One of the big complaints about Hearthstone is the price to pay (to play) when you first start. There are a ton of Legendaries released, and if you are unlucky you may have not received much in the way of playable cards. This is unfortunate, so we’ve gone ahead and created some budget decks that should serve you well if you are in the Bronze or Silver divisions. Some of the stronger builds should be viable throughout Gold and possibly even Platinum if you master them. We don’t recommend those decks in Diamond or to attempt a Legend climb, unless you replace some of the budget cards and turn them into actual meta decks. You CAN hit Legend with some of them, but you would really need to master them and play very well, and by that time you most likely will have enough resources to build a full version anyway.
The game is in a better state than it was a few years ago. The free Core Set, as well as the current rewards system, are both pretty generous (at least by the old Hearthstone standards). We’re also commonly getting other free stuff like packs, Legendaries etc. during expansion releases, events, and from outside of the game (e.g. Twitch drops). While things have gotten much better for new and F2p players, it’s hard to deny that the game is still quite expensive to get into. F2P players should easily be able to build a few meta decks per expansion, but the issue is that they can’t play whatever they want. So once they commit to crafting certain cards, if they want to switch to another class – tough luck! That’s why we think that those budget decks can come really handy. No matter if you want to do Daily Quests for another class, test a deck before crafting a full version, or just play around with different options, they should be a good option for new and F2P players alike.
Defining a Budget Deck
We’re trying our best to keep the budget decks as cheap as possible while making them as strong as we can. Overall, there’s no hard cutoff, but we try to keep the decks within the 2-3k Dust range (Dust cost listed next to decks below isn’t always accurate, since it includes cards that are given away for free). However, their real cost is usually much lower, because players tend to own a lot of Commons / Rares used in them already.
When it comes to Commons & Rares – it’s simple, all of them are allowed. It’s very easy to get a full Common & Rare collection (doubly so with the recent addition of Catch-Up Packs), and even if you’re missing some of them, they’re cheap to craft.
As for the Epics – if it’s not possible, we try to not include them. If a deck can be built with no Epics at all, that’s great. However, that is sadly quite rare. Epics are often key cards in a given build, so removing them is either impossible or would drop the deck’s win rate by a lot. Even in the worst-case scenario, we try to keep it down to a couple of Epics, but if choosing between a deck that has to include a few Epics and a completely unplayable deck, we’ll choose the former. Playing a deck that virtually can’t win any games is just not fun.
Legendaries are completely excluded UNLESS they are available for free. This includes all of the Core Set Legendaries, as well as Legendaries that were given out for free in the current Standard rotation. To unlock those free cards, you either have to open a single pack from a given expansion, or finish a simple achievement like owning 30 cards from a given set. It also lines up quite nicely with the fact that you’re guaranteed a Legendary in your first 10 card packs from each set. For this reason, if you are a new player or you just came back after a long break, your first priority should be buying up to 10 card packs from each Standard expansion. This will give you plenty of free Legendaries that you can use in all your decks, many of which are genuinely powerful.
The Great Dark Beyond Update
Overall, The Great Dark Beyond is a mixed bag when it comes to budget decks. The whole new Starship mechanic is not the strongest right now, but more importantly, it’s not budget-friendly. Most of the Starships aren’t high tempo, so they tend to be played in slower builds, and those are generally more expensive. A lot of Starships also have related Legendary cards that are quite important for them to work. I managed to throw in Starships into only a single deck, Demon Hunter. It’s definitely the most aggressive Starship and all of the necessary pieces are Common/Rare. It doesn’t play that differently from the regular Pirate build, but at least you can use the new mechanic on budget.
The second main feature of The Great Dark Beyond – Draenei minion type – also turned out to be kind of a flop. Mage, Priest and Warrior are three classes with the most Draenei synergies, and sadly none of them work right now. As you can probably see, there’s a Draenei Warrior on the list of budget decks, but it’s not a good deck (in fact it’s one of the worst budget options on the list). It’s just that Warrior has no good budget decks anyway, so I just decided to go with the latest one. I highly suspect that Draeneis will get buffed a few times over the course of the expansion.
However, one massive advantage of the last set of the year is that we now have a total of 6 expansions in the rotation. Because of that, it’s easier to just pick and choose different pieces/decks/synergies from different sets. Thanks to that, I was able to come up with a pretty solid lineup of budget decks. As always, some of the decks are genuinely strong and with enough practice, you should be able to climb to higher ranks with them. On the other hand, some of them are pretty bad even in their full form, let alone as budget versions. Of course, I won’t try to mislead you and I will always say what I think about a given deck’s power level in the description.
Cheap Hearthstone Decks
- Format: pegasus
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8,760
The deck is similar to the one we had last expansion, with one big new addition – Ethereal Oracle. But it’s a really powerful card that fits quite well into this deck. Horn of Winter makes it very easy to trigger the Spellburst and drawing 2 cards on a 2/3 body is just incredibly powerful. Spell Damage can also come in handy for board clearing or mid/late game burn damage with Corpsicles.
The deck usually wins through burn damage. In the early/mid game your goal is to try to stabilize the board and keep removing your opponent’s threats. Use your board presence combined with Frost Strike, Corpsicle and pings from Horizon's Edge to keep the board clear while trying to push some chip damage here and there. If you face a slower deck, their board presence won’t likely be a problem, so you should instead push as much tempo as you can. If you don’t want to overextend too much into AoE clears, Gorgonzormu and your Deathrattle minions are your best bet. In the case of Gorgonzormu, play it, but keep the Cheese in hand and let it grow. If your opponent drops a big board clear, play the Cheese for an instant refill. In the case of Deathrattle/Reborn minions (like Pozzik, Audio Engineer or Thassarian), they work the best when dropped into an already solid board that your opponent will want to clear. This way you still have some board presence right after and you can continue beating them down.
After you’ve dealt enough chip damage, you want to switch the gears completely and just go face. The way you do it is usually by chaining Freeze effects. For example, you can start with Might of Menethil on Turn 6 to just freeze your opponent’s board and ignore it. Then on Turn 7 you can play Frostwyrm's Fury. You might have a couple of turns to just go all in with your opponent not being able to make trades. If that’s not enough, you have some reach in the form of Corpsciles. If you have at least 3 Corpses when playing the card, it returns to your hand at the end of the turn. Just keep shooting your opponent with it, many decks can’t stand this kind of constant burn damage.
When it comes to what you should upgrade it into, a full Frost Death Knight generally isn’t popular. But there are some viable Frost/Unholy builds that have similar gameplay patterns. You can check them out here.
- Format: pegasus
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- 5,520
Aggro Demon Hunter has been performing quite well for the second expansion in a row. While it’s no longer as dominant as it initially was, it’s still a solid Tier 2 deck. And most importantly, it can be built quite easily on a budget. Sadly we can’t dip into Priest since Tourist Legendaries are obviously excluded from budget builds, but the new Starship cards gave us something else to fill those gaps.
The goal of this deck is, as you’ve guessed it, to dish out as much damage as you can. The deck has some ways to control the board, but it’s at its strongest when it just goes face with everything. The main idea behind the deck is that it can summon multiple 1/1 Pirates with Charge. Then you have a few ways to buff them (or again extra Attack from them attacking). A perfect curve with the deck in a slower matchup is Treasure Distributor on T1, Sigil of Skydiving on T2, and then either Hozen Roughhouser or Southsea Captain on Turn 3. If Distributor survived until T2, you now have a 2/3, three 3/2’s and either a 3/4 or a 4/3 on the board. As you can imagine, that’s a whole lot of pressure.
And that’s your main game plan. Set up Sigil of Skydiving or Dangerous Cliffside (another way to summon 1/1’s with Charge), then play your buffers and go face. Slam in Adrenaline Fiend and/or some other ways to gain Attack and you can have some Turn 5-6 lethals. Because of the potential damage, the deck gets very scary if your opponent has no answers.
Starship pieces give this build another way to build your 1/1 Chargers. Felfused Battery and Shattershard Turret aren’t that amazing as standalone card, but they really shine when you combine them. Thanks to Rush and Windfury, you can give all your other minions +2 Attack, while potentially clearing some Taunts in a way. Even better, if you had two copies of Battery die, that’s a +4 Attack board-wide buff. Those 1/1 Pirates now deal 5 damage each. Another big part of the Starship build is that you can now run Warp Drive. The card is really busted, for 3 mana you draw 2 and get up to 4 mana worth of discounts. It helps a lot to not run out of things to do. However, if you keep running out of steam anyway, you can also consider adding one copy of Paraglide as an extra draw engine (it’s not as strong as Warp Drive but 3 cards for 3 mana is still very good).
The deck is missing a few cards compared to a full meta build. You can either expand on this version or, as I’ve said at the beginning, dip into Priest for a few extra strong cards. At the time I’m writing this, stats indicate that the Priest version is a bit stronger, but things can change in the future. Either way, check out a list of Aggro Demon Hunter builds here and pick what you like.
- Format: pegasus
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- 4,140
Sadly for budget players, Token/Treant Druid has been an afterthought for the last few expansions. Blizzard is pushing more into the Ramp/Combo playstyles for Druid, and those decks tend to require at least one or two Legendaries to function properly. Token strategies have actually got a couple of new cards this expansion, but they still aren’t enough to push them over the edge. That said, they are quite decent as budget options.
Your game plan is simple and hasn’t really changed much ever since Token/Treant Druids were first created over a decade ago. Flood the board, buff the board, hit the opponent. That’s pretty much it.
Treants are your flavor of tokens, but there actually aren’t that many ways of summoning them in Standard right now. Because of that, you usually want to keep Forest Seedlings in your hand until you can summon 2/2’s instead of 1/1’s. Of course, if you have no other T1 play, you should still just use it, but otherwise try to conserve it. The card combos nicely with Overgrown Beanstalk or Conservator Nymph on Turn 4. Another card that combos very well with those is Blood Treant, you can play it for free (technically for 5 HP, but losing health is generally not a big deal for this deck) and follow it up with one of the aforementioned cards for a nice combo.
Cosmic Phenomenon is a new card that works very well in board flood decks. Just summoning 3x 2/3 Taunt for 5 mana is mediocre, but the second part of the card is where it really shines. If you end up with a full board after summoning them, you give all your minions +1/+1. So now those Taunts are 3/4’s, and you also buffed 4 other minions. Obviously, in a perfect world you already have 4 minions on board going into Turn 5, but in reality you’ll usually have to set it up. Keeping a Blood Treant in your hand might be a good idea in case you need one extra minion to get the buff. Also, your 1 mana, summon 2 minions cards (Forest Seedlings, Living Roots) can be exactly what you need. Innervate can also help when it comes to doing all of that in a single turn. While it’s not 100% consistent, I found myself being able to set it up on Turn 5-6 quite often during my playtesting.
And then, your biggest game finisher is Cultivation. By the mid-late game, it should either be very cheap or even free. And a free/cheap, board-wide +2/+2 buff is exactly what this deck needs. You have two options here – buff your board immediately or wait to sneak in lots of damage. In general, against decks with no AoE board wipes (other Aggro decks, many Tempo/Midrange/Combo decks), you usually want to play the minions and buff them immediately. This way you will make your opponent’s trades much less effective, and they can’t AoE down your board anyway. However, against slower decks, you might want to just play your minions out without buffing them right away to not waste it against an AoE. Your opponent’s Brawl will wipe your board no matter if they are small tokens or huge buffed minions. So flood the board, hope that your opponent doesn’t clear, and then unleash your AoE buffs for a lot of burst damage.
As I’ve said at the beginning, Treant/Token Druid is not really a viable meta deck, so I wouldn’t really try to upgrade it. Sure, if you already have Zilliax Deluxe 3000, you can throw it in with Pylon + Ticking modules. But other than that, there isn’t a great path for upgrades. The second cheapest deck in the meta – Combo Druid – was just killed by a balance patch (Seabreeze Chalice can no longer hit face). So any viable Druid decks right now lean towards Ramp, such as Armor Taunt Druid or Dungar Druid. But do keep in mind that those are quite expensive.
- Format: pegasus
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- 8,040
The Great Dark Beyond has been a pretty solid expansion for Hunter. The class has got two solid packages – Starship and Discover. Sadly for budget players, however, they simply don’t work in budget variants. All of the new Hunter decks heavily rely on the new Legendary Exarch Naielle. The card is insanely powerful. While it takes away some burst potential, it makes Hunter basically never run out of value. It also boosts a few other cards like Rangari Scout or Alien Encounters, both of which are very strong (but sadly they are much weaker without Narelle). Because of that, we’re once again stuck with the Secret Hunter build that hasn’t been updated in a while.
The idea is simple – play Secrets, let the enemy trigger them, which in turn discounts Starstrung Bow. Once the bow is cheap (or preferably free), equip it and keep going face to kill your opponent. While it has no special effects, 10 damage for free/almost free is insane in a deck like that. Other than the Bow, you have some other cool combos. Vicious Slitherspear works insanely well with Bunch of Bananas. Playing him on T1 with two Bananas on T2 means that you end up with a 5/5 minion (that will go down to 3/5 on your turn, but that’s still very good). Another cool synergy is your cheap spells (including Bananas) + Mantle Shaper. You can easily discount it to 0 mana and 0 mana 5/5 is a very strong tempo move.
And if you need some reach, or maybe a way to contest the board, Patchwork Pals is a really good card. You can drop Misha to gain some board control, Leokk to buff your small minions, and Huffer to get more immediate face damage. Huffer can also be combo’d with Camouflage Mount – you end up with 7/5 with Charge and a random bonus effect (which can’t be Windfury, but getting something like Divine Shield or Reborn is also nice). And, of course, you also have Leeroy and Hunter’s ol’ reliable Hero Power to finish your opponents off.
Despite already showing its age (the deck is already played for a few expansions with small changes), it’s not a bad deck. Even in budget form, it should easily be able to climb through lower ranks. If you want a full build, just add Product 9 (instead of Pozzik for example). And if you want to try the other, more expensive Hunter build, check out Discover Hunter or Starship Hunter decks instead.
- Format: pegasus
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- 1Fire Fly2
- 1Glacial Shard2
- 1Tar Slime2
- 2Flame Revenant2
- 2Rolling Stone1
- 2Shale Spider2
- 4Lamplighter2
Elemental Mage really took off last expansion, to the point that Lamplighter had to be nerfed quite early in the set. Then it stayed as a sort of Tier 2-3 deck throughout the rest of the set, mostly played by lower ranked or budget players. But it once again got a lot of support in The Great Dark Beyond (the new Blazing Accretion is now the best card in this deck), pushing it even above what it was in Perils. To the point that Lamplighter actually got ANOTHER nerf just when I was playtesting for this article. The card is now noticeably weaker, because it no longer scales. Previously you could get it to 10+ damage in the late game. If you had two copies in hand, you could deal 20+ damage out of nowhere. It was often used to win games that you had no chance winning otherwise (you lost on board, your opponent was at a solid life total etc.). But it’s still a decent standalone Elemental that you often want to play on curve to either remove something or deal some burn damage. Elemental Mage is no longer Tier 1, but it’s still a very good deck and most importantly the best budget option for Mage.
The gameplay of this deck relies on good old Elemental synergies. Because many Elementals only work when you played an Elemental last turn, it’s very important to keep an Elemental chain. Of course, given that the deck has 24 Elementals in it, that’s not exactly difficult. But sometimes you might be tempted to e.g. remove something with Spontaneous Combustion instead of playing an Elemental, but that will most likely make your next turn weaker and it might delay dropping a big Overflow Surger, so try to avoid that.
In the early/mid game, your main goal is to establish a board. Try to use your removal spells and early minions to clear whatever your opponent is playing. This deck’s only comeback mechanic (sort of) is Solar Flare, a great AoE spell, but it only deals 2 damage, so if your opponent builds a bigger board you’re often out of luck. However, it shouldn’t be a massive issue because you have some nice early game tempo and many of your minions can act as removals.
One of your best ways to create a big board in one go is Overflow Surger. Don’t be too greedy with it, sometimes dropping it on curve is a great play (if you played an Elemental on Turn 1-3, then it summons 4x 3/2 for 4 mana). A cool way you can set it up too is by playing Aqua Archivist on Turn 3 without using its effect (the discount carries over to the next turn), then dropping Flame Revenant and Surger. This way you summon multiple 4/3’s. Many decks can’t handle this kind of board on Turn 4, so you might be able to just win the game like that.
Of course, board presence is not your only win condition. The deck also relies heavily on burn damage to finish off the opponent. The burn damage is sadly no longer AS good with nerfed Lamplighter, but you still have a lot of ways to deal damage from hand. Flame Geyser, Spontaneous Combustion, Solar Flare and Lamplighter can all guarantee a bunch of extra face damage. And if you face an empty board, or you’re able to clear it (for example with Flare), then Triplewick Trickster and Tainted Remnant are also amazing burn options.
When it comes to how you can upgrade the deck, there’s really only a single option – add Saruun. He gives you more late-game burn potential. Ideally, you play him before drawing one of your Surgers, so then you drop a full board of them, giving you instant +7 Fire Spell Damage. If you do add Saruun, you should also consider using Molten Rune. It’s a great finisher because after Forging it double dips on your Spell Damage (dealing up to 20 damage). The two cards I’d replace to add those are Rolling Stone and Triplewick Trickster.
- Format: pegasus
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- 2,880
Handbuff Paladin didn’t get any support in this expansion, but it remains the best budget option for Paladin. While Libram Paladin was just buffed in the latest patch and it actually looks viable now, the budget version of Handbuff still seems stronger. But this might still change if the deck gets another buff or if the meta changes.
Most of the power of this deck lies in one card – Painter's Virtue. It buffs your entire hand by +3/+3 in total and it lets you deal with some small threats while gaining life back thanks to Lifesteal. This is the reason why you run Instrument Tech (in order to find it as often as you can) and Air Guitarist (to make it last longer). Combine it with other Handbuff minions you have (Grimestreet Outfitter, Muscle-o-Tron) and you can make some really big minions. You usually start pretty slowly and spend the first few turns either drawing cards or handbuffing. Because of that, a common strategy is to try to go under you and kill you before you can take off. That’s where your Rush + Lifesteal minions (Audio Medic, Tigress Plushy) come in handy. You use them to stabilize the board and heal up after your slow start.
You have two main win conditions. The first one is simply big minions – handbuff your stuff, drop a bunch of big minions that your opponent can’t answer, win the match. The strategy is surprisingly solid – most decks have a way to answer a few big minions, but once you start rolling you have a whole hand of massive threats. Just remember to not overextend into the board – it might be tempting to drop another minion if you have spare mana, but sometimes it’s just better to pass if you know that your opponent might be holding a board wipe.
The second strategy is Charge damage. Some decks will keep answering your board over and over again, so you might want to sneak that damage on them. That’s why you run Southsea Deckhand, Leeroy Jenkins and Outfit Tailor. In the late game, you can often deal 20+ damage from hand. Just keep in mind that in order to use Deckhand you need to hold onto at least one weapon charge – if you break it, Deckhand will no longer be able to attack right away. It’s also a common mistake to keep Deckhand and Outfit Tailor for combo only – if you have a good opportunity to, for example, get ahead on the board by using those cards, you still want to do it. It’s better than dying while holding onto your combo. Outfitter is especially good – you should often consider using it in the mid game to buff your Righteous Protector or Mini version of Tigress Plushy. You gain tons of tempo this way.
The full deck actually runs a bunch of Legendary cards that the budget version obviously can’t, but I wouldn’t say that any of them is absolutely necessary. You can find full Handbuff Paladin builds here. Alternatively, if you want to play around with new cards instead of rehashing the same deck for the third expansion, check out Libram Paladin decks.
- Format: pegasus
- Posted By:
- 2,340
Ever since Darkbishop Benedictus rotated out of the Core Set, Priest has been a nightmare to build on a budget. Most of the Priest strategies are either Control or heavily synergistic Combo decks that rely on specific cards (often Legendary) to work. Things have gotten a bit better, because Priest has been getting some high tempo tools. Sadly two best ways to use them are still out of the budget players’ reach. You either want to go Timewinder Zarimi route, but that –Â of course – requires Zarimi. Or you can go this general Tempo/Overheal route, but this deck is so much better if you dip into Hunter with Chillin' Vol'jin. On top of all that, Funnel Cake was just nerfed and it’s now much more awkward to use. It’s still the best option in this deck so I decided to leave it in, but it sucks when a budget deck gets nerfed because of another, better build.
Anyway, this deck might seem completely random, but it’s actually not as bad as you might imagine. Priest now has a surprisingly solid early game and it can put a decent amount of pressure on the opponent. As the name suggests, you mostly rely on the early-mid game tempo to win the games. You have a bunch of overstatted minions (Overzealous Healer, Brain Masseuse, Dreamboat), some mana cheating (Orbital Halo can be played for 0, Papercraft Angel can give you tons of tempo if it sticks because you just Hero Power for free, Funnel Cake can give you +1 mana while also activating some other effects) and a really good draw engine (Crimson Clergy, Gold Panner, Ethereal Oracle).
Your goal is to simply try to put as many stats on the board as possible and push some damage. Try to contest your opponent’s board with Nightshade Tea and Hot Coals, they are quite effective, especially when combined together (or played with Oracle for Spell Damage). Then you have some burn damage as a finisher – mainly 2x Acupuncture, two copies of which can sneak 8 damage out of nowhere just for 2 mana (so you can easily play them together with e.g. Hot Coals or Oracle for more burn damage). The deck takes some time to master, and it could really use
If you’re looking for full meta builds you can lean towards, this kind of playstyle is actually the best Priest has to offer right now. Control Priest is simply not viable at all. The best decks you can move towards are things like Zarimi Priest, Overheal Priest or Tempo Priest. At the time I’m writing this, Zarimi Priest performs the best out of the bunch.
- Format: pegasus
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- 3,120
Rogue has been in an interesting spot for a while now. On the one hand, if you look at global stats, it’s often the class with the lowest win rate. But then if you look at what people in Top 100 Legend play, Rogue is consistently one of the most popular and best-performing classes. We haven’t really gotten many straightforward Rogue decks that a less experienced player can enjoy. Most of them are built around some crazy combos that are quite difficult to pull off if you don’t have a lot of experience with the deck, but tend to work incredibly well once you master it. It all makes building a budget Rogue deck even more difficult because I assume that most of you reading this aren’t Top 100 Legend Rogue masters (and neither am I, to be completely honest). I’m writing all of this to explain why I recommend Weapon Rogue instead of Shaffar Rogue as the budget option. Shaffar Rogue is also very budget-friendly, and it performs very well at high ranks, but sadly it has an abysmal play and win rate at low ranks. Weapon Rogue is still a solid option, but it’s so much easier to grasp for someone who might be looking into budget decks. If you’re a very experienced Rogue player or you want to challenge yourself, by all means, just go to the Shaffar Rogue page and try it out instead.
Now onto the deck itself. As you can probably tell, it’s an incredibly one-note build. You have one goal only – equip a weapon (preferably Quick Pick, but your regular Hero Power dagger will also do), then just keep buffing it and keep hitting your opponent in the face. The perfect curve is Dig for Treasure on Turn 1 (your only minion is Swarthy Swordshiner, so you’re guaranteed to hit it and get a Coin), Quick Pick on T2 (+attack with it), Swarthy Swordshiner (+weapon hit) on T3, then Sharp Shipment on T4. If you have Preparation, you can even Prep that Sharp Shipment and play another buff on top of it.
At this point, you really don’t have to worry about your weapon’s durability because the game is most likely going to be over before you run out of it. Now you focus on buffing the weapon further and hitting your opponent in the face. You often end up with some crazy attack values like 15+ by the end of the game. Against faster decks, you can try using Stick Up to find some removal or just clearing their minions with Oh, Manager!, Eviscerate, Harmonic Hip Hop or Dubious Purchase. Against slower decks, focus on buffing your weapon as quickly as possible and ignore whatever they play on the board. Deafen is often your friend – don’t just waste it, keep it for enemy Taunt minions, especially Arkonite Defense Crystals (also try to not finish them off after Silencing them, you can handle some damage from a slower deck but they won’t be added to their Starship pool).
If you don’t have Quick Pick (you should heavily mulligan for it but you won’t always get it) on T2, you should just start buffing your Hero Power weapon. You can’t exactly afford to wait, the deck has plenty of draw even without Pick. It sucks but if you wait, you’re going to lose way more matches.
And that’s pretty much it, you make a big weapon and hit your opponent in the face. Simple and quite effective. This “budget” version is basically the same as the full meta version, so there’s no expensive card you can swap in to make it better. But if you’re looking for something else, you should try one of the versions of Sonya Rogue (but I would be really surprised if Sonya doesn’t get nerfed by the end of this expansion) or the aforementioned Shaffar Rogue.
- Format: pegasus
- Posted By:
- 5,280
Asteroid Shaman is one of the new archetypes introduced by The Great Dark Beyond. It relies on shuffling multiple Asteroids into the deck that damage a random enemy when drawn. You have lots of ways to shuffle them, buff them, and of course to draw the Asteroids and chain them together. Overall it’s a pretty strong archetype and while the full version does run a few Legendaries, the budget one is also playable.
You usually want to start the match by a combination of shuffling in Asteroids and controlling the board. Murloc Growfin, Pop-Up Book, Malted Magma, Spirit Claws or Ultraviolet Breaker are your best ways to deal with your opponent’s early board. You don’t have to be greedy with Spirit Claws, using them to clear 1 health minions is also fine.
Bolide Behemoth is a key card for your late-game damage. Normally Asteroids only deal 2 damage (+Spell Damage), but with Behemoths you can buff them up to 4. It makes a massive difference – not only they will chew through your opponent’s board much faster, but also kill them more easily. Sometimes playing him on the curve is the right move, but usually you should try to wait until you can trigger the Spellburst right away. Those 3 extra Asteroids make a big difference, and if you just drop him on Turn 4 without utilizing Spellburst, your opponent is very likely going to kill it before you can do so.
Once get to the mid-late game without enough buffed Asteroids shuffled in, it’s time to switch the gears and try to burn your opponent down. If your opponent has some minions on board, using Malted Magma to clear or at least damage them is a good idea. For example, dropping Novice Zapper + Ethereal Oracle + Malted Magma deals 3 AoE damage, so it should clear any small minions and soften the bigger ones that might otherwise catch your Asteroids. It also triggers Oracle’s Spellburst and most likely starts drawing you your Asteroids. If you don’t win in a single go, that’s not a big problem, it’s unlikely that you will draw all of them at once. You can usually make 2-3 big waves of Asteroids before you run out of them.
And that’s your basic strategy. The full version gets a bit more complex, but also more potent, because you also have cards like Incindius and Shudderblock to consider. It’s a good deck right now so if you like the budget version, you should consider crafting the few Legendaries to improve it. You can check some full meta Asteroid Shaman builds here.
- Format: pegasus
- Posted By:
- 7,080
Pain Warlock has been the best Warlock archetype in Year of the Pegasus (2024). It was one of the best decks in both Whizbang’s Workshop and Perils in Paradise, to the point that it caught a few nerfs. It’s no longer as dominant in The Great Dark Beyond, but it still a decent build, especially at lower ranks. It didn’t get many new cards, but Infernal Stratagem works surprisingly well in it. Sadly, the full version runs so many Epic cards that I couldn’t afford to cut them down to 2 without compromising the deck’s power level too much. Because of that, I’ve decided to use 4 Epics cards instead of the usual 2 Epics limit. I’m not very happy about it, but both of the Epics I’ve included (Malefic Rook and Imprisoned Horror) are very important and have no good replacements.
In terms of gameplay, the deck relies on self-damage to activate multiple high tempo effects. The two most important ones are Molten Giant and Imprisoned Horror. With the right hand, you can drop 0 mana Giants/Horrors on Turn 3-4, and that’s just the best way to win. You just put A LOT of stats on the board very quickly and hope that your opponent can’t answer it (and very often that’s the case). The other way to get some huge minions is Fearless Flamejuggler. Combine it with cheap, self-damage cards like Flame Imp, Mass Production and Spirit Bomb for some really strong tempo plays.
However, getting so low puts you at a massive risk. Aggro decks can just ignore your minions and kill you. Many decks also have ways to deal damage from hand. And that’s where INFERNAL! shines. He’s your best bet when it comes to getting out of lethal range. Not only do you end up with 15 health, but you also put a 6/6 Taunt on the board. The card should usually follow your pop off turn with Giants. A full build uses Pop'gar the Putrid, letting you clear some minions (or deal face damage) and heal for up to 8. However, since it’s a Legendary, you obviously can’t use him in the budget version. Sheriff Barrelbrim can also be used to stall for a bit, you can use Prison on your opponent’s bigger minions to temporarily get rid of them. You can also use it to get rid of a pesky Taunt minion standing in your way. And by the time they wake up, the game will often be over either way.
An important note is that Blood Treant DOES NOT count as damage, it’s health cost. So it discounts Molten Giant, but not Horror. You also can’t play it together with Juggler – or rather, you can, but it won’t do anything.
As I’ve said in the beginning, Pain Warlock has fallen out of favor in The Great Dark Beyond, but it’s still a decent Tier 2 deck and definitely one of the best builds for Warlock right now. It’s also not horribly expensive even if you want to get a full version. If you’re looking for one, check out our list of Pain Warlock decks here.
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First I have to say this – Draenei Warrior is not a viable meta deck even if you don’t have a budget restriction. I suspect that it’s going to get buffed by the end of the expansion, but right now it’s frankly a Tier 4 deck (and even worse if you’re on a budget). But there are simply no better budget options. I’ve been jumping between a few different budget Warrior decks for the last few expansions and to be completely honest, they all sucked. Warrior is incredibly hard to build for cheap. Most of the Warrior decks are slower and require multiple Legendaries to function properly. This Draenei Warrior would actually be a perfect candidate for a budget deck, because even the full version is relatively cheap. But in this case, it’s not about the cost but rather about the power level. If full meta Draenei Warrior was a Tier 1-2 deck, then this budget build would work quite well. Sadly, the power level of Draenei Warrior cards is not too high right now. To put it simply, I wouldn’t recommend playing it right now, but it might become better in case some of the cards in the list get buffed.
With that out of the way, let’s talk about the deck’s playstyle. It’s a rather straightforward Aggro deck, focusing heavily on Draenei synergies and buffs (mostly handbuffs). The buffs include cards like Cup o' Muscle, Crystalline Greatmace and Crimson Commander. The main reason for those buffs is that some of your cards scale very well with attack of your Draenei minions. First, you have Expedition Sergeant, which makes your next Draenei immediately attack a random enemy. While this can be a minion, against slower decks you usually want to set it up so it hits face. And then the second synergy is Unyielding Vindicator, which gives your Hero attack equal to the next Draenei you play. Both of those combine very well with Stalwart Avenger, a minion that starts with 7 attack at the base, but after a few handbuffs it’s usually above 10. As you can imagine, throwing that 10+ damage into opponent’s face or giving your Hero 10+ Attack is quite strong. Avenger is also a great target for Astral Vigilant.
You also have some other Draenei synergies, like Starlight Wanderer buffing your next Draenei, Stranded Spaceman giving your next Draenei +2 Health and Rush (a lot of early game tempo), or Captain's Log drawing cards for cheap or free as long as you have multiple Draenei on board.
If you want to improve the deck, the best way to do it is by adding Exarch Akama. It gives you another win condition by letting your already existing board attack again. It synergizes very well with the rest of the kit. Then there’s Ace Wayfinder, which is another great addition to the deck, but because of the budget limit I had to pick between it and Stalwart Avenger (and Avenger is simply more important). But as I’ve said already, even a full meta version is not great right now, so unless you already own those cards, I wouldn’t craft them specifically for this build. You can check some full Draenei Warrior builds here, but keep in mind that those are mostly from the early expansion days because no one really played the deck afterward at higher ranks.
It’s mentioned that Corridor Creepers are good for nearly all of them; but what do they replace if I craft two? I’m trying out each of the decks, and want to put them in but unsure exactly where.
So also replace minions that not have a ton of synergy and arent overly impressive from bottom to top
Naga corsair
Bloodfury or demonfire
Devolve, bloodlust, squire, primalfin
One mana cards or defias
Shieldraiser elixir
Chaingang champ jailor
Bearshark flanking strike hounds
Dont use in jade
Highly disagree with the zoolock and evolve shaman replacement recommendations. In zoolock considering you dont run keleseth youd really want to use the 2 mana cards. Demonfire can create your turn 1 demon ( voidwalker/flame imp) into a big boy in the early game and provides additional removal. You could add a vicious fledgling to the deck and that combined with bloodfury can by itself win you the game sometimes. You should replace the blood imp and fire fly with creepers and fledglings( or techs).
In the evolve shaman argent squire is a really important card since it provides a strong turn 1 Play that can trade into your opponents 1 health minions, and primalfin is just a great card at making tokens and the 3 health make it often hard to remove on your opponents turn ( after you play it) + it has good synergy with flametongue. You usually dont need 2 devolves, but one is a good tech, replace the other one and maybe a jade spirit or chain gang. The 2 blood lusts are a must since you don’t have powerful minions like aya and the pirate package, making a board swarm into blood lust one of your main win conditions. Hope this helps.
I’m building a secret made, and I wonder if I could benefit from putting archmage antonidas and what to replace for corridor creeper. The deck is complete and I have 1120 dust to spend (without purchasing corridor creeper)
Antonidas is not that good right now tbh , corridor creeper is the most powerful card of the expansion and its used in almost every deck , its a good choice for crafting
So what cards should I replace with corridor creeper?
Mirror entity is not nearly as good as counterspell or explosive runes, so I would replace this card or cobalt scalebane. Just don’t put anything slow into this deck.
You could take out Bonemare.
No antonidas its too up, the stansardard deck runs valet creeper aluneth instead of bonemare scalebane and entity so replace a bonemare and a scalebane
Antonidas is too slow not up
Budget Midrange Hunter looks fun. I have Deathstalker Rexxar and wanted to know if it could be squeezed into that deck.
Sure, it’s not optimal but you can cut a Flanking Strike for it.
You said that Corridor Creeper can be put in Budget Hunter, but what should I replace with?
unleash the hounds
Thank you for these decks. I completed my Secret Mage and its so fun to play! I dont care about my rank, I just want to play a little with each class and this page its my guide to it. Thank you so much <3
Glad you are enjoying the deck!
In budget mage deck, what cards would I replace with Primordial Glyphs? Also any other cheap additions? I got 2k dust left. And should I put in Corridor Creeper into this deck, and if yes, what to replace? Thanks for reply.
yoyyooyoyyo u should take out fireball for PG
Cobalt Scalebanes is what if replace, but mirror entity is okay too
Ok, these are budget decks, but i think Corridor Creeper is Must Have.
We agree, it’s mentioned in most of the guides as a must craft.
I love these decks ! I chose the mage one because i find it very fun. And btw the guides on each deck are very good, very well made. Congrats on you mr. 😉
Glad you liked it, and good luck with the Mage deck!
just for anyone wondering about the priest deck specifically its really hard to play but is probably one of the best besides mage im at rank 4 atm and just needed a priest deck for some quest so i made the one here and i didnt climb much but i had a 5-4 win rate with is so its something to keep in mind that it can work in the right hands
I’m brand new to the game but played ALOT of mtg, I saw the cost on the deck and had to try it as a ftp player, even in the hands of a noob, still stomps at low tiers
Is it still worth spending my dust (I have 1500) to make a low-cost deck like the mid hunter, even with the ranked being in the final?
Or is it worth keeping my dust and the gold until next year?
Ps: And if I make it, how much time he is still being a good deck?
Craft secret mage. It’s more stable.
Why the mage is more stable than the mid hunter?
And what ranking can I get with him?
Thank tou for awnser.
If the option is between these two decks it is better to think well. The ideal is to opt for a more enjoyable style because in reality neither of the two is particularly good.
– Tempo mage is bad against aggro and dragon priest, but good against the remaining priest decks, warlock control, jade and druid ramp. Also with the next rotation Medivh’s Valet and Firelands Portal leave standard. There is also talk of the possibility of Iceblock also leaving for the hall of fame.
– Hunter is weaker than tempo mage, being bad against warlock control, priest… (any long game oriented deck) but is good against aggressive decks like tempo mage, tempo rogue, zoolock etc, but thats true when you run the pirate packet… After the next rotation it loses no cards (but upgrading is much more expensive).
– Also, in any of the lists is essential the addition of Spellbreaker.
So what you recommend?
Maybe i should wait a little more and gather more dust to craft something more useful? Thanks for the help, I am really missed you here.
First you need to keep in mind that during the first month after the release of a new expansion the most successful decks will almost always be the most aggro ones (e.g., usually hunter is good for the first month and then decays). However, in this meta it is likely that aggro is to stay +/- as it is due to Creeper Corridor and Patches. However, it is already known decks that can give a good counter to aggro, as the case of warlock control.
Knowing this you need to answer the set of answers:
1 – What style of play gives me more pleasure in playing?
2 – Against what do you see more play in rank mode? And what is good and bad against it?
3 – What is my goal? To have a single good deck, or to have variety (even with weaker decks) to avoid getting bored?
4 – What cards do I already have? (sometimes it is possible to make decks better than the typical budget ones because you already have the core cards or some epic-legendary ones)
5 – Which cards will leave the end of year (March-April) standard? Do I lose to investment I’m making now?
After answering this you will set your expectations and you will have an idea of ​​what you really want to do and how far you can go with that in rank mode. It is important to be aware of the relevance of various cards such as Creeper Corridor and Patches, what you lose if you do not use them and what can be used instead when you run your list and when you run against a list with it (e.g. if you like aggro and it is very expensive to use the pirate pack, you can use Golakka Crawler to give counter to those who use it if you see many pirate decks). Budget slots may also include more tech cards than the rest and alternative strategies that no one is waiting for (and if your oponent does not expect it, he/she can not play around it).
Hey so im a returning player, I was really active but stopped playing around when mean streets hit; so i have all the cards before there but only some from the newer expansions. I was wondering if you would recommend the best budget deck right now just because im not totally familiar with the meta (and dont know alot of newer cards); also is there a crafting guide for the most versitile new legendaries? I have Lich King and 8000 dust but dont want to spend on anything without knowing the meta
try midrange hunter
Well, patches and southsea deckhand are in almost every class as an aggro deck… but here’s a list:
-Druid, Priest, Hunter, and Warlock hero cards are found in most decks of the respective classes
-Lich Kind is Good
-Patches for aggro (with southsea deckhand and corridor creeper)
-Bonemare is a pretty good common
This is a bit general because I don’t have the time to get in detail of every class, but I just wanted to send a reply while I’m here.
Hope I helped 😉
Can you make a budget otk dragon priest list please!! I’ve seen some for 3k dust. For a non priest player it’s hard to know what sacrifices to make.
Just add THE dragon that puts an heroe to 15 HP and 15 dmg spells
Thnks!! Nice deks
As a player on a budget, I really appreciate when you guys do these lists. Just noticed token druid was listed as a recommended deck, but there’s no list given here for it.
It’s listed in the Jade Druid description, which I realize is a bit confusing. I’m going to work on a better system for displaying classes with multiple decks. Here’s the deck: Budget Token Druid!
thanks for updating these decks, these are great budget decks!
lit worked so well
this website is the reason i started to like hearthstone, keep it up. when you guys planning to update new stuff?
Glad to hear that! We’re working on these right now, should be done this week.
When will the changes hit these budget deck lists, knc is out and i wish you guys can update the list so we can deal with the meta. Your guys response and work is appreciated.
We’re going to start updating these very soon, glad you like the site!
Will there be a change to the decks when the expansion comes out and when will the change happen? 🙂
THANK YOU MAN! NICE 😀
Why is “Budget Elemental Mage” removed from this list?
I found it the best one here, it was really cheap and yet really effective especially for someone who got Frost Lich Jaina from The Prolougue.
Can you put deck code here?
It’s still there, it’s in the description for Secret Mage, but here’s the link: http://www.hearthstonetopdecks.com/decks/budget-elemental-mage-deck-list-guide/
Oh, I haven’t seen it there, but still, it’s better when it’s displayed here.
Great work on the page btw, well done admins (Y).
Are the reevaluation complete yet? Just asking as the last comment dated back to September.
I’ve made a bunch of changes and updates!
Thanks! Loving this site alot! 🙂
Is the reevaluation ready? I still have mixed feelings about innervate in aggro druid. Do you think it’s worth it to run it with teacher?
I second this comment! I’m eager to know what you guys want to do to the decks.
Can i put The Black Knight in any of these decks i just got him in a Pack
He’s not so great right now, and he doesn’t really fit into most of these decks.
I would say with all the Lich King running around these days, hes not so bad to run as a tech
Hello,
will you be making any changes to the budget and basic (0 dust decks) since crucial cards (like war axe) are being nurfed?
Yes, we’ll reevaluate these decks after the nerf!
is the reevaluation completed yet? :^)
I recently bought Karazhan and I wante dto inturduce Maelstrom Portal to the midrange shaman deck, what card should I take out?
Will this get an update after the druid nerfs? (:
Okay, they released what they’re gonna change:
https://us.battle.net/hearthstone/en/blog/21029448/upcoming-balance-changes-update-91-9-5-2017
– Innervate – Now reads: Gain 1 Mana Crystal this turn only. (Down from 2)
– Fiery War Axe – Now costs 3 mana. (Up from 2)
– Hex – Now costs 4 mana. (Up from 3)
– Murloc Warleader – Now reads: Your other Murlocs have +2 Attack. (Down from +2 Attack, +1 Health)
– Spreading Plague – Now costs 6 mana. (Up from 5)
Great post! Have nice day ! 🙂 crssw
Hi, I would like to make space in secret mage and elemental mage decks for Medivh and Frost Lich Jaina. What would it be better to cut out?
Thanks
Medivh can fit in pretty well to a Secret Mage deck, I would take out a Cryomancer as the freeze synergy in a Secret Mage deck, especially one without Frost Nova, is kinda bad (Cold Wraith’s stats justify its inclusion though they can also be substituted). Meanwhile, Frost Lich Jaina can replace a Faceless Summoner in the Elemental Mage deck, seeing as it is not necessary for such a deck and Frost Lich Jaina can easily generate minions with her Hero Power. I would even replace the second Faceless Summoner with a second Flamestrike in order to achieve more board clears and greater survivability.
Is there a chance there will be codes for copying the decks?
Thanks a lot!
Hey! If you click on the decks name, it will take you to a separate page for that deck where you can find the code.
Click on the deck title and it will take you to a page with the code.
Thank you Evident, I always love to read the budget section.
It’s great that you keep this updated and many players like me benefit enormously from this effort.
Another section I’d love to read, or something just to keep in consideration, is a selection of decks that uses only Classic + Un’Goro + KFT so that what we invest in term of dust will still be there in the next rotation.
Keep up the good work!
Hello, tahnk you for the decks and the great work. We beginners really apreciate it.
Just have a question. Of all of these budget decks, what is the best one?
I think Pirate Warrior, Evolve Shaman, and Token Druid are likely the best.
Having tested several of the decks, I second this. I’ll also say that Zoo Warlock has been performing surprisingly well for me.
well there is not a real answer to that question because people play differently however that pirate deck is a god one and it was used by amaz (a pro) he just added patches the pirate
These budgets are awesome, even reached rank 5 with the hunter list last season. Will be really really happy to see more budgets for Knights of the Frozen Throne. Good work for real, your efforts werent for nothing!
It’s awesome to hear that, I’m working on updating them. I even have some of my writers working on a bunch!
Thats awesome! By the way would you please write somewhere in the beginning of the page that the decks are ready when they are. Just checked and saw some decks are still being updated. Cant wait to play with them :D!
what is the best budget deck for farm gold ?
Whichever deck you need to complete quests, you make them accordingly
The arena is the best place for that. If you are a newer player, it is also the best place to learn about deck building, board control and tempo.
Also the arena evens the playing field and takes budget out of the equation. After all both of your decks are worth 150 gold.
For the elemental mage deck, if i have blazecallers, what do you think they would replace in the deck?
Replace the faceless summoners
i have 1600 dust what deck should i make
MILLHOUSE MAAANNNASTORM
Tinkmaster overspark
I want to make quest Rogue eventually but being free to play that could be sometime down the road. MY big challenge right now is dust to make these and I have cards that I’m not sure if I should DE them or not which would help out. I’m probably a good 300-400 dust short.
I am f2p as well, I have quite a few expensive decks. It really came down to rng for me, pulled a couple golden legionaries which DE for alot of f’n dust. I wouldnt DE any cards you dont have dups of for dust though. Never know when a new deck might come out. GL
I have around 1700 dust and I’m not sure if I should go for the warrior pirate or for the elemental shaman. The only legendary card in my possession is Baron Geddon, is it good to replace something for him or not?
Barron geddon is crap craft it and create pirate warrior
the Elemental Shaman deck is a solid one i have had a 12 game win streak going with it before starting to tweak it for the higher ranks
Thanks for posting!
This really helps out people who lack legendaries needed for better decks, but still provides a solid fallback option.
I’m having great success with the Elemental Mage deck, it’s a massive improvement over the disorganized rubbish I was playing with previously.
Keep up the great work!
No problem, glad it helped you!
I’d like to say that the elemental buff paladin listed in this article isn’t good. And doesn’t work, I built it and tried it and was hard stuck rank 10. The deck is too slow to beat aggro decks excluding pirate warrior, and isn’t good enough against other slow decks. I had extreme trouble against most meta decks.
I mention in the article that most of these decks aren’t going to get passed rank 10 very well. The Paladin list being one of them.
I just want to say thank you for putting the work into this section, it really helps us poor folks enjoy the game more! Even if you dont follow the list directly it definitely gives an idea of what a successful deck build looks like.
i was wondering if you can create another priest deck because c’thun decks arent seeing play since a long time maybe a budget silence priest would be better.
Here. Try this.
https://m.imgur.com/lauzRS3?r
You can replace Lyra with another card and the cost is around 2000 dust.
Hard to master but lots of fun.
Thanks for this compilation. It’s really appreciated.
I got Swamp King Dred yesterday out of a pack. What can i replace in the hunter deck with him?
personally i would get rid of both fireflys and add 1 more bat and dred
Yeah this is fine, you could also just cut the Ravasaur Runt.
Gollaka krawler
It’s a tech choice vs control; if you are playing a lot of control swap 1x golakka crawler for 1x Dred
What the fuck? How does adding Preparation help that Rogue deck?? The only spells you have are Eviscerate!! What the fuck???
I was referring to needing Preparation for the Quest Rogue deck, not the deck listed in this post.
The preparation is for the quest rouge and you are hoping to draw it before you complete the quest to play the quest the same turn you play the last minion to complete the quest.
Thanks for the awesome budget decks for every class! If you happen to have Leeroy, what card in the warrior deck would you replace?
i would drop a naga corsair. dont wanna jack up the curve too bad to get him in.
Naga Corsair would be one, you could also cut Acidic Swamp Ooze or Golakka Crawler.
For the pirate warrior deck – firefly.
Thank you for your nice effort to help . Great guide.
Great guide, thanks for the hard work of those less fortunate to not be able to use a lot of dust.
I always make Decks for my son who loves to play Hearthstone too.
These Budget Deck Guides are always a big help for me to make Decks for him with his current Card Collection.
Keep up the good work, it is much appreciated.
Thanks, glad to help. I hope your son is enjoying Un’Goro!
Hi admins,
Your site has fantastic articles delivered in a timely manner and it has become my favourite HS resource.
I find it a shame that with such a wealth of information it is rather hard to sort through. For example if an article I saw 2 weeks ago came back to mind I’d have to rifle through the site to find it, not knowing if it will be on page 3 or 5 or whatever.
Perhaps you can implement a “Table of Contents” of sorts, a little like the weekly roundup but just a permanent sidebar or the like where we can browse the headlines of articles for easy access?
Hey, I’m glad you like the site! I’ve been mulling over some design changes, I’ll see if I can fit something like this in.
Thanks for this guide I’ll try these decks soon.