Path to Legend

[Ender]

Below are the 2 decks I primarily used to get to Legend rank this season. Aside from the occasional quest that did not include these classes, these 2 decks are really all I played. Both only have common and rare cards, so they are really easy to get the cards to play. I will post a brief strategy after each deck. As more Naxx cards become available, these decks may change slightly and there may be tougher counters to them to play against, but right now they work very well.

Naxx Zoo

• 2 x Flame Imp
• 2 x Dark Iron Dwarf
• 1 x Power Overwhelming
• 2 x Dire Wolf Alpha
• 2 x Voidwalker
• 1 x Elven Archer
• 2 x Harvest Golem
• 2 x Knife Juggler
• 2 x Shattered Sun Cleric
• 2 x Argent Squire
• 2 x Doomguard
• 2 x Soulfire
• 2 x Defender of Argus
• 2 x Abusive Sergeant
• 2 x Haunted Creeper
• 2 x Nerubian Egg

The "Zoo" deck is pretty common and not really my own making. A lot of people use it and those that don't try to directly counter it because so many use it. The simple idea of this deck is to play as much shit as fast as possible and smash your opponent's face. You should mostly be attacking your opponent. Only attack minions when he has something that really needs to be killed because of its ability, you have a very favorable trade (can easily kill his minion while not loosing yours), or if you are trying to pop an egg to get the 4/4. Otherwise, deal as much damage to your opponent as possible. Use your battlecry buffs to buff an egg or create favorable trades with opposing minions, or just to deal more damage. Try to wait until you have 0-1 other cards in your hand before dropping a Doomguard.

You can play around a little bit with variations of 1-2 cards. For example, the power overwhelming in this deck is not required and could be something else, but I like it in this deck for the extra damage if you need it to get through a big taunt or to finish off your opponent, plus it is an easy way to pop an egg. Some other variations i tried were to run a Shadowflame or Sea Giant instead, or just run a 2nd Elven Archer. Another variation I have seen lately is people using a Void Terror to pop eggs, which has been pretty tough to play against.

I used this deck almost exclusively up to rank 2, which is when I was running into tons of good anti-zoo Druid decks. Druid is probably the toughest matchup for this deck. You will get swiped at some point, and it usually hurts. You will also see an Ancient of War at some point, which is tough to deal with unless you have lots of buffs in your hand. Keepers of the Grove will silence your eggs, which sucks. If you don't kill a druid by turn 7, you will probably loose.

Hunter Beasts

• 2 x Savannah Highmane
• 1 x Oasis Snapjaw
• 2 x Hunter's Mark
• 2 x Stonetusk Boar
• 2 x Timber Wolf
• 2 x Starving Buzzard
• 2 x Tracking
• 2 x Houndmaster
• 1 x Deadly Shot
• 1 x Scavenging Hyena
• 1 x Dire Wolf Alpha
• 2 x Unleash the Hounds
• 1 x Stampeding Kodo
• 2 x Kill Command
• 2 x Animal Companion
• 1 x Flare
• 2 x Webspinner
• 2 x Haunted Creeper

I haven't played this deck a lot, but it has been very strong. I think I went 10-3 with it last night to finish going from rank 2 to legendary. The deck plays kind of like an agro rush deck, but there are some things you may not want to play early to save for combos. The main combos are buzzard+unleash+timber wolf (best against zoo decks), or hunters mark+webspinner/stonetusk/creeper (best against decks with big stuff, like druid). Also, you want to try to use your houndmasters on either the snapjaw or a creeper. Turn 2 creeper and turn 3 coin+houndmaster is very strong.

This deck has answers for almost everything. It can have a tough time with zoo though if you dont draw unleash the hounds early in the game and get a timber wolf and/or buzzard to combo with it. I think the only few games I have lost were to zoo when this happened. It has crushed everything else.

[Klaus]

Not a fan of Tundra Rhino?


I think I waste too much time with my hunter deck trying to combo Tundra Rhino with Core Hound.

[Ender]

Tundra Rhino is okay, but its stand alone stats are pretty low for its mana cost, so it usually dies the turn after you put it out to something bigger without trading with it. If it lives though and you play a highmane the turn after and charge with it, that can be pretty devastating.

[Ender]

One note about webspinner: this card can either be really good or kinda bad. If you get fucking hungry crab or captain's parrot, it sucks. If you get anything useful, it is really good, especially if you killed something big with it using hunter's mark or buffed it to trade with something that has 2 toughness.

[Klaus]

It's nice that you don't need to have the beast in your deck (like the Warlock spell).... but yeah lots of crappy beasts

[Klaus]

OK that hunter deck is good. Mine had secrets etc and striping them out was good.

[Ender]

Yeah, I played it some more last night and got up into the 300s of legend rank. Lost a couple of times to "miracle" rogue decks, but it beat everything else. Rogue is probably the toughest matchup with it.

The traps are ok, but kind of predictable. Explosive trap can be really good against Zoo or other rush decks though.

[Klaus]

After I went like 6-0 with that deck I lost a bunch in a row to the damn Warlock deck.... Those first few rounds against that deck you just need the perfect draw. Gotta kill the Flame Imp.

[Ender]

Yeah, explosive trap would help quite a bit against the zoo deck, so you could add it in. I am not sure what to replace though... probably the flare and one of the boars. The problem is explosive trap isn't very useful against non-rush decks, and flare is pretty good right now with more mage secret decks being played due to the addition of duplicate.