Deck Breakdown - Hunter Trapper Dickhead (Core)

With the Core landscape changing drastically in just under a month I have been revisiting some of my older, moderately successful decks and giving them a bit of spit and polish. First up was one of the endless attempts to make a competitive Hunter deck - I'd tried Beast Mastery pet rush, Koth Orcs, a Viper Sting/Upstanding Spaulders/Jaina deck and even delved into Classic for some Super Simian Sphere action, which was great until your opponent played an ongoing ability..


The one deck that gave me the most success was a Horde Survival deck. The object of the deck was to simply keep the opponent's board clear of anything relevant and eventually turn in to Kel'thuzad. It was a nice concept but when I took it to my local Battlegrounds it tanked, largely due to either inefficiency or not having the right cards in hand. I don't have the exact decklist to hand but the notable differences to the updated list are the lack of Survival Instincts, Shadala for ability destruction and Buzz for equipment destruction.


After a bit of thinking I ported the deck to the Alliance, and turned out the following:

Hero: Shaii, Strategist Supreme

2 Kel’Thuzad

3 Pappy Ironbane
4 Dundee

4 Trapper’s Rifle

3 Thrill of the Hunt
3 Ice Trap
4 Feign Death
4 Explosive Trap
4 Snipe
3 Bombard
3 Survival Instincts
3 Explosive Shot
4 Planned Assault

3 Eye of the Storm
4 The Boon of Alexstraza
4 Forces of Jaedenar
4 Concerted Efforts
3 Call to Arms: Arathi Basin

Shaii is the ideal hero for a deck of this type. Your first turn play will hopefully be Concerted Efforts - a great fit for this deck as it hits Snipe, Explosive Trap and Kel'thuzad amongst others; if your opponent comes out the gate with Gora or Broderick you can take care of them for free - even if you went second and have no resources, in Gora's case - and save your traps for bigger prey.

You will almost always find that when playing this deck your action for turn will be draw, place resource, pass. All but four cards in the deck (Pappy, Dundee, Rifle and Survival Instincts) are instant; you can almost always wait for your opponent to make the first move, and with your hand full of cards you should always have a response. If there is nothing you need to respond to, your resources are free for questing.

The key to success is knowing when to play the non-instant cards. Depending on your opponent, playing Dundee on your third turn can either be an inspired or crazy play - against ally-heavy decks it is usually great as a hungry crocodile ready to go on your fourth turn is worth its weight in gold; against Death Wish decks you've just guaranteed your opponent that they're going to land their Greaves and you're not getting rid of those until turn 7 at the earliest. Well-timed Snipes and Bombards will win you games with this deck so be careful not to over-extend until you are sure it's safe.

Trapper's Rifle has been the subject of some criticism considering Envoy of Mortality deals that extra vital point of damage for one less strike cost, but I'm really impressed with the Trapper after testing. This is a slow and safe deck and I reckon it fits perfectly.

I took this to my local Battlegrounds and comfortably went 5-0 with it, though there are definitely weaknesses to the deck - it is a free win for Control Mage, a very tough matchup with Death Wish (if they go first and land T1 Plate Bracers, T2 Death Wish you are in big trouble) and any other deck with no allies in tends to render your Kel'thuzad impotent.

Changes I would have made to the deck after those five matches would be slim; I would probably switch out Eye of the Storm for The Darkmoon Faire as ditching abilities into your graveyard is not necessarily a bad thing with Planned Assault in your deck, and it would have been nice to fit Mikael the Blunt in the deck for his synergy with Explosive Trap, but there might just be enough ally hate in here already and I don't think the extra two points of damage to an opposing hero is really going to make all that much difference. Call to Arms: Arathi Basin is a dangerous quest to complete it you don't already have Kel'thuzad in your hand - I have skipped past him with a completion of this quest more times than I care to remember! This was one of the main reasons I swapped A Question of Gluttony for Concerted Efforts.

I had a lot of fun with this deck though. Choosing what to row when you run out of quests is one of the hardest decisions in this deck, along with knowing when to play your non-instant stuff; that said, if you are patient then you will succeed. If you put this together, let me know how it fares in your local meta!