S24 Part 1 – One shot, one kill – Sector One
While everyone is waiting for standard to come out, a lot of players have started entertaining themselves on ladder by playing their unique and fun decks. The great thing about playtesting these innovative decks, is that it can sometimes lead to a competitive build once refined. Like this week’s Hobgoblin Patron deck used by Maverick to get to rank 1 legend EU or the Taunt Ramp Druid created by Ersee.
Ersee, a player for eSportHero made it to rank 2 legend on the European server, he used a rather unusual druid build to achieve this rank. During his climb to legend he mainly faced zoo warlocks (running 2x Sea Giant) and Combo Druids. With this build he counterbuilds the popular double Sea Giant list, by running 2 Big Game Hunter and is also able to hide behind a taunt wall from any Power Overwhelming / Force of Nature + Savage Roar burst.
Ersee is currently still experimenting with the deck adding in Sunwalker and even Hogger
Check him out on twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/erseee
General Strategy
Taunt Ramp Druid is a deck that relies on cheating the mana curve with Wild Growth / Innervate. This deck does not run the infamous Force of Nature + Savage Roar combo. You sacrifice the burst most druid decks nowadays have for board control. The goal of this deck is to win by controlling and building up your board, using big minions such as Ancient of War and Cenarius.
General Mulligan
You want to mulligan for Wild Growth, Innervate and Living Roots.
If you have Wild Growth already, keeping a 4 drop is fine. Same goes when you have Innervate in hand.
Against Paladin it is advisable to keep a Swipe so you can counter his Muster for Battle.
Keeper of the Grove is also a good keep against Warlock and Hunter.
Notable Cards
Big Game Hunter x2: Teched to counter the popular double Sea Giant zoo list
Starfall: An extra measure of board clear versus zoo or paladin, and a card that is rarely played around.
Ancient of War x2: Very good when facing combo druid and versus more aggressive decks.
Cenarius: Puts up an extra taunt wall or can be used to increase board presence.
Matchups
Good matchups:
Sea Giant Zoo, Mid-Range Druid
Bad matchups:
Matchups still require more testing
Tech Choices
Versus Control: -1 Cenarius + 1 Kel'Thuzad
When encountering less Sea Giant: -1 Big Game Hunter + Sunwalker / Hogger
GosuForever is a known name to most competitive players, he has now taken the #1 legend spot two times, over a course of two months. Last month he used Freeze Mage, this time he uses a techy zoo.
This deck has a bit of everything melted into one: the sudden burst of Leeroy Jenkins + Power Overwhelming and the ability to play a Sea Giant for free or almost no mana.
General Strategy
Your goal is to take control of the board very early and using that to snowball into a win. You want to be “flooding” the board in order to get the benefits of Gormok the Impaler or make Sea Giant very cheap to be played.
Keep control of the board and trade your weaker minions. When you are already far ahead you can just start cashing in the damage and go face. Try to play around board clear abilities such as Hellfire or Consecration by leaving your Nerubian Egg / Haunted Creeper unpopped if possible.
General Mulligan
Mulligan hard for cheap minions like Voidwalker, Argent Squire, Knife Juggler, Dark Peddler, Haunted Creeper
Try to get a drop for every turn in your hand for example: T1 Argent Squire, T2 Dark Peddler, Turn 3 Imp Gang Boss,…
When on the coin keeping Nerubian Egg + Abusive Sergeant/Power Overwhelming is a solid combo. If you are not on the coin this combo might be too slow, mulligan for something more stable.
Notable Cards
Big Game Hunter: Most decks are running a BGH-able targets (Dr. Boom, Sea Giant) Abusive Sergeant also allows you to buff your enemies 5+ attack minion, in order to put it into BGH range.
Gormok the Impaler: Imp-losion, Haunted Creeper provide a lot of flood which makes Gormok the Impaler a great tech card.
Loatheb: Almost standard in every Zoo deck nowadays protects your board for at least one turn in order to set up lethal or cash in on a bunch of damage.
Sea Giant: Sea Giant can really give you an edge in the mirror. It’s also good versus Secret Paladin that tends to have multiple minions on board constantly.
Leeroy Jenkins: Can push that extra damage, also combos great with other parts of your deck Power Overwhelming, Abusive Sergeant, Sea Giant, …Dark Peddler also allows you to pick up an extra piece of burst such as Soulfire / Power Overwhelming to finish your opponent off with ridiculous burst damage.
Matchups
Good matchups:
Druid, Tempo Mage, Aggro Shaman, Control Warrior
Bad matchups:
Freeze mage, Dragon / Lightbomb Priest, Patron, Renolock Malylock
Although at first glance this might look like a quirky deck, it can be quite powerful. It differs from the more standard patron lists by cutting high cost minions and replacing them with plenty of 1-attack creatures to pair with hobgoblin to gain massive stats & tempo.
Maverick, a player for one of the top French teams “Millenium” piloted the originally popularized list by Justsaiyin to rank 1 EU.
Maverick generally streams in French: https://www.twitch.tv/mill_maverick
General Strategy
Hobgoblin Patron is still a combo-tempo deck, if you lose the board, you probably lose the game. Weapons are very important as they allow you to keep up with your opponent’s board development.
Versus aggro you now have plenty of extra tools to deal with their minions and these should not form a big issue.
In matchups like Renolock / Priest / Control warrior, you need to try to bait out one AOE spell, and then refill the board with patrons or flood the board with a Hobgoblin combo. You will often just have the risk losing to a second AoE spell by playing your minion remember that you cannot wait a long time or they will eventually draw into their board clear anyway.
General Mulligan
Mulligan for weapons, they are crucial and have synergy with most of your cards. If you have a weapon in hand consider keeping early game minions Armorsmith, Acolyte of Pain, Unstable Ghoul versus aggro decks.
Notable Cards
Elven Archer: Synergy with Hobgoblin but can also be used to activate Execute or to get extra draw from Acolyte of Pain or to simply snipe your opponent’s minion.
Hobgoblin: Provides an extra win condition for the patron deck
[Mogu’shan Warden]: Can be extremely beefy with paired with Hobgoblin
Emperor Thaurissan: A card usually cut nowadays from Patron but reduces your cost of comboing Hobgoblin
Grommash Hellscream: Can provide that finishing damage
Matchups
This deck tends to lose to most late game decks that have means of resetting the board.
Good matchups :
Druid, Tempo Mage, Aggro Shaman, Secret Paladin, Zoo
Bad matchups:
Dragon / Lightbomb Priest, Renolock, Malylock, Control Warrior
Many of you may be familiar with the rank 1 Finish of J4CKIECHAN and his Desert Camel Hunter to secure the first spot, but at the same time NickChipper was SMOrcing all the way to to number 2 with this Face Hunter deck.
NickChipper tends to stream in Russian: https://www.twitch.tv/nickchipperhs
General Strategy
You have one goal: racing your opponent for damage.
If he face plays taunt, use Ironbeak Owl
Try to maximize damage, weave in a hero power whenever you can.
Although the deck is named face hunter, you might want to trade in the early game to not get overwhelmed.
General Mulligan
Look for your 1 drops & early minions: Mad Scientist, Haunted Creeper, Knife Juggler, Leper Gnome. You’ll want to start dealing damage from the get go.
When on the coin try to look for a double two drop so you can coin two-drop into two-drop.
Notable Cards
2x Snake Trap: Often catches your opponent off guard
1 x Explosive Trap: Quite good versus Zoo and Secret Paladin
Matchups
Good matchups :
Tempo Mage, Secret Paladin, Zoo, Rogue
Bad matchups:
Patron Warrior, Priest, Control Warrior
Credits to SerraArc for creating the awesome work of art we used in our article. (Link to original art)
