Guide to Making Hunter Cards

Welcome to the Guide to Making Hunter Cards. Each class has different design philosophies for the way their cards are designed, and these philosophies are going to be important to know in order to design realistic and balanced cards for each class. This guide will go over Hunter.

If you aren't familiar with the Warcraft universe, the name Hunter might come off as a misnomer as the word "hunter" would imply that the person in question is hunting the beasts rather than hunting with the beasts. The fact that Hemet Nesingwary (who does in fact hunt the beasts) was originally going to be the Hunter hero instead of Rexxar certainly does not help this either and in fact appears to hint towards a different direction for Hunters in early development.

A better term for Hunter might be "beastmaster" instead. Hunter in Warcraft, and of course Hearthstone as well, are beastmasters who always have an animal companion by their side.

Hunters are one of the most tribal-centric classes in the game with a majority of their minions having some type of tribe and roughly 50% of all collectible Hunter minions in the game are Beasts, which is itself the most universal minion type in the game. Unlike Druid however where their Beasts are flavored as still being wild and untamed but harmonized with by the Druid, Beasts in Hunter appear to be more often flavored as animals who have been fully tamed and obedient to the Hunter in some capacity. That said, just about any Beast art will do the trick and the ability for Hunter to harmonize with wild Beasts in a way similar to Druid does exist. Similar to Druid, there does not seem to be an unwritten list of what animals are acceptable as Hunter minions and which ones aren't. When making a Hunter Beast, it appears that any animal is fair game.

In terms of other tribes, Hunters also occasionally get access to Mechs and Dragons. In following their animalistic flavoring, some Hunter Mechs are modeled after animals which is seen on Ursatron, Spider Bomb, Metaltooth Leaper, and vaguely on Dragonbane. Hunter Mechs which are not themed around animals include Venomizer, Chopshop Copter, Oblivitron, and Darkmoon Tonk.

Hunter's Dragons are swampy proto-dragons, which sport a vaguely primordial look to them, as well as looking somewhat feral fitting with their beastly nature. This is seen on Primordial Explorer, Carrion Drake, Rotnest Drake, Veranus, and Emeriss.

Hunters do also have a good deal of minions without a tribe, some of which can be viewed as "hunting buddies" as many of them are humanoids sporting some type of ranged weapon such as a bow or a gun. This incidentally happens to be what many Hunter weapons are flavored as.

Some others however, do not. Some of these minions may be flavored as beast tamers or otherwise beastly related in some way, although other flavors of these exist.

What a Hunter will need to do is take matters into their own hands. Their beasts are "companions" after all, and not "pawns". With a few exceptions, Hunter spells are typically not flavored as being magical and are instead flavored as "actions". Cards like Rapid Fire, Arcane Shot, or Hunter's Mark appear to be flavored as having the Hunter use their weapon to mark or shoot the target. Cards like Call Pet or Kill Command appear to be flavored as a call or command for their beast. How exactly you can command a beast to deal 3 damage if you have no beast, I don't know, but we don't think about this too much. Animal Companion, arguably Hunter's signature card across the entire game, has Rexxar calling their animal companion to their aid along with Rexxar shouting "to my side!"

In a similar vein, some Hunter Secrets depict a mechanism similar to a bear trap being placed on the ground for an unsuspecting organism to walk over. This is seen on Bear Trap, Explosive Trap, Freezing Trap or Snake Trap. Dart Trap and Pressure Plate do not use the same trap device, but have the same flavor of striking someone who doesn't observe their surroundings thoroughly. Hunters do have some other tricks though, which can be viewed on Snipe, Cat Trick, or Pack Tactics.

But in addition to their arrows and their traps are their weapons. Unlike most weapons in other classes, many Hunter weapon cards appear to be ranged weapons. Humorously, they do not actually function like ranged weapons in practical combat, which has since been a meme in the Hearthstone community. Eaglehorn Bow is perhaps the most prominent example of this. The effect of Candleshot and Gladiator's Longbow though seem to emulate the aspect of being ranged weapons. Trueaim Crescent appears to be a weapon that can function as both a glaive and a bow, tying it to both of its classes.

Hunters do however occasionally get a non-ranged weapon as seen on Headhunter's Hatchet, Desert Spear and Stormhammer.

In fitting with their theme of the wild, green and brown tend to be common colors seen on Hunter cards, although the general color scheme for Hunter is a lot wider than some other classes.

Tribal Synergies

Hunters are one of the most tribe-centric classes in the game. Hunters are flavored around being beastmasters. As such, many of their minions are Beasts, which come in all different sizes from the tiny Timber Wolf to the giant dinosaurs like King Krush. Roughly 50% of all collectible Hunter minions in the game are Beasts. In addition to having a lot of Beasts though, they also have a lot of ways to support said Beasts ranging from archetypes of small Beasts and large Beasts. Examples of this include buffing them with Fresh Scent, or cheating them from your hand with Beastmaster Leoroxx

Hunter's secondary tribe are Mechs. Mechs in Hunter are supported by cards like Fireworks Tech, Metaltooth Leaper, Ursatron, and Oblivitron.

Hunter also has some Dragons and support for the tribe in Descent of Dragons and Galakrond's Awakening through cards such as Corrosive Breath, Stormhammer, or Rotnest Drake. Hunter Dragons outside of these sets however are not entirely unheard of.

Aggro and Swarming

Hunters are one of the most aggressive classes in the game, and are known as the quintessential "face" class. Face Hunter and Midrange Hunter are two of the most well-known archetypes of all time. Slower Hunter decks are not unheard of, but generally require more specific tuning and are harder to come by than fast ones.

Their aggressive tendencies can easily be seen even through the Hero Power, Steady Shot, providing 2 damage directly to the enemy hero. Hunters even have aggressive synergies with using the Hero Power on cards like Brave Archer, Toxic Reinforcements, Phase Stalker, and Dragonbane. The functionality of the Hero Power can be expanded with Dwarven Sharpshooter or Steamwheedle Sniper to allow it to target minions.

Hunters generally have small minions that are fairly efficient, providing the ability to through several minions out of your hand and overwhelm your opponent. Hunters however can also swarm with less cards through cards like Unleash the Hounds and Swarm of Locusts. Both Hunter Quests, The Marsh Queen and Unseal the Vault take note of Hunter's ability to swarm the field. Starving Buzzard also takes synergies from swarming with Beasts as it will draw a card whenever you summon a Beast by any means possible.

Secrets

Hunter have the ability to lay down Secrets (usually represented as "traps" for the opponent). Classic examples of this include Explosive Trap, Freezing Trap, Misdirection, Snake Trap, and Snipe. All Hunter Secrets cost 2 mana. Many Hunter Secrets compliment their preference for aggressive playstyles.

As with all Secret classes, Hunters also have the ability to synergize with their Secrets. Mystery Winner allows the Hunter to Discover any Hunter Secret in their format. Phase Stalker allows them to play them directly from the deck, and this effect is potentially repeatable. Cloaked Huntress makes Secrets in your hand cost 0 mana. Eaglehorn Bow is a weapon that gains Durability whenever a friendly Secret is revealed. These are just some examples of this.

Deathrattle

Hunters have a fair amount of Deathrattle minions and Deathrattle synergies. Hunters have several ways to trigger Deathrattles. Feign Death was the first card in the game added with this ability, and has since been followed up in Hunter by cards like Play Dead, Fireworks Tech, and Terrorscale Stalker. (and Princess Huhuran, but she's still been taking the powercreep very harshly)

Beyond its ability to trigger Deathrattles, it has a number of other ways to take advantage of Deathrattle effects. Carrion Studies gives them a Deathrattle minion and reduces the Cost of the next one you play by 1 mana. Forlorn Stalker gives all Deathrattle minions in your hand +1/+1. Necromechanic makes all your Deathrattles trigger twice. Jewel of N'Zoth summons three friendly Deathrattle minions that died this game.

Hunters also have the ability to give things a Deathrattle through cards like Cybertech Chip, Explorer's Hat, and Infest. It also has minions that can give itself a Deathrattle such as Mok'Nathal Lion or Seeping Oozeling.

Even outside of Deathrattle effects specifically, Hunters still have a number of cards to take advantage of minions dying. Scavenging Hyena is perhaps one of the most prominent examples. Some other examples of this are Revenge of the Wild, Chopshop Copter, and Blood Herald.

Buffing

Hunter were part of the Grimy Goons in Mean Streets of Gadgetzan, meaning they naturally have some hand-buffing cards, whether it be Gadgetzan or post-Gadgetzan. It also contains a rare pre-Gadgetzan example of this: Forlorn Stalker. Helboar, Trogg Beastrager, and Shaky Zipgunner are examples of cards which buff minions in your hand. Most Hunter hand-buff cards only buff a single minion in their hand, but multi-minion hand-buffs do exist.

Hunter also has some minions to take advantage of said buffs. Examples of this include Augmented Porcupine, Rat Pack, and Dispatch Kodo. The former two can work with any buff, hand or not, although they both exist in sets where handbuff for Hunter exists as they are intended to be used with handbuffing.

Hunters do have ways of buffing things already on the board. Such examples of this are Bestial Wrath, Fresh Scent, and Houndmaster. This is usually only limited to Beasts, but it isn't necessarily always.

Weapons

Hunters have access to a number of weapons. Notable Hunter weapons include Headhunter's Hatchet, Glaivezooka, Desert Spear, and Eaglehorn Bow. They however do not have the ability to give their hero Attack through other means.

Although not all ranged weapons use this ability, Candleshot and Gladiator's Longbow appear to emulate the effect of being ranged weapons by making the hero Immune while attacking.

Hunter only has one card in the entire game that synergies with weapons: Bloodscalp Strategist.

Card Draw and Generation

One of Hunter's most prominent limitations is its ability to add extra cards to its hand. If Hunters were to have strong draw, it might make their Aggro game too powerful. Although card draw is often cited as a weakness for Hunter, it in practice is more of a limitation than a weakness (and Team 5 themselves note this in their class identity breakdown post). Many draw cards for Hunter are fairly situation in the sense that they require a specific condition (such as Quick Shot only drawing cards if your hand is empty, or King's Elekk only drawing a minion if you win a Joust), or can only draw very specific types of cards in the deck (such as Tol'vir Warden only drawing 1-Cost minions or Diving Gryphon only drawing Rush minions).

Unconditional conventional card draw does exist for Hunters, although these often carry some other form of limitation. Tracking is one of the most perceptive cards in the game, with some players believing the card to be weak under the view that discarding two cards from your deck is a hefty cost to pay, and other players believing it to be very strong under the view that the discarded cards don't mean anything until the game goes to fatigue (which is especially rare and unusual for Hunter of all classes to be in). Call Pet and Flare draw cards for 2 mana, but under the condition that a specific event or board state needs to occur for it to be considered a good investment. Starving Buzzard is in a similar boat, as although it can potentially draw several cards, it requires you to summon a lot of Beasts for it to draw that many cards as well as the fact that the card is expensive and has abysmal stats for its mana cost. Once a potentially powerful card, but has seen no play since it was changed to its current form several years ago.

Card generation for Hunter has some similar limitations. Infest and Cybertech Chip can potentially be quite strong and generate a lot of minions, although this comes with the fact that you need to control several minions on the board to gain a lot of value from it. Stampede and Lock and Load can similarly net the Hunters a lot of value generation at the expense of needing to keep playing a specific card type and spending mana to keep generating these cards. Chopshop Copter seems to use both of these limitations by needing to both control and play a lot of Mechs to get strong value from it. Rhok'delar can give the Hunter several spells, but this comes at the cost of not being allowed to have any minions in your deck when you play it.

Unconditional card generation for Hunter often hinges on two different limitations. One of them being that the card is only able to generate one thing as seen on Shimmerfly, Jeweled Macaw, or Carrion Studies of which all generate exactly one card within a set amount of parameters, or only generating a very specific token, as seen on Halazzi, the Lynx who generates a LOT of Lynxes, but it can only generate that.

Cards that can draw or generate multiple cards without either no condition, or a very small condition, aren't necessarily off-limits to Hunter as they do exist (Master's Call and Hunter's Pack for instance). Just be sure to take care of how you design them if you do, and avoid giving them too much.

AoE

Hunters in generally have very limited options in terms of AoE. Hunters have very few cards that can unconditionally damage all enemy minions. Explosive Trap and Deathstalker Rexxar are the two most prominent examples of this, with the former being possible to argue its existence off of the fact that Hunters would need some AoE.

Otherwise, AoE in Hunter often has a caveat of being based on minion placement, such as Explosive Shot or Crushing Walls. In a similar vein to Deadly Shot, randomness as seen in Multi-Shot or Darkmoon Tonk can be a similar method of balancing Hunter AoE cards.

Removal

Removal in Hunters is predictably, limited and conditional. Hunter cards that destroy minions destroy minions randomly, as seen on Dart Trap, Deadly Shot, Spider Bomb, Krolusk Barkstripper, or Rotnest Drake. This random aspect can be played around by only activating these effects when your opponent only has one minion on the board, although this in and of itself can be seen as a limitation. Crushing Walls can unconditionally kill minions, although this carries the limitation of being focused on minion placement. The only Hunter card in the game that can unconditionally destroy any minion is Acidmaw, who himself carries the conditions of needing other cards to use the effect as well as being generally quite slow and terrible for the cost, and the potential to backfire on you as your opponent can use Acidmaw's effect as well.

Another such method of Hunter removal is Poisonous which can be seen on cards like Dancing Cobra, Venomizer, Primordial Explorer, or Vilebrood Skitterer. It can also grant cards Poisonous through cards like Toxic Arrow or Toxmonger. Poisonous minions as removal come with their own limitation of needing to survive a turn (assuming they don't have or aren't given Rush or Charge) and attack into what they want to kill and your opponent may be able to deal with the minion in question before it has a chance to attack. Professor Slate can convert your damage spells into removal, although the limitation here is a small pool of spells to use this effect well on.

Healing

Hunters do not have access to any healing whatsoever. Instead, if it wants healing (which it rarely wants given its tendencies to favor aggressive decks), it will need to rely on Neutral cards to accomplish this.

• Circus Tamer is a tutor for big Beasts, an archetype occasionally supported in the class. It is draw for Hunter, although the draw is designed within typical Hunter limitations by only drawing specific cards.