Budget Midrange Hunter Deck List Guide (Rastakhan's Rumble)
Posted by: MartianPublished: August 14, 2017Updated: October 16, 2026Dust: 
1,160Rating: 0.6/5 (561 votes)
Class: HunterFormat: StandardType: MidrangeStyle: BudgetArchetype: Midrange Hunter
Deck Description
Our Budget Midrange Hunter deck list guide for Rastakhan's Rumble expansion will teach you how to play this budget list. This guide includes Mulligans, Gameplay Strategy, Card Substitutions, and Combos/Synergies!
Introduction to Budget Midrange Hunter
Midrange Hunter is one of the oldest archetypes in Hearthstone. It has been a top tier meta deck and has seen dark times as the class loses some of its way. Currently, however, Midrange Hunter is one of the best options for budget players because it requires no Legendaries to play at a high level.
This current version even with budget only cards can easily make it to rank 10, but when you get some practice with the deck can get to rank 5 which is a more realistic goal than Legend. Why is it not important to get to Legend? The rewards are nearly exactly the same at the end of the season, and other than bragging rights you get only a card back. Budget players will find Hearthstone far more enjoyable if they don't see Legend as their only goal.
Check out Hearthstone Budget Decks & Guides for All 9 Classes!
Rastakhan's Rumble Update
With the new expansion Midrange Hunter got a few new cards to consider, but mostly it got an awesome new 1-drop with Springpaw!
Budget Midrange Hunter Mulligan Guide
You really want minions, so while Candleshot is good in the early game it should only be kept when you have another 1-drop already (unless you're up against Odd Paladin). Dire Mole is your main target and should be kept every time. Springpaw should be kept if you don't have Dire Mole or if you have Scavenging Hyena. Keep Crackling Razormaw because it's battlecry is essential to your early game power, but I wouldn't keep Scavenging Hyena unless you have a 1-cost Beast you can play turn 1 to trade off and buff it immediately. If you have a 1-drop (and coin), a 1-drop and a 2-drop, or you have two 2-drops (and coin) you can keep 3-drops like Animal Companion or Eaglehorn Bow.
Budget Midrange Hunter Play Strategy
Holding onto the board early in the game and pushing damage is your main objective as a Midrange Hunter player. You should be making good trades early in the game, but once turn 5 - 6 comes around you will need to flip the switch to aggression, as this deck doesn't have much in the way of comeback mechanics. Every single point of damage counts because your hero power makes it so your opponent can't hide behind Taunt minions when their life gets low. This is another key to Midrange Hunter, slipping in hero powers whenever you can. Count your mana, can you fit in a Hero Power if you play cards in a certain way? If so, it's usually right to do so.
Hunter's Mark is in this deck because we don't have any way to deal with big Taunt minions. However, if there's a chance to take out a minion early that will allow you to hold onto the board or make a tempo play that protects one of your beasts then it is usually best to just use it. This choice comes down to knowing what kind of deck your opponent is playing and usually takes some practice.
Springpaw adds a second 1-cost Beast to the deck, which it really needed. Not only does this double your chances to land the coveted 1-cost Beast into Crackling Razormaw combo, but it also combos really nicely with Scavenging Hyena. Much like Unleash the Hounds, Springpaw gives you a way to buff your Hyena immediately even if you had an empty board.
While Kill Command is a great finishing card, it is also a great card for eliminating higher health minions. You would almost always rather use a spell to remove a minion than use one of your minions. A minion represents multiple turns of damage, whereas a spell is only used once.
You might be looking at Eaglehorn Bow and the lack of Secrets and wondering why it's in the deck. Eaglehorn Bow allows you to take out minions and keep your minions alive. This is very important because you have minions that want to be buffed by cards like Crackling Razormaw and Houndmaster. Your health total is largely irrelevant as long as it isn't zero. In the early game, it is rarely a good idea to just go face with your weapon. Save both durability charges for taking out minions or at least softening them up so you can use one of your smaller minions to finish them off.
Tundra Rhino is very strong on an empty board and all right for making a quick trade. It is especially good if you have a Savannah Highmane to follow it up with. If you want to get fancy, you can trade your Savannah Highmane with this on the board, and then attack with the two 2/2 Hyenas afterwards. This is a bit of a fringe scenario, but is useful to know.
Savannah Highmane is jokingly considered Hunter's best Legendary minion. It's obviously not a Legendary, but the power and effect it has is comparable with some of the better Legendary cards in the game. The bonus is that it's cheap and you get to have two of them in your deck. If you have an opportunity to safely attack your opponent's face with Savannah Highmane it usually means you are going to win the game.
Future Card Replacements for Budget Midrange Hunter
At the moment this deck doesn't directly translate into another version. Popular hunter decks are Deathrattle Hunter, Recruit Hunter, and Spell Hunter. All great decks, but they don't share a lot in common with this one, and they have several Epic and Legendary cards that are core to their success.
For a version of this deck that can be upgraded into a meta deck you could add a Secret package. This would include Secret Plan, Explosive Trap, Freezing Trap, Wandering Monster, and Lesser Emerald Spellstone. These are all Common and Rare cards that make up much of the core of Spell Hunter. All you would need after is Rhok'delar, Deathstalker Rexxar Zul'jin and two To My Side! to finish the deck.
If you want to experiment with some new cards, Headhunter's Hatchet, Spirit of the Lynx and Untamed Beastmaster all have some potential. Headhunter's Hatchet, as a 2-mana 2/3 weapon, is actually pretty good value, but 2-damage weapons tend not to make the cut a lot of the time unless they do something else. Early game there tends to be a lot of 1 and 3 health minions, which leaves Hatchet either excessive or falling short. Three charges is really good, but you already have Candleshot for that. Not only does it not require you to stick a 1-drop Beast on curve to get all three charges, but if you fail to hit one in your mulligan you can play it instead. Spirit of the Lynx can be fun if you can play it with things like Unleash the Hounds and Springpaw, but this is a tempo deck and playing a 0/3 non-Beast on turn 3 tends to be bad. Untamed Beastmaster could be really strong if he sticks around for a turn or two, but he is also not a Beast and on turn 3 you'd rather play something that gets value from Houndmaster.
Deathstalker Rexxar is the #1 best upgrade to this deck, as all on his own he gives you infinite late-game value. If you want to play any competetive Hunter deck Rexxar should be your first non-budget craft, and if you don't play Wild this is your last chance to play with what is considered by many to be one of the most fun cards the game has ever seen.
60 Comments
Grant
This is pretty good for a budget deck! Haven't loss when I get the beginning curve. Went from 21 to 15 and I am on a win streak right now. I don't know how far i will end up getting but this deck is good for beginners to learn about curve and mulligans. I recommend this deck for people wanting to play Hunter without draining your card dust.
Callum
Just had the idea to remove 2x Bearshark with 2x Pantry Spider, still a beast but sacrifices some attack for better board control, would this work?
Ceci
Nah you need bearshark. when u land houndmaster on him sometime wins the games. u have 1 attack minions on turn 1 when the turns get higher u want your minions attack get better too so theyy can deal with the board better
Dispacho
Pretty nice guide.
Cody Hopkins
For how low of a dust cost this deck has, I’ve been having immense amounts of success. I’m a so-so Hearthstone player, but good mulligans and on-curve plays pushed me to rank 15 within the first 24 hours I played this deck! I’d recommend this to anyone who wants to play Hunter on a budget, it’s outstanding!!
sepam
I don't know, but in my opinion this desk works much better without first two replacements (Patches and Deckhands)
Dopa
How would you add a corridor creeper into this deck?
Evident
Either remove Bonemare, or you could also cut Candleshot because it isn't as good without the Pirate package.
Dopa
Thanks, is there any viable substitute for candle shot and dire mole??
jeff
dire mole can probably be replaced with any one drop beast like jeweled macaw or fiery bat, and i think fire flys replace the candleshot well. i feel like the most important thing about those cards is to have things to play on turn 1.
tydrum
I have no idea how one could get to rank 5 currently: i played now about 60 games since rank 15, sticking as much as i can to the described strategy and guess what, i'm still 15 ;-)
this might need an update?
aXeS
This is the deck im currently using. Should I swap some cards or is it fine like this?
Im a fairly new hs player ^.^
### Hunter
# Class: Hunter
# Format: Standard
# Year of the Mammoth
#
# 2x (1) Alleycat
# 2x (1) Fire Fly
# 2x (1) Jeweled Macaw
# 2x (2) Crackling Razormaw
# 1x (2) Knife Juggler
# 2x (2) Ravasaur Runt
# 2x (2) Scavenging Hyena
# 2x (3) Animal Companion
# 1x (3) Eaglehorn Bow
# 2x (3) Kill Command
# 2x (3) Unleash the Hounds
# 2x (4) Houndmaster
# 1x (4) Infested Wolf
# 1x (5) Nesting Roc
# 2x (5) Tundra Rhino
# 2x (6) Savannah Highmane
# 2x (7) Bonemare
#
AAECAR8EsQj+DM6uAtnCAg2oArUDuwXrB9sJ7QmBCuq7ArHBAuvCAonDAo7DAqbOAgA=
jeff
looks good i got to rank 10 with a very similar likst
HankHillTrill
I'm just a poor scrub, but I played my first ranked game with this deck and proceeded to win 8 games in a row. And these weren't really close games but I generally just massacred everyone I played against. I know i'm still playing in the scrub tiers right now and when I start to get to higher ranks i'll probably start to get it handed right back to me. For now though, this deck is by far the most successful deck I've used (practiced a TON in standard which is flooded with gold bots) and I'm looking forward to putting my own twist on it as I learn more about this game. Thanks
Red
Pretty good budget deck. Took me to rank 15 with only 1 loss. I'd highly recommend swapping out the Bonemares with Corridor Creepers. While Bonemare is pretty good, Creeper increases the potential of this deck by a lot.
Evident
Glad to hear that! I agree, Creeper is much better right now.
LLMaster
Good deck gyus climbed rank 11 last season with this.Also congrats on the quality of the site.
Evident
Congrats, glad you like the site!
Andrew
Would it be useful to sub DK Rexxar into this deck?
Truxx
Is there a more detailed description on how to use this deck?
I fail miserably with it :-) how do you guys use this to get such high ranks? I'm great with the secret mage, but this is giving me terrible losing streaks
And yes, i read the strategy guide above multiple times...
Any help is appreciated!
Gotyabadd
WOW that is what exactly happened to me i made it to rank 16 with secret mage but then dropped to rank 18 with this deck i don't get it most times it was just bad luck like my opponent having non meta deck that shut me down. How do you consistently win with this deck pls help!
Poro
since kindly grandma cannot be used,what should i replace with
Hinotoumei
i cut 1 eaglehorn bow and 1 savannah highmane for 2 golakka crawler. seemed reasonable.
Max
Great deck, but I want to fit a silence card (spell breaker) in, to counter cubelock. How can I fit it in?
Eliot
Yeah but why not just use Ironbeak Owl? That way it's a beast. I would probably replace hunter's mark with it, that way they serve similar functions.
Evident
You could cut a Flanking Strike.
Suitcriff
I really liked the deck. Managed to get some good games with it. Thinking about changing one of the Candleshots for a Gladiator's Longbow to maybe have some clearance a bit later. But the 7 mana cost is ticking me off. What do you think?
Evident
I wouldn't recommend Gladiator's Longbow, it's extremely slow and awkward. Hunter's Mark is really what you should be using to clear big minions, but you could also tech in a Deadly Shot if you really wanted to.
Rylez
Any idea for helping with cycle? I seem to always kinda run out of cards in hand. Or maybe I'm just going too quickly on play. Advice would be appreciated.
KittensAttack
Candleshot seems to be the best card to remove in this deck. I was thinking maybe a Novice Enginner, because of the nice low mana cost, or a Starving Buzzard because of the continual card drawing. I think the main problem with Starving Buzzard that it has a higher mana cost, but the card draw issue is mostly late game, so this should be fine. Hearthstone GAMepedia has a helpful list of cards that have card draw effects, which you can use for additional research.
KittensAttack
Flare would also help as a cheap 2-drop, and is great against secret mate as it gets rid of all enemy secrets as well, but is otherwise 2 mana for a card. Nat Pagle gives you a 50% chance of drawing an extra card at the start of your turn, but could cause issues due to the fact that he is a legendary and would increase the dust cost.
In my opinion, Starving Buzzard would be better because this deck has an issue with late game (I know this firsthand). This deck is mainly beasts, so Starving Buzzard’s effect can mostly treated as whenever you play a minion.
Lukas
I just got Kathrena Winterwisp, can she be included i this deck, and if so, how?
Praax
Should I use Bonemare even though it got nerfed? And if not, what should I replace it with.
GGEZ
this deck is ez papa bless
Naysayer
Managed to get to rank 8 in February 2018 with exactly listed deck. Taking into account the fact that I'm not a really good player, one can probably climb even higher with that.
Naysayer
rank 7* rather
GlhrmCst
What should I put since the alleycat will be deleted from regular games?
Stonekeep
Alleycat will be gone from Standard with the next expansion, so it's still over a month until then.
And we will have all of our budget decks updated when the expansion hits. It's impossible to say right now, because we don't know what new cards will get printed :)
GlhrmCst
Thank you!
William Johnston
while this is a good deck, i would recommend secret mage more
TeoGeo
first time i played this deck i got to rank 12 with ease but i was out of time and couldnt get any higher its a great deck! but is creeper a good replacment now tha it got nerfed? and lastly i fail over and over again lately and mainly because the deck runs out of steam at round 8 is it my mistake or should i add something?
Sabin
So I wasn't having much luck with the deck, out of 10 games I had 3 where I got both candlesticks and 1 eaglehorn bow on my starting hand which isn't very cool for midrange. Also the Deck goes to top deck mode by turn 6 or 7, so I made a few changes, took out a candlestick and place a Deathstalker rexxar, it fixed all my problems with card draw , with fast decks and against super control decks ( like baku quest warriors). Basically I deal with warriors by making a lot of minions with poison and taunt( it's not that hard actually).
If I start facing too many control decks I remove the other candlestick for a dire frenzy ( Dire frenzing Highmanes is amazing) , decks can't deal with 6 mana 9/8 that easilly.
So that's my advice for anyone trying to climb this season.
Periwinkle
What should I take out for houndmaster shaw?
Bladeofsteel
I feel like the dragon midrange build with houndmaster Shaw works better after testing. The wurms are strong and a 3/7 poisonous is crazy for 5 mana. This is my current build for midrange hunter, it only has 2 legendaries, houndmaster Shaw and deathstalker rexxar. Rexxar wins the long game, but Shaw could maybe be a tundra rhino, but he works well with the dragons and such.
### Midrange Hunter
# Class: Hunter
# Format: Standard
# Year of the Raven
#
# 2x (1) Candleshot
# 2x (1) Hunter's Mark
# 2x (1) Tracking
# 1x (2) Prince Keleseth
# 2x (3) Animal Companion
# 2x (3) Eaglehorn Bow
# 1x (3) Marsh Drake
# 2x (3) Nightmare Amalgam
# 2x (3) Unleash the Hounds
# 1x (4) Houndmaster Shaw
# 2x (4) Scaleworm
# 2x (4) Wing Blast
# 2x (5) Carrion Drake
# 2x (5) Cobalt Scalebane
# 1x (6) Deathstalker Rexxar
# 2x (6) Savannah Highmane
# 2x (7) Wyrmguard
Deck code#AAECAR8EhtMCnOICgPMC9/MCDY0BtQOXCNsJ7Qn+DMrLAuHjAtzuAozvAonxAob+At6CAwA=#
simvik91
Packed King Krush. Would he fit into this deck? Or is he too slow?
Evident
Too slow unfortunately.
Janix
Is it ok to add Deathstalker Rexxar in this deck
pepy97
i cant play this deck in standard :(
YT_BrokenTeapot
Great deck! I’d like to substitute 1x Acidic Swamp Ooze and 2x Ironbeak Owl as tech cards against Cubelock, as I’m constantly running into it and always lose to Cubed Voidlords, which 3 cards would you recommend I cut for the Ooze and two Owls?
Petar
Rly good deck
ZbigniewJeż
This Hunter is bad. The version from the meta is much better, even without DK card.
Daniel
This is a great budget deck, probably the best at around 1k dust. Good players can climb very efficiently with this. If you say this is a bad deck, it probably means you can't play it. It's not the deck fault.
gingersoda
one of the best budget decks, thank you very much for building it ! :)
Anthony
what cards would I want to get rid of if I’m replacing cards?
Martian
What are you putting in?
Anthony
I was thinking about the secret cards
Woodside
Would Halazzi, the Lynx be a good add? I have Deathstalker Rexxar also but I'm unsure what to cut for them.
b_Hat
He mentioned how to add some secrets to the deck. I crafted the cards I needed but now I don't know which old cards to replace with the new ones. Any suggestions?
NotMoose
Great deck!
Modifyy
Hello, which card should I swap for Deathstalker Rexxar?
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