Introduction
Greetings, dear readers, and welcome to the first installment of ”Top 10’s”, an article series where I walk you through my own top 10 ”something Hearthstone” list. We’re taking a much-needed break from the ”Running Wild” this month but next month I will have a lot to write about regarding the format because the next expansion is upon us! Until the next expansion drops I’ll be focusing solely on the ”Top 10’s” articles and the current goal for this month is to cover all wild class cards and neutral cards in a form of a Top 10 list 🙂 Last time I’ve covered the druid and this time I’ll be covering the hunter class! Please, keep in mind that the list is my own personal opinion and that it might differ from your own Top 10 list.
Sit back, relax, and let’s dive right into this! 🙂
Number 10
If you’ve asked me half a year ago what was the absolute best hunter wild card I would have said webspinner. webspinner has been a hunter allstar staple ever since it was introduced. Aggro hunter didn’t use it because of a different playstyle but other version of hunter ran two copies of it regularly. If you need more convincing about the power of this card then just take a look at its competitor, the one that pushed it out of hunter decks and took its place, jeweled-macaw. Both of these cards are hunter staple 1 drops with an identical effect but with a different keyword attached to it. jeweled-macaw is unquestionably better than webspinner, but they both have the same purpose in a deck. As I’ve said before, if it weren’t for jeweled-macaw, webspinner would have been the number 1 card but because it managed to completely push webspinner out of every hunter deck and because it is such an extreme powercreep I have no choice but to give the number 10 spot to webspinner.
Number 9
The story of steamwheedle-sniper is a sad story of missed opportunities. Here is a bit of history for those of you who haven’t been around waaaaay back in the very early days of Hearthstone. Hunter was always the definitive aggro class, ever since the launch of the game, even before Curse of Naxxramas. The community has been asking for ways to tone down the aggression on the ladder and Curse of Naxxramas had provided them with the best taunt minions in the game. After the whole deathrattle hunter fiasco, the community had demanded that the developers do something else with hunter. Even aggro players were sick of hunter being the aggro class. steamwheedle-sniper came out in Goblins vs Gnomes and it was meant to be the means for switching hunter from aggro to control but, unfortunately, the card turned out to be completely useless. I’ve been wondering about why was it so and was the meta of that time the only reason for steamwheedle-sniper being bad but this card had multiple opportunities to shine, even until this day, and it still remained bad. The reason why it is on this list is because it still has some potential and its effect is quite unique. Hunter really doesn’t have that many powerful wild exclusive cards so I’m working with what I have 😛
Number 8
dreadscale and acidmaw are, to this day, the only ”extra” legendary class cards. Well, to be honest, one of them is the ”extra” card and it only depends on your own opinion on which one is it. I call acidmaw the ”extra” one because I don’t even play it and, more often than not, I forget that it even exists and, when I remind myself that it does, I question why is that? dreadscale didn’t really see that much play back in the day but it had appeared a couple of times in tournament play and some midrange hunter decks ran a copy of it to get rid early aggression minions with 1 health such as the most of pirate warrior deck. The card has a niche use of its own, it has a beast tag, it is not completely bad so I’m going to put it on my list as number 8.
Number 7
feign-death is a gimmicky card that revolves around deathrattle. Hunter is one of those classes that got a lot of deathrattle cards and deathrattle support cards over the last couple of years and I’ve never really understood why. Okay, it is time for a short rant. I don’t see the point behind giving the hunter class the most deathrattle support. Lore wise it doesn’t really make sense because hunters deal with traps and beasts, both aspects that Hearthstone had implemented perfectly, but they’ve never had anything to do with deathrattle. Those who deal with the undead are either priests or warlocks with priests being the more likely option due to their connection with shadow magic. Warlocks deal with demons, it is their things, and while priests don’t directly deal with the undead they do so from time to time. Giving deathrattle minions and deathrattle support to the priest class seems to be a far more suitable option (and it seems like the developers are slowly making the pirest the deathrattle class but we will see once the next expansion comes out).
Anyways, back on track. feign-death is a fun card to play with and, since deathrattle hunter has been getting more and more support, the card’s potential is growing more and more with each expansion. There are already a few quite decent midrange deathrattle hunter decks out there and feign-death fits right into them. It is a good card but we’re still not at that point where this card goes from ”good” to ”must have” so if you’re considering crafting it you might want to wait at least until the next expansion hits 🙂
Number 6
ram-wangler is our last head scratcher before we move into top 5. The card itself is not too bad. For 5 mana you get to play a 3/3 minion that summons an additional minion (which is also a beast). On the surface this is not so bad and the card actually saw some play last year in a few midrange hunter decks so we can’t really call it a bad card, but here’s the catch. ram-wangler is only great in a closed format. Every card in the game that either gives you a random card or summons a random minion is only good in a closed format, which is standard, because fewer options actually enable you to get the better options easier. The main problem with ram-wangler in the wild format is that there are just way too many beasts that it can summon at random and you can end up with a pretty bad card. The card has its uses and although it doesn’t see a lot of play anymore it still had a much bigger impact on the wild format (and the game) than numbers 7-9. This is why I award ram-wangler with the number 6 spot and, with that being said, it is finally time to dive into some actually good cards 😀
Number 5
What is this? I thought that I’ve said that we’re about to move into some good cards now? What is lock-and-load doing here? Well, I should have defined ”good cards” before moving to number 5. When I say that it is time to focus on the ”good cards” I mean that we’re going to take a look at all the cards that either made a huge impact on the tournament scene, the ladder or even had entire decks built around them. lock-and-load is one of those cards. This card had an entire deck built around it back in the first middle of the first season. The deck was called ”Lock and Yogg” or ”Yogg and Load”, I can’t remember anymore, and the idea behind the deck was to play lock-and-load, get a whole bunch of spells, and then play yogg-saron-hopes-end for multiple ability activations. Unfortunately, yogg-saron-hopes-endwas nerfed in such a way that this combo is no longer reliable.
lock-and-load still remains a good card in the wild format. It no longer has an entire functional combo deck built around it but it is a must have card for those who wish to make a more spell oriented hunter deck. If you can’t combo lock-and-load with yogg-saron-hopes-end then maybe you can add two arcane-giants to the deck, make a spell heavy hunter deck where your goal is to beat down your opponent with arcane-giant and see what happens. I’m not saying that such a deck would function 100% of the time but it is always fun to experiment. We know that a new hero card is coming and that it is going to replace the hunter’s hero power with ”build a beast” so there is a possibility of creating a spell heavy hunter which has some early game minions to keep it safe until turn 6. After turn 6 you play the hero card and then you drop your lock-and-load, get a lot of spells, get that arcane-giants cost reduced and instead of playing minions you can create them with your hero power which, in turn, allows you to play more spells in your deck. This is, however, a very rough idea and we should wait until the next expansion comes out before we test this deck out. Overall,lock-and-load is a very solid card and it is worthy of a place in the top 5, even if it is the 5th spot 🙂
Number 4
Honestly, there aren’t that many trap cards that are exclusive to the wild format and I’m glad that I got to feature the better one in this article. bear-trap is a really interesting trap, unlike some other ones that hunter has, as it provides you with protection in the form of a minion if you get attacked. This is the fourth trap secret spell that provides hunter with some sort of protection if it gets attacked and it fits quite will in a secret hunter deck. There really isn’t that much to say about this card because it is quite straightforward. You get attacked and you get a 3/3 minion with taunt. There is a good combination in the form of bear-trap and freezing-trap. You get attack, freezing-trap activates first and returns your opponent’s minion to his or her hand and because you were attacked your bear-trap activates and you get a 3/3 minion with taunt. In summary, this is a very decent wild exclusive card that sees play in several decks. It is not too bad and it is better than a lot of other cards on this list. I award it the 4th spot 🙂
Number 3
Now, let me tell you something, if you haven’t played the game during the golden age of aggro hunter then you’ve missed the glory which is glaivezooka. Bacl during the Goblins vs Gnomes days this card was absolutely insane! It was a must have in every aggro hunter deck out there and I’m still going to recommed using it if you’re building a aggro hunter deck. You need to keep in mind that aggro hunter was extremely more powerful back then than it is now but, nevertheless, glaivezooka is an extremely powerful tool in such a deck and it is one of the cards which made that deck so powerful in the first place. Nowadays you still don’t have a turn 2 hunter weapon, let alone a turn 2 hunter weapon which can provide your minion with a permanent buff to attack, so don’t overlook this card when you’re building your aggro hunter. A must have staple, in my opinion, in all aggro hunter decks. A well deserved 3rd spot 🙂
Number 2
Every class has its own downfalls. Druid doesn’t have any good removal spells, most of shaman’s spells are random, rogue must quite often rely on combo cards and is weaker without them, warlock can’t get the discard mechanic working and so on. The downfall of hunter is the lack of card draw which is, in my opinon, a good thing because I’ve faced aggro hunter’s back in the days when they had insane card draw and I would rather not relive those days. kings-elekk is the best minion that hunter had received in The Grand Tournament expansion and it is one of the best hunter minion. It has 3/2 stats which is baseline for almost all good 2 drop minions so that’s a good thing and it has the ability to draw you a card. Even more than that, it allows you to see a single card that your opponent has in his or her deck. Yes, the card that you will be getting will always be a minion but the advantage that kings-elekk can provide you with is actually quite amazing. A well deserved 2nd spot 🙂
Number 1
You knew that this was. There is no mistaking it, quick-shot is, by far, the best hunter wild exclusive spell. I would go so far to say that it is one of the best hunter spells overall. The advantage that this card gives to a hunter deck, let alone a aggro hunter deck, is insane. This is one of the rare few cards which managed to make aggro hunter a nightmare to play against. As I’ve mentioned before, hunter is a class that stuggles with card draw and when you’re playing a aggro deck you’re looking to not end up in topdeck mode because if your opponent is not dead and you’ve reached topdeck mode there is a good chance that you’re going to lose. quick-shot fixes that problem. Not only do you get to draw a card if you have no cards in your hand but you also get to deal 3 damage to the face! You can also use this card to remove a threat on the board. It is absolutely amazing! I can say that, without a shred of doubt, quick-shot is the very best candidate for the 1st place! 😀
Conclusion
This is it. We’ve reached the end of our second ”Top 10’s” article 🙂 I hope that you’ve liked it and, by all means, let me know what are your picks for the top 10 wild hunter cards? Do you agree with this list? What cards would you put in the top 5? Let me know in the comments below and be sure to drop by next time when I’ll be covering the top 10 wild mage cards 😀 Also, don’t forget that the spoiler season for the next expansion, Knights of the Frozen Throne, starts on the 24th of July and, because I’m obligated to make a prediction that will most likely turn out to be wrong, my educated guess is that the expansion will be dropping on Thursday, the 10th of August, for the US and on Friday, the 11th of August, for the EU. Let’s hope that I’ve finally got it straight 🙂
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