Token Hunter… new archetype? lil late?

 It basically auto loses to shaman with all the AoE they have… which is why this just can’t be tier 1…. BUT! EDIT* Shaman is no longer giving me trouble! the meta has shifted enough that most shaman decks get tangled up with my gameplan, and this is a totally winable matchup. Use of Unleash the hounds is really key.

This deck is insanely fun to play and i quite resilient when you have the board. There are massive draw and value mechanics with tempo swings. Hoping the new set brings some tools to make this viable

With enough upvotes, I’ll write a full write-up. Dabbling with it at the moment around rank 10. EDIT* already back at rank 10 this season while playing casually

I feel like 7 is enough up-votes! Here’s the write up:

This deck plays mostly as a midrange deck and has some solutions to battle both ends of the current meta spectrum… either hyper aggro or hyper control.

VS hyper aggro decks (shaman, pirate) you need to fight for board control and that’s what determines the win or loss. You can outlast both of them in the long run to get the win

VS control (Reno, Jade, MRGL) you’re looking to get big value from cards like Infest and Cult Master. It’s quite easy vs control to get 5-6 beast out of infest, and even 6 raptors can be significant.

Card Explanations:

Token Package: Alleycat Snake Trap Knife Juggler Unleash the Hounds Rat Pack Infested Wolf Ball of Spiders

These cards are all in the deck to fill your board. First turn Alleycat followed by Snake Trap  can easily give you 4 minions by turn 2. This gives you the option to take advantage of cards like Cult Master and Gormok the Impaler with the coin or Infest without (and 4 random beasts is great value. 

Be cautious with the use of your Knife Juggler as he can be really high value. If not pushing for board presence, i only like to drop him with a snake trap built in. 

Pump Package:Timber Wolf Dire Wolf Alpha Animal Companion (1/3 times) and Defender of Argus. EDIT* just added this in for a copy of Defender.Houndmaster I’m playing around with the mix of these two cards…. defender if facing a lot of aggro, Houndmaster if facing more control is what I’ve seen so far.

These cards are here to make your tokens more tradeworthy. Timber Wolf is great with Unleash the Hounds as a way to take a board back against shaman and pirates. 

Value Package:Infest Cult Master Starving Buzzard

These cards all fill your hand in some way shape or form. Starving buzzard is great with a snake trap set up and also allows alleycat to be a viable card late game (compare to a 2 card fight promoter)

Threat Package:Tundra Rhino Sea Giant Gormok the Impaler N'Zoth, The Corruptor 

These cards are what make this deck push to be competitive. Tundra Rhino is targeted so fast, which shows what effect he has, and if left unchecked, can really do some damage combined with other cards. 

Sea Giant is the mvp of this deck. He is unexpected in this meta, and very few decks have a good solution for him. He can make your opponent totally switch gameplans and allow you to switch to face mode if left alive. It’s often I can drop 2 of these at 1 mana each, and against other minion focused decks, that’s game over. 

Princess Huhuran Is great for targeting Rat Pack and Infested Wolf, but it currently feels too situational and like a win more card. As many of my games are making it to turn 10, I’ve been experimenting with N’zoth, which seems to be working in the slower meta i’m experiencing. EDIT* I’ve officially made this switch, but will leave this comment in as the switch back could depend on meta.

EDIT* I’d like to note that all of this deck stays around after the shift in sets except for Gormok (nothing fully comparable to replace with… hope for something in new set) and Ball of spiders (replace with another infest or something new)

This deck is so fun to play, give it a chance!

suggestions welcomed!