Face Hunter feat. Snipe (S36)

Hey everyone,

My name is Immolate, and this is my Face Hunter decklist. I really enjoy playing Hunter, but it is currently the worst class in the game. It gets destroyed by the aggression of Patches the Pirate, and it can never match the value of Reno Jackson and Jade decks. Midrange Hunter is in a bad spot at the moment, and Control Hunter, while fun to play, is impractical to take to the ladder. An Aggro Hunter deck seems to be the only remotely viable Hunter archetype at the moment. Thanks to the recent Small-Time Buccaneer and Spirit Claws nerfs, the rise of slower Control and Midrange decks such as Jade Druid, Midrange Jade Shaman, and Dragon Priest, and the steep decline of the number of Reno Mages, Aggro Hunter can compete in the meta. Riding the back of the mighty horse Midnight, the Cloaked Huntress creates massive board swings that quickly snowball games in your favor. If you like this deck and guide, be sure to drop an upvote and a comment! Feel free to suggest changes. If I have or can easily craft the suggested changes, I will test them out! Without further ado, the guide:

Mulligans:

Against Aggro:

> Alleycat and Secretkeeper: Solid 1-drops to gain control of the board early.

> Bear Trap and Explosive Trap: These are the best traps to stop the tidal wave of damage from connecting to your face.

> Kindly Grandmother: Solid early game minion for trading.

> Quick Shot: Best way to remove annoying 3 health minions like Korkron Elite without having to use a weapon or a minion.

> Animal Companion: Roll Misha, win games.

> Cloaked Huntress: With one or both of the above secrets.

Against Control:

> Alleycat and Secretkeeper: Again, solid 1-drops to gain control of the board early.

> Kindly Grandmother: Either this card gets insane value trades, or it forces the opponent to use multiple minions and/or spells to remove it. In rare cases, this can boost a turn 3 Kill Command to 5 damage.

> Scavenging Hyena: With Alleycat.

> Animal Companion: Great turn 3 play. Not much else to say about this card.

> Cloaked Huntress: A turn 3 (or turn 2 on the coin) Cloaked Huntress can give you a massive tempo advantage by removing enemy minions, protecting friendly minions, and even summoning more Beasts to hit face.

> Secrets: Keep secrets when you already have a Cloaked Huntress in hand. You can also keep one secret if you want to guarantee a buff on Secretkeeper.

> Freezing Trap: Against Shaman. Sending a Tunnel Trogg or Totem Golem back to the opponent’s hand is insane.

Gameplay:

Against Aggro:

Aggro had died down a good amount recently, but you can bet that you will see plenty of Pirate Warriors and Aggro Rogues on the ladder.

Against Pirate Warrior, you simply need to survive. Play secrets, remove enemy minions, and hope you get Misha off of Animal Companion.

Aggro Rogue is a little slower, so a solid Cloaked Huntress turn might be a good way to swing the game in your favor.

Keep a close eye on your health total and calculate how much damage the opponent can deal in a single turn. Be careful not to take too much damage when using your Eaglehorn Bow as removal.

Against Control:

Go face. Sure, you can kill some of your opponent’s minions if it will prevent them from dying, but you really need to steadily shove damage at the opponent’s face. Here is where Cloaked Huntress really shines. Although it doesn’t happen very often, an unanswered turn 1 Secretkeeper into a turn 2 Coin Cloaked Huntress into a turn 3 Eaglehorn Bow quickly wins games. Leeroy Jenkins, Unleash the Hounds, and burn spells can help you remove large Taunt minions and finish off your opponent.

Remember, when against Warlock, it is likely that your opponent runs Reno Jackson, so do your best to finish off your opponent before turn 6.

If Jade Druid can survive until turn 7, a huge Ancient of War could ruin your day, so be as aggressive as possible and try to kill them quickly. Hunter's Mark is an amazing card in this matchup, as it allows you to quickly smash through your opponent’s big Taunt minions.

Midrange Jade Shaman can be a challenge. However, the secrets Snipe and Freezing Trap are insane at dealing with Shaman’s strong 3 and 4 health minions, such as Tunnel Trogg, Totem Golem, Flametongue Totem, Mana Tide Totem, and occasionally Azure Drake.

The same goes for Dragon Priest. Priest struggles to remove your 4 attack minions, so be sure to keep them alive for as long as possible.

Tips and Tricks:

> Play Explosive Trap before Freezing Trap. Secrets trigger in the order in which you play them. Playing Explosive before Freezing means that if a 2 health minion attacks your hero, the Explosive Trap will trigger first, killing the minion without wasting your Freezing Trap. This is usually not very important, but if your opponent has a 2/2 Jade Golem and a 7/7 Flamewreathed Faceless, I know which one I would rather send back to the hand. 🙂

> Scavenging Hyena ordering. Make sure that if you are going to make trades with Beast minions and are going to play a Hyena that you play the Hyena first so it gets the buffs. The only time you don’t do this is if you want to play around Shadow Word: Death.

> Using Eaglehorn Bow. Because this weapon can receive Durability from Secrets, it’s hard to know whether to throw 3 damage at the opponent’s face or to save the weapon charges. This is especially difficult now that many decks are including at least one copy of Acidic Swamp Ooze. Here are the instances where using a weapon charge immediately is a good idea:

     > If your opponent is going to almost for sure going to trigger a Secret next turn (Freezing Trap).

     > If your opponent has a minion with 3 or less health that can either snowball the game or directly threatens your minions.

     > If your opponent appears to have a Reno Jackson deck.

     > If you have a second Eaglehorn Bow in hand.

Thank you for reading this guide! I hope you enjoy playing this deck. Remember, if you liked the decklist, be sure and give it an upvote! Comment down below if you have any suggestions for the deck. Feedback is greatly appreciated! I usually respond to comments within 24 hours. Good luck!