Our Thoughts on Hearthstone's Madness at the Darkmoon Faire Hunter Cards

We're on the hunt for new Hunter strategies, and it looks like the Faire holds many Secrets - and some Deathrattles, too!

These reviews have been reviewed by an independent panel of reviewers, whose review (conducted at their annual revue) found that the reviewing was of a standard befitting this website. You can rest soundly knowing that this definitely happened, though obviously to maintain their anonymity I can't tell you anything about them or even acknowledge their existence beyond this paragraph.

There's something terrifying about someone who opens a box knowing that there's a trap inside.

Quote From Demonxz95

Remember all those 1 mana Discover spells and how most didn't see play? Well now we've got 1 mana 1/1s that Discover after we got one that discounted things in the previous set. You may also remember Secret Plan and how this card is that exact card with a 1/1. This card is simply better in just about every way. The only place Secret Plan would be better is in Spell Hunter, and elsewhere you just play this. A 1/1 that gives you a Secret is good. You can hypothetically curve this into a Secret on turn 2, although there aren't many good Secrets to do that with, so instead you'll likely use this as a way to try to pull a Secret in a pinch, or as a cheap way to strengthen your Petting Zoo. This seems like it will be pretty good for the most part.

He don't want none unless you've got mana, hun!

Quote From ShadowsOfSense

This is an incredibly interesting statline - we've seen it before on Upgradeable Framebot, a Mech, and Warlock is also gaining an addition to this select group with  the Demon Midway Maniac (RIP Silverback Patriarch). Having such high health makes it a perfect candidate for landing buffs on, even if you don't end up corrupting it and making it Poisonous.

Hunter loves an early Beast for it to synergise with, and this is a great candidate for that slot. It even works amazingly in handbuff-style decks, where holding it for a few turns to accrue stats will also likely let you Corrupt it, making it even more annoying to deal with.

I'd expect to see this card quite a lot, and I think it'll be annoying enough even before it Corrupts -  afterwards, you'd better hope you have the perfect Magma Rager counter or you'll likely be wasting a couple minions (or one really big minion) taking it down.

"Gotta gotta be Huffer, 'cause I don't want Leokk..."

Quote From Avalon

Darkmoon Faire brought Rexxar a lot of Secret support, and my opinion is that Open the Cages is the perfect card to pair with the new Petting Zoo. Why? Because if you want to play Petting Zoo on curve and be sure to summon two 3/3s instead of just one, you have to play a Secret you know won't be triggered by your opponent. If you take a look at Hunter's Secrets pool, you'll notice that Open the Cages is one of the few (together with Snake Trap and Pack Tactics) you can set up without the worry of losing your future synergies. Moreover, once you play Petting Zoo, you have a very decent chance to trigger OTC at the beginning of your turn 4 and therefore gain even more board initiative: while Leokk is the best one to get, I don't think anyone will mind receiving Misha or Huffer.

Very good card and very good addition to Hunter's Secret package: I'm sure it will see plenty of play.

If you're looking for something smaller, try the Petty Zoo.

Quote From Avalon

Very reminiscent of Lesser Emerald Spellstone, but can be even better or worse based on the circumstances. If you manage to play a Secret you're confident that won't be activated (Snake Trap on an empty board or Open the Cages with less than 2 minions), you're guaranteed to summon 2 3/3s on turn 3, which is pretty powerful if you ask me.

Dream curves aside, I think this card will summon 2 [Hearthstone Card (Strider) Not Found]s on average, which is enough of a reward for playing a Secret centered Hunter. Solid and straightforward. Will see play.

"Eh, might see play when Polukranos rotates."

Quote From Demonxz95

Trampling Rhino is a card with many unique qualities. Of note is the fact that it has, well, Trample. That MTG keyword that causes creatures to deal excess damage to the opponent's life when it kills a creature. The name and the reference is very obviously intentional. Something that others have already been quick to note is that it technically has Overkill, in a very similar vein to how Explosive Runes technically has Overkill. Much like Inspire, Recruit, and Echo, it has cards that function nearly identically to those mechanics, and yet they aren't used, which is something that some people still continue to criticize.

This card is interesting to talk about. If you were around back then to see this card, then the first comparison that comes to your hand is most likely Knuckles (as it was for me). This card has a similar effect to Knuckles and even the same total stats. The trade-off here is that Knuckles always deals its full damage to the enemy hero (regardless of whether or not it kills what it attacks), whereas Trampling Rhino can attack right away giving it some initiative. A 5 mana 5/5 with Rush on its own is fairly decent (as well as being a Beast), although the effect of dealing excess damage is of debatable quality. On one hand, you could attack a tiny minion about to die and deal more damage to the enemy hero, but then board control potential is wasted since you're using more damage than you need to. On the other hand, using all of its Attack to take out a minion will waste the Trample damage, effectively making it similar to a 5/5 Rush minion with no other text.

This card is in a very weird spot. The ability can sometimes be quite strong and give you some surprise lethals out of nowhere that you otherwise wouldn't have had, but this ability will most likely not do very much in most games. At the very least, it's a 5/5 Rusher, which Hunter might have a use for(?) and it can be good with buffs. One thing that will be a bit disappointing to some players is that they won't be able to pull this from Deathstalker Rexxar as it has both a keyword and text. Shame because this could've made some pretty neat Zombeasts.

TONKS!

Quote From Avalon

Oblivitron was released in Rise of Shadows and now, almost two years later, it finally received some support: Darkmoon Tonk is that beefy Deathrattle Mech you want to cheat out and exploit. Unfortunately for us, the combo does not seem game winning and, by itself, the card is just a slow 8 mana with underwhelming stats and an unreliable effect due to its RNG-related aspect. I foresee this minion being part of day 1 theorycrafts, but it appears to me that the meta is on a whole higher level.

You're not you when you're hungry.

Quote From Demonxz95

Don't Feed the Animals - or as I like to call it, "Don't Play This Card". I'll sum up this card in one word: Bad.

But because that wouldn't make a very productive review, I'll go further into it. This card is not good. One upside it does have is that because it only costs 2 mana, it's fairly easy to corrupt it, which is something you can't say about some of the other Corrupt cards. This however doesn't make up for the other shortcomings of the card that make it bad. The effect is just simply too weak. Handbuffing is simply a weak mechanic that hasn't found that much success. Specifically compare it to Smuggler's Run and it already looks bad. Even its Corrupted form is honestly not that strong. The other problem with this card is that a card that wants you to have a sizeable hand in Hunter, a class that has draw as a limitation.

All that glitters is not Old...

Quote From ShadowsOfSense

I love a good callback, and this expansion has plenty, including a whole cycle of cards hearkening back to the original iterations of our beloved Old Gods. Hunter gets to celebrate N'Zoth, the Corruptor with this lovely jewel, a smaller version of the Old God's battlecry.

For such an expensive cost, you're going to want to make sure that what you're getting back is worth it - I wouldn't be putting this in a deck with lower-cost Deathrattle minions like Shimmerfly or Helboar. No, this'll be something you want as a lategame swing card for decks running things like Plagued Protodrake, Darkmoon Tonk and maybe even Scrapyard Colossus; perhaps you go as low as Teacher's Pet or the original Hunter Legendary, Savannah Highmane.

You'll be wanting to get these out and dead as fast as possible, so I'd expect Maxima Blastenheimer to feature in these new Big Hunter decks - you'll need to be careful how you build them, of course, as too many low-cost minions may ruin your pool. Perhaps the earlygame focuses on the new Secret synergies, maybe employing cards like Nine Lives and Carrion Studies too.

I feel like I've gotten off on a tangent - I'm just very excited for what this card can bring to the game. I love playing Deathrattle Hunter, and this seems like it'll be an explosive play for the deck. Will the deck be competitive? Who cares? It's gonna be a hell of a lot of fun!

It's never loaded - it just shouts "BANG!" when you pull the trigger.

Quote From Avalon

Support for both Secret and Big Hunter. The card follows the trend of Hunter weapons like Desert Spear and Trueaim Crescent with an effect that triggers after you attack. While not being as powerful as Mage's ones, Hunter Secrets are still pretty powerful and can be quite a pain to deal with.

What really worries me about the card is that you spend 4 mana for just 2 swings of 2 Attack each, with no easy way to buff your weapon outside of the old Captain Greenskin. That doesn't seem fair when you look at the other "weapon classes": Rogue and Warrior can increase attack and durability, Demon Hunter and Shaman can push lots of damage.

In the end, good and interesting card, but far away from being in the "omg Blizz pls nerf" zone.

"This game's only for the real high-fliers."

Quote From Avalon

Remember Flark's Boom-Zooka? Apparently, this is the way Team 5 wants Big Hunter to be: while Priest has the Resurrect mechanic and Shaman has the stickiness of Vivid Spores, Reincarnate and Ancestral Spirit, Rexxar relies on cheating big minions directly from his deck and, occasionally, from his hand. It's not a problem if they die immediately, because they usually have interesting Deathrattle and can be brought back with J[Hearthstone Card (ewel of N'ZOth) Not Found].

Maxima has a very cool effect in a vacuum, since (if you properly build your deck) it guarantees around 6-10 damage to your opponent's face plus possible a Deathrattle (Khartut Defender, Darkmoon Tonk, Plagued Protodrake, Colossus of the Moon, Scrapyard Colossus). The problem is that you need to cut every low cost minion, as if you're playing a partial Spell Hunter list: it would be possible on paper, since we have cards like Carrion Studies, Petting Zoo, Rinling's Rifle, Demon Companion and the ol' reliable Animal Companion, but… is it really worth the sacrifice? My honest opinion is that Maxima (and Big Hunter as a whole) may become a thing later on, but right now there is not nearly enough support for her to work as intended.