/5 body is formidable, and even if removed you still maintain board presence. It’s not big enough to get killed by big-game-hunter (unless you have Leokk on the board or buff it with Glaivezooka, so be wary). If enemy can’t instantly deal with it, you’re in a great spot. It’s a Beast and it spawns other Beasts, which makes it a good activator for kill-command. It’s really sticky, and the only good way to deal with it is Silence + big removal. By turn 6, enemy he should be running out of removals, though. Savannah Highmanes often seals the game. Especially great against Control decks. The card has it’s flaws, too. It’s pretty slow and has no immediate impact. You might be out tempo’ed by faster decks when you drop it. It also bad against Rogue, because sap as a response gives them tremendous tempo. Don’t wait with dropping it – use it when you get the first opportunity. It’s usually the best when played on turn 6, because later the opponent might have a much easier time killing it.

General Strategy

The deck is flexible. Depending on the situation, starting hand and the deck you face, you might play it faster (like Face Hunter) or slower (like Mid-Range Hunter).

Remember that against Aggro decks, you’re on defensive. Against decks with similar tempo to yours, you shift to either aggressive or defensive depending on the draws. And against Control decks, you play the aggressive game and need to push for damage.

Early Game

Early game is really important. You usually want to start with leper-gnome, but if you pass the 1 drop it’s not a big deal. You generally should not drop abusive-sergeant on turn 1 just to get the minion. It’s easy to deal with and, unlike Leper Gnome, doesn’t get you any additional benefits. You might sometimes do it if you have glaivezooka in your hand as an only turn 2 play, to get a buff on something. Glaivezooka is another great early game card, as it kills most of enemy 1-drops and 2-drops, sometimes even a 3-drop. Also helps dealing with zombie-chow start from the enemy. You don’t want to drop knife-juggler on turn 2, unless it’s your only play. Usually you want to test the waters with mad-scientist or even haunted-creeper and see if enemy has any removals – if those two get removed, it’s not a big deal. Against decks that flood the board you might also want to keep the Juggler for combo with unleash-the-hounds. Don’t waste it, it’s one of the best minions in your deck.

Normally, animal-companion is your best 3-drop. Against slow decks you aim for Huffer, and against fast decks you prefer Misha, but Leokk is also fine if you have something on the board. You don’t want to drop arcane-golem early. wolfrider is always fine, but if you have opportunity to kill something with it, you should trade instead of rushing face. eaglehorn-bow is also pretty good card on turn 3 if enemy has something on the board that you can kill. You deal with their board and you still have one more charge of the weapon. quick-shot should also be used to control the board and kill their early drops. NEVER use it on face on turn 2, the play is horrible. If you don’t have anything else to play, just Hero Powering is better.

If enemy plays Silence targets like nerubian-egg, or their own Mad Scientist, you might want to Owl it. If you don’t you might lose too much tempo. Playing a freezing-trap is also a viable turn 2 play against some decks, because it sets you up a lot of tempo for a future turns. Unleash usually won’t get enough value in the first few turns, unless your opponent plays a really fast deck (or Paladin with muster-for-battle). Then you might consider using it on turn 3. The general strategy of the early game is: against slow decks play minions and push for damage, against faster decks keep the board clear, and if you by any chance have a minion in play, steadily deal damage to enemy every turn.

Mid Game

During mid game, you might want to start pushing for damage, but board control is still your number one priority. piloted-shredder is the card you want to drop on turn 4 most of the time, because it’s pretty hard to remove both parts. If enemy drops something you can deal with, don’t ignore it. The only reasons to ignore the minion and go for the face would be either if you had enough pressure to threaten lethal soon, or you would have no good way to remove it. Especially against Fast decks, you want to keep the board clear all the time. Juggles, weapons, Abusive Sergeant, they all help you with killing enemy mid game minions while not sacrificing many of yours.

On turn 5 you might want to drop loatheb if you have one. After dropping Loatheb on already decent board, you might want to push for damage. With a good start, you should be prepared by turn 5. Having a freezing-trap in play and a weapon equipped should be things you want to consider before pushing for lethal. It allows to tempo out your opponent. If against Control, you need to judge whether you’re gonna be able to kill enemy before he stabilizes. It’s much easier to stabilize if you rush the face, so have that in mind. The strength of your board, their possible removals, Taunts or heals, the cards in your hand (whether you have some reach or not) – take those into account. If you feel that you can finish him off, go for it. If not, continue with the board control and slow damage approach. Don’t rush things prematurely, because it might cost you a game.

Remember that against most of the classes, your Hero Power does wonders. It puts them on a clock and you don’t care if the game lasts couple turns more, as long as you Hero Power every turn. From mid game onwards, you want to squeeze your Hero Power every turn. If you have a good play that uses all of your mana, don’t worry, it’s fine. But if you have to choose between dropping a Leper Gnome and Hero Powering, the second one is usually better. The card will still be in your hand, and you can’t get back the 2 damage from Hero Power. Remember to use your mana efficiently. Try to finish every turn with 0 mana. Sometimes it’s impossible, but playing on curve is really important. Mid game is also the time when your combos come into the action. Unleash the Hounds is your main source of combos. A turn 5 Knife Juggler + Unleash may save you against Aggro and turn the game around. arcane-golem also becomes better option each turn. If you have no better play, you might even consider using Arcane Golem + Hero Power on turn 5 to push some damage. freezing-trap starts to get great value in Mid Game. Freezing something like piloted-shredder, violet-teacher or voidcaller may make them unplayable again. Silence also gets some value, as you encounter Mid Game Deathrattles and the first big Taunts.

Late Game

You don’t want that phase to last too long, you aim to finish the game around the start of late game. Against Aggro decks, late game is usually non-existent and the game is already decided by now. Hybrid Hunter doesn’t run out of steam too fast, but it still does when compared to Control decks. Against slower decks, savannah-highmane is your best late game play. Most often you want to drop it on turn 6, because then it’s really hard for opponent to deal with it. If it gets ignored, by that turn opponent should be already damaged, and 6 damage per turn can often seal the game. It also easily kills most of Taunts, clearing the way for your smaller minions. freezing-trap gets biggest value here. Freezing Savannah Highmane in mirror, sylvanas-windrunner against Control, or grim-patron against Patron Warrior may often change the outcome of the game.

By the late game you should also have some reach in your hand. One of the big decisions is whether you use your Kill Commands on enemy minions or keep it for the reach. Both approaches have their reasoning, depending on how the game goes. If enemy is far from dying, you shouldn’t save Kill Commands. You won’t kill him soon anyway, and keeping your minions alive gives you much better chance to deal damage. If enemy is close from death, especially if you think that he has no way to regain his health, you probably want to save your Kill Commands for their face. arcane-golem becomes much better card here. You might drop it just to deal 4 damage or to trade with something. You don’t care that much about giving enemy one mana. You have to analyze each situation individually, though. Don’t drop him against Druid on turn 7 if you have low health. They might just combo you, because you gave them free mana point.

You certainly don’t want the game to last longer than 10 turns. At this point you’re probably top decking. quick-shot is the best card you can get right now if you haven’t used it already, because it cycles and you can play any card it gives you on the same turn. Most of your other top decks are pretty weak late game. Even the best one – Highmane – isn’t that threatening on turn 10+ as it was on turn 6. It means that in late game sometimes you just need to rush enemy and hope that he can’t kill you or can’t remove your whole board. Another important decision is whether to trade or not. If you feel that you won’t be able to kill enemy if you trade your minions (because you have no more cards to refill the board), don’t trade. Even small chance to win the game is better than no chance. Games against most of the classes don’t last that long. However, if you play against the opponent that directly counters your Hero Power (Warrior and Priest), games might even get to turn 15. By that time you have almost no chance to win, so aim at closing the game before turn 10.

Win Conditions

One of the most important things you need to realize is the best way to kill your opponent. Which cards you can waste and which cards you need to keep? Can you overextend on the board or if you get AoE’d, you won’t be able to win any more? It depends greatly on matchup, but here are your main win conditions.

Early game aggression. It’s the fastest way of winning. If you get the good curve, many low drops, you might rush enemy down before he can do anything. Especially if his start was slow. It’s a good way to play the game if you see that enemy doesn’t drop anything during the first turns. If you’ve dealt 15 damage by turn 4, you might as well continue with your strategy and rush enemy down. If it fails and opponent somehow removes your board, you still have your bigger drops and Hero Power.
Tempo. Freezing Trap is a great tempo tool. Your weapons also give you a tempo in exchange for life. Abusive Sergeant boosts your Tempo too. So, if you keep the tempo on your side, you can slowly grind enemy down thanks to your Hero Power and some minions you have on the board.
Big drops. loatheb[card] and [card]savannah-highmane. Those are your main win conditions against slow decks that run a lot of removals. Your early and mid game plays will probably get removed, and you have to rely on the big ones. The good thing for you is that they are probably running out of removals by the time you drop them, and that both of those are hard to remove on the turn they’re played (Loatheb because of his Battlecry, and Highmane because of how sticky it is). If you squeeze some early damage, you probably should win with your big drops.
Reach. Against some decks you need additional damage from your hand, and Hybrid Hunter has it. Ramp Druid and Handlock are good examples. Those two may easily get big Taunts which you can’t get through. By that time, however, they already should be at low health. Finishing them off with combination of Kill Commands, Quick Shot and your Hero Power is a possibility.

Advanced Strategies, Matchups and Mulligans

Our Mastering the Deck series are extremely in-depth and extensive. Here are the other parts of the Hybrid Hunter series:

Part 2: Advanced Strategies, Alternate Cards and Tech Choices
Part 3: Matchups and Mulligans

Closing

Hybrid Hunter is really flexible deck. It has so many win conditions and you can play it in a lot of different styles. You may adapt depending on the situation and your current needs. This build also requires much more strategy than some people imagine. You have to think many turns ahead, you have to decide between board control and pushing for damage, you need to drop minions in the correct order etc. The deck is slightly harder than the standard Face Hunter list, but we can definitely recommend it for both new and more experienced players. It may appeal to the first group because of how cheap it is.

If you liked the guide, please share your thoughts. Let us hear about your experience with the deck, whether you like it or not, or if you agree with our reasoning. Thanks for the reading, check out more of our content!

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