Introduction
In the Quick Brews series, I’ll make a single pre-release deck for each class and talk a bit about it. However, since it’s impossible to tell how the new meta will look like, those might not be the best lists or they might not even work at all. And so, I don’t recommend crafting the cards Day 1 – you should probably wait and see how the meta turns out!
Another brew is a new way to play Midrange Hunter – instead of rushing the face, you can play more into the board with new Dinomancy card.
Midrange Hunter
Dinomancy is an amazing card. Everyone is talking about the Hunter’s quest and kinda overlooking it – you shouldn’t do that. For just 2 mana you get the best Hero Power in the game. And more than that, the Hero Power, which is normally a terrible tempo move, is actually worth a card right now. +2/+2 buff would be costed at around 1.5 to 2 mana, unlike most of the Hero Powers which are costed at around 0.5 mana. Which basically means that you want to press that Hero Power every turn and you can actually outvalue multiple slow decks.
I never really liked Hunter’s Hero Power in Midrange lists. Sure, the extra reach is nice, but the deck was mostly winning by overwhelming board advantage. By dropping sticky minions, buffing them with Houndmaster, by winning the tempo game with efficient removals etc. And Dinomancy is great in such an archetype. With a +2/+2 buff available any time you want, you can dominate the board. And once you dominate the board, +2/+2 that goes face will be like a much better old Hunter’s Hero Power.
The main issue I can see when playing this deck is falling behind. This deck heavily relies on the board and it might be hard to comeback once you get behind. But that was always a problem with Midrange Hunter and the normal Hero Power doesn’t fix that at all.
Another slight problem with Hunter was card draw. And this time around, another new card comes for rescue – Stampede. With 10 Beasts that cost between 1 and 3 mana, it should be quite easy to get a lot of value from this card in the late game. And that’s the main reason why I’ve decided to put only a single copy. It’s a late game card, you don’t want to play it until you can combo it with at least 2 or 3 Beasts (even more in best case scenario). At 10 mana it’s also much easier to chain it – if you don’t have many Beasts and you get cheap ones from it (average Beast cost in the game is like 3.5 as far as I remember) you can play them and cycle immediately. However, 2 Stampedes might be clunky, because drawing it early is really bad (just like drawing any late game card).
Swamp King Dred isn’t really necessary, but I like it. It fills the curve nicely, Hunter had great curve up to turn 6 and then it didn’t have turn 7. Swamp King Dred adds that powerful 7-drop after Highmane. However, if people run too many Big Game Hunters or Poisonous minions (like the 1/2 Taunt) then the Dred might not be good enough.
And tech, tech cards. So, I put 1 copy of Unleash the Hounds and Deadly Shot into the deck, because I don’t know how the meta will look like. In case more people play Zoo, then second UTH will be better choice. And if somehow Buff Paladin gets popular, then Deadly Shot will be better to counter all the buffed minions and Galvadon. It’s a meta call.
Another “meta call” might be the 5-drop slot. I like Stranglethorn Tiger in this deck, because of how hard it is to deal with Stealth minion. You’re nearly guaranteed to hit with it, it usually can’t get immediately removed. Which means that with your Hero Power, you can make him a 7/7 and attack whatever you need – trade into something, hit face for 7 etc. It might be a nice source of burst damage. However, there is another viable candidate for this spot – Stampeding Kodo. Kodo is a tech card that’s great in certain metas. I mean, let’s say that a lot of people play Finja, the Flying Star – you play Kodo to counter it. Taunt Warrior gets popular and it plays Bloodhoof Brave? Kodo can counter it etc.
Crackling Razormaw is another great card that I really like. Even though you won’t always hit the Adaptation you want, it’s quite easy to get value. Let’s say you play Unleash the Hounds, you have around 30% to get Poisonous on one of the Hounds, which is nuts. +3 Attack will also be quite solid, 2x 1/1 is not that bad either. If a big guy survives, you can try giving it Windfury – that might be a common finisher. Give Windfury to Highmane or Dred, buff it with Hero Power and just hit face twice. But you might also play it on the SAME turn as you play the big guy and look for either Stealth or “Can’t be targeted by Spells…” – it might make your big threats more resilient. A very solid and versatile minion, I really like it.
Overall, the deck relies a lot on having Beasts on the board, but that shouldn’t be a problem. What I really like is that the clearing the board against this deck will be a pain in the neck. The deck is full of Deathrattles, full of small tokens that will be annoying and hard to deal with etc. To clear most of the board states opponents would most likely need both single target removal + AoE, that’s really solid.
Closing
Thanks for reading! Remember that those are still prototypes and they will first need to be tested on the ladder and optimized. I will test most of those decks on the first days of the expansion and I will write full guides for the ones that will turn out to be working properly.
Good luck on the ladder and until next time!
