The Comprehensive Across the Timeways Preview

 

Arrow Retriever

We think players may fixate on Arrow Retriever being a support card for an aggressive Hunter deck that looks to empty its hand, as the Hunter set this expansion seems to support that direction with multiple pieces. While this might be the role where Retriever is most powerful, it does not have to be leveraged with maximum efficiency to be effective. A 2 mana 3/1 that draws a single card is already decent.

We believe Retriever is simply a strong card for any Hunter deck that is remotely aggressive, as it will usually not have many resources in hand. Later in the game, Retriever is likely to draw a couple of cards when we are running out of gas, which represents great value for the cost. Beast Hunter currently runs Ball of Spiders and Pet Parrot. It can easily make space to fit in Retriever.

Arrow Retriever might even sneak into Quest Hunter, as it is a cheap minion with 3 attack. In any deck where Retriever can consistently draw a card early, or two later, it should be considered.

Score: 3

Ticking Timebomb

This minion is completely unplayable. A 2 mana 1/1 does nothing. The deathrattle is Deadly Shot. Deadly Shot is not good enough as an active spell for 3 mana, where we get to immediately respond to a threat. We find it hard to believe it can be playable when it is on a deathrattle that we have little control over and does not represent on-demand removal.

Imagine seeing our opponent dropping a single, big threat to the board. Deadly Shot kills it. Ticking Timebomb allows the opponent to hit us in the head and develop more minions to reduce Timebomb’s chance of hitting the right target on our next turn. There is no realistic scenario where Timebomb is better.

A card worse than Deadly Shot cannot be constructed worthy.

Score: 1

Epoch Stalker

A handbuff target akin to Mythical Runebear, as it has a scaling, defensive keyword in rush, while elusive makes it hard to remove. However, it is significantly more expensive than Mythical Runebear, which means it is a slower card to buff and blow out the opponent with, which was central to Handbuff Hunter’s previous success in Standard.

Considering that Handbuff Hunter has been nerfed out of playability, we doubt a worse card than Mythical Runebear can bring the archetype back. We can argue that it adds redundancy to the deck, so it is harder for opponents to run us out of resources, but what is most important about scam decks is the timing. One turn late and a deck can go from Tier 1 to non-viable, as seen by the nerf to Reserved Spot. Epoch Stalker does not improve Handbuff Hunter’s timings.

Score: 1

Quel’dorei Fletcher

This 1-drop keeps our hero power free if our hand contains three cards or less. We suspect Fletcher will be significantly stronger when the Hunter goes first, as a free hero power can be triggered on turn 1 and persist in subsequent turns as long as we keep playing cards and keep Fletcher alive.

A free hero power is free damage. You can compare this card to Leper Gnome, which is a significantly worse body that deals 2 damage to the opponent on a deathrattle. Fletcher provides 2 damage as a ‘battlecry’ and can persist if not removed.

The only restriction here is the type of deck Fletcher belongs in, which admittedly falls into a narrow definition. It will have to be an aggressive deck with a low curve, possessing a burn game plan that complements Fletcher’s ability. This deck may not exist yet but is promoted in the set.

Score: 2

Untimely Death

Secrets are bad, unless they are heavily incentivized through synergies. Such synergies do not exist in the format and Untimely Death is not good enough as a standalone card. The opponent can play around it by killing a small minion we played instead, or simply waiting a turn until it can kill the minion we are trying to resummon. If we set up the secret with a single minion we want to resummon, the opponent can ignore it and deny us the value we are looking for.

The only possible application for it is if we set it up with a taunt, such as Arkonite Defense Crystal. But this does sound a bit optimistic, as Untimely Death is completely useless until we find a Starship piece.

Score: 1

Wormhole

A random 3-drop is not worth paying 3 mana for, even if it does make an immediate attack. As seen with Ankylodon, this effect is not valuable enough to place a pile of stats into competitive play. Wormhole offers fewer overall stats for the cost compared to Ankylodon.

Wormhole has two elements of randomness. The first is the beast 3-drop we summon and the second is the enemy it attacks. The Rewind ability does improve the odds of us finding a desirable outcome, but not to a point where it suddenly becomes a strong play on curve.

Moreover, we have no idea what deck would even want this card. It is too slow for Beast Hunter or another aggressive Hunter deck. A slower Hunter deck has no need for it either. It does not have an effect that synergizes with any strategy. Feels like more Rewind filler.

Score: 1

Precise Shot

A classic baseline 3 damage spell for 2 mana that increases to 5 if the card is at the center of our hand. Where this spell works best is in a deck with few to no cards in hand, as it is active for 5 damage when it is the only card in hand.

This is “empty hand” Hunter’s version of Kill Command, a nuke meant to be cast late as we run out of gas and finish the opponent off. Its baseline usefulness means it is still an acceptable card even when we need to remove an enemy minion at a pinch in the early game.

We like cards that are acceptable at their baseline and then become powerful when properly leveraged. The average outcome for these cards is then expected to be good. Precise Shot has a high ceiling in any aggressive Hunter deck with a low curve, and it does not necessarily have to dedicate itself completely to emptying its hand to be useful.

Score: 3

Past Silvermoon

This location looks atrocious. 5 random damage to an enemy minion for 4 mana is a diabolically terrible effect for any constructed deck. There is no need to look past the first charge to understand why this card is unplayable. The only decks that could be interested in the second and third charges are aggressive in nature, as it allows them to funnel damage face, but these charges come online on turns 6 and 8, respectively. This is too late in the window to make up for how bad the first charge is.

Aggressive Hunter decks can never have such a slow and reactive turn 4. They need to be constantly on the front foot rather than worry about the opponent’s threats. Past Silvermoon is a location that is rarely going to be useful on curve, especially when the opponent is trying to respond to the Hunter’s threats. This means there might not even be a minion on turn 4 that is worth removing. Is the Hunter going to drop this location into an empty opponent’s board and pass?

Most of the time, the Hunter will opt for a better pressure play and skip the location, and it will not see the additional charges used before the game is decided. Silvermoon is useless.

Score: 1

Ranger General Sylvanas

This fabled legendary contains three solid to great individual cards at their baseline. Sylvanas is a 3 mana 2/4 that casts Consecration, which is already a powerful card and the strongest of the three sisters. Alleria is a 3 mana 2/4 that discovers a spell, which is slightly better than Vulpera Scoundrel. Vereesa is a Keleseth without a deckbuilding restriction, which is not too bad.

Once we play one of the sisters, the others become stronger than proven constructed cards that were staples for their time. Sylvanas becomes nuts and incomparable to any other cheap AOE effect when she deals 4 damage and completely insane when she deals 6. Alleria is fantastic at 2 discovers and amazing at 3. Vereesa becomes an increasingly powerful buff card at +2/+2, and a potentially overwhelming one at +3/+3, turning every one of our minions into a threat.

Even if we remain conservative about the number of sisters we find in the average Hearthstone game, this legendary should be worthwhile. When you add the possibility of finding multiple copies of a sister in a Discover Hunter archetype, it becomes clear how potent they can be in the late game, despite their cheap cost and playability early.

Cheap cards that are solid at their baseline and scale to the moon in the late game are usually powerful in constructed, as they provide great value for slower matchups without becoming early game liabilities in faster matchups.

The only question mark about the sisters is whether there is a competitive Hunter archetype that is strong enough to bring them to competitive play, as Discover Hunter looks underwhelming currently and the sisters are not “as good” in faster decks.

But this is clearly one of the best fabled legendaries in the set and deserves a top score. A powerhouse trio without the need for extensive support, this is guaranteed to become a class staple for every Hunter deck not limited by a steep deckbuilding restriction.

Score: 4

King Maluk

A 4 mana 5/6 is weak and discarding our hand is a massive drawback. Unless our deck is built around the effect and we either expect to draw haymakers off the top or we empty our hand before King Maluk so that we do not discard anything anyway, this seems highly questionable.

We are not convinced about the infinite banana being a worthwhile trade-off either. As decent as this infinite resource may be, it still provides +1/+1 stats for 1 mana, which is not a particularly impressive ratio that is going to outpace opponents. In fact, the spell Bunch of Bananas started getting cut from Hunter lists at some point due to its mana inefficiency.

The other issue is that discarding our hand shortens the window in which we must close out the game, so the Infinite Banana does not get much time to make an impact and stress the opponent’s removal tools.

King Maluk is a very archetype-specific legendary that is not even particularly strong for the strategy it was designed for.

Score: 1

Final Thoughts

Across the Timeways Set Rank: 9^th

Overall Power Ranking: 10^th

Hunter is facing significant challenges in both its early game and late game strategies, while also struggling for wider appeal amongst the players. It needs to overperform to expectations if it wants to carve out a strong position in the format.

If we first look at the early game, we must discuss the proposition of an all-in aggressive strategy that looks to empty its hand. This kind of strategy has two main issues. The first is related to power. Hunter may struggle to win board control against other aggressive decks, as it will carry a lot of burn in its toolkit and burn is generally less effective in aggressive mirrors. It may also run out of gas against slower decks, especially if they carry a lot of life gain.

The second issue is appeal. A consistent trend amongst players is that they do not like running out of cards and going all-in. This proposed Hunter strategy does exactly that, which means that losing will feel very bad. We suspect players will opt for alternatives if this archetype does not hit a home run “Face Hunter” feel, flavor wise.

Beast Hunter is a non-factor. It does receive some decent new cards, but this archetype will be completely forgotten if just a couple of new aggressive decks emerge and perform well, no matter how Beast Hunter performs.

In the late game, we see a Quest Hunter deck with an undeniably improved quest completion phase. If this deck can consistently finish the quest a turn earlier, that could be the difference between its current standing and becoming a serious challenger for other late game opponents. But the cards that help its quest completion are not very good in the early game, so it might get rolled over by aggression before it reaches quest completion.

Discover Hunter is another relatively promising direction. Sylvanas is an amazing fabled legendary that has great synergy in this archetype specifically. There are other small tweaks that the archetype can possibly do with the new cards, but its power boost needs to mostly come from the Windrunner sisters. Will they be enough to lift the archetype from the current dumpster it is in? You cannot blame us for thinking the answer is no.

Therefore, our expectation is that Hunter will struggle to establish a significant presence in the format. In some cases, power will hold it back. In others, it will be appeal.