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I might not be a Damien Dufresne or a Star City, but I do have my eye lining up the sights of singles movements. And recently in the UK at least there’s been an ignition in Rapid Fire popularity. Now maybe there’s a sudden grass roots movement of Hunter combo fans, or perhaps people actually read Jeremy’s articles on the UDE site – who knows. Either way, at least some people are looking towards the Realm Championships and taking the wins in the style of Bill Hickok. Now around a year ago I was playing a Rapid Fire deck and doing all right, but nothing spectacular. The problem was that as a win condition playing Rapid Fire then all out attacking in one turn is actually very fragile. If they have no responses to your Rapid Fire, you’ve probably won. On the other hand there are plenty of actions an opponent can take to stop you ‘going off’ that turn. They could exhaust your hero, play a ‘cannot attack’ card in response, interrupt the Rapid Fire, make their own hero Elusive or similar, or destroy your bow before you get to swing it. Either way you look at it, every class could disrupt that killer turn. Sadly because Rapid Fire is non-ongoing, the key part of your combo hits the discard pile and next turn you have to draw another one to try again. Yes, Solanian’s Belongings would work, but it’s only Horde! Now with Servants of the Betrayer, Deep Sea Salvage could grab it back for you, but at four resources a shot you are actually delaying yourself for two turns rather than one. So I went off the idea personally.
And no, I haven’t changed my mind in the intervening time. I still feel as a game ender it is too fragile to rely on. However with Servants I did feel that there was room for a different ranged weapon based strategy, relying on your guns more than the Hoot N’ Shoot builds but not completely reliant on a single turn of gun play like a Rapid Fire deck. So straight to the mark, here’s such a thing…
Hero: Elendril
Allies
4 Antikron the Unyielding
4 Xanata the Lightsworn
4 Parvink
4 Lunen the Moon Baron
4 King Khan
2 Blinky
Equipment
4 Blackcrow
2 Striker’s Mark
3 Terok’s Quill
2 Devilsaur Leggings
1 Rhok’delar, Longbow of the Ancient Keepers
Abilities
4 Ranged Weapon Specialization
3 Silencing Shot
3 Take the Shot
3 Bloody Welcome
Quests
3 Crown of the Earth
3 Corki’s Ransom
4 One Draenei’s Junk
2 Pride of the Fel Horde
1 Battle of Darrowshire
The target here is to turn your hero into a reliable removal tool as fast as possible. Terok’s, Blackcrow, and Ranged Weapon Specialization as your 1-2-3 would comfortably see you dealing with two allies a turn from there on in. Sadly, with a current meta filled with multiple early turn allies and Tatulla abound, you cannot rely on your gear alone to see you through the early turns. The protectors and King Khan are actually your preferred early plays to slow the life loss on your hero until your gear comes together later. Terok’s functions as a lightning rod in that on its own it is enough to potentially deny a rush deck by allowing many allies only a single attack, hence is an early target for equipment removal. Most is non-recurring so the removal used on the Quill is not used on your bow later. And should Tatulla hit the table, it is a better choice than your other gear.
In this post-Stuttgart environment, your quest base is not as secure as it previously has been. Corki’s is a formidable draw engine, especially in decks like this that do not need to aim for high resource counts, but The Root of All Evil and Thwarting Kolkar Aggression are seeing more play. That means a backup draw engine wouldn’t go amiss, hence the inclusion of Lunen. He may be fragile and I would not like to rely on him as my sole draw engine, but it is generally not that hard to get a single activation out of him before they remove him, making him card neutral, and that is one less removal ability for your other threats. Late game it is Blinky that will be taking you home; you should be able to use your ranged weapon for no resource cost to clear out enemy protectors whilst the warp fiend takes chunks out their health. Even if you do have to use Blinky to control their field, thanks to the blink effect generating two, three or even four for ones is not impossible. Just beware traitor Warlocks who Rip him From the Nether whilst he’s hiding.
The other end game tool borrows from the early Elendril decks that used Aimed Shot to take home games they found themselves just shy of winning. Here Take the Shot can perform the same function. If it hasn’t been necessary to use the flip power early to take out a troublesome ally, then combined with RWS and a bow a couple of Take the Shots can be enough on their own to kill an opponent. That is, unless you have a couple of RWS in play when you come to Rhok’delar. Then you have a lot of damage and some large Take the Shots aimed at your opponent.
Finally, don’t forget the alternate cost on Silencing Shot, and more importantly don’t forget your opponent will know it. Laying that second ranged weapon as a resource might not be the best of plans. If you have the resources free putting it into play after your attack will allow you to counter any ability play from your opponent if you have the Shot in hand. If you do not, then your opponent will still assume you do, as there is no other logical reason to replay the weapon. That can buy you the turn you need to get the Silencing Shot or merely breathing room.
That is why I have left it without a side deck. There are a few holes in the deck, but plugging them very much depends on the meta where you play. No item removal is included, but solo is currently out of vogue and Warrior decks often run enough weapons and Stronghold Gauntlets that a contest between your removal and their ability to smash them sees you the loser. Likewise, your only method to counter ongoing abilities is to shoot them down with Silencing Shot before they hit the table. As such, you may feel that Chipper, Narthadus or Borovan are worthwhile side inclusions. Another shortcoming of the deck is the removal of large allies. Bloody Welcome is excellent at removing early threats, but no concern to late game threats. Take the Shot can do the job for you, but is reliant on dealing damage and having a bow in play. Adal or Benedictus could cause trouble. My preferred method to take down the big fellows as can be seen is to shoot them from long range whilst Devilsaur Leggings are equipped for a golden gun shot. Again though, Adal and similar are immune, so Trophy Kill should be considered for absolute certainty of sending them to boot hill.
Anyway, my aim was to produce a Hunter deck a little different from the usual. Something that used the ranged weapons of the class without relying on the one shot deal Rapid Fire decks rely on. Hope I’ve given you some food for thought.
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