Reno and Elise’s hunt for the Golden Monkey

Greetings, Traveler.

Are you tired of playing Face or Midrange Hunter? If so, you’re in for a treat. I believe, Hunter as a class has some real potential which hasn’t been fully explored yet due to the fact that the hero power dictates an aggressive play style so a lot of the more control-ish cards never see play. But everyone who has been playing with or against midrange hunter curving out perfectly, knows how well this deck can seize and control the board at will and can play a more control-based game to grind out the opponent.

Long story short, I threw together a Reno Jackson hunter deck, which features almost the complete gang from League of Explorers. Reno Jackson, Elise Starseeker and even Sir Finley Mrrgglton. If you feel like adding some more battlecry effects to the deck, even Brann could make an appearance.

The deck plays surprisingly similar to midrange hunter. You try to get some early minions onto the board or clear your opponent’s minions with your weapons. If you curve out well, you can finish your opponent the same way you would do in a normal midrange deck. Trade favorably whenever possible and don’t care too much about your hero power at the beginning. You want to get ahead on the board and don’t want to let the opponent overwhelm you (because hunter as a class lacks some good board clears as soon as 2 or 3 medium sized minions are on the other side of the table).

Since this deck can play many roles, knowing what to pick with Finley is a bit tricky. Generally, if I draw Finley early, I pick the warlock hero power whenever possible. When playing against mage, I usually wait until I see what I’m up against, because Armor Up! is a lot better against freeze mage than Life Tap, for example. If you draw Finley late, you usually know what to take. The later you draw Finley, the worse Life Tap becomes. Often I tend to pick Lesser Heal then, because healing yourself or healing your guys for better trades is key in those longer games.

Card Substitutes for the Standard format:
With standard around the corner, there are some cards that need to be replaced, if you want to keep playing this deck. Webspinner will be hard to replace, but I could see switching it for maybe Abusive Sergeant or whatever 1drop the new expansion brings us. Piloted Shredder can be replaced by Sen’Jin Shieldmasta or maybe even Chillwind Yeti. Or, again, whatever good 4drop the new expansion brings. Loatheb and Sludge Belcher will make room for Nexus-Champion Saraad and probably Sylvanas. Kel'Thuzad will be replaced by Ragnaros. A lot of these changes can be done now already without weakening the deck at all, so feel free to switch cards here and there and sound off about your experiences in the comments.