We've made it to the Hunter reviews! Rest up, there's a long trek still ahead of us.
As always, we're actually Hearthstone players sent from the future to help guide you with extremely accurate predictions, so that one day you'll all be able to prevent the horrifying Abobalypse from occurring. Make sure you study our reviews well, as they're the only 100% accurate source of information which can prevent the end of days.
Honestly, you gore one little king and the whole country falls apart.
Quote From ShadowsOfSense This is a really simple 1-drop for a Beast Hunter deck which I will happily take. While you shouldn't expect this guy to do much on its own, the support it provides to cards like Augmented Porcupine is invaluable.
The issue really becomes one of whether or not a strictly Beast Hunter will be a good deck; if you end up with something more selective, to better combo with cards like Scavenger's Ingenuity, then this will quickly fall by the wayside.
I have high hopes for seeing this card pop up often over its time in Standard. I just don't know if it'll be in particularly high-tier decks.
And this button activates the underglow...
Quote From Avalon This is a spicy one. The first thing that came into my mind was Call Pet, even thought the two effects are rather different. I primarily see two uses for this card, the first one being a tutor that thins up your deck and gives you remarkable tempo at the same time; the second one being nice support for a Midrange build. Kind of sad that this spell will come in Standard right after the rotation of some insanely good tools like Springpaw, Master's Call and Vicious Scalehide. If I have to guess, my opinion is that if we'll get some viable rushers/beasts, this card will nicely fit into Highlander Hunter as a tutor for Diving Gryphon, or the new Zixor, Apex Predator and its prime form Zixor Prime (HUGE value). Looking forward to this card's shenanigans.
"How did you get that cut, son?" // "Fel, maw"
Quote From ShadowsOfSense What I wouldn't have given for this card to be a Beast after finding out that Dormant mechanics have been changed such that minions retain their buffs through the Dormant state. The amount of damage this could put out straight away? Insane.
As is, a random 5 damage isn't bad by any means, but the card really is going to be fighting against that Demon tag for a place in any decklist. Hunters just love synergistic cards right now - whether that be Deathrattles or Beasts - and this card unfortunately doesn't meet either of those.
It's saving grace might be found in a truly aggressive Hunter deck, which simply looks to put out as much damage as possible as quickly as possible. In a deck like that, the fact that this card will occasionally hit face is ridiculously good.
The lone horrific nightmare beast dies, but the pack survives.
Quote From Avalon If anyone missed the final stream, I can guarantee you that this card is really good, especially if well timed. Kind of comparable to Splitting Image, but quite different at the same time: unlike Mage, this Hunter's secret doesn't copy the target's stats but will alway give you a 3/3; on the other side, Jaina lacks Deathrattle synergy, an archetype Rexxar has always had and that involves a remarkable portion of the new Ashes of Outland set.
An example? Zixor, Apex Predator is the first one that comes to mind, but you also have other sweet minions like Augmented Porcupine or, if you want to hit a nice curve from the beginning, Helboar.
Board presence secrets (Cat Trick, Wandering Monster, Snake Trap and partially Rat Trap) have always been successful in Hunter, so I'm confident to say that this one won't be an exception.
Wait! I wanted a picture, not a pitcher!
Quote From Demonxz95 This card is… okay.
It's not terrible and the buff can certainly do some decent work. It's worse than Flanking Strike which was a pretty strong card that immediately gave you some tempo. By itself, it only deals 3 damage right away unless you play the buffed Beast on the same turn. It does have good handbuff synergy with Augmented Porcupine, although that's only one card in this set.
What might happen though is a Stonetusk Boar OTK where you use all the hand-buff Beast cards and copy it with Ramkahen Wildtamer and/or Hunting Party. It'll probably be bad, but you know someone is going to try it. Maybe it'll actually work?
This card has a use, although I don't feel like it will see play except in that aforementioned Stonetusk Boar OTK.
Her teeth and ambitions are bared.
Quote From Noxious Unearthed Raptor power creep alert! Sure, Mok'nathal Lion's stats are quite different, however the Battlecry is the same, and this card gets rush as well? Beautiful. You play Deathrattle cards to trigger their effect, and this card makes sure you don't just trigger the effect twice, but that you trigger it now. I think this card is great in Standard, and amazing in Wild, where good ol' Sylvanas Windrunner still exists. Hunter has been getting a few Deathrattle cards each expansion since Rise of Shadows, and I expect more to come by the time the Year of the Phoenix is over. This card will only become stronger with time. Prepare for the war of the Spider Bombs.
Follow me; set me free; trust me and we will escape from these demons!
Quote From Avalon Another Deathrattle minion for Hunter, in a set where we received a lot of synergy in that direction. Its regular stats are a little below average, but fortunately for us Rexxar got buffers like Scrap Shot, Scavenger's Ingenuity and Helboar, meaning that you'll be able to play it with at least +1/+1 most of the times, making overstatted for the cost and therefore totally worth it. The effect completes the minions purpose: before it grants you board presence, some face damage and maybe one favorable trade, and then it will go away with a couple of fireworks, giving you the chance to take control of the table more easily. Moreover, it is one of the best targets for Pack Tactics: 2 mana 3/3 that deal 3 random damage to the enemy? Sure, count me in! Hunter does really look interesting this time, and Augmented Porcupine is one of the reasons.
The Nagrand Slam - Hitting Legend, Wild Legend, Top 200 Battlegrounds and Top 200 Arena in a single month.
Quote From GoliathTheDwarf I love spells that auto-attack enemy minions, as they either make good board clears or, if your opponent doesn’t have any strong minions on board, gives you some minions to spend on the next turn. As these minions are also beasts, they may fit in with various beast synergies as well. It is relatively similar to previous hunter cards like Swarm of Locusts and could potentially be used with cards like Hunter’s Unseal the Vault quest.
The name of this card references the region of Outland known as Nagrand, the only uncorrupted area where the few remaining uncorrupted orcs, among other peoples still live. It is filled with grassy plains and what remains of Dreanor’s uncorrupted wildlife, including the Clefthoof. These beasts are large enough to quake the ground and have powerful tusks. They are both loved by hunters for their valuable pelts and feared for their ability to headbutt and gore those whom they deal as a threat to themselves or their young.
He's always first to everything.
Quote From ShadowsOfSense Can we say c-c-c-combo card?
Even by itself, the stats on this card are nothing to sniff at, but buffing up Zixor Prime by drawing it with Scavenger's Ingenuity and playing something like Scrap Shot is the stuff dreams are made of. Being able to run a bunch of Deathrattle support too to shuffle multiple Primes into your deck is just icing on the cake.
This Legendary is a perfect amalgamation of everything Hunter likes to do right now; Rush synergies, Beast synergies, Deathrattle synergies. People are going to have a blast tinkering around trying to find the best decklist for this card - I wouldn't even be surprised if there are a couple of fairly different styles of playing it, both competitively viable.
LeoRoxx is actually his gamer tag; his real name is Leonard.
Quote From Echo As an avid player of Big Beast Hunter when it was in standard and still in wild, I love this card. Ignoring all the combo potential this card has, it just makes a massive board and is fairly easy to control the outcomes, unlike the previous big beast hunter stuff that required specific deck building. This isn't always better though, as it requires you to have all the beasts in your hand which can be a struggle for hunter to do consistently due to lack of draw. However, when you are able to assemble some beasts, this card just forces your opponents to have some form of board clear and if they don't, they'll often just lose.
While this card's effect is strong, its power relies on what beasts you are running. In my opinion, the three 'core' beasts for this card are King Krush, Octosari and either a Tundra Rhino or a Savannah Highmane. King Krush to give the play some form of immediate impact, as well as just possibly giving lethal, Octosari because refueling with hunter should be enough to close out the game, as well as being the 2nd largest beast still in standard, and then Tundra Rhino for just additional burst or Savannah Highmane because despite being too slow for the current meta, it's still a very strong card when you can get it for free.
Comments
Great article but damn, OOC on mobile makes it hard to read discussions. Text gets squeezed down to 4-letter columns after just a few responses.
Just here to compliment the wit of Shadows, as always. Big ups on the Scar song for Mok'Nathal Lion. Now it's stuck in my head!
I wil only find peace when hunter is out of the meta.
unlikely
Dragon Hunter loses nothing and punishes Demon Hunter for taking too much face damage
Face Hunter goes even harder and won't have to worry about Zilliax anymore
u right. my hopes and dreams are destroyed.
if it helps, I think you're gonna hate Demon Hunter even more than regular Hunter.
Note/correction to Nagrand Slam: the summoned minions don't attack enemy minions, but enemies - including face!
I can very much see this as a finisher in a Kael'Thas deck.
This... And empty board vs a hunter with 10 Mana = 12 damage to face... Bigger than Pyroblast, and similar finishing power to the old Druid Combo (FoN/Sr)
Exactly. And even if it doesn't kill your opponent, it leaves 4 3/5 to deal with.
It's expensive, but I can see this work.
Card unlikely to see play:-
Imprisoned Felmaw makes me sad. On the one hand it seemed like a decent aggressive card that has potential to hit face. On the other hand, its greatest weakness is not that its attack is random but its a demon, and therefore unlikely to ever see play in any hunter bar the low end of a highlander list. Had this been a beast, well, its broken. Buff the bad boy, play on 3, then when it wakes, play Tundra Rhino for massive face damage. I have a sneaky suspicion that it had been a beast all along then someone in the dev team decided against it at the last minute.
Nagrand Slam - Too expensive, and too random. Watched the theorycrafting stream and this looks really really weak. Also, since when does hunter games ever last 10 turns?
Helboar - 1 health, and dhunters everywhere day 1. Yeah, this aint going nowhere.
Augmented Porcupine - I really love this card. But that doesnt change the fact that its not good. Its only good if you can buff this, but then its a 2 card for 1 deal, which is suboptimal in a class that cant draw. Incidentally because the deathrattle can also hit face, its not guaranteed to clear the board neither. Its also competing attention with so many other beast that will likely see a resurgence due to cards like Beastmaster Leoroxx and the very powerful Scavenger's Ingenuity. Oh well, maybe next expansion.
Also shout outs to the wonderful flavor text for each card, which is the real reason why I'm here.
I don't see the problem with Helboar.
If DH wants to HP on turn one to kill it they can go ahead and do it, it's not like we need it to stick around for anything in particular, and if they developd a minion instead we just trade.
At best we'd want to curve it into Fresh Scent, but in that case only one 1-mana beast won't be enough anyways (unless we run Hungry Crab)
Its only really powerful played on turn 1, if you go first. But against dhunters, its just coin Battlefiend into hp. Your next best move would be to play a 3/4 Phase Stalker, which the Battlefiend will immediately trade if dhunters have either Umberwing, or just plain hp. It gets worse if they have Eye Beam but that card is so disgusting we wont consider it here.
However, play a Blazing Battlemage or Dwarven Sharpshooter turn 1 (go first) and now you contest their Battlefiend and even coin Umberwing. They cant even just hp it down and maintain card advantage. Again, you get wrecked by eye beam, but that goes without saying.
I'm not saying its necessarily unplayable, but it relies on specific deck building and highrolls. My bet is that it wont make the cut.
I think that Nagrand Slam will fit in Highlander Hunter quite well. I can kind of compare this card to Ragnaros the Firelord, because you run it for the potential face damage and the removal is nice sometimes too. Yes, it's expensive, but I think it'll definitely find a place in HIghlander, maybe some Midrange Hunter list with Kaelthas. It's just such a powerful effect, it's got to fit somewhere in my honest opinion.
A fair opinion. But I rather rely on King Krush for 8 to the face and comes down 1 turn earlier.
Hunter definitely has one of the best sets in the whole AoO
I think Paladin is better. They got pretty much no bad cards, everything is objectively powerful
One of the best does not mean "the best".
I think DH and Paladin are superior and Rogue is evenly matched.
God I really hope Paladin will be as good as it looks on paper. Please RNGesus.
I think Pally is even better than it looks, just because it has access to reliable healing, which is one of the few counters to Demon Hunter
I hesitate to disagree, but after watching Kibler's theorycraft stream, I'm afraid its just not happening.
Priest have a better chance of matching aggro dhunters in my opinion. God, that's weird to say.
That's why I tried to stay away as much as possible from those streams.
Is (X) archetype going to suck? Well let me find it out the hard way.
I'm a bit hesitant about Kibler's deckbuilding abilities: he's certainly a better player than I'll ever be, but at the same time he's really into memes. I would be a lot more worried if Firebat ended up on the same conclusion.
I'm not ragging on Kibler (I actually like his stream and his content, as well as his personality in the HS community), but I'm just trying to be objective.