Hemet – Kingsbane (Theorycraft)

Introduction

Basically, I was thinking last night of my last Hemet deck and how Kingsbane would’ve worked decently but would’ve interrupted draws and wouldn’t have made much difference in whether or not you win. So I got to thinking: why not put Hemet in an actual Kingsbane deck? And not just a meme-deck? I mean, they already released Cavern Shinyfinder to help with weapon-sapping, so why not?

Core Mechanics

Essentially your goal is to get Hemet, weapon buffs, and Kingsbane OR Cavern Shinyfinder. The deck has a bunch of low-cost draw, allowing you to sift through your deck and find whatever buffs you need, as well as looking for Hemet and your weapon(-saps). Once you get to the point where you have enough weapon buffs to satisfy yourself, the weapon in your hand as well as Hemet, blow up your deck. This leaves you with Anub’arak and Valeera the Hollow. Once you draw the two, put Kingsbane back into your deck. Mission accomplished! You now have an infinite durability weapon (I’ll explain later) with a bunch of buffs, as well as Anub’arak to drop each turn to grind out your opponent! Have fun!

Win Conditions

Generally winning games goes as follows: Buff Kingsbane throughout the game. Get Hemet and Kingsbane (buffed or with buffs in hand). Play Hemet, draw into Anub and Valeera. Play Valeera, then next turn Kingsbane, attack, then copied Kingsbane. The original Kingsbane will go back into your deck and you now have an infinite deck if you keep playing one Kingsbane per turn (since it’s the only card in your deck at any given moment). Then play Anub’arak on the turn after you start the infinite-Kingsbane going to put a threat on board. Keep attacking, keep playing one Kingsbane per turn (ONLY one unless they don’t kill Anub). Now you have an infinite-durability buffed weapon, an infinitely-deep deck, and an 8/4 that refuses to die. Unless of course they run silence, but eh. 

Mulligans

Aggro – Find your removal ASAP. Spells work best, but if you can get a buffed Kingsbane with Lifesteal, that’ll work wonders. Once you get to late game, your buffed lifesteal Kingsbane should be good enough to lead you all the way to a win.

Control – Draw into Hemet ASAP. You want to try to out-value them, and Anub’arak will help immensely with that. Once you have a good amount of buffs, Hemet and go for the long game.

Combo – This is where the deck seems lacking; I’ve opted for the 2x Evasion package to stall a couple turns, so if you can predict when the big stuff is coming, drop an Evasion down. The deck does not run Coldlight Oracles, but if you see a bunch of Combo decks in the meta, go ahead and sub a couple in with maybe a Shadowstep or two. Generally you win if their combo whiffs and they’re using some sort of minion combo, but spell combos, Fatigue combos, and Hero Power combos generally go awry for you.

Card Substitutions

Generally you want to try to have the high-roll Legendaries in the deck. If you do, generally either card draw or spell power (or Wild Pyromancer) will work.

Can’t replace Kingsbane, and Hemet is the entire point of the deck.

Bloodmage Thalnos can be replaced with, say, a Loot Hoarder against Control for card draw or a Tainted Zealot against Aggro for spell power.

Valeera is too difficult to replace since you’d have to roll high on a Mimic Pod in order to get the infinite Kingsbane as well as the ability to drop Anub’arak whenever (Plus Valeera allows you to double-up on Weapon buffs), but it can be replaced if you don’t mind a more inconsistent deck.

Anub’arak is your game-winner against Control, and it is extremely difficult to win the matchup without him. If, however, you meet much more aggressive decks, opt for the cut.

Conclusion

Hope you had fun with (probably) my last theorycraft deck for the expansion! Go ahead and try it out if you feel, and good luck to the ones who want to try the deck!