The Comprehensive Saviors of Uldum Preview

Data Reaper Report - Hunter

Pressure Plate

Pressure Plate(90755).png

A serviceable secret that can be quite annoying to play around. Mostly strong against slower decks that are heavy in spells and light on minions, which usually means that their minions are more important. The secrets available to Secret Hunter aren’t incredible, so we’ll take this as a small upgrade.

Score: 2


Desert Spear

Desert Spear(90775).png

If we treat it as a 3 mana 2/3 weapon, it’s weak. That’s a stat-line that we wouldn’t be interested in. The split damage and summoning capability make this more interesting, as you can treat it as a slower (and worse) Muster for Battle. It’s a card that is heavily dependent on synergies to see play. We don’t think it’s good enough to be played in Midrange Hunter, but it does enable Quest Hunter.

Score: 2


Hunter’s Pack

Hunter's Pack(90737).png

This is a very good card for decks that play Zul’jin but aren’t centered on Master’s Call, such as Secret Hunter, giving them a strong reload tool in the late game that gets double dipped. The card quality should also be high enough to keep the deck going while sticking to its usual plan. A likely inclusion in Highlander Hunter.

Score: 3


Ramkahen Wildtamer

Ramkahen Wildtamer(90814).png

3 mana 4/3 that “draws” a beast that we’ve originally put in our deck is pretty good. However, we can’t play this minion with Master’s Call, which is a better and more consistent draw engine for beast decks. We think that hurts its chances of seeing widespread play.

Score: 2


Hyena Alpha

Hyena Alpha(90817).pngHyena(90850).png

The new Spellstone for Secret Hunters, only this time we don’t need to upgrade it, and it comes down on turn 4. Of course, the condition can be difficult to achieve on curve and the lower stat-line keeps it somewhat sensible, but this is still a powerful minion that will encourage us to look at the archetype very seriously.

Score: 3


Swarm of Locusts

Swarm of Locusts(90827).pngLocust(90776).png

This is a pretty strong removal spell with the obvious quest synergy. It’s flexible enough to remove wide boards or a couple of bigger minions. However, it may struggle to compete with Unleash the Beast in non-highlander Zul’jin decks since it can interfere with your board development on your Zul’jin turn and doesn’t offer the longevity and threat generation of UTB. It’s also dependent on whether there’s space on the board to play it. Will most likely see play if Quest Hunter takes off, since it’s a strong enabler for that deck.

Score: 2


Scarlet Webweaver

Scarlet Webweaver(90732).png

A Dreampetal Florist, but specific for beasts. Strikes us as a combo enabler, but a reliable good combo that can abuse this card is hard to find. Tundra Rhino is the obvious candidate, but the problem is that Webweaver can hit smaller beasts in our hand instead of Rhino, so we would have to build our deck differently to specifically discount Rhino, which could set up a Zul’jin OTK through Unleash the Beasts and Animal Companions. An interesting idea that has genuine promise, but we’re not sure Hunter has the luxury to do this, so we’ll give it a tentative score.

Score: 2


Wild Bloodstinger

Wild Bloodstinger(90731).png

This card was hyped up a bit too much. It’s a big Dirty Rat which makes it a cool option to disrupt combo decks or take resources away from opponents, but it is far less flexible than Dirty Rat due to its high cost. It is also a liability to run with Master’s Call since it hurts its consistency in finding the synergies we’ve built the deck around. You might run this in Highlander Hunter, but even that depends on how important the effect would be, and whether it’s better to just do what Hunter normally does to disrupt combos: Kill ‘em.

Score: 2


Dinotamer Brann

Dinotamer Brann(90720).pngKing Krush (Dinotamer Brann).png

Comparable to Jan’alai the Dragonhawk in terms of power level, Brann gives Highlander Hunter a scary finisher and encourages the archetype to be more aggressive than its colleagues. Not a card we’d scramble to build a deck around, but a tasty side dish alongside Zephrys.

Score: 3


Unseal the Vault

Unseal the Vault(90813).pngRamkahen Roar(90818).png

Summoning 20 minions is not an easy task, and the quest reward encourages us to build an aggressive deck that doesn’t want us to make the game go on for too long. The deck-building requirement can also be quite painful. While there are several cards available that can accelerate the completion of this quest, some of them are not the most ideal cards to run in a Hearthstone deck. The quest reward can be a powerful finisher if we’re ahead, but it is isn’t as strong if we’ve fallen behind, which prevents us from being on board with this, but there are certainly worse quests. This could be workable.

Score: 2


Final Thoughts

Saviors of Uldum Set Rank: 8th

Overall Power Ranking: 6th

Hunter did receive some good cards, but most of the Hunter set is just okay, and most Hunter cards don’t exhibit the potential of being massive upgrades. Compared to the absurd power levels exhibited in other classes, Hunter’s Uldum card quality is well below average with Brann likely making the most significant impact.

Bomb Hunter and Midrange Hunter, which were the most popular decks throughout Rise of Shadows, see themselves potentially stagnating in Saviors of Uldum. Most of the attention, at least early in the expansion, will likely be given to Highlander Hunter and Secret Hunter. It will be interesting to see whether Hunter’s established decks survive the power creep of Uldum, and whether new strategies make their mark. Hunter still seems like a powerful class, and it’s unlikely that all its archetypes suddenly fall flat. We still got the big axe.

 

 

6 Comments

  1. One more thing about the Warrior quest: Yes it does conflict with Madlad Boom but I think H4xx0r Warrior will be its own deck and even be very good (like tier 2). Warrior is already on the verge if being broken, and imo the Bomb-Control-Quest dark triad of warrior decks will dominate the meta. Madlad Boom will finally be nerfed.

  2. My 2 cents:

    – You’re overrating the Druid quest. You’re underestimating the huge tempo loss of having to spare mana on the first turns. Druid is a class that naturally struggles with tempo and this is making things worse. If there were more cards like Oasis Surger that are insane when the effects arr combined, it could hve been viable, but those that exist are too scarce. I can see it being viable later expansions.

    – Similarily you’re overestimating the warlock set. The quest sucks, we agree on that (it’s even worse than Lakaari Sac!) but the lackey synergy doesn’t compensate for that. Youre way too optimistic about EVIL summoner, its harder to activate than you think. Will see play for sure but its not insane.

    – Bug Collector is the sleeper neutral common of the set. It’s excellent tempo and fits in a wide variety of decks. I may be completely wrong but if im right i’ll take credit. Jar Dealer and Pit Crocolisk could see some fring constructed play.

    Apart from that, I agree with the rest of your analysis.

  3. I love that you all are doing this for every expansion now. love, love, love how informative it is for the reader. thank you.

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