Shaman Anti-OTK

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How The Hunter Became The Hunted - Shaman Anti-OTK

When a lone hero rises out of obscurity with a powerful new weapon he’s often regarded with fear and finds he has more enemies than friends. This can be said about Rexxar The Hunter! Since the last patch, the biggest shift we saw in the Hearthstone meta game, other than Rogues going out of style, has been the rise of the OTK Hunter Deck. The term “OTK” was coined in collectible card games such as Yugioh and Magic: The Gathering where a player would stall out his opponent long enough to gather sufficient cards and mana to deliver a One Turn Kill.

How does he Hunt? Using a combination of low cost minions with +1 buffs to other beasts, minions with windfury and the infamous “Unleash the Hounds” card, the OTK Hunter can deliver 20+ points of damage before his opponent can respond. Unleash The Hounds is a 1 mana hunter specific card that gives all friendly minions an additional +1 attack and charge allowing the player to bombard an unsuspecting victim with massive damage immediately.

Just days after this deck appeared on ladder and was popularized for helping ChanmanV win the Team Liquid.net Open, new OTK Hunters started popping up and began pillaging! On streams, podcasts and forums players talked about how the Hunter is now imbalanced and needs to get nerfed. Many made the case for softening the decks bite while some whispered about potential strategies for taking out the Hunter before he could unleash his death blow.

In my first encounter with the OTK Hunter I was shocked at how effective it was. After my second, third, and fourth I was helpless and got beaten over and over again all night long. Eventually even when I knew it was coming and no matter how I altered my play I was unable to respond to the OTK deck. This seemingly unbeatable deck is now so strong that you rarely see any other kind of Hunter decks at the master’s level.

The next morning I felt dejected and had a decision to make. I could advocate for a nerf on the forums and wait for Blizzard to patch the game while I continue to accept ladder losses every time I face a Hunter OR accept the change in the meta game and go back to the drawing board as I’ve done many times on the Stracraft 2 ladder. So I decided, the Hunter would become the Hunted.

I analyzed the OTK playing style on my Twitch Stream with viewers and we determined why the structure of my control deck allowed the Hunter to be so effective. I was used to taking out threats minions one or two at a time, asserting board control, and gearing up for a mid game counter attack. The OTK Hunter picks apart certain defensive minions and attacks swiftly with a mass of his own charged minions. Considering this, I set out to create a variant of my own deck that would give me the tools I needed to take on the One Turn Killer while also maintaining the essence of my Shaman Control deck that’s been so effective against other heroes.

A few hours later the Anti-OTK Shaman was born…
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Shaman Control

[tabs][tab title=”1″]Forked Lightning x2
Lightning Bolt x2
Rockbiter Weapon x1
[/tab] [tab title=”2″]Stormforged Axe x2
Acidic Swamp Ooze x1
Bloodmage Thalnos x1
Ironbeak Owl x1
[/tab] [tab title=”3″]Far Sight x1
Feral Spirit x1
Hex x2
Lightning Storm x2
Mana Tide Totem x1
Unbound Elemental x2
[/tab] [tab title=”4″]Defender of Argus x2
Senjin Shieldmasta x1
Twilight Drake x1
[/tab] [tab title=”5″]Doomhammer x1
Azure Drake x2
Gadgetzan Auctioneer x1
[/tab][tab title=”6″]Fire Elemental x1
[/tab] [tab title=”7″]Stormwind Champion x1
[/tab][tab title=”8″]Ragnaros The Firelord x1
[/tab][/tabs]
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Modified Shaman Anti-OTK

[tabs][tab title=”1″]Forked Lightning x1
Lightning Bolt x1
Rockbiter Weapon x1
[/tab] [tab title=”2″]Stormforged Axe x2
Ancestral Spirit x1
Bloodmage Thalnos x1
Faerie Dragon x2
Ironbeak Owl x1
Novice Engineer x1
[/tab] [tab title=”3″]Acolyte of Pain x1
Feral Spirit x1
Hex x2
Lightning Storm x2
Unbound Elemental x2
[/tab] [tab title=”4″]Defender of Argus x2
Senjin Shieldmasta x1
Twilight Drake x1
[/tab] [tab title=”5″]Abomination x1
Azure Drake x1
Gadgetzan Auctioneer x1
[/tab][tab title=”6″]Fire Elemental x1
Hogger x1
[/tab] [tab title=”7″]Stormwind Champion x1
[/tab][tab title=”8″]Ragnaros The Firelord x1
[/tab][/tabs][/half]

Above are the changes I made to achieve both goals:

• Ancestral spirit to bring back a critical minion
• 2x Faerie Dragon which are strong early game and immune to most removal (I played around with the Ironfur Grizzlys but settled on Faerie Dragons because they are more versatile)
• Novice engineer replaces Mana tide totem
• Abomination for when I’m way behind and need to wipe the board
• Hogger is a strong minion that keeps spawning taunts

I tested it in game and next thing you know I’m cutting Mages, Paladins and OTK Hunters to pieces. I can’t say for sure if the Hunter class needs to be nerfed, but I can say that sometimes our biggest obstacles are the ones we put in front of ourselves. We shouldn’t be afraid of new strategies that seem disruptive, we should embrace them. The OTK Hunter taught me a lot about my deck and my own play. And so he’s not my enemy, the Hunter is my teacher.

Here is an example of the deck in use:

[youtube url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BX8A9zM3KUA?rel=0]

Watch videos of me taking on the OTK Hunter Deck (https://www.youtube.com/user/cnegrin)
Also check out more Articles by: Kobayshi Maru (https://ihearthu.com/author/kobayshimaru/)

glhf,

][{obayshi ][/][aru