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. 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. To see past decks in this series with updated cards and guides, check out the Wild Deck Guide Compendium.
This Friday we are going to be playing Carnassa Hunter. Why? No particular reason. The Marsh Queen is an old quest that happened to get a great new 1 drop that doesn't really see play anywhere else: Pelican Diver. This 1 cost beast helps with quest completion and early game survival, and can even be played before a Tundra Rhino turn to then gain Charge.
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.
Deck Ratings
Replayability
Interesting Synergy
Fun and Unique Moments
Difficulty to Master
Competitiveness
Strategies
Carnassa Hunter can win with the Carnassa's Brood swarm from Queen Carnassa while using buffs to make the raptors more of a threat, or win with a Tundra Rhino turn where you can give multiple buffed raptors Charge.
Quest Completion - In the early game, you are going to be drawing and playing 1 cost beasts.
Raptors - You can have multiple raptors and a high amount of draw to keep refilling your board each turn. Along with various (hand-)buffs, this may just be enough to come up on top.
Rhino - Handbuff your raptors and other beasts using Shan'do Wildclaw, Dire Frenzy, and Don't Feed the Animals. Then use Tundra Rhino and these minions to set up a OTK turn. Pelican Diver can be played before this set-up turn to add more damage to the whole Charge package, without using up any mana on the Rhino turn itself.
This deck has a somewhat weak early game due to having to play 1 drops, but if you can get a Scavenging Hyena to snowball, that can help the initial turns to become quite strong as well.
Highlights
Mulligans
- Keep The Marsh Queen.
- Keep 1 cost minions and one of either Starving Buzzard or Leatherworking Kit. If you have minions that summon more than 1 Beast, you can prioritize the buzzard; otherwise keep the kit. Keep a Devouring Swarm if you're keeping buzzard.
Gameplay
The key to playing this deck well is saving your buffs for the right minions.
Below are gameplay tips regarding many of the synergies in this deck and how to use them effectively.
Use Devouring Swarm to get key minions back to hand.
You can play Pelican Diver before your Tundra Rhino turn to then give it Charge.
You can use Dire Frenzy to get more Wolpertingers, Carnassa's Broods, Tundra Rhinos, or Queen Carnassas into your deck.
Master's Call will either let you get Shan'do Wildclaw or draw 3 cards (it's better to play Shan'do after you have played Carnassa, to buff the raptors).
Don't Feed the Animals is best used mid to late game to prepare for a Tundra Rhino lethal. You can use some of the buffed minions for tempo but make sure you save enough for Tundra Rhino, especially against decks with lots of board clears.
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 as to why each card was included in the deck.
Quest Completion
1 drop Beasts are necessary to complete the quest.
Handbuffs
These cards let you handbuff minions.
Other Good Beasts
Scavenging Hyena is a good followup to your 1 drop beasts. Tundra Rhino is key to have a possible Charge OTK win condition.
Card Draw and Generation
Card draw and generation is needed to keep your hand full, in order to finish the quest more consistently and keep up the pressure, as well as to draw your Tundra Rhino more reliably and get buffed minions from Dire Frenzy faster.
Carnassa Hunter uses the Un'goro Hunter quest to win with a swarm of buffed raptors. 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? Share them via our deckbuilder and let us know in the comments below!
Looking for more? Look no further than the Wild Deck Guide Compendium to see more decks and guides.
Comments
Reading my mind! Was just thinking I wanted to bust out The Marsh Queen again. Thanks!
How is Raise Dead in this deck? 😉
Sorry it’s supposed to be Devouring Swarm.
I play very similar deck but i use Warsong Wrangler and Rats of Extraordinary Size for buffing/otk damage.