GvG Hunter, Moving Forward

Although released over two months ago now, the Goblins vs Gnomes expansion is still at the forefront of attention in the Hearthstone scene. On both the ladder and in the competitive scene, the new cards and decks to have emerged from the expansion reign supreme. Out of all the classes and decks though, Hunter has stayed almost the same, with Undertaker Hunter especially being a very reliable, strong deck. Blizzard made multiple statements saying that they didn’t feel Undertaker was a problem (Twitter Feed), yet we now see that Blizzard changed their mind. Even with the large amount of deck varieties that Goblins vs Gnomes has provided, players felt that Hunter still had too large of an impact on ladder play, prompting Blizzard to bend from the original plan.

So, as a Hunter player, along with most of the community, the question becomes where does Hunter go from here? Hunter was not treated well in Goblins vs Gnomes, getting arguably the worst class specific cards with the expansion. Once again, the class is stuck with a legendary that is not complementary with the class archetype, and Call pet is about as good of a card as Far Sight. Although Steamwheedle Sniper and Metaltooth Leaper both fill strong niche roles in a Hunter deck that were yet to be seen, neither have had any real success. In addition, King of Beasts and Cobra Shot were regarded as some of the most useless cards, with neither seeing any play. Finally, Feign Death was originally regarded as a game changer, being an auto include in Deathrattle decks to get some insane value out of the card. However, with as much tinkering around as people did with the card, it was deemed too slow for the aggro focused deathrattle deck. Glaivezooka is the only Hunter card that received a warm welcome by players of the class, and even then the debate between Glaivezooka and Eaglehorn bow continues, with both seeing play.

So, judging by the cards that Hunter recently required, in addition to its core card, Undertaker being nerfed, the class is no longer looking dominant. So the next question becomes where does the class go now? Well, Hunter now has three potential paths from here.

Keep Undertaker: The nerf to Undertaker had a large impact on the deck. With the perfect hand, you no longer can have a game secured by turn 3. Blizzard was successful with the nerf, perhaps too successful. The snowball effect of Undertaker is still there for certain though, but the reason this deck still works is not because of it.

Think about it like this, when Zoo Warlock ran Undertaker, it was ran because you could easily get a 2/3 or 3/4 for one mana. Now, with the new Undertaker, you can easily get a 2/2 or a 3/2 for one mana. Certainly the card is less impactful, but still not terrible, which needs to be emphasized.

Mech: Nicknamed affectionately "Mechanical Cancer", this new Hunter deck, popularized by Trump has seen a small amount of play. Really, the deck is annoying to play against, and surprisingly effective. Because of the obvious synergy between Metaltooth Tiger and the other mechs, a solid board state can easily snowball out of control for you, and more importantly, the amount of damage you can dish out with Kill Commands and your Hero Power makes closing games out easy.

Another overlooked part of the deck is the addition of Jeeves, which was hailed as one of the stronger cards for aggro decks when announced. However, despite some tinkering, the card was rarely ever added to Undertaker Hunter or Warlock Zoo, never being seen as a solid, reliable addition. With Mech Hunter though, it’s the only card draw in the deck, and it has the possibility of being buffed. However, it also shows a weakness of the deck. Undertaker Hunter rarely ran Jeeves, a deck that also didn’t have card draw. Yet, Mech Hunter has such a low curve that you need to be constantly flooding the board, whereas Undertaker Hunter used to be able to rely on bigger drops like Savannah Highmanes at the worst. Mech Hunter has to win fast and early for the deck to work.

Control: Ever since Hunter has existed, people have tried to make Control Hunter a thing, and they have never been successful. With the release of Goblins vs Gnomes, this has remained the same. However, with the addition of Steamwheedle Sniper and Gahz'rilla, there was hope. Yet a solid deck is yet to be introduced that proves consistent. As Hearthstone evolves, Control Hunter will become more and more likely, but as it stands, the class archetype is just much more focused on aggro.

Conclusion: Although the last several months have seen the reign of some different Hunter decks, the tyranny may finally have ended. The nerf to Undertaker will prove to be a difficult hill for the class to climb, but they may emerge still strong. Undertaker, Mech, and Control Hunter can all be potential archetypes in the future, but only time will tell.

Jason Mulchay