Mid-range Hunter
Last weekend, Phonetap won the second ESL Legendary season tournament. While he played some unorthodox decks, such as a mech Shaman, I’ve decided to look at a more meta-friendly deck. We’re going to look at Phonetap’s Mid-range Hunter.
Hunter and warrior were the “strong” decks that most people seemed to bring to the tournament, and hunter has always been a strong pick in most seasons. Face hunter was very popular for a while and now slower hunter decks are starting to show up in response to more control decks being played. This particular version of mid-range hunter was teched to deal with weapon classes, in particular, warriors and other hunters.
The Basics
Unlike the face hunter variety, where you pretty much always charge your minions into your opponent’s face, mid-range hunters do care about board control. The main way that you maintain board control with this deck early on is with the Freezing Trap secret and the Eaglehorn Bow. The catch about Freezing Trap however, is that you don’t ever want to actually have to play it. During the mulligan phase, try to have 1 Mad Scientist in your starting hand, so you can kill an early enemy minion, then have the free trap up to reset the next minion your opponent plays.
Animal Companion is another great tool for early board control. Both Huffer and Misha are threats that your opponent will want to deal with. Leokk on the other hand, while bad on an empty board, can get you amazing value with other minions or a clutch Unleash the Hounds.
Speaking of Unleash the Hounds, this card is one of your biggest threats, and other players will usually keep only a couple minions on their board to prevent you from getting a board full of Hounds. Hounds have charge so they are great for triggering traps or cleaning up weak minions, leaving your bigger threats up.
Mid-Game
Since the deck is called “mid-range,” it makes sense the mid-game, turns 6-9 usually, are some of your strongest. Savannah Highmane is your “super card” for the mid-game. Not only is a 6/5 minion a big threat, but once your opponent kills it, they also have to deal with 2 more 2/2 hyenas. All of that value is for only 6 mana! Even if your opponent can silence the deathrattle, Highmane will usually get you a 2 for 1 card trade.
This deck also runs Dr. Boom, Loatheb and Houndmaster, which will buff up one of your beasts. I’d also like to take this opportunity to point out where my deck differs from Phonetap’s original list. In Phonetap’s version, he runs Harrison Jones, a legendary that punishes weapon classes by destroying their weapon and giving you cards in return. I don’t own Harrison, so I’m using the poor man’s version, Acidic Swamp Ooze. You don’t get the card draw, but it still gets rid of the weapon which can be a tempo swing by itself.
Finishing the Game
The goal with this deck is to wear your opponent down with minions during the early- and mid-game, then use your spells to finish them off. Kill Command is great for this. As long as you have a beast in play, you get 5 damage for only 3 mana. This allows you to have some amazing late game burst. With a weapon in hand and your hero power, 10 damage from your hand is pretty darn good.
Sometimes you will have to use your spells to trade though. For example, it’s better to use that Kill Command to finish off your opponent’s Sludge Belcher and save the health on your Highmane. Just focus on keeping the strongest board position when trying to get value from your spells.
That’s it for this Deck of the Week. As always, send me any questions or comments at ritterific@agentsofgame.com. I’m also on Twitter @AGRitterific. I’d love to hear about any success you have with the deck!
