The first couple days of any expansion can be an exciting time, but the underlying tension for players unsure of what Legendaries and Epics to craft can sometimes ruin all the fun. For that reason, we've theorycrafted a budget deck for every class in the game - decks that include only cards that are Common, Rare, or part of the Core set - for players to pick up and play (or tinker with and improve) right away without needing to worry about those pesky expensive cards.
Also, we're doing something a little interesting this time around: Each deck has a rating based on how excited we are to try it out. The ranking system does vary from class-to-class, but rest assured that all ratings are 100% accurate and there is no underlying theme of any kind.
Undead Death Knight
This deck idea started with the basic realization that the synergy between Death Growl and Infectious Ghoul was very powerful. Then we filled most of the rest of the deck up with cheap Undead with the idea that, if we can achieve the core combo of the deck at board parity or better, it will be very hard for our opponent to deal with the unending army of Infectious Ghouls.
Murmy, being an Undead Murloc, is a welcome addition from the new Core Set, as is our old friend Dr. Boom. The deck's ability to quickly make a lot of pretty Corpses pays off with finishers Grave Strength and Lord Marrowgar. We very nearly considered adding the adorable Snowflipper Penguin to cheaply guarantee targets for our Death Growl combo - maybe that's a direction you want to take the deck in.
Our rating for this deck is 400 Lux (from a maximum of 537).
Outcast Demon Hunter
Outcast Demon Hunter never really worked as a full synergy deck, but the new card SECURITY!! from Festival of Legends gives it some legs (as many as six), especially since we also got the legendarily flexible Illidari Studies in the Core set to aid in our quest to reduce the cost of Vengeful Walloper in a timely fashion. Dusty shuffle cards Dispose of Evidence and Bibliomite are finally able to show off their true value by getting our Outcast cards into position.
We're also running a little Token package with Snakebite and Feast of Souls to go along with SECURITY!! and Coordinated Strike, and we'll tutor some of our important Rush minions with Rush the Stage. Also, Kayn Sunfury is back, so that's a big deal.
That being said, we give this deck a 12 out of 21.
Attack Druid
Token Druid might have been the sane way to go, but a card like Groovy Cat is begging to be abused. You may not like it, but we're running Hedge Maze specifically to trigger the Cat's Deathrattle an additional time - and to tutor him we've got Peaceful Piper (since he's the only Beast) and a copy of Death Blossom Whomper (since he's the only Deathrattle minion). Plus, we can use Zola the Gorgon to get an extra copy of the Cat.
This deck doesn't have a plan outside of gaining a lot of Attack on our hero and using said Attack to punch the opponent's face in. We are making use of some of the new additions to the Core set: Lunar Eclipse to string together big spell turns, Solar Eclipse to gain extra Attack from Harmonic Mood or draw from Spread the Word, and Witchwood Apple, which is a 1 Mana spell that gives us three 1 Mana 2/2 Treants.
It may change later, but our current rating for this deck is 20 Afternoons.
Naga Hunter
The new Hunter Naga Arrow Smith gives new life to an archetype that never really got its sealegs: Naga Hunter! Twinbow Terrorcoil is criminally underutilized, and goes great with a variety of spells, some of which are in this deck. We've got a lot of cheap spells to feed our hungry Naga, spells that work wonders with Spell Damage granted by Rainbow Glowscale and Bloodmage Thalnos.
To help feed our Arrow Smith (and other Naga), we're running the new three-in-one spells Bunch of Bananas and Barrel of Monkeys for quick tempo and easy triggers of Naga effects. This is also our first deck to use the new E.T.C., Band Manager, because budget players love free cards. Until further notice, his band consists of Collateral Damage, Conjured Arrow, and Shellshot.
Our rating for this deck is 52 (but it looks like an 80).
Mech Mage
Mech Mage is back, with a vengeance (yeah, we know that's kind of Illidan's thing). With the reintroduction of the Magnetic keyword, as well as the return of All-Star mechs like Replicating Menace, the new-and-improved Bronze Gatekeeper, and (of course) Zilliax, Mech Mage would be our pick for the budget deck most likely to make a dent in the Day 1 meta.
With proven Sunken City cards like Click-Clocker, Seafloor Gateway and Mecha-Shark (doo-doo doo-doo) ready to welcome new friends from Festival of Legends in Frequency Oscillator and Annoying Fan, Mech Mage should hit the ground running. This deck also has E.T.C., Band Manager, whose band consists of Snap Freeze, Pyroblast, and Deathborne.
We give this deck 44 Arigato.
Divine Paladin
We're pretty excited about some of the new Divine Shield toys that Paladin got to play with, particularly Jitterbug, who can turn those popped shields into card draw. That card draw is going to be very important to us, since it gives us a menagerie hand to buff with Party Animal, and it makes sure we've got a Mech in hand to trigger Goldwing. And, boy, do we have a lot of Divine Shield minions: Zilliax, Righteous Protector, Annoy-o-Tron, to name a few.
The other side of the Divine Shield coin is Funkfin, whose Attack buff should be great for triggering our other card draw minion, Crooked Cook. With a good curve, it might be hard to stop us once we get rolling.
We think you'll agree that the rating for this deck is 2 Hot.
Shadow Priest
It might seem like a fool's errand to be attempting to run Overheal minions in a Shadow Priest deck, but think of it like this: we're all going to die someday, and most of the things we did in life will have very little meaning once we're gone. Put into perspective, it's easy to see why attempting to jam two disparate synergies into the same budget deck is just as senseless as any of the other countless distractions that dominate our frighteningly short time in mortality. So get off our back, already.
It's not a full Overheal deck anyway; we're just using the cheapest minions for extra sources of aggression and card draw in a predominantly Shadow deck. Fan Club is a cheap way to trigger Overheal, as is Dreamboat, while Idol's Adoration gives us a lot more freedom to weave our Shadowform Hero Power into early turns. This deck's band from E.T.C., Band Manager consists of The Light! It Burns!, Holy Nova, and Famished Fool.
This deck gets a very generous 7 Domines.
Secret Rogue
We're excited to welcome back Shadowjeweler Hanar to Standard, along with Cheat Death - a combination that should make our opponents very excited to play against us. We're also pleasantly surprised to see that Elven Minstrel has returned to help us find the right minions in our time of need.
Thanks to both his return and that of Eviscerate, we can feel pretty good about running a Combo-oriented deck that makes use of Festival of Legends cards Rhyme Spinner and Beatboxer. Private Eye fits neatly with both directions we're taking the deck and, since we're all about playing lots of cards in a turn, it's probably a good idea to have two copies of Sinstone Graveyard as well.
Although its best-case scenario looks particularly juicy, we're afraid the best rating we can give this deck is 1 Republic.
Overload Shaman
Overload Shaman is looking a lot juicier with the reintroduction of Overdraft and Ancestral Knowledge to the Core set, and Flowrider should serve as important card selection. Even more card selection comes from E.T.C., Band Manager, who brings with him Altered Chord and a second copy of both Zap! and Bloodlust.
However, this deck isn't just an Overload deck, it's also an Undead deck, thanks mostly to Deathweaver Aura and Feral Spirit - that's right, those Spirit Wolves are Undead. This is great for feeding the Battlecries of Nerubian Vizier and Unliving Champion, so hopefully we can get together a big board to Bloodlust.
We give this deck an astronomical 12345. Wait, that's not right; it should be turned around.
Zoolock
We got a little boring with Warlock, y'all, because let's face it: Warlock is a little boring. That's not a bad thing, especially if your definition of "boring" is a zoo deck. With new cheap Demons Void Virtuoso and Baritone Imp, the old familiar Imp deck can still get things done with Flustered Librarian and Vile Library.
Because this is a Zoolock, we're running a few other minion types and by that we mean Mechs. Zilliax is just so good that we're including the doubly-aggravating duo of Annoying Fan and Annoy-o-Tron for Magnetic purposes (for which purpose the Boombots of Dr. Boom also suffice). Cult Neophyte, friend to aggro decks everywhere, is back and here to contribute to the cause.
This is a good deck, well worthy of a full 24 Caprices.
Mech Warrior
People are pretty down on Warrior, and we think that's unfair. Menagerie Warrior got some very interesting tools in the new expansion. Unfortunately, as budget players, we don't have access to Rock Master Voone and Roaring Applause, so we made a Mech deck to take advantage of the returning Zilliax and Dyn-o-matic.
Woodcutter's Axe is also looking a lot better now that its buff is no longer restricted to Rush minions, and should help us draw cards with Hookfist-3000. In this deck, if a minion isn't a mech, then it's probably helping us draw cards: we're looking at you, Weapons Expert, Crooked Cook, and Obsidiansmith. Even Sword Eater technically counts in that regard, thanks to the Hookfist.
It's pretty simple: this deck gets a 16. Just a 16. We shouldn't have to tell you once, then tell you twice.
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Comments
Is it just me or do these decks have non-Standard cards in them? :(