Team IHearthU Deck Guide: Faramir Hunter

Team IHEARTHU: Twitter | Website

Sponsored by: Kinguin | Waypoint Media

Introduction:

Hey guys, [IHU]Faramir here bringing you another deck guide. Right as GvG hits, i wanted to take a look back at the dominating deck of the meta up to this point, Deathrattle Hunter. This particular list i used at Dreamhack Winter to achieve a Top 8 finish.

Key Cards:

“Bring out your dead.” If you hear that sentence on turn 1, you already know that you are in for a tough game. Introduced with Curse of Naxxramas, Undertaker is one of the strongest cards to get the ball rolling for the Hunter in the early game. Since Hunter plays a big variety of Deathrattle minions, the pressure from the buffed Undertaker can often be enough to snowball a game into a fast victory.

If Undertaker wasn’t enough to carry you to victory, you will always have the Savannah Highmane to fall back on. With 6 Attack right outside Big Game Hunter range and a ridicolously effective deathrattle effect, the Highmane is nearly impossible to deal with when dropped on an empty board.

If you weren’t able to overwhelm your opponent with your strong minions and amazing board pressure, then Kill Command helps you to finish a game or push through Taunts very effectively. 5 Damage for 3 Mana is just too much tempo and raw efficiency for most decks to deal with.

Mulligan Guide:

Mulliganing with Hunter is really easy. You look for Undertakers and your 1- and 2-drop deathrattles to snowball your game into a quick victory. There are some exceptions however in certain matchups. Against Priest an Eaglehorn Bow can be used to great effect while Savannah Highmane pulls a lot of weight against Warriors. Against Warlock Zoo you might want to consider keeping Unleash the Hounds in your starting hand although you might be able to beat it regardless with your Undertaker start.

How to Play:

Hunter is a very popular deck in every region of the ladder since it is very straight-forward to play. You want to establish your board in the early game and gain tempo by trading his minions favourably with your Eaglehorn Bow or your Deathrattle minions. Freezing Trap is a great tempo card. Sapping back an Armorsmith to your opponent’s hand is totally acceptable if it helps you stay ahead on board. You always want to be in that state since it is fairly hard to come back from a large board deficit. With an established board it is way easier to deal with Loatheb or a Savannah Highmane and you might run out of steam before you killed your opponent. Hunter has limited carddraw, so you need to make the most out of the cards that you get. Take early favourable trades and then push for as much damage as you can while maintaining board control.

Always look out for 2-turn lethal opportunities. Between your Heropower, your minions, Kill Command and Eaglehorn Bow, you have a lot of direct damage.

Specific Matchups:

Playing Hunter is pretty straight-forward, but I will analyze 2 of the harder matchups.

Warrior: Warrior is on paper probably the hardest matchup you can run into. Fiery War Axe, Sludge Belcher and Shield Block are really annoying if you want to rush someone down. However, by focussing on the right cards you can a Warrior into submission too. Like in every other matchup, your first priority should be to get your Undertaker snowballing. If your opponent shuts that down with something like a Fiery War Axe, you should focus on getting a lot of value and tempo out of your Deathrattle minions like Haunted Creeper and Mad Scientist.

If Warrior wants to trade card for card with you, for example with Armorsmith and Belchers, you can also try to deny his card draw and outvalue him. That is not the usually way though. If you can’t snowball the game, you can always fall back on your Highmanes, Tiger and Loatheb. Black Knight also helps you swing the tempo into your favor in the midgame. Kill Commands and Eaglehorn Bows should be enough to finish the game after you got him low enough ,but be careful because most Warriors play Harrison Jones.

Warlock Zoo: This matchup is a coinflip if there ever was one. Both decks are relying on a great early start and a lot of tempo. Zoo generally has the advantage here since it plays more and stronger 1-drops. But Hunter has tools to fight back aswell. Unleash the Hounds and Eaglehorn Bow are swing cards in this matchup. Getting a good start also really matters because you want to have a board after you use your removal from your hand. If you aquire board control in the midgame, constantly look out for lethal opportunities. Since Warlock Zoo taps a lot, their life total won’t be that high all the time. Look for 2-turn lethals and don’t be afraid to bring your opponent to 2 HP to deny him a draw. This matchup is definitely an uphill battle and its outcome can be influenced by what traps you play in your deck. Explosive Trap and Snake Trap are way better against Zoo than Freezing Trap but are weaker in other matchups.

Important Combination of Cards :

Undertaker + Coin + Deathrattle minions :

You want to buff your Undertaker as early as possible. Having Coin with Hunter is huge because it allows for an immediate tempo play on Turn 1 plus a 2-drop deathrattle minion as follow up. Great to snowball your Undertaker into a swift victory.

Haunted Creeper + Houndmaster :

This combination can pull a lot of weight in the mid game. If you get this combination, the Haunted Creeper will trade favourably with almost any minion on the board at that point in the game. If you can pull off this combo early in the game, you are looking at a rather easy game since it is hard to deal with the Houndmaster, the 3/4 Creeper and the Tokens at the same time.

Eaglehorn Bow + Freezing Trap :

This combination allows you to gain a lot of tempo by temporarly disabling your opponents creature and gaining another charge on the Bow for it. Try to get a lot of value out of the Bow but don’t be afraid to use it’s last charge if you have to.

Knife Juggler + Unleash the Hounds :

If your opponent has a board with a lot of low health minions, this combination can help you to reclaim board control fairly easily and make a lot of favourable trades.

Stranglethorn Tiger + Loatheb :

If those are your Turn 5 and Turn 6 you are almost guaranteed 15 direct damage which is already half of the damage you have to deal to your opponent to kill him.

Budget Replacements for Legendary Cards :

The Black Knight : Stranglethorn Tiger, Knife Juggler, Loot Hoarder, Houndmaster