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Dragon Hunter deck list guide - Scholomance Academy - Hearthstone (August 2020)

Our guide to the Dragon Hunter archetype in Scholomance Academy.

Dragon Hunter is a Hearthstone deck that's seen a huge increase in power level over the latest expansion. Whilst no new Dragons have been added to the Hunter class, the surprising package of Zixor, Apex Predator and Scavenger's Ingenuity may be powerful enough to make a real splash in the meta.

This is something of a midrange deck in playstyle, encouraging you to play minions on curve and eventually take them down with your tempo and constant face damage, facilitated by your ongoing hits to the face and Dragon synergies.

In this edition of our Dragon Hunter guide, we're highlighting the most competitive version of the deck on the ladder. We’ll be going through the deck list, as well as a strategy guide and advice on synergies and mulligans.

Dragon Hunter deck list and strategy

Here is the version of Dragon Hunter seeing the most play in the current stage of the Scholomance Academy meta. We'll update our recommendations as the meta evolves over time.

HunterNeutral
2 x Dwarven Sharpshooter2 x Faerie Dragon
2 x Demon Companion1 x Teron Gorefiend
2 x Carrion Studies1 x Lorekeeper Polkelt
2 x Corrosive Breath1 x Vectus
2 x Primordial Explorer2 x Big Ol' Whelp
2 x Bloated Python
2 x Stormhammer
1 x Shan'do Wildclaw
2 x Mok'Nathal Lion
2 x Teacher's Pet
2 x Rotnest Drake
2 x Guardian Animals

Select and copy the long ID string below, then create a deck in Hearthstone to export this deck into your game.

Deck Import ID: AAECAR8E1LoDwdADitID9tYDDeEEiq0Di60D/K8D/q8D57ADr7cD9roDnssDks0DtM4DgtADk9EDAA==

More great Hunter guides:

General strategy

Dragon Hunter is all about getting your Dragons on board and on curve. Ideally, you’ll be playing a more aggressive version of a midrange gameplan, but you’ll need to be adaptive to more board-heavy enemies to avoid an early death.

Early game: Dragon Hunter is actually super easy to play. Just try to stay on curve and you’ll do fine. Try to hit face with the likes of Blazing Battlemage and Faerie Dragon, and use Corrosive Breath to get rid of enemy Taunts whilst still getting a decent bit of damage out there. You might still need to trade when you come up against aggro, but in general you should be trying to chip away at the opponent’s face.

Mid game: As your board presence develops, keep utilising your minions and Dragons to retain control. Stormhammer doesn’t lose Durability when you have a Dragon on board, so you can keep clearing enemy threats and directing damage to face without limits if you keep playing Dragons. Your hand size will shrink pretty quickly, so you’re looking to keep hitting the enemy with the likes of Corrosive Breath and Kill Command. If you can, playing Dragonbane on an empty board with mana to spare for a Hero Power is solid 7 face damage, and your untargetable minions like Faerie Dragon and Evasive Feywing can keep pressure on despite any single-target removal by enemies. Try to get Zixor, Apex Predator played too - it'll get tossed back into your deck with far more power. The sooner Zixor, Apex Predator is played, the sooner Zixor Prime will come about.

Late game: Ideally, you’ll have hit face enough that victory is within reach. Your Hero Power keeps dealing damage, and hopefully Stormhammer has gained a lot of value from Dragon synergies. Now’s the time to start counting for lethal. Look for everything you have in hand and see if it’ll be enough. Weapon hits, Dragonbane, Kill Command, Animal Companion, and a big board with Zixor Prime can all help with this, so see if you’ve got the reach to finish it off.

Dragon Hunter Mulligan guide

In the Mulligan phase you’ll want to draw your early minions and stay on curve from there.

  • 1. Blazing Battlemage: For 1 mana you get a 2/2, which can start pressuring face or trading with larger minions.
  • 2. Faerie Dragon: Your solid 2-mana Dragon that enemies will find hard to remove. It curves into Stormhammer excellently.
  • 3. Stormhammer: Start swinging this weapon and make sure you’ve got a Dragon kicking about - it’ll keep its durability and you should be able to get a fair bit of damage in.

Dragon Hunter tips, combos and synergies

You’re trying to stay on tempo as much as possible, so make sure you aren’t floating mana whenever possible. Here’s some synergies and effects to keep an eye on:

- Corrosive Breath only triggers its additional effect of hitting face when you have a Dragon in hand. Keep an eye on the card’s border - it’ll be highlighted yellow when this is the case.

- Stormhammer, on the other hand, requires a Dragon in play. It’ll be circled in light blue when it’s immune to Durability loss.

- Diving Gryphon will draw out another Rush card from your deck. This means you’ll get Springpaw, Evasive Wyrm or your other Diving Gryphon.

- Dragonbane’s damage is dealt to a random enemy, so there’s an equal chance of it hitting face as any enemy minion on board, making it occasionally unreliable as board control.

- If Zixor, Apex Predator is attacked whilst Pack Tactics is in play, you'll get an extra copy of the minion, meaning an extra trigger of the Deathrattle.

- Zixor Prime, if buffed by Scavenger's Ingenuity, will keep those stat buffs across his copies, making it exponentially more powerful.

- Frenzied Felwing can act as a 0 mana 3/3 if you've dealt 4 damage to the enemy, surprisingly easy considering all the aggressive tools at your disposal.

- Remember to have a Dragon in hand when casting Corrosive Breath. If you don't, you'll miss out on 3 damage to the enemy face.

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About the Author
James Law avatar

James Law

Former Guides Writer

James was part of Rock Paper Shotgun's guides team from 2020-2021, bringing his expert knowledge about FPS games, Hearthstone, Path Of Exile and more from his time at Metabomb. He's also a dab hand at Hitman 3, and making his own jam - things which may or may not be related to one another.

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