Deathrattle Hunter Deck List Guide – Rastakhan’s Rumble – March 2019

Check out alternative versions of this deck on our Deathrattle Hunter archetype page!

Deathrattle Hunter Mulligan Guide

VS Fast Decks

Higher Priority (Keep every time)

• Candleshot – Early game board control tool, very useful vs Aggro.
• Prince Keleseth – You always keep Keleseth in a deck running Keleseth.
• Devilsaur Egg – Your main Deathrattle card, which you want to trigger as many times as possible.
• Terrorscale Stalker – A way to trigger your Deathrattles, but if you don’t get any, then you CAN drop it on T3 for some board presence.

Lower Priority (Keep only if certain conditions are met)

• Play Dead – If you already have Egg in your hand.
• Gluttonous Ooze – Vs decks running weapons.
• Houndmaster Shaw – With a good early game hand. It has solid stats and if it survives, it might give you a nice tempo boost.
• Deathstalker Rexxar – It’s your only source of AoE, so keep it in the matchups in which you might need it, such as Odd Paladin. If you make a good use of the AoE, Hero Power will also be a nice addition.

VS Slow Decks

Higher Priority (Keep every time)

• Tracking – Your Turn 1 is usually dead anyway, and Tracking lets you find something useful. Important: DO NOT keep vs Odd Warrior, the matchup often goes down to fatigue and you don’t want to burn cards with Tracking.
• Prince Keleseth – You always keep Keleseth in a deck running Keleseth.
• Devilsaur Egg – Best Deathrattle to trigger multiple times, creating an army of 5/5’s is never bad.
• Terrorscale Stalker – You want to have a way to proc your Deathrattles. And even if you don’t find your Deathrattles, it’s a 3/3 for 3 in the worst case scenario.
• Houndmaster Shaw – 3/6 is pretty difficult to remove on T4, and if it survives, it can snowball the game really nicely.

Lower Priority (Keep only if certain conditions are met)

• Play Dead – If you already have Egg in your hand.
• Gluttonous Ooze – Vs decks running weapons.
• Deathstalker Rexxar – Keep in value matchups, especially vs Odd Warrior. The earlier you get Rexxar, the higher your chance to win is. You won’t always need it if you get a fast start, but it’s good to have it just in case.
• Kathrena Winterwisp – Keeping one of the most expensive cards in your deck might seem foolish, but it’s good keep IF you’re sure that you face a slow deck and the rest of your hand is good. Unless you get unlucky and draw all of your Beasts, this card alone provides 3 huge bodies your opponent needs to answer, and if triggered some Eggs already your opponent might be out of removals already.

Deathrattle Hunter Win Rates

Winrate stats are currently unavailable for this deck at the moment!

Deathrattle Hunter Play Strategy

Just like the deck’s name suggests, your game plan revolves around Deathrattles, or rather triggering them multiple times. That’s the reason why Devilsaur Egg is the most basic and important card in your deck. Your opponent Silencing it is the only bad outcome, basically. If he leaves it be, you might be able to trigger it multiple times – e.g. drop it on Turn 3 and then play Play Dead + Terrorscale Stalker, such a play usually results in a win. On the other hand, if he decides to kill it (which is often a smart move), it’s still good for you – it’s unlikely that he will be able to answer the 5/5 so early in the game, so most of the time you paid 3 mana for a 5/5 minion, which is a great deal.

Another powerful Deathrattle minion is Spider Bomb, but unlike Egg, Bomb is pretty bad in the early game, but gets better as the game goes. In the mid/late game, when your opponent starts dropping bigger minions, Bombs can get massive value. For example, if you drop Bomb + Play Dead into The Lich King, you cleared an 8 mana play for 4 mana, AND you still have the Bomb on the board, meaning that your opponent has to deal with it somehow, wasting a part of his turn and possibly a precious removal he would prefer to keep for something else.

Another way to get even more out of your cards is Carnivorous Cube. There are two you can use it in. If you eat a Deathrattle minion, then you trigger the Deathrattle and spawn two more Deathrattle minions on death. It’s a fast play initially, especially eating Egg, but it’s pretty slow on Deathrattle. Other than that, which is often better, is to eat a big minion, possibly after trading with it already and damaging it. It’s an immediate tempo loss, but if it dies (or you trigger it), you end up with two extra copies of that big minion. King Krush and Charged Devilsaur (keep in mind that the minions-only restriction is lifted when you SUMMON the card, so when you get it from Kathrena or Cube) are obviously the best minions to eat and copy, but it’s pretty difficult, as they rarely stick to the board (for that exact reason). Devilsaur, Witchwood Grizzly or Houndmaster Shaw are more common targets. Grizzly which comes out of Cube has its full base stats – 3/12, even if it lost some health from its Battlecry. Kathrena Winterwisp can also be a great Cube target – ideally you’d want to still have some Beasts left in your deck, but you can do it just for the 6/6 body too even when you’re out of Beasts to pull with her Deathrattle. Ideally, you want to Cube stuff only when you can trigger the Deathrattle immediately, otherwise the card is very weak against Silence.

A great feature of your Deathrattle cards which summon something (Egg, Cube) that most of people don’t consider is AoE protection. That’s why when you face a deck which runs big AoE clears (e.g. Odd Warrior with Brawl or Control Warlock with Twisting Nether) you ideally want to keep a Deathrattle minion like that on the board all the time. If your opponent AoE’s the board, you will still likely be left with some board presence, giving you initiative. The same trick works with Kathrena – if you still have a big Beast in your deck and you anticipate an AoE removal, you should keep her around instead of triggering her Deathrattle. It’s possible that your opponent will first kill it and then AoE, but then he wasted an extra removal, which is still good for you.

It’s important to note that the deck is not made to counter fast decks. While it doesn’t have terrible matchups against those, you don’t really want to meet decks like Odd Paladin or Zoo Warlock. The problem here is that your early game is very slow and you have no comeback mechanics. If you curve perfectly with Candleshot into Prince Keleseth into Devilsaur Egg and then trigger it a few times, then Aggro matchups are incredibly easy, but it doesn’t happen often. Lots of the time your early game will be pretty awkward, you will skip Turn 1 and Turn 2 very often, you might be forced to drop a 3/3 on Turn 3 without any extra value etc.

Deathstalker Rexxar is your alternative win condition. If your Deathrattle shenanigans fail, you can always go for an “infinite value” option. Sadly, most of the current slow decks have some kind of combo finisher that makes your “infinite value” a bit pointless, but even then, it still gives you much more resources to work with. If you constantly drop big threats, your opponent might be forced to answer them instead of pushing their own game plan. Rexxar is also great, because it gives you a steady flow of Beasts you can perform your combos on. Most notably, there are two Beasts with Deathrattle that work really well with your cards that trigger Deathrattles. One of them is Exploding Bloatbat – while 2 AoE damage is already okay by itself in some scenarios, if you can pick Poisonous card as the second Beast, then it becomes a full board clear on demand. And there are quite a few Poisonous Beasts to choose from – Stubborn Gastropod, Emperor Cobra, Giant Wasp,Stoneskin Basilisk and finally Vilebrood Skitterer – you don’t even need a trigger card for the last one if you can run it into a bigger minion, although it costs 9 mana, so you can’t use it on the same turn. The other Deathrattle card is Arfus, which can get quite a lot of value if you start triggering it, copying it etc. While some of the DK cards are quite useless, Death Coil, Death and Decay, Anti-Magic Shell and Frostmourne can all be very strong.

The matchup you need Deathstalker Rexxar in the most is Odd Warrior. If you don’t get an explosive start, the chances are that you won’t be able to kill them in time, they would just run you out of resources. And that’s where DK card becomes handy – you can generate an extra big threat every turn, so many of them that Warrior will eventually run out of ways to answer them. It won’t happen fast – the games of Deathstalker Rexxar vs Dr. Boom, Mad Genius can go into the fatigue. That’s why if that is the strategy you’re taking, you should avoid using your Tracking (since it puts you 3 cards deeper in fatigue), or maybe even Kathrena Winterwisp (this one depends on when you can play her – if it’s on the curve when you’re still going for the tempo push game plan, then she’s great – if it’s later in the game when you’re aiming at fatigue and Warrior has 50 health in total, then you’d rather wait and play her when she won’t pull anything).

Deathstalker Rexxar also works surprisingly well in faster matchups. The initial 2 damage AoE can be devastating for the opponent if timed well – from my experience, Aggro decks usually don’t play around it that much, since it’s 1-of, and other Hunter AoEs are either telegraphed (Explosive Trap) or might be not very effective against 2 health minions, especially if hidden behind a higher health Taunt (Unleash the Hounds). After transforming into Rexxar, don’t be greedy with your Beasts. It’s better to drop some Midrange beast every turn than to hoard a few 8-10 cost ones and not be able to play them, or lose to a single Silence because of a massive tempo loss. It’s best to pick cards with immediate effects (Rush, Charge, Battlecry) or Lifesteal. Additionally, if you have a way to proc a Deathrattle, picking a solid Deathrattle Beast might do the trick. Exploding Bloatbat, like I’ve mentioned already, is the best one for those shenanigans. If you can give it Poisonous (e.g. Stubborn Gastropod, it’s a massive board clear. If you give it Lifesteal (e.g. Swamp Leech, it heals for all of the AoE damage dealt, which is often 10+ healing.

Deathrattle Hunter Card Substitutions

Deathrattle Hunter is a rather expensive deck – its Dust costs often exceeds 10k, since it runs many Legendary cards. You might be able to do fine without just one or two, but some of them are simply necessary for the deck to function. Here is a full list of more expensive cards with potential replacements:

• Prince Keleseth – The problem with replacing Prince Keleseth is that there aren’t many good 2-drops that this deck would want to run. Keleseth also plays an extra role of activating your Eggs even if you have no other way to do so. Even if you replace it, you can’t just put in a single 2-drop – it won’t be enough. If you don’t have him and still want to play the deck, I would recommend dropping the Recruit package with Kathrena Winterwisp and going for Mechanical Whelp version instead. You can find an example deck list below!
• Houndmaster Shaw – Houndmaster Shaw is an all-around good card to have in decks like this one, but it’s not necessary, as he does not play a vital role in the deck. You can replace him with basically anything you want – e.g. Defender of Argus to activate Eggs, Tar Creeper, Saronite Chain Gang, maybe Void Ripper or Spellbreaker techs.
• Deathstalker Rexxar – Deathstalker Rexxar can’t be replaced. It’s the only source of AoE against Aggro, and a great way to not run out of resources in slower matchups. You will win lots of games thanks to the Rexxar, and there is no card to replace him with. If you really want to play the deck without Rexxar, you can try any of the replacements I’ve listed here, but keep in mind that the deck will work significantly worse.
• Kathrena Winterwisp – If you don’t have Kathrena, you can run Mechanical Whelp package instead. See Prince Keleseth replacements.
• King Krush – It’s the best “big Beast” to run – it’s amazing when you summon it from Kathrena, and it’s also okay if you play it from your hand as a finisher. If you don’t have it, you can still replace it with Charged Devilsaur, though. Will be nearly as good when played from Kathrena, but generally worse from the hand. If you don’t have Devilsaur, you can go for another big Beast, such as Amani War Bear or Savannah Highmane.
• Oondasta – New Rastakhan’s Rumble addition to the deck, the card synergizes with the deck quite well, but it’s definitely not necessary to play it. Just like in case of King Krush, you want to replace it with another Charged Devilsaur, but if you don’t have it, other big Beasts, such as Amani War Bear or Savannah Highmane will also do the trick.
• Carnivorous Cube – Impossible to replace, it’s another vital card in the deck. It’s your main mid-late game combo tool, eating a big minion and then immediately triggering Cube with Play Dead or Terrorscale Stalker is your best win condition in most of the matchups.
• Charged Devilsaur – Charged Devilsaur is a part of the best package for Kathrena, it’s also incredibly powerful when combined with Cube. If you don’t have Devilsaurs, though, it’s not the end of the world – you just want to play some big Beast instead. Rastakhan’s actually added a new best replacement for Devilsaur – Amani War Bear. In all fairness, it’s even better than Devilsaur in fast matchups (thanks to the Taunt), but the fact that you can’t swing face immediately makes it significantly worse in slower matchups. Alternatively, you can also go for Savannah Highmane instead.

Deathrattle Hunter Alternative Deck List

And here’s the promised deck list with Mechanical Whelp. The Kathrena version seems to be better, but the Mech version is cheaper and still quite powerful.

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