Black Market Overseer
Giving rush is generally a powerful ability on a 1-mana card, but Overseer is limited to deathrattle minions and only affects minions we have directly played, not those we summoned. This makes the 1-drop less appealing, as we cannot realistically turn it into a big swing card with any consistency. We are required to chain cast every minion we play alongside it. Compare this to Animated Broomstick and the difference is clear.
It is possible to build a curve of minions who happen to have deathrattles, therefore having Overseer occasionally turning some of our minions into removal and helping us fight for board. But it is difficult to build around Overseer without making significant sacrifices in the current state of the class, as Hunter is currently quite reliant on many spells to compete. At best, we can turn Overseer into a 1-mana 1/3 with a small upside and consider it to be enough.
Score: 2
Guard Dog
This 2-drop looks more impressive before you research what the pool of 1-mana deathrattle minions is. This pool is surprisingly underwhelming and does not promise to turn Guard Dog into a sticky minion that is hard to cleanly remove. More importantly, this pool does not justify spending 2 mana on a 3/1.
We can all agree that a 1-mana 3/1 would be a terrible constructed minion, so if the deathrattle summons a minion that, on average, is worse than the average 1-drop, Guard Dog does not look like a viable card for any Hunter deck that seeks to fight for board in the early game. On average, playing Guard Dog will lead to us falling behind against other proactive opponents.
The one saving grace for it is that it is a cheap 3-attack beast. This makes it a viable option for Quest Hunter, which is sorely lacking options in this category. We do not think any other Hunter deck plays Guard Dog.
Score: 2
Underbelly Network
A location that represents the value of a couple of Loot Hoarders for 2 mana. This looks solid for the class, which does not often get generic sources of card draw that can seemingly fit anywhere. There is no pressure on this card to have special synergies to be useful, as most Hunter decks can appreciate unconditional card draw.
The drawback is that Underbelly Network is a negative play for the board at the first charge and the card draw effect is slow to resolve. It is possible that the card is too slow for Face Hunter, for example, but it might prove to be more consistent than Arrow Retriever, which we know is an underperforming card for the archetype.
For slower decks like Companion Hunter, this is an easy inclusion. We suspect that if the deck in question is not lightning fast, Underbelly Network will find its way in.
Score: 3
Smuggled Shovel
A small weapon with a tutoring effect for spells that we shuffled into the deck. This ability cannot be judged without the context of Arcane and Beast Tripwire, which form a theoretical package. The important thing to understand is that both Tripwire spells shuffle cast when drawn spells into the deck, and we have a high incentive to find them as soon as possible. Shovel is the card that increases their consistency.
We can even swing the second charge of Shovel after casting a Tripwire spell, instantly pulling one from the deck. We should remember that Confront the Tol’vir replays this weapon, as it costs 1 mana.
Arcane Tripwire specifically is a very tempting spell to run in Face Hunter, offering significantly more off-board damage to the deck, while Shovel is a natural fit in a deck that runs Confront the Tol’vir and a cheap curve. We suspect this duo will make it more difficult for defensive decks to outlast Face Hunter.
Score: 3
Beast Tripwire
We have a specific rule for spells of this kind. Summoning a random X drop is worth about X-1 mana. That is not to say that we would play a 4-mana spell that summons a random 5-drop (it is not good enough), but this is the minimum requirement for us to even consider the card. Leyline Mage has recently provided a good example.
The upside of Tripwire is that it shuffles two more cast-when-drawn spells that do the same for free. The tricky part is drawing them in the average Hearthstone game, which is meant to be enhanced by Smuggled Shovel. In theory, that would provide us with good value for the cost. A turn 4 Tripwire before we immediately swing the second Shovel charge is the ‘dream scenario’.
But Beast Tripwire has an issue. It is not a very fast card that represents stats in play. In slow matchups, where it supposedly provides the most value, it faces counterplay in the form of removal. The more the game prolongs, the more likely it can be dealt with. For Face Hunter, this card is too slow and might even prove to be a hindrance in its search for the more sought-after Tripwire spell. As for slower Hunter decks, they need to produce more pressure to have a chance of competing in the late game, as Companion Hunter has shown. We think the class skips this one.
Score: 1
Dig for Freedom
We have seen plenty of these spells before. Massive deathrattles that represent good value for the cost in theory, but they usually do not see play because they do not offer an immediate buff in stats and therefore no immediate impact on the board.
Dig for Freedom requires us to have a minion in play and, realistically, something to run into on that same turn to immediately trigger the deathrattle. But if we are trying to pressure a more defensive opponent, they may not present us with an opposing minion. Are we really going to spend 4 mana on a card that does not instantly increase the attack value we have on the board?
Meanwhile, in faster matchups, this card is an active liability if we ever fall behind and does not accelerate pressure when we are ahead. The opponent just ignores the minion we buffed and races us, as we have just spent 4 mana not making our board more dangerous to their face. This spell gets forgotten.
Score: 1
Arcane Tripwire
On an empty board, Arcane Tripwire is worth 5 damage to the opponent’s face. Against Face Hunter, opponents are almost always on the back foot, which means Arcane Tripwire will connect face often. Split damage is also a decent way to control the board and clean up some resistance on the way. For 3 mana, this spell is below the rate we would want from a constructed card, but Tripwire shuffles two cast-when-drawn spells with the same value.
This means that if we can draw those shuffled spells more consistently, specifically with Smuggled Shovel, we can turn Tripwire into a 10 or even 15-damage card in a reasonable time window. Note that Face Hunter currently has massive draw potential and often gets close to decking out in slower matchups before the game is decided.
What is important to understand is that damage does not have the same level of counterplay as summoning minions. Minions can get answered with removal without dealing damage, but damage always connects and can only be offset by life gain. Face Hunter is currently weak to decks with strong sustain, so the possibility of adding 30 theoretical damage to the deck with just two copies of Arcane Tripwires will be hard to turn down.
Score: 3
Sewer Swimmer
Terrorscale Stalker got buffed to a 2-mana 2/3 and still did not see play when it did not have overwhelmingly powerful deathrattle targets to trigger. We are supposed to believe a 5-mana Prepared version of it is a playable Hearthstone card?
The way we view Prepared cards is that they are 1 mana cheaper than their stated cost, as preparing them carries an extra 1 mana discount. However, this means Sewer Swimmer is still worse than Terrorscale Stalker before it even got buffed. There is no world in which we have time to fully discount it by skipping turn 4 in the Hunter class and there is no deathrattle minion that represents a target worth skipping a full turn for.
No matter the angle we view it from, this minion’s cost is egregiously conservative.
Score: 1
R4T-C4TCH3R
This effect is extremely flashy but, ultimately, it is terrible if not properly leveraged. A spell in the deck is not a spell in our hand, so Rat-Catcher does not provide us with any accessible resources. It would be optimistic to think that this card will allow Hunter to start fatiguing opponents.
Where this legendary makes more sense is in the context of Tripwire spells, as it copies the cast-when-drawn spells as well. Increasing their count in the deck means it is more likely we find them, and when it comes to Arcane Tripwire, we increase its damage potential. Still, it is hard for us to envision Face Hunter running this legendary for this specific purpose. This is a 3-mana 4/2, which is horrendous for an aggressive deck.
We think Rat-Catcher’s best chance of competing is in a deck that is more late-game-oriented and tries to outright OTK the opponent with Arcane Tripwire. If we get to the end of our deck, play both copies of Arcane Tripwire with Rat-Catcher, then swing the second charge of Smuggled Shovel, or kill Rat-Catcher with an Arcane Shot, we can deal 50 damage without counterplay.
The challenge will be to build a Hunter deck capable of consistently hitting fatigue or even playing Warmaster Blackhorn to accelerate the process. If we manage to accomplish that, the class now has access to an OTK combo that is not too difficult to execute.
Score: 2
King of the Underbelly
This legendary functions like ETC. We get to choose three beasts from other classes to become the discover pool for this card. The discovered choice even gets discounted by 3 mana, which can help make up for the steep initial investment in a – mana 6/5.
King of the Underbelly opens many late-game possibilities for the Hunter class, more than we have likely considered while writing this section, but we have found enough to convince us that this card will be utilized by any Hunter deck with late-game aspirations.
For example, Companion Hunter can run Ursol and turn Call of the Wild into an aura, which sounds back-breaking in slower matchups. We have access to another copy of Agamaggan in Quest Hunter. We can run the Great Dracorex to swing the game against board-flooding decks. There are many class beasts that offer Hunter things that it normally does not have access to, which historically has helped Hunter establish competitive decks that were not purely aggressive.
We are less convinced about strategies that outright utilize this card as “the” win condition, but as a complementary tool, King of the Underbelly looks extremely useful. We also think players will love it, so it will see play regardless of whether it is any good. As ETC has shown before, flexibility has a big impact on perception of power. It was one of the most successful designs in the game’s history, so it is no surprise that Team 5 is revisiting this design space.
Score: 3
Final Thoughts
Violet Hold Set Rank: 5th
Overall Power Ranking: 5th
Hunter mostly got strong, serviceable pieces that can help its existing archetypes, along with one crazier direction.
Face Hunter now has the option to add significantly more off-board damage to the deck, which, based on our experience, will make the deck more attractive to players and more difficult to counter if it pans out. Arcane Tripwire is worth a lot of damage and Face Hunter already churns through its deck quickly thanks to Tracking/Tame Pet and Confront the Tol’vir. Smuggled Shovel will help with that too.
Companion Hunter is going to love King of the Underbelly. This card opens so much for the class in the late game. Ursol casting Call of the Wild is a crazy strong win condition against slower decks. Defias Smuggler is going to be an amazing card for the archetype and help it swing back against pressure.
Quest Hunter benefits from King of the Underbelly because of Agamaggan. The deck finally gets a solid 3-attack beast in Guard Dog that should help it accelerate quest completion.
If novelty arrives to the class, it might be through an OTK deck that runs Rat-Catcher with Arcane Tripwire, possibly with Blackhorn to nuke our deck like Hemet. The deck’s damage potential is massive, very scary in slower matchups. We will have to see whether it can hold off pressure long enough to execute.
The class will probably not be elite, but we will be surprised if it struggles to compete.
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