Legend Even 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. Wildest of Wednesdays 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.

Most of this series' decks are for fun, and not recommended for climbing to Legend. However, this week we will be looking into an off meta deck that is actually Legend viable. Even Hunter, despite being a lot less popular than a Hunter meta deck like Quest Hunter or Odd Hunter, has been very strong in testing and was even powerful enough to get from Diamond 4 one star to Legend in under 4 hours, with a close to 65% winrate. Even Hunter got some great cards from Alterac Valley including Beaststalker Tavish, Ice Trap, and Bloodseeker, which raised the deck's objective power level and make it better at finishing games, disrupting opponents, and controlling the board. Overall, if you like playing around with secrets and hero power synergy, or want to try and climb with a Hunter deck that's not Quest or Odd, give this one a try!

Keep in mind that with an off meta deck, it will be harder to hit Legend than with a meta tier 1 deck, so you have to be extra focused and play well - the deck's margin for error and misplays is a lot lower. If you want the easiest climb, use a meta deck, however it can be very rewarding and enjoyable to climb with a rarely seen off meta deck that people won't expect.

Here is a replay that shows the potential power of Even Hunter: https://hsreplay.net/replay/vjYq5s8jaRsaWcRQRVRQQh

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

Even Hunter is an aggressive deck that has a lot of direct face damage. It uses the 1 mana hero power from being an even deck with Genn Greymane to have synergies with hero power related minions. It also uses secrets and minions that synergize with them to provide tempo, deck thinning, and board protection.

Hero Power Synergy Stacking - One strategy that is very powerful is stacking your hero power synergy cards on the board. Felfire Deadeyes, Phase Stalkers, Garrison Commanders, and Dragonbane can all synergize with each other to make for extra strong turns with your hero power.

Secrets - To protect your board, for example key hero power synergy minions, you can use Ice Trap against spells and Pack Tactics against minions. Emergency Maneuvers is your third secret and protects your minions. Since you only have three secrets, you should be able to predict what secrets a Mad Scientist or Phase Stalker will get from the deck depending on which you already have active. You can also use Rinling's Rifle and Beaststalker Tavish to discover other secrets. While the secret strategy can't win the game by itself, it's very powerful to support your other ones.

Face Damage  - This strategy is helped by using your hero power. You will use all your cards to deal face damage, including weapons and Knife Vendors. You can also use Bloodseeker to remove enemy minions for a while to protect your board while it gains attack, but make sure to start going face with it when you see that you can win a race in a few turns. Don't hold it for too long waiting for the perfect Honorable Kill, sometimes you need to use it face as a 2 mana deal 4 damage quickly so that you can then equip a new weapon.

Even Hunter did well against most decks, with its main weakness being Pirate Warrior. If you face too many Pirate Warriors, this deck won't do well, but otherwise it should be very strong against a wide meta, being able to outrace most aggro, beat combo quickly before it can combo off, and beat control with the help of disruptive secrets.

Mulligans

• Always keep a Felfire Deadeye, a Phase Stalker, and Dragonbane. You can keep two Phase Stalkers if against a slower deck.
• Those 3 cards have the highest mulligan winrates, so try to get some of those, especially the 2 costs. If you already have one or more of those, these are other great cards to keep: a Mad Scientist, a Bloodseeker if against a board based deck (so you wouldn't keep it against Quest Hunters which play mostly spells), and one or two Frenzied Felwings if you think you will be able to get them to cost 0 within the first 3 turns, which is easy against most decks except very aggressive ones like Pirate Warrior. You can also consider keeping a Garrison Commander if you have a Felfire Deadeye.

Gameplay

The key to playing this deck well is to balance controlling the board with turning the game into a race - Even Hunter can win most face races due to all of its direct face damage, but the point where you give up on the board and start doing a race is important. You should plan ahead and estimate how many turns the opponent will need to destroy you and how many you need for lethal, and start a race only if you estimate that you will win. You should also use your minions to synergize with each other and your hero power, and play and discover the right secrets at the right moment to maximize overall winrate. This deck has some thought required to play it to its full potential, but if you play it for a while and use the below tips you can get a feel for when to play certain cards and what secrets to discover or play at what times.

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

Hero Power Synergies

Combining Garrison Commander and Felfire Deadeye - 2 free hero powers per turn.

Combing Garrison Commander and Dragonbane - 2 activations of Dragonbane's ability a turn.

Combining Felfire Deadeye and Phase Stalker - Phase Stalker can be activated cheaply, as early as turn 2 if you coined Felfire Deadeye turn 1.

Combining Garrison Commander and Phase Stalker - 2 activations of Phase Stalker per turn.

If you play Beaststalker Tavish, your hero power refreshes. This allows you to use your hero power and activate any hero power synergy cards twice that turn. This also means that if you have Garrison Commander on the board, you can use your original hero power twice and then Tavish's twice for a total of 4 hero powers in one turn. Add a Felfire Deadeye and Dragonbane, and you can activate Dragonbane's ability 4 times in one turn for 20 damage total.

In general, your hero power synergy cards are strong by themselves - something as simple as a Garrison Commander turn 4 and 2 hero powers or a Felfire Deadeye turn 2 and a free hero power helps your face damage gameplan - but combining different hero power synergy cards makes them even more powerful than they are individually.

Therefore, you should try to combine them as much as you can. Combining Phase Stalker with a Felfire Deadeye, Garrison Commander, or both early in the game can get a lot of secrets out of your deck and snowball you to victory while combining Dragonbane with any of those can make you have its effect sooner or more often.

If you are against a slower deck, you may want to hold onto some of these cards to combo them with each other on a later turn. However, against a faster deck, being too greedy and going for full value with these cards will lose you the game because you will lose tempo - you shouldn't hold onto a hero power synergy card for a later turn combo unless you have a better card to play anyway, such as playing a Bloodseeker to clear an enemy minion and setting up a hero power synergy minions combo on a later turn.

Secret Synergies

This deck has 3 different secrets, with 2 copies of each.

Emergency Maneuvers - Play this to bring key minions back the following turn. Special synergy with Imprisoned Felmaw.

Ice Trap - This can be played around with the coin, so be careful about using this before a player going second has played it. In general, you use this to protect your board from a board clear or deny the opponent board generation or card draw. Despite them getting it back to hand, this deck doesn't care about them having that value, as them skipping a turn or spending any amount of mana for no effect gives you a big tempo boost. Furthermore, it gives you information.

Pack Tactics - This can be used before playing a key minion to make it harder to remove when you play it. In general, this is great on anything as a 3/3 minion but if you can try and get it to hit a Felfire Deadeye, Garrison Commander, Mad Scientist, Phase Stalker, or Dragonbane you will get extra value out of it.

Since you only have 3 secrets in the deck, you can predict what secret a Mad Scientist or Phase Stalker will give you. If you have 2 secrets up, it will always give you the third one. Therefore, if you want to guarantee a specific secret, you can play another secret from hand first so that Mad Scientist or Phase Stalker will give you the one you want from your deck. Their abilities, in addition to providing free secrets for disruption and tempo, help thin the deck so that you draw your high quality hero power synergy cards more consistently.

Rinling's Rifle and Beaststalker Tavish allow you to discover secrets, and due to this flexibility you can go for disruptive, tempo, or defensive secrets depending on the situation.

Don't discover an upgraded Ice Trap from Beaststalker Tavish if you already have an Ice Trap up - they will both activate and waste the Ice Trap.

Additional Tips

Bloodseeker can be very powerful if played early - a lot of early game minions will have 2 hp, so you can attack one and have a 3/2 weapon. You can then look for a 3 hp minion to make Bloodseeker a 4/2. It has a dual use of board control and face damage as when you run out of good targets or want to turn the game into a face race, you can use this weapon to do face damage. 

If you're in a face race, you may want to save Knife Vendor for last as it also damages you.

Quick Shot will draw a card if you empty your hand before using it.

Piercing Shot can be used on your own minions if needed for face damage.

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.

Hero Power Synergy

These cards synergize with your 1 mana hero power.

Secrets and Secret Synergy

These cards enable you to disrupt opponent turns with secrets. Mad Scientist and Phase Stalker put secrets into play for free and thin your deck by doing so, making your future draws better.

Face Damage Package

Your hero power is a consistent source of face damage itself. Apart from Knife Vendor whose damage can only go face, the other cards in this package can be flexible to also remove key enemy minions and provide board control. This can indirectly boost your face damage output by allowing your minions from other packages to stay on the board longer. Frenzied Felwing synergizes with all this face damage to be a big tempo boost as a 3/3 that can be played for free.

Even Hunter is a powerful and efficient aggro deck which relies on its 1 mana hero power, hero power synergies, and secrets to win games quickly. Unlike most off meta decks, it is powerful enough to be Legend viable in the current meta, possibly with an above-60% winrate if you can master its playstyle. 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!