While Blizzard have recently made improvements to the playing experiences of new and returning players, Hearthstone can still feel quite expensive at times. Many players also find their focus on Standard and although they might want to try Wild they don’t have a full collection or know where to start. That’s why we have created budget Wild decks for each class. These decks can offer an excellent starting point when trying the Wild format, whether they are used to climb the ladder or to give you the chance to complete some Daily Quests.
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, builds are within the 1600 – 3000 Arcane Dust range.
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 (especially with the no duplicate rules across all rarities), and even if you’re missing some of them, they’re cheap to craft.
As for the Epics, we try to keep as little of them as possible. If a deck can be built with no Epics at all, we don’t add them. However, if some Epics are key cards and you can’t make a deck without them, between building a different, much weaker deck and adding Epics, we’ve decided to go for the latter. We still try to keep a limit of 2 Epics per deck to keep them cheap.
Legendaries are completely excluded, unless it’s a Legendary that’s given out for free (so every player has access to it).
Cards from Galakrond’s Awakening are also excluded.
Budget Deck Rankings
Some of these decks are more reasonable for lower ranks. However, others can carry you all the way to legend! Here we’ve ranked these budget decks in their rough power levels.
Tier 1
Tier 2
Tier 3
Tier 4
Of these decks Mech Paladin, Secret Mage, and Pirate Warrior offer the best build paths and are most worth investing into long-term. You can check out our Wild Meta Tier List to get a full understanding of how optimal versions of these lists may perform.
Cheap Hearthstone Decks
1,920Mech Paladin is an aggressive archetype which mixes the Magnetic and Handbuff mechanics. This pairing is well-suited and highly synergistic, as your buffed in-hand minions are able to make an immediate impact on the board when attached to an already-in-play Mech.
Efficient card draw from Crystology gives you greater hand size which improves both Smuggler's Run and Grimestreet Outfitter. Buffed Mechs can then be flooded on to the board using the mana-cheating of Mechwarper and Galvanizer. Many of your Mechs come with extra keywords like Divine Shield, Rush or Windfury, further increasing the efficiency of handbuffs. This deck is consistently explosive and snowballs boards in ridiculous fashion.
Mech Paladin is by far the best option among these budget, no-legendary lists. The list is very close to the optimal version of the deck, which uses legendaries that are highly replaceable and cards most players already have (SN1P-SN4P and Zilliax). There is a guide attached to the link for the deck, which gives a more in-depth overview of how to play the list and its strengths and weaknesses.
- 1Skaterbot2
- 2Annoy-o-Tron2
- 2Galvanizer2
- 3Flying Machine2
- 4Mechwarper2
- 4Replicating Menace2
- 5Wargear2
Galakrond Zoo Warlock is a deck with a ton of sustain ad ability to flood the board. In this way it’s quite similar to Odd Paladin, albeit not quite as explosive. This archetype aims to repeatedly flood the board while invoking and upgrading Galakrond, the Wretched. Grim Rally is used to buff your tokens, often using Nerubian Egg or Scarab Egg as sacrifices. The deck is quite consistent overall, with slight struggles against only the absolute fastest decks in the format. Players can look to Sea Giant as a minor upgrade which works incredibly well with Warlock’s invoke and is excellent at pressuring slower lists.
It worth noting that although Galakrond Zoo Warlock is a solid option for players on a budget, it is quite limited in its scope for improvement. Warlock players may want to try Discard Warlock, a deck which is a little bit more expensive but is very competitive given its relatively cheap dust cost.
Secret Mage has been a staple of the meta for some time. And although our no legendary rule forbids the use of Aluneth, Secret Mage is still one of the best options for budget players. Secret Mage plenty of high-value and high-tempo early game minions that allow it to efficiently seize control of the board. The secrets themselves are highly disruptive and allow the Mage to snowball quickly, before transitioning to burning the opponent out.
Secret Mage is also very cheap to complete. The only thing standing between this budget list and a highly-competitive, optimised list is an Aluneth and an Ice Block, making it an excellent option for many. Secret Mage has been at the top of the tier lists for the better part of a year and that doesn’t look like it’s going to change too soon.
Spiteful Priest is a new budget option for players, after the nerf to Spiteful Summoner was reverted. Spiteful Priest is a deck that carried a lot of notoriety during its time in Standard. The card is very curve-based, aiming to mostly play the biggest thing it can each turn before making a huge tempo swing with Spiteful Summoner. The deck has the ability to control board using highly efficient dragon-synergy cards such as Duskbreaker and Drakonid Operative. However, it will struggle against many of the fastest decks in the format and combo lists. Spiteful Priest doesn’t have the strongest upgrades available, so players should be aware that there isn’t a ton of scope for improvement for this archetype even with a a fully-fleshed-out collection.
Murloc Shaman was a tier 1 archetype not too long ago, however very few upgrades have seen it slip dramatically over time. Still, it remains an excellent deck to punish passive, slower archetypes and is among the best options in this price range.
Murloc Shaman aims to snowball the board with searly-game threats like Murloc Tidecaller and Murloc Warleader. Underbelly Angler is one of the most powerful aggressive cards ever printed, able to re-fill a hand all by itself and give you proper sustain in the mid-game. Gentle Megasaur and Old Murk-Eye are the most immediate upgrades available, which both add a ton of finishing power to the deck.
A quick glance at Tempo Demon Hunter might have it confused for a standard list. The only Wild exclusive card used is Hench-Clan Thug! This isn’t done by accident or to make the deck cheap for Standard players. Instead it speaks to the power of the current Demon Hunter card pool, with no Wild-exclusive class cards to choose from either. Tempo Demon Hunter is a deck that you can certainly find moderate success with in Wild. Given its cost effectiveness across formats its undoubtedly going to be highly accessible for all players. If players arecraving something completely different, they can use Odd Demon Hunter. This deck is much more expensive, but is one of the absolute best decks in Wild. Check out our Wild Meta Tier List for more.
Beast Hunter is an aggressive archetype centered around Master's Call. It aims to make early tempo swings with Scavenging Hyena, which works incredibly well with Springpaw and Desert Spear. Beast Hunter is all about early pressure, snowballing the board, and finishing off the opponent with reach from Kill Command, , and the Hunter hero power. The deck doesn’t have much room for improvement, with the most notable upgrade coming from Galakrond Awakening’s Fresh Scent.
Another budget option that Hunter players are free to try is Mech Hunter, a deck which has long been one of the best budget decks for players. However, Mech Hunter is redundant in the meta, acting as very similar but essentially strictly worse version of Mech Paladin. For this reason we’ve opted to highlight a different list that has also shown previous success.
Aggro Druid has had at least niche representation in Wild since the inception of the format, being a powerhouse at times. Right now Aggro Druid isn’t at the peak of its powers, but it remains a solid archetype. Aggro Druid is focused on flooding the board with a huge number of minions, buffing them, and finishing the opponent off with a Savage Roar. Embiggen has been a huge boost for the deck recently, working very well with the deck’s cheap minions. As players build up a collection they can transition to a pirate-based version of Aggro Druid, using Ship's Cannon and Patches the Pirate. The optimal pirate-based Aggro Druid is a decently-performing deck, without being among the titans of the meta.
Pirate Warrior is a highly aggressive making use of various weapon and pirate synergies. One of the fastest decks in the format, Pirate Warrior isn’t the best budget-option out of the gate, but has the best potential of any deck on this list. The complete version of Pirate Warrior is arguably the best deck in Wild today, however it does make use of the necessary legendaries Patches the Pirate, Ancharrr, and Leeroy Jenkins. Still, although this budget variant isn’t perfect it’s a good starting point and something players can absolutely build upon. Patches the Pirate is the most worthwhile immediate upgrade, followed by Ancharrr. Pirate Warrior has been a staple of Wild for years and doesn’t look like disappearing any time soon, making it a worthwhile potential investment.
Rogue is incredibly difficult to build budget lists for given the outlined-restraints. Rogue is one of the weakest classes in Wild right now, with its main options being pirate-based lists using Patches the Pirate. I would emphasis that players looking to try Wild Rogue decks should look to craft Baku the Mooneater and build up an Odd Rogue. Nonetheless, Egg Rogue is something that players can try if they are looking for something more immediate. Egg Rogue is focused on the deathrattle-synergies between the likes of Nerubian Egg, Unearthed Raptor, and Necrium Blade. It has the potential for really strong early mid-game tempo swings, and includes a highroll package of Fal'dorei Strider and Stowaway. However, it will likely struggle somewhat into the majority of highly popular and powerful decks of the format.
Corbettgames
James Corbett has been hopelessly addicted to Hearthstone since 2015. His focus now is on the Wild format, keeping a competitive and creative approach to the mode. Twitch: twitch.tv/corbettgames
Check out Corbettgames on Twitter!
Thanks a lot for this list, really great to see that Wild sees some love here.
By the way, is there any way to build a budget Jade Druid (without any legendaries)?
Thanks in advance.
very happy to see this news for wild, its almost forgotten by everyone