Hearthstone with the Nerf to Hunter

Overview

With Blizzard recently announcing their nerf to Hunter by making Buzzard a 3 / 2 for 5 mana, it’s been the consensus of almost the entire Hearthstone Community that Hunter is entirely dead, or at least the type of Hunter we know in its current iteration. Hunter currently draws huge amounts of its power from the Buzzard and Unleash the Hounds combo. With the additional nerf of Leeroy Jenkins raising its mana cost up to 5 mana, it seems to be the final nail in the coffin for the era of Aggro hunter almost completely dominating the ranked ladder. Only the future will hold if Hunter is completely dead, as many said the same when Unleash the Hounds was raised to 3 mana, but this seems much more severe, and this is just most likely an easy fix for Blizzard so we don’t see Hunter vs Hunter in every matchup at Blizzcon and afterwards they’ll work on a less exaggerated balance for the class.

Regardless of Hunter’s state in the meta, we have a different question to answer with the new set of upcoming nerfs, where will the direction of the game go now? For instance, Currently on ranked Hearthstone, between Ranks 10-1 we see almost exclusively Hunter and classes that directly counter Hunter, namely Control Warrior and Ramp Druid. However, in a meta that isn’t dominated by an aggro class, what will happen? Will we see these decks remain as a counter to the ever-persistent Zoo Warlock deck, or will decks like Shaman suddenly come to the forefront of the scene, who were previously hard countered by Hunter suddenly rise to prominence. (Now that they don’t have to deal with constant face damage and not be rolling for taunt totems every turn to stay alive?)

Which decks will rise to the top?

To answer this question, we can turn to the professional scene of Hearthstone, where the scene has been developing at quite an alarming rate. Part of the development has been that of a ban system, where a player can ban a certain class out of the classes that their opponent has chosen to play. Ever since the arrival of Hunter and its quick rise to becoming the most powerful deck, Hunter has been by far the most targeted ban by almost all Players. So what have been the most played decks while Hunter has been banned?

Well Besides Miracle Rogue and Handlock, which are both on the fence if they will continue to be strong without Leeroy, Deathrattle Priest, Control Warrior, and Control Paladin have all been the most prominent decks. However, as I mentioned, Control Warrior is more often used as a counter to aggro decks like Hunter and Zoo, and Control Paladin is actually a counter to Control Warrior, often being dubbed “King of the Control Match-up.” So while these classes will of course continue to remain strong, they may not be too strong when Hunter is no longer a viable class. Time will tell however, but for now one deck will most likely become the strongest deck, deathrattle priest.

Discovered shortly after the end of the Naxxramas event, Deathrattle priest has excelled in bringing the reliability of the Priest deck with the insanely strong early game minions that Naxx has brought everyone. Class specific cards like Dark Cultist, Auchenai Soul Priest, or Cabal Shadow Priest are amazing minions that compliment the style of the deck, and the few spells included are great for control and maintaining board leads, or in the case of auchenai circle, getting that 4 mana flamestrike. This deck could very easily be the most prominent deck, both in ladder and in the competitive scene. The only real, noticeable drawback so far is the weakness it faces in a late-game matchup, undertaker has the potential to become a dead draw, and the deck really does rely on getting a strong board early. However, it’s good in the control matchup due to the amount of deathrattles, it can match aggro decks in their early game board presence, and is really just an all around solid deck. Expect to see much more of this deck.

The effects of the Leeroy Nerf

Two decks are affected directly by the nerf to Leeroy Jenkins, Handlock and Miracle Rogue. What happens to these decks is a question that is on the top of everyone's mind, and based on pro player’s twitter and streams, it seems that the general consensus of Handlock is that Handlock will be affected by the nerf by only a little. Although their 10 mana, 20 damage combo was one of the strongest in the game, Handlock now will more rely on damage from their board rather than through any huge damage combo. In addition, more Handlock players have started cycling Jaraxxus back into their decks, giving them a stronger late game thanks to those pesky 2 mana 6/6 infernals. Handlock will most likely stay one of the strongest classes.

Rogue on the other hand, is much more likely to take a bigger hit. Because Miracle Rogue was their only legitimate constructed deck (with the rare exception of “backspace” or aggro rogue). No longer can Miracle do 18 damage for only 3 cards and 8 mana, Using Leeroy and double shadowstepping it is no longer possible in one turn, which was how Rogue drew most of their power. Miracle now has two different directions from here, we can either see a type of “control/token miracle” with Violet teachers abusing their mass amount of spells, or we can see Malygos Miracle, which is largely unproven.

Early game without Hunter

One point of the death of Hunter is where early game drops go for Certain decks. Many decks put in Zombie Chows and Unstable Ghouls as a strong counter to early Webspinners, Stonetusk Boars, Undertakers, etc. However, what happens now that Hunters are dead? Well for sure, Control Paladins may no longer run Zombie Chows, which was something we saw a lot of during the height of Hunter’s dominance. Warriors may keep running Unstable Ghoul as a way to proc their Acolytes of Pain and Armorsmiths, but the factor of needing an early taunt is no longer necessary like it once was. Many decks will likely continue to run one, but it is no longer a quintessential card for Control Warrior like it was just a few weeks ago.

Conclusion

Although this nerf is actually only changing two cards, this may be one of the most impactful nerfs in the short history of Hearthstone. Where the meta will go from here is unclear, but we should be seeing a very exciting Blizzcon in a couple of months with a strong variety of decks.

Jason Mulchay