Each new set brings unprecedented possibilities for Demon Hunter as the class slowly but surely catches up to the rest of the field in terms of the size of its card pool – not that a small set of options ever stopped Illidan from dominating the meta in the past. Madness at the Darkmoon Faire expands on the class’ Lifesteal and Outcast synergies, potentially opening the door to multiple new archetypes which didn’t have enough support so far to gain a presence on the ladder.
C’Thun Demon Hunter
What does a good C’Thun deck need to function? Survivability, board clears and bucketloads of card draw. Though the class may not seem like a natural fit at first, Demon Hunters have all this in spades, and with this kind a finisher, no stabilization tool can secure the long game. Even if it may take the ultimate form of corruption, Illidan will have his vengeance.
10,640
Much like in the case of Soul Demon Hunter, Lorekeeper Polkelt will let you draw most of the key cards in your deck with the Skull of Gul'dan it will guarantee as your topdeck, but in this case they will be the 5 mana Pieces of C’Thun. Note that C'thun, the Shattered itself will be shuffled into your deck after the four pieces have been played, messing up your deck order again. Beyond that, the copious amount of board clear and lifesteal tools taken from previous pure Control builds should buy you more than enough time to assemble your tentacly win condition.
Aggro Demon Hunter
Demon Hunter’s brutal early game package of aggression was a big reason behind its utter domination of the Ashes of Outland metagame, and even though that archetype took a step back during Scholomance Academy as slower, Soul Fragment-oriented builds took its place, the potential is there for an explosive comeback for a hyper-aggressive build. A bit of added consistency is all that it needs, something the new set delivers on in spades.
Taking over the board early on has always been a no-brainer: the question is whether there’s enough sustain to finish off the game. Previously, it was either the pre-nerf Imprisoned Antaen or Priestess of Fury which dealt the killing blow just as the opponent was looking to stabilize, then it was a well-timed Warglaives of Azzinoth or Metamorphosis. With each and every one of these cards downgraded, new tools need to be found. We’re placing our faith in Bladed Lady and produced a build which aims to make it as easy as possible to enable it by running Felsteel Executioner and Marrowslicer so that the pre-equipped weapons make it easier to fulfill its cost reduction condition. Omitting Soulshard Lapidary helps with any potential curve issues and means we don’t have to run subpar minions and spells to shuffle in added Soul Fragments. The flexibility of Felsteel Executioner should help with the curve as it’s a perfectly serviceable minion on turn three and a great source of damage when corrupted later in the game. Though Stiltstepper’s ability won’t always pan out, it’s a monster tool in a topdeck war situation, which is why it makes the cut in the featured build.
Highlander Demon Hunter
It’s been just an unfulfilled wish so far, but the card pool may finally be deep enough for a singleton Demon Hunter deck to emerge, with enough value to work with to match its rivals in the meta. With some of the added redundancy in removal tools plus the flexible small spells in Madness at the Darkmoon Faire, there’s room for more chunky minions to elbow your enemy off the board and out of the game.
- 1Crimson Sigil Runner1
- 1Felscream Blast1
- 1Throw Glaive1
- 1Twin Slice1
- 2Chaos Strike1
- 2Immolation Aura1
- 2Sightless Watcher1
- 2Spectral Sight1
- 2Umberwing1
- 3Acrobatics1
- 3Aldrachi Warblades1
- 3Blade Dance1
- 3Dreadlord’s Bite1
- 3Eye Beam1
- 3Insatiable Felhound1
- 3Soul Cleave1
- 4Il’gynoth1
- 4Illidari Felblade1
- 4Kayn Sunfury1
- 4Marrowslicer1
- 5Chaos Nova1
- 5Glaivebound Adept1
- 6Skull of Gul’dan1
Much like Highlander Mage, it’s the flexibility which makes this deck viable, including a very similar double Alexstrasza setup topping the curve. A slower gameplan with consistent board clears and big minions can be good enough by itself but using the original Il'gynoth, a 2/6 Lifesteal is a good anti-aggro card by itself, and anything it gets done with Eye Beam, Aldrachi Warblades and Felscream Blast is just a bonus. Insatiable Felhound and Throw Glaive are just what the doctor ordered for this kind of a deck: strong stall on the board with potential resource generation opportunities attached. Though you won’t get to poof away boards with Reno, you get to hit your opponent’s stuff with weapons, and really, isn’t that a much more satisfying experience?
Yogg-Saron Demon Hunter
You know you want to spin the wheel.
You either loved Yogg or you loved to hate it, because it was crazy and wacky but also competitively viable at the same time. Its effects had a potentially massive downside but the fact was you didn’t have to play it if you were ahead otherwise. The same dynamic applies to , though the wheel’s insane offerings don’t quite match up to the truly obscene things the right combination of random spells could do to you, which is now only one of the six different options on the wheel.
Still, we couldn’t resist leaning into the meme with this one, but even a cursory glance at the list should tell you how easy it is to fulfill Yogg’s condition in Demon Hunter, a class chock full of strong cheap spells. Instead of adding each and every cheapo tool for redundancy, we’ve opted for alternatives like Cobalt Spellkin and Acrobatics for extra cycle and a bit of added board presence. With this build, you’re practically guaranteed to have the ten spells in the chamber by the time you’re ready to summon the monstrosity this deck is all about.
Best of all: with Blur, you can guarantee that you win 5% of the time, all of the time. All hail Rod of Roasting! To make it less of a dead card, we’ve added two copies of Warglaives of Azzinoth: it doubles as a board clear and as a source of burn damage, and it can still be a strong contender in a deck which is so dedicated to reaching turn ten. Lorekeeper Polkelt has just the one job in this deck: to bow down before the God of Death.
Yellorambo
Luci Kelemen is an avid strategy gamer and writer who has been following Hearthstone ever since its inception. His content has previously appeared on HearthstonePlayers and Tempo/Storm's site.
Check out Yellorambo on Twitter!
I don’t play much Demon Hunter, but these decks look like a good time for me and a bad time for my opponent.
Nice catch with Polkelt, skull and cthun pieces. Going to try that)
That aggro DH looks spicy.