Hearthstone Budget Decks For Whizbang’s Workshop, Cheap Decks for Laddering in Hearthstone!

One of the big complaints about Hearthstone is the price to pay (to play) when you first start. There are a ton of Legendaries released, and if you are unlucky you may have not received much in the way of playable cards. This is unfortunate, so we’ve gone ahead and created some budget decks that should serve you well if you are in the Bronze or Silver divisions. Some of the stronger builds should be viable throughout Gold and possibly even Platinum if you master them. We don’t recommend those decks in Diamond or to attempt a Legend climb, unless you replace some of the budget cards and turn them into actual meta decks. You CAN hit Legend with some of them, but you would really need to master them and play very well, and by that time you most likely will have enough resources to build a full version anyway.

The game is in a better state than it was a while ago. The new free Core Set, as well as the current rewards system, are both pretty generous (at least by the old Hearthstone Standard). We’re also commonly getting other free stuff like packs, Legendaries etc. during expansion releases, events and from outside of the game (e.g. Twitch drops). While things have gotten much better for new and F2p players, it’s hard to deny that the game is still quite expensive. F2P players should easily be able to build one or two full meta decks per expansion, but the issue is that they can’t play whatever they want. So once they commit to crafting some cards, if they want to switch to another class – tough luck! That’s why we think that those budget decks can come really handy. No matter if you want to do Daily Quests for another class, test a deck before crafting a full version or just play around with different options, they should be a good option for new and F2P players alike.

Defining a Budget Deck

We’re trying our best to keep the budget decks as cheap as possible while making them as strong as we can. Overall, there’s no hard cutoff, but we try to keep the decks within the 2-3k Dust range (Dust cost listed next to decks below isn’t always accurate, since it includes cards that are given away for free). However, their real cost is usually much lower, because players tend to own a lot of Commons / Rares used in them already.

When it comes to Commons & Rares – it’s simple, all of them are allowed. It’s very easy to get a full Common & Rare collection (doubly so with the recent addition of Catch-Up Packs), and even if you’re missing some of them, they’re cheap to craft.

As for the Epics – if it’s not possible, we try to not include them. If a deck can be built with no Epics at all, that’s great. However, that is sadly quite rare. Epics are often key cards in a given build, so removing them is either impossible or would drop the deck’s win rate by a lot. Even in the worst-case scenario, we try to keep it down to a few Epics, but if choosing between a deck that has to include four Epics and a completely unplayable deck, we’ll choose the former. Playing a deck that virtually can’t win any games is just not fun.

Legendaries are completely excluded UNLESS they are available for free. This includes all of the Core Set Legendaries, as well as Legendaries that were given out for free in the current Standard rotation (e.g. Pozzik, Audio Engineer – if you don’t have it, all you need to do is buy a single Festival of Legends pack and go to the pack opening screen, you will get the card automatically). For this reason, if you are a new player or you just came back after a long break, you should get at least 1 pack from each Standard expansion to collect all those free Legendaries.

Whizbang’s Workshop Update

Let me start with one simple request – please craft Zilliax Deluxe 3000. No matter whether you’re a new player, a returning player, or just someone who stays F2P, CRAFT ZILLIAX. It’s by far the best card from this expansion and probably the most flexible Legendary card released ever. Different module combinations see play in different meta decks, so you’re essentially getting a few strong Legendary cards for the cost of one. Of course, since this is a post about budget decks, I did not include Zilliax in any of the decks, but the truth is that he would fit nearly every single one of them.

But now let’s talk about budget decks in Whizbang’s Workshop. Given that it’s the first expansion of a year, basically every budget deck from the previous compilation went down the drain because so many cards have rotated out to Wild. This made it really difficult to figure out viable decks for a few of the classes, but overall I think the budget situation in the expansion isn’t bad at all. We have a few actually decently powerful decks that are just a few cards away from the meta builds. Those are the decks you can reasonably climb to higher ranks with, assuming you master them. Then we have a few mediocre decks – not terrible, but won’t likely get you far without some serious changes. And, just like always, there are a few outliers, decks I wouldn’t really recommend playing unless you really need them for some reason (like finishing a Quest). Overall I rate this expansion’s budget decks as good, but not amazing – we had some better budget expansions, but as you will see soon, some of those decks look quite exciting.

Free Legendaries from this expansion were frankly quite horrible (Colifero the Artist and Li'Na, Shop Manager – neither of which is played in any meta deck right now). However, we had some cool cards rotating into the Core Set, Leeroy Jenkins in particular is still holding up after all those years. It’s a great card in any faster deck that needs extra reach.

Harth Stonebrew is another interesting Legendary we got for free quite recently. In fact, if you fancy it, you can throw him into almost any deck and he will work fine. The quality of “iconic hands” varies drastically. They also often depend on the matchup – sometimes they take multiple turns to set up and if you play against a faster deck they won’t cut it, others don’t have any particular synergy and are just a bunch of pretty good cards. But what’s important is that they are full hand refills, so if you’re running low on cards you can just drop Harth and then you have steam for a few more turns. And some of them can give you a win condition out of nowhere.

Cheap Hearthstone Decks


Deck Import

Death Knight is doing quite well in Whizbang’s Workshop. A build similar to this was very popular in the first days of the expansion. Ultimately it turned out that Handbuff synergies aren’t the strongest Death Knight package and Rainbow build went in a different direction. But for the sake of budget decks, this is the best we have.

The idea behind this deck is quite simple. You play lots of Undead minions and ways to buff them while they are still in your hand. Amateur Puppeteer is an amazing card, because playing both the main one and the mini gives all Undead in your hand +4/+4. If you add Lesser Spinel Spellstone (which is quite easy to pump up to +3/+3), it can really stack up.

Then the deck has a bunch of minions that synergize very well with handbuffs. Both Shambling Zombietank and Nerubian Swarmguard summon extra copies, so they double/triple-dip on handbuffs. Then there’s Darkthorn Quilter who deals more damage with his effect the more Attack he has (again, synergizing with handbuffs). And last, but not least, Hollow Hound has great synergy with Handbuffs, attacking multiple targets, healing you to full life, and most likely still surviving.

Other good synergies include Acolyte of Death or Sickly Grimewalker and Crop Rotation. The first combo draws you 4 cards (and maybe more if you already have some Undead on board you can trade) while the second one gives your 1/1’s Poisonous, meaning that they can bring down some big minions. Grimewalker also combos nicely with Darkthorn Quilter – if you give him Poisonous, his pings will just kill everything they hit.

The deck is missing a pair of Epics (2x Rainbow Seamstress) and quite a few Legendaries. You really want to add Maw and Paw, The Primus and Reska, the Pit Boss. But maybe most importantly Climactic Necrotic Explosion, which is the main Rainbow payoff card. However, if you’re crafting all of those, I would probably recommend dropping the handbuff package which has been a bit underperforming. Handbuff builds aren’t terrible, so if you’re having fun you can stick with them, but they just aren’t optimal. You can find some better Rainbow Death Knight builds here.


Deck Import

Our second budget deck is the current meta tyrant. At the time I’m posting this, Blizzard already announced a nerf to Umpire's Grasp (it will go up from 3 to 4 mana), but the deck should still be the best budget option for Demon Hunter, just not as good as before it.

Your main combo in this deck is Umpire's Grasp + Window Shopper. When you trigger Grasp’s Deathrattle, you draw a 3 mana Shopper. Not only it’s a 3 mana 6/5 minion (which is quite good), but the Demon you Discover is also a 3 mana 6/5. Then you have a 1 mana 1/1 version that Discovers a 1 mana 1/1 Demon. The best part about this combo is that the current pool of Demons is quite small and it includes lots of great options. Magtheridon, Unreleased is probably your best pick no matter what. The card is just insane when you can get it for low cost. It deals 3 AoE damage to every enemy for two turns in a row. Dropping it so early, they will have a hard time establishing any board and it will also basically Fireball them in the face. And there’s no way to deal with it as Dormant minions can’t be interacted with. Other good picks include Illidari Inquisitor, Abyssal Bassist and Mythical Terror (for the initial 6/5) and Observer of Mysteries / Tough Crowd (for the Mini version).

Other than the Grasp + Shopper combo, the deck is mostly high tempo minions or burn cards. In case you don’t draw your main combo, you still need a way to kill your opponent. You want to be as aggressive as possible, drop everything you can on the board, and then try to close the game with straight damage. You can do a lot of burn from hand with Burning Heart, Parched Desperado, Spirit of the Team, Metamorphosis etc. And if a Taunt stands in your way, Kayn Sunfury can also be a very useful tool.

The deck is actually quite close to a full meta build. The only two cards you really want are Zilliax Deluxe 3000 and Red Card. Red Card is there mostly for two reasons – first one is tempo (if you make one of your opponent’s minios dormant for 1 mana you can outtempo them temporarily, and even though it will come back online soon, it might not be enough) and the second one is to play on your Discovered Magtheridons once they wake up (you get two more turns of AoE damage). As for Zilliax, you can either use the Haywire Module + Power Module (4 mana 5/7 that deals 3 damage to your Hero each turn) or Pylon Module + Ticking Module (8 mana 3/5 that buffs your whole board by +1/+1 and gets cheaper with each minion in play). You can find some full builds of Aggro Demon Hunter here.


Deck Import

This is a very fun deck, I really liked it during my playtesting. However, at the same time, it’s not a great deck. Druid in general is not doing great in this expansion, I would argue that it’s the worst Standard class right now. So you can probably imagine that the budget deck of the worst class might be a bit underwhelming.

Your main win condition with this deck is, as the name suggests, Hero Power. You run the old Festival of Legends package of Free Spirit + Groovy Cat, buffing your Hero Power. As you can probably imagine, you want to play them as soon as you can, that’s why you also run a lot of card draw. Peaceful Piper in particular always tutors one of them because they are the only Beasts in your deck. Bottomless Toy Chest is another great way to get them, you really want to have Spell Damage when doing it (usually from Magical Dollhouse) so maybe you can get one extra copy. Of course, the Spell Damage is useful not only for extra Discovers, but also for your Swipes (both regular and the ones from Malfurion's Gift) and Jasper Spellstone. Swipe in Particular is a great card now that it costs 3, with +1 Spell Damage (which is very easy thanks to Dollhouse)

But your real win condition comes later. Once you buff your Hero Power, get Attack to 5 in particular, you can do some serious mid-late game damage. The idea is to play Sing-Along Buddy, Hero Power (10 damage) and then refresh your Hero Power with Popular Pixie and do it again (20 damage). Between your earlier Hero Powers, Swipes etc. that’s often enough to just kill your opponent. Of course, you’re out of luck if you play against Warrior, because they can outarmor any damage you can deal, but there’s sadly nothing you can do about it.

Alternatively, if the combo fails to win the game or you can’t find it, Harth Stonebrew is always an option. Maybe he will give you another win condition.

If you want to improve this deck, you should probably add one copy of Joymancer Jepetto, which increases your late game potential and actually gives you a way to win vs Warrior (sometimes). He gives you back both copies of Free Spirit and Groovy Cat, which in turn can buff your Hero Power up to +9 Attack and +9 Armor. That’s often enough to just power through the Armor, especially since the combo that dealt 20 damage now deals 36 damage. At the same time, the deck is painfully slow to get rolling, so if you have a choice, I would rather work towards Dragon Druid or Reno Druid instead if you really like the class. But as I’ve said in the beginning, Druid is just not doing that well at the time I’m writing this.


Deck Import

Face Hunter, on the other hand, is actually quite powerful. Ever since the expansion’s launch, it’s been consistently one of the strongest classes. Doubly so at lower ranks, which I imagine is where you might want to play a budget deck. While this version is still missing some cards, it’s not actually bad and it can secure lots of wins on the ladder in this state.

Gameplay of this deck is quite simple – make big board, go face, repeat if cleared. You’ll be the one putting pressure on your opponent most of the time, so take advantage of that. Try to force them to trade instead of doing it yourself (unless the trade is really good, of course), make your boards awkward for your opponent to deal with. Jungle Gym works really well as either removal (especially vs multiple smaller minions) or burn damage. You can easily get off at least like 4-5 pings from it (max you can deal is 7, which usually happens after playing Rampage), and then repeat it two more times. Then you can try to finish your opponent off with the mix of your Hero Power, Kill Command and Leeroy Jenkins. The deck is more board-focused than a classic Face Hunter, but it still has plenty of reach.

Two main ways to improve it is by adding Saddle Up! and – of course – Zilliax Deluxe 3000 (Pylon Module + Ticking Module). As for the Saddle Up, I had to pick between it and R.C. Rampage because of the Epic limit, but it’s just a great card in a deck that creates a wide board over and over again. Zilliax is great for the same reason – wide board means that you can play it for cheap and then buff your entire board. Dropping Zilliax on Turn 3-4 can often just win you the game, because it pushes so much extra damage and makes your board extra resistant. Other than those two cards, one more you can add is Aggramar, the Avenger – it’s not necessary, but it makes closing down the games easier. Giving the weapon +2 Attack makes it a 5/3, often providing more than enough burn. Alternatively, if you’re not close to winning yet, it can give you some extra card draw instead. You can find some full lists here.


Deck Import

This deck almost solely relies on cards released earlier. The only new additions are Triplewick Trickster and Sleet Skater and while they aren’t bad, they did not vastly improve the deck. Elemental Mage still kind of sucks (not as bad as some other budget decks, mind you). So why use this as a budget deck? Well, it’s simple – Rainbow Mage (the only good Mage deck we have right now) needs Legendaries, Mech Mage (what we previously had as a budget) has rotated out, and Mage didn’t really get anything great this expansion. Spell Mage was the main focus of Whizbang’s Workshop and it completely flopped. In fact a full Spell Mage deck has a way worse win rate than this sort of budget Elemental Mage – yep, that’s really bad.

But let’s focus on what we have. The deck is really straightforward – your main goal is to simply not break your Elemental chain. This is extra important in this deck – in the past, you could often afford to skip one turn and then continue playing Elementals again to activate their effects. But not here. I really don’t like this design decision, but Overflow Surger and Azerite Giant, which are some of your main bombs, really need you to keep playing Elementals every turn or else they get reset. Because of that, you can’t really play spells in your deck – waste a turn on a spell instead of another Elemental and you have to start over. That’s why the only spells you run either give you an Elemental too (Flame Geyser) or are often used as burn spells to close out the match, at the time you don’t need to keep up your chain anymore.

And that’s pretty much all there is to your deck. You want to play Elemental after Elemental on curve, then close out the game with some burn damage if you’re close to killing them. The deck can actually deal a surprising amount of burn damage with Triplewick Trickster and Tainted Remnant, while Sleet Skater is a cool stall tool. Azerite Giants should cost like 3-4 mana in the mid game, and Surger should summon a full board of 3/2’s.

If you’re asking how to improve this deck – Mes'Adune the Fractured is honestly the only card you can add (hitting Trickster or Remnant is big, gives you lots of extra burn), but you shouldn’t craft it for the purpose of this deck. I thought about Therazane but I don’t think you should play her, she’s just too slow. You drop her on 7 and by that time you’re usually looking to close out the game and not buff your hand/deck. You rarely have enough minions in your hand to really take advantage of that anyway. If you’re looking for a more viable Mage deck, you might want to try Rainbow Mage instead. But a word of warning – the deck is very difficult to master, it’s good if you really want to stick with the class, but if you just look for a casual way to finish some Quests, I wouldn’t recommend it.


Deck Import

Paladin was a dominant force early into the expansion, but things have quickly shifter after the first balance update. I think that Blizzard overreacted a bit and nerfed one too many cards, pushing Paladin down to Tier 3 instead of the usual Tier 2 you target with nerfs. Still, it doesn’t mean that the class is doing incredibly poorly, especially when we only look at budget decks. There are two ways to build Paladin right now – leaning more towards Handbuffs and towards Aggro. Handbuff is the deck that was punished the most, and it’s definitely the most expensive build, so that’s why I’ve decided to go with Aggro for this budget build.

Just like with most Aggro decks your goal is to, well, kill your opponent. You really have two main ways of doing it. The first one is a very simple early pressure into Crusader Aura. The card is insane if you’re ahead on the board, buffing whatever can attack for 3 turns in a row is very good. And even if your opponent manages to clear the board, you have some ways to immediately utilize this effect, such as Showdown!, Tigress Plushy (and the mini) and of course Leeroy Jenkins, if that’s enough to kill your opponent that is. Don’t underestimate Crusader Aura – sometimes an early board push into Crusader Aura can win you a game by itself.

However, the second win con is probably more interesting. As it turns out, putting 6 minions on the board for 2 mana (Showdown!) has insane synergy with cards that get cheaper with more minions. In particular, this budget deck runs Sea Giants and Prismatic Beam. The best way to utilize this combo is usually against opponent who has a couple small minions on the board already. Then you play Showdown, drop your Giant(s), and clear the entire enemy board with Prismatic Beam. This is an insane tempo push and can often be played as early as Turn 4-5.

If we look at how the deck can be improved, it’s very simple. First, run the other good Epic – Flash Sale. I had to pick between it and Showdown because of the limit and Showdown is just a key card to this strategy. Flash Sale is, however, also great – even if you have just 2-3 minions on the board, it gives them all +1/+2 AND summons a 2/4 with Taunt and Divine Shield. Unlike Aura, you can also combo it with minions that don’t have Rush, so e.g. playing Muster for Battle + Flash Sale is a good Turn 7 combo. And the other card that is – you guessed it – Zilliax Deluxe 3000. Again, the Pylon Module + Ticking Module combo is insanely powerful in this deck. During your Showdown turn, you can usually drop him for 0 mana, so you might not even need Prismatic Beam to make it work. You can, for example, do something like Showdown + Zilliax + Flash Sale on Turn 6 and then just trade your Rush minions into their 3/3’s. Other than that, you have a full meta deck. However, if you have some more Dust to invest, I would look towards Handbuff Paladin instead, because it’s still performing slightly better despite all the nerfs.


Deck Import

Please don’t play this deck. I really, really tried to make Priest work on the budget, but it’s just impossible. This is like a 35-40% win rate deck even in its full form, and I had to cut so many cards to stick to the budget. That’s why below I’ll present a semi-budget deck running a single Legendary – Timewinder Zarimi. Right now it’s the only card that keeps the Priest class afloat, so if you want to play Priest, you just need to craft Zarimi.

If you really want to try it out, you have two win conditions (well, three if you count Harth). The first one is Automatons – you play them, copy them, they grow bigger. But it’s just too slow. In the current meta people can often effortlessly drop huge minions on Turn 4-5 and you need to work really hard to make your Automatons big. The second win condition is simply Ignis, the Eternal Flame. Instead of copying Automatons, you can copy Ignis if you draw him. Start with 5 mana weapon to gain some momentum and then pick some good 10 mana weapons and hope that they will carry you. And yeah, there’s also Harth, which might work if you get lucky with the iconic hand you get.

But the deck is still missing multiple key expensive cards and I really don’t recommend crafting them for this deck specifically, it’s just bad.


Deck Import

So here we are, I consider this the real budget Priest deck even though it’s not really budget. I still had to cut a few Legendaries from the full version but this deck is actually playable. Not only playable – it’s pretty good (not as good as full version, but hey, beggars can’t be choosers).

The idea behind this deck is that getting extra turns is probably the most overpowered mechanic ever printed in card games. Extra turns means that you can do things while your opponent keeps sitting around not being able to do anything. In this case, Blizzard was smart enough to put “once per game” limit on Zarimi, but even a single extra turn is big. Especially if you consider how minions work in Hearthstone – they can’t attack the turn they are summoned. But if you can summon a bunch of them AND gain an extra turn, you essentially give them Charge. And that’s the main strategy of this deck.

Your first goal is to draw cards and simply survive. Use Crimson Clergy with Funnel Cake and Dreamboat to get extra cards. Play Scale Replica to draw your Zarimi. The next step is to play the required 5 Dragons to activate Zarimi. This shouldn’t be very hard, because even if you count Whelp Wrangler as one Dragons (even though it will sometimes stick around to give you more), you run 8 in your base deck. Then there’s also Celestial Projectionist and Power Chord: Synchronize to get more if you’re missing some. While it will usually just come naturally by playing the match, getting Thirsty Drifter to 0 mana is also important.

Now that you’re at 5 Dragons it’s time to play Zarimi. Of course, sometimes the turn you get to 5 Dragons will be the same turn you play Zarimi, but it really depends on the game. The idea is to try to drop as many stats as possible on the same turn as Zarimi. For example, you can play Zarimi + Thirsty Drifter + Celestial Projectionist on Drifter to get the second one. That puts 15 damage on the board. Then the next turn you might finish it off with Leeroy Jenkins or Glowstone Gyreworm for even more damage. Even this kind of basic combo can often deal 20+, but there are still ways to increase it. Having any minions on the board prior to the combo turn, dropping an extra Drifter, maybe waiting another turn to e.g. get a Giftwrapped Whelp on the board (if it hits Zarimi then you get extra 4 damage on your combo turn).

Against decks that don’t run big AoE removal, you can try playing Zarimi as soon as you can. Since you don’t have to worry about them clearing your whole board, making a big Zarimi turn with multiple Drifters is often enough to win the game even if they are out of reach. Sometimes tempo is king and you don’t need the combo.

The amount of stats you can put seems a bit low, but that’s mostly because this is a budget version and budget version doesn’t run Zilliax Deluxe 3000 (yeah, this card again). Pylon + Ticking Module version of Zilliax is insane in this build. Not only you can often play it for free during your Zarimi turn, it buffs your whole board for more damage, but you can also often copy it and play it a second time to get an even bigger buff. Other than Zilliax, full version runs a few more Legendaries. Pip the Potent is great because you have so many good 1-cost cards, and it makes discounting your Drifters to 0 mana much easier. You also want to run Aman'Thul simply because it’s a good card, especially the removal bit. You might stare at a board you normally can’t deal with and Aman’thul can usually answer it by removing the two biggest minions. And finally, Magatha, Bane of Music – it’s not a must-have, but this deck might struggle if you hit a few dead draws and don’t get Crimson Clergy to cycle. While it will often give a couple of spells to your opponent, all of your key cards are minions to you don’t have to worry about that.


Deck Import

Rogue is also not doing great this expansion. It’s not unplayable, but it doesn’t have a really strong, standout deck. The best you can do is Draw/Shuffle/Miracle Rogue (however you want to call it), and it’s not even that expensive, but it runs multiple Epics that are just 100% necessary to play it, so I couldn’t fit it within the budget rules. Then there’s Zilliax Rogue, but as the name suggests, your main card is Zilliax Deluxe 3000, so again not possible on budget. But guess what, there’s a deck you can actually build for cheap, and it’s one that made a return after so many years. I’m talking about Spectral Cutlass Rogue.

Your main and basically only win condition (again, other than Harth, but I always count him as a backup because some hands simply don’t win you the game) is Cutlass. The idea is to draw it as soon as possible (you have a lot of natural draw, but also Instrument Tech and Raiding Party to tutor it) and then keep attacking your opponent every turn while buffing it. There are two ways to buff the card. First, you want to get its Attack up because a 2 Attack weapon isn’t killing anyone. You have Deadly Poison, Valeera's Gift for more Poisons, Harmonic Hip Hop and Mic Drop. Throughout the match, you should be able to get your weapon up to 10+ Attack, and that gets into the threatening territory.

Then you want to buff the weapon’s Durability to keep it alive for as long as you can. You do it by simply playing cards from other classes. You have plenty of ways to get them (Swashburglar, Stick Up, Kaja'mite Creation, Thistle Tea Set), so it shouldn’t be a problem. Then in the late game, you can also use Tess Greymane to repeat all of the cards from other classes. It’s not amazing since you are usually picking cheaper stuff to be able to play them each turn, but you can sometimes get a banger or two. Plus she also repeast cards from Harth if you get a hand from different class (which is very likely).

Of course, the main issue with the deck is that before you get your Cutlass rolling, you’re doing almost nothing. So any faster deck can easily outtempo you with better draws. So then it’s the question of whether you can come back thanks to Lifesteal or was their push enough. This deck also suffers a bit as a collateral damage of Aggro Demon Hunter being so popular – many players are teaching in Freeze cards (such as Glacial Shard) and they are very powerful against Cutlass Rogue too.

There are two main ways to improve this deck. First, and most important one is Sonya Waterdancer. She makes your Deadly Poisons and Gifts so much better. You can double dip on Deadly Poisonous and quadruple dip on Gift. Yep – a single Gift with Sonya is 4x Deadly Poison for only 2 mana. It makes buffing your weapon to high values so much easier. The second card is Velarok Windblade, which works well with your “Thief” package. But, in all honesty, even if you build a full deck it won’t be the best performer. So unless you really want to play it because you find it fun, I would recommend trying out Draw Rogue or Zilliax Rogue instead. They aren’t the strongest meta deck but they are still better than Cutlass build.


Deck Import

The general consensus was that Burn Shaman, Nature Shaman, OTK Shaman, however you want to call it, will be dead after Bioluminescence has rotated out of Standard. After all, it was a key part of your combo – giving your entire board Spell Damage to throw in some high damage spells at your opponent. However, the reports of its death were greatly exaggerated. The deck is still alive in kicking – Blizzard even had to nerf it early into the expansion (by replacing Lightning Bolt with Lightning Storm in Thrall's Gift). It’s also less of an “OTK” deck and more of a “burn” deck. Sometimes you win with a single, pop-off turn, but lots of the time you will just chip away at your opponent’s health to bring them down in range.

Think of this deck as of an Aggro deck with a big combo turn potential. It’s not a deck where you want to hold back your pieces, unless you have a really specific hand. Most of the time you want to get on the board and try to deal some damage this way. For example, Turn 1 Novice Zapper is usually a good play, especially if you can follow it up with another 1-drop (especially Flowrider). Play Spirit Claws when you have Spell Damage on the board to soften up your opponent or remove some pressure from the enemy side. If you play against Aggro, you will have to use some of your combo pieces as removal, it’s better to have less damage potential than die. Crash of Thunder is especially powerful – with +2 Spell damage it deals 5 AoE damage which should be enough to bring down most of the big early and mid game threats.

Then, once you either brought your opponent low enough or gathered enough burn pieces in your hand (or both), you want to play Flash of Lightning to set up your combo. Discounting all of your Nature spells means that Lightning Bolt, Lightning Reflexes and Pop-Up Book all cost 0. Lightning Reflexes is the MVP here, because the current pool of Nature spells is so small that you’re almost guaranteed to Discover some burn spell. Crash of Thunder also costs 0 by the time you play it. So the idea is that you want to drop a bunch of Spell Damage minions on the board and then start throwing burn spells at your opponent. 2-3 Spell Damage is usually enough to kill them, unless they are Warrior of course. Remember that Snake Oil from Miracle Salesman can also be used as a source of burn damage – it deals 0 damage, but it gets improved by Spell Damage. So with +3 Spell Damage on board it’s now 3 damage for 0 mana. Not much in the grand scheme of things but can be a difference between win and loss. Overdraft can also be played with Spell Damage even if you have no locked Mana Crystals. Of course by the time  you finish your combo you usually are Overloaded a bit, but even when you aren’t, you can still play it for some extra burn.

As for how you can improve this deck – there are two ways really. The first one is Golganneth, the Thunderer. The card is just great – it can be used as an AoE board clear (plus some extra burn) and heal, it can be used to deal with a single big minion (useful against Warlocks for example) or it can be used to draw 3 cards (the best option against decks that put little pressure). Also, if it sticks on the board, the discount it gives will make your combo turn easier (but it’s not really necessary). It’s just a great Shaman card. The second card you should consider adding is Photographer Fizzle. The card is mostly there against classes that can gain Armor like Warrior and Druid. Just before your combo turn, when you have a really solid hand with lots of burn, play Fizzle. Then even if your combo won’t kill them, you will have another shot after you draw the Snapshot (and Flowrider should Discover it pretty consistently). But even in faster matchups, you can play it before using a few or your burn cards as board clear, for example.


Deck Import

The last expansion was a rollercoaster for Sludge Warlock. First, the deck was weak, then it got buffed, but it turns out that Blizzard overdid it, so they had to nerf it again. By the end of the expansion, it ended up somewhere in Tier 2 – it was a really solid deck, but no longer dominating. Many people thought that it’s going to be very powerful in Whizbang’s Workshop because it lost almost nothing in the rotation. However, it turns out that the power level of the new expansion was WAY higher than people expected, so despite staying intact it was still overwhelmed by new builds. However, one of its biggest advantages is that it’s cheap, so it’s quite easy to play it on the budget. You’re missing a few cards from the full build but it’s still very much playable.

The deck is built around Barrel of Sludge – you can’t add them directly, but they are generated by multiple cards. They are pretty weak if you play them from your hand – 3 mana deal 4 damage to the lowest health character is meh. However, the idea behind them is that they also get played if you Destroy them, Discard them and so on. And that’s what the deck is built around. Your cards add Sludges to your hand and to the bottom of your deck. Then you run Discard cards that get rid of them from your hand and cards that Destroy stuff from the bottom of your deck (so in both cases they play Sludges for free). The strategy hasn’t changed since the last expansion. In fact, the only two “new” cards are a pair of Doomguards that were freshly added to the Core Set. Not only a 5 mana 5/7 with Charge is really powerful, but Discarding 2 cards is often an advantage instead of a disadvantage.

Gameplay is quite simple – play on curve, get as much stuff on your board as you can while slowly generating Sludges. Then play the cards that get rid of Sludges for big tempo gain. Repeat until the game is over, one way or the other. There’s really no deeper strategy here.

As for the cards you can use to improve this budget version, there are only two you really need. Trolley Problem is the one I had to cut because of the Epic limit, but it’s just a great card. Not only it’s 2x 3/3 with Rush for 3 mana with no disadvantage the turn you draw it, but later you can usually turn that disadvantage into advantage. If you set up your hand so the lowest cost spell is Sludge, then you can play it and just pop the Sludge from your hand while still summoning 3/3’s. Then we have Pop'gar the Putrid which is a must-have if you want to play this deck seriously. It generates more Sludges, it discounts your  Fel spells (so not only Sludges, but also Crescendo and Chaos Creation), but most importantly – it lets you heal up. It’s often a lifesaver against Aggro decks. Other than those, Symphony of Sins is something you, but it’s not strictly necessary. And, just like always, you can also fit Zilliax Deluxe 3000 – either Haywire + Power Modules or Pylon + Ticking Modules.


Deck Import

Building Warrior on budget is incredibly awkward. When Enrage build was still in rotation, it was way easier, because it wasn’t strictly built around some Legendary cards. However, right now Warriors really only have to viable routes – Odyn, Prime Designate deck and Deepminer Brann deck. And, as you can probably see, both of those are Legendaries. They are also build-around Legendaries which means that if you don’t have them, their respective decks completely fall apart by losing main win conditions. That’s why the only thing I could sort of come up with is this build. It relies on some synergies from Whizbang’s Workshop – mainly Big Mechs and Boom Wrench, but also Chemical Spill to a lesser degree. It might seem like a Control deck at a first glance, but it’s really more of a Combo build.

The basic idea is quite simple. You want to survive the early/mid game, gain some Armor, draw cards, just do anything that stalls the game and keeps you alive. And then, in the mid-late game, you can start doing your combos. You have two ways to win the game – big Mechs or Grom. Let’s start with Big Mechs because they are probably more interesting. Your key card here is Boom Wrench. You want to play it and attack once to set it up for the next turn. Then that next turn you want to play a big Mech, DON’T HIT YET, replace your 3/1 Wrench with the 1/1 mini version to trigger the Deathrattle of the first one, then attack with the second one to trigger its Deathrattle again. This way you can double trigger Deathrattle of any big Mech you play. So you an either deal 16 random damage with Testing Dummy or summon two random 8-Cost minions with Containment Unit. If you can’t afford waiting too long for this combo, you can always use Chemical Spill to summon one of them from your hand for 5 mana instead of paying the full cost (Spill is more useful with Grom, but it’s still a good card with big Mechs).

Your second win condition is Grommash Hellscream. This time when you have Grom in hand, you want to play Chemical Spill. It summons him and deals 5 damage immediately, making him a 10/4 minion with Charge. So you’re paying 5 mana and two cards to get Leeroy Jenkins on steroids. But the best thing is that you can now easily copy him with Battleworn Faceless, so for 8 mana you can summon two 10/4’s with Charge. That’s 20 damage out of nowhere while still leaving two massive minions on the board in case you don’t win.

In reality, you usually have to combine two strategies into one to secure the victory. And even them it will be tough because the deck is just a bit awkward + it’s still missing some important cards.

Well, talking about important cards, by far the most important one you’re missing is Inventor Boom. It makes your Mech combos so much better because after doing all those shenanigans, if your board gets cleared, you can just resumon two big Mechs again – and they get some immediate attacks! If you face some minions, they will probably clear something and if not, they will just hit face (which is also great). Another card you want to add is Wreck'em and Deck'em – it doesn’t work with Grom, but you can use it on one of your big Mechs to get an instant attack and then immediately trigger its Deathrattle. So, for example, playing it on Containment unit will give you 6 damage vs random target + a random 8-Cost minion. Technically you can consider adding Zilliax Deluxe 3000. The best combo is probably Twin + Perfect (2x 6/5 with Taunt, Divine Shield, Rush and Lifesteal) but the problem is that it messes up your Chemical Spill because you don’t want to summon it from your hand. You can consider something like Haywire + Perfect instead, which is 7 mana (so below Grom) and it’s also not a terrible one to summon with Chemical Spill.

Stonekeep

A Hearthstone player and writer from Poland, Stonekeep has been in a love-hate relationship with Hearthstone since Closed Beta. Over that time, he has achieved many high Legend climbs and infinite Arena runs. He's the current admin of Hearthstone Top Decks.

Check out Stonekeep on Twitter!

Leave a Reply

261 Comments

  1. Davio
    January 15, 2018 at 1:08 pm

    It’s mentioned that Corridor Creepers are good for nearly all of them; but what do they replace if I craft two? I’m trying out each of the decks, and want to put them in but unsure exactly where.

    • NightRaven7
      January 17, 2018 at 3:28 pm

      So also replace minions that not have a ton of synergy and arent overly impressive from bottom to top
      Naga corsair
      Bloodfury or demonfire
      Devolve, bloodlust, squire, primalfin
      One mana cards or defias
      Shieldraiser elixir
      Chaingang champ jailor
      Bearshark flanking strike hounds
      Dont use in jade

      • Shinso
        January 24, 2018 at 5:24 am

        Highly disagree with the zoolock and evolve shaman replacement recommendations. In zoolock considering you dont run keleseth youd really want to use the 2 mana cards. Demonfire can create your turn 1 demon ( voidwalker/flame imp) into a big boy in the early game and provides additional removal. You could add a vicious fledgling to the deck and that combined with bloodfury can by itself win you the game sometimes. You should replace the blood imp and fire fly with creepers and fledglings( or techs).
        In the evolve shaman argent squire is a really important card since it provides a strong turn 1 Play that can trade into your opponents 1 health minions, and primalfin is just a great card at making tokens and the 3 health make it often hard to remove on your opponents turn ( after you play it) + it has good synergy with flametongue. You usually dont need 2 devolves, but one is a good tech, replace the other one and maybe a jade spirit or chain gang. The 2 blood lusts are a must since you don’t have powerful minions like aya and the pirate package, making a board swarm into blood lust one of your main win conditions. Hope this helps.

  2. Chauska
    January 14, 2018 at 6:42 pm

    I’m building a secret made, and I wonder if I could benefit from putting archmage antonidas and what to replace for corridor creeper. The deck is complete and I have 1120 dust to spend (without purchasing corridor creeper)

    • MatLelouch
      January 14, 2018 at 8:55 pm

      Antonidas is not that good right now tbh , corridor creeper is the most powerful card of the expansion and its used in almost every deck , its a good choice for crafting

      • Chauska
        January 16, 2018 at 7:54 am

        So what cards should I replace with corridor creeper?

        • Lir18
          January 16, 2018 at 3:49 pm

          Mirror entity is not nearly as good as counterspell or explosive runes, so I would replace this card or cobalt scalebane. Just don’t put anything slow into this deck.

          • Zak
            January 18, 2018 at 2:56 pm

            You could take out Bonemare.

    • NightRaven7
      January 17, 2018 at 3:12 pm

      No antonidas its too up, the stansardard deck runs valet creeper aluneth instead of bonemare scalebane and entity so replace a bonemare and a scalebane

  3. skipman480
    January 11, 2018 at 10:03 am

    Budget Midrange Hunter looks fun. I have Deathstalker Rexxar and wanted to know if it could be squeezed into that deck.

    • Evident
      January 11, 2018 at 11:19 am

      Sure, it’s not optimal but you can cut a Flanking Strike for it.

  4. Beefungplayz
    January 9, 2018 at 6:27 am

    You said that Corridor Creeper can be put in Budget Hunter, but what should I replace with?

    • Koldspeiter
      January 9, 2018 at 8:56 am

      unleash the hounds

  5. Kyni
    January 5, 2018 at 1:51 pm

    Thank you for these decks. I completed my Secret Mage and its so fun to play! I dont care about my rank, I just want to play a little with each class and this page its my guide to it. Thank you so much <3

  6. Sakima
    January 5, 2018 at 11:22 am

    In budget mage deck, what cards would I replace with Primordial Glyphs? Also any other cheap additions? I got 2k dust left. And should I put in Corridor Creeper into this deck, and if yes, what to replace? Thanks for reply.

    • yoyyoyoyoyoy
      January 6, 2018 at 9:14 pm

      yoyyooyoyyo u should take out fireball for PG

    • Shinso
      January 24, 2018 at 6:11 am

      Cobalt Scalebanes is what if replace, but mirror entity is okay too

  7. Brando9004
    January 4, 2018 at 1:13 pm

    Ok, these are budget decks, but i think Corridor Creeper is Must Have.

    • Evident
      January 4, 2018 at 4:02 pm

      We agree, it’s mentioned in most of the guides as a must craft.

  8. AndyTheClock
    December 29, 2017 at 1:08 pm

    I love these decks ! I chose the mage one because i find it very fun. And btw the guides on each deck are very good, very well made. Congrats on you mr. 😉

  9. Spencer
    December 27, 2017 at 7:16 pm

    just for anyone wondering about the priest deck specifically its really hard to play but is probably one of the best besides mage im at rank 4 atm and just needed a priest deck for some quest so i made the one here and i didnt climb much but i had a 5-4 win rate with is so its something to keep in mind that it can work in the right hands

    • Jay
      January 4, 2018 at 11:40 pm

      I’m brand new to the game but played ALOT of mtg, I saw the cost on the deck and had to try it as a ftp player, even in the hands of a noob, still stomps at low tiers

  10. Wilson
    December 22, 2017 at 5:54 am

    Is it still worth spending my dust (I have 1500) to make a low-cost deck like the mid hunter, even with the ranked being in the final?
    Or is it worth keeping my dust and the gold until next year?
    Ps: And if I make it, how much time he is still being a good deck?

    • Sinitar
      December 22, 2017 at 8:07 am

      Craft secret mage. It’s more stable.

      • Wilson
        December 22, 2017 at 9:55 am

        Why the mage is more stable than the mid hunter?
        And what ranking can I get with him?
        Thank tou for awnser.

        • TAbril
          December 22, 2017 at 4:06 pm

          If the option is between these two decks it is better to think well. The ideal is to opt for a more enjoyable style because in reality neither of the two is particularly good.
          – Tempo mage is bad against aggro and dragon priest, but good against the remaining priest decks, warlock control, jade and druid ramp. Also with the next rotation Medivh’s Valet and Firelands Portal leave standard. There is also talk of the possibility of Iceblock also leaving for the hall of fame.
          – Hunter is weaker than tempo mage, being bad against warlock control, priest… (any long game oriented deck) but is good against aggressive decks like tempo mage, tempo rogue, zoolock etc, but thats true when you run the pirate packet… After the next rotation it loses no cards (but upgrading is much more expensive).
          – Also, in any of the lists is essential the addition of Spellbreaker.

          • Wilson
            December 22, 2017 at 8:49 pm

            So what you recommend?
            Maybe i should wait a little more and gather more dust to craft something more useful? Thanks for the help, I am really missed you here.

        • TAbril
          December 23, 2017 at 9:37 am

          First you need to keep in mind that during the first month after the release of a new expansion the most successful decks will almost always be the most aggro ones (e.g., usually hunter is good for the first month and then decays). However, in this meta it is likely that aggro is to stay +/- as it is due to Creeper Corridor and Patches. However, it is already known decks that can give a good counter to aggro, as the case of warlock control.

          Knowing this you need to answer the set of answers:
          1 – What style of play gives me more pleasure in playing?
          2 – Against what do you see more play in rank mode? And what is good and bad against it?
          3 – What is my goal? To have a single good deck, or to have variety (even with weaker decks) to avoid getting bored?
          4 – What cards do I already have? (sometimes it is possible to make decks better than the typical budget ones because you already have the core cards or some epic-legendary ones)
          5 – Which cards will leave the end of year (March-April) standard? Do I lose to investment I’m making now?

          After answering this you will set your expectations and you will have an idea of ​​what you really want to do and how far you can go with that in rank mode. It is important to be aware of the relevance of various cards such as Creeper Corridor and Patches, what you lose if you do not use them and what can be used instead when you run your list and when you run against a list with it (e.g. if you like aggro and it is very expensive to use the pirate pack, you can use Golakka Crawler to give counter to those who use it if you see many pirate decks). Budget slots may also include more tech cards than the rest and alternative strategies that no one is waiting for (and if your oponent does not expect it, he/she can not play around it).

  11. Mushroom409
    December 18, 2017 at 7:08 pm

    Hey so im a returning player, I was really active but stopped playing around when mean streets hit; so i have all the cards before there but only some from the newer expansions. I was wondering if you would recommend the best budget deck right now just because im not totally familiar with the meta (and dont know alot of newer cards); also is there a crafting guide for the most versitile new legendaries? I have Lich King and 8000 dust but dont want to spend on anything without knowing the meta

    • Summ3r
      December 19, 2017 at 4:48 pm

      try midrange hunter

    • Tezulah
      December 19, 2017 at 8:48 pm

      Well, patches and southsea deckhand are in almost every class as an aggro deck… but here’s a list:

      -Druid, Priest, Hunter, and Warlock hero cards are found in most decks of the respective classes
      -Lich Kind is Good
      -Patches for aggro (with southsea deckhand and corridor creeper)
      -Bonemare is a pretty good common

      This is a bit general because I don’t have the time to get in detail of every class, but I just wanted to send a reply while I’m here.

      Hope I helped 😉

  12. Michael Rahmes
    December 14, 2017 at 7:34 am

    Can you make a budget otk dragon priest list please!! I’ve seen some for 3k dust. For a non priest player it’s hard to know what sacrifices to make.

    • Alex
      December 17, 2017 at 2:32 pm

      Just add THE dragon that puts an heroe to 15 HP and 15 dmg spells

  13. M.Bison
    December 14, 2017 at 4:04 am

    Thnks!! Nice deks

  14. Shinobi_Fox
    December 14, 2017 at 3:38 am

    As a player on a budget, I really appreciate when you guys do these lists. Just noticed token druid was listed as a recommended deck, but there’s no list given here for it.

    • Evident
      December 14, 2017 at 9:11 am

      It’s listed in the Jade Druid description, which I realize is a bit confusing. I’m going to work on a better system for displaying classes with multiple decks. Here’s the deck: Budget Token Druid!

  15. matt
    December 13, 2017 at 5:12 pm

    thanks for updating these decks, these are great budget decks!

  16. Dexter
    December 12, 2017 at 6:11 am

    lit worked so well

  17. dabest
    December 11, 2017 at 6:50 am

    this website is the reason i started to like hearthstone, keep it up. when you guys planning to update new stuff?

    • Evident
      December 11, 2017 at 9:38 am

      Glad to hear that! We’re working on these right now, should be done this week.

  18. Lester
    December 10, 2017 at 7:35 am

    When will the changes hit these budget deck lists, knc is out and i wish you guys can update the list so we can deal with the meta. Your guys response and work is appreciated.

    • Evident
      December 10, 2017 at 10:36 am

      We’re going to start updating these very soon, glad you like the site!

  19. Lester
    November 29, 2017 at 6:17 am

    Will there be a change to the decks when the expansion comes out and when will the change happen? 🙂

  20. Rileypunk
    November 28, 2017 at 6:42 am

    THANK YOU MAN! NICE 😀

  21. NixaHS
    November 5, 2017 at 4:32 pm

    Why is “Budget Elemental Mage” removed from this list?
    I found it the best one here, it was really cheap and yet really effective especially for someone who got Frost Lich Jaina from The Prolougue.

  22. DJGlassZ
    October 21, 2017 at 6:26 am

    Are the reevaluation complete yet? Just asking as the last comment dated back to September.

  23. Randomness
    September 24, 2017 at 1:56 am

    Is the reevaluation ready? I still have mixed feelings about innervate in aggro druid. Do you think it’s worth it to run it with teacher?

    • kHost
      September 27, 2017 at 4:01 pm

      I second this comment! I’m eager to know what you guys want to do to the decks.

  24. Hallazero
    September 21, 2017 at 8:13 pm

    Can i put The Black Knight in any of these decks i just got him in a Pack

    • Evident
      September 23, 2017 at 11:13 am

      He’s not so great right now, and he doesn’t really fit into most of these decks.

      • Josh
        September 26, 2017 at 4:05 pm

        I would say with all the Lich King running around these days, hes not so bad to run as a tech

  25. Dani
    September 7, 2017 at 7:32 am

    Hello,
    will you be making any changes to the budget and basic (0 dust decks) since crucial cards (like war axe) are being nurfed?

    • Evident
      September 7, 2017 at 8:25 am

      Yes, we’ll reevaluate these decks after the nerf!

      • Joshua
        October 1, 2017 at 7:16 pm

        is the reevaluation completed yet? :^)

  26. Abesmess
    September 5, 2017 at 4:59 pm

    I recently bought Karazhan and I wante dto inturduce Maelstrom Portal to the midrange shaman deck, what card should I take out?

  27. Bunny the Lifeguard
    September 5, 2017 at 5:00 am

    Will this get an update after the druid nerfs? (:

    • Bunny the Lifeguard
      September 5, 2017 at 11:28 am

      Okay, they released what they’re gonna change:
      https://us.battle.net/hearthstone/en/blog/21029448/upcoming-balance-changes-update-91-9-5-2017

      – Innervate – Now reads: Gain 1 Mana Crystal this turn only. (Down from 2)

      – Fiery War Axe – Now costs 3 mana. (Up from 2)

      – Hex – Now costs 4 mana. (Up from 3)

      – Murloc Warleader – Now reads: Your other Murlocs have +2 Attack. (Down from +2 Attack, +1 Health)

      – Spreading Plague – Now costs 6 mana. (Up from 5)

  28. Thomas
    September 3, 2017 at 10:53 pm

    Great post! Have nice day ! 🙂 crssw

  29. Francesco
    August 23, 2017 at 6:47 am

    Hi, I would like to make space in secret mage and elemental mage decks for Medivh and Frost Lich Jaina. What would it be better to cut out?

    Thanks

    • MachoJabroni
      August 24, 2017 at 1:10 pm

      Medivh can fit in pretty well to a Secret Mage deck, I would take out a Cryomancer as the freeze synergy in a Secret Mage deck, especially one without Frost Nova, is kinda bad (Cold Wraith’s stats justify its inclusion though they can also be substituted). Meanwhile, Frost Lich Jaina can replace a Faceless Summoner in the Elemental Mage deck, seeing as it is not necessary for such a deck and Frost Lich Jaina can easily generate minions with her Hero Power. I would even replace the second Faceless Summoner with a second Flamestrike in order to achieve more board clears and greater survivability.

  30. Kolldun
    August 14, 2017 at 12:47 pm

    Is there a chance there will be codes for copying the decks?

    Thanks a lot!

    • Paberu
      August 14, 2017 at 1:18 pm

      Hey! If you click on the decks name, it will take you to a separate page for that deck where you can find the code.

    • DrewT
      August 14, 2017 at 1:27 pm

      Click on the deck title and it will take you to a page with the code.

  31. Kuan
    August 14, 2017 at 2:43 am

    Thank you Evident, I always love to read the budget section.

    It’s great that you keep this updated and many players like me benefit enormously from this effort.

    Another section I’d love to read, or something just to keep in consideration, is a selection of decks that uses only Classic + Un’Goro + KFT so that what we invest in term of dust will still be there in the next rotation.

    Keep up the good work!

  32. Carlos
    August 12, 2017 at 4:06 pm

    Hello, tahnk you for the decks and the great work. We beginners really apreciate it.

    Just have a question. Of all of these budget decks, what is the best one?

    • Evident
      August 13, 2017 at 8:05 pm

      I think Pirate Warrior, Evolve Shaman, and Token Druid are likely the best.

      • Roffle
        August 13, 2017 at 8:47 pm

        Having tested several of the decks, I second this. I’ll also say that Zoo Warlock has been performing surprisingly well for me.

    • niall
      August 20, 2017 at 7:44 pm

      well there is not a real answer to that question because people play differently however that pirate deck is a god one and it was used by amaz (a pro) he just added patches the pirate

  33. Empti
    August 10, 2017 at 5:44 am

    These budgets are awesome, even reached rank 5 with the hunter list last season. Will be really really happy to see more budgets for Knights of the Frozen Throne. Good work for real, your efforts werent for nothing!

    • Evident
      August 11, 2017 at 9:51 pm

      It’s awesome to hear that, I’m working on updating them. I even have some of my writers working on a bunch!

      • Empti
        August 12, 2017 at 2:30 pm

        Thats awesome! By the way would you please write somewhere in the beginning of the page that the decks are ready when they are. Just checked and saw some decks are still being updated. Cant wait to play with them :D!

  34. coco
    July 14, 2017 at 8:52 pm

    what is the best budget deck for farm gold ?

    • Leeroy
      July 28, 2017 at 2:32 pm

      Whichever deck you need to complete quests, you make them accordingly

    • Squirrel
      August 16, 2017 at 5:48 am

      The arena is the best place for that. If you are a newer player, it is also the best place to learn about deck building, board control and tempo.

      Also the arena evens the playing field and takes budget out of the equation. After all both of your decks are worth 150 gold.

  35. harrytx
    June 19, 2017 at 3:41 pm

    For the elemental mage deck, if i have blazecallers, what do you think they would replace in the deck?

    • SneakyNash
      June 20, 2017 at 1:09 am

      Replace the faceless summoners

  36. fannymerlin
    June 7, 2017 at 10:10 am

    i have 1600 dust what deck should i make

    • Patches the pervert
      June 8, 2017 at 2:07 am

      MILLHOUSE MAAANNNASTORM

    • Zamudek
      August 12, 2017 at 5:09 pm

      Tinkmaster overspark

  37. Michael
    May 21, 2017 at 10:18 pm

    I want to make quest Rogue eventually but being free to play that could be sometime down the road. MY big challenge right now is dust to make these and I have cards that I’m not sure if I should DE them or not which would help out. I’m probably a good 300-400 dust short.

    • Braeden
      August 10, 2017 at 1:25 pm

      I am f2p as well, I have quite a few expensive decks. It really came down to rng for me, pulled a couple golden legionaries which DE for alot of f’n dust. I wouldnt DE any cards you dont have dups of for dust though. Never know when a new deck might come out. GL

  38. Hikaara
    May 14, 2017 at 6:09 pm

    I have around 1700 dust and I’m not sure if I should go for the warrior pirate or for the elemental shaman. The only legendary card in my possession is Baron Geddon, is it good to replace something for him or not?

    • max
      May 31, 2017 at 4:17 am

      Barron geddon is crap craft it and create pirate warrior

  39. GazingEyes
    May 13, 2017 at 7:52 pm

    the Elemental Shaman deck is a solid one i have had a 12 game win streak going with it before starting to tweak it for the higher ranks

  40. Ryan
    May 11, 2017 at 5:33 am

    Thanks for posting!

    This really helps out people who lack legendaries needed for better decks, but still provides a solid fallback option.

    I’m having great success with the Elemental Mage deck, it’s a massive improvement over the disorganized rubbish I was playing with previously.

    Keep up the great work!

  41. Conner
    May 6, 2017 at 9:01 pm

    I’d like to say that the elemental buff paladin listed in this article isn’t good. And doesn’t work, I built it and tried it and was hard stuck rank 10. The deck is too slow to beat aggro decks excluding pirate warrior, and isn’t good enough against other slow decks. I had extreme trouble against most meta decks.

    • Evident
      May 6, 2017 at 10:03 pm

      I mention in the article that most of these decks aren’t going to get passed rank 10 very well. The Paladin list being one of them.

  42. nightknight
    April 30, 2017 at 11:21 am

    I just want to say thank you for putting the work into this section, it really helps us poor folks enjoy the game more! Even if you dont follow the list directly it definitely gives an idea of what a successful deck build looks like.

  43. Acidic delta
    April 29, 2017 at 7:11 am

    i was wondering if you can create another priest deck because c’thun decks arent seeing play since a long time maybe a budget silence priest would be better.

  44. Blackmere
    April 19, 2017 at 1:33 pm

    Thanks for this compilation. It’s really appreciated.

  45. Rob
    April 17, 2017 at 6:27 pm

    I got Swamp King Dred yesterday out of a pack. What can i replace in the hunter deck with him?

    • Drhotloving
      April 18, 2017 at 9:56 am

      personally i would get rid of both fireflys and add 1 more bat and dred

      • Evident
        April 18, 2017 at 10:19 am

        Yeah this is fine, you could also just cut the Ravasaur Runt.

    • Matejcasa
      April 26, 2017 at 3:04 pm

      Gollaka krawler

    • Devin Buck
      June 1, 2017 at 12:08 pm

      It’s a tech choice vs control; if you are playing a lot of control swap 1x golakka crawler for 1x Dred

  46. Paul
    April 15, 2017 at 6:35 am

    What the fuck? How does adding Preparation help that Rogue deck?? The only spells you have are Eviscerate!! What the fuck???

    • Evident
      April 15, 2017 at 7:20 am

      I was referring to needing Preparation for the Quest Rogue deck, not the deck listed in this post.

    • ChessPro
      April 22, 2017 at 9:30 pm

      The preparation is for the quest rouge and you are hoping to draw it before you complete the quest to play the quest the same turn you play the last minion to complete the quest.

  47. Rotillion
    April 12, 2017 at 7:59 am

    Thanks for the awesome budget decks for every class! If you happen to have Leeroy, what card in the warrior deck would you replace?

    • babypuppykitty
      April 12, 2017 at 10:28 am

      i would drop a naga corsair. dont wanna jack up the curve too bad to get him in.

      • Evident
        April 13, 2017 at 8:55 am

        Naga Corsair would be one, you could also cut Acidic Swamp Ooze or Golakka Crawler.

    • Kurokiba
      April 13, 2017 at 6:09 pm

      For the pirate warrior deck – firefly.

  48. sefikka
    April 12, 2017 at 2:41 am

    Thank you for your nice effort to help . Great guide.

  49. Carestless
    April 12, 2017 at 1:30 am

    Great guide, thanks for the hard work of those less fortunate to not be able to use a lot of dust.
    I always make Decks for my son who loves to play Hearthstone too.
    These Budget Deck Guides are always a big help for me to make Decks for him with his current Card Collection.
    Keep up the good work, it is much appreciated.

    • Evident
      April 12, 2017 at 7:12 am

      Thanks, glad to help. I hope your son is enjoying Un’Goro!

      • Ridanculous
        April 12, 2017 at 8:12 pm

        Hi admins,
        Your site has fantastic articles delivered in a timely manner and it has become my favourite HS resource.
        I find it a shame that with such a wealth of information it is rather hard to sort through. For example if an article I saw 2 weeks ago came back to mind I’d have to rifle through the site to find it, not knowing if it will be on page 3 or 5 or whatever.
        Perhaps you can implement a “Table of Contents” of sorts, a little like the weekly roundup but just a permanent sidebar or the like where we can browse the headlines of articles for easy access?

        • Evident
          April 13, 2017 at 8:56 am

          Hey, I’m glad you like the site! I’ve been mulling over some design changes, I’ll see if I can fit something like this in.

  50. Icyice999
    April 12, 2017 at 12:31 am

    Thanks for this guide I’ll try these decks soon.