Oh man, Ashes of Outland has changed the game up for Hearthstone, for good and ill! We have new decks that have come up (thanks to Demon Hunter) to look at. We also have decks that, despite the odds, despite the meta changing, still manage to stick around (looking at you, Hunters). This week, I’m going to spend some time looking at the most interesting and best decks in Hearthstone that are worth a look for May 2020.

Now, most of these decks are considered “Tier 1” – RE: The best decks in the meta. I want to look at one or two that, while aren’t “top tier” are filthy and fun to play. There are some truly wild decks we want to look at. I’m very happy to see the meta shifting at least a little. Decks that I was tired of seeing seem to have shifted down the tier list, in favor of decks like Murloc Paladin and Tempo Demon Hunter instead of Highlander Mage or Secret Stealth Rogue.

Are there decks you’d like us to take a peek at, and see how to play/see what we think? By all means, leave us a comment below!

This deck reminds me a lot of my old Shaman Murloc deck, but instead, we’re wearing plate mail. Instead of Shaman Totems, we have the Underlight Angling Rod to fish for Murlocs. We have a literal legendary Murloc whose whole goal is to be in this deck, who will summon 4 Divine Shielded Murlocs at random.

However, one of the really fun cards from the previous iterations is gone, in the form of Prismatic Lens. That was a 4-cost spell that draws a minion and spell from the deck and swaps their costs. Like all aggressive, creature-heavy decks, it has drawbacks: If you get going and get board wiped, that could very well be the end of your game. Now, though, we have several Paladin cards that make this 100% worth running.

The strategy isn’t complicated, but it’s incredibly satisfying to see work. If you’re down for a little chaos, and adorable gurgly bois, then welcome your Murloc Paladin into your life.

Blizzard shoehorned “Murlocs” into existence for Paladin decks, but honestly, I’m not mad about it. It’s much easier to use, and far more satisfying than the “Libram” deck. That’s down there in Tier 3! It’s still a cool deck, don’t get me wrong. But Murlocs offer way more synergy, for far less work. Plus we have some serious low-cost, high-value cards in the deck. But what’s our game plan?

We want to combine the Neutral Murloc cards with our brand new Murgur Murgurgle / Murgurgle Prime. Murgurgle Prime might be the easiest of the Primes to shuffle into our deck. They’re a 2/1 for 2 with Divine Shield and Deathrattle. It gets one free attack, then it’s going to die. But that’s what we want! The only hard part is going to be if you have to buff Murlocs in play.

We also want to set up at least one early game Righteous Cause. It is a Sidequest, that gives our minions +1/+1 after we’ve summoned 5 minions. We have so many low-cost minions to use, but in particular, there’s a brand new, amazing Murloc. Imprisoned Sungill is a Dormant Murloc, that will awaken after 2 turns. He only costs 1 mana, and when he awakens, he summons two 1/1 Murlocs. That can give you 3 of your 5 minions right there, in one card!

Of course, we’re running two of them too. We also have our standard “buffing Murlocs” to make all of our Murlocs stronger, as long as they’re in play. Coldlight Seer gives your other Murlocs +2 Health, and Murloc Warleader gives them +2 Attack.

We want to pair those with Murgurgle Prime as soon as possible. But what if we want other Murlocs that say, aren’t in the deck? Hello, Underlight Angling Rod! After your hero attacks with it, you add a random Murloc to your hand. It’s a 3/2, for 3, and we’re running 2 of them. On top of that, Hoard Pillager brings back a broken weapon to equip!

We can get a lot of amazing Murlocs for little to no effort. We may get the ones that have Echo, or the one that makes your Murlocs cost 1 (Please? PLEASE?!). This will help us keep a very optimal board state. Since we’re only running one spell (Hand of A’dal), we’re not going to run out of Murlocs to put in play, hopefully.

Which is great, because that’s our plan. Play our Murlocs, buff them in as many ways as we can, and swing lethal! On top of that, we have Salhet’s Pride to draw two 1-health minions from our deck when it dies (and they’re a 3/1). That opens up quite a few options. Those include Imprisoned Sungill, Murmy, Murloc Tidehunter, or Murgur Murgurgle. Any of these are a good shout. Murgurgle might be the best, just to start setting things in motion.

Our biggest game winner has to be Murgurgle Prime though. Summoning four random Murlocs could give us so many options. Then we swing as soon as they are available (likely the next turn), and pop that Divine Shield.

We have a card we want to hold in hand until we’re ready to attack though: Scalelord. It’s a 5-cost with Battlecry: Give your Murlocs Divine Shield. As soon as the Shields pop, you use this on the next turn to give it back! That means even more safe attacks. In this deck, I’m likely going to keep attacking directly, unless there are some Taunt creatures. That will make Divine Shield even more valuable. Another reason we can be so aggressive with this deck, is we run almost all creatures. We have six non-creatures in this deck, total.

Only a few of them are non-Murlocs, on top of that. Every non-Murloc brings something very valuable to the table, too. As long as we keep drawing cards, we’re going to have Murlocs to put into play. Hand of A’dal will also buff a minion and let us draw a card too. Between Underlight Angling Rod, Murgurgle, and Hand of A’dal, we have plenty of ways to keep us seeing more minions to put into play.

Then there’s Murmy who has Reborn, and Fishflinger, which also adds a random Murloc to each player’s hand. In theory, Fishflinger could give you Murgurgle Prime! How amazing would that be? Our main strategy is to stay on curve, playing minions turn by turn, and be aggressive. This is a deck that rewards an aggressive gameplan. Hit the other player as often as you can get away with it.

Make them attack your creatures and deal with the threats. Then, when they think it’s safe . . . huzzah, more threats! That’s right, even more, god blessed Murlocs! Because it’s a Paladin deck! Once the mid-game has happened, maybe you can play a second Righteous Cause, so you can buff your pals once again. If you could play Righteous Cause, play Murgurgle Prime, they all get a buff because that Righteous Cause trigger will just go off on the spot!

“glmg mrlblbmrmgmrllmrllmlbamg llrlmrmlmr bamlllgrlrmrrlbaba!mrgllbaba” (Be aggressive, claim victory – but in Murloc).

We just have. . . oh goodness, so many creatures in this deck. So many. There are sadly creatures that hit the board that is going to be an immediate target. Our Coldlight Seer and Murloc Warleader immediately come to mind. Everything in this deck serves one master though – play Murlocs/save Murlocs.

That’s our whole plan every single turn. We’re not packing a ton of control spells to slow things down. Instead, all we care about are getting powerful Murlocs into play. What are our best, most ideal spells? Out of all the best Hearthstone decks we talk about this week, for May 2020, this might be my favorite.

Imprisoned Sungill (Rare 1-Cost Minion – Murloc): Is Imprisoned Sungill the best Murloc for Paladins? It’s darn near close! Sure, it’s Dormant for 2 turns. It’s one of the rare non-demon Dormant creatures. But when it awakens, the 2/1 for ONE MANA brings with it two more 1/1 Murlocs! If you can make this trigger with a Murloc Warleader or a Coldlight Seer, it’s going to be very very unpleasant for your foes. This could be a lot of fun with Murloc Tidecaller! Whenever you summon a Murloc, he gains +1 Attack. Just some food for thought for a fellow 1-cost.

Felfin Navigator (Common 4-Cost Minion – Murloc): Why not highlight Murloc Warleader or Coldlight Seer? Because they aren’t 4/4, that’s why! Felfin Navigator is a 4/4 for 4, that gives all other Murlocs +1/+1. This is also better than your other buffing Murlocs because it’s both stats, instead of just +2 Attack or +2 Health. I also feel like Felfin Navigator may be under-estimated because it’s not +2 to a stat. I like this adorable Felfin more because he makes us hit harder, and become sturdier. It synergizes well with our Sidequest too, which would wind up giving the minions in play +2/+2 all together. As a 4/4 baseline, when the other buffing Murlocs show up, you know what’s going to happen. He will be the target, instead of perhaps something more sinister.

Murgur Murgurgle / Murgurgle Prime (2/8 Cost Legendary Minion – Murloc): Murgur Murgurgle sets up into your Murgurgle Prime, like all other Primes. We’re going to focus more on the Prime. They’re an 8-cost, 6/3 Murloc. It also comes into play with Divine Shield. This amazing Prime summons 4 Random Murlocs, which could be darn near anything. If it can pull non-meta (non-standard) stuff, that would be even more terrifying. There are so many great Murlocs you can pull. They then receive Divine Shield, so they can’t be killed straight away. Murgurgle Prime is our game-winner. He’s our late game, time to win button. When we pull him (hopefully thanks to Underlight Angling Rod), that’s going to be the end. Unless they can board wipe or swing lethal, the game is likely yours.

Decklist

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Paladin Cards

Imprisoned Sungill (1) x2
Righteous Cause (1) x2
Murgur Murgurgle (2) x1
Hand of A’dal (2) x2
Underlight Angling Rod (3) x2
Salhet’s Pride (3) x2
Truesilver Champion (4) x2
Scalelord (5) x2

Neutral Cards

Murloc Tidecaller (1) x2
Murmy (1) x2
Fishflinger (2) x1
Murloc Tidehunter (2) x2
Coldlight Seer (3) x2
Murloc Warleader (3) x2
Felfin Navigator (4) x2
Hoard Pillager (4) x2

Deck Code: AAECAZ8FAq+nA/y4Aw7FA9sDzwbQB6cIlaYDyqsDjK0D6LADyLgDybgD9rgD+7gDysEDAA==

This is such a fun, easy to use deck. We have a ton of creatures, so the fear of running out isn’t very high. If your opponent board wipes you, the odds are fair that you’ll have a hand full of them, ready to slot them into position once more. Heavy taunt decks could be a problem though, with lots of high-defense, reasonable strength creatures to fight through. I can see pirates, warrior aggro, or hunter decks being a threat too. Hunter in particular, because they can just set themselves up to use their Hunter power on your minions. From there, it’s a matter of time before they pick off your most important creatures.

All we want to do is overrun the other player with Murlocs, and buff them along the way. It’s not hard to do either! Keep on tempo, apply lots of pressure, and hope for really good random Murlocs. There are a lot of potential great ones, so just take a breath and relax. Murgurglrlr!

I’ll be the first to tell you that I don’t trust “Highlander” decks. I get the precepts and principles behind them, but they just never click for me. My RNG/Luck must be simply atrocious. But Highlander decks offer us a ton of tools that we can only use once. It all builds towards a goal of overwhelming the other player.

In this case, we’re relying on Dragonqueen Alexstraza, Zephyrs the Great, and Dinotamer Brann to reward us for having no duplicates in the deck. They all do something terrifying when they come into play, and reward you for your bravery. Brann gives you King Krush, Alexstrasza grants 2 random Dragons into your hand that cost (0) mana. Zephyrs simply let you wish for the “Perfect Card”. I mean, what could be better?

The downside of course, being pretty obvious: We can’t put in any duplicates into our deck. Despite that, we’re still running Zixor, Apex Predator. Why? Because when he comes back as a Prime, he doesn’t put duplicates into our deck, but into play. We want a nice curve of constant cards being put into play.

The other downside to this deck is it is not cheap to build. 7 legendaries, 3 epics, and 8 rares make up this deck. That’s not going to be cheap unless you already have many of these cards. If you were already running Highlander sometime in this meta, you likely already have Zephrys, Siamat, Alexstrasza and Veranus, for example.

We’ve got some fun potential combos here to make someone’s life miserable, while we wait for optimal winning conditions. Let’s get started!

We have so many tools at our disposal in this deck. We combine a few Secret Shenanigans, a steady curve of creatures at all mana costs, and a trio of mighty jerks that will help us secure the win. We’re running what feels like every staple of every Hunter deck. Dwarven Sharpshooter? Now we can target minions with our Hero Power. Pack Tactics? Drop this secret when you’re about to attack with something mean. In particular, I’d use Pack Tactics on Dragonbane. That lets you get at least one more use out of Dragonbane’s ludicrous power. It deals 5 damage to a random enemy when you use your Hero Power. We put this into play and attack a weak minion with Dragonbane to proc the Secret. Then we use our Hero Power, ping something down, and deal 5 damage to a random enemy twice.

Profit! Phase Stalker is another good shout because it means more Secrets from our deck. We aren’t running a ton of them, but we want them at the right times. We’re also running Scavenger’s Ingenuity, to hopefully pull the perfect beast out of our deck. In a perfect world, we’ll get Zixor Prime, after we’ve put him into the deck.

But one of the perhaps most confusing cards in the deck is Zephrys the Great. If you have no duplicates in the deck, he lets you “wish for the perfect card”. On top of that, Zephrys is only a 2-cost, so he can be cast at almost any point in the game. How does it work? He lets you choose from three cards in the Basic or Classic set, from any class. I wonder if this will include Demon Hunter.

He uses an algorithm, based on the current state of the board. He doesn’t have access to private information (what your opponent will draw next, for example), only the current state of the visible board. This includes both player’s board state, your mana after casting him, your available mana for next turn, both players’ health totals and armor, the character classes, deck sizes, and how many cards each player has in hand.

On this, he will determine the best possible cards for you are. Now, what you pick is on you. This can be used to change the game in some wild ways. But how do we stay aggressive? We have Stormhammer for one thing. As long as we have a dragon in play, it has infinite durability. We only have a few of them in the deck, but Dragonqueen Alexstrasza gives us a few more. We also have Primordial Explorer to Discover a dragon to put into our hand and use at the right moment.

Everything in this deck is built around survival. We have tons of creatures, from demons, beasts, mech and dragons to make sure we are the fittest. But all told, our big strategy is to curve out, play appropriate spells/creatures every turn, and get to one of our win cons.

The first and probably easiest is Dinotamer Brann. We want him on Turn 7 as bad as possible. Turn 6 if we have the Coin. By that time, we should have put the player well into kill range with an aggressive series of attacks. There aren’t a lot of creatures we desperately want to keep in play.

Plus, if we can make one of my favorite combos happen, attacking is even easier. Veranus turns all your opponent’s minions health to 1. Then you play Unleash the Hounds, which gives you a 1/1 Hound with Charge for every enemy minion. Then simply throw those dogs at the other player to wipe their field.

But back to Brann! He’s our major win condition. If your deck has no duplicates, you summon King Krush to the field. He’s an 8/8 for 9 that has Charge (so you get him for free). At that point, you swing lethal hopefully. That’s our first major way out. The next is Dragonqueen Alexstrsza and her extra free dragon pals. That relies on you getting good ones to win the game. Other than that, we have to wait out Zixor, Apex Predator for our last big swing. When he comes back as Zixor Prime, he returns as a 4/4 with Rush that creates 3 copies of him. Then we wait a turn and swing lethal then.

If we need to stall for time, we’ve got that though. Dwarven Sharpshooter lets us ping away at minions, Corrosive Breath deals direct damage, and so does Kill Command. Dragonbane and Scrap Shot can help us stall for time, and Scrap Shot also buffs a random beast in hand with +3/+3. If you only have one, well. . . You do the math.

Our strategy is pretty simple. Use what the deck gives you wisely, wait for the perfect moment, then mow the other player down with overwhelming force. It’s a deck we can afford to be pretty mean and aggressive with.

Man. With a Highlander deck, it feels like every card is important. We don’t put something in if it’s not going to immediately have value or an impact on some facet of the game. Since we can’t run duplicates, it becomes even more evident that we have to make every hit count. What counts the most to me?

Dinotamer Brann (7-Cost Legendary Minion): I mean, he summons King Krush! He’s our primary win condition. He’s the most reliable one, and nothing short of the enemy having Taunt in play can stop him from trampling through. Thankfully we have so many options to eliminate enemy threats. There’s no point in time where you think to yourself “Ehhh, maybe we don’t want to use King Krush”. Not in any world that I live in, anyway.

Guardian Augmerchant (Common 1-Cost Minion): What? A 2/1 that’s a key card for the deck? What can he possibly do? When he comes into play, he deals 1 damage to a minion, and then gives it Divine Shield. You can use him to ping a minion that’s at 1 and kill it, or, more likely. . . you use it on something like Veranus, King Krush, or one of your fancy-free Dragons. That way, you get Divine Shield on it and can swing with it at least twice. That’s incredible value in a deck this meaty.

Diving Gryphon (Rare 3-Cost Minion – Beast): Why the Diving Gryphon? It’s a 4/1 for 3! It’s got Rush, so it can’t even attack the player when it comes out! Rush isn’t Charge at all! Because my friend. We’re only running about three Rush minions in the deck. When Diving Gryphon comes into play, it’s Battlecry triggers. You draw a Rush minion from your deck! The more of them we’ve already pulled, the better. This is the best when you’ve got them all, except that hidden Zixor Prime. That way, you pull him from your deck, and put him right into your hand! I wonder if this works on Siamat. He can have Rush, after all. . .

Decklist

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Hunter Cards

Tracking (1)
Dwarven Sharpshooter (1)
Pack Tactics (2)
Imprisoned Felmaw (2)
Scavenger’s Ingenuity (2)
Corrosive Breath (2)
Phase Stalker (2)
Kill Command (3)
Augmented Porcupine (3)
Unleash the Hounds (3)
Primordial Explorer (3)
Desert Spear (3)
Animal Companion (3)
Diving Gryphon (3)
Stormhammer (3)
Zixor, Apex Predator (3)
Mok’Nathal Lion (4)
Dragonbane (4)
Scrap Shot (4)
Rotnest Drake (5)
Veranus (6)
Dinotamer Brann (7)
Nagrand Slam (10)

Neutral Cards

Guardian Augmerchant (1)
Zephyrus the Great (2)
Bad Luck Albatross (3)
Evasive Feywing (4)
Faceless Corruptor (5)
Siamat (7)
Dragonqueen Alexstrasza (9)

Deck Code: AAECAR8eqAK1A5cI2wn8owPkpAOmpQOEpwOKrQOLrQOOrQP7rwP8rwP+rwOHsAP9sAP/sAOCsQORsQPYsgOvtwPOuAODuQOiuQOkuQP2ugP5ugP/ugP7uwPevgMAAA==

I stand by my “Highlander decks are too darn risky” take, no matter how well it’s performing. It is a very solid, reliable deck in May’s meta amongst the best Hearthstone decks. But that said, it’s too risky for me. I want something more reliable when I don’t have to worry about using a card once, and then not being able to do it again ever. Sure, you can only have one legendary of a kind per deck, but that doesn’t extend to other rarities in normal decks. Highlander is just really risky for me. But it’s awesome! I won’t deny that it gets results. This is an amazing deck once you get moving, and your game-winning cards are showing up.

You don’t need Dragonqueen Alexstrasza in play to win, but she sure makes it easier. Tell Annie to get her gun; it’s time to go huntin’. Believe in the heart of the cards, keep an eye on what you have and what it can do, and wait for the perfect time to strike a gigantic, lethal blow.

Demon Hunter is still very much the new kid on the block. That being said, they have made a huge splash in the meta. Demon Hunter Tempo/Aggro is just an absolute monster. Sure, if we get to the late game, there might be a problem if we’ve run out of cards. But the early game is packed with tons of damage and fast-moving, hard-hitting creatures.

We don’t even need Neutrals! Well that’s not 100% true. We run exactly one Neutral, which frankly, could have been affiliated with them in some manner (maybe): Maiev Shadowsong! From turn one, we can put damage onto the board. Or at least, we can put creatures in play. It’s a deck built around us just hitting hard all the time.

With a Hero Power that gives us +1 attack for a turn, we’re going to be hitting either 1. The other player or 2. Weak enemies. Why? It’s going to trigger synergy with a few of the cards in our deck. We can also swap out (once) our Hero Power for something way more powerful.

In an ideal situation, we’ll be able to trigger our normal Hero Power, swap it out for Metamorphosis, and then use two Hero Powers in one turn! Metamorphosis switches that power to “Deal 5 Damage” and you get two uses of it before you go back to normal. But you know what I like the most about this deck? Our “win-con” as it were. Kayn Sunfury. One of the worst things about running an aggro deck is when your opponent starts putting Taunt minions in play.

If, say, your opponent has a 6/6 Taunt in play, and you just have 1/1 and 2/1s, you’re going to invest a lot of resources (and dead minions) just to get through. By then, they’ll be ready to resume putting those annoying roadblocks in the way. Kayn Sunfury’s going to get you past it. When you have enough jerks in play to swing lethal, he’s your way to Go Face.

We have card draw, damage, board clear, free damage, and ways to reset creatures to get things going again. We gain a lot of benefits from attacking, and it only costs 1 mana to use Demon Claws (Hero Power). Is your opponent prepared?

Of course not!

Throughout the game, we have answers for problems that come our way. We can also use our Hero Power to whittle away at enemies that might be a threat. Always remember, they will die way before your Hero will (unless you attack an 8/1, that’s your fault).

You might be saying “But it’s only one attack? It doesn’t even stack with itself! It’s temporary! Who cares?” Well, I do, first off. We have ways to buff our attack to stack on that temporarily. For example, Twin Slice is a 0-cost that gives you +1 Attack for the turn and gives you a “Second Slice” in your hand, so you can do it again.

That gives us four shots of +1 Attack, but I wouldn’t use them at the same time. I like to save my buffs, personally. But we have a few other options. Battlefiend gains +1 Attack when our Hero attacks, after all. We are running a few weapons, but we need to activate powers/spells to make sure we can keep attacking otherwise.

The one time I want to stack damage as much as possible is if I’m going to do Blade Dance. That’s a two-mana spell that deals damage equal to our attack to 3 random enemy minions. Between Twin Slice, Demon Claw, Chaos Strike, and say, a weapon, we could do a lot and wipe out some potential threats.

My preferred weapon is Alreachi Warblades because it’s a ⅔ weapon with Lifesteal. Anything to keep us in the fight is great. We have another lifesteal option with Eye Beam. That deals 3 damage to a minion, and as an Outcast spell, it can cost nothing! If it’s your left/right-most spell it costs 0. Either way, you deal 3 damage to a minion and gain 3 life.

We’re not doing a lot with Outcast though. It’s kind of a complicated ability if you ask me. But we do have Altruis the Outcast who can give virtually any card this ability. As long as he’s in play, anytime you play your left/right-most card in your hand, all enemies take 1 damage. He’s a potential board wipe!

It’s even better when you manage to get low-cost creatures and spells there. He’s great in the early-mid game to keep the board clear of foes, while you buff your attack and play cards like Battlefiend, Furious Felfin, and Crimson Sigil Runner. They’re all very great low-cost early game options. If you attacked this turn with your Hero, that Furious Felfin comes in as a 4/2 Rush, on top of that.

Remember you don’t have to throw away rush creatures, if you don’t want. If you want to swing a turn or two later, you can always do that instead. We have all these low-cost cards in the early game. This is a deck where you want to hit the other player directly as often as possible. Let the other player come to you and attack your creatures instead. You want to keep blasting the other player, swinging directly, equipping our weapons and buffing damage as much as we possibly can.

Try not to leave too much on the table in terms of mana. You don’t want to regret playing something, before the other player manages some control. But what if we need cards? That’s where Skull of Gul’dan comes out. You draw 3 cards for 5 mana, which is great. But if it’s an Outcast card, they cost 3 less! That makes Imprisoned Antaen and Priestess of Fury very worthwhile.

Skull of Gul’dan will also help that Outcast ability pop off. With the cards you draw costing 3 less, you will be able to do quite a lot. If you have Altruis in play, consider it a lot of really low-cost/free board removal. I’d say that Skull of Gul’dan makes about half your deck free, and the other half cost ½ mana at best. We don’t have too much in the way of expensive cards.

Priestess of Fury in particular is a great way to force the other player to be aggressive. At the end of your turn, you deal 6 damage randomly split among all enemies. So the more we can batter down with our spells and Altruis, the harder this will hit.

Imprisoned Antaen on the other hand, lies dormant for 2 turns. Then it springs to life as a 10/6 and deals 10 damage randomly split among all enemies! What if we want to do that again? Maeiv Shadowsong can also help you there. She makes a minion go dormant for two turns.

You can also use this on an enemy minion if you want to win the game without letting them stop you. But our ultimate end game is setting up Metamorphosis to get that 10 damage and get Kayn Sunfury into play. As a ⅗ with Charge, he lets all your allied attacks ignore Taunt. So he’s what you play when you have a board full of minions and want to win.

Just put him in, swing lethal, and cackle like a madman! It’s a requirement. Frankly, I’d like to remove Maiev Shadowsong, and maybe a Priestess of Fury, to slot in a pair of Satyr Overseer and if you can find room for them, I would. Satyr Overseer creates a 2/2 Satyr anytime your Hero attacks. Just keep that in mind!

In addition to Metamorph and Kayn, we have Glaivebound Adept who rewards you for attacking. If you should have attacked this turn and you play Glaivebound Adept, it deals 4 damage. That could be just the amount you need to deal a killing blow. Consider that you have 10 damage from Metamorphosis, 3 minimum from Kayn, and 4 minimum from a Glaivebound. If they aren’t healing, that’s 17 damage right there.

If you’ve been poking away at the other player with your creatures, as you should have, this will be more than enough. We have all the tools to weaken the board and constantly make sure the other players minions disappear, thanks to our AOE/direct damage options.

Bathe the other player in furious eye beams!

Our goal in this deck is to create a board state where the enemy can’t keep minions on the board, and we constantly can batter the other player right in the face. We want to ignore their creatures with our direct attacks, and instead, rely on our spells and passive abilities to get the job done. What makes certain we make that a reality? Of course, Kayn Sunfury is our biggest way to win, but let’s consider what helps us get there.

Altruis the Outcast (3-Cost Legendary Minion): A 3/2 might not seem like much. But anytime you play a card from the left or right of your hand, all enemies take 1 damage. If you can keep doing this over and over as long as he’s alive, you can wipe the other player’s board, eventually. With as many 0-1 drops as we have in the deck, this can be very easy. The downside is you can’t shuffle cards around in your hand. It’s all about playing what you have and playing it well. That’s a lot of why our cards are mostly low-cost. We want to be able to do this a few times a turn, while not wasting what we have available.

Imprisoned Antaen (5-Cost Rare Minion – Demon): Sure, it’s got to wait two turns to pop, but you just wait for it. When they awaken, you get a 10/6 that deals 10 damage randomly among the enemy minions. This is when thinking ahead really pays off. You set up this demon a few turns from declaring victory. Play this when you already have Kayn and a few minions in play. If you could get both of these off one by one, it’s even better. That way, when you drop Kayn, that’s 23 damage ideally. With timing, you clear most of the other players board, ignore any taunt units, and go for the kill! All this on a rare!

Blade Dance (2-Cost Rare Spell): Blade Dance is a spell we drop ideally when we’ve got plenty of mana to go with it. Towards the mid-game, perhaps unless an emergency comes up. It deals damage equal to our Hero’s Attack to 3 random minions. If they have decent minions in play, cast Chaos Strike (+2 Attack, Draw a Card), Twin Slice (0 Mana, +1 Attack), and Demon Claw (1 Mana, +1 Attack). That deals 5 damage across three enemy minions, and in theory, could wipe out lots of important creatures. Keep an eye on what they have, and buff accordingly. But don’t waste that attack, either! Use it and smash the other player’s face in!

Decklist

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Demon Hunter Cards

Twin Slice (0) x2
Crimson Sigil Runner (1) x2
Battlefiend (1) x2
Furious Felfin (2) x2
Umberwing (2) x2
Chaos Strike (2) x2
Blade Dance (2) x2
Altruis the Outcast (3) x1
Aldrachi Warblades (3) x2
Eye Beam (3) x2
Kayn Sunfury (4) x1
Glaivebound Adept (5) x2
Metamorphosis (5) x1
Skull of Gul’dan (5) x2
Imprisoned Antaen (5) x2
Priestess of Fury (7) x2
Maiev Shadowsong (4) x1

Deck Code: AAECAea5AwTMugPDvAPtvgPaxgMNh7oDi7oDyboD17sD4LwDusYDx8YD2cYD18gD98gD/MgD/sgD/8gDAA==

Kayn Sunfury is a powerful ally for sure, but we have to set up for him to be successful. While this deck is “easy” enough to play, don’t ignore how much synergy and attention to detail you need. Cards like Glaivebound Adept are only amazing if you attack that turn. We have a bunch of cards to make that happen, plus a hero power. You have to consider what you have the mana for before you start throwing cards willy nilly.

Using Demon Claws and attacking before casting Metamorphosis is such a power move too. If you have buffed your attacks thanks to weapons or Twin Slice, you can get far more than that 5 damage from the Metamorphosis Beam. We could in theory get 10 damage that turn, thanks to attack buffs, and even more, if we factor in minion attacks.

I think our best cards to start with are Battlefiend, Twin Slice, or Umberwing though. Umberwing gives us more creatures, Battlefiend rewards us with greater strength when we attack. Twin Slice gives us more attack power to benefit both the Umberwing damage and to help us buff Battlefiend. Crimson Sigil Runner’s also an ace card, in particular, if it’s going to be an Outcast. When cast as an outcast, you draw a card. So a 2/1 for 1 that gives you a card? That is the definition of a turn one power play.

Originally I was going to talk about “Egg Warrior,” which is pretty similar. The problem with it is the Serpent Egg plus Teron Gorefiend combo can be amazing but isn’t always reliable. We’ll go with what we know works. Dealing damage to our allies, and use that to secure as much damage as possible. Our combo for the finish is very easy to put together, and we’re even using a classic, old reliable card: Grommash Hellscream!

That’s right, he’s back in the meta! The idea here is that we’re going to harm our friends, in the name of victory. They’ll get wounded, but the enemy will hurt more. There are ways we can drop 12 or even 18 damage in one sweet combo. We pick away at them early, get them right into range, and when the time is right, VICTORY FOR THE HORDE! It doesn’t have a lot of really bad matchups, either.

This is different from our previous warrior deck, in that we aren’t trying to build a near limitless amount of armor. We’ll build some with Armorsmith, but our end-game is a bit of sacrifice, in the name of glorious, gory violence.

We have early game bombs and combos to set up for the late game, and if things get really bad, we can just summon the destroyer to hold things off for us. That’s right, we’re even fielding Deathwing, Mad Aspect. This deck has a little bit of everything, honestly. AOE damage, Pirates, Weapons, Dragons, and Orcs. You have a need or a fetish? This deck probably has you covered.

I love that Grommash Hellscream is an optional win-condition for this game. He’s not the required, must-use card, but he’s amazing. Enrage is a keyword that’s all but gone, but it still exists on some cards like him. Instead, you’ll “If damaged”. He’s a 4/9 with Charge/Enrage. If he’s damaged, (thus, Enraged), he gains +6 attack.

Want to make someone as angry as possible? Get Grommash Hellscream in play as early as humanly possible, with a few cards in hand. Swing with him on the enemy player, but make sure he lives. Before you attack, pop him with Inner Rage, (0 mana), to deal him 1 damage, but add 2 attack. The next turn, play Bloodsworn Mercenary to copy the injured Grommash, and swing with both.

That’s not ideal though, because it is so late game. We want to end people’s day much faster than that. Our early game is built around cards like Risky Skipper. He deals damage to all enemies, anytime we play a minion. This can trigger abilities like Armorsmith’s! Anytime a friendly minion takes damage, we gain 1 Armor. It will stack nicely.

That’s ideal: we want to board wipe with playing minions and stack armor with the Armorsmith. We’ll ping away at the other player with our weapons and minions while setting up for the Kor’kron Elite finish. On its own, it’s a 4/3 with charge. But we can do better! Oh so much better!

We cast Inner Rage on it, giving it +2 attack for 1 life. The next step is Rampage, giving it +3/+3 for 2 mana. Finally, we drop Bloodsworn Mercenary, which copies a damaged friendly minion. That’s 18 damage in one attack in the most ideal situations on turn 10. If we’ve been harassing and picking away at the other player, we can win right there.

Instead of the Rampage, if you have the mana, you could drop another Bloodsworn Mercenary and get almost as much damage. But that requires five slots on the board for it, and that’s less than ideal. How do we pick away at the other player to get that early damage?

Our weapons will help that’s for sure. Ancharrr gives us a Pirate from our deck whenever we attack. That means either Captain Greenskin, Sky Raider, or Risky Skipper. Sky Raider will give us a random Pirate, and Captain Greenskin gives our weapon +1/+1. Our weapons are decent at 2/2, this and Livewire Lance. Livewire Lance gives us a lackey whenever we attack, so that means more one thing to throw at our opponent.

But Kor’kron Elite is not our only major winner. For each minion damaged in play, Bloodboil Brute costs 1 less (base 7 Mana), and is a ⅝ Rush. They can’t attack the player right away, but we can then damage it, and buff him through Rampage.

For the early game, we also have Bomb Wrangler. Whenever it takes damage, we get a 1/1 Boom Bot. You can use this when combined with Risky Skipper to clear the board in theory. Each time it damage, you summon a 1/1 Boom Bot. Which summons a minion, so Risky Skipper Does damage to everything, which in turn. . . you get the picture.

As far as singling out one minion to deal with, we have Warmaul Challenger. He’s a 1/10 for 3, and he picks a minion and fights it to the death. So,you find something he will be able to best, and kill it. That also gives you an injured minion, that hopefully will not be dead!

But those above combos are our best ones. We have Deathwing, Mad Aspect as a last resort or when we’re behind. When he comes into play, he attacks all minions. So if you have no minions in play, he can’t attack them. In the best case, there is nothing on the board but him. If you can manage a complete board wipe and play him, with a few buff/damage spells in hand? That Kor’kron combo on him would be hilarious.

At the end of the day, that’s what we want. A strong minion, our buffing spells, and a willingness to deal a ton of damage in one go. Hold your combo until the other player won’t have a response, drop your minions, buffs, and swing lethal! That’s all there is to it. We have so much board wipe early by playing Risky Skippers at the right time, and hopefully with Armorsmith to protect us.

Show no fear in the face of the enemy, and let them be consumed by your fire and bloodlust.

We have a few really strong combos in this deck. We nickel and dime them into range, and then unload the combo when it’s time to win. It’s one of the things I like about the deck. We have a few creatures that we can hold in hand until the right time. If things go bad, we can always just keep pounding the other player with weapon shots until they can’t take anymore, but that’s less than ideal. What makes our wheel of anger keep spinning though?

Bloodsworn Mercenary (3-Cost Epic Minion): He’s the big-shot that makes this deck go! At 3 mana, Bloodsworn Mercenary is incredible. The only catch is that when he comes into play, he can only make a copy of a minion if you 1. Have room on the board and 2. Have a damaged minion in play. Thankfully we have a whole host of ways to make that happen! We can make minions take damage with literally no effort at all. Just make sure that targeted minion is going to be buffed as high as you want it first with spells like Inner Rage, and Rampage. He makes a copy of something that’s damaged, so we want to ideally make it something with [Charge]. That way we play the charge minion (even if it’s a turn prior). Then when we have the mana, we buff that charge/damaged minion, summon Bloodsworn Mercenary, and then swing with both Charge minions. If we do it on the same turn even better.

Rampage (2-Cost Common Spell): Okay, so we have our ability to make a copy of a minion, say, Grommash Hellscream. We need to make it as big as we possibly can. Enter Rampage! Rampage gives a damaged minion +3/+3, without having to damage it first, like say, Inner Rage. At 2 mana, this is a bargain. If we can double it up, it’s even better. This is ideal because it’s not a limited-time buff, either. It’s a permanent +3/+3, and it gives us health back in addition to the damage. So, we turn that 10/9 into a 13/11 or better still, a 16/14 or something! If we copy it, that’s pretty much guaranteed to be a win.

Bloodboil Brute (7*-Cost Rare Minion): In theory, this could be a 0-cost minion. That’s what makes this such a useful card for the combo. You don’t have to use Grommash or the Kor’kron Elite. You could put this in play for anywhere from 0-2 mana, depending on circumstances, and get a ⅝ with Rush. Sadly, no Charge, so you can’t abuse the attack damage right off the bat. You’d just have to put the Rampages into place and summon your Mercenary the next turn. But it’s a great backup plan. It does just as much damage, it only takes a turn to make it happen.

Decklist

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Inner Rage (0) x2
Risky Skipper (1) x2
SKy Raider (1) x2
Armorsmith (2) x2
Battle Rage (2) x2
Corsair Cache (2) x2
Rampage (2) x2
Ancharr (3) x1
Bloodsworn Mercenary (3) x2
Bomb Wrangler (3) x2
LIvewire Lance (3) x2
Warmaul Challenger (3) x2
Kor’kron Elite (4) x2
Captain Greenskin (5) x1
Bloodboil Brute (7) x2
Deathwing, Mad Aspect (8) x1
Grommash Hellscream (8) x1

Deck Code: AAECAQcE0gLIA96tA9+tAw0WHJAD1ATUCPWoA9ypA92tA6S2A6u2A7u5A8C5A5y7AwA=

This is, as far as I’ve seen, the No. 1 of the Hearthstone decks for April/May. It’s impossibly strong and is strong against practically any deck. It doesn’t seem to have any downsides, because weakening your minions is only a strength. They have to be careful about how they attack. If you should keep those minions weak but not dead, we can abuse that at a (not very) later date.

I like the Egg Combo deck too, but it just isn’t reliable enough for me. This deck just runs all the good stuff about Warrior, puts it into one deck and gets stuff done. We have Pirates and cards to draw weapons. We use those weapons to get more pirates and lackeys to hold the fort down. We have Battle Rage to draw a card for each damaged friendly. In the early game that could mean a ton of free cards put into your hand. The more cards we can hold onto, the easier our late-game combo can be. It’s easy, enjoyable, and oh-so-satisfying to get going.