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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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.
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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
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- 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 – 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
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- 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.
Came here to say I hit top 6k legend with Budget Weapon Rogue. Kept getting better with the deck, and the mulligan. Tried out Shaffar, but it was weird – as described.
Thank you for making budget versions of what the top 100 players are doing – I’d love to see more of this and more decks like this. Thanks – Pat
I See, that you still have Not Corrected Pozzik, Audio Engineer.
You either really don’t know Hearthstone or your trolling.
I See, that you still have Not Corrected Pozzik, Audio Engineer.
You either eally don’t know Hearthstone or your trolling.
I See, that you still have Not Corrected Pozzik, Audio Engineer. When you buy a Festival of Legends Pack, you get E.T.C, Band Manager. Pozzik, Audio Engineer ist rewarded after collecting 30 FoL cards.
You either eally don’t know Hearthstone or your trolling.
Hi Stonekeep, could you please update this page content and the meta decks page? Thank you for your time!
Pozzik, Audio Engineer is obtained by collecting 30 Neutral Festival of Legends cards. ETC is your reward for buying the pack.
That has been bugging me for a year now, sorry.
That Budget Face Hunter – Whizbang’s Workshop deck got me to legend at NA! thanks
Really good work this season. Can you update this based on the mini-set? And perhaps some more budget options for each class that vary in play style. Tall ask on my part, but these guides are really helpful.
Is drum druid good enough for budget?
Really helpful guide
After a year of HS I disenchanted all rotating cards and had 32k dust. Still these guides come in handy, and i made the BIG DH one since i already had Xhillag. It seems fun to play!
Thanks.
Yo, that first death knight deck got me on a 13 win streak. Really good! Thank you for the work you do.
Which cards out in the warlock budget to add Imp King Rafaam and Sire Denathrius.
Any additions after Deadmines release?
I bet Mr. Smite can be added to most aggro decks and maybe budget Big DH is better than this budget Deathrattle one?
I am using Elemental Shaman with Earth Elemental in place of Lilypad Lurker and climbed to D1. Robes of Protection is an interesting tech choice against mage and Quest Hunters too. I just crafted the Pirate Budget too, I had only a Cargo Guard and Anchorman missing, and I won the only game I played with it at D3.
Great budget decks thank you.
It’s a real shame it’s been 3 months and you guys have no updated budget decks.
They updated their budget decks after 3 months? Better complain about it!
Face Hunt”er”s again;
hope you all prefer that to Watchtowers; this trend of “either the games last until T5 or it’s no fun” is so annoying; no adaptation on new expansions, always the same. Between all the nerfs, BOTH watchtowers was the one I was mostly against.
I’m very excited to see what the Year of the Gryphon will bring for F2P Hearthstone players. Do you think that the new core set will be better for this expansion’s budget decks, or do budget players now lack some good cards from the basic set? I’m hoping to see a couple of viable budget control decks using some of the new core set dragons, hopefully this could be a possibility this year!
It’s a better time than ever for budget players. Yeah there are some high power builds out there but all the free Legendaries (many of which are surprisingly decent) have made building budget decks, especially for classes you may not like, easier. I am very happy with the new Core Set. Honestly it was time for a refresh.
Do you think that I can toss in my Edwin into the aggro rogue list? And if I can, what card do I replace?
Very good idea. I would drop the Agent for the record.
Some of the best budget decks ever.
I love the budget decks, they always help me decide where to spend my very limited dust. I would however, caution against dumping your dust into one and expecting to climb much higher than gold 5. The guide makes the claim that the agro Demon Hunter can climb to Legend rank, but unless you’re a far better player than I am, it can’t. So far I’ve found that it gets effectively walled by Druids, Paladins, and Priests that flood the board, clear the board, and use super cheap buffs. Unless you’re lucky to draw very specific cards in a very timely manner, there doesn’t seem to be much that can be done about this.
Mage also has a very tricky deck that can give them infinite, free spells that exponentially climb in spell power around turn 5-6, and I have not found a way to deal enough damage by then to prevent being burned by *20* damage fireballs.
Does anyone have advice? I’m still walled at gold 5-4, warriors and paladins especially, but not only them.
I first time climbed last month to legend with face hunter, and in this season Pirate Warrior is giving good success too (at Diamond 4 right now). I have Dragon Bane too and essentially am using VKLiooon’s list for Hunter, and Krastinov 2 Steeldancers and Green Skin in Pirate, so the latter is not actually budget, but is serving well with much damage coming from weapons (Scythe, Ganarg and Ancharr) countering board clears. With Demon Hunter Aggro I have been suffering more, so I would definitely recommend Face Hunter to climb.
I am using the Demon Hunter deck (with one Stiltstepper) and I got so far to Gold 2, but likely can make it a bit further.
Take into account that as long as you are winning 51% of your games you’ll eventually climb up 🙂
For Demon Hunter a thing that helps a lot is knowing the mana cost of the opponent’s early removal and trying to play Mana Burn or Cult Neophyte at the right time to push them one turn further.
It is definitely game over if a Priest gets to 8 mana though 😀
Platinum 8 now. FWIW, the Stiltstepper really helps push it in the end if it’s close. Get them if you can afford them 🙂
If u played DH, I would suggest the Altruis variant of the Aggro build. Of course, u have to craft Pokelt; however, Pokelt is a neutral that is quite flexible and is used in Face Hunter, Highlander Hunter, Galakrond Rogue. Most of the aggro DH I encountered in Legend run this variant over the budget build anyways.
You can hit legend with any deck
Could you maybe add some cards that you can add if you want to make them better?
Each deck has a full guide which includes upgrade path – basically cards that you want to add to make the deck better or full deck lists you should be aiming for once you find more Dust 🙂
Your deck guide for Spel Druid inspired me to play and push for the legend for the first time. I reached 24k legend, I used slightly edited version with Rising Winds (minus Treenforcements and minus one Soul of the Forest) on Rank 5 diamond to legend with winrate 28wins and 13 loss. Deck si powerful you can create unkillable boards or just to trade and wait for the right moment to buff, you can reach legend with it quickly.