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Mulligans
General Mulligans
Lesser Emerald Spellstone should be a given to have in hand early. While it is possible to fully upgrade the card at the latest turn 4, having it in hand early will provide you with more options and secret management. That being said, secrets such as Cat Trick and Wandering Monster are important because they give you minions in the early game, so at least one of them should be in your starting hand. As preference, I recommend keeping Kathrena in hand only if you have two of the other cards listed here in hand BEFORE mulligan. Kathrena changes the game when played, which may be enough to push your opponent all the way down to defeat.
Mulligan any minion in hand, even Hyena. You want to either draw these later, closer to curve, or have Kathrena pull them.
Blizzard has finally outdone themselves by finally adding the tech needed for a new, viable Hunter deck and archetype. They took the best of Secret Hunter and Big Hunter and added just the right cards so that the two can work in tandem for guaranteed victory.
It was simple: Secret Hunter stalled in the late game and Big Hunter had problems making it to the late game. So how does this deck fix that?
The deck has two modes, divided by card types. The early game, up to about turn 6, should be all spells and weapons, puking secrets to stall and establish board and control. Cards such as Wandering Monster, Cat Trick, and Venomstrike Trap give you minions on board, while cards like Eaglehorn Bow and Freezing Trap enable you to keep board control.
The greatest oddity of this deck is that, despite being a new archetype, it plays exactly as Hunter should, that is, to always be attacking face. Don’t worry too much about enemy minions, let your opponent struggle to regain board control as you flood the board. Cards such as Lesser Emerald Spellstone are perfect for providing minions, and the fully upgraded version is easily obtainable on turn 4 with two secrets, so don’t worry about not having one in hand at the start of the game.
And then the shift. Turn 6, it’s time to start dropping the finishers. Savannah Highmane and Kathrena Winterwisp will end games for you, especially if Kathrena pulls one of your dinosaurs. The absolute worst Kathrena can pull is both Scavenging Hyena, however, the odds of this are extremely low. Besides, Hyena is one of Hunter’s best cards, since it synergizes well with Unleash the Hounds and now with Emerald Spellstone.
Professor Putricide is the one malleable card in the deck. It is a filler card that has good stats for 4 mana with an ability that works with the deck, however, it is not necessary as you will most likely be playing this card around turn 6 to get two secrets for the price of one. Depending on how the meta is, this card can be tech’d for cards such as Dragonslayer, Acidic Swamp Ooze, or Harrison Jones.
And remember, this is a Hunter deck. The goal of Hunter is to kill your opponent as quickly as possible. Only control board where it’s absolutely necessary, otherwise, continually hitting face and chipping face with your hero power will secure victory. Happy Hunting.
