Kabal Crystal Runners are core cards in the deck, I wouldn’t recommend replacing them. Arcane Giants saw some play in Tempo Mage builds in the past, but this list is probably a bit too minion heavy to get good cost reduction on them.

Both Keleseth and Gul’dan dramatically improve the Highlander Priest matchup because it gives you better longevity. With this budget version, your best chance is probably an aggressive start and rushing down the opponent before Anduin comes out.

It often felt like one of the worst cards in the list and I rotated it in and out at times. It’s been included quite a bit after the Innervate nerf, but after trying it myself I’m not completely sold. Crazed Alchemist x1 felt better, but the Penguin was included more often in my list.

Glad to hear you’ve enjoyed it! The challenge has been fun (and insightful) for me as well.

Even though it’s not a Beast, I prefer the consistency of Fire Fly. It trades well with Patches and Swashburglar on turn 1 and fills out your curve in later turns.

No problem!

Dire Wolf Alpha x 1 and Firefly x1 was my F2P substitution for most of the challenge.

All crafting decisions should be made carefully, but a card sitting in your collection unplayed offers little value, IMO. Players with limited collections, especially, don’t have the luxury of too many cards on the chance that they’ll be played.

As you mentioned, class preferences certainly do change so it’s usually worth keeping powerful cards even for classes that aren’t played often. The quoted statement was meant more to suggest that you can be a little more liberal with dusting cards in classes that are unplayed than your favorite class(es).

Essentially, fringe/borderline playable cards are less necessary in non-main classes.

Glad to hear that! Thanks for reading.

I do agree that I have an advantage over the typical new player. This was, in fact, directly stated in the article.

Also mentioned was that the purpose of this challenge isn’t to be representative of a new player. Rather, the point was to reacquaint myself with some of the difficulties a new player has and provide publicly available content (from an veteran player’s perspective) for those starting new accounts.

Aside from the potential embarrassment I’d have to face of not reaching Rank 5, the rank I achieve is irrelevant. Sharing the knowledge and experience I have about the game with newcomers is the goal.

It’s heavily dependent on the matchup, but Life Tap is typically a good option. Later in the game Steady Shot can help provide the finishing damage. Against other board centric decks, Fireblast can maintain your hold on the board.

C’thun doesn’t count so you can still snag a quick Legendary from Whispers of the Old Gods packs even after getting him for free.

Hey! Glad you’re enjoying it. We have an older version of a C’thun Priest budget deck here:
http://www.hearthstonetopdecks.com/decks/budget-cthun-priest-deck-list-guide/

A board centric deck, such as yours, would probably benefit from Cobalt Scalebane and Bonemares. Tar Creeper might be a good addition, as well. I could see Mind VIsion being a card to cut and 2x Mind Control might be a bit greedy.

Jaina is a good card, but probably doesn’t fit well here. There may be a place for her in the Budget Elemental Mage list below.

http://www.hearthstonetopdecks.com/decks/budget-elemental-mage-deck-list-guide/

N’zoth is a bit slow for the deck, but could offer another late game win condition, especially if you’re lacking Rexxar.

I’ve considered bringing the Timber Wolf in at times because the Dire Wolf has been underperforming in most matchups. My biggest concern is that DWA works well as an opener with Fire Fly and tempoing out a Dire Wolf feels a lot better than a Timber Wolf.

A second Bloodsail Raider, Lava Burst or an Azure Drake would work well in that spot,

Hunter is certainly a Legend viable deck, but I don’t think it’s Tier 1 at the moment. In fact, many consider it to be the least competitive class at the moment.

That said, we’ve come a lot way from the top heavy metas there have been in the past. Standard is significantly more balanced that we’ve seen before where 1-3 classes felt completely unplayable, which Hunter is far from right now.

Good strategy! I’m in a similar spot, but will probably keep opening KFT packs for awhile, especially with the dual class Arena Event coming up soon!

I have a habit of keeping a pretty full gold reserve in case a Heroic Tavern Brawl comes along, so I’ve got a decent amount saved for next expansion already.

Nice! The pack changes really make a pretty big difference for helping new accounts catch up. Certiainly there is still a substantial gap to overcome for new players, but it sounds like you’re making some good progress already.

Pity timers operate independently, so opening packs from another set will not impact your Class set pity timer.