Welcome to Budget or Fudge It, the series where we do our best to take expensive decks and make them less so. As United in Stormwind's Questlines continue to run the meta, we'll be looking at each of them in turn: identifying Questline decks that we can make more affordable, and then replacing their Legendaries and Epics with Rares and Commons. This week's Quest, while not one of the several that has taken the Standard meta by storm(wind), can still be powerful with the right build. But does that extend to budget lists as well?
Join us as we cut a deck's Dust in half, then ask the eternal question: Budget, or Fudge It?
Daring Dwarves Defeating Dastardly Demons' Designs Dramatically
While Hunter's new Questline originally evoked flashbacks to a time when Raza Priest ruled the meta, it hasn't been nearly as good at pew-pew-pew-ing its way to victory. Is that a fault of the meta, the tools that Hunter has access to, the position of Mercury in retrograde, or some combination of factors? We're not here to answer those questions; our only goal is to take a list and make it more budget-friendly (but our money's on Mercury).
The list we've picked to fudge today comes to us from HSReplay, where it's featured as a popular versions of the archetype. At first blush, it looks like our job will be relatively easy: there are only two Legendaries to replace before the deck can be considered "budget." But looks can be deceiving. It just so happens that the two cards we'll be replacing are the deck's best-performing tools, and their removal could have a cascading effect on the rest of the deck. But, we're committed, so let's go ahead and fudge it.
(Note to Self: Come Up With Catchy Section Title)
Don't let this section's extremely catchy title distract you: we've still got a lot of work to do. Barak Kodobane and Rinling's Rifle are very powerful cards for Questline Hunter, but unfortunately they're also very expensive. They've got to go, and we've got to do our best to replace them.
Barak Kodobane is something that Hunter otherwise lacks: powerful card draw. His ability to refill our hand with spells makes it easier to complete the Quest while also giving the deck extra firepower post-Quest completion to close out the game. The cards that come the closest to doing Barak's job are Manafeeder Panthara, who synergizes with the 0-Cost Hero Power we get from Take the High Ground, and Voracious Reader, who can get the closest to drawing as many cards as Barak Kodobane (although we can't guarantee that they'll be spells). Voracious Reader is our choice to replace Mr. Kodobane.
But wait: with Barak Kodobane gone, this gives Taelan Fordring nothing to tutor (unless you really want that Venomous Scorpid). The best thing to do here is to cut Taelan Fordring for another Voracious Reader.
Rinling's Rifle is a much tougher card to replace, because no card can do everything it does. Although this deck is looking most of all for Explosive Trap, the weapon can find more flexible options in a pinch. We could add in a second Mystery Winner to replace the Secret generation, or we could insert Inconspicuous Rider to put our single copy of Explosive Trap into play (if the Secret is still in our deck). It doesn't make sense to replace Rinling's Rifle with another weapon, because no other weapon could help us complete the Quest. After some thought, we've decided to eschew the "safe" option of Mystery Winner and put our faith in the heart of the cards.
Our fudged version of the deck looks like this:
The Verdict
While you'll likely want to keep Barak Kodobane and Rinling's Rifle in the deck if you have them already, we feel that we've been able to replace them with cards that do most of their job for a fraction of the cost. Defend the Dwarven District isn't exactly lighting the ladder on fire right now, but we think that you can have some fun (and maybe win some games) with the budget version that we've put together today.
Did you have an idea for better budget cards to add to the deck? Do you agree with our verdict? Share your thoughts in the comments!
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Comments
I've been toying with Quest hunter for a while, and honestly Voracious reader is a tough inclusion for me. I've tried it, but have found myself way to many times having it sitting in my hand as a dead card because of not being able to make a profit out of it. I personally prefer mana feeder panther myself, is at least a sure card draw whenever I want. Other than that, like your changes.
I'd give it a Budgy :D
I can vouch for the shell being strong enough to win games on its own and I like the changes you made to churn through the deck. I took a more control-oriented version of this to D10 D5 this season and I feel like yours is more competitive so try it out folks!