Pressure Hunter

Pressure. That’s what this deck is about, the constant application of pressure. Meant to be played in Aggro fashion, but with some tricks. With some…style…

Right off the bat you’ll notice that this is a deathrattle deck with no N'Zoth, The Corruptor. We’re not planning on making it to turn 10. Hunter just doesn’t have the healing to support a late-game N’zoth control style deck. This is the aggro version. This is what Forlorn Stalker  can really do.

Overall Strategy:

This deck has two opening strategies that it can employ: Huge push with buffed deathrattle minions, or tricky defense with secrets. You’ll want to use one or the other depending on what class you’re facing against and what type of deck you feel your opponent has. With this deck, you play your opponent more than you play your cards. This is a deck for poker players.

Generally speaking, you’ll make a huge early game push with either Cloaked Huntress or Forlorn Stalker and then try to finish it up with Eaglehorn Bow and Kill Command.

Looking at the decklist, it might be difficult to see exactly where the Aggro is. Most of the creatures are relatively small, and the secrets played in this deck are not considered “top tier”. But that is exactly what makes this deck so great. These particular secrets all punish your opponent by placing new threats on the board AFTER they have already done something. If they hit your face, taunt Bear on the board. Oh they casted a spell? Jungle panther on the board. Attacked one of your creatures? Why’d it have to be snakes? The most important aspect of these creatures is that they appear on your opponent’s turn, making them fully available to attack on yours. It’s simply up to you to create the circumstances under which they appear. And they WILL appear, outside of attacking face, attacking creatures, and casting spells…there’s not much your opponent can do other than Hero Power and pass turn.

As for your “small” minions, all of them can be played to full effect in the early game just as they are. However, they can be played JUST as effectively after a turn 3 Forlorn Stalker and still keep up with your opponent. Dropping a 4/3 Huge Toad and a 3/2 Loot Hoarder on turn 4 is a SUPER effective, but they can also be further buffed by an additional Forlorn Stalker. Ever play a 4/3 Fiery Bat for 1 mana? How about an 8/7 Savannah Highmane? This deck has the versatility to pull off all three stages of the game…early, mid, and late. Just try it and see.

***UPDATE***

The recent patch hit Aggro really hard, Shaman especially hard. But every single card touched was NOT in this deck. So, all things considered, our deck just got much better against its primary rivals: Aggro Shaman and Aggro Warlock. The biggest differences you’ll notice is that your coined out Forlorn Stalker won’t immediately die to their turn 1 or 2 Abusive Sergeant, and your turn 1 Secretkeeper is no longer in danger from a Rockbiter Weapon. And since we don’t run Call of the Wild anyway, we should all be seeing a noticeable increase in win percentage. 

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Starting Hand:

Oddly enough our starting position greatly determines our starting hand. This deck has a preference for going 2nd. Can you believe that? An aggro deck that prefers to play from behind? Well, this one does! And you will notice the difference!

You’re going for either a Forlorn Stalker or a Cloaked Huntress. If you get either one of those in your opening hand, mulligan for what suits that particular strategy. Deathrattle minions for the Stalker, secrets for the Huntress. This is because on turn 2, we’re going to Coin out the Stalker in order to buff all of our minions in hand…OR we’re going to Coin out a Huntress and dump all our secrets. Either one of these plays is going to put you massively ahead for the next 3-4 turns.

General Turn by Turn Strategy:

Turn 1: Fiery Bat or Secretkeeper

Turn 2 Going First: Any 2 drop really, there are plenty.  Snake Trap is an excellent follow up for Secretkeeper. Bear Trap if you have nothing on board but your opponent does. Huge Toad if you need to be threatening. Loot Hoarder is good by itself.

Turn 2 Going Second: Coin Forlorn Stalker or Cloaked Huntress

Turn 3 Going First: Forlorn Stalker or Cloaked Huntress

Turn 3 Going Second: Harvest Golem or Eaglehorn Bow

Turn 4: Any combination of 2 drops or Infested Wolf

Turn 5: Any combination of Infest, Quick Shot, Kill Command, and Hero Power.

Turn 6. Priority is to finish any way you can. Attack face, weapon strikes, direct damage spells, and use your hero power. Embody the word “Onslaught”. Savannah Highmane and Sylvanas Windrunner are there to help with a final push if you are beginning to get outmatched.

Turn 7 and Beyond: You’re on the decline but you still have tools at your disposal. Use your secrets and spells strategically, Infest to refill your hand. Hope you get lucky.

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Strengths: Super high early game pressure. Spells that can remove as well as deal direct damage. Minion stickiness in case of board clears. Tricky secrets to keep your opponent off balance and the pressure on. Greatly effective against Control style decks, fights tooth and nail against other Aggro decks, and generally applies too much early game pressure for Mid-Range to be able to hang.

Weaknesses: Weak late game. As you get higher in turns, your chances of winning drastically decrease. If an opponent is successful in stalling you out, you probably won’t win. Freeze mage is your worst match up, but you’re not entirely defenseless against it.

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Card Specific Strategies:

Fiery Bat The Bat is the best turn 1 play that you can make. And most likely, it will never have as much impact on the game as much as it can being the first card you play. It’s strength is that it provides an aggressive start, and forces certain classes like Mage and Rogue to use their 1st turn + Coin or 2nd turn to Hero Power and deal with it.

Secretkeeper Your second best turn 1 play. But if you have a good secret to back it up, such as Snake Trap , suddenly your opponent will have a situation on their hands that can spin out of control very quickly.

Bear Trap Your IDGAF card. Generally it is best to play this card when your oppenent has a MORE threatening creature than you, and expects you to attack into that creature. So knowing this, don’t attack his “threat” and play this instead and another smaller creature. Your opponent will attack face, and this lovely beast will show up to the party. And because it spawned on your oppenent’s turn, it will be ready to attack on yours. 

Cat Trick Think of this card as “board clear insurance”. Knowing that your opponents are most likely to play board clears on turns 4,5,6, or 7….depending on your opponent’s class, play this card in anticipation of a board clear. If you’ve played your cards correctly, you should still come out of the clear alright via a Harvest Golem or Infested Wolf. But then add a 4/2 Stealth Beast and you still have a significant presence. For example, if I have Eaglehorn Bow equipped and a Kill Command in hand, on the turn following a Cat Trick, I can attack face, weapon strike, Kill Command the player, and Hero Power. That’s a 14 damage combo for 5 mana, not including anything else that might be going on.

Quick Shot Mainly to be used when your hand is empty for extra face damage and a card draw. However, it can and should be used to clear obstacles like taunt minions when necessary.

Snake Trap Honestly, this is the combo enabler of the deck…and simultaneously a sick early game pressure card. As discussed previously, it has a highly impactful synergy with Secretkeeper on turn 2. It buffs the creature to a 2/3, and provides cover for the incoming attack. If your opponent attacks into your Keeper, you have three 1/1 creatures ready to attack immediately on the next turn. This is HUGE, and can be followed up by even more impactful turn 3 plays.  All of the snakes count as beasts, so Kill Command is enabled for 5 damage. Infest on your Secretkeeper (if its still alive) and all 3 snakes is going to net you 4 additional creature cards. Don’t underestimate the power of this card, but remember to guide the battle so that your opponent plays into it. 

Huge Toad Your “threat” card. This is an excellent creature to play on Turn 2 if you went first. Its high attack value makes it a good minion to attack into face or take down a threatening target. And it’s deathrattle effect gives you the opportunity to punch above its weight class if you get lucky. But then Forlorn Stalker takes this OK card and makes it insane. A 4/3 for 2 mana. If you play Forlorn with this in your hand and a Loot Hoarder  and/or a Fiery Bat, you suddenly have a very early threatening board.

Loot Hoarder Your most basic minion. This is another decent card you can play on Turn 2 if you have to, but its better played after a Forlorn Stalker. Generally just a body to be used for enemy removal and to draw you an extra card. Best to attack an enemy creature with this minion BEFORE you spend any mana at all during your turn. If you know that you want to remove a certain target, attack in with this minion in order to give yourself an additional draw and more options for the turn. 

Eaglehorn Bow The bread and butter of this deck. Alot of your early game pressure comes from your Deathrattle minions or Secrets, but this weapon is absolutely necessary for finishing your opponent and/or continuing to clear obstacles. Make the most of it. Best used the turn after you play Cloaked Huntress and dump your secrets, or same turn if you have the mana.

Infest Your hand replenishment card. Best used RIGHT before you expect a board clear or right after a Snake Trap release. There is only one of this card in the deck, and for good reason. It’s an absolute waste of space unless set up properly. More important than any single legendary you could place in this deck is THIS card. THIS card keeps you alive, supports your late game push. With this card you can completely refill your hand with BEASTS. Beasts that can enable a Kill Command and help you reach that last little bit of damage you need to land a finishing blow. It cannot be understated how important this card is. This IS your “legendary”, and since it only yields beasts…it is very likely to give you ACTUAL legendary cards. Roughly 20% of all Beasts are Legendary. Mukla, King Krush, Gahz’rilla, Princess Huhuran, Maexxna, Malorne, The Beast, on and on etc…

Kill Command Your standard direct damage. The intent is to use this card to rock your opponent in the face; however, it is versatile enough to be used to kill an enemy creature when necessary. 

Cloaked Huntress One of your best cards. If your opening hand contains one, mulligan everything else (except a Secretkeeper) to look for secrets. If you somehow land on an opening hand, where you go second and have a Secretkeeper, 2 secrets, and this card….holy crap did you just land on the Holy Grail of opening hands. Like it doesn’t even matter what happens the rest of the game because you already won. Best used when coined out on turn 2, or regular on turn 3…but in conjunction with a secret of course.

Forlorn Stalker Your other “best card”. If your opening hand contains one of these, mulligan everything else (except a Fiery Bat) to look for more deathrattle minions. If somehow you land on an opening hand, where you go second and have a Fiery Bat, 2 other deathrattle minions, and this card….wowza is your opponent gonna have a bad time. All shall kneel before the power of the Death Eaters. 

Harvest Golem Generally played after a Forlorn Stalker, this card turns into a 3/4 that summons a 2/1 if it dies. This card is beefy and it also provides more “board clear insurance”. Best played on turn 3 after a turn 2 Coin+Forlorn Stalker play.

Infested Wolf Your “high gear” regular card. Meant to be more beef, more “board clear insurance”, and situationally also an Infest or Kill Command enabler. The spiders it releases also count as beasts. Meant to keep pressure on, keep the aggro going, and combo with the rest of your deck. 

Savannah Highmane A top end version of Infested Wolf but the same principle applies. This card is there to keep the pressure on. Don’t rely on this card to win you the game, but it WILL buy you another turn and force your opponent to deal with it. Hyenas make for good Infest targets, and count as Beasts so Kill Command is enabled for full damage.

Sylvanas Windrunner A late addition to the deck, but necessary. The final component to keeping the pressure on. Once again, don’t rely on this card to win you the game, but it will buy you another turn at the very least. Can be used to attack a creature or face first, then Kill Command or Quick Shot on it to steal something better. Players are reluctant to play their best cards with this on the board.

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Substitutions:

For players who don’t want to spend the money on adventures like Khazaran, first let me say that they are really fun and totally worth it. But, if you don’t want to, you can sub out Cat Trick and Cloaked Huntress with some other Hunter cards. Go for more direct damage, like another Quick Shot and Explosive Trap. Cards like Animal Companion and Call of the Wild are really good too.

For new players who just don’t have alot of dust to spend yet, the only expensive cards in this deck are Snake Trap and Sylvanas Windrunner. Explosive Trap is a really good substitute for the Snake Trap because it will guarantee you 2 damage to the player and add some much needed AoE damage to your deck, but another good alternate is Freezing Trap because it will delay your opponent massively and allow you to keep the pressure on. A super easy substitute for Sylvanas Windrunner is to simply add another Savannah Highmane.

For “just for fun” players, the following substitutions are really fun but make for a more difficult deck to do well on ladder. Spawn of N'Zoth instead of Harvest Golem, buffs board minions at the cost of losing some “board clear insurance”. The Beast instead of Sylvanas Windrunner because pulling off a Forlorn Stalker on this card and whipping out a 10/8 creature on turn 5 or 6 is absolutely freaking insane and maniacally evil muahahahahaha!

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DECK CHANGES:

9/28/16: -2 Kindly Grandmother, + 1 Savannah Highmane and +1 Sylvanas Windrunner