I think I made Fletch happen

Hello, it is I again, world renowned writer of the award winning thread I think I fixed Quest Hunter and creator of the critically acclaimed deck Hey now, you're a Zixor (results may vary). Now I'm usually not one to abuse the forums to promotes my half baked homebrews (that's a lie, I have done that quite a lot, but I'm trying to stop), but this is a very special occasion.

Now the backstory is that after trying (and achieving mild success) to build a functional Quest Hunter deck for this expansion I eventually was inspired by fellow user Pezman to incorporate the whacky King Krush, Beastmaster Leoroxx, and Ramkahen Wildtamer combo as a finisher. Despite being technically promising the deck kind of fell short in terms of consistency, mainly because having 4 combo pieces in a Hunter deck that starts off with one less card doesn'T really work too well when you're already struggling to fight for the board and stay alive.

Disappointed by own failures but not willing to give up yet I was trying to find other ways to incorporate the Krush combo (in the process of which I ended up crafting all remaining Hunter legendaries of the current rotation, don't ask). I ended up brainstorming a way to just leave out the quest and use bothArcane Fletcher and Professor Slate as a way to create a deck that both has the draw power of Quest Hunter (who can use Cult Master quite well) as well as the ability to actually deal with the board and not just taking face damage every single turn.

Naturally, Pen Flinger seemed like a natural fit having great cross synergy with both the small spells and Fletcher. Furthermore, Krolusk Barkstripper seemed to make sense as well, especially since it counters the many "I make big minion and you lose" strategies that currently prevail. I filled the rest of the deck with 1-cost minions and all the useful 1-mana spells I could find.

Now I going in I had basically no expectations. I fully expected to just brick every other game and barely even compete. In short, I expected complete failure...but that didn't happen.

For some reason and through what can only be explained as an unholy miracle brought about by the powers of an eldritch god of chaos and confusion...I actually won games...and not just a few cheesy steals...legitimate beatdowns against meta decks. I'm not even sure how exactly it works, but there is just so much cross synergy in this deck that not only do you have a clear plan to victory in almost every matchup, but also just enough consistency to make it work with a +50% margin.

I'm not gonna tell you how to exactly play this deck because it's so much more fun going in blind and seeing it work for no reason in particular, but let me just sum up a few things:

- Pen Flinger is the absolute MVP. That fella puts in so much work, from removal to straight up murdering opponents from 10 health. He basically does what Vereesa Windrunner couldn't and more.

- The Krush combo is essentially just a failsafe. I have won plenty games without even playing Leoroxx or Krush (and also won some where I did play them, sometimes independantly from each other). Don't play like a regular combo deck, play like a  burn/tempo deck trying to get in as much chip damage as you can. At the end of the day, Leo + a single Krush + Hero Power is 10 damage.

-Ramkahen Wildtamer was a dead draw in the Quest build, but here it's not only a combo piece but a value generator as well. Don't hold onto it if Krush is nowhere near. If you can copy something like a buffed [Hearthstone Card (Krolusk) Not Found], Wolpertinger or even just a Shimmerfly you're already doing well. The combo is only needed against control decks (such as Priest, Warrior, and the occasional Quest Shaman). Be careful not to accidentally hit the token from Adorable Infestation though

-Arcane Fletcher is your draw power, but, much like Cult Master, don't be afraid to just draw 2 cards (or even 1, depending on your situation). The key is being just greedy enough to not fall behind.

So anyways, after much hype, here's the list. While I believe there are still some potential improvements possible this is pretty much my finalized list. There aren't really any cards that need replacing. It's not gonna get any more consistent than this. Do note that first and foremost this is a fun deck. Don't craft any of these cards if you're short on dust expecting to get a nice winstreak to Legend. You can climb with it, but it mostly exists to confuse your opponent and make them question how in god's name they could have lost against this deck.

(I do recommend playing this now. Who knows how the meta shifts in the next expansion and after the rotation the deck falls apart without Arcane Fletcher anyways)

That's so fletch! Honestly looks fun and well thought out

What would you say are its best and worst matchups?

Quote From Cocoduf

That's so fletch! Honestly looks fun and well thought out

What would you say are its best and worst matchups?

Priest is probably the best matchup (unless they discount Illucia to 2 and then just use your own combo against you). Generally anything slow that doesn't tend to heal a lot (this includes Warrior because they rarely feel threatened by the pen flinger shenanigans until you bring out the combo at which point they might be too low to come back)

Hardest are Paladin and Druid because not only do they heal, but they also throw in a lot of huge taunts. Druid is gg in general if they get their ramp and payoff early, Paladin is manageable if you get Slate (or Krolusk) in time and don't get absolutely cucked by Libram of Hope.

Everything else is usually just a race. You can reasonably beat aggressive deck in tempo, but sometimes you just draw poorly and it doesn't work. Explosive Trap is a good sub for Thalnos (and other cards) if you want to target Demon Hunter or Stealth Rogue specifically

Unfortunate.

Although, while I don't know about your dust bank, both Leoroxx and Slate will remain in Standard for another year and they're both most likely to receive future support (and they're really fun)

Then again, it's not like they're that good anyways, so if you're on a budget you should probably skip this one.

Quote From Nirast

This looks interesting. Off the top of your head, how would you make a wild version of this?

I wouldn't because it's really slow and mainly reliant on the fact that there's very little healing in Standard currently.

I don't even think there's a point to it in Wild (other than being able to use Fire Fly). Maybe Quick Shot helps with reach, but overall I think the decklist is pretty much set in stone.

Always liked decks that would use the Beastmaster Leoroxx OTK. Some Streamers like Dekkster played it a lot but i've never seen a list with Arcane Fletcher.

Gonna try that one.

Quote From anchorm4n

Alright, I finally went through my whole collection and dusted all the duplicates and goldens that aren't likely to be nerfed soon. Lo and behold, I got enough dust together to craft your list and the Pure Libram Paladin meta deck. 

Thank you so much for sharing this, your deck is great fun and competitive enough not to get too frustrated playing it. I only wish Xarkkal was still around, he surely would have enjoyed this. 

Happy to hear that. I hope you won't be disappointed in the long run.