Published , by Ozzie Mejia
Published , by Ozzie Mejia
It's that time once again. With a new Hearthstone expansion comes the rush from the player base to find a viable deck to take onto the Ranked ladder. It may be a bit tough to find one right now, because the ladder seems to be Demon Hunter, Demon Hunter, and more Demon Hunter. Alright, that's fine, but what if you're looking for something else to help you ride the train to success? Shacknews is here to help.
We've not only been running through the Hearthstone ladder, but we've also been watching the world's top streamers in an effort to find something usable for the long haul. The meta is always changing, but for the early days of the Ashes of Outland expansion, take a look at these deck ideas and consider taking them into battle.
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Have I mentioned that there a lot of Demon Hunters out there? There are many Demon Hunters with about 90 percent of them looking pretty similar. David "Dogdog" Caero goes down a bit of a different path, so let's take a look at that instead of the run-of-the-mill DH deck. Rather than rely on staples like Altruis the Outcast, Imprisoned Antaen, and Priestess of Fury, Dog goes all-in on the one-turn kill revolving around Kael'thas Sunstrider, the Demon Hunter's zero-Cost spells, and a discounted Inner Demon. This deck's success largely depends on early aggro strategies and maintaining board control, but if you can set up that OTK with Kael'thas, this deck sees a lot of success.
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If you're looking for something aimed more towards control, you can take a look at what Torben "Viper" Wahl recently put together on one of his streams. This takes advantage of some new control tools, such as Serpentshrine Portal, Magtheridon, and The Lurker Below. Old staples like Lightning Breath and Hagatha's Scheme further tilt the board in your favor while Cobalt Spellkin and Marshspawn can keep your resources replenished. The only thing really missing here is a true win condition, but if you're looking to go toe-to-toe with aggro decks, you could do much worse.
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It's hard to say whether Thijs Molendijk's Quest Warlock can get you through the early game aggro, but if you can drag your opponent out to the late game, you will have a lot that can carry you to victory. The keys, of course, involve Fel Lord Betrug and Plot Twist. This late-game combo mainly aims to heal through Aranasi Broodmother and Khartut Defender while simultaneously taking advantage of the massive Deathrattle effects of newcomers Scrapyard Colossus and Enhanced Dreadlord.
If you survive the early turns, this is a lot of fun. Just beware of aggressive Demon Hunters.
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Slysssa's Libram Paladin requires pretty much every Libram card you can craft, because as a whole, they're pretty powerful. If you can discount Libram of Hope to a manageable number, it becomes a valuable late game card. The card to watch for in this deck is Lady Liadrin, which essentially puts all of your Librams back in your hand, including a bunch of free Librams of Wisdom. Lightforged Crusader can be another major tool in the late game in the event that your resources are starting to run out.
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RegisKillbin is looking to eradicate the growing Demon Hunter menace. But what's a Priest player to do, especially with only one Reliquary Prime coming off of Reliquary of Souls? The answer is to make many Reliquary Primes. And fortunately, the Priest is uniquely equipped to make multiple copies of anything. Shadowy Figure and Psychopomp can copy the early game Reliquary of Souls while Catrina Muerte and Mass Resurrection potentially Reliquary Prime itself back on the board. Both of these cards have Lifesteal and the Prime can't be single-target removed. Not that it would matter to Demon Hunter, since it doesn't really have single-target removal anyway.
The multitude of Reliquaries keep the Priest player in the game and heavily favors them in a Demon Hunter matchup. This is very much a deck to keep in mind as the anti-Demon Hunter meta develops.
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Yes, we're double-dipping on Warlock, but that's mainly because of this deck's potential to combat the growing Demon Hunter threat.
When he hasn't been in the lab crushing his opponents with Demon Hunter, Jeffrey "Trump" Shih has been looking into directly countering the DH menace. This uses early game tools like the Imprisoned Scrap Imp to buff up whatever's in your hand while using the Invoke Galakrond effects to fill the board and clear it off with Plague of Flames, if necessary. Galakrond is the big win condition here, as he should be primed and ready to summon four Demons upon arrival. However, the big wild card is Zzeraku the Warped. This summons a 6/6 Dragon whenever the Warlock player takes face damage. And since Demon Hunter is all about face damage and doesn't have any specific single-target removal, this throws them a major curveball, especially if Priestess of Fury and Imprisoned Antaen show up on the board.
This isn't guaranteed to beat your Demon Hunter foes, but at the very least, it'll give you a fighting chance.
And that'll do it! What are you playing on the ranked ladder? Join the conversation and let us know in the comments. And if you'd like to join the Demon Hunter ranks, then learn how to play Demon Hunter straight from Shacknews.