Dealing With Spell and Secret Hunter Post-Rastakhan - Upcomer
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The new Hearthstone expansion, Rastakhan’s Rumble, released earlier this week, and with it came a strong wave of spell-centric Hunter decks. Spell Hunter and Secret Hunter were already established archetypes before Rastakhan released, but now they have a new-late game, hyper synergistic card that pushes them over the edge: Zul’Jin.

Zul'jin, Hunter, Spell Hunter, Secret Hunter, Secret, beat

Zul’Jin makes a new twist in Hearthstone

Zul’Jin really gives Spell and Secret Hunter a whole new win condition and functions as a very powerful value card that can turn losing games into stout, convincing victories. Essentially what happens is this: The Hunter player will play their deck as usual, using cards like Flanking Strike, Emerald Spellstone, and a plethora of Secrets to control the early game board presence while they chip in face damage with their creatures and trait. Then if they don’t draw Rexxar and its getting into the late game where they begin to run out of gas… they play Zul’jin. He instantly replays every removal spell they played all game, alongside every summon spell and every Secret. Suddenly, their poor board state turns into a massive field of 3/3 wolves, random Animal Companions, and a metric ton of Secrets lighting up their hero portrait like a Christmas tree.

So what do you do? How do you counter this?

Control decks like Big Spell Mage, Control Warlock, Control Warrior, and whatnot have board wipes they can use to answer the large number of creatures generated by decks that have played Zul’jin. However, even if they can clear the board, they’re left to deal with up to five Secrets just waiting to slow them down, so the Hunter player can get back into the game with Rexxar, face damage, or just good draws. You need to deal with the Secrets on their side of the board if you plan to win through creature beats.

This is where I introduce what are called “tech” cards. These are cards that are specifically in your deck to hate on and counter specific other decks in the meta. Right now, according to HSReplay (image below), Spell Hunter is a massive portion of the meta, so you may consider running a couple of these tech cards in your decks in anticipation for this matchup.

Hunter, Spell Hunter, Secret Hunter, Zul'Jin, Hearthstone, beat

The tech cards that hurt Spell and Secret Hunter

  • Chief Inspector is a Neutral minion that can be slotted into most decks. His 5/6 stat line is decent for 5 mana, but the real kicker is his Battlecry: “Destroy all enemy Secrets.” There are often times when a Hunter player should be dead to their enemy’s creatures, but many Secrets stand in the way of that direct damage. Playing Chief Inspector at the right time and destroying all the Secrets that Spell Hunter can amass can absolutely steal you games that you probably would have lost otherwise. Chief Inspector is probably the go-to option here for most decks if you’re just tired of seeing Secrets everywhere!

Hearthstone, Hunter, Spell Hunter, Secret Hunter, beat

  • Flare is the other option, but it is only for the Hunter class. This card is wonderful tech for winning the mirror match on the ladder. It’s essentially Chief Inspector without the body, which kind of hurts, except for in Spell Hunter where you cannot have any minions. So if you’re playing Hunter and can’t run Chief Inspector (or even if you can), this is absolutely a solid card to run. Flare, Secrets, Secret Hunter, Spell Hunter, beat

Conclusion

You don’t have to run these cards to beat the Hunter decks; you really don’t. But if you are looking to have a competitive edge climbing up Hearthstone ranks, then there may be something to consider since Hunter is being heavily played right now. If you play 10 games a day and four or five are against Hunter variants, you have cards that will absolutely give them a bad day. That’s four or five wins that should be a lot easier just because you were ready for the huge mass of Hunter decks in the meta at the moment.

Thank you all for reading. Please let me know what you think in the comments! I’ll see you all around the Hearth!




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