You Better Watch Your Step - A Full Guide to Highlander Secret Hunter on the Wildest of Wednesdays

Wild Hearthstone has thousands of cards, and a wide variety of possible decks. This incredible deck diversity is sometimes lost when only looking at the few decks common in the highest ranks. Wednesday, the Wildest of Days is a series aiming to highlight a different off meta deck each week with an in depth guide into its strategy and gameplay. The decks are selected for having interesting synergies and using rarely seen cards.

This week, we are going to cover a Reno deck for the first time in this series. Unlike a classic control Reno deck like in most classes, we are going to look into Reno Secret Hunter, using multiple new secret support cards from Alterac Valley. Dun Baldar Bunker is great card draw, Ice Trap is a new tempo gain card, and Beaststalker Tavish is a flexible hero. Using a lot of draw including specific draw for secrets, the deck can draw quickly and keep generating waves of tempo with secrets and secret related synergy cards, while having a fun and powerful value endgame in Deathstalker Rexxar.

Note: Thanks to JambaJooze for helping with refining this deck!

Now, let's get into a guide on playing the deck. It's going to go through major overarching strategies to keep in mind, how to mulligan, gameplay tips on key synergies, and card choices.

Strategies

Depending on what deck you face, you can first try being aggressive, and later if that doesn't win you the game switch to value to grind out a game - this deck can go to fatigue and win using consistent value from Deathstalker Rexxar. Against hyper aggressive decks that beat you on the board early in the game, you can switch to being a control deck and clear their boards using things like Dreadscale and Serpentbloom and Zephrys the Great. Finally, against combo decks you can keep your board pressure up while disrupting them with secrets and Wild Bloodstingers.

Aggression - Use free or discounted secrets and high tempo cards like Secretkeeper, Petting Zoo, and Lesser Emerald Spellstone to establish boards while Dinotamer Brann can be used as a top end finisher. Zephrys the Great can help this strategy with a card like Bloodlust as well to win games.

Control - Some secrets either generate taunts or deal damage to all enemies. In addition, Dreadscale and Serpentbloom will clear a board. Zephrys is great for control as well. Finally, you have Reno Jackson.

Value - If you are against a control deck that removed your boards, Deathstalker Rexxar is the key card to be able to generate infinite value to win these matchups.

Combo Disruption - If you are against a combo deck, Wild Bloodstinger can pull out a combo piece. In addition, some secrets like Snipe and Pressure Plate can disrupt certain combos.

Reno Secret hunter is a very flexible deck, and can do well against aggro, midrange, control, value, and combo. However, certain decks with a lot of mana cheating may be able to outtempo this one.

Mulligans

Keep Serpentbloom if you have Dreadscale, Selective Breeder, or Warsong Wrangler. Keep two of those as well, Selective Breeder is a better keep than Warsong Wrangler if you have a choice unless you are keeping Dreadscale itself and want to get Subject 9 with it.

• If you are against aggro you consider keeping Explosive Trap and Wandering Monster.
• Keep Secretkeeper.
• Keep Zephrys the Great.
• Keep Dun Baldar Bunker.
• Keep Cloaked Huntress.
• If not against aggro keep Barak Kodobane.
• Keep Subject 9 unless against aggro.
• Keep Lesser Emerald Spellstone unless you have no early plays in hand.
• If against midrange or aggro keep Reno Jackson.
• If against control keep Deathstalker Rexxar.
• If against combo keep Wild Bloodstinger unless you have Selective Breeder.

Gameplay

As a Reno deck, this deck is very flexible and can adapt its gameplan. The key to doing well with this deck is going for the right gameplay each time. You need to try to identify your opponent's deck archetype quickly and then use your beast tutoring cards to get the right beast from your 3 main beasts for the matchup. You also need to use your flexible cards like Devouring Swarm, Resizing Pouch, and Beaststalker Tavish the right way for the specific matchup. Finally, the order and timing of secrets is important.

Below are gameplay tips regarding many of the synergies in this deck and how to use them effectively.

Beast Synergies

This deck has a very important beast package: Dreadscale, Subject 9, and Wild Bloodstinger. Both Selective Breeder and Warsong Wrangler will discover one of these cards.

You can consistently get either one of the beasts or beast discover cards in the mulligan, and you can discover which of these 3 beasts is best for a specific matchup. If you need a board clear, get Dreadscale to pair it with Serpentbloom. If you need combo disruption, get Wild Bloodstinger. If you are the aggressor and just want to get secrets and thin your deck but don't need a clear or combo disruption, choose Subject 9. The flexibility of this beast package allows the deck to have answers to different types of decks.

It's important to note that Selective Breeder gets a copy, while Warsong Wrangler draws the card itself. Therefore, if you want to get more uses out of the beast first use Selective Breeder on it and then either draw it or use Warsong Wrangler. This can be useful to get multiple Wild Bloodstingers for more combo disruption. Subject 9 is usually only going to be played once so it's better to pull it out with Warsong Wrangler. Dreadscale is usually single use with Serpentbloom, but if you managed to discover another Serpentbloom with Resizing Pouch you may want two.

Secret Synergy

Secretkeeper is going to grow from both your and your opponent's secrets.

Flare removes all opponent secrets but be careful that it doesn't get Counterspelled or Oh My Yogged.

Eaglehorn Bow is going to keep gaining durability. It can gain 8 from the secrets in your deck and 2 more from Beaststalker Tavish's secrets.

Subject 9 draws 5 secrets, and an especially strong synergy is if Cloaked Huntress is on board from turn 3 or 4 you can play them all for free, or you can wait and play Cloaked Huntress after Subject 9. This cheats 10 mana worth of value into play for free.

Other Synergies

Resizing Pouch used when you have 1 mana will have a high chance (around 80%) to discover either a Devouring Swarm or Serpentbloom, both very useful cards. You can use this turn 1 to try to get one of these if you have no other play. Usually you want to use this when you have 1 mana left to get one of those high value 0 cost cards, but you can also flexibly use it to fill a curve when you don't have anything to play on a certain turn.

When you play Devouring Swarm, be aware that it will make your minions attack in the order that they were summoned. You can get multiple copies of key minions for specific matchups (Zephrys the Great, Dinotamer Brann, Reno Jackson, Wild Bloodstinger, or even another beast discover card can be great targets) or use it as removal.

Apart from drawing a secret or Dun Baldar Bunker in the 2 drop slot, Barak Kodobane will always draw Petting Zoo and either Flare, Tracking, or Resizing Pouch.

You usually want to play Beaststalker Tavish before Deathstalker Rexxar because while Beaststalker Tavish has a good Battlecry, Rexxar has the superior hero power. If you are against a control deck and need value, Beastalker Tavish might not be as useful so just go ahead and play Rexxar and start using his hero power instead of waiting to draw Tavish first. Also, sometimes Rexxar's hero power is very useful against aggro so you may be forced to play him first.

Card Choices

This section is going to go through the main packages of cards in the deck. Each package has cards that help the deck with a specific goal. When playing the deck, it's useful to know what purposes each card serves and what other cards in the deck have synergy with it or help achieve the same purpose. This section might also be useful if you're interested in the reasoning for why each card was included in the deck.

Secrets

These are the secrets available in this deck, the hero card discovers some.

Secret Synergy

These cards synergize with secrets.

Beast Package

These cards make up the beast package.

Reno Package

These are cards the deck gains from being a deck with no duplicates.

Good Cards

These are generally good cards that aren't part of any particular package.

This deck has aggression, board clears, value, and combo disruption. It has one of the most adaptable gameplans and can transition between aggression and control easily depending on the matchup. If you like Reno decks that in addition to control can actually generate lots of early game tempo, want to play around with the new secret and Tavish hero, or are one of the people who think Deathstalker Rexxar is the most fun hero and want a deck that uses him, give this one a try! If you have a question or comment, or are wondering about a card substitution, post below.

What are your favorite wild decks? Which off meta decks have you been playing? Let us know in the comments below!