Houndmaster Shaw
Houndmaster Shaw is a 4 Mana Cost Legendary Hunter Minion card from the The Witchwood set!
Card Text
Your other minions have Rush.
Flavor Text
They’re good dogs, Tess.- Mana Cost: 4
- Attack: 3
- Health: 6
- Crafting Cost: 1600 / 3200 (Golden)
- Arcane Dust Gained: 400 / 1600 (Golden)
- Rarity: Legendary
- Class: Hunter
- Card Type: Minion
- Set: The Witchwood
- Mechanics: Rush
Houndmaster Shaw Card Review
This card is very good. Rush is a powerful mechanic – not as powerful as Charge, but it’s a HUGE tempo boost. It’s a card you can easily drop on Turn 4, but it also has a really good late game scaling, because when you’re on 10 mana, you can easily play it alongside some other minions.
When it comes to Houndmaster Shaw, the best comparison would probably be Tundra Rhino. It’s not limited to Beasts, costs 1 mana more and it’s 2/5 instead of a 3/6 – quite huge difference. On the other hand, it gives Rush instead of Charge and doesn’t get Rush itself. All in all, however, I think it compares favorably, and Tundra Rhino was already a card used in some of the decks.
Another card I would compare it to, not because of the effect, but because of the stats & impact is Priest of the Feast. The card has proven that 3/6 stats can contest the board quite nicely, and an ongoing effect like that requires a quick answer. Unlike Priest of the Feast, which only had to be answered right away when you play a fast deck (you can’t allow Priest to heal), this card has to be killed quickly in every matchup. After all, Hunter can start gaining tempo starting next turn and one thing is sure – you don’t want Hunter to stay ahead.
And the last card I want to compare it to is Fandral Staghelm, because I think that both will have similar impact. They’re absolutely “must-kill” 4-drop, because if they don’t die, they can snowball the matches quite easily. Fandral has better snowballing potential on curve (Nourish), but this one is harder to take down.
It has great synergy with Lesser Emerald Spellstone too – you can use the 3/3’s you summon to immediately trade into something. It’s hard to say whether a non-Spell Hunter deck will want to play Spellstone (Secret Hunter is taking a hard hit because it loses Cloaked Huntress), but if it will, this is a great combo.
I feel like this card should be played in all but the Aggro (and well, Spell, for obvious reasons) Hunter decks. It’s not game-breaking and not meta-defining, just like it doesn’t have broken synergies with any given deck. But it’s just well-rounded, strong card that will fit into non-Aggro/non-Spell decks.
Card rating: 8/10
there is one problem with this card “rush” is control board mechanic and hunter doesnt have any card draw mechanic Than whats the point of this card? U want to outvalue other control decks and classes with agressive hero power and none card draw?
Just the fact that Rush helps you control the board doesn’t mean that it only goes into control decks. Rush is a great mechanic for midrange decks because youbare the one forcing the trades, whereas normally you have to wait a turn before you can dictate where your minion trades into, meaning that Rush will help you maintain a tempo advantage or help you reclaim one. It’s great for any deck that wants to develop a board in the midgame.
Couple more good cards for hunter and midrange hunter is definitely back, this card is good hunter just needs other good cards
A relative of Deckard Shaw and Owen Shaw ….
Maybe also related to Ian Shaw
This card plus Necrotic Geist makes a full board clear and leaves behind a large amount stats. I bet this combo will be in a control-type hunter.
5 stars
good stats+upside=why would u not run him?
I will said why this card is so op:it has flexibility and tempo in the same card,cause you can play it as a op 3/6 body in turn 4,or topdecking it in turn 10 to launch some minions in oponent threats,and in both situations this card is very op,trade in atleast two enemy minions in both turns…and i dont know why compare that whit rhyno and said even its better,a very slower and weaker minion that just let you atack the opponent face,if it survive or you have enough mana to do that,very rarely to you can do it while you can use shaw almost everytime
So I’ve been running a minion control hunter list in standard (yep you read that right) with master oakhart into basilisk + rhino + knuckles (and a few other 3 attack minions like huntress) the deck runs the spellstone package as well. This card, at 3 attack makes this deck INCREDIBLY more consistent. I mean just this card into spellstone is crazy. Card is OP as all hell. (Btw the deck brought me from rank 14 to 5 in a day, with about 60-70% winrate until rank 5.
I’m not saying it can revive an archetype that was never alive to begin with, but there is some synergy to note with Marsh Queen.
A deck filled with 1-drops you can trade easily for control of the board (thanks to this guy) and soon after a deck filled with 1-drop “Draw a card” Rush minions isn’t something to laugh at.
All I know is that this will be the first card from this expansion that I’ll add to my Reno Hunter deck.
People trash on this way too much and the comparison to Tundra Rhino isn’t exactly the same. For one mana less and +1/+1 in stats, it’s actually a really good turn 4 play because you would play this in a Midrange Hunter deck and you should have control of the board at this stage of the game. Should see play whether or not hunter receives better cards
I agree
Control Hunter 😀
Oakheart – Synergy 😀
stoneskin basilisk + Shaw = yes please
Hey! Patron Hunter!
This could seriously work. Patron curve with Shaw and probably gets you to cleur the opponent’s board, as for spellstone.
Playing Shaw on turn 4 is clearly an option. People played Fandral on turn 4 when oponnent didn’t have minions to kill it.
For late game combos… *search 6 mana cards*
ZOMG
Necrotic Geist
Infinite board clear as soon as you play it if you already have something in play.
But there are so many other 6 drops that are good, or at least that strangely becomes playable, with it.
Illidan, Cairne, Moat Lurker, Mogor, Piloted Sky Golem, Sylvanas and even Seeping Oozeling!
Mekingineer Thermaplug or Giant Sand Worm + Bestial Wrath also do well.
Thats all in wild and in wild I don’t think this card is broken enough.
Necrotic Geist is the best of those combos and it is fully standard.
Say what if I have Shaw and Tundra Rhino on board, my other beasts have both rush and charge, which applies? Do I get to hit opponent’s face?
All of your beasts would get both Charge and Rush. In such a case, the two keywords should not conflict with each other and should be able to attack minions and the enemy hero.
As it is, Rush should work by allowing a minion with it to attack minions rather than being Charge minus the ability to attack face.
Jawline and expression like the Undertaker.
doesnt do anything by itself trash tier 400 dust
It is an 4 mana 3/6 what are good stats and if you have deathrattlecreatures on the board it has even immediatly impact.
if you know it so much better then yes you should dust it ^^
“doesnt do anything by itself” 4 cost 3/6 with taunt…
This is rather good. A Fandrel styled card for Hunter.
It may not be a finisher in the same way Tundra Rhino can be, but this card can be played on curve and often survive unlike Rhino. Pair this up with Emerald Spellstone or another turn 5 minion play, and you have an excellent Tempo curve on your hands.
You do know rush doesn’t let you attack face this card seems counterintuitive to the hunter play style
Hunter’s spellstone already doesn’t go face when you play it, and it’s still considered one of their best cards. Shaw absolutely turns the spellstone into a huge tempo threat.
Just because it doesn’t necessarily fit into the play style of the class it is in does not mean it can’t help that class in some way like Sunkeeper Tarim did for the Paladin Class or create a new style of deck for that class all together like Meteor did for Mage in creating a full on Control Mage deck.
This just seems like a bad version of Tundra Rhino… unless they nerf Rhino to the ground I don’t think this card will see any meaningful play. It’s not a beast, it doesn’t have rush itself, cannot hit face the turn you play stuff. The only thing going for it is the altered yeti stats… imho.
Well, it’s cheaper, better stated, and affects all of your other minions.
It is important to note, you can throw this out on curve unlike Rhino and it will probably survive. That same curvestone mentality also reveals this on turn 4 into any level of Emerald Spellstone is extremely good at establishing board control.
And other than Houndmaster, what other 4 drop would you be playing in a minion based hunter anyway?
Yeah after reflecting on it a bit I realised this would be very good for board control stuff, especially in combination with echo cards like that new hunter doggo. And you are right about playing it on curve, it definitely makes an impact.
“Oh no,itsnt a beast and don’t go face!!…garbage!!”-hunter basic player
pretty poor card actually, hunter have thundra rhino so…
Rhino is more expensive and has less stats than this Shaw. It’s aura also only affects beasts.
The niche Shaw and Rhino inhabit are not necessarily the same.
This card is deceptively good, it’s half of what hunter needed for a viable tempoish midrange deck, now they just need a good 2-3 mana weapon.
Instead of going for some cooky combos you just slam this down on turn 4. 3/6 is a pretty good statline and the effect is pretty relevant. Rush might not be as strong as charge but it’s amazing for board control. Sure, you’d rather be houndmastering things on 4 but you won’t always have a beast on board, this fixes a gap in hunter’s curve where all their good 4s are a bit situational(houndmaster, flanking strike).
If it dies, good, your opponent used their removal on your 4-drop and probably didn’t develop anything, this helps you stick other things and keep pushing. If it lives it can really help more efficiently push through taunts by attacking with a larger minion(like a 5-drop) and using your smaller ones to go face.
Unfortunately without that 2-3 mana weapon this all means nothing because a board-focused hunter simply won’t be viable.
Good analysis! But why not consider eaglehorn bow a suitable weapon?
Bow is alright but you need more than 2 earlygame weapons/efficient removal cards to make a tempo deck work. Paladin would be a lot worse right now without rallying blade, if all they had was maul for example.
This card is so bad. They should had made a 2 cost version of it at least. I was taken aback that this was the class legendary.
First off, there will be another Hunter legendary minion.
And also, this has better stats than Tundra Rhino, is cheaper than Rhino, and applies its effect to all minions not just beasts.
While you can’t throw minions at your opponent’s face instantly like you can with Rhino, Rushing your opponent’s minions for control of the board will make the Wolves summoned off of Emerald Spellstone at lot better than they already are, and unlike Professor Putricide, the statline of this card will make it far more likely to survive being played on curve.
Rush is not as good as Charge, but it will be good enough to get this card inserted into minion based hunter decks since other than houndmaster, there’s not a whole lot else to play on turn 4.
I tell you this card is very strong.. the base stats alone are just great. Especcially in wild with cards like kindly Grandmother or mad scientist
Pog..Champ !!
How does this work with minions that already have charge?
Will they be unable to attack heroes?
Probably not, that would be stupid
I would say – Rush is just added to all the minions attributes – so you still be able to choose to go for the hero lifepoints.