Hearthstone: Lowly Face Hunter

Hello everybody, Geek Generation here.

I swapped out the Brave Hunters for Lowly Squire and instantly loved the change. Here’s the latest list.

Lowly Face Hunter

1 x Hunter’s Mark
1 x Bear Trap
2 x Glaivezooka
2 x Explosive Trap
2 x Quick Shot
2 x Animal Companion
1 x Eaglehorn Bow
2 x Kill Command
2 x Unleash the Hounds

2 x Abusive Sergeant
2 x Leper Gnome
2 x Lowly Squire
1 x Ironbeak Owl
2 x Knife Juggler
2 x Mad Scientist
2 x Arcane Golem
2 x Wolfrider

With the change, there isn’t the urgency to go down to zero cards in hand, which makes playing the deck more comfortable. It also removes the option of using Kill Command just for the sake of activating Brave Archer.

Lowly Squire becomes the 5th and 6th one drop, where previously it would’ve been a Worgen Infiltrator or Webspinner. In my opinion, that extra point of health makes it much better than a Worgen Infiltrator.

Lowly Squire also fits with my play style, which is to activate hero power as much as possible starting from as early as turn 4. While lacking Haunted Creepers means a much lesser chance of activating Kill Command, it’s generally still not too bad a drawback.

Activating hero power as much as possible is important in this deck. For example, on turn 5, i have to play Ironbeak Owl on an Annoy-O-Tron for the attack. That leaves 3 mana and a beast on the board. My take here is that i should not play Kill Command to make full use of the bonus damage. Instead, it would be better to tap the hero power and let the last mana go to waste.

While some players might count damage over mana to determine value, i tend to count damage over cards. Tapping the hero power gives 2 damage and costs no cards. Even if i don’t get a beast later, i won’t have lost much because the hero power would have replaced an inactivated Kill Command’s lost damage.

Sure, in the case of lack of beast, it’s going to cost more mana to do the same amount of damage, activated Kill Command (3 mana), unactivated Kill Command (5 mana). But the biggest problem with Face Hunter is that it runs out of steam pretty quickly. I much rather have a slower, but safer game, than to run out of cards and fall short of lethal.

Playing the hero power every turn also has the added benefit of preventing over commitment. For example, on turn 5, most of the time, it is better to play Wolfrider + hero power rather than Wolfrider + some other 2 drop. Again, i would argue that the slower play, which guards against board clears, is mitigated by the hero power’s steady attrition.

Ok so much for now, Geek Generation out.