The weekly Wild post returns after a one-week hiatus due to BlizzConline content overload. We've now seen the new Core set cards, the buffs to some old ones (with some rather interesting choices from the Wild perspective), as well as the entire set as well.
But those are things for the future, right now we have our first taste of the Barrens in the form of the new Vol'jin. Let's see if our community members found something Wild to do with him.
Mecha'thun Warlock
Any deck in need of mana cheat mechanisms seemed like the best fit for our Shadow Hunter friend, and both PainlessSteel and MarkMcKz chose went for some Mecha'thun madness. Judging by the winrate HSReplay gives to Mark's version, the deck isn't just a meme.
Odd Rogue
RavenSunHS found a more Odd home for Vol'jin in this Rogue deck. While Poisoned Daggers-wielding Valeera tends to be quite aggressive, this list packs a couple of heavy hitters for some extra tempo swings.
Midrange Galakrond Warrior
This Warrior list from daggydwarf houses cultists of Galakrond, a lot of Dragons, and pinch of Mechs to spice things up. If you enjoy the midrangy playstyle with honest board combat, this deck could be the one for you - and it comes with an extensive guide!
Hakkar Highlander Hunter
For some unexplained reason I've always had a soft spot for Hakkar despite not even owning the card. I guess it has something to do with the inevitability of the win condition as your opponent keeps drawing Corrupted Bloods while your deck has been purified from that plague. Swizard doesn't want to wait until T10 though, and instead gets the plan rolling with Seeping Oozeling.
Miracle Priest
This list comes all the way from China (via Soda) and was shared with us by razor1995. Lot of cheap spells into zero-cost giant minions - does the gameplan sound familiar to you? Mindrender Illucia really shines in the deck by taking away all removal options from your opponent after your combo turn.
Eager to succumb to the Wild madness? Check out some more Wild decks here.
Came up with something Fair-ly fun yourself? Create a Wild deck and share it in the comments below. Don't forget to include a guide!
Comments
Gnaaaah that Hakkar Hunter again. I'm missing Brann Bronzebeard, Deathstalker Rexxar, Hakkar, the Soulflayer and Wyrmrest Purifier but my fingers are itching to try this out with the new expansion around the corner or not.
Two of the three legendaries are good anyway so I guess I'll do it.
Let me know how it goes if you try it, I’m really curious. It’s pretty memeish but when it works it’s really fun to see it go off and against slow control decks like odd warrior you basically autowin, and if you shut down highlander effects you have a chance against reno decks too.
0-6 so far. No chance against Secret Mage, Darkglare Warlock, Odd Paladin. Bad draw against Reno Lock. But I almost beat a Big Priest. I'll try some more. Have you considered making this a non-Highlander deck?
Yeah in my experience it does do pretty abysmally against those first decks as I mentioned before. Those 3 are all tier 1 decks and this deck feels like tier 4, I started out with a non highlander version but switched to this version later because of how you can discover Zephrys and Reno consistently due to the limited minion pool. Maybe there is a way to build it non highlander that is better.
Another idea I am considering that might be more competitive for a nonhighlander version is going for a heavier boardbased secrets and minions package instead of the control spells which seem kind of weak without Professor Slate so that you can have board tempo more easily, and then still having discover cards for the Hakkar combo. I might try to test this idea today and see if the board based cards can help you survive longer. It can also have 2 coldlight oracles to draw through their deck faster
Here is an initial idea for the secret based version https://outof.cards/hearthstone/decks/23088-secret-hakkar-hunter-test
1-9, I even lost to an Odd-Priest lol. But I have found out what I was doing wrong: I forgot to apply the Mark of Hakkar cardback! :D
Jokes aside, your plan sounds good. I have a Deathrattle Hunter deck which gets me to Diamond 5 every month and that relies on secrets and a chosen few removal spells for the first 5-6 turns. I'll try to merge the two tomorrow and let you know how it went. Good luck!
I did try your deathrattle hunter deck earlier, and it felt a lot more competitive for ladder! I use handbuff beast hunter as a competitive hunter deck and hakkar is mostly for the fun potential. That’s a good idea, since you already have play dead and maybe you can use blastenheimer and boomzooka to get hakkar out earlier? Wyrmest purifier would conflict with that so you might have to rely on sphere. Definitely a lot of interesting hakkar potential in that direction too! I’m looking forward to see what myou come up with.
First draft looks like this:
The main problem of Reno Hakkar Hunter is that we have almost nothing to do once the corruption has been let loose. We need some sort of attack or defence while we're waiting for our win condition to work.
I've tried to solve the Wyrmrest Purifier problem with Witchwood Piper and Master's Call. Experience from the Deathrattles deck shows that having 2 potential whiffs for Barnes and Boom-Zooka in the deck still works. Zul'jin worries me because at some point we have to make a cut and purify our own deck, I'll probably swap it with Deathstalker Rexxar. I'll try this out tonight.
Edit: Did it already. Zul'jin would be overkill.
How's your Secret Hakkar deck working?
Abysmally bad luck today. My personal highlight was a game against a Mill Rogue. I finally had managed to trigger Hakkar's Deathrattle multiple times and purify my deck, only for my opponent to play Skulking Geist next turn. It goes without saying that they milled me exactly to death when they were finally out of removal and I had lethal on board. I'll take a break and play some Odd Rogue or something.
Not to be that guy, but I think Roffle came up with that "Quest mage but in priest" deck a few months ago
What Vol'jin Mecha'Thun list looks better in your opinion? PainlessSteel's version looks more cycle heavy with the acolytes and loot hoarders while Marck's use some different draw/scry engines. I'm tending to try Steel's version first since it looks cleaner.
I think I like the Hemet inclusion since the combo doesn't need any (specific) card that costs less than 3 so you can actually blast your deck away quite liberally (as long as you have any 0-1 cost minion in hand for Vol'jin swap).
However, you do need to empty your hand of extra minions so if all of them just draw more, you might end up surprisingly deep in fatigue. Mark has slightly less minions and less higher-cost minions which I do like for that reason (I'm not sold on Acolyte or Sunfury from Steel).
Amount of removal seems similar (since you do have to survive quite late in the game, which isn't always trivial in Wild) so I don't have a definitive answer. I'd probably try to combine the elements I like from both and make further changes based on how it feels.
Oh my... I pointed some differences but forgot to notice the Hemet. From Mark's video, he seems to empty his deck very easily by turn 9 without Hemet, so I wonder his real utility... You're right, gotta test bost versions (or a blend of the two) and feel what works better. Do you think this might be a real contender in the meta, if there are not Dirty Rats or Illucias around? If this can win consistently against aggro, I think the answer is yes.
Aggro is definitely the biggest hurdle, and the deck(s) doesn't seem to pack too much healing. I'd imagine it loses against the strongest meta contenders but could become a solid option for laddering nevertheless.