About James Law
James can usually be found wearing dungarees.
Our Midrange Hunter deck list guide features the best Saviors of Uldum deck list for Season 65 of Hearthstone (August 2019). Our Midrange Hunter guide also contains Mulligan advice, card combos and strategy tips.
Midrange Hunter is a Hearthstone deck that’s been a solid choice throughout the history of the game. As a cheap deck with a fairly simple game plan, it’s the perfect way to bring more of a competitive edge to your game without committing too much crafting dust. With multiple strong minions and some impactful spells, it’s also one of the more fun decks to play in the game!
With this deck you can react to many situations: either taking more of a control stance to slow down your opponent or switching to a more aggressive approach when you’ve established a strong board position. It’s this versatility, as well as knowing when to focus on either style, that will guide you to victory with the archetype.
In this update to our Midrange Hunter guide, we’ve included the top deck list seeing play in Hearthstone as of this very moment, including some great new cards from the Saviors of Uldum expansion.
You can also read on further for strategy tips on how to pilot the deck, some important Mulligan advice and a closer look at the key card combos you should definitely commit to memory.
UPDATE - AUGUST 2019 #1
We’ve got a couple of extra cards coming into this deck thanks to the Saviors of Uldum expansion. We’ll keep updating this deck list as the meta develops, so keep your eyes peeled!
Midrange Hunter deck list and strategy
This is the version of Midrange Hunter currently seeing the majority of play in Hearthstone:
| Hunter | Neutral |
|---|---|
| 2 x Shimmerfly | 1 x Vicious Scalehide |
| 1 x Springpaw | |
| 2 x Timber Wolf | |
| 2 x Tracking | |
| 2 x Headhunter's Hatchet | |
| 2 x Scavenging Hyena | |
| 2 x Animal Companion | |
| 1 x Deadly Shot | |
| 2 x Kill Command | |
| 2 x Master's Call | |
| 2 x Unleash the Hounds | |
| 2 x Dire Frenzy | |
| 1 x Tundra Rhino | |
| 2 x Scarlet Webweaver | |
| 2 x Unleash the Beast | |
| 1 x Wild Bloodstinger | |
| 1 x Zul'jin |
Select and copy the long ID string below, then create a deck in Hearthstone to export this deck into your game.
Deck Import ID: AAECAR8GuwXFCPbsApuFA6CFA7uhAwyoArUD3gSXCNsJgQrJ+AKkiAOwiwP5lgOenQPpogMA
- 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
With an emphasis on beast synergy, weapons and minion buffs the Midrange Hunter aims to steadily build pressure over the game with a well-curved deck full of value-oriented cards. You should have no problem finding strong plays turn after turn in order to build a powerful board, which you can use to steadily injure your opponent over time, and then seal the win with big late game minions or burst damage from Kill Command.
Early game: Play out your early game minions and take efficient trades where possible. Many of these will generate additional cards in your hand, so you can keep up the pressure every turn or find something to fill the gaps in your Mana. Headhunter's Hatchet is an excellent removal tool against enemy minions in the opening stages, so try to play it when you have a Beast on the board to get that extra point of Durability.
Mid game: Continue applying the pressure with strong on-curve plays. With a board established you can go directly for your opponent’s life total if they aren’t offering up anything too threatening to see about a quick win. Weave in your hero power if you have any spare mana to whittle down their Health even more.
If you’re falling behind and have to take some trades, you can always refill your hand with Master's Call to draw three Beasts, or Unleash the Beast can usually take out at least one of your opponent’s minions and survive. If you have a particularly good target for it, now is the time to play Dire Frenzy on one of your best Beasts.
Late game: Unleash the Beast can continue to be extremely powerful in the late-game, along with whatever you've boosted with Dire Frenzy. What you’re really looking for, though, is a way to finally burst your foe down with Kill Command or some Beasts with Charge. Zul'jin is also in the deck as a throw of the dice to seal the win - the value from replaying all your spells can be huge.
Save up to 40% on your Hearthstone card packs with Amazon Coins.
You get cheaper cards while also supporting the continued development of Metabomb. Our Amazon Coins guide has more detail.
Aggro Opponents
Some advice on how to deal with aggro opponents:
- 1. Play control in the early game using weapons and Rush minions to keep their side of the board empty.
- 2. Once they’re on the backfoot you can become the aggressor, ignoring their minions and going directly for their life total.
- 3. If you can set up a big play with Scavenging Hyena and Unleash the Hounds to counter their wide board, you’ll be left with a giant minion that they may struggle to deal with easily.
- 4. Try to save Kill Command for some final burst damage, but you can use it to clear a minion if you’re desperate.
Control opponents
What to keep in mind when up against control decks:
- 1. Play more aggressively from the start and look for opportunities for extra damage with your hero power wherever you can.
- 2. If they’re missing the hard removal to deal with some of your late game cards then you can push through more damage and go for the win.
- 3. Save together all your burst damage for a single turn rather than chipping away at them every so often. Control decks can often heal or generate Armor to negate all your work and it’s best left to surprise them with all in one go.
- 4. As the deck features no hard removal you’ll have to find ways to punch through big minions or hope you get lucky with a random spell generation effect.
Midrange Hunter Mulligan guide
With a range of cheap minions, weapons and spells, here’s what you should be hunting for in your opening hand:
- 1. Shimmerfly: A very basic one-drop, but it comes with the added bonus of granting you a random Hunter spell.
- 2. Springpaw: Another straightforward early game minion that also refills your hand so you can keep the pressure up on the next turn.
- 3. Animal Companion: Perfectly solid minion generator, although you have to roll the dice a bit to hope you get the ideal result.
- 4. Headhunter's Hatchet: There’s a good chance you’ll have a Beast on the board when this is played to gain the extra durability, and it’s perfect for attacking early game minions.
Midrange Hunter tips, combos and synergies
While the deck has received some new cards from the Saviors of Uldum set, many of the key combos in the deck are as old as time itself. Nevertheless, it’s good to refresh your memory on all the important ones! Keep these in mind as you play through every game.
- The exciting new card in this deck is Scarlet Webweaver, which allows for a great deal of tempo essentially acting as a 1 mana 5/5 if you play it right. We’ve added Wild Bloodstinger into the deck to increase the likelihood of you hitting an expensive minion for massive value.
- Scavenging Hyena gains an extra +2 / +1 of stats whenever a friendly Beast minion dies. You can boost this minion up quite quickly using Unleash the Hounds, for example.
- If you equip Headhunter's Hatchet while you have a Beast on the board it’ll gain one extra Durability, making it an extremely valuable weapon in the early game.
- Vicious Scalehide has the Lifesteal mechanic, which means you'll gain as much Health as it attacks for.
- All other Beasts that you have in play will gain an extra point of Attack for as long as Timber Wolf remains active on the board.
- Kill Command only does three points of damage as standard, but if you've got a Beast out in play that damage value increases to five.
- Master's Call offers some serious card draw to Midrange Hunter. As all of the minions you run in the deck are Beasts, that means you’ll always add three cards to your hand for just three Mana.
- Most opponents will look to kill Tundra Rhino as soon as it comes into play, as giving your Beast minions Charge can be massive. Remember, the Charge effect also applies to Tundra Rhino too!
- When you play Zul'jin he’ll cast every spell you’ve used throughout the match once again, including the likes of Kill Command and Unleash the Beast. It can make for a ridiculously powerful turn but be warned as the targets are completely random and you could end up hurting yourself more.
Midrange Hunter card choices and substitutions
Midrange Hunter is actually a very cheap deck to run so you shouldn’t have any problems with missing cards in this list. Nevertheless, here are a few of the most important ones that tend to show up in this archetype.
- Shimmerfly: A nice minion to get you on the board early that also comes with the benefit of generating a bonus Hunter spell for you.
- Dire Wolf Alpha: Can buff the Attack power of some of your weaker early game minions so that they trade up into your opponent’s drops.
- Headhunter's Hatchet: An excellent weapon in this deck that steals the spot usually reserved for Eaglehorn Bow due to all the Beast synergy.
- Scavenging Hyena: With all the Beast minions you run in the deck there’s a good chance you can make this into a rather giant threat in the right board state.
- Animal Companion: Misha, Leokk and Huffer are all useful in different situations. It’s not a disaster if you don’t get the one you need, but when you do it’s glorious.
- Master's Call: Gives the deck a powerful way to stay in the game if you’re running low on resources by drawing three more Beast creatures.
- Kill Command: A big burst finisher, and with the way this deck is stacked with beast minions you should always have a way to activate it.
- Dire Frenzy: Target your best Beast minions with this so you have some more late game reach to dig for in your deck.
- Unleash the Beast: Generates a big minion for you and because it's a Twinspell you can do it again the very next turn.
- Savannah Highmane: Your big late game card. Its threat is especially difficult to negate because of the Deathrattle effect.
- Zul'jin: Represents some truly bonkers value, even if the random targeting makes this axe-thrower a little risky.
Comment on this article
If you'd like a response from me, include @ Bedders (without the space) and I'll see the notification. We have dozens and dozens of guides to keep updated and that guarantees I'll see it if the article's not on the homepage.
Cheers, John
# 2x (1) Alleycat
# 2x (1) Fire Fly
# 1x (1) Tracking
# 2x (2) Crackling Razormaw
# 1x (2) Golakka Crawler
# 2x (2) Grievous Bite
# 2x (2) Scavenging Hyena
# 2x (3) Animal Companion
# 2x (3) Bearshark
# 1x (3) Deadly Shot
# 2x (3) Eaglehorn Bow
# 2x (3) Kill Command
# 2x (3) Stitched Tracker
# 1x (3) Unleash the Hounds
# 2x (4) Houndmaster
# 1x (5) Bittertide Hydra
# 1x (5) Explosive Shot
# 1x (6) Deathstalker Rexxar
# 1x (8) Marin the Fox
AAECAR8IigOXCMUI2wmvwgLkwgKG0wKk5wILqAK1A+sHgQr+DOq7AuvCAobDAo7DAtPNAtfNAgA=
-Marin can give incredible value with the treasures.
-Explosive Shot as a good clear for high health minions.
-Rexxar is good against Priest and Shaman, and comes with a better Grievous Bite and minion creator.
-Stitched Tracker can get you a good minion in hand for 3 mana.
Remove firefly, replace with jeweled macaw- you still get a 2 for one pull any better synergy with your other beasts and buffs. The fireflies can't be buffed with other cards in this deck and end up as disappointing clutter. The Macaw seldom gives me anything useless.
Remove one each of bittertide hydra and Savannah highmane in exchange for one tundra rhino and Deathstalker Rexxar: this way you have more versatility against priests and shamans. However, Do not use Rexxar if you can still use your 2 point shot. Further, having a good 5 drop that gives charge procs kindly grandmother well.
Bearshark: great against priests, but I found replacing one of these with Vicious Fledgling to help a great deal.
Tracking: I have awful luck with this card and end up losing 2 decent cards, so I traded for either Dire wolf, the 1 point or the 2 point, up to your personal preference. This creates great synergy with your other cards and is seldom wasted in late game.
With these small changes I went from fail to winstreak.
I like your thoughts! I think I will change Macaw with Firefly, and the stitched trackers to Bonemares and Golakka is interesting. Golakka feels really weak when there's no pirates there, and I'm always reluctant to run 2 tech cards, but patches is pretty rampant and he is a beast... As for Bonemare, I used to run him, but he lost some favor as Deathstalker Rexxar is so late game-y he felt like an extra chance for a dead car. But he is incredibly powerful...
As for Unleash the Hounds, as I said, I'm not sold on it either. I don't know about subbing it out for Alpha though, he's really bad on an empty board especially for board control, even though he's really good on a full one. I think Spellbreaker is actually pretty good with all the Priest of the Feasts, Despicable Dreadlords, Spikeridged Steeds, and Bonemares running around- but I agree that two of him is pretty bad. I have the same issue with Alpha as before.
And you're right, my deck is engineered for a slower meta (it's biggest flaw and what makes it the most fun...) I guess I may go "Hybrid Hunter" after all
Your list seems okay but a couple changes I'd recommend.
1) You have 2 stitched trackers AND 2 tracking. I would drop 1 of each, or keep 2 tracking and drop both stitched trackers. You could pick up a 2nd Golakka and a Bonemare.
2) Jeweled Mccaw. Switch them to firefly. Fire fly gives a stronger board presence and fills in those odd mana gaps that might occur. I use to run Mccaw as well but I lose board control too easy, especially against Rogue which is popular in the meta.
3) UtH. Personally I don't run this card but that's subject to change if zoo lock gets popular. It's often a dead card or over costed card. I'd replace it with alpha wolf.
4) Spell Breaker. A good tech choice, but I'm not sold on him. No beast synergy and can be overcosted in some matchups, especially priest. I'd replace with a 2nd alpha wolf.
Your deck is better suited for a slower meta as it currently stands. I can't see it being competitive against rogues, shaman, and zoo locks. As hunter, you can't afford to lose board control (hence why fire fly is a solid choice). You need efficient minions.
Firstly I run Deathstalker Rexxar, no matter how bad it is, it is just so fun. Besides that, it works really well at out valueing control opponents and as a board clear against Aggro. Rexxar eats living manna for breakfast. I can remember winning games with this guy- I was facing a control warlock who had about 25 health left on turn 9-10- I played Rexxar a few turns before. I hero powered and made a Knuckles+the one manna 1/1 windfury beast. Landed a houndmaster on him next turn- he ate through the opponents taunts and brought the opponent down around 10 HP, plus the rest of my board. Needless to say he lost the game even after twisting nether- I really, really like Rexxar XD
Deadly shot vs. Unleash the Hounds is such a hard choice... Unleash the hounds I feel is mindblowingly powerful /w Leokk, but man, against aggro, they run a lot of 2 health minions (fire fly, Living Mana, Bloodsail Corsair) that feel like they make it pretty weak. COntrol opponents just don't make a big enough board for it to matter.
Deadly shot, however, is situationally useful (weak against aggro (usually) strong against control. Currently I run one of both.
Hyena is also up in the air for me, and I only run one Crawler. Right no I have no Hyenas- I'll tell you though, Hyenas make Unleash much better. I feel like having only one Savannah makes Rexxar a lot better- you can grab him with stiched trackers (another one I'm not 100% on) if you need more, but having two, two Hydras, and one Rexxar is too much late game for most matches (against control it feels hard to find mana+time to play them, against aggro they're too slow). Currently I'm running:
x2 Jeweled Macaw (Firefly vs. Macaw is another hard one)
x2 Alleycat
x2 Tracking
x2 Crackling Razormaw
x2 Kindly Grandmother
x1 Golakka Crawler
x2 Bearsheark
x2 Animal Companion
x2Eaglehorn Bow
x2 Kill Command
x2 Stitched Tracker (I'm not sold on this guy either, I feel like he works well when you take a little more of a controlling/value route, which is what I usually do)
x1 Unleash the Hounds
x1 Deadly Shot
x2 Houndmaster
x1 Spell Breaker (Two of this is too much, but he destroys Paladin in particular, or else he just pounds his way through a taunt like Lich King- plus he's a four drop)
x2 Bittertide Hydra
x1 Highmane
x1 Death Stalker Rexxar
Any ideas for improvement on this from anyone? I don't have Patches, and I really want to keep Rexxar and probably tracking (tracking is so good... let's you adapt your strategy to whatever you want or need. It can be a bit sad to discard one-of cards in your deck, but sometimes the discard can actually clean out your deck a bit (getting rid of Macaws and Alleycats for you, or unnecessary late-game drops).
Also I feel like the list you have right now on the site closely resembles the "Hybrid Hunter" which is halfway between aggro and midrange more than midrange itself
Here's last week's version of the deck for comparison. I know some of you like to be able to reference the earlier stuff, so I'll keep doing this going forwards!
Old Deck
Hunter
2 x Alleycat
2 x Tracking
2 x Crackling Razormaw
2 x Kindly Grandmother
2 x Eaglehorn Bow
2 x Animal Companion
2 x Deadly Shot
2 x Bearshark
2 x Stitched Tracker
2 x Kill Command
2 x Houndmaster
1 x Deathstalker Rexxar
Neutral
1 x Patches the Pirate
2 x Bloodsail Corsair
2 x Golakka Crawler
1 x Spellbreaker
1 x Savannah Highmane
Deck Import ID:
AAECAR8E8gXtCZG8AobTAg2oArUD5QfrB5cIxQj+DLm0Auq7AuTCAo7DAtPNAtfNAgA
The one in this month's guide is their revised version for the current metagame, so revert to this one at your own discretion...
Hunter
2 x Alleycat
1 x Hunter's Mark
2 x Timber Wolf
1 x Tracking
2 x Kindly Grandmother
2 x Quick Shot
2 x Scavenging Hyena
2 x Trogg Beastrager
2 x Kill Command
2 x Rat Pack
2 x Unleash the Hounds
2 x Dispatch Kodo
2 x Houndmaster
2 x Tundra Rhino
2 x Savannah Highmane
Neutral
2 x Cult Master
This is a great deck and I have had quite a bit of success with it
Just wanted to ask how Dr. Boom is a counter to Big Game Hunter?
Dr. Boom is 7 attack, within BGH's range
1. Why only 2 secrets with 2 mad scientists? I found myself in lots of situations where a scientist popped with no secret left.
2. Why the same secret twice? If you have one secret out and one mad scientist, if the mad scientist pops you don't get a free secret.
3. With the knife juggler synergy, don't forget the haunted creepers. Send a haunted creeper into a minion then get 2 points of damage with your two 1/1's.
That aside, Any of the other powerful legendaries are good substitutes I suppose. Just google "best HS legendaries" for any number of different lists. The top few of nearly any one of those lists will work.
As far as non-legendary there's always some of the better rares such as Sludge Belcher, Sun Walker, etc. Although really you should focus on getting Dr. Boom ASAP. Good luck!
Thanks.
My midrange deck is a little faster, less beast/secret dependent and has anti aggro like belchers and healbot to be more geared toward the rank 10-18 ladder.
Just a couple of questions..
1. Why take out Houndmaster completely and replace it with another Piloted Shredder?
2. I see 2 x Leper Gnomes in there. Leper Gnomes = more aggro. Is this to adopt to the current meta? Would'nt another freezing trap be better? Possibly
Thanks for sharing this! I will definitely want to try it out!