Budget (Cheap) Aggro Secret Hunter Deck List Guide – Mean Streets of Gadgetzan

Aggro Secret Hunter was pretty popular Hunter archetype after the One Night in Karazhan adventure. Thanks to the Cloaked Huntress addition, it was possible to tempo out really heavily with the Secrets. With the early game tempo on the Hunter’s side, he was free to deal a lot of face damage with minions and Eaglehorn Bow which constantly gained extra durability.

Thanks to the very low mana curve, it’s very easy to add in Hero Power into nearly every turn after 3. And that Hero Power is one of the main sources of damage. Aggro Hunter can often stall the game with Secrets while Hero Powering every turn to bring enemy down, then finish him off with the burn.

I had to include two adventure cards – Quick Shot (1st wing of BRM) and Cloaked Huntress (1st wing of Karazhan), because they’re incredibly powerful and crucial in this deck.

Budget Aggro Secret Hunter Card Replacements

High Priority Replacements

1x Snipe => Leeroy Jenkins – Without Leeroy, the deck might often lack the final punch necessary to close some games.

Low Priority Replacements

2x Huge Toad => 2x Kindly Grandmother – Toad is not a bad 2-drop, but Kindly Grandmother is just better. It’s a little slow, but the fact that it’s harder to kill and AoE resistant makes it the best 2-drop choice in aggressive Hunter lists.

1x Bear Trap => 1x Snake Trap – While Bear Trap works nicely in fast matchups, Snake Trap is most likely a slightly better option overall. However, you want to have as many different (viable) trap types as possible, so you don’t draw duplicates (this makes your Cloaked Huntress even better).

After those replacements, the deck will become viable even in higher ranks. If you’re looking for an alternative, try Midrange Secret Hunter.

Budget Aggro Secret Hunter Mulligan Tips

High Priority (Always Keep)

• Alleycat – Most of the players were using Argent Squire in this slot, but I feel like Alleycat is stronger. Two small bodies make it hard to remove efficiently, good at making the early game trades and – unlike Squire – they’re able to push 2 damage per turn.
• Secretkeeper – Your second 1-drop. 1/2 stats are weak, but considering that you are often playing Secret on turn 2, it’s pretty consistently a 2/3 for 1 mana. Even better if you’re on Coin and with Cloaked Huntress in your hand.
• Quick Shot – Even though you play an Aggro deck, you still want to board control in the early game, and Quick Shot is a classic 3 damage for 2 mana.
• Huge Toad – You prefer to curve out with minions and keep your Secrets for Cloaked Huntress.
• Cloaked Huntress – This card is crucial to your game plan, and it’s very likely that you’re going to have about 2 Secrets in your hand by turn 3, so you keep the Huntress.

Low Priority (Situationally Keep)

• Acidic Swamp Ooze – In weapon matchups, e.g. against Warrior, Shaman or Hunter.
• Explosive Trap – Against Aggro, especially Pirates.
• Animal Companion or Argent Horserider – With 1-drop and 2-drop if you’re going first and just 1-drop if you’re going second (so you can Coin them out).
• Eaglehorn Bow – It used to be a keep, but with so many people running Ooze it’s more risky right now. I still keep it if I know that I will need to control the board early OR with Cloaked Huntress.

Budget Aggro Secret Hunter Strategy Tips

• Even though it’s an Aggro deck, you focus on board control early. Ironically, the longer the game goes, the better it is for you in a lot of matchups. You will always put your opponent on the clock with Hero Power, but if you drop the board control early, you might die too quickly.
• Don’t worry about using your burn to kill minions. Like I’ve said before – the longer you live, the more damage you deal. Keep burn for the face only when you’re close to lethal and you aren’t afraid of dying.
• Try to keep your Eaglehorn Bow at 1 durability all the time, so destroying it won’t hurt that much. If you don’t have any minion to swing at – hit the face.
• Order of the Secrets matter when it comes to Explosive Trap and Freezing Trap interaction. When your opponent hits your face with a minion, both traps will try to proc, but they will try to proc in the order you’ve played them in. So for example, against a single 5/2 minion on the board. If you play Freezing First and then Explosive, minion will get Frozen, get back to hand and then Explosive will proc on empty board. But if you play them in reverse order – Explosive will proc first, minion will die and the Freezing Trap won’t be wasted. Sometimes it’s really important, so remember about that. It’s pretty much always correct to play the Explosive first if you have both in your hand.
• Try to Hero Power as much as possible. In the first 3-4 turns, you should focus on the tempo – playing minions, removing stuff, playing Secrets etc. But after turn 4, you should try to Hero Power every single turn to put your opponent on the clock.