Update: Just after posting this, Blizzard has announced their plans to nerf some Demon Hunter cards… today. Maybe you will find this deck compilation useful until then.
Ashes of Outland, the first expansion of Year of the Phoenix, isn’t even out for 1.5 days, but it’s already very clear that we were not prepared. Demon Hunter (and a faster, Aggro Demon Hunter build in particular) is the strongest deck in the early meta. While I’m always trying to stay calm and not call for any nerfs during the first days of the expansion (because things might look very differently once the meta settles), I truly believe that Aggro Demon Hunter is too strong right now. It seems even better than Galakrond Shaman from Descent of Dragons, which as we all know lead to the quickest nerf patch in the history of Hearthstone.
I’m nearly sure that some of the Demon Hunter cards will get nerfed soon, but I’m not here to talk about it. Because UNTIL that happens, people still want to play the game, right? Right. So in order to enjoy it, they can either play Demon Hunter… or try to find a deck that counters it. The latter is exactly what I’ve tried to do.
Let me be clear here – there is no deck that straight up counters Demon Hunter. Yep. All other 9 classes get to feel the hatred of ten thousand years. From my experience, even the best anti-DH decks have maybe 50% or slightly above win rate against it. That’s how crazy powerful Demon Hunter is. But if you face it nearly every game, even those ~50% might actually be good enough to climb and enjoy the expansion without switching to the dark side.
And another important point is that your deck list isn’t everything. You still need to pilot it well, specifically in that one matchup. It might take you 10, 20 or 50 games to learn how to play your deck optimally and what to do in that specific matchup. When to hold your removal, when to develop, how much burst they can do and so on. You should not expect to just pick any of those decks and suddenly start winning every game against Demon Hunter.
With all of that out of the way, let’s get to the decks that work well against Demon Hunter.
P.S. Keep in mind that it’s very early and matchup statistics are very limited. That’s why the post is heavily based on anecdotal/low sample size evidence. I hope that we’ll find better counter once more stats are available.
Big Druid
4,760- 0Innervate2
- 1Strength in Numbers2
- 2Breath of Dreams2
- 2Ironbark2
- 2Wrath2
- 3Bogbeam2
- 3Swipe2
- 4Overgrowth2
- 6Emerald Explorer2
- 7Winged Guardian2
Interestingly enough, Big Druid seems to be one of the best Demon Hunter counters discovered so far. Why? Because of Taunts. And not just any Taunts – big, sticky Taunts. While most of the builds do run Kayn Sunfury, it’s just a single card. So they do have a single turn they can pass through Taunts, but other than that, they are going to be stuck with a bunch of minions on the board that can’t do anything. Another important thing is that DH has no “hard removal” – it usually removed stuff by simply hitting them. And while he still can do it with Taunts, since they’re big, it’s very hard to kill them AND Demon Hunter takes a lot of damage doing so.
It’s also the way Big Druids can turn around the game very quickly. With Strength in Numbers summoning a big minion or a good Exotic Mountseller turn, you can try to kill them over 2-3 turns. It’s also important, because if you do give them enough time, they will pull of a stupid Kayn turn into some Metamorphosis finisher and you will die even though you had Taunt on the board all the time.
The problem is, however, that if you don’t get any ramp with Big Druid, you can die a fast and painful death without even doing anything. Your minions are expensive, so without any kind of ramp, you will have to wait until Turn 6-7 before dropping anything on the board. It feels pretty bad, but that’s just nature of the deck – if you play against a fast deck (which Aggro DH definitely is) and never ramp up, you just lose the game.
Galakrond Warlock
The main reason why Warlock in general is pretty solid vs Demon Hunter is Sacrificial Pact. Aggro Demon Hunter is all about tempo and aggression – Sac Pact is a perfect counter to that. You spend 0 mana to remove a minion AND heal yourself for 5. However, I’ve seen some players using this card very sub-optimally. DO NOT throw it on some random, small Demon. It’s your premium removal and it answers some of the biggest cards in DH lists, such as Imprisoned Antaen and Priestess of Fury. Try to save it for those. Use it on smaller Demons only if you really can’t answer them or you need to heal or else you’re dead.
The deck itself has no new cards. If I had to make a guess, I would say that there are some ways to improve the build with a new card or two, but it will need more experimentation. Galakrond Warlock was a solid deck last expansion and it didn’t really lose anything important, so you can just play it as it is. The cards that rotated out were replaced by 2x Acidic Swamp Ooze, which is obviously another anti-DH tech. But with most Demon Hunters running only 2x Aldrachi Warblades as the weapons worth removing, I’m not sure if two Oozes are really necessary. In fact, I would definitely replace one with the new Mo'arg Artificer (combos very well with your Nether Breath – 8 damage + Lifesteal, but also good with Mortal Coil and Dark Skies).
Highlander Warrior
- 1Imprisoned Gan’arg1
- 1Into the Fray1
- 1Risky Skipper1
- 1Shield Slam1
- 1Sword and Board1
- 2Armorsmith1
- 2Bladestorm1
- 2Frightened Flunky1
- 2Shield Block1
- 3Bomb Wrangler1
- 3EVIL Quartermaster1
- 3Livewire Lance1
- 3Ramming Speed1
- 3Warmaul Challenger1
- 4Kargath Bladefist1
- 4Molten Breath1
- 4Restless Mummy1
- 5Brawl1
- 5Scrap Golem1
- 6Armagedillo1
- 7Bloodboil Brute1
- 8Deathwing, Mad Aspect1
- 8Tomb Warden1
Armor. Removal. Taunts. Zephrys. Yep, the deck was tailored specifically to do well against Demon Hunters. The goal is mostly to outlast them while not falling behind on the tempo – but I’ve tested this deck and funnily enough my first two matchups against DH got to fatigue, when I still had cards and they didn’t… Of course, that’s not the main way you’re going to win, but it’s just interesting.
And Zephrys is just so amazing against Demon Hunters. The fact that it can give you Sacrificial Pact already makes it very strong, that’s what you will use it for most often. However, it found me an AoE when I needed it, and when I wanted to turn around the game but had no big threats in the game, it got me a Tirion (which is also a very solid card vs DH).
Of course, the problem is that Bad Luck Albatross is still a pretty popular tech, and I’ve seen a bunch of DH lists adding it… Deactivating Zephrys and Alex is a big issue, but I think that unless they get two (so 4x 1/1’s shuffled into your deck), you can last long enough to draw one 1/1 and make them active again.
Resurrect Priest
It’s a similar story, to be honest. As long as you survive the early game, you keep healing Taunting up and healing yourself, so they can’t pass through everything. From Turn 4-5 onwards, you should have Taunt on the board nearly every turn.
The biggest issue is, of course, tempo. That’s why you absolutely can’t hold onto your stuff – you just remove whatever they have and play your minions on curve (other than Psychopomp with no minions to revive, of course). If you get to the late game, you should have an advantage. Hiding Catrina Muerte behind a Taunt, for example, is very strong and it’s likely going to win you the game. Getting a good Mass Resurrection (especially with Archmage Vargoth in the pool) might also put more stuff on the board than they can deal with (keep in mind that they already had to go through 5+ Taunts at this point most likely).
You could also try out Highlander Priest instead – from the limited stats I have access to, it seems to be performing similarly to this deck. Of course, consistency is a downside, but then again, having Zephrys the Great in your build is a big advantage. I found this build on HSReplay, but I sadly don’t know who is the deck’s author:
- 0Forbidden Words1
- 0Hunting Demon Hunters – How To Counter The New Class1
- 0Hunting Demon Hunters – How To Counter The New Class1
- 0Hunting Demon Hunters – How To Counter The New Class1
- 0Hunting Demon Hunters – How To Counter The New Class1
- 0Hunting Demon Hunters – How To Counter The New Class1
- 0Hunting Demon Hunters – How To Counter The New Class1
- 0Hunting Demon Hunters – How To Counter The New Class1
- 0Hunting Demon Hunters – How To Counter The New Class1
- 1Cleric of Scales1
- 1Imprisoned Homunculus1
- 1Reliquary of Souls1
- 2Dragonmaw Sentinel1
- 2Sethekk Veilweaver1
- 2Thoughtsteal1
- 3Apotheosis1
- 3Breath of the Infinite1
- 3Mindflayer Kaahrj1
- 5Chronobreaker1
- 5Convincing Infiltrator1
- 5Sandhoof Waterbearer1
- 6Aeon Reaver1
- 7Galakrond, the Unspeakable1
- 7Skeletal Dragon1
- 7Soul Mirror1
- 9Plague of Death1
There is some kind of bug with BLOWTORCH SABOTEUR.
I was DH and a warrior played me that, but the effect lasted forever… !!!
The battlecry of blowtorch saboteur will last until you use your hero power once, then it goes back to normal.
I really surprised that there’s not a big push for quest priest since it counteracts the all the early poke that DH does. That said, I did try to homebrew a little last night myself and the results were discouraging–DH is super easy to clearing the board, and between metamorphosis, priestess of fury, and inner demon it has a ton of late-game burn.
Hey i have a question , im trying to play highlander Priest but i dont have a few legendaries(Reliquary of souls, mindflayer Kaahrj, Muzurond the Infinite, Madame Lazul and natalie Seline) Which should i priorize on crafting? I was thinking Kaahrj couse he’s good tempo but idk. Realiquary of Souls also seems good but this deck doesnt have any card draw.
I had success with spell Druid and Zoolock with double sac pact as anti DH tech.
Surprisingly, I am at exactly 50% with midrange dragon priest, which still has room for improvement.
DH is definitely beatable, but some of the cards (Skull, Priestess) are simply too powerful and unhealthy for the game. Can’t wait until tomorrow. I took few easy wins against DH, but it is getting repetitive and boring when last 9 opponents play either aggro or OTK DH.
I built a Hunter deck with the new porupine card and a bunch of ways to draw/buff the card and was easily able to counter most aggressive starts. Will reply with deck list when I get home tonight very sad about the nerfs already happening for demon hunter though.