Ratmaster Tavish

Hello Hunters,

It's finally time for The Rat King to shine!  The meta has slowed down and there's a lot of token synergy to play around with, so get out there and live your best Charlie Kelly life.  :D

I've uploaded the version I took to Diamond 10 this season and Saddlemaster has been a surprise star.  However, check the potential alterations section at the bottom for more food-for-thought.

Gameplan

We're a board-centric deck that wants to be the aggressor, but also has the ability to reload multiple times if the opponent clears or we have to defend early.

Win Conditions:

• Against slower decks, we aim to snowball Wolpertinger and Intrepid Initiate (RIP Trogg) with buffs from Adorable Infestation and Doggie Biscuit
     
• Otherwise, we chip away early and try to stick a midgame minion to combo with Battleground Battlemaster.  Typical targets include (a ressurected) The Rat King,  Blood Herald, Traveling Merchant, and/or a 5/5 from Rats of Extraordinary Size.
  • Huffer ain't bad either and can be buffed on Turn 9 or 10
      
• Sometimes you'll get a board of tokens to stick late and can pull out lethal via Leokk from Beaststalker Tavish
    
• We also only have 4 targets for Scavenger's Ingenuity so you can often buff Zixor Prime which is a pain to clear and a worthy Battlemaster target.
    
• And against control we can refill / find outs via Saddlemaster + tokens from Rats of Extraordinary Size, Wolpertinger, Ram Commander, or [Hearthstone Card (Adorable Infestati-on) Not Found]

Mulligan

Going first:

• Pretty much just Wolpertinger and Intrepid Initiate

Going second:  

• Same as above, but I'll also keep one of our buff cards - Adorable Infestation or Doggie Biscuit (latter is more preferred because it can be traded if you get really unlucky with your curve)
• Against aggro I'll also keep Wound Prey or Quick Shot

Potential Alterations

There are a lot of ways to build around the Rat King package and what works best may change with the meta you're facing.

Scavenging Hyena has nice synergy with our tokens and could replace Traveling Merchant + Blood Herald. 

• However, the Merchant provides pseudo-draw which the deck lacks and gets its buff the same turn you play your tokens, whereas Hyena needs the tokens to stick for a turn unless they have rush.
• Blood Herald is nice because its buff is guaranteed and typically grows larger than a Hyena which makes it harder to remove and able to survive hitting a taunt first once it has windfury

The Ram Commander + Saddlemaster package could also be replaced.  Possible candidates include:

• Taelan Fordring - the deck has limited draw and this is a tutor for Battleground Battlemaster
• Defias Blastfisher - another potential win condition
• Kazakus, Golem Shaper - provides another way to buff your board of tokens for lethal or some much needed draw; the downside is that you'd have to drop Rodent Nest and the other ideal replacement, Sin'dorei Scentfinder, also costs 4
  • I've tried running Kazakus by including Kolkar Pack Runner instead + Resizing Pouch (for the high chance at Serpentbloom as the deck lacks large target removal) but it just felt so much harder to get a bunch of tokens up and running since the nerf to 3-mana
• Demon Companion - gives you another way to buff a board of tokens
• Irondeep Trogg - ran this in the deck before the nerf and you could probably keep it instead of Intrepid Initiate as going wide is still valuable
• Kargal Battlescar + watch posts = more tokens (Mor'shan Watch Post), potential buffs (Crossroads Watch Post), and a win condition (Kargal)...unfortunately, it just didn't feel strong enough when I ran it (though that was before the AV nerfs)

This deck is still a work-in-progress and I'll post an update at the top if I make any changes.  Please let me know if you're finding success with anything else!  Until then...

Happy Rat Hunting!

- RD