11 Budget Standard Theorycraft Hearthstone Decks for Day 1 of TITANS

The first few days of any Hearthstone expansion can be an exciting time, but the underlying tension for players unsure which Legendaries and Epics are safe to craft can sometimes ruin all the fun. For that reason, we've theorycrafted a budget Standard 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) on Day 1 of TITANS without worrying about those pesky expensive cards.

Frost Death Knight

"Seriously, lend me your ears."

Death Knight's new Plague mechanic seems interesting, but with the archetype's best pay-offs locked behind Legendary and Epic rarities, our offering for Death Knight instead will build off of the new Frost spells Frozen Over and Northern Navigation - and by, "build off of" we of course mean, "jam into an aggressive Frost shell." Frozen Over in particular seems tailor-made for a fast deck that can kill the opponent before they're allowed to play the cards they drew. The deck is also making handsome Corpses to feed Corpse Bride and the new Eulogizer. Victorious Vrykul (who - spoiler warning - you'll be seeing a lot of in this article) aids an Undead subtheme by recruiting efficient 1-Drop Val'kyr to the fight.

Aggro Demon Hunter

Every pirate's favorite Golem.

The winning strategy, for both Day 1 decks and budget decks, is aggression. For Demon Hunter, we went fast with new Draw payoffs Argunite Golem and Momentum in an Outcast shell that feeds Glaivetar to get a massive Attack stat on the Golem. Rush the Stage, as a one-of, can draw Vengeful Walloper, Fierce Outsider, or new threat Trogg Exile.

Undead Druid

"We put the 'Cult' in 'Cultivation'." - rejected motto of the Guardians of Hyjal

Undead Druid is very good at one thing: swarming the board with tiny bodies that leave something behind when they die. What it lacks, unfortunately, is a way to cheat mana with something big before the opponent can kill it. Enter new Treant payoffs Cultivation and Conservator Nymph. To make the most of those cards, we're running Forest Seedlings (which summons Treants if we're patient), a copy of Drum Circle, and the overlooked Blood Treant - who has formidable tempo synergy with Conservator Nymph as a "free" 5/5 on turn 3.

Face Hunter

"Sing, O muse, the rage of Kripparian..."

Face Hunter is the knee-jerk reaction for any budget player, and for good reason: it's cheap, reliable, and really grinds the gears of most of our opponents. There's some new tools for Face Hunter from TITANS, with the 4+ Attack payoff of Fable Stablehand and aggressive tempo from Awakening Tremors and Careless Mechanist. Observer of Myths is a good way to get a board-wide buff going.

Mech Mage

"Guess I'll die now." - Snowchugger

If Seafloor Gateway is still in Standard, then the best budget deck we can build for Jaina remains Mech Mage. Luckily, there's a few new Mechs to jam into the archetype, namely Chill-o-matic and Drone Deconstructor for all your Magnetizing needs. Beyond those cards, a single copy of Invent-o-matic for extra buffs, and a couple of cards from Festival of Legends, this deck doesn't look all that different from Day 1 of Voyage to the Sunken City. At least that means it's cheap.

Mech Paladin

Trust us: you don't want to be downwind of an inventor's aura.

Mech Paladin is the French Vanilla to Mech Mage's Vanilla Bean Ice Cream; TITANS gives the archetype its own flavor of Mech discount with Inventor's Aura. We've gone for a bit of a handbuff theme thanks to new Mech Noble Minibot, but the true star is Grimestreet Outfitter. X-21 Repairbot will give us back any Mech we attach to it, letting us double-dip some potent minions.

Automaton Priest

"You stay. I grow."

While aggression tends to win the day for Budget players, we couldn't resist the allure of abusing new 1-Drop Astral Automaton with all the ways Priest has to gain extra copies of key cards. For Priest cards, that means Power Chord: Synchronize and Creation Protocol, but we're also using new neutrals Celestial Projectionist and Ravenous Kraken to feed our army of larger and larger Mechs. If that doesn't work out, we can always use our opponent's deck against them with Identity Theft and Incriminating Psychic.

Menagerie Rogue

One person's trash is another's win condition.

This Menagerie Rogue is mostly mechs but, thanks to dual-type Mech Beasts like Coppertail Snoop, Click-Clocker, and SP-3Y3-D3R, has enough reason to run Party Animal alongside interesting tribal minions Jolly Roger and Rowdy Fan. The Fan helps with our deck's main win condition, which is Magnetizing a very large Mech, finding a Windfury Spark, and hitting the opponent in the face until they have joined the choir invisible.

Totem Shaman

Step 1 of discipleship is learning how to pronounce Golganneth.

Totem Shaman has experienced a resurgence in recent months, and serves as a reliable foundation upon which to build our much-less-reliable Overload Shaman. Disciple of Golganneth exists to reduce the cost of Pack the House or Lightning Bolt, and all our Totems will feed the Infuse of Convincing Disguise and Totemic Evidence. And free tempo, thanks to Ancient Totem, will never be unwelcome.

Disco Implock

"Hey, Will." "How's it going, Will?" "Another day at the Forge, eh, Will?"

We're enamored with the new Location Forge of Wills and, since we can't go for a Giants build in a Budget deck, we're trying to abuse the buffs of Monstrous Form and Vile Library to make a big body (however temporarily), then copy those stats. Because we're trying to run as many Imps as possible, we're experimenting with Disciple of Sargeras - who gives us a reason to run Soul Barrage. Fellow Discard minion Savage Ymirjar follows as another good target for the Forge.

Menagerie Warrior

You would not believe how hard it is to guard steam.

As is our custom, we finish with Warrior. Menagerie Warrior is fun, but without access to Roaring Applause, is difficult to make work on a budget. Luckily, we now have access to more card draw in the form of Steam Guardian, who will also discount Fire spells Jam Session and Light of the Phoenix, to go with Weapons Expert and Hookfist-3000. Party Animal gives us more stats to play with for our subtheme of Enrage, and Power Slider is the payoff for all those minion tribes.

Have your own cheap theorycraft deck to show off? Share it with our deckbuilder, and don't forget to include a guide!