League of Explorer’s Arena Hunter Guide
Introduction:
Hey guys, I'm Shadybunny, an infinite arena player known for my aggressive playstyle.This will be a comprehensive Hunter Arena guide, covering everything from drafting to in-game decision making.
Hunter has always had a bad reputation in Arena for the majority of the player-base. This is because the Hunter's hero power does not directly impact the board, thus making it more difficult to out-value the opponent. This results in the removal of a common win condition, leaving Hunter players to win through either: 1) trying to out-tempo the opponent, 2) with burn, or 3) a combination of the 2. Hunter has been in my top 3, results-wise, for every expansion but LoE. Even now, with the garbage commons that Rexxar received in LoE, he still claims a spot in my top 5 (and hopefully reclaims his top 3 spot once the Whispers of the Old Gods expansion hits).
1.Drafting
“Curve Hunter”:
As the name suggests, this deck archetype relies on curving out. This is the style that used to be very consistent due to the popularity of Mages in the Arena. This type of Hunter would just curve 2-6 drops before finishing the game with hero powers and one or two burn spells/charge minions after the Mage wipes the board with Flamestrike. Curve Hunters are not affected by the huge value swing after the AoE effects – because that's not how they win games.
Sadly, the quality of the average Hunter draft dropped quite a bit with LoE, primarily because both commons (Dart Trap and Desert Camel) are of inferior quality. Not only do these cards get a base offering rate bonus because they are class cards, but they also get an additional 25% bonus rate until the end of the expansion period. You can still draft high quality Curve Hunters, it's just less frequent.
Let's look at your Ideal curve when drafting this style:
1-drops: 3-5
2-drops: 7-8 (this includes Glaivezooka, Bear Trap, and Snake Trap)
3-drops: 4-5
4-drops: 3-4
5-drops: 2-3
6-drops: 2-3
7+ drops: 1
When you're going over your curve, be sure to make the distinction between a curve minion and a tech card. You could have five cards in your 3 slot, but only have one 3-drop. For example, consider the following 3-mana cards: Wolf Rider, Deadly Shot, Raid Leader, Spider Tank, and Power Shot. Of these, only the Spider Tank would be considered a 3-drop. Although there are times that a Raid Leader or Wolf Rider on curve is okay, you want to increase the chance of having a solid play. Therefore, having good stand alone cards, like a Spider Tank as your 3-drop, is preferable. Note also that having more or fewer cards in a certain mana slot will influence the amount of curve minions you'll need in other slots.
Examples:
-Say you draft nine 2-drops and five 1-drops, This will reduce the amount of 3-drops that you'll want because you can play a 1-drop and 2-drop on turn 3, and can therefore easily get away drafting two to three 3-drops.
-Having an abundance of 2-drops allows you to draft fewer 4-drops, which might lead to instances where you are only able to play two 2-drops on turn 4. Normally, this is inefficient because our opponent's 4-drop will most likely kill both our 2-drops over 2 turns. However, because we're a Hunter and we don't care too much about value (remember, Hunters care about tempo and face damage), this will not hurt us that much. Remember, card (dis)advantage only starts to matter once one player runs out of things to play.
-Having five to six 3-drops will reduce the amount of 5-drops you'll need, because you can play a 3-drop and 2-drop on turn 5 (same situation as the argument above).
So, now that you have your curve, let’s consider the tech cards you’ll want.
The main things these tech cards need to accomplish for you are:
-Cheating tempo
-Removing minions
-Reach (direct damage to face when played from your hand, such as charge minions and spells)
-Card Draw
What do I mean by “cheating tempo?”
Whenever you can use a cheap card to remove one of your opponent's bigger threats, you've effectively gained mana on your opponent. For example: It’s turn 4, we have 4 mana, and we spend 2 playing a Freezing Trap. Our Freezing Trap will send the opponent's Piloted Shredder back to their hand. Because we played Freezing Trap, we can also play a Bloodfen Raptor. This means the net gain on the board is 1 Bloodfen Raptor (or 2 mana).
Removing Minions:
Removing minions and cheating tempo generally go hand in hand, but they don’t have to. Sometimes you'll use an Explosive Shot on a 3-drop and 2-drop, making an effectively equal trade in regards to mana cost. What this accomplishes for you is that you've removed your opponent's minions without using your own. This way, your minions can go face and we can continue being aggressive. If we had just traded our minions with the opponents, and developed our board, we would not have dealt any face damage. You could also just ignore enemy minions (which will be the play quite often) but using a removal spell denies your opponent some counter plays, like buff spells.
Reach:
Reach allows us to deal damage to the board directly from our hand, but more often our opponent's face, without us being in control of the board. Examples of this are charge minions (throwing a Wolf Rider to face), spells (a Quick Shot to face), or through hitting our opponent with a weapon. Another kind of reach is minions with Stealth. These minions are generally not considered tech cards, but usually get the job done.
Card Draw:
Card Draw speaks for itself: cards that allow us to refuel by digging into our deck. They usually aren't a good tempo play. However, because our curve is low, we will usually be in control of the board and can afford a bad tempo play to keep our hand loaded with cards.
Overview of tech cards:
Single (large) threat removal (two to three): Freezing Trap, Hunter’s Mark, Deadly Shot.
Flexible removal (two to five): Glaivezooka, Eaglehorn Bow, Arcane Shot, Quick Shot, Explorer’s Hat (one hat works wonders, seeing as you'll run out of cards fairly fast. The hat gives you something to do with your mana).
Card Draw: I love having one Cult Master or Jeeves, seeing as the curve is lower than most opponent’s. Ball of Spiders, Tomb Spider, Gnomish Inventor and Azure Drake are still decent.
Area of Effect: AoE is not required for this style, seeing as we should be in control of the board and keep it through our single target removal and minions. Regardless, one Explosive Shot, Multi-Shot or Powershot is not terrible to have when the opponent plays multiple minions in 1 turn.
Reach: This is a little tricky, because a lot of the removal cards can be used as reach. Therefore, the amount of (almost) pure reach depends on how you're doing in that department. You could have a successful curve Hunter without pure reach, such as drafting two Glaivezookas and two Quick Shots. Most decks won't have this though, so, generally speaking, I like two nice reach cards like: Kill Command, Unleash the Hounds (Unleash can also be used as AoE in case of emergency), Gladiator's Longbow, Reckless Rocketeer...you get the point.
Cheat sheet for drafting “Curve Hunter”:
1-drops: 3-5
2-drops: 7-8
3-drops: 4-5
4-drops: 3-4
5-drops: 2-3
6-drops: 2-3
7+ drops: 1
Flex removal: 2-5
Single (large) threat removal: 2-3
Card Draw: 1
Big reach: 2
AoE: 0-1
“Burn Hunter”:
Before LoE, I would draft curve Hunter every time with consistent success. But due to the reasons mentioned above, this does not cut it anymore. After being fed up with getting bad drafts, I started experimenting by picking cards that would normally be rated fairly low. I have to give credit to my buddy, Jook_ (twitch.tv/Jook_). It was on one evening of play-testing when he said, "What happens if we pick this Cobra Shot over the Flame Juggler?" A couple weeks of mad experiments later, I had a good idea of how I wanted the ideal Burn Hunter deck to look.
Curve:
1-drops: 2-5 *
2-drops: 5-7 *
3-drops: 4
4-drops: 2-3
5-drops: 0-2
6-drops: 0-1
7+ drops: N/A
*On average, you want ten 1- and 2-drops, combined
(Note: don't rate Zombie Chow as a premium card in this style. You can't play it after turn 3 as the Chow’s Deathrattle-heal is too devastating; it works against your win condition).
The amount of 3-drops seems to excel at exactly four, but I'd rather have three 3-drops than five 3-drops.
You want a minimum of two 4-drops, but five 4-, 5-, and 6-drops combined.
Note: Stealth minions, while technically not direct damage or considered ‘reach,’ are also very good in this style.
Taunt minions are extremely useful in this style. They perform a similar job to AoE (which we'll discuss later). In short, they keep us alive until we can finish the game through our hero power and reach.
As you can see, this curve is a whole lot trickier. That's because Burn Hunter relies on curving out far less than Curve Hunter, and instead relies more on having the right mix of tech cards.
Why no big minions?
This style loses board control around turn 6, playing a big minion then just means we can’t hero power, and the opponent will most likely be able to deal with it (this results in dealing 0 damage for 6 mana). There is also the risk that our opponent has a cheap removal spell for big minions (Shadow Word: Death, Deadly Shot, Sap…), which allows them to get even further ahead on the board.
If you're picking 5 and 6 drops, preferably take Taunt and/or Stealth minions.
Tech Cards:
Reach:
Reach is the key component to this style. I have picked a Leper Gnome over a Chillwind Yeti (pack #2) and not regretted it. You're going to want 8-10 direct damage cards, in total, for this style. That might seem like a lot, but it is very doable if you pick them religiously.
Premium Reach: Leper Gnome, Arcane Shot, Glaivezooka, Quick Shot, Eaglehorn Bow, Argent Horserider, Wolf Rider, Arcane Golem, Unleash the Hounds, Nightblade, Cobra Shot, Reckless Rocketeer, Leeroy Jenkins, Argent Commander, Gladiator's Longbow, King Krush
Decent Reach: Kill Command, Bluegill Warrior, Gnomeregan Infantry, Stormwind Knight, Abomination, Stormpike Commando.
Explanation for certain cards:
Some cards in this list might surprise you, so I'll start off by explaining my criteria.
-Amount of Damage
-Flexibility
-Overlapping Roles
-Potential for Repeated Damage
A card like Reckless Rocketeer is considered Premium Reach because of the high amount of damage and its potential for hitting face more than once, forcing the opponent to slow down his development in order to deal with the threat.
Nightblade is there for the same reason: the card deals 3 immediate face damage and has the potential for repeated damage, which forces the opponent to remove it.
Kill Command can be bumped to Premium in Burn Hunters if you have a combination of 4+ Unleash the Hounds or cheap-cost beast-type cards. If you have neither, it's still 3 damage. Early on, I'll pick a Premium reach card over it because I don't want to risk being stranded without Beast-type cards. Because of the emphasis on reach, there will be a ton of beasts you can't draft because they're paired up with either flexible removal, AoE, or Premium reach.
Cobra Shot is one of the more controversial picks – it’s a card people love to hate. Why is it good in this style? Because it very efficient: Cobra Shot is both removal and face damage in 1 card. Beyond this, our curve is so low we will be running out of steam way too fast if you play for pure mana efficiency. Imagine a scenario where the enemy Mage is at 10 health and we're at 20. His board is an Ethereal Conjurer and a Chillwind Yeti. The cards in our hand are Cobra Shot and an Acidic Swamp Ooze. We first play the Acidic Swamp Ooze, then play Cobra Shot, and finally use our hero power to bring the opponent to 5 health and threaten lethal. This turn will most likely force the enemy to trade with the Chillwind Yeti, keeping us nice and comfortable at 20 hp to close out that game with hero power and/or top deck reach.
Consider a different scenario: say we drafted a Kill Command instead of Cobra Shot. Suddenly, you're faced with the tough decision to hold the Kill Command in hopes of drawing into lethal on the following turn (knowing that the best case scenario is the Chillwind Yeti trading into our Acidic Swamp Ooze and Ethereal Conjurer going face, most likely setting up lethal for the Mage). On the other hand, we can use that Kill Command defensively on the Ethereal Conjurer, but this forces us to hope that the Mage doesn't have any additional threats (which is unlikely, as we'll be behind in cards).
You might say, "but Shady, this scenario is awfully specific. Surely a Kill Command is better, on average, than a Cobra shot?" Being faced with the decision to remove in order to stay alive longer or keep the card for burn is one you'll face numerous times when playing this style. This is due to the way our deck is built: we'll almost always fall behind on the board and in regards to card advantage. Moreover, we're working with limited resources; we don't have an abundance of Premium reach like constructed Face Hunter.
Leper Gnome is here because of overlapping roles. He fills roles both as a curve minion and a reach card. You want as many of those cards as possible because they make your deck way more consistent.
Unleash the Hounds needs no explanation; it’s an excellent example of overlapping roles, fulfilling both Reach and AoE, often times both sending a portion of the Hounds to the enemy face while using one-to-two to remove a high damage, low health threat.
Abomination: AoE, Taunt, and Reach in one card make this a reasonable addition. The only reason it's not rated as Premium is that we don't have many targets for things like Silence and Polymorph, so the poor Abomination will take a sheep to the knee if they have one.
Gnomeregan Infantry: while only dealing one damage, this 3-drop can be a delivery system for buffs such as Abusive Sergeant. The fact that it has Taunt might also be the difference between our opponent having lethal and surviving just long enough to find lethal ourselves.
AoE:
Unlike the Curve Hunter, Burn Hunter really wants AoE, considering that the gameplan is to lose board earlier and finish the opponent with Reach. So, you're going to want to stay alive until that point. This is where the AoE comes in; it allows you to keep the opponent's board under control while you work on the opponent's health by using your hero power as well as through Reach cards.
Most of my Burn Hunters end up with 2-4 AoE effects. The more single target removal you pick up (Glaivezooka, Arcane Shot, Freezing Trap, Cobra Shot,...), the less AoE you'll need (because the opponent's board builds up more slowly).
Unleash the Hounds is super Premium. Because of its flexibility, it can serve as good AoE or premium Reach. Explosive Shot, Multi-Shot and Powershot are also very good. While they don't deal face damage, they are generally excellent at mana efficiency.
Wild Pyromancer usually flies under the radar, but with the right setup, he is incredible.
I've had a run where this guy and an Explorer's Hat won me multiple games. Explosive Trap gets better when supported by other AoE (even a second Explosive Trap). With proper timing, this card can buy you the time needed to close out the game.
Lastly, there is Madder Bomber. He’s a little on the RNG side, but seeing as we shouldn't be in control of the board, this card can be a severe hindrance for the opponent, considering they need to clear the body in addition to his reach damage.
Single (large) threat removal: Freezing Trap and Deadly Shot become a little worse when compared to Curve Hunter, seeing as we don't control the board that well and there may be a small minion on the board preventing these from being terribly effective. They're still good, just not super Premium. Hunter’s Mark, however, is still amazing. When combined with AoE, this card allows for some disgusting clears For Example: Power Shot on two 2-drops with a Hunter’s Mark’d 4-drop ends up being your 3-mana clearing the enemy’s 8-mana worth of cards. I still like having two of these, especially if one is Hunter’s Mark.
Flexible removal: Glaivezooka is still the king, even in LoE. This card is super Premium for both styles. Unless I have three of them, it's always the pick; even then, a fourth copy of the card can be a good pick.
Arcane shot, Quick Shot, and Eaglehorn Bow are even more premium in this style because of the amount of reach we're after. I've drafted three Arcane Shots and two Quick Shots in the same deck, and it was absolutely amazing. Draft away! We need the reach, and from time-to-time, it will save our bacon by removing a key threat.
Explorer's Hat is still very useful; one is never bad, don't pick one instead of reach or AoE, though.
Card draw: Cult master and Jeeves still rock. We have plenty of low curve minions to cash in and draw from. Depending on how your reach and AoE looks, you might skip one for these champs. We still want to have one card draw effect (we can even take an inferior one like Gnomish Inventor, Azure Drake, or Ball of Spiders), but don't skip reach or AoE for this.
Cheat Sheet for Drafting Burn Hunter:
1-drops: 2-5
2-drops: 5-7 (a combined ten 1- and 2-drops works best)
3-drops: 4
4-drops: 2-3
5-drops: 0-2
6-drops: 0-1
7+ drops: N/A
Combination of all reach: 8-10
AoE: 2-4 (you can take more if you have less flex removal).
Flex Removal: pick until you're at a combined-10 reach cards.
Single (large) threat removal: 1-2
Which style do I draft?
‘Reading’ the draft is a skill that you develop through repetition, like any other. I will do my best to accelerate the process for you.
I feel like the biggest factor that decides what style you're going to draft is dictated by how much reach you are offered early on in the draft.
At around pick ten, I like to make my decision as to which style I'm going to draft. Here are some indicators to help you make that decision:
Indicators for Curve Hunter:
· Premium big minions like Savannah Highmane, Sunwalker…
· Card quality: Curve Hunter relies on having good cards; Burn Hunter can get away with low card quality as long as the cards are of the right type and variety (reach, AoE…)
· Buffs: seeing as we're going to be in control of the board, cards such as Dark Iron Dwarf are much better in Curve Hunter.
Indicators for Burn Hunter:
· Reach; the more, the better.
· AoE effects
· Nightblade and Cobra Shot, specifically, are very good here and "meh" in Curve Hunter
· If the draft is heading toward disaster, you'll usually have a better chance of squeezing out more wins by going all-in on the burn style, even if you're still fairly low on reach cards by pick 10.
Execution:
Now that you have a fancy Hunter deck, you want to make sure your in-game decision making is in alignment with the win condition of the type of Hunter you have drafted. Because we will very rarely out-value our opponents, the hunter requires optimal tempo plays. In addition to that, every trade you're presented with needs to be evaluated. Approach your tempo plays by considering lines of thought, such as:
Will trading this minion make a significant enough impact on my board next turn? Will I just "heal" my opponent for the face damage that my minion would have dealt by trading for him?
Most people only talk about the “punish” for leaving your opponent's minion alive (Dark Iron Dwarf, Argent Protector, removal spells…). Instead, think about the punish for trading. If you make a trade that your opponent quite likely would have made for you and missed 3 damage as a result, that same 3 damage can be the difference between comfortable lethal on turn 9 and being 1 damage off lethal before dying to the opponent's board.
I will do my best to aid you with this decision making, so let's get started :)
General Match-up Strategies
As previously started, one of the most important things to know is when to trade and when to go face. There are several things we need to take in consideration before we can make the right decision.
How will this trade affect my damage output in the long run?
In my channel, we like to use the term “SMOrconomics” for this. Certain trades will increase the damage output over the next few turns. This generally involves making a trade in order to prevent a good trade for your opponent. Additionally, this can either be to protect a bigger threat or make the trades more awkward for the opponent’s next turn.
Examples:
1)
-It is turn 2: I played a River Crocolisk (2/3) and the opponent replies with a Bloodfen Raptor (3/2). I respond by playing an Injured Blademaster (4/3) on turn 3 and trade the River Crocolisk to protect the higher-attack Injured Blademaster.
2)
-I have an Ogre Magi (4/4) and Bloodfen Raptor (3/2) on the board; the opponent has a Silverhand Regent (3/3) and an Injured Blademaster (4/3). If we go full face here, the opponent can respond will full clear with what is on the board. Depending on life totals, it would be better to kill the Silverhand Regent with the Ogre Magi, both taking a free trade while preventing the full clear. The Bloodfen Raptor, however, should go face. Trading to protect the remaining 4/1 Ogre Magi will not usually be worth missing 3 face damage.
3)
-My board: a Lost Tallstrider, an Acidic Swamp Ooze, and a Spider Tank. The opponent has an Oasis Snapjaw and a Raging Worgen. The obvious clear would be: the Lost Tallstrider and Spider Tank kill the Oasis Snapjaw; The Acidic Swamp Ooze trades with the Raging Worgen. However, if we trade the Raging Worgen with our Spider Tank and just go face with the Acidic Swamp Ooze and Lost Tallstrider, we're pushing 8 damage. There is no way you're going to get 8 additional damage, in the long run, by killing this Oasis Snapjaw. As I like to say, don't give slow minions Windfury/Taunt by attacking into them for the opponent.
How much damage do I have available to me over the next few turns?
Sometimes, you can ignore the opponent's board completely, allowing him favourable trades, because you can simply kill him within the next few turns by using reach cards and/or your hero power. Don't forget your opponent will also go face once your board is cleared, so keep an eye on your own health when mapping out the next few turns.
Example:
-It's turn 6 and you are playing against a Mage – and we know what that means – he'll have Flamestrike available next turn. The Mage is at 16 HP and we're at 28 HP. We have an Ogre Magi (4/4) and Bloodfen Raptor x2 (3/2) on the board; in our hand, we have a Chillwind Yeti (4/5, River Crocolisk (2/3), and a Raging Worgen (3/3). The opponent’s board is: a Goblin Sapper (2/4), an Injured Blademaster (4/3) and an Acidic Swamp Ooze (3/2).
A decent play here would be to kill the Goblin Sapper with the Magi, trade the two Bloodfen Raptors into the Injured Blademaster and Acidic Swamp Ooze for a full clear, and play our Chillwind Yeti and River Crocolisk. The problem is that the Flamestrike will still wipe most of our board next turn and we're running out of steam at this point; if the opponent can deal with the minions we develop after the Flamestrike, he will most likely stabilize.
The alternative line of play would be to go full face, play our Chillwind Yeti and weave in our hero power, dealing 11 damage and putting the opponent at 4 HP. Yes, the Flamestrike will still wipe our board, but the opponent needs to kill us next turn to prevent lethal by our hero power; only healing would beat this line of play, but the chance of the opponent healing would be lower than us finding a win after that Flamestrike (a highly drafted class common).
Is there any way I can win the game if I don't deal maximum face damage here?
Sometimes, you won't have the luxury of setting up two-turn lethal with reach in hand and use of your hero power; thus, you'll need to go face and assume you draw enough reach to close out the game before the opponent has lethal.
Example:
Your hand is empty, your board consists of Spiteful Smith (4/6), Bloodfen Raptor (3/2) and a leftover Hound (1/1) from Unleash the Hounds; you have 26 HP. Our opponent has an Emperor Cobra (2/3; kills any minion it deals damage to) and a Spider Tank (3/4); he is on 16 HP and has 5 cards in his hand.
A reasonable line of play would be to trade the Bloodfen Raptor into the Emperor Cobra to prevent the premium trade of the Cobra into the Spiteful Smith, then sending the Spiteful Smith, the Hound and use our hero power for 7 damage, leaving the opponent at 9 HP. The problem with this line is that with 5 cards in the enemy Mage's hand, it's fairly likely our Spiteful Smith won't make it through Jaina's next turn because of removal spells. This means that the 3 damage of the Bloodfen Raptor we invested to keep the Spiteful Smith alive will not pay for itself, and will instead be lost.
If, instead, we go full face and put the opponent at 6 HP, it's still not guaranteed we will survive 3 turns to win the game with hero power use, but between that and topdecking additional damage, I believe you'll have a higher chance to win with this route as opposed to giving the opponent three additional health by trading the Bloodfen Raptor. These are the real tough decisions, and they'll depend on how much reach your deck has.
Do I use my removal on a minion I could also just remove with my board?
This might be obvious to some of you, but I still see a lot of players "saving" their removal. This is almost always wrong as a Hunter. Look at it this way: by casting removal instead of trading, the removal spell now reads: remove a minion and deal x face damage (because your minion was able to go face).
One of the reasons to trade (or ignore) the opponent's minion instead of casting removal is that it could make your curve awkward. If you can develop more power (excluding the minion that will die next turn) by using your mana on playing minions instead, you can go for it.
Examples:
1)
-Turn 5: you have a Core Rager (4/4) on the board and a Freezing Trap, a Spider Tank and Bloodfen Raptor in your hand. Your opponent has a Lost Tallstrider (5/4). It might be tempting to trade the Core Rager and just play both of your minions, but by playing the Freezing Trap and the Spider Tank, you get to deal four face damage while keeping a superior board state.
2)
-Turn 3: Your opponent has just played a Worgen Infiltrator on their turn 2; your board consists of an Acidic Swamp Ooze (3/2); your hand holds a Chillwind Yeti (4/5), a Spectral Knight (4/6), a Deadly Shot, and a Savannah Highmane (6/5). It's totally fine to blow the Deadly Shot on the Worgen Infiltrator here. The alternative line of play would be just to use our hero power and lose our Acidic Swamp Ooze. This won't happen very often, because of your low curve, but if it does, don't get greedy with the removal; remember, it's worthless anyway if you don't have control of the board.
Curve Hunter:
When playing Curve Hunter, the game plan when playing generally consists of a fair amount of trades. This is because your curve is a little heavier than a Burn Hunter draft, having around three big minions. A lot of your games are going to feel like you're setting up one huge swing turn by making favorable trades to increase your lead on the board until you drop your 6-drop and suddenly send it all face (this is often referred to as ‘flipping the switch’). This is also usually the response to your opponent playing a bigger minion. Not taking the optimal trade into his big minion will result in a loss of the board a couple turns down the road. But that's perfectly fine, since he should be dead or (very close to it) by that point. If you still have one of your single target removal spells left for this threat, you'll usually just win that turn.
To achieve the above mentioned scenario, you need to be in control of the board. This is why we draft such a low curve. When nearly half of your deck consists of 1 to 2-drops, you need to mulligan aggressively for a good start.
Use of your Hero power:
Do I play as many minions as possible, or do I try to hero power every turn?
As a Curve Hunter, you use a fairly low number of hero powers until you're running out of things to play. This because you have some high cost minions to play. There are times where you'll hero power instead of playing out your hand for maximum tempo, usually when the minion you're going to play has a very low chance of connecting with the enemy’s face next turn (i.e. Flamestrike turn; we've lost the board and the opponent will just trade with the big minion; there is a wall of Taunt minions...). Conversely, when the opponent is extremely low on HP, playing the big minion over using the hero power may allow them to find removal or a Taunt minion to stay alive longer.
Mulligan Strategies:
Going First: unless I have a 1- and 2-drop in my opening hand, I'll throw back 3-drops and beyond. If you have 1- or 2-drop already, exceptions can be made for premium 3-drops (Ogre Brute, Spider Tank, Animal Companion). If you lack the 1- and 2-drop, you need the be disciplined and throw them back. Removal always gets thrown back; you can't afford to skip a turn early.
Going Second: because of the Coin, we have a little flexibility. Unless I have two 2-drops or a 1- and 2-drop, I still won't keep a regular 3-drop. However, I’ll make exceptions for a premium 3-drop because a 1-3-3 curve is possible and we're still throwing 3 cards, making it fairly likely to hit our curve. If you’re offered a perfect curve, don’t throw back a 4-drop, of course. We will gladly take a 1-2 into coin 4 or 1-2-3-4 curve.
Burn Hunter:
The gameplan for Burn Hunter is quite different from that of Curve Hunter; it resembles that of a constructed Face Hunter. The big difference between Burn and Face Hunters is that in constructed, you have so much reach that you can usually just point everything to the enemy face, every turn, and have a decent shot at winning the game. Because we have much less reach in an Arena Burn Hunter, the gameplan is to use our AoE, our efficient damage cards and our single target removal to prolong the game; this allows us to use our hero power more and draw into more reach.
Because you try to finish the game off the board, through reach, the games are usually very close and any missed damage can result into a loss. Executed perfectly, however, you can overcome extreme differences in card quality (think of the 4x Keeper of Uldaman Paladin decks).
The early game is very similar to a Curve Hunter. We want to try and curve out 1-3-drops and make trades if these increase our damage output the next turn. However, instead of building a lead on the board for a swing turn, we just push as much damage from that point onward, only taking trades which are too good to pass up (like a Leper Gnome into a Knife Juggler). It's at this point that we'll squeeze in more hero power use and our AoEs to remove the opponent's board. In sum, Burn Hunter aims to slowly whittle down the opponent's life total while holding a nice balance between dealing damage and keeping the board under control.
Use of your Hero power:
Most of the time, start using hero power around turn 6-7. It could be that you have to use one in an earlier turn to use excess mana, but from turn 7+ you should not miss a hero power unless you have a good read your opponent can't deal with the threat you're about to develop and it's going to hit harder than the hero power. For example, playing an Ancient Shade and Scarlet Crusader: the Scarlet Crusader will hit for 3 if the opponent can't deal with it; however, if he can kill it, you've effectively missed 2 damage by missing a hero power. It's all about constant evaluation of how likely the minion you play is going to be able to hit face. Stealth minions usually have a good shot, but I try to save them for a turn where you can hero power and play the minion; the same logic applies for minions with charge.
Mulligan strategies:
The early curve of this style resembles that of a the curve Hunter enough to have the same mulligan rules.
Matchups:
For most of the match-ups, I’ll talk about class specific tips in the curve Hunter; these also generally apply to the burn Hunter.
Mage:
(Curve Hunter)
One of your better match-ups. Unless you're facing an aggressive Mage with multiple Mana Wyrms, most of them will be too slow to stop you. Do not be afraid to let the Mage use her hero power to ping things for value - the reason for this is because it is almost always a slower play on their part. Playing a 2/1 on turn 1 is fine; if she invests 2 mana to deal with your 1-drop, then you're getting ahead on the board.
As usual, try to engineer a board that has at least 1 minion that survives Flamestrike heading into turn 7 (start planning this a couple turns in advance). Play two low-health minions instead of that Spectral Knight on turn five so that you can play it into the Flamestrike later. After turn 7, it will be very rare to take a trade – perhaps a 2-drop into an Ethereal Conjurer to prevent 6 damage to your face, but rarely anything else.
In some games, you'll face heavy resistance early on and you won't have a significant lead going into turn 7, meaning you can't build a board that is resistant to Flamestrike (because she still has a minion or two to trade, or you didn't find any of your big minions). When this happens, you need to accept that the game cannot be won if the opponent has a Flamestrike (and by holding back and playing slow, you might even give her time to recover without a Flamestrike!) so you'll need to play like she doesn't have it and accept the beat if she does.
If you have the option to use removal or develop board, take the removal. On Average, Mages have more spells than other classes. Therefore, by removing their board instead of counter developing, you can make them miss a drop.
If the Mage is getting lower on HP and you have the option to hero power or develop, using your hero power will be the safest. Because mages are so good at removing minions on the board, it could prolong the game quite a bit if you skip hero powers.
(Burn Hunter)
Mages are an even better match-up as a burn Hunter, partly because we don’t usually have any big minions for them to Polymorph or Fireball.
The gameplan is very straightforward: deal maximum damage in the early game and close out the game with reach cards and through using your hero power. As with curve Hunter, feel free to offer the Mage value-uses of their hero power; you might even trick the opponent into playing more slowly, which is great because she'll never have enough mana to play all those cards she's gaining on you anyways, thus rendering the card advantage useless.
There is less emphasis on playing around Flamestrike for this style because we don’t rely on the board to close out the game. Just make sure the Mage is low enough on HP to do so. Unless your health is getting too low, don’t be afraid to go face, even though she will get more value from a Flamestrike.
Cards like Quick Shot and Cobra Shot excel at dealing with Ethereal Conjurers. Don't be afraid to skip a turn of development to just use removal on her board. As long as you're not being pressured, you have enough turns to get extra damage in through using your hero power.
Paladin:
(Curve Hunter)
Yuck; we don't like this guy. Beating Paladins is definitely possible, but there are many things we need to watch out for.
Paladins are absolutely crazy if they're in control of the board. Without board control, however, they are far more manageable. This means that you're going to have to play a little more safely when it comes to trading. Not exchanging 2-drops might result in an early loss of board, due to an Argent Protector. Once you have to start trading multiple minions into a threat, it's time to start ignoring part of the board. Usually, a bigger minion doesn't even benefit that much from a divine shield when trading into a smaller minion.
If possible, delay playing your high cost minions, seeing as a Keeper of Uldaman, Aldor Peacekeeper, and/or a potential divine shield trade can completely ruin your tempo.
Depending on how well you’re controlling the board (and if you have efficient removal), there is definitely an option to keep clearing everything until you have lethal. Just keep in mind that Paladins can create big swings on the board with Keeper of Uldaman, Aldor Peacekeeper, Consecration...so you may seem further ahead than you actually are. Just keep evaluating the situation turn-by-turn: how likely are you to win the game if you miss additional face damage? Will I have enough damage to close out the game if I allow the Paladin a nice board swing with a buff if I don’t clear his board?
(Burn Hunter)
An easier matchup than it is for the curve Hunter (unless Uther is packing tons of healing). Because you don’t need the board to close out the game, you can ignore a trade with a little more peace of mind, knowing that the tempo swing of a buff won’t cost you the game. As with the Mage, prioritize using removal over developing. Delaying the turn where the paladin gets ahead on the board is always a good idea, allowing us to get a little more mileage out of using the hero power.
Rogue:
(Curve Hunter)
This is a very skillful matchup. One false move on either end and the game gets flipped upside down. In the early game, be aware of cards like Backstab, Buccaneer, and Goblin Auto-Barber and play 3-health over 2-health minions when possible. It’s nearly impossible to out-tempo a Rogue in the early game, so instead of going for max development, remove her minions when possible. For example: playing a Glaivezooka and a 2-drop on turn 4 instead of just playing a Chillwind Yeti, allowing you to attack and remove a 2-health minion from the opponent's side of the board.
As with the Paladin, delay playing your big drops to play around Sap. Your 6-drop getting sapped on curve, instead of splitting it up in 4- and 2-drops, could be the difference between a win or a loss. If you successfully delay the Rogue, cards like Backstab, Sap and Eviscerate are still good, but no longer game winning. If we play correctly (and don’t get unlucky), the game should end with the Rogue never feeling like she can ignore a minion, ultimately losing to our hero power.
(Burn Hunter)
Once again, an easier matchup for the burn Hunter because we’re not too reliant on the board to close out the game.
The goal is to inflict as much damage as possible with our early game minions, use a couple removal spells to keep the Rogue from developing too threatening of a board, and ultimately winning the game with our reach cards and through using our hero power. The way in which the Rogue wins this matchup is by having such a strong early game that you are prevented from dealing face damage with any of your early game minions (with efficient cards like Backstab and Defias Ringleader). Knowing this, be extra mindful of potential tempo swings. As with the curve Hunter, try to avoid them by playing 3-health minions and cast removal spells instead of developing your board when you have the chance.
Druid:
(Curve Hunter)
If you’ve drafted a combination of two-to-three Deadly Shots and/or Hunter’s Marks, this match-up can be very straightforward. Focus on removing early game minions, wait for cards like Druid of the Claw and Ironbark Protector, use efficient removal on them and enjoy the tempo swing.
If your draft doesn’t include these cards, you’ll have to constantly plan out your turns so that you have enough power on board to deal with these minions. Other than that, be mindful of Swipe. If you’re ahead on the board, consider making a less greedy trade to prevent the potential full clear that a well-placed Swipe can afford your opponent. Because the Druid lacks single target removal, don’t be afraid to play your big minions on curve.
(Burn Hunter)
This match-up is a little trickier than the Curve hunter because of the likelihood of Taunt minions; these can block a large portion of our reach. In addition, the Druid’s hero power counters half of our hero power damage in the lategame. If you’re mapping out two-to-three turn lethal, first use your charge minions before the taunt minions come down, then use your spells to close out the game.
Because most Druids prefer playing big minions over many small ones, our AoE gets less value; this means you’ll have to get creative. Holding AoE and playing minions to set up a board where it hits multiple (Taunt) minions is preferred.
Warlock:
(Curve Hunter)
Contrary to popular belief, Warlock is not your best matchup. Most warlock decks you’ll see are very low curve, meaning they’ll give you a run for your money when it comes to early board control. On top of that, they value Taunt and healing more highly than other classes. If you are facing a low-curve Warlock deck, it’s not unusual for you to be the defender, seeing as they can’t use their hero power too many times (and you’re very happy to do so) in the late game.
Try to avoid good tempo plays for the Warlock by disabling buffs when you can (for instance, kill that 1/1 Imp to prevent it from killing your Chillwind Yeti with a Power Overwhelming). If you’re facing a slower control-type Warlock deck, you really can’t lose aside from walking into a huge tempo swing at the hands of a well-placed Hellfire or Demonwrath, so be aware of those cards and play around them when possible.
(Burn Hunter)
For burn Hunter, Warlock is a pretty good matchup. We’re packing quite a bit of AoE, and because most Warlocks tend to draft low-curve decks, there is a good chance you’ll get a nice tempo swing from one of your AoE’s. From that moment on, you should have enough time to close out the game with your hero power and reach cards. If you’re playing against a slower Warlock, or if they are a “Zoo” style but simply have a bad draw, you can usually just power through without waiting for a swing with an AoE.
Hunter:
(Curve Hunter)
Right now, the vast majority of Hunters out there are playing curve Hunter. In a mirror match, it’s all about making your opponent react to you. The first person to lose board will most likely take too much damage to recover, seeing as you’ll be left trading into your opponent’s minions after they go face.
One of the moments you can gain an advantage is when your opponent plays a secret. It’s almost always wrong to hit face when the opponent has an unidentified secret. If it’s a Bear Trap, you’ve just given your opponent a free 3/3 minion (that is also a Beast). You might say, “hey, it’s not free, he paid 2 mana.” While this is correct, if you do not hit face and focus on board control, you leave your opponent with 2 mana less to fight for the board; this most likely results in you gaining board control and being able to deal with the bear once it has become irrelevant.
The same approach goes for an Explosive Trap. There is no reason to give your opponent a Consecration for 2 mana; just don’t hit face and develop the board up to a point to where the Explosive Trap becomes irrelevant, using the minions that would die to it anyway, to trade into minions your opponent develops.
Other than that, look for moments where you can use cheap removal spells to neutralize bigger threats.
(Burn Hunter)
You’re at a disadvantage here. Because your opponent should at least be able to match your development in the early game, you’re not going to get a ton of damage in. This match-up seems similar to the Zoo Warlock archetype (you’re going to want to get a good swing with an AoE).The big difference here is that Hunters are going to pack more reach. When this is combined with their hero power, this severely limits the amount of time you have to close out the game. Most games will be decided by a big minion from their side and your ability to deal with it. An unanswered Sunwalker or Savannah Highmane will cost you the game and a sweet Deadly Shot or Freezing Trap can buy you the time that you need.
Shaman:
(Curve Hunter)
This can be a tricky matchup (mostly because of their hero power). You don’t want to leave a Shaman with Totems, so they absorb a lot of damage. The early game should still be in your favour. Avoid playing a 2-health minion into their turn two because of Stormforged Axe. When possible, play around Forked Lighting, a highly-underrated-but completely-devastating card if it sets you back two minions.
The goal is to create a large enough lead on the board so that we can comfortably clear the Shaman’s totems without being afraid of falling short on damage at end the game. Try to delay playing big minions because of the threat that Hex represents. Finally, keep an eye out for Fire Elemental on turn six. If possible, avoid leaving your threats at 3 health for when you end your turn five.
(Burn Hunter)
This is a frustrating matchup because time is generally not your friend here. Shamans tend to get more value out of being able to use their hero power. Your best bet at winning the game is to avoid tempo swings in the Shaman’s favour (like those mentioned above) while simultaneously pushing as much damage as possible. In the early game, you can afford to kill a Totem with a two-to-three damage minion in order to give yourself more time on the board. In the long run, this will ultimately result in more damage.
Your instincts are going to tell you to keep clearing their board, but you won’t have enough damage to close out the game if you do so. It usually ends up with you going full face in one turn (remember, “flip the switch”), allowing them onto the board, and then hoping that an AoE can do enough work to prevent the win for them. If they have a Bloodlust, they will usually win (killing you one or two turns before you would have had lethal).
Warrior:
(Curve Hunter)
Warrior is pretty decent matchup. Each of your hero powers cancel each other’s out; this generally means that you need to close the game out while being in control of the board. The game can become tough if they have a Fiery War Axe on curve. Other than that, though, you should have a good shot at just overrunning them in the early game. Most Warriors don’t draft quite as light as we do.
If possible, play around Execute by keeping the board clear and/or keeping your big minions at full health.
Cleave can also be quite the beat, so avoid having two 2-health minions early on, as a loss of board can quickly spiral out of control. Remember, we don’t really have a hero power in this match-up.
Finally, the only time I play around Brawl by holding back minions is when I’m so far ahead, it’s one of the only ways the Warrior could come back (remember, it is an Epic rarity card).
(Burn Hunter)
Unlike the curve Hunter, burn Hunter can struggle quite a bit with Warriors. This is because we essentially need to deal enough damage early on so that we can close out the game without our hero power in the late-game (during the mid-game, there might be some turns where we get to use our hero power and the warrior opts not to, insteading choosing to develop minions).
With that being said, you should try to control the board a little longer than you normally would against other classes. This should be possible because the Warrior might miss a drop here or there, and his hero power won’t do anything for board control as it does not directly impact the board state.
Try to keep a Deadly Shot or Hunter’s Mark for turn 7, seeing as Obsidian Destroyer is a very common card right now (getting both the class and expansion bonus) and, if unanswered, will often win the game for the Warrior outright.
Priest:
(Curve Hunter)
Priest is another decent match-up, mainly because of our low curve and the Priest’s reliance on having board control. In the late game, as with Warrior, your hero power cancels out the Priest’s. Therefore, it is important to keep control of the board until you have enough damage to win the game.
Getting your board wiped by an AoE can set you back enough for the Priest to recover. So, you’re going to want to play around Holy Nova most of the time and Excavated Evil whenever you’re far enough ahead that you can afford to do so.
Avoid spending all of your mana on a big minion that's vulnerable to Shadow Word: Death. This can be a tempo swing that might afford the Priest and opportunity to seize control of the board.
(Burn Hunter)
In this Match-up, as with the Warrior, the lack of your hero power’s effectiveness really hurts.
We will be taking a similar approach by denying the Priest control of the board as long as we can, hoping that the Priest won’t curve out perfectly and has to use 2 mana to heal his face, therefore allowing us to keep the board.
Avoid trading multiple minions into one large minion; it’s not worth it. (Note that there are exceptions; for example, trade off your Injured Blademaster for his Dark Cultist if it’s his only minion). There usually comes a point where you can no longer efficiently contest the board. This is where we go wide and hope he doesn’t have an AoE. This is not the prettiest of strategies, but I find that on average, it gives you the highest chance to win the game. You’d rather go all in and win if he can’t deal with it rather than play it slowly and still lose because you don’t have a hero power.
That’s all, folks! Thank you for reading - I know it was a lot. Special thanks to BriefCandles for helping out with the spelling and grammar.
I’ll leave you with some actual decklists and the footage of that specific arena run; all of this footage was made during LoE. Enjoy :)
3. Decklists & Videos.
Curve Hunter:
http://puu.sh/o9jYN/82f68e1e7c.jpg https://www.twitch.tv/shadybunny/v/59104852
http://puu.sh/o9jVX/70b8ffaa68.jpg https://www.twitch.tv/shadybunny/v/59105128
http://puu.sh/o9k43/93597615a3.jpg https://www.twitch.tv/shadybunny/v/55127731
http://puu.sh/o9k85/3f0f559b87.jpg https://www.twitch.tv/shadybunny/v/52925584
http://puu.sh/o9kc4/4957ade870.jpg https://www.twitch.tv/shadybunny/v/52925426
http://puu.sh/o9kke/4dbfc401a8.jpg https://www.twitch.tv/shadybunny/v/59104644
http://puu.sh/oaDkA/453766c321.jpg https://www.twitch.tv/shadybunny/v/59299856
http://puu.sh/okdlu/842e7703a9.jpg https://www.twitch.tv/shadybunny/v/59296650
http://puu.sh/okdBg/60cdce7303.jpg https://www.twitch.tv/shadybunny/v/59108673
Burn Hunter:
http://puu.sh/oaxsG/26baafd9d5.jpg https://www.twitch.tv/shadybunny/v/59287275
http://puu.sh/okdIk/1d1f3a2bae.jpg https://www.twitch.tv/shadybunny/v/59105565
http://puu.sh/okdNm/414d0efe05.jpg https://www.twitch.tv/shadybunny/v/59106191
http://puu.sh/o9lsP/f428985aaf.jpg
https://www.twitch.tv/shadybunny/v/59106904 (1) https://www.twitch.tv/shadybunny/v/59106640 (2)
https://www.twitch.tv/shadybunny/v/59107045 (3) Unfortunately, my internet was struggeling quite a bit during this run, hence it being split in 3 parts.
http://puu.sh/okdV5/e990091516.jpg https://www.twitch.tv/shadybunny/v/59107799 (This is a coaching session)
http://puu.sh/oke0M/a52556f37a.jpg https://www.twitch.tv/shadybunny/v/59296650 (this deck has 3x Glaivezooka, so we can hold the board longer than this style should in some games, turning it into more of a hybrid style).
