Apologies for the lack of updates recently - going back to work has taken its toll on my free time and I've also got hooked on the most excellent Recettear, which is probably the real reason for the silence...
Anyway, I've thrown together a couple of decks to moderate levels of success, and I'm now at that stage where I need to spend some time improving them. I'll post up both the decklists with some notes as they've both seen a bit of play.
Generic Aspect Hunter
Magnus the Depriver
3 Emerald Captain
4 Garet Vice
4 Boomer
4 Loriam Argos
4 Bella Wilder
4 Aileen the Thunderblessed
3 Tesla
4 Woodsie Leafsong
2 Zuur
4 Aspect of the Wild
3 Spoils of the Hunt
3 Tuskarr Kite
3 Envoy of Mortality
3 Eye of the Storm
4 Corruption of Earth and Seed
4 Dr. Boom!
3 Under the Shadow
2 Cleansing Witch Hill
I played this at the local Battlegrounds last week, finishing 2-3, which could easily have been 0-5. It's a complete one-trick pony - play Nature guys, make them bigger, beat face. Aileen the Thunderblessed works great, if she is on the field and you have a spare resource or two, you're getting psuedo-Long Range for the cost of a resource, which isn't too shabby at all. On her own she's a tad useless, but even paired with a lone Aspect or Bella Wilder she's very dangerous.
Despite playing Magnus, a Beast Mastery spec Hunter, I chose Boomer over Deuce for his ability to deal damage the turn he enters play - Deuce has the extra point of ATK and gives you an additional pet but being able to take out someone's one drop for free on turn two, all for the cost of pointing at it and going 'skree', is very powerful. Magnus didn't really do the business either - I'd much rather have played Shaii, Strategist Supreme or Syreian the Bonecarver instead (though the Scourge variety is another story entirely).
Spoils of the Hunt is great anti-Army of the Dead tech, and the Envoy works well with the smaller Worgen allies thanks to their Aberration preventing the damage.
What didn't do the business - Tuskarr Kite, as I rarely found I had opportunity to play it when an ally wouldn't have been more beneficial, Under the Shadow was great at finding allies but had a really annoying habit of skipping past the Aspect when I needed it most, and Woodsie was just a little bit too slow to get rid of equipment.
I didn't put any Avatar of the Wild in for two reasons - I don't own any, and I wanted as much synergy as possible. I think they would fit quite nicely but as always, knowing what to remove is the hard part!
The deck was terrifying if you got an Aspect and an Aileen on the table; dangerous with one or the other; and a deck full of irrelevant Hunter cards with neither. More work required. In the meantime, think about this:
Aspect of the Wild + Envoy of Mortality + Plague Eruptor
Warlock Fire Burn Nonsense
Pidge Filthfinder
4 Hira
4 Routeen
4 Mikael the Blunt
4 Ruby Flameblade
4 Savis Cindur
4 Hesriana
4 Alister Cooper
4 Ruby Blazewing
3 Korialstrasz
4 Engulfing Blaze
4 Searing Pain
4 Demonic Reclamation
3 Bloody Ritual
3 Crimson Shocker
3 Eye of the Storm
4 Under the Shadow
4 On Ruby Wings
4 Tabards of the Illidari
This got an outing tonight after I got home from work about two hours later than I'd hoped, and as a result didn't have chance to build anything a bit more... serious. Miraculously it went 3-1, and could have been 4-0 were it not for a fortuitous topdeck against an Ashnaar/Gift deck. Unfortunately the deck was highly unreliable and after having all the answers in my final match (my opponent dropped two Twilight Vanquisher Knolan and two Sardok; I answered with Engulfing Blaze. The next turn, he dropped a Jhuunash; I had a Hesriana for it), the two friendlies we had afterwards saw me get utterly crushed.
I love fire, as evidenced by the fact I took Pinprik to a Realm Championship. After a moment's silence for our fallen (from Core) comrade, I spent a short while on WoWTCGdb and picked out a few fire cards, a few Warlock cards, and went to work. If it all goes well, you drop Korialstrasz, then on your next turn, play an ally, generate some tokens, stash a Ruby Blazewing and then play Searing Pain to finish.
Other than Mikael and Hesriana, both who ended up being completely irreplaceable in the deck, all the other cards do fire damage. Crimson Shocker counts as a fire card when Searing Pain is looking. The Wyrmrest Vanquisher created by On Ruby Wings might not do any damage, but it counts as a fire card. Those Dragonkin Whelps you're creating with Korialstrasz? Fire damage.
A two-cost burn spell that hits for 24 is funny.
What worked: Bloody Ritual is probably my new favourite card. Warlock and Warrior are two classes I've not really delved into, so having the option of drawing a billion cards was novel. This also made Under the Shadow less destructive when it skipped past that ability you really wanted - just spend a bit of life and you'll probably draw another one soon enough!
On Ruby Wings worked nicely with the stash cards in the deck, and also removed the need for me to really play Tuskarr Kite. Having eight Stashable cards to go with the 15 real resources really made it sing, though I'm still not sure if it warrants its place over Dreadsteed.
Engulfing Blaze was highly useful, though in all the situations I used it, Fel Blaze would have done exactly the same and also have the added advantage of not killing the Wyrmrest Vanquisher. That said though, I had our local meta in mind, and that usually means one thing - 3/3 Ghouls.
What didn't work: Demonic Reclamation. It was largely in the deck due to its Stash power, and even then, only because I could draw a card off it due to On Ruby Wings. The Stash power ended up being largely useless, I was generally overflowing with allies whereas I really wanted to drop my abilities back in the deck; the main power of Demonic Reclamation has you play a card, destroy an ally you control, all for a net gain of one card. I destroyed a Dragonkin Token with it and even then I still wasn't completely satisfied with the outcome.
The deck is completely one-dimensional and more than a little bit stupid, but even with just a couple of allies on board, you can do a lot of damage with Searing Pain over the course of a game rather than using it as a finisher. I think there's an actually decent deck in there somewhere - probably making use of Broderick, Onnekra, Dethvir, Rosalyne, and Lesson of the Nether.
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Amusingly enough, after my last entry regarding the death of my Survival Hunter Trapper deck, I've been noticing decklists crop up that have been used at the Realm Qualifiers of late. They've been pretty successful, and many are using the Undead hero, Valerie Worfield. I tried building a deck around her but couldn't trim it down to a low enough number of cards; obviously people have been making it work for them though, so I will definitely be revisiting that idea with the assistance of better deckbuilders than myself!
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