Hearthstone's Year of the Hydra, the 2022 Core Set, and Voyage to the Sunken City are almost here, so it's time to give Hunter a review of what's to come. Below you will find our thoughts on Hunter as they pertain to the brand new Hearthstone year. We're going to go over the archetypes we expect to see play, the heavy-hitting cards, a general overview of Hunter's other cards, and a theorycraft deck for you to try out on Day 1.
Before we jump straight into our review, we've got a few pieces of content you may want to check out.
- If you haven't seen the whole Core Set for 2022, check out our guide.
- All the cards have been revealed for Voyage to the Sunken City.
- You can build decks with all these cards in our deckbuilder.
- Need a set rotation refresher? Learn more about card set rotations in Hearthstone.
- Open your card packs early by creating your own Fireside Gathering.
- Check our pack opening simulator to test your luck.
Now with that done, let's jump into it!
Year of the Hydra Hunter Quick Impressions
- Hunter received the most Naga synergy cards of any class, and it could put those to good use.
- Secret Hunter has a chance thanks to the return of Cloaked Huntress and a fun new Secret.
- Big Beasts got some love, but not much.
- Questline Hunter got a new damage spell, and both it and Face Hunter got a new Legendary that could help them win games faster.
- Overall, Hunter has some cool tools and a lot of different archetypes supported by cards from the new year. We rate it a 6/10 for its power level. This means we expect it to have either one fairly powerful deck, or several archetypes that are all mid-Tier 2 strategies.
Hunter Power Level
Year of the Hydra Hunter Archetypes
Hunter has received support for a number of archetypes, all of them familiar faces save for the one built around an entirely new minion tribe.
- Naga - The new spell-lovin' tribe is big on Hunter, with several minions and spells that push Hunter towards building a deck that's heavy on Naga.
- Secrets - Every Hunter loves a good Secret, and the return of Cloaked Huntress makes a Secret Hunter deck much more viable.
- Big Beasts - There's a few new tools for Big Beast Hunter, mainly based around Mana cheat.
- Questline - Questline Hunter loves the new damage spell they got from the expansion.
- Face - There must always be a Face Hunter.
With our quick archetype overview out of the way, let's talk more in depth about each of them.
Naga Hunter in Year of the Hydra
Hunter has a lot of Naga synergy from the new expansion, both in terms of Naga minions who love spells and spells that love Naga. Raj Naz'jan is a cheap Naga that can deal extra damage from spells cast, but that's only the tip of the iceberg. Naga's Pride and Barbed Nets are spells that wants to see you play a Naga, so it's good thing that Conch's Call draws both a Naga and a spell. Lastly, Twinbow Terrorcoil can give that extra oomph to the right spell.
It's a highly synergistic deck, but with just enough tools that it could be worth experimenting with.
Secret Hunter in Year of the Hydra
Secrets: some people love 'em, other people hate fun. Luckily for us, Hunter is one of those classes that loves Secrets. Cloaked Huntress never truly got her chance to shine back in the old days, but now she's got plenty of powerful Secrets and Dun Baldar Bunker to draw them. Emergency Maneuvers, meanwhile, is a great way to protect a minion you're not ready to say goodbye to. A minion like Cloaked Huntress, perhaps.
Big Hunter in Year of the Hydra
Wing Commander Ichman and Vanndar Stormpike ushered in the newest golden era of Big Beast Hunter, and the fun hopefully isn't over yet. The mana reduction that comes from Harpoon Gun should be a nice partner to the mana reduction of Vanndar, and allow the deck ways to cheat Beasts out when they can't find their 4-Drop. Azsharan Saber doesn't play well with Vanndar, but could instead give the archetype a direction if they decide to go away from him.
Questline Hunter in Year of the Hydra
Questline Hunter just started to hit its stride in Standard with the introduction of Dragonbane Shot, and Barbed Nets look like a very fine addition to the archetype. With Professor Slate leaving, the deck could also find a place for Urchin Spines as a way to deal with scary minions.
Face Hunter in Year of the Hydra
Face Hunter will always find the most aggressive tools and plug them into a deck. This expansion, it looks like the best tools are some old friends: Animal Companion and Springpaw. Animal Companion was sorely missed, and Springpaw can step right into the hole left by Wolpertinger. It's always a good time to go face.
Year of the Hydra Hunter Heavy-Hitters
With a fresh Core Set and the Voyage to the Sunken City, there are a ton of cards to talk about in our review. We're going to go over the heavy-hitters: the cards that we think are going to make the most impact to start this year off.
Hydralodon's Impact in Year of the Hydra
Where's Iolaus when you need him?
Hydralodon is a big Beast, but doesn't play well with the idea of being summoned from deck. He'd much rather have his Battlecry go off, so he can Rush into some minions and summon more heads. Although his Cost makes him a bit hard to justify playing in a class that generally doesn't go above 5 Mana, Hydralodon will make it worth your while in decks that can back him up. The Rat King is a huge fan.
Raj Naz'jan's Impact in Year of the Hydra
A Naz'jan always pays his debts.
Raj Naz'jan could be an All-Star in a variety of Hunter decks, as his Smorc-boosting ability will turn any measly spell into another source of face damage. We'd expect Naga Hunter (if it exists) to run this minion, but he should also slot right into Face Hunter as well. Of particular interest is Questline Hunter, which could possibly do without the Raj, but might also be into the idea of boosting even more damage at the opponent's face to end the game even quicker.
Emergency Maneuvers's Impact in Year of the Hydra
It helps if you make the klaxon sound with your mouth.
Emergency Maneuvers is a very useful Secret that has uses in more than just Secret decks. For two mana, it can serve as protection for any minion you play, so long as it's the only minion that you play. This will put your opponent in a sticky situation, where they will be unable to truly deal with the threat that minion poses. It can be used in combo decks with Raj Naz'jan to ensure you get a full turn of spells to play with the Legendary naga, or you could use it in a deck that wants to trigger multiple Deathrattles. We don't know how this works with The Rat King. It's possible that it breaks the game. Everyone should try it immediately.
The Rest of Hunter in Year of the Hydra
Now that we've looked at the archetypes and main cards that Hunter is going to have access to in Year of the Hydra, let's talk about what we hope to see from the class and some of the other cards that will fill in the gaps for those archetypes.
Urchin Spines is a cheap way to turn small damage spells into removal via the Poisonous keyword, and could fit inot Questline Hunter, where cheap damage spells abound.
Twinbow Terrorcoil is a pretty neat Naga, and one of the more powerful class-specific ones. Because his aura effect can last for turns, it could enable a pretty powerful play. Too bad Call of the Wild isn't in Standard...
Houndmaster Shaw provides good board control for quadruple the Cost of Animated Broomstick. He might fit into Big Beasts decks, or any Midrange deck with a decent amount of minions for him to give Rush.
Candleshot is a welcome addition for slower Hunter decks that need ways to deal with cheap minions early. It will probably find a home in Big Beasts, Naga, or even Secrets.
Neutral Cards for Hunter in Year of the Hydra
Cheap Naga will play well in Naga Hunter, and Vicious Slitherspear is the cheapest of them all. Besides being a 1 Cost 1/3 with upside, he also plays well with Hunter's cheap spells. Did you say cheap spells? Well, not cheap enough, according to Murkwater Scribe.
If we're looking for more face damage for Face Hunter, Naval Mine looks like a great place to start. And, as seen in the theorycrafting stream, Pet Collector plays nicely with Selfish Shellfish, because sometimes a 4 Mana 7/7 is just a 4 Mana 7/7.
Big Beast (sans Vanndar) might give Ambassador Faelin a go, since there's a number of good Colossal Beasts he could find to be summoned by Wing Commander Ichman or discounted by Harpoon Gun.
Questline Hunter - A Theorycraft Deck for Hunter in Voyage to the Sunken City
We know it isn't the most inventive idea that anyone's ever had, but we are seriously curious about how some of the new tools play with Hunter's Questline, Raj Naz'jan in particular. To that end we've put together a Questline list that packs in the cheap damage spells, but has a few tricks up its sleeves for controlling the board and finding a way to kill the opponent swiftly.
Drek'Thar exists to summon Kolkar Pack Runner alongside the Raj, but that may not be enough. To that end, we've added a copy of Conch's Call to tutor Raj, Emergency Maneuvers to protect him, or, barring that, a copy of Devouring Swarm to put him back in our hand for safekeeping. Because why play one Raj, when you can play many?
Final Thoughts
Hunter has a number of directions to go in: they could try the all-new Naga Hunter, or they could play it safe with the always-reliable Face Hunter. They could plug in one or two new spells to make Questline Hunter a bit better. Secrets and Big Beasts could also be on the menu, though we'd be shocked if either shows up as Hunter's best archetype. That being said, we think that there could be as many as three good Hunter decks in the upcoming meta: Questline, Face, and Naga. Prove us wrong, the Future.
Thanks for taking the time to read our review on Hunter for Year of the Hydra. Do you agree with our take? Let us know your thoughts on our review and Hunter in the comments below. You take care, now.
More Out of Cards Year of the Hydra Reviews
We've got more to talk about for Hearthstone's Year of the Hydra that officially begins on April 12. Check out all of our Standard class reviews!
More Wild Reviews for Voyage to the Sunken City
We've been hard at work preparing additional insights into the new Voyage to the Sunken City cards with a Wild spin. Check out all the classes released so far down below.
Comments
Emergency Maneuvers says summon a copy, so I'm expecting you'll have two copies of The Rat King: one that wakes up next turn, and one that wakes up after five friendly minions die.