/rating_1_off.png)
/rating_2_off.png)
Mulligans
General Mulligans
You need cards - most of the time your minions cost more than the opponent so Elekk will usually draw. Stitched makes up for the singleton nature of Reno and, again, your minions cost a lot so most of the time the choices aren't "Hey this Webspinner isn't the actual worst thing".
Deathstalker is so much better than your regular hero power in scenarios when you're not miles ahead and just need the finishing and knowing that it is ALREADY in hand will change your trading strategy compared to speculating.
Bow is just decent repeatable interaction - you need that regardless in the early game.
Aggro Mulligans
Weather the early game, trade and trade often, throw speed bumps everywhere. Aggro is the worst matchup here but if you're Bloatbat > Tomb Lurker > Bloatbat + Stalker you're going to have a good day. You just need to get to a point where you can start leveraging superior card quality/swings.
Control Mulligans
Showing that you are 100% getting more and more minions is how you brute force the Control matchup until Deathstalker shows up to create fresh cards rather than the alternative of drawing infinite cards and fatiguing. Just make sure you aren't falling behind.AKA: Dies to wind.
Deathstalker Rexxar is a really good card – if you discover a Zombeast with a deathrattle, it’ll be part of your resummon pool for N’Zoth, Lifesteal beasts make up for the deck’s weakness to aggro and the difficulty in healing your hero, and there are all manner of random tricks that can be thrown together by the ability. It also provides the only 100% controlled AoE available to hunter via the Battlecry ability. Problem is, it’s entirely unlike the usual Deathrattle or Hunter strategy, just being a strong card that enables midrange glory.
N'Zoth, The Corruptor also enjoys this preference for the long game and, alongside Webspinner, makes up for the lack of card advantage going around with Reno Hunter compared to The Cabal classes. Stitched Hunter has a chance of being either a second N’Zoth or a second Reno – both of which give insane lategame reach – or an additional copy of a Deathrattle minion.
Hunter’s biggest weakness here compared to other classes is the lack of decent clears – again, Deathstalker is the first entirely controlled clear effect available to Hunter outside of Baron Geddon… which isn’t ideal for a class that heals incredibly poorly. Exploding Bloatbat is great both at 4 (assuming both players are building boards instead of ‘oops I traded my Kabal Courier for your 4’) and at 7 alongside Terrorscale Stalker, and the fact that it is a Beast means you can live the dream of Stonetusk Boar + Bloatbat = the best Explosive Shot. Exploding Sheep is another concession to how bad the clears are – it’s probably the worst card in your deck, and punishes earlier/smaller N’Zoth plays quite badly, but it’s necessary against aggressive Wild decks. The same is the case for Explosive Trap – it’s a bad singleton piece, but still better than Freezing or the new Cobra trap because it at least curves into Powershot (etc) to finish things off.
Powershot and Explosive Shot are the better board clears, and take advantage of Bloodmage Thalnos, while Steamwheedle Sniper adds to the post Shot/Explosive clearance – it’s a 4 mana Phoenix that hopefully lives to shoot again but it probably won’t.
Deck is really bad against aggressive decks unless you actually draw your early interaction, which is often easier said than done. Emperor enables Storm turns with Stalker+Sylvanas or Emp>Rag and hopes to avoid face. Arfus is arguably quite poorly placed at the moment given the lack of Houndmaster/Abominable Bowman synergy, as well as the weakness to most Priest effects, but this is the sort of deck that needs incidental card advantage to keep up against other strategies – see also Ball of Spiders which makes up for the Explosive Sheep potential in your resummon pool. Against Control/slower decks dependent on the draw you’re either aggressive enough to keep them defensive or, when you get your Deathstalker out, having to trade for your effectively free Zombeasts. Pretty much never out of cards unless things really suck for you. Suiciding Emperor on 6 decent cards is pretty common and fine.
Anyway, that’s the thought process behind this thought experiment deck. Hopefully if you have the dust to improve it it’ll play well for you – definitely seems to weirdly play better than a non Reno version because it forces better card consideration compared to the currently less certain ‘real form’ of the Deathrattle Hunter deck.
