Big Demon Demon Hunter

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. Wednesday, the 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 deck are selected for having interesting synergies and using rarely seen cards.

The winner of last week's poll, by quite a large margin, was Big Demon Demon Hunter. So, here it is - Big Demon Demon Hunter is a deck that uses Big Demons, cards that put them into play early, and duplicate effects to try and get massive board presence and burst damage to win games. It has received a ton of support in the latest expansion including Vanndar Stormpike, Sigil of Reckoning, and Caria Felsoul. Overall, it's a fresh way to play Demon Hunter as opposed to aggro or combo, and if you enjoy other big decks, give this one a try! Everyone is going to get a diamond copy of Vanndar as well, so this may be a fun deck to play him in.

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.

Strategies

You want to draw cards and use board clears until turn 4 or 5. That's when you play either Vanndar Stormpike or Sigil of Reckoning to start getting big demons out in the ensuing turns. After you get a big demon out, you use Faceless Manipulators and Soul Splits to copy it for more pressure. Finally, if the game does go on to the lategame if your early demon waves are removed, you will just play big demons on curve and try to set up burst damage combos.

Early Game - You have some high quality clears like Sigil of Flame and Chaos Nova which you can use to remove any early opposing boards. Use your draw cards as well to try and draw into key cards for your midgame.

Midgame Big Demons - You use Vanndar, Sigil of Reckoning, and Caria Felsoul to get big demons that normally cost 7-9 mana out early. Then use Faceless Manipulators and Soul Splits to copy them, this is often enough board pressure to win.

Lategame - Lategame, play big demons for their regular cost and push damage over time with Illidari Inquisitor and Priestess of Fury. Also, if you get a Vanndar discount, you can try to combo a cheap Illidari Inquisitor or Priestess of Fury with reduced cost Faceless Manipulators or a Soul Split to create burst damage.

This deck is very draw dependent, and often wins or loses in the midgame depending on if it has one of either Vanndar or Sigil of Reckoning. Without them, it can run out of removal and lose, but with them, you will often get a very powerful board and win. Compared to other big decks like Big Priest, it doesn't have nearly as many waves of threats, however it does have something Big Priest and many other big decks do not: burst damage. With minions that can go face or deal damage the turn they are played, this can win games against control and combo that most other big decks would lose.

Here is a highlight of how this deck can get big demons as early as turn 4:

Mulligans

• Keep Vanndar Stormpike, and Abyssal Depths if you don't have him.
• Keep a Sigil of Reckoning. If you already one, keep some board clears - also, against a slow deck you may want to keep a Soul Split or Faceless Manipulator. If you have a choice, keep Soul Split and mulligan Faceless Manipulator so that you increase the chance that Vanndar can reduce its cost to 2.

Gameplay

This deck is pretty straightforward to play, but the key to winning more games with it is planning for burst combo turn lethals in games where your midgame big demon assault was not enough to win.

Below are gameplay tips regarding many of the synergies in this deck and how to use them effectively.

Card Draw and Removal

It may be a good idea to play Sigil of Flame even if the opponent's board is clear. This may make them not play any minions on their next turn. This can be done the turn before you play Sigil of Reckoning to minimize the opponent's board when your big demons come out.

Abyssal Depths is guaranteed to draw Vanndar if you haven't drawn him yet.

If you have Vanndar Stormpike in hand, you may want to not draw cards even if you have the mana to do so. If you're in a desperate situation and need board clears then draw, but otherwise you should play Vanndar first to be able to have his mana discount on more minions. This can be important especially if you can hit Faceless Manipulators.

Sigil of Reckoning Synergy

First of all, you usually want to play Sigil of Reckoning as soon as possible, so save the coin for it unless you have to clear early.

If you see that you have Pit Commanders in hand and no other demons, and you can play Sigil next turn, you may want to avoid drawing cards to maximize the chance that a Pit Commander is the demon hit. Pit Commander is usually the best demon you want Sigil to hit as it will snowball and summon more big demons from the deck each turn.

The turn after you play Sigil of Reckoning, you can play a Faceless Manipulator or Soul Split to copy it. This is very powerful as it puts another big demon into play with only 4 or 5 mana, and less if your Faceless Manipulator was affected by Vanndar Stormpike.

Finisher Combos

These combos work if some of the cards used in them are hit by Vanndar Stormpike.

For a lot of burst damage, you can play an Illidari Inquisitor or Priestess of Fury that was discounted, and then copy it with discounted Faceless Manipulators. You can play a Sigil of Silence before this turn to avoid Taunts.

Alternatively, you can dump all your other types of demons and then play Sigil of Reckoning. This will give you 10 mana next turn to play discounted Faceless Manipulators and Soul Splits. The maximum damage you can do with this is 33 - if you get an Illidari Inquisitor out, then play 2 Faceless Manipulators discounted by Vanndar and a Soul Split on it, you will have 4 on the board. They will be able to get past 4 taunts, and then go face when you use your hero power and attack. This is basically a otk, and will let you win against a control deck even if they have a lot of removals.

Something to keep in mind is that Faceless Manipulator can target enemy minions as well, so if you have no other good play or see a very powerful enemy minion you can use a Faceless Manipulator to copy it.

You can play both Priestess of Fury and your other Illidari Inquisitor first to try and deal some damage, and then do as much of the full 33 damage combo as you can depending on how many cards were discounted by Vanndar.

Thoughts on Big Demons

You have 5 types of big demons in this deck. For more on why these specific demons were chosen, see Card Choices. This is going to go over the main strengths of these demons.

Priestess of Fury - This provides clear and burst damage.

Xhilag of the Abyss - This is great when pulled out from Pit Commander to hide behind a Taunt. Copying this summons 4 tentacles again, and also makes all tentacle damage grow faster if you have 2 of these on the board.

Illidari Inquisitor - This can both rush into enemy minions and go face in the same turn due to its ability. Alternatively, it can attack face and then attack face again after your hero does so. Therefore, it is the best minion for burst damage in this deck. Something to keep in mind is that Illidari Inquisitors attack whatever your hero attacks even if they are Frozen. This can really win games quickly if not dealt with as one of those is 16 damage the next turn, and if you get one out and duplicate it, that’s threatening 32 damage next turn if not dealt with.

Taintheart Tormenter - Anti aggro because of Taunt and can beat Control and Combo because of his anti-spell ability, especially if you can make copies of him.

Pit Commander - This is just a great overall card, and is the highroll for Sigil of Reckoning and Caria Felsoul. In addition to having Taunt and stalling against aggro, it will pull out a big demon from your deck each turn. If not cleared, this can snowball and win by itself.

Keep in mind what demons you have drawn, this will allow you to predict what demon Caria Felsoul will turn into.

Overall, your big demons have snowballing potential where they will keep generating a lot of value and tempo for you each turn they aren't cleared. A Pit Commander will make for a huge board, Xhilag's tentacles' damage will keep getting bigger, Illidari Inquisitors can keep going face twice a turn, and Priestesses of Fury will keep dealing damage split between all enemies.

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 for why each card was included in the deck.

Big Demons

The most important part of a Big Demon Demon Hunter is, of course, the big demons themselves.

Removal

Most of these cards deal damage to all minions on the board. Illidari Studies is very flexible and can discover removal like Kurtrus Ashfallen.

Big Demon Duplication

These cards can cheaply duplicate your big demons.

Mana Discounts

These cards can all allow you to get 7-9 cost cards into play earlier than that. Sigil of Reckoning is the key card that makes a deck like this possible, while Vanndar Stormpike enables playing big demons early as well as a ton of burst damage in the lategame. Finally, Caria Felsoul is a generally good card which will get a powerful demon out early. 

A note about card choices is why Vanndar Stormpike is worth it in this deck instead of having two Warden of Chains. I initially tested a Warden of Chains version but came to the conclusion that the Vanndar version is far superior. Mainly, while Warden of Chains is powerful as a 4 mana 3/8 with taunt, it is not even close to the power you get from having Vanndar to reduce the cost of every single minion in your deck by 3. Vanndar enables so many powerful turns, both with getting big demons out early and doing tons of burst in combos with discounted Faceless Manipulators, that it's been a lot better for the deck than having the Wardens in there. In addition, it gives you a highroll card to get in your mulligan which can make you have a powerful midgame even if you didn't get a Sigil of Reckoning out early.

Card Draw

Card draw is very important to draw into your powerful cards and avoid running out of steam.

This is a fun big minion deck for Demon Hunter which got a lot of support in the latest expansion. It still has a few weak cards as Demon Hunter has a small card pool in Wild, so it has room to improve in the future as more cards are released, perhaps as soon as the mini set. 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? Let us know in the comments below!