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 (e.g. Pozzik, Audio Engineer – if you don’t have it, all you need to do is buy a single Festival of Legends pack and go to the pack opening screen, you will get the card automatically). For this reason, if you are a new player or you just came back after a long break, you should get at least 1 pack from each Standard expansion to collect all those free Legendaries.
Perils in Paradise Update
Last expansion, I asked you to craftย Zilliax Deluxe 3000. Let me start this expansion’s summary by asking you the same thing again. Not only the card is by far the most popular Legendary in Hearthstone history, your value is insane because it’s like crafting a few Legendaries in one. The card was already nerfed multiple times and it’s still played in ~60% of decks. Do yourself a favor and craft him. In the best-case scenario, you have a card that you will play until it rotates out of Standard in dozens of decks. And in the worst-case scenario he just gets nerfed again and you get your Dust back.
Perils in Paradise has been pretty great for F2P players, although it also has one big downside. Maybe let’s start with the good side. The set’s free Legendaries were amazing this time. It’s probably the best free duo of cards we EVER had. In Patch 29.6, all players gotย Marin the Manager which has seen a ton of play in all kinds of Midrange and Control decks. To be completely fair, he doesn’t fit into many budget builds, since those are usually too fast for him, but if you want to invest into meta decks, you will find him a great addition into tons of builds. Additionally, players can claim a free copy ofย Gorgonzormu from the rewards track. And unlike Marin, this one is a perfect fit into most of the budget builds. It’s cheap, it’s strong, and it fits into all kinds of decks. Those are the two most popular Legendaries right behind the aforementioned Zillliax, with ~40% (Gorgonzormu) and ~33% (Marin) play rate (at the time I’m writing this).
On top of that, the expansion is full of decks that can be built on a relatively small budget. We even have one meta deck in this post! Of course, most of them still require a bunch of Epics and maybe w few Legendaries, but you can find multiple viable builds in the 5k Dust budget, and that’s honestly really good. We have relatively cheap Aggro decks, a nice Elemental package that sees play in three different classes (while some builds do require class-specific Legendaries, they can still be played without them), and even a couple of inexpensive Midrange and Combo decks.
As for the bad part – Tourist mechanic. It’s the main feature of the expansion, letting you “tour” into another class, using their cards from the expansion. The downside is that it requires a Legendary. And since lots of the meta decks right now use Tourists, it’s +1 Legendary you have to add to the cost of many, many builds. There are a few decks that could have been built on budget (Combo Druid, Aggro Shaman), but they require you to run Tourist cards, thus blowing up the deck’s cost.
Still, overall Perls in Paradise is a good expansion, and even if we look at proper budget decks from this post, we have a few Diamond-Legend climb candidates.
Cheap Hearthstone Decks
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Death Knight has been performing quite well so far in Perils in Paradise. Although the full meta build dip into Shaman withย Buttons, this budget version is actually quite capable too.
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 withย Frost Strike,ย Corpsicle and pings fromย Horizon's Edge to keep the board clear while trying to push some chip damage here and there. If you face a slower deck like Control Warrior, 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, playย Gorgonzormu but don’t play the Cheese. Just keep it in hand and if your opponent drops a big board clear, play the Cheese for an instant refill.
However, at one point you want to switch gears and go for the face. The way you do it is usually by chaining Freeze effects. For example, you can start withย Might of Menethil on Turn 6 to just freeze your opponent’s board and ignore it. Then on Turn 7 you can play another copy or maybe useย Frostwyrm's Fury instead. 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 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. So you can shoot your opponent’s face a few turns in a row.
You also have a late gameย Marin the Fox option. 90% of the time you want to go forย Wondrous Wand Treasure (it’s the strongest one), althoughย Zarog's Crown might also be useful if you need more board presence or you’re desperately looking for lethal with something like Leeroy.
There aren’t really any viable meta versions of Frost Death Knight, so if you’re looking for a full meta builds, I’d recommend either a Rainbow Death Knightย (using all three Runes) or Frost/Unholy Death Knight.
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Aggro Demon Hunter was one of the strongest decks in the early days of the expansion, but it quickly turned out that Aggro Shaman can do the same thing, just better. It doesn’t mean that Aggro Demon Hunter is a bad deck, but it’s been sitting around Tier 2 for most of the expansion. Players have been experimenting with different builds, and there’s a clear split – some prefer a pure Demon Hunter versions, while others dip into Priest withย Aranna, Thrill Seeker. Since it’s a budget build, the dip is out of question, so we’re stuck with a Demon Hunter build.
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 otherwise benefit from them attacking. A perfect curve with the deck in a slower matchup isย Treasure Distributor on T1,ย Sigil of Skydiving on T2 and then eitherย Hozen Roughhouser orย Southsea Captain on Turn 3. If Distributor survived until T2, you now have a 5/3, 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 orย Dangerous Cliffside (another way to summon 1/1’s with Charge), then play your buffers and go face. Slam inย 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.
However, the deck’s biggest problem is that it’s fragile. It mostly runs small minions that are quite easy to answer and it doesn’t have great ways to contest the board, so once you fall behind you can’t do much. That’s why you usually want to try to kill your opponent before they can establish a bigger board. Of course, it doesn’t mean that you can’t trade with your Charge minions, sometimes you have to, but still try combining them with buffs so either you have to use fewer of them (Attack buffs) or they survive trades (Health buffs).
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 cool synergies. 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.
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Druid has been doing incredibly well for the last couple of expansions and Perils in Paradise is no different. The class has a few viable meta options… however, Treant Druid is none of those. Right now you can play Tempo/Dragon Druid, Combo Druid, and Reno Druid, but as you’ve probably guessed, none of those can be built on the budget. While Treant Druid is not a meta option, the deck is not actually that bad and it genuinely stands a chance at lower ranks.
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.
Sadly, right now there aren’t THAT many ways of summining Treants in Standard, so you need to be careful. Probably most importantly, you don’t want to playย Forest Seedlings in its basic form unless you really have to (you have no other play and you face a high tempo deck that you need board presence against). You want to wait 2 turns until the 1/1 Saplings turn into 2/2 Treants. Not only they are much better tempo, but they also make your synergies possible.
For example, you can keep the card until T4 to combo it together withย Overgrown Beanstalk (this way you draw 3 cards) orย Conservator Nymph. Another card that combos very well with those two isย Blood Treant – on Turn 3 you can play the Treant for free (technically for 5 HP, but health total is not your concern in almost any matchup) and follow it up with one of those two a really solid play.
In the mid-late game, Cultivation is your strongest card. Once you have summoned enough Treants, it should either be very cheap or even completely free. Yourย Summer Flowerchild is guaranteed to hit at least one, so you should be able to get in each game. The goal is to set up a massive board flood turn that your opponent won’t be able to answer. Play at least 4-5 minions on the board and then give them all +2/+2 (or even better, +4/+4 with two copies). Many Aggro/Midrange decks have no easy way to deal with such a massive board. If you don’t have Cultivation,ย Power of the Wild (or two) might be enough to turn multiple small minions into a more serious threat.
Against Control, try not to go all in on the same turn. Try dropping a few minions on the board each turn and force them to use their board clears on that. If they run out of them, a few of your minions survive, then you can go all in and make a big board. Of course, sometimes you’ll have to risk it, just play everything, and hope that they have no way to answer.
Drum Circle is quite flexible – if you already have a wide board, you want to use it for a +2/+4 buff. That’s a massive amount of stats and Taunt means that you might have just won some faster matchups. On the other hand, especially against slower decks, you might use the second option to summon five Treants. If they aren’t answered, follow it up with buffs.
As I’ve said in the beginning, Treant Druid is not really a meta build so there’s no reason to try to build (there aren’t many cards you would want to add to it anyway, maybe except something like Pylon + Ticking Zilliax). If you’re looking for a relatively cheap, but meta-viable Druid deck, you should check out Combo Druid. The only Legendary that’s absolutely necessary isย Mistah Vistah (althoughย Fye, the Setting Sun is also good to have. Add a few Epics and you have a really strong deck. It’s not the easiest deck to play if you’re a new/returning player, but it’s one of the more straightforward Combo decks so learning it won’t be very hard. Other than that, you can check out Tempo Druid or Reno Druid but both of those multiple Legendaries.
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Hunter has been nearly non-existent in Perils in Paradise. At higher ranks, it sits below 1% play rate (!). Even at lower ranks, where Hunters have always been quite popular, it’s only around 2-3%. The class’ win rate is not that bad (it’s around Tier 2), but I think a bigger issue might be the lack of innovation. The two best decks right now are Secret Hunter from the last expansion (with zero new cards) or a slight improvement of the last set’s Token Beast Hunter (the build utilizes some of the new cards, but it’s very similar to the old one). For the budget deck, I’ve picked Secret version simply because it’s easier to build without using Legendaries. The only Legendary card you really want isย Product 9, so if you have it be sure to add it, but you can play it without it.
The idea is simple – play Secrets, let the enemy trigger them, which in turn discountsย Starstrung Bow. Once the bow is cheap, equip it and keep going face to (hopefully) kill your opponent. Other than the Bow, you have some other cool combos.ย Vicious Slitherspear works insanely well withย Bunch of Bananas. Playing him on T1 with two Banas 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) +ย 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,ย Patchwork Pals is one of the best cards Hunter got in a long time. 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 withย 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).
Despite already showing its age (the deck is already played for a few expansions with small changes every set), it’s not a bad deck. Even in budget form, it should easily be able to climb at 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 Beast Token Hunter decks here.
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While building some of the decks on the list took me a while (for research, playtesting etc.), this one was incredibly simple. This is a 1 to 1 meta build of Elemental Mage. Yep, it runs zero Epics or Legendaries – just Rares and Commons. And for a while, beforeย Lamplighter got nerfed, it was encroaching into Tier 1 territory. Even after the nerf, which slower it down quite considerably, it’s a solid Tier 2 build.
The gameplay is your good old Elemental synergies. Elementals often have extra effects that activate only if you have played an Elemental last turn. To make it even a bigger deal, you have a couple of cards that get stronger for each consecutive turn you played an Elemental. If you skip one turn, the bonus resets, so I have to make it incredibly clear that you NEED to play Elemental every turn if possible. Of course, given that 25 out of 30 cards in your deck are Elementals it’s not going to be hard, but I have to emphasize that even if T2 Hero Power seems like a good idea, you probably want to play some Elemental if you can.
Now, with that out of the way, let’s see how the deck wins. In the early/mid game, you try to establish some board and clear whatever your opponent plays. While you have no spells that can handle your opponent’s board, many of your minions can deal damage. For example,ย Triplewick Trickster andย Tainted Remnant both can deal with a few small minions if you get lucky with your hits. In a slower matchup, the same minions can be used to push extra face damage.
At one point you will probably start falling behind too far and you will need to stall the game. Freeze comes in handy in those situations –ย Glacial Shard andย Sleet Skater can both buy you some time, especially against decks running a few big minions and not a lot of small ones.
While you might sometimes be able to win with board alone, your main condition isย Lamplighter. It’s a card that starts only at 1 damage, but grows each turn in a row you play an Elemental. By the mid-game it should already be around 5-6 damage, even higher by the late game. The maximum I’ve reached with the deck was 13 damage, and it was (barely) enough to beat a Warrior I’ve played against. How long you want to keep him growing depends on the matchup, current board situation, how much damage you’ve already dealt, can opponent heal/gain Armor, and so on. Overall, you have up to 4 nukes – two Lamplighters and twoย Saloon Brewmasters that can put them back into your hand. In some situations you might use Salon Brewmaster on another minion (for example, on Sleet Skater to stall for longer), but usually you want to keep it for Lamplighter.
And that’s pretty much it. Try to sneak in some early/mid game damage (like dropping a Trickster or Remnant on an empty board) and then finish your opponent off with burn from Lamplighters.
Usually, I post some potential deck changes or a better build here, but in this case, Elemental mage is the best Mage build currently available. If you’re looking for another deck, you can tryย Spell Mage. It’s also a cheap deck, but it’s significantly weaker (around Tier 3, maybe even Tier 4). However, I know that some people simply don’t imagine playing Mage without almost any spells, so if you’re one of them, at least there’s an alternative.
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Aggro Paladin and Handbuff Paladin were consistently some of the best decks in the last expansion, and they still hold up really nicely in Perils in Paradise despite almost no changes. In fact, this budget build runs exactly zero new cards, because the only new card Handbuff Paladin uses is Legendary (Sanc'Azel). If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it, I guess.
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 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.
The full deck actually runs a bunch of Legendary cards that the budget version obviously can’t, but even in this limited form it’s not that bad. You can find full Handbuff Paladin builds here. Alternatively, if you’re looking for a more aggressive deck, Aggro Token Paladin is also a solid option (and it runs a similar set of Legendaries so crafting many of them will let you play both).
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Ever since Darkbishop Benedictus rotated out of Standard, Priest has been a nightmare to build on a budget. Priest’s biggest focus are Control strategies, and those always require a bunch of expensive cards. Luckily this expansion the class has got some aggressive, self-damage synergies, so the budget version is way better than it was last time (we had to use a horrible Automaton Priest because there was no other option). Of course, it’s still not a great deck and I would not recommend it, but if you have to play Priest on budget for whatever reason, it’s probably your best bet.
The best way to win with this deck is with tempo. Sauna Regular and Thirsty Drifter are quite easy to discount in this build, you should be able to get them down to 0 mana in the mid game. Then you can get extra copies of them with Power Chord: Synchronize, Celestial Projectionist and Zola the Gorgon. This way you have a few waves of mid-sized minions with Taunts. Against Aggro decks that don’t have AoE removal, you can go all in and try to play as many of them as possible in one turn. Against Control, you want to try to drip those threats more slowly
The deck also runs Crimson Clergy shenanigans to draw those cards in the first place. The card combos very well with Fan Club, Funnel Cake and Dreamboat. You can get a lot of extra draws really easily. Using Synchronize on Clergy can also be a good idea if you need more draw. Sometimes a curve like Clergy on T1, Synchronize on T2, dropping the second Clergy with some AoE heals on T3 can win you the game because it’s a lot of tempo AND you get a hand full of cards to play with.
And finally, you have some reach in the form of Acupuncture, Hot Coals and Glowstone Gyreworm. If you get your opponent pretty low, you can often sneak 10+ extra damage out of nowhere.
There’s actually no full meta build of Pain Priest, simply because it’s simply not a meta deck. If you want to build a good Priest deck, you really have two options – Zarimi Priest and Overheal Priest. Neither of them is recommended for new/returning players, but if you have some experience with the class, they are both actually quite capable.
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Elemental Rogue is the second Elemental deck in this roundup. It was a very common meta deck until Lamplighter nerf. That really messed it up, but it’s still playable. It runs fewer Elementals and relies on Sonya Waterdancer shenanigans to deal a bunch of extra damage. But since we can’t use Sonya in the budget version, we have to go all-in on Elementals.
Just like with Mage, Lamplighter is your main win condition. In Rogue, you rely on it even more simply because you have cheaper and easier way to bounce it. Your game plan is basically the same, but since you don’t have many ways to stall, you tend to go in with the combo sooner. But it’s equally as important to keep the Elemental chain – mulligan hard for an Elemental 1-drop and go from there, playing at least one per turn. For example, Quick Pick on T2 is usually a bad play unless you can Coin out an Elemental too, because it really slows down your combo.
If you face a lot of board pressure, it’s fine to use your Lamplighter as a board clear, but it’s recommended to bounce him right away. For example, Lamplighter to clear something + Breakdance (to clear another minion with 4/3 Rush) is often a good mid game play to buy you some time.
At some point, you need to switch to face damage. If you face a deck that can’t heal, you can start throwing Lamplighters at them around 5-6 damage. Just remember to always bounce them back, unless you have a second one in your hand. Against slower decks, depending on the situation, you can keep going longer, until you get 7-8 damage, before you start. You can play six Lamplighters in total thanks to all of your bounces, so that’s a lot of damage.
You can find full Lamplighter Rogue decks here. The main difference is Sonya Waterdancer + Bounce Around (ft. Garona). Thanks to those two cards, you have insane late game burst. Without it, it might be difficult to win because some slower decks can outarmor or outheal your damage.
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Our third (and final) Elemental deck is Elemental Shaman. In terms of current power level, the deck sits somewhere in the middle between Mage (strongest) and Rogue (weakest). However, a full build has one thing going on for it that this budget version doesn’t – Skarr, the Catastrophe (which is the original Lamplighter, on steroids).
Out of the three Elemental decks, this one is the least reliant on Lamplighter. Of course, it’s still a great finisher you want to use, but it can actually create some scary boards and contest the opponent’s minions in other ways than just stalling. If you get a great curve and your opponent doesn’t, you might not even need Lamplighters – I won some Elemental Shaman games with a good 1-2-3-4-5 curve.
You want to do exactly the same thing as with other Elemental decks, so I won’t repeat it again. Play Elementals on the curve, never break the Elemental chain, try to win the board and sneak some damage in, and finish them off with Lamplighters. That’s it.
As I’ve said, the biggest difference when compared to a full Elemental Shaman build is Skarr. It’s a great card that can completely swing the game. In the late game, it’s usually a full board clear + lots of face damage + a 7/7 minion. A better alternative to Elemental Shamam, however, is Aggro Shaman. It comes in many varieties, but all of them run Tourist card to get access to Demon Hunter cards. Hence why it can’t be built on budget.
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Pain Warlock has been one of the best decks throughout Whizbang’s Workshop and it got a few new, powerful tools in Perils in Paradise. Right now it’s one of the strongest decks on the ladder, especially at lower ranks. Given that the full version runs 8 Epic cards and all of them are important, it’s the only budget deck on this list that I had to go up to 4 Epics with. I simply can’t cut them down further without making this deck bad, the ones left are simply too important. And one note – Sheriff Barrelbrim was available for free from the rewards track in Showdown in the Badlands expansion. In order to unlock him now, you need to finish an achievement asking you to own 30 different cards from Badlands. Even if you have zero Badlands cards, that’s only 6 packs (and as a new/returning player you should be opening a few packs from each expansion anyway). So even though he’s technically not available for free, I still decided to include him.
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 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, Party Fiend 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 run ways to deal damage from hand. And that’s where your healing becomes relevant. INFERNAL! is your best bet when it comes to getting out of 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, I had to replace him with Lesser Amethyst Spellstone – it’s really easy to upgrade in this deck, and a full version deals 7 damage to a minion and heals you for that much. It’s worse than Pop’gar, but what can you do.
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 is one of the best build in the current meta. And it’s not really that expensive to build – if you have this version, you really need is a couple more Epics (Trolley Problem, Cursed Souvenir) and a Legendary card (Pop’gar). You might also consider other Legendaries like Symphony of Sins or Party Planner Vona, both of those are good in this build. Alternatively, if you’re looking for a cheap Warlock deck, Fatigue Warlock is also an option. The deck runs only one Legendary (Pop’gar), but it’s even more necessary than in Pain version.
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- 2,820
And finally, a fun one. Well, fun if you don’t mind losing a lot of games, because oh boy, the deck is not good. Building Warrior on budget is just straight-up impossible. The last few expansions all focused on expensive strategies that required multiple Legendary cards. Not to mention that after the recent balance patch Warrior is in a bad spot anyway. The only two semi-viable strategies are Reno Warrior (a 20k Dust deck) and Odyn Warrior (a deck requiring, as you’ve probably guessed it, Odyn). So instead of going for a viable budget deck (because there’s none), I’ve decided to have some fun.
If you’ve been playing Hearthstone in the past, you might remember Bomb Warrior, shuffling explosives into your opponent’s deck and then relying on draw RNG to win the match (of course after shuffling 10+ Bombs the RNG was usually in Warrior’s favor). Blizzard has decided to bring the mechanic back. Sort of. We have two ways to shuffle bombs – the first one is Explodineer. This one is straightforward and is there in the deck just to increase the Bomb density in your opponent’s deck (and to have something to play on curve). If it sticks for a few turns then it’s very strong, but 90% of the time it’s going to die right away, so it will only shuffle one Bomb. However, the second and strongest way to do it is Safety Expert. The card shuffles three Bombs in total on Deathrattle.
However, three Bombs is still not enough, that’s why you have some other interesting tools to increase that number, such as Boom Wrench. However, at 10 mana, the card is too expensive to really combo with anything, and that’s where your discounts come in. Chemical Spill lets you summon it for 5 mana. And sure, it becomes an 8/3, but you can still rush it into a big minion and kill it immediately. Or… you can also copy it with Battleworn Faceless for three more bombs. Another discount is Part Scrapper, you sacrifice 5 Armor to let your next Mech be 5 mana cheaper. It’s best to be combo’d with Safety Goggles or Shield Block. In this case, the minion doesn’t get damaged, so you can’t play Faceless. But you can play Boom Wrench. The perfect scenario is having the Boom Wrench pre-equipped. Then you play your Safety Expert, play Miniaturize version of Boom Wrench (which destroys the original one and shuffles 3 Bombs), then swing with the 1/1 Wrench (to shuffle 3 more Bombs).
During my playtesting, once I managed to shuffle 16 Bombs into my opponent’s deck. I still lost that game, but hey, if RNG was on my side and they drew a bunch of them in a row, I would have won it.
The deck also runs Testing Dummy as an alternative Big Mech in case you don’t get your Safety Expert. It’s pretty good vs Aggro, especially when combined with Boom Wrench to trigger its Deathrattle immediately. Against slower decks, it can also be used for some extra burst damage if you manged to soften them up with Bombs first.
I really wouldn’t craft anything for this deck since it’s clearly not viable, but if you do happen to have Inventor Boom, definitely add him to this build. But more realistically, if you want to play Warrior, you should look into Odyn Warrior or Reno Warrior (but neither is cheap).
vai lanรงar outro deck hoje?
Escreve em inglรชs, gรชnio…
Even in low ranks there are alot of meta decks
The only difference is that those players don`t know how to pilote them
And sometimes they are missing 1 or 2 of the more expensive cards
Budget decks were just updated for Descent of Dragons meta! While some of the decks didn’t change that much, I offer two alternative builds that would need some Epics to work better – Deathrattle Rogue & Aggro Overload Shaman.
Let me know what you think!
Comments below this one might be outdated.
Where did you post Deathrattle rogue and Aggro overload shaman? I canโt find it.
Click on the name of a given deck to get redirected to a full guide with mulligan, strategy etc.
In the Rogue & Shaman guides, I’ve added those alternative builds at the bottom ๐
Thanks for clearing that up!
Do you think any of Galakrond’s Awekening cards can be added to these decks?
Wild cards will return soon and everyone gets copies. So will you update decks inluding these?
Hey! When is this going to be updated? Iโd like to make a budget deck, but I donโt want to use all my dust to create one that is much weaker now… I hope you see this comment ๐ Keep up the great work!
The aggro paladin deck has been surprisingly successful I climbed from rank 20 to rank 10. Thanks for the decks Stonekeep. ????
why did it turn my emoji into question marks >:(
What emoji did you try to put? Maybe it’s not recognized on our site or something (not sure).
But I’m glad that you had a nice climb with the deck ๐
Awesome work ๐ (looking forward for your disenchanting and crafting guide for the new expansion)
Budget decks were just updated for Saviors of Uldum meta! I really like this batch, I think that we have some really strong options.
Comments below this one might be outdated.
When can we expect an update? ๐
Update budget deck pls ๐
Absolutely adore this site, and since finding it a few years back, I haven’t touched any other Hearthstone sites since! The degree of professionalism placed into every guide and the speed at which this site’s content is updated after huge game updates and expansions is unrivaled by any other sites out there.
Necessary praise aside, will these budget decks need updating after the Rise Of Shadows nerfs and the new classic set cards, or have there been minimal changes to the meta and included cards?
Considering Archmage Vargoth is given to everyone for free, is he not a good option for budget token druid?
Yes, you’re right, and it’s discussed on the deck’s page! If you have Vargoth (and everyone who plays the game right now does), replace Cult Master with it.
However, it’s a limited time promotion (you can only get it until July AFAIK), so it’s better to not assume that everyone has it in case someone checks out the budget guides after it runs out ๐
I have to say: crafting Whizbang is probably the smartest decision I’ve made in this game, if for no other reason than he keeps my games entertaining.
That said, I do truly appreciate these budget deck lists–especially this new format with the strategy and upgrade/sidegrade information. I’m already seeing so many things I want to try out… Thank you all so much for doing this and for writing it so quickly.
Budget decks were just updated for Rise of Shadows meta! Big thanks to Martian & Roffle for doing it so quickly.
Comments below this one might be outdated.
We’re currently working on the new budget decks! They should be ready some time next week.
Thank you guys and gals! No rush. The new expansion has only been out for 2 days. It takes time to see where the meta will be going, and to learn how to incorporate new cards. Keep up the hard work.
Hi,
Will these decks be updated for Rise Of Shadows/Year of the Dragon?
Thanks.
EDIT: Please ignore my comment above.
I completely forgot that I’d already asked this on you “Rise Of Shadows Deck Lists” article.
Didn’t mean to spam, lol. ๐
Thank you for this! ๐ Murloc deck seems to be the cheapest for me.
I dusted a golden legendary earlier and thought i should craft a midrange Hunter without Rexxar but there are so many viable budget decks out there, which makes me think if there is a better budget deck that suit a newbie like me…
P.s: i have Uther, Jaxxarus along with Bloodmage Thalnos and Harrison Jones as well.
You can go budget otk paladin but it takes some learning fun deck and you can turn it into a tier 1 deck
I’m going to ask at risk of sounding like an idiot, But are the dust cost based on what you would get if you disenchanted the deck? Because none of theses decks cost anywhere near those prices to craft. And if so why mark the price like that? I don’t understand.
No the dust cost just means how much it would cost to craft every single card in the deck.
So, the best budget decks from this list are Midrange Hunter and Zoo Warlock. And if i mean the best, i mean the best by far.
We’ll be working on updating these soon after the expansion is released!
It would be nice ๐ If you can, please include more cards replacements in each deck. Obviously if someone is forced to make budget deck, he doesn’t have all cards. Not only all legendaries and epics but also not all commons and rares.
Budget decks can be already considered “replacements” for meta decks. If you don’t have some cards, just craft them. The very reason for budgets is that you can build one from scratch for around 1500 dust.
if someone has some legendaries and epics put some of them to replace a common or a rare to the descriptoon of the deck
Can we please have multiple budget decks for each class?
Can you add each deck bbcode ?
nevermind i got it
Any changes after the nerfs to Giggling Inventor???
Stonehill Defender for value generation
Rotten Applebaum for cost/benefit taunt
You put token Druid twice under deck recommendations.
Hello, please, when will be updated for new expansion ? Thanks a lot.
Being worked on currently!
Ok. Thank you. Warlock seems to be a greatest choice for new players ?
Right you are
Hi,
Thanks for this guide, it helps a lot !
Dude Paladin deck is very dependent of “LightFused Stegodon” and “Lost in the Jungle” cards, that will be soon unavailable due to extension turn over.
Would you have some tips to replace these cards ?
Btw, you probably want to replace the current midranged hunter deck with the other more secret oriented deck that used Spellstone and only 7 minions. You could replace Deathstalker Rexxar with a highmane or something.
Really good idea. Your deck is much better than the version from budget list.
I am sorry but I don’t know where to post regular questions so I will post this here.
I want to build a secret mage style deck I have looked into deck formulas listed here and have not found anything within that vein so if someone can post a budget secret mage that would be awesome ps I have a little over five hundred dust saved so feel free to add some non budget cards near that amount thanks!
Do you have any epic or legendary mage cards?
If you look up the “non budget” tempo mage, how far off are you from this?
What secrets do you have?
Let me know and will make you a list.
Thank you (:
In answer to your question I have written down every Mage related epic and legend I have as well as every Standard legend and epic
I built Tempo mage once and did not like the flow of it yet I do want to play mage as I have heard she is an important class to learn.
Anyway here is the list
Mage Epic:
Book of Specters x2
Primordial glyph x2
Arcane Keysmith x2
Pyroblast x 2
Counterspell x2
Other secrets:
Explosive Runes x2
Frozen clone x2
Mirror Entity x2
Ice Barrier x2
Mage Legends:
Frost Lich Jaina x1
Aluneth x1
Archmage Arugul x1 (sorry I pulled one of these and was only able to craft one of the other two)
Standard Epics:
Doomsayerx2
Nightmare Amalgramx2
Blaze Callerx2
Spiteful Summoner x2
Primordial Drake x2
Charged Devilsaur x2
Mountain and Sea Giant x2
Standard Legends:
Prince Keleseth x2
Genn Greymane x1 not to brag but he is a gold genn btw lol lucky pull
Countess Ashmore x2
Baku x1
The Lich King x1
hope this helps and thank you so much!
Hello ๐
I crafted the Budget Elemental Mage Deck a few days ago. It is so much fun ๐
I am a new player and haven’t got aluneth yet and no dust left. I enchanted all of my free legendaries for this deck.
My question is at this point, if it is still worth it to collect dust for Aluneth even, if this card will leave the rotation with the new expansion coming next year. I don’t know how long it will take to collect that much dust. How much dust do you get if a legendary leaves the rotation and become a wild card?
Thanks a lot ๐
Basicly, average dust cost of a pack is one hundred, and due to quests you usually can collect 180 – 170 gold in three days. So, if you will win six to nine games, while completing the tasks, you will collect 1600 dust in 24 days. This will leave you with a really useful legendary for the next eight (Isn’t it?) month. I think, that’s worth it, at least, if you’r going to use it)
(Btw, this sounds hard, but crafting a legendary in a month is really not so hard)
(I’m not really an english speaking man, so often do either logical, or grammatical mistakes, sorry)
Yep, sorry mate ๐
Okay, thank you very much ๐
As a new player, you donโt want to sink dust into a legendary card. For starters, a deck can eaisilly get boring, and you might want to play something else. So while it might take only 24 days to save up for a legendary, youโll be getting NO cards in that period of time, to further expand and enhance your collection, or to make new decks. Also, this deck is not very powerful, with no meta version. Iโm doubting Alunethโs place in this deck. In addition, that legendary card fits in little or no decks outside of this one, and could easily faze out of the meta. So overall, crafting a legendary can totally ruin your experience, and until you get a larger collection, Iโd only recommend dusting cards that you never expect to use. (Sorry for typos, I typed this quickly on a phone)
Elemage is not a strong deck right now. However you can still buy aluneth for secret tempo mage that is stronger.
Don’t bother crafting aluneth,it’s not worth it,the best legendaries to craft right nowpath are probably Baku/Genn.
First let me say thank you so much for this guide! The decks are not only cheap to build but also very easy to pilot.
Would you mind putting up a budget murloc deck please?
That would be awesome
Thank you again!
They could do so but the deck won’t be strong enough.
Murloc package in a budget would lack in power to finish the game.
You would miss so much “Warleader” and “Gentle Megasore”.
For the priest deck would lady in white work?
it could, the only minions who would suffer is the bone dragons
that is unless she overides the Twilight drakes (i dont know how they interact with her)
the twilights will become 1/1 and still get the hand buff though so you could have a 1/7 twilight with LIW
just crafted your preist dragon deck and it worked like a charm (: I mean sure it all depends on the draw ie you can’t win them all but when this goes off it is hard to stop thanks much!
guys, best budget decks right now are midrange hunter, dude paladin, tempo mage (not this elemental mage), combo priest and zoolock. Combo priest is inconsistent and a very tricky deck to play.
here is the meta tempo mage http://www.hearthstonetopdecks.com/decks/witchwood-tempo-mage-deck-list-guide-standard/
Is Budget rogue a good deck to craft for, Im currently using budget mage, but i also want to use rogue from time-to-time, or is mage just a wayy better option.
ะกะฟะฐะผะตัั ัะพะฒัะตะผ ะตะฑะฐะฝัะปะธัั. ะญัะพ ะฐะฝะณะปะพัะทััะฝัะน ัะฐะนั ะฟะพ ะธะณัะต, ะฐะปะปะพ, ะณะพัะฐั!
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Muitobom os Deck Budget , adorei .. Valeu <3 , Um abraรงo aqui do Brasil !
The decks are great, good job, love the website ๐ Just a question: Could we get some tips on upgrades to these decks? Expensive cards that we might have to use in these decks. Or this doesn’t makes any sense? haha ty!
Look at the meta versions of these decks (most of them have a meta version), and make substitutions based on the cards with the highest winrates.
Examples:
Rogue – Prince Keleseth and vilespines
Druid – Whispering woods and branching paths – malfurion too eventually
Mage- Jaina and blazecallers (Jaina has insane synergy with elementals)
Priest – Shadow visions (alternatively you could build the spiteful deck with spiteful summoners and free from amber)
Warlock- Hooked reavers, Prince keleseth, Gul’dan
Shaman – different class is a good upgrade
Paladin – Call to arms (insane card for that deck) and later sunkeeper tarim
Warrior- Town criers are a good craft for that deck
Nice list. I would also add that although Warlock is currently very strong, it’s decks are also very expensive. If you are short on mana and are looking to upgrade a single class, I would suggest Druid, Rogue, Mage or specially Paladin instead. Priest isalso good, but it doesn’t have a tier 1 deck right now. As for Shaman and Warrior, both classes remain at the bottom and are not worth the investment if you are a FTP or budget player with low mana avaliable.
Lady in White dragon deck is amazing…
Lady in White turned out to be a bad deck for many reasons, best priest deck rn is control priest with mind blast
I have lady in white from firsts packs and I really love to see her play. For.me it’s amazing card but most of the time she doesn’t work… Of course it’s nice to throw on the table 9/9 steambot but too often she is too slow… She works as a nice additional card for deck with double heal and inner fire ( steambot cost 4 and have 9 health so it’s possible to do otk with it). I have in this deck weapon for priest and lyra as well so it sometimes works ( but most of the time lady in white is far in the deck to have any usage from her).
What you are playing with LiW.that is so good? Maybe I’m doing something wrong?
Lady in White could be good with more support but mind blast control is best right now.
Hi All im noob here. Good post! Thx! Thx!
If any new player see my comment, plz do not make the midrange hunter deck, it is not the hunter’s world.
Midrange Hunter has been a budget staple for a long time, so I’m not sure what you are talking about.
I did not judge your article, it is very helpful, I made my decks based on it, the problem is not hunter, no one can form a better budget deck for hunter, but in current environment, hunter is just too weak, New player would switch to other class after he beyond the newbie level.
Anyway, these decks are not expensive, and play different class would be more interesting and helpful.
i got rank 15 for the first time with a slightly upgraded midrange hunter. I used a 4k dust elemental mage and tried different variations of mage but i was hardstuck rank 16. 1.2 k dust midrange hunter got me rank 15
Every dude paladin deck user should uninstall heartstone so the normal people can enjoy it.
Dude Paladin has been a thing since forever – they’ve just swapped Quartermaster for Tarim, Level Up and/or Lightfused Stegadon; it’s always been a “normal” HS archetype – it’s just a bit stronger now than it has been for a long time.
It’s still beatable mind; I have few problems with it when running Control Warlock – especially with Despicable Dreadlord. Taunt-heavy decks generally do well too.
And who are you to judge whet other people should play? If you don’t like playing this deck than don’t. I can say the same about cubelock, about face Hunter, face mage, quest rogue or any other deck if I don’t like them. If you are playing ranked than you use every opportunity to take down your opponent. If you don’t like that style you can always play normal and give up if you face ‘cancer’ deck. But don’t tell other people why should they play. They will play with the deck that’s give them fun and satisfaction. That why hearstone was made , to give fun (and of course money to blizzard).
Yeah and cube locks they make the games not even fun and impossible to rank up
These are great. Would be nice to have some budget odd and even decks (if they exist). Budget odd decks seem to be quite good, and baku is a good legendary for budget players.
If you own Baku, I belive odd Paladin is the cheapest deck. Odd hunter can be good too, yet weaker than Paladin and you may need Leeroy Jenkins.
Thank you so much for this list. It helps a lot.
I LOVE THIS BUDGET DECK SECTION! Thank you so much for writing this up and caring for us, F2P players. Please keep this section up-to-date as the meta changes and perhaps provide a 2nd/3rd alternative for each class whenever possible. Keep up the good work!
Just a heads up: Elemental Mage is still listed with the Secret Mage deck list.
Fixed, thanks!
Can we get some updates please?
We’ve updated four decks, we still need time to finish the rest.
You guys are doing great! Thanks for the work you do in updating, on top of playing yourselves!
Can we please get updates on these decks, pirates are almost non existent with patches nerf yet almost all these decks contain Golakka. It was nice to see them get rid of the creeper after nerf but golakka is somehow still in these decks and needs to be removed as well.
Yeah, i’d also love to see all of these decks get slightly adjusted and maybe even a new deck or two.
I’ve asked for it also few weeks ago, but with no response. I assume that this will be updated after next patch.
Can we get some update for post-nerf decks?
Which of these decks is the strongest? Please answer
Secret Mage and Zoo I would say.
I disagree, though secret mage is very strong in ladder indeed this version doesn’t run alluneth (the 6 mana mage weapon) which really hurts the deck.
In my opinion inner fire priest is the best closely followed by zoo warlock and midrange hunter. After that mage and druid and the other decks are pretty trash.
Inner fire without Shadow Visions I really disagree… Zoo is strong, surely if you manage to put in Keleseth and maybe Gul’Dan.
Elemental mage (not secret tempo, check ‘other budget options’) with Jaina and Baron Geddon (?) also works really well for me.
I already have the full Budget Midrange Hunter deck and I am loving it, great guide! But, Is it worth crafting Secret Mage now or should I wait until April 2018 for the rotations and then spend my dust on updated budget decks? I suppose what Iโm asking is, will these deck lists be updated very soon after the rotation or will they remain outdated until a few weeks after the rotation, if Iโm making any sense? Thanks for any helpful repsonses.
Whoops, forgot to ask if these lists will be updated to address the nerfs to Patches and Creeper etc. Sorry for the unintentional spam, just really interested to hear from site admins and better players! ๐
Mage won’t be viable after the rotations I don’t think, except if blizzard make a few new cards that support it. If you do have the dust or most of the cards you could craft it but I wouldn’t recommend this version as it doesn’t run the weapon which hard carries quite a few games.
Cuse I dont have raza it’s realy bad but is it any deck I can came to rank 10-5 with?? Now I dont use ut at all, I’m playing the Budget jade deck
I got shadowreaper anduin as free deth night.Is it any good Budget deck with him?
Uh u can play with a budget dragon-filled deck
Hi there,
built Midrange Hunter and im quite happy with the Deck. Recently crafted 2 Corridor Creepers as you recommended. Is cutting Hounds really the way to go? Quite liked the Synergy with huner’s Mark and helped to turn some lost games into wins. I felt like cutting the Hyena… good idea or is it definetly Hounds? And why is it Hounds? ๐
Yeah I would also consider replacing hyena, I also tried it and it is very difficult to make it work. Hounds is much better right now.
If you do end wanting to rank with the mage i made it to rank 11 in about 3 days. I played this game for a few months a few years ago and with that knowledge and this deck its been enjoyable experience. Thanks i hope to push to rank 5 by the end of month. I hope itโs possible