Beginner Hearthstone Deck Tech: Basic Hunter

Editor’s Note: You can find this deck guide updated over at our partner site – Mana Crystals.

Introduction

Hello everyone I’m Spark, Legend player from Hearthstone and today I’m continuing the Beginner Deck Tech series proposed by Sheng. If you already know me, you won’t be surprised to see that this guide is about Hunter Hearthstone Deck.

I think that this class is really great for a Beginner Deck as the Basic Cards have some strong synergies focused around Beasts and improving the deck doesn’t requires that much dust for it to be competitive.

Without further ado, let’s get to the deck breakdown !

Minions – 18

2x stonetusk-boar

A small Beast with charge that will benefit immensly from the synergies of the deck and provide you a cheap draw with starving-buzzard.
You generally don’t want to play it on turn 1 but rather save it for an hunters-mark or houndmaster play.

2x timber-wolf

A utility Beast that will help increasing your overall damage on board to take board control or pressure the opponent’s life.
You also don’t want to play it on turn 1 but rather make use of its great effect and generally get a cheap draw from your starving-buzzard as well.

2x bloodfen-raptor

A standard vanilla 3/2 body that will apply some pressure early on and benefits from Beasts synergies.

2x river-crocolisk

A standard vanilla 2/3 body that will help with board control early on and benefits from Beasts synergies.

2x starving-buzzard

A utility Beast that will allow you to refill your hand while getting some board presence.
You must save it for a turn when you’re going to play some cheap Beasts to draw as many cards as you can. Never play it alone on turn 5 as your opponent will instantly deal with it and you will desperately need it later in the game for the draw mechanic.

2x razorfen-hunter

A standard 3 drop that will help you getting some board presence and provide you a small Beast to play with.
This card can be replaced with ironfur-grizzly if you’re not really satisfied with the 2/3 body and summon effect.

2x oasis-snapjaw

A really resilient body that will allow you to keep a Beast on the board to make use of the synergies of the deck.
Its stats will allow you to trade with minor threats and using it with houndmaster will definitely give a hard time to your opponent as a 4/9 taunt is a really strong tool to prevent aggression.

2x houndmaster

This card has an insane value with its really nice buff and the decent 4/3 body that comes with it.
The card itself is not a beast but is probably one of the main reasons to play a Beasts focused Hunter.

2x tundra-rhino

Another utility Beast with an effect that can allow for some winning plays. Remember that it has charge itself so you can generally deal with a weaker minion the turn you play it.
It comes with the downside of having weaker stats for its cost but it is resilient enough to be played and can also benefits greatly from houndmaster

Spells – 12

2x hunters-mark

A really strong removal to get rid of big threats or resilient taunt minions.
You generally want to use it in conjuction with stonetusk-boar to kill the target with a 1/1 body.

2x arcane-shot

A standard cheap removal to get rid of early aggression such as knife-juggler or help reaching the damage needed on a later threat.
As you can target your opponent directly, it can also help to find lethal in the late game.

2x tracking

A really strong draw spell that allows you to cycle through your deck.
You generally want to dig for a specific card with it to answer a given situation, so use it as late as possible. Using it on turn 1 or as a mana filler can be decent if you already know what you are facing and have a plan in mind.

2x animal-companion

This spell will always summon a valuable Beast, a strong turn 3 play overall.
huffer can apply some serious pressure or remove a stronger minion, leokk is best when you have some minions on the board and misha creates amazing tempo as a 4/4 taunt for 3 mana is really hard to answer.

2x kill-command

A really strong spell generally used as a removal during the mid game and as a finisher later on.
You’ll generally have no problem empowering it with a Beast on the board.

2x multi-shot

A multi-removal spell that can help you recovering if you are behind on board.
It’s not the best tempo play as you’ll often spend your turn for that but it’s really great against specific board states, generally against Aggro decks.

Mulligan Guide

In general, you want to mulligan for a set of cards that will allow you to play on curve and gain board control as soon as possible. The 2 mana Beasts are really important to set up your early plays and allow you to keep going on turn 3.

Good cards to keep :

1 mana : Arcane Shot, Tracking and Stonetusk Boar situationally
2 mana : River Crocolisk, Bloodfen Raptor
3 mana : Animal Companion, Razorfen Hunter

How to Play

This is a Mid Range deck so its overall goal is to maintain board control throughout the game. You generally want to always have a Beast on the board to make use of the great synergies of the deck and your spells will be used to support those Beasts by removing the opponent’s threats without having to trade your minions.

Houndmaster is generally a huge tempo swing during the mid game to take back board control and hunters-mark is your emergency button to answer huge threats. As the card has no mana cost you’ll be able to apply some new pressure at the same time and it is generally the perfect opportunity to throw down starving-buzzard followed by stonetusk-boar to kill your target and some other Beasts to refill both your hand and the board at the same time.

Combos

Early to Mid Game :

Beast + kill-command : Apply some pressure with your cheap Beast while killing the opponent’s stronger minion.

the-coin into oasis-snapjaw (T3) + houndmaster (T4) : Your opponent generally won’t be able to answer the 2/7 body immediatly so you’ll have an easy time keeping your favorite target alive for houndmaster.

Mid to Late Game :

starving-buzzard + Beasts : Your main source of draw power so use it wisely, generally in the mid to late game and with the following combo. It is also an amazing play if you already have a tundra-rhino on board as all those Beasts will be used immediatly.

stonetusk-boar + hunters-mark : Get rid of any threat, make sure to benefit from this cheap combo to apply some new pressure at the same time.

stonetusk-boar + houndmaster : A strong turn 5 play on an empty board as your opponent will have a hard time dealing with it.

tundra-rhino + Beasts : Refill the board and instantly make use of it, this move can provides lethal very easily when paired with kill-command.

Upgrades

While I highly recommend players to take a look at the Paths to Legend section following this to construct a cheap and competitive Hunter Mid Range deck, I understand that not everyone (collectors especially) wants to disenchant their cards to build up a competitive ladder deck. Thus, I’ve put together a list of cards that you can plugin for the Basic cards in this deck that will improve its play.

Note that the cards to be replaced are more or less listed accordingly to their removing consideration’s priority and you shouldn’t necessarly replace all of those. Also don’t be afraid to replace cards with different mana costs as your final deck shouldn’t necessarly respect the initial curve of the deck.

I also added a Trap engine section in the replacements cards to bring your attention to a specific set of cards that work together.

1 Mana : arcane-shot, tracking, timber-wolf, stonetusk-boar

Common : webspinner
Rare : flare

2 Mana : bloodfen-raptor, river-crocolisk

Common : haunted-creeper, ironbeak-owl, scavenging-hyena, dire-wolf-alpha
Trap engine : mad-scientist, explosive-trap, freezing-trap, snake-trap

3 Mana : razorfen-hunter

Common : unleash-the-hounds, deadly-shot
Trap engine : eaglehorn-bow

4 Mana : multi-shot, oasis-snapjaw

5 Mana : starving-buzzard, tundra-rhino

Common : stranglethorn-tiger
Rare : stampeding-kodo, explosive-shot
Legendary : loatheb, leeroy-jenkins

6 Mana or higher :

Rare : savannah-highmane
Epic : gladiators-longbow
Legendary : king-krush, the-black-knight

Paths to Legend

For those with a more complete collection of cards, or players who want to invest dust into crafting cards to build competitive ladder decks, I highly recommand to lean towards a Mid Range Hunter build. Don’t hesitate to check out my full guide if you have a premium account on HSP.

High priority :

savannah-highmane

For 100 dust, you have access to this amazing cards that is as valuable as a Legendary (except that you can play 2 copies in your deck). This is an extremely strong win condition for the standard Mid Range Hunter and it will definitely improve your winrate.

The following cards are obtained through the first and second wings of the Naxxramas set, so you should definitely look forward to spend those 700 golds as it is definitely worth it. Moreover, it will also add Maexxna to your collection which you can use while waiting for better cards.

webspinner

An amazing 1 drop for the deck as it will also give you another Beast to play with (even if it’s not the best, you just want to have Beasts) and playing it on turn 1 won’t be a waste of resources unlike stonetusk-boar or timber-wolf.

haunted-creeper

This card has not to be underestimated as it has a great sticking power and your opponent will generally prefer ignoring it to avoid the summoning effect, therefore allowing you to keep a Beast on the board.

Note that the Spectral Spiders are not Beasts but it would have been too strong otherwise and it still makes great use of hunters-mark and leokk.

Last step :

Although your deck should be pretty consistent at this point, the Deathrattle and Trap engine will come as the icing on the cake. Those cards allow you to maintain control of the board and support your Beasts while applying some serious pressure on the opponent’s life.

Finishing the Naxxramas adventure mode will give you access to the amazing undertaker which can be powered by many cards of the Deck like leper-gnome or sludge-belcher.

eaglehorn-bow, mad-scientist and freezing-trap works so well together because it allows you to pull some free cards out of your deck and gain tempo advantage while increasing your weapon’s durability for more removal possibilites or simply damage to the face.

Finally, ironbeak-owl, knife-juggler, snake-trap, unleash-the-hounds and loatheb are situational cards that will help the Deck getting some more versatility.

Editor’s Note: Be sure to check out the New Players section, other Beginner Decks, and our most popular section – Monthly Top Meta Decks.

Conclusion

I hope this insight into the Hunter class will help you understand the Beasts mechanics and increase your overall level of play.

I really think that this class is one of the beast for a Beginner as it is relatively cheap compared to its degree of efficiency and the interesting mechanics behind the class are really great to discover and learn how the game works.

Don’t hesitate to discuss about it in the comment section below, be sure to check out more of my work on Hearthpwn or here on HSP and follow me on Twitter to keep track of my updates 😉