Highlander Hunter deck list guide - Darkmoon Faire - Hearthstone (December 2020)
The new and improved Darkmoon Faire Highlander Hunter.
Highlander Hunter is a deck built around reaping the benefits of cards that work best when your deck contains no duplicates. A midrange build focused around getting Dinotamer Brann summoning King Krush to hit your opponent’s face on turn 7, your gameplan is to contest the board early and overwhelm your opponent when the opportunity arrives.
Of course, you need a contingency plan in case you don’t draw the perfect curve, so our Highlander Hunter deck is designed to play like a traditional Midrange Hunter most of the time. You've got a bit of Secret synergy, a dose of Beastly action, and a bunch of big cards to finish off your enemy.
It’s turned out that Highlander Hunter is still viable in Darkmoon Faire, thanks in no small part to the sweet Secret package included in this expansion, as well as the extremely streamlined version of the deck that’s come to the fore recently. Our Highlander Hunter guide has the best deck list for the current meta, as well as tips on piloting this deck to success.
Highlander Hunter deck list and strategy
Here’s the most popular Highlander Hunter deck list at the moment - we’ll keep you updated as the meta develops!
| Hunter | Neutral |
|---|---|
| 1 x Dwarven Sharpshooter | 1 x Guardian Augmerchant |
| 1 x Adorable Infestation | 1 x Intrepid Initiate |
| 1 x Demon Companion | 1 x Blazing Battlemage |
| 1 x Mystery Winner | 1 x Tour Guide |
| 1 x Wolpertinger | 1 x Voracious Reader |
| 1 x Pack Tactics | 1 x Wriggling Horror |
| 1 x Snake Trap | 1 x Zephrys the Great |
| 1 x Imprisoned Felmaw | 1 x Bonechewer Brawler |
| 1 x Open the Cages | 1 x Inconspicuous Rider |
| 1 x Phase Stalker | 1 x Lorekeeper Polkelt |
| 1 x Scavenger's Ingenuity | |
| 1 x Freezing Trap | |
| 1 x Eaglehorn Bow | |
| 1 x Animal Companion | |
| 1 x Kill Command | |
| 1 x Unleash the Hounds | |
| 1 x Petting Zoo | |
| 1 x Dragonbane | |
| 1 x Rinling's Rifle | |
| 1 x Dinotamer Brann |
Select and copy the long ID string below, then create a deck in Hearthstone to export this deck into your game.
Deck Import ID: AAECAR8eqAK1A8cDhwTbCf4M/KMDpqUD+a4D+68D/K8Dh7ADorkDpLkD/7oD174D3r4D3MwDm80Dos4DgtADxtEDudID9tYD6OED8uED8+EDhOIDj+MDyuMDAAA=
More great Hunter guides:
- 1. Best Budget Decks - Hearthstone: Best Budget Decks for Ashes of Outland
- 2. Tier List - Hearthstone deck tier list (Ashes of Outland)
- 3. Dragonbane Face Hunter - Dragonbane Face Hunter deck list guide (Ashes of Outland)
- 4. Beast Hunter - Beast Hunter deck list guide (Ashes of Outland)
- 5. Midrange Hunter - Midrange Hunter deck list guide (Ashes of Outland)
- 6. Highlander Dragon Hunter - Highlander Dragon Hunter deck list guide (Ashes of Outland)
- 7. Quest Hunter - Quest Hunter deck list guide (Ashes of Outland)
General strategy
This is a big time Secret synergy deck. It’s bloody brilliant, and with all the ability to thin them out of your deck with the likes of Phase Stalker and Inconspicuous Rider, you’ll be drawing out your big hitters far more reliably than you might expect.
Obviously, you won't always draw this in the perfect curve. Regardless, powerful plays should be easy to come by, despite the fact that your deck has no duplicates. In fact, the unpredictability of a deck like this may just throw your opponent off-guard, as they have no way of knowing what cards to expect in your hand at a given point.
Early Game: You’re a Hunter, so play out early minions as much as possible. Given the natural lack of consistency this deck has, each game will begin very differently. With this in mind, play what you can and don’t get behind on the board. You have early-game minions to contest the board, and your Secrets like Freezing Trap and Pack Tactics can be excellent tools to keep early board control.
Every game will play out differently, so it’s important to adapt to early game plays your opponent makes, and ensure they don’t run away with the win.
Mid Game: Your Secrets should have stalled your enemy out big time, and even got you a bit of control thanks to the likes of Open the Cages giving you an Animal Companion and Petting Zoo offering an extra 3/3 per Secret in play.
Value is everything at this point in the game, and you don’t want to be trading big minions away for less than they’re worth. Keep pressuring your opponent, using cards like Unleash the Hounds to damage their minions whilst keeping pressure up.
Late Game: By now you should be closing in on the kill. You’re on the hunt, and the enemy is limping. Now is a great time to slam Dinotamer Brann on the board, ruining your enemy’s hopes of coming back into the game. You want to be finishing them off ASAP - if you haven’t drawn Dinotamer Brann, remember you can play Lorekeeper Pokelt to guarantee you draw the big guy next turn.
You’ll usually have enough fuel to reach the finish line. Zul'jin is gone from Standard format, but you've still got the likes of Dragonbane as direct damage. Siamat is another excellent endgame minion, as you can give him keywords that’ll help you out of any predicament. Finally, if you’ve saved Zephrys the Great, he’ll give you the ‘perfect’ card from the Basic or Classic set, be it direct damage, board presence, or a full clear. It’ll often be enough to see you over the finish line, especially if you have a feel for what cards Zephrys will offer you in a given situation. Our Zephrys guide can help you out with this!
Highlander Hunter Mulligan Guide
You don’t want to get overrun early on, and ideally the game will be out of reach ASAP.
1. Dwarven Sharpshooter gives you the flexibility you need to finish off your enemy's minions whilst also being able to go face with your Hero Power.
2. Phase Stalker lets you pull Secrets out of your deck by pressing your Hero Power button, giving you the chance to thin out your deck whilst making life more difficult for your opponent.
3. Intrepid Initiate is a 1 mana 3/2 once you’ve activated its Spellburst, and is a 4/3 if you use Adorable Infestation on it - a great value early play.
Highlander Hunter tips, combos and synergies
Highlander Hunter is a simple deck to play, but keep an eye out for the following synergies and situations:
- Remember, Petting Zoo summons a 3/3 by default, and an extra one for every Secret you have in play. This is why it’s often great to whack out Open the Cages before Petting Zoo, because it won’t trigger until you have minions survive on board.
- Zephrys the Great can be used early to ensure you curve out properly, but it’s probably best used for that extra oomph in the late game. He’ll find lethal for you too, so if you think one of the options is a bit of an odd one, think about how you could play it for a win.
- Use your Secret package wisely. Consider the potential ways you could mess with an enemy’s plans and play your secrets accordingly. For example, if you’ve got a big enemy minion staring you down, a Freezing Trap would be a great way to ruin their tempo.
- A big issue to watch out for when playing this deck is Bomb Warrior. When multiple copies of the ‘Cast When Drawn’ bombs get put into your deck, both Zephrys the Great and Dinotamer Brann's Battlecry do not trigger. Be careful and don’t suffer the duel pain of playing a 7 mana 2/4 and getting beaten down by the seemingly endless explosives.
- Dragonbane can represent 5 face damage if the enemy doesn’t have any minions on board - keep this in mind for calculating lethal damage.
- Ideally, you're getting Secrets played with Phase Stalker or Inconspicuous Rider, because they're not the best cards to topdeck. Use Tour Guide to discount your next Hero Power to 0 mana the turn before you play Phase Stalker to guarantee a proc.
- Scavenger's Ingenuity gets a Beast out of your deck and buffs it by +2/+2. A beefier Phase Stalker is always a pleasant treat, and Wolpertinger keeps the buff when copied.