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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
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 Flare. Barnes 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.
Why do you run a on the hunt instead of a extra candleshot. Candleshot seems better is it to avoid the taunts?
Yes, sometime it’s to avoid the taunts but sometimes its also a trigger for Kill Command if you have no beasts on board.
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.
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.
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).
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
Hmmm…makes sense, I’m. I have the required cards, I’ll try this out. Thanks
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.
This deck is actually insane. 8-0 with it atm, on a win streak from rank 9 to 6, hoping on 5 now! 😀
Thanks! Good luck on the grind, hopefully you can make legend too.
Great guide, thanks for sharing! Congrats on Legend.
Thank you! 🙂
This deck was sick I got to worlds with it