The Comprehensive Fractured in Alterac Valley Preview

Dreadprison Glaive

This weapon allows the Demon Hunter to control the board while also directing damage to face. The class’ hero power and attack buffs mean you should be fairly accurate and efficient in triggering honorable kills, so Glaive could be worth a significant amount of damage for 1-mana. But what makes this card possibly constructed worthy is the next card we discuss.

Score: 2

Battleworn Vanguard

This 2-drop is very threatening in the early game and highly encourages the usage of 1-mana weapons to proc it on curve, but even on turn 3 with a hero power, Vanguard is a strong play. We’re developing 3 bodies instantly while presenting a threat that must be immediately addressed or can completely take over the board. Stronger than Satyr Overseer. Any deck that focuses on early game initiative wants this card. Any deck with token synergies wants this card.

Score: 4

Flag Runner

Reminds us of Darkshire Councilman. Has a much harder condition to activate for 1 extra health. Flag Runner is very difficult to remove on curve, can snowball if left alone and seems to fit aggressive or token-based strategies. The problem is, even in these kinds of decks, we’re not sure if fueling Flag Runners is worth doing after attempting to build them. Card seems to be annoying enough on paper, so worth a shot.

Score: 2

Field of Strife

We think objective spells are generally going to be difficult to evaluate because of how unique they are, and we can see some of them ending up as sleepers much like dormant minions back in Ashes of Outland. It’s hard for us to get behind Field of Strife because of how completely dependent it is on you having board for multiple turns to get the most use out of it. But this does work very well with rush minions, which Demon Hunter can easily generate a lot of. Seems to be written off a little too easily.

Score: 2

Flanking Maneuver

This spell packs quite a bit of removal punch. It is essentially Restless Mummy with one extra attack, on the condition that the first body dies on the turn it’s played. We think this is trivial to activate in most situations, so it gives Demon Hunter a very versatile removal card. You can use it to deal with two early game bodies, and the 4-attack means it should deal with pretty much all of them. But then, it’s also good enough to trade 1-for-1 with a giant! This allows Demon Hunter to clear the biggest threats, which tends to be its weakness in most of its decks.

Score: 3

Warden of Chains

A 4 mana 3/8 taunt brings us back to the early days of Rise of Shadows, when Control Warrior experimented with Hecklebot, or when Discard Zoo made a name for itself in Wild with Lakkari Felhound. On paper, Warden of Chains is more convenient to utilize than either of these cards and the protection it offers can be massive. The limitation is that you need a critical mass of big demons to consistently activate on curve, which means it’s likely to be strong enough only in a dedicated Big Demon Hunter deck. That high dependency on a specific archetype to be meta, one which has never been meta before, curbs our enthusiasm.

Score: 2

Sigil of Reckoning

Skull of the Man’ari in spell form. Yes, this is worse than Skull since its effect is not persistent but being worse than one of the most powerful cards in the history of the game doesn’t mean Sigil is not extremely powerful too. Sigil of Reckoning is probably Big Demon Hunter’s best shot of finally seeing competitive play since it reliably cheats out threats early without additional deck building restrictions, unlike Proving Grounds. Dropping Illidari Inquisitor on turn 6 and potentially copying it with Faceless Manipulator for 17 burst damage is a very juicy proposition that’s hard to ignore.

Score: 4

Ur’zul Giant

A giant is as good as how easy it is to discount, and Ur’zul Giant’s discount condition doesn’t seem too difficult to achieve. It heavily pushes Token DH into the forefront, but we don’t think it’s limited to that archetype. An Expendable Performers package is certainly feasible in other DH decks such as Deathrattle, and since it’s a demon, Felosophy shenanigans are also possible. Probably the strongest Token DH payoff we’ve seen.

Score: 4

Caria Felsoul

Caria seems to be intended for a Big Demon Hunter deck, but even in this archetype, we don’t think she’s necessarily worth it. Inquisitor and Tormenter are two of the strongest demons available to cheat out with Sigil of Reckoning, and they’re not good copy targets for Caria. You’d have to go into Ancient Void Hound to get the most out of Caria, and we don’t particularly like that prospect. She just doesn’t come down early enough to be a real threat.

Score: 1

Kurtrus, Demon Render

Kurtrus just seems very overloaded for its cost. It’s very easy to upgrade it to the point it’s at the level of Faceless Corruptor on curve in terms of immediate board impact, and the upgraded hero power can be worth so much damage later. It’s basically impossible for an opponent to leave up any of your minions on the board without getting heavily punished with tons of efficient, off-board damage. With some rush synergy and Felfire Deadeye, the damage can be even harder to avoid. Overall, Kurtrus does too much for the cost to not be played by pretty much any Demon Hunter deck, whether it’s aggressive or defensive (Aldrachi Warblades) in nature.

Score: 4

Final Thoughts

Fractured in Alterac Valley Set Rank: 3^rd

Overall Power Ranking: 7^th

We think the Demon Hunter set is strong and pushes two archetypes in ways they have not been pushed before. Token and Big DH are historically weak decks that were always sitting in meme tier, but they’ve received some insanely good build arounds that could change their fortunes.

Ur’zul Giant can be discounted very, very quickly in a Token DH deck, and easily discounted giants are things that can carry a class. Just ask Warlock. Battleworn Vanguard is a big boost to the early game of every initiative-focused deck and will highly encourage the utilization of 1-mana weapons. Sigil of Reckoning will probably become Big DH’s very best card, and what we like about Big DH is that its threats are very effective against combo strategies, something that other ‘Big’ decks tend to struggle with. Cheating out and copying Illidari Inquisitor or Taintheart Tormenter sounds like a game ender.

However, since these decks are so weak currently there is an air of uncertainty around them. It’s very hard to predict where their power level will land. Thankfully for the class, there are other established strategies that may retain their place in the meta. Deathrattle Demon Hunter should love Korrak and could experiment with some new additions, most notably Vanguard and Ur’zul Giant. Lifesteal Demon Hunter could thrive in a slower meta, if it ends up materializing, and doesn’t pay a big deckbuilding cost to run Rustrot Viper if Cariel ever becomes a problem due to its natural synergy with Tradeables.

And then you’ve got Kurtus, Demon Render, which should go into every Demon Hunter deck. The card seems extremely powerful for any strategy and could even help bring back Aggro DH to the mix.

We’ll be slightly surprised if the class dominates, but it should be in safe hands.