Legend Spell Hunter w/ Barnes & Y’shaarj

Class: Hunter - Format: mammoth - Type: midrange - Season: season-45 - Style: ladder

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Deck Import

Mulligans

General Mulligans

In general, you just want to mulligan for Barnes to play on turn 4 or turn 3 if you are going 2nd. Also, the same concept applies when you mulligan for Tracking as you are looking for Barnes.

Aggro Mulligans

Against the aggro matchup, you should mulligan for Explosive trap and Unleash the hounds. You can keep Candleshot and On the hunt if it appears in your opening hand. I think you should hard mulligan for Explosive trap and Unleash the hounds against Aggro Paladin as turn 4 Call to arms can run you over. It can also be wise to keep Deathstalker Rexxar against Druid for turn 5 Living mana only if you have other aoe clears. It also isn't bad if you run into Jade Druid.

Midrange Mulligans

In midrange and tempo matchups, you should mulligan for Barnes and Tracking. But you should also be looking for secrets such as Cat Trick and Wandering monster to generate your own tempo and Eaglehorn bow to clear. Against Mage, always look/keep Flare.

Combo Mulligans

Just hard mulligan Barnes and Tracking but keep Animal companion as tempo on board.

Control Mulligans

Always mulligan for Barnes and Tracking in a control matchup. Animal companion should be kept in the first hand for tempo. Dealthstalker Rexxar can be kept against Priest as it could be a value oritentated matchup.

So I recently hit legend for the first time running this current variation of Spell Hunter. I only played this exact list from rank 5 and it took me 99 games (63W-36L) with a 63.6% win rate to hit legend.

Matchups

  • Druid: 5-1
  • Hunter: 5-4
  • Mage: 7-2
  • Paladin: 11-8
  • Priest: 21-9
  • Rogue: 6-4
  • Shaman: 2-0
  • Warlock: 6-8
  • Warrior: 0-0
Aggro
The most prominent aggro deck I played against was Aggro Paladin. With this match up, top priority is looking for your Explosive traps as every single minion in that deck excluding Corridor creeper has no more than 2 health. Unleash the hounds are also very useful to mulligan for as there are many 1 health minions including the silver hand recruits. This also allows for better clear against the bigger minions as you can clear the smaller ones with Candle shot and On the hunt. As a turn 2 play, Wandering monster is quite good as most of the time it will deal with their 1 or 2 drop and grant tempo on board if the summoned minion doesn’t die. Deathstalker Rexxar can be useful later into the game but shouldn’t be kept in the opening hand unless you have other removal such as Explosive trap and Unleash the hounds.

The above also applies against other aggro decks that may be seen such as Aggro Druid, Face Hunter, Zoolock and Pirate Warrior (even though I didn’t vs a single warrior deck from rank 5). Deathstalker Rexxar can sometimes be keep against Druid as it isn’t bad against Jade Druid and deals with turn 5 Living mana against Aggro Druid.

Control
By far the most played class is Priest whether it be Highlander PriestBig Priest or Dragon Priest variations. Pretty much if you high roll Barnes and you dodge their Shadow word: Death, you win. Other than that, go face as much as possible and try to bait out Dragonfire potion/Psychic scream before you play Emerald spellstone.
I found that Cubelock was the most difficult matchup for this deck. Any variation of Warlock that ran Voidlord paired with Bloodreaver Gul’dan was a nightmare. It was extremely hard to get through the minions with the tools I had. Even when high rolling Barnes you aren’t guaranteed to win due to their absurd amounts of healing through Mistress of mixturesDark pact, Amethyst spellstone, Bloodreaver Gul’dan and some more pseudo healing from Plated beetle. With Siphon soul being available on turn 6, it can make quick work of your Y’shaarj. Try to deal as much damage to them as early as possible, try bait out Hellfire before playing Emerald spellstone and try to save Hunter’s mark, Freezing trap, Deadly shot for Voidlord pray to god they draw badly.
Tempo

I was fairly surprised to not see much Tempo Rogue. As usual, you are looking for Barnes or Tracking into it. Even if the opponent has Coin-Vilespine or Backstab-Vilespine, you won’t be in a bad spot with a 3/4 on board. Try to upgrade and activate your Emerald spellstones since Tempo Rogue has no aoe clear. Clear their minions with Eaglehorn bow and generate tempo with your secrets and Flanking strike.

Against Secret Tempo Mage, you want to mulligan for the same cards plus FlareBarnes should instantly win you the game as most decks don’t run Polymorph. Same game plan, clear with bow and generate tempo with secrets and Flanking strike. Becareful to not be greedy with flare because counterspell is a card. This deck plays well into Secret Mage as this deck doesn’t really play minions which makes Explosive Runes amost useless until you decide to play your deathknight.

Combo

Playing against combo decks are very straight forward. Some that I faces would include Highlander Priest and Mill Rogue. You are mostly looking for Barnes, Tracking and possibly Cat Trick for tempo and try to run them over as quickly as possible (similar to the control matchup). You don’t have to play around Dragonfire potion/Psychic scream as cautiously as they only run 1 copy of each unless they use Shadow visions. Also look out for Vanish against Mill Rogue.

Conclusion

Spell hunter is a very reactive deck and doesn’t make many proactive plays part from the Barnes combo. I feel like the deck does fairly well against a combo orientated deck such as Highlander Priest, decently against aggro decks such as Aggro Paladin, Aggro Druid, Face Hunter and Zoolock. But has a harder time against control matchups such as Big Priest, Dragon Priest and Cubelock. In my opinion, I think the Barnes variant is better as the high roll is worth the risk and also with so many Priests running around on ladder, Psychic scream will make Rhok’delar dead anyways.

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13 Comments

Discuss This Deck
  1. Sveinkill
    December 30, 2017 at 4:39 PM

    Why do you run a on the hunt instead of a extra candleshot. Candleshot seems better is it to avoid the taunts?

    • Tyde - Author
      December 30, 2017 at 9:31 PM

      Yes, sometime it’s to avoid the taunts but sometimes its also a trigger for Kill Command if you have no beasts on board.

  2. Charles
    December 29, 2017 at 8:49 PM

    I’ve been playing this deck since Kobalds came out and it’s amazing. I’ve gone from Rank 9-1 so far. The great thing about the Barnes combo on turns 3 or 4 is that it either wins the game or makes your opponent use so many resources to kill the 10/10 that you can out tempo them in the following turns. Also agree that warlock is the most difficult matchup. Luck plays a big role for sure.

    • Tyde - Author
      December 30, 2017 at 9:29 PM

      Thanks! I hope you can make it to legend with it too. Yep I run that combo for exactly that reason. It’s just reallu difficult to deal with Voidlord and all the lifesteal, especially when they have Bloodreaver Gul’dan to back it up.

  3. DeaCOY
    December 29, 2017 at 12:29 AM

    Are you trolling? I don’t get the Barnes + Y Shaarj combo when you don’t have other minions, and to begin with you have Rhok’delar (which requires zero minions in the deck).

    • ComboPlayer
      December 29, 2017 at 12:43 AM

      I think the whole point is that both barnes and y’shaarj, whichever you draw, pulls the other one out of the deck, ideally—>barnes–>mini y’shaarj–>big y’shaarj…. its a 4 mana 3/4, 1/1 and 10/10 when this happens, seems pretty good. Still has great synergy with Rhok’delar

      • DeaCOY
        December 29, 2017 at 1:05 AM

        Hmmm…makes sense, I’m. I have the required cards, I’ll try this out. Thanks

        • Tyde - Author
          December 30, 2017 at 9:27 PM

          Yep! What ComboPlayer said. I found that during most my matches I didn’t even really need to use Rhok’delar. Slapping down Barnes on turn 3 or 4 can win the game for you most of the time.

  4. TortillaPose
    December 26, 2017 at 7:16 PM

    This deck is actually insane. 8-0 with it atm, on a win streak from rank 9 to 6, hoping on 5 now! 😀

    • Tyde - Author
      December 29, 2017 at 12:17 AM

      Thanks! Good luck on the grind, hopefully you can make legend too.

  5. Evident
    December 26, 2017 at 12:43 PM

    Great guide, thanks for sharing! Congrats on Legend.

  6. Sanox
    December 24, 2017 at 5:08 AM

    This deck was sick I got to worlds with it