Casper “Hunterace” Notto recently became the 2019 World Champion. His lineup is being tested out on ladder by a lot of players after his victory. Hunterace’s lineup for World Champs consisted of Control Warrior, Summoner Mage, Tempo Thief Rogue, and Control Shaman. Let’s take a closer look at Hunterace’s World Championship Decks and how they interact with other meta decks.
Control Warrior
Hunterace is one of nearly every other player to have brought a Warrior deck in his lineup for the championship. His Control Warrior list is pretty standard. He opts to forgo the Eternium Rovers in favor of Two Slams, and has also included an Ironbeak Owl in his list.
The Owl is an interesting tech option, as it is certainly a worse body than something like Spellbreaker. Control Warrior can’t really play for Tempo, so the one mana cheaper Owl actually allows for a little bit more flexibility. It can also Silence a turn three Edwin Van Cleef without having to use the Coin.
The Slams are an interesting choice considering he isn’t running a single execute. They can be used to simply soften up a minion with cycle, or to draw a card with Acolyte of Pain. Outside of that, for the late game he has the standard Archivist Elysiana plus Baleful Banker combo.
Summoner Mage
We then get to look at Hunterace’s take on Dragon Summoner Mage. He tries to find an interesting balance between late game value and dealing with small early game minions. He forgoes Power of Creations for cards like Rabble Bouncer, and has a Hench-Clan Sneak in the three mana slot.
Hench-Clan Sneak is sort of a guaranteed way to deal with small early game minions. He doesn’t want to run Doomsayer because it is a very bad card to draw in the later stages of the game. Hunterace is probably targeting all of the three mana minions that Rogue has, and maybe denying some draws off of Acolyte of Pain.
He includes a copy of Mossy Horror in his deck. Hunterace was likely targeting Token Druid with this, but not too many players actually brought a Token Druid in their lineup. Mossy Horror can still lineup pretty well against Zoolock boards however.
The last two cards to look at are Alexstraza and Kalecgos. Alexstraza can win games after a turn where you can play something like Mountain Giant into Conjurer’s Calling. Most decks will choose to ignore these minions in favor of face damage, and Alexstraza can bite back for an immediate lethal. Kalecgos allows for some interesting flexibility in the late game. With Kalecgos, you can discover free burn spells, stall spells, or anything else as needed.
Thief Tempo Rogue
Like most of the field, Hunterace brought his own version of Tempo rogue. He went for the one that tries to take advantage of Vendetta, effectively a zero mana spell for four damage on a minion. He lacks a lot of direct damage however, and has to rely on Waggle Pick not getting removed.
This deck definitely functions way better in the Conquest format than on ladder. In Conquest, you only have to play against Rogue once, which is where this deck can struggle. The Vendettas and Underbelly Fences are only activated after playing Hench-Clan Burglar. In all the other match ups, they are also activated by Blink Fox, allowing more use of the free Vendetta.
Hunterace doesn’t run cards like Myra’s Unstable Element or Heistbaron Togwaggle, so he has to hope for a very good draw, or great cards off of Hench-Clan Burglar and Blink Fox. Another possibility for burst potential is with Shadowsteps and Waggle Picks on Leeroy Jenkins. All-in-all, nothing too interesting about this deck, a pretty standard list.
Shudderwock Control Shaman
This deck is the most interesting of the four decks Hunterace decided to bring, and he won the final game of the Championship with this deck. There are a lot of interesting card inclusions throughout this deck. Rather than the really slow versions of Control Shaman with few minions, Hunterace opts for some tempo oriented minions.
The first minion that seems to make the least amount of sense in terms of the deck is Wild Pyromancer. This card usually synergizes with cheap spells to do AOE damage, but it really only works with the one Earth Shock and one Lightning Storm, and has anti-synergy with cards like Hagatha’s Scheme.
The next minions are Acidic Swamp Oozes and Mind Control Techs. Both of these cards stave off the aggressive decks and are great Battlecries for the Shudderwock in Hunterace’s deck. Omega Defender can also increase Shudderwock’s attack and Twilight Drake will increase its health. Giggling Inventor allows Shudderwock to summon a bunch of Annoy-O-Trons.
An interesting inclusion in the deck is Shudderwock itself. It provides a very nice swing turn in a class that lacks the ability to make massive swings. It also generates a very large threat that can only be removed by specific spells and silences. Even when silenced, a 6/6 body is still to be dealt with. This deck seems like it would struggle heavily against decks that play for high value.
Images courtesy of Blizzard Entertainment via their official website.
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