Final Taxation: A Questline Disruption Demon Hunter Deck

This deck was inspired by the list in Wild that Otters came up with, and that Roffle and GetMeowth were playing around with on their respective streams. I picked up the deck in Wild and loved it, so I wanted to see what could be recreated in Standard! 

This is a questline Demon Hunter deck that is focused on using disruption tools such as Far Watch Post, Cult Neophyte, and Glide to disrupt your opponent’s plans and delay them long enough for you to reap the discounts earned through card draw towards the steps of Final Showdown. The hope is that eventually the opponent is in range for a big swing from either [Hearthstone Card (Lion’s Frenzy) Not Found] or a juiced-up Jace Darkweaver and all of the spells he will recast. While the Standard card pool is lacking in some of the more fun disruption tools such as Mana Burn, [Hearthstone Card (Nerubar Weblord) Not Found] and the classic Loatheb, I have found so far that there is just enough to work with that can throw your opponent off of their game, especially in this early Stormwind meta. 

Questline Support:

These cards are all here to push the quest along and get you the sweet, sweet discounts you need to get further ahead of your opponent. All of these are pretty straightforward, the only “complexity” comes in planning out your turns ahead of time to make sure you end up fulfilling a quest step when you need to. The trickiest thing I have come across has been timing the use of Sigil of Alacrity to get the most out of it. The urge is to throw it down as soon as you draw it (if mana allows) but I have had more success holding on to the Sigil until I have another source of draw to go along with it. That being said, there are plenty of times where I threw a Sigil down that drew me into a discounted Glide on the next turn that helped me out of a jam…so it really comes down to your judgment and willingness to gamble on the card being drawn is worth possibly bricking on a quest step in your next turn. Besides that, just work to keep moving the outcast cards to the left side of your hand so you can more easily set up your big draw turns. 

Disruption:

Ahhhhh, Glide. I love this card so much. By itself it represents a full step of your questline complete, regardless of its outcast status. In a pinch, it can be used to either reset your hand or draw up to 4 and discount the new cards. However, the card is most fun when used to completely screw over an opponent’s hand and disrupt all of their plans. While this happens with varying degrees of effectiveness depending on the class you are playing against, Glide itself is still capable of making the opponent concede out of frustration…which-if you are playing a deck like this-you should be living for. Combine Glide with the always amazing Far Watch Post or even two posts, and enjoy the light show of the effect indicator firing like a broken Christmas tree light. I always look for either the post or Cult Neophyte in my mulligan to try to start the game off as disruptively as possible. If you get too far behind with a deck like this, you will have a very difficult time catching back up. If possible, try to time Cult Neophyte to hit right before an outcasted Glide for as much value as possible. Robes of Protection has become almost indispensable for this meta, protecting your disruptive minions and keeping up the tempo against the more spell-focused decks out there. 

I include Irebound Brute in this section because I find I can drop him much earlier than turn 6 (as he always has at least a 1 mana discount) based on how nutty my draw chains are. The brute is often a big enough wall to completely stall out aggro decks in the earlier turns and turn the corner towards closing out a game. In more even board states, the brute often combos well with Robes of Protection to force the opponent to make some unfavorable trades and waste resources. I was very skeptical of this card at first but he feels great! 

Win Conditions:

[Hearthstone Card (Lion’s Frenzy) Not Found]

I kid you not, my average hits with [Hearthstone Card (Lion’s Frenzy) Not Found] are between 8-12 damage. In the late game, if I have been able to play Demonslayer Kurtrus, I can usually cycle through what’s left in my deck in one turn (multiple times if there is a Glide involved) and hit the opponent for 12-14 damage for the win in one last all-out attack before running out of gas. If you anticipate needing a big swing or two to knock out some minions during the course of the game, try to set a Lion’s Frenzy before a Glide or a quest completion turn for maximum draw and therefore damage. Seriously, I thought this card was garbage when it was revealed. I wouldn’t call it amazing or game-breaking like some of the other Stormwind cards currently terrorizing the meta but it definitely serves as a win condition in a Quest DH deck if built around it with draw and perhaps silence/taunt avoidance. 

Jace Darkweaver: At the time of writing this, I have just crafted Jace and used him in three games-all of which he provided the last bit of reach needed to kill the opponent thanks to all of the recast Fel spells. While he can be awkward if he lands in the left outcast position, I think the risk is worth the trade off of a big burst turn, card draw from Chaos Strike and even some board clearing through Fel Barrage. I will be playing more with the card, especially in the Wild version of this deck, but early returns are very promising. 

Honorary Mention:

I love this card, it may be my favorite card in the entire game next to the original [Hearthstone Card (C’Thun) Not Found]. I am a huge fan of disruption in card games (as you can tell) and she fits that game plan so well…except for the outcast requirement/being understatted for the cost. That all being said, she only recently just came out of the deck in favor of Jace. Perhaps a future version of the deck will find room for her! 

That’s all I have for now, thank you for reading this far down! I will play more with the deck and answer any questions people may have. Have fun out there!