Introduction:

Just a casual 32-damage slap to the face against Reno Warlock.

My current record for attack value during a Jace turn. Ironically, Lady S'theno got the kill due to a Multi-Strike I played during the battlecry animation. 

As somewhat of a Demon Hunter enthusiast, Lady S'theno caught my attention immediately once she was revealed. The plethora of cheap spells present in Demon Hunter's arsenal combined with a bunch of ways to reduce cost of said cheap spells suggested some sort of miracle-OTK deck was waiting to be discovered by the creative deck builders of Wild. 

This is not that deck. 

After receiving S'theno as my Twitch-Prime-Amazon-Prime-Gaming-Thing free legendary, I set right to trying her out in as many decks as I could. While she definitely found a home in Questline Demon Hunter and feels very good in there post questline completion, I decided on trying her out alongside as many of her tribe-mates as possible, seeing as Nagas are one of the big selling points of Voyage to the Sunken City. Shortly thereafter I pulled Queen Azshara, and this deck began to solidify very quickly. 

This deck kind of straddles the lines between archetypes, which I have found makes it pretty flexible and able to react to many different types of opponents. While not a full-on aggro deck, Vicious Slitherspear can definitely snowball repeatedly in the early game and push through a rather surprising amount of damage while your spells help to protect them and keep the board clear. While not a full-on control deck, you have more than enough spells to stay ahead of your opponent's plans and limit their options both in terms of managing their minions and limiting their mana through Mana Burn and various spell copying effects. While not a full combo deck, you do have a game ending combo that can push through ridiculous amounts of face damage, even if there are a couple taunts in the way. Nagas have definitely found a home in the Demon Hunter class, and decks like this make me excited to see which are printed next. 

Can we get a highlander payoff card for DH this year that's a naga? That would complete the other deck I'm working on…

Win Condition:

Your goal with this deck is to juice up Jace Darkweaver with as many fel spells as possible before letting him rip, hopefully with Brann Bronzebeard in support to provide double dipping on the battlecry. The resulting spewing of felfire in all directions usually results in a clear board for your opponent and a metric ton of attack value on your hero that you can point face and make bad guy go boom. 

Azshara is here as a quasi-win condition becuase she provides more fuel for Jace as needed through spell duplication effects, extra burn through Xal’atath, or hilarious meme wins through random 1-cost colossal minions. Be warned, she seems to be coded to give you Blackwater Behemoth the majority of the time, and just…….eh. 

The Titular Nagas:

These are the Nagas of the deck, minions who (mostly) care about being in hand or on the field when spells are played. A few notes on each:

Vicious Slitherspear can get out of control pretty quickly in this deck. While he does lose the snowball effect on each turn, you are running enough spells and generally want to to use them when possible meaning Slitherspear will often have an attack buff on your turn and more often than not a clear board ahead of him. While his value does fall off in the later stages of games, do not overlook just how useful he can be at fighting for and securing the board in the early going against more aggressive board-based decks. 

Wayward Sage provides just a teeny bit of mana cheat, which is always appreciated. Most importantly, she only needs to hit one of either Jace Darkweaver, Brann Bronzebeard or Zola the Gorgon to create a two-card combo in case your Skull of Gul'dan draws don't go as planned. She is a great little bit of redundancy that can also help cheat out more spells faster as well if you have already set up one of your combos. 

Zola the Gorgon is Zola the Gorgon. You know what to do. Your high value targets are Jace, Azshara, Brann, even Zai to begin a recurring loop for ridiculous amounts of value that would make a Reno deck raise an eyebrow in acknowledgement. 

Lady S'theno shines in this deck because she is a complimentary piece of the puzzle rather than the build-around combo enabler. While she will still hit for a fair amount of face damage usually, she is not going to be bringing your opponents from 30 to 0 in one turn here. Always hold on to her until you can reliably chain a few spells in the same turn after playing her out. Remember, armor doesn't count as health! 

Queen Azshara has been a ton of fun in this deck. While I feel like all four of her options are somewhat viable given the game state, 85% of the time I am picking Ring of Tides and hoping to double up on a Fury before dropping Jace. There are other options for copying too, hitting multiple Mana Burns with copying effects will make any sort of response to your Jace turn that much more difficult. While the other options have their place, Ring of Tides is really where it is at for me and what I'm looking to achieve most often. Bonus points if you can stick a Brann and double up on her battlecry or Zai/Zola her back to hand for many, many treasures. (Remember as well, if you use Zola on her you will need to cast three more spells to activate her.)

The Depths of Fel From Whence They Came:

So much damage, and your main source of board control and stabilization throughout a game. Don't be afraid to play Predation for three mana if you have Jace coming up, its more important to get the spell into the pool than to wait for a Naga turn and save three mana on it. Also, don't forget that Multi-Strike lets you hit face before/after hitting a minion. I definitely have a few times and felt embarrassed afterwards. And lost. Besides those specifics, you are mainly focused on using these spells to control the board, chip away at face, and activate your nagas while building up to the Weaver of Dankness himself. 

Other Cards That Don't Get a Clever Title:

I'm so happy to finally find somewhat of a home for Zai. She has been floating around my collection for a while waiting for her chance to dazzle audiences across the tavern, and now it feels like this felfire act is right up her alley. Besides the obvious choice of doubling up Jace, she can also give you multiple Azsharas, spells for draw or face damage, or Zolas to create infinite loops of value. 

Kurt is in here mainly for his battlecry as you will be attacking frequently and the demonic bat things can help swing a board back in your favor long enough for Jace to do his thing. While you will get some hero power procs off with this deck, especially with Lady S'theno around, don't expect anything like the Expendable Performers combo here. 

The other two cards here are old reliables at this point. Card draw is great, mana cheat with card draw is great, tradable card draw for later is great, and we like great things here. 

Mulligans/Matchups:

Generally speaking, I throw away Jace, Brann, Zola, and Fury (Rank 1) if they end up in my starting hand. Fury is much better if you can squeeze it out to rank 2 or 3, and the other cards generally do their best work later in the game. Ideal early game cards would be Vicious Slitherspear against board based things to help fight for control, Fel Barrage, Multi-Strike or Predation to go alongside him for early control tools, and Queen Azshara so she can be deployed as close to turn five as possible. 

Once the game is afoot, it's all about being patient, getting the most value out of your sources of damage possible, while keeping in mind how juiced up Jace is and when it is worth slamming him down. I have found that I need to play this deck a little slower than a typical aggro demon hunter deck and manage my fel resources wisely. Lot's of decisions to be made from game to game! Against aggro, its all about controlling the board. Combo and control mean you will have to use Mana Burn wisely on key turns, and copy that spell whenever possible to throw as many wrenches as you can into the opponent's plans. Games against these decks will definitely rely on a singular, huge JaceFace hit to win the game. 

Substitution Ideas:

As far as changes that come to mind, Polkelt is a way to consistently tutor out your Jace and other high-cost, high-impact cards like Kurtrus and Skull of Gul’dan. The twin auras of immolation and chaos are useful if you find yourself surrounded by decks that swarm you to death over and over again…just remember they are symmetrical damage which means your board is going bye-bye as well. And of course, since this deck runs many spells, Yogg is just licking his many sets of lips at the chance to cause even more fel-based chaos. Off the top of my head, I would say you could trim back the naga package to fit these guys in, since your fel spells are the bread and butter of the deck already. 

Conclusion:

Nagas have made themselves at home in the soft green glow of demon hunter’s fel fireplace. No other class, save for maybe mage, has embraced the tribe so well and created some powerful synergies right off the bat. While I’m very excited for the future of the tribe overall and how they interact with demon hunter, it’s great to see an archetype getting new life breathed into it with the help of Azshara and her subjects. With nerfs coming (We all assume) maybe this deck will even begin to perform modestly on ladder? Someone else can try that out, I live in Wild Casual most of the time. 

Now please, say it with me…..DEMON HUNTER HIGHLANDER CARD THAT IS A NAGA PLEASE.