Hearthstone Wiki
Advertisement
File:Kill Command (art).jpg

That's blood elf for "Go Face"

Face Hunter (Also known as Aggro Hunter) is a type of aggressive hunter deck which focuses on dealing damage directly to the enemy hero (or "face").

With a single-minded focus on hero damage, Face Hunter aims to defeat the opponent in the early game before they are able to build a defence. As such, it emphasizes unstoppable damage from the Hero Power LegacySteady Shot, and Charge minions like LegacyWolfrider. Face Hunter aims to deal strong damage during the early rounds, before using direct damage, burst, and board momentum to finish off the opponent.

Deck type

Face Hunter is named for its focus on the enemy hero (the "face"), and not the opponent's minions. Instead of making good value trades, the deck prioritizes attacking the opponent's face, and forcing the opponent make the trade instead. The idea is that the all out damage strategy becomes so relentless, the damage to the opponent's face is "free", as they will be forced to trade back into the Face Hunter's minions. Of course, there are situations where trading is still advised, for instance trading a Whispers of the Old GodsFiery Bat into a Journey to Un'GoroHydrologist to stop the latter from killing LegacyHuffer.

The composition of a Face Hunter deck provides little longevity beyond the early game, making it important to capitalize on its potential as soon as possible. With no card draw mechanisms, Face Hunter will usually fail if evaded for too long, or if momentum is successfully halted.

To counter this, Face Hunter uses direct damage to close games. This mainly comes from the Hero Power LegacySteady Shot, a consistent source of damage which the opponent is almost entirely unable to prevent. Cards like LegacyKill Command provide a more substantial burst of closing damage, while smaller sources of unstoppable damage like LegacyExplosive Trap help to slowly wear the opponent down. These are effective in closing games even if the opponent has several sturdy Taunts on the board; if they do not, the hunter can use minions (especially with Charge) to burst the opponent down.

Face Hunter is a fast deck that tends to have very short games in comparison to control decks such as Handlock. This can allow successful players to increase their ranking in Ranked mode more quickly than usual.

With its emphasis on face damage, Face Hunter is often characterised as a mindless and extremely simple deck to play. Its rapid victories when successful have also helped to create frustration for opponents, with a sense of helplessness against an opponent who seemingly wins regardless of the state of the board. The Face Hunter is especially powerful against Midrange decks that do not feature stabilising mechanisms, such as Jade Druid.

In The Boomsday Project, a lot of cards with Mech and Magnetic synergies are offered. Magnetic cards like The Boomsday ProjectWargear, can deal damage to the enemy hero directly by buffing a mech played in previous turns. Due to Goblins vs GnomesMechwarper and The Boomsday ProjectGalvanizer, hunters could summon many mechs in first three turns, then Goblins vs GnomesMetaltooth Leaper can bring a lot of damage.

In Rastakhan's Rumble,there are new hunter cards with beast synergies like Rastakhan's RumbleSpringpaw, Rastakhan's RumbleRevenge of the Wild and Rastakhan's RumbleMaster's Call. Some decks give up all non-beast minions to make Master's Call an excellent card draw.

Counters

One of the strongest counters to Face Hunter is to counter the erosion of the player's Health. The best consistent sources of this are Hero Powers - the priest's LegacyLesser Heal and the warrior's LegacyArmor Up!. These can allow the player to directly counter LegacySteady Shot, preventing the hunter from wearing the player down to within reach of lethal.

Early Taunts are an obvious block to the Face Hunter's onslaught, although be aware of the potential of the hunter to quickly remove or Silence the Taunts, or simply reach over them with direct damage.

While the above counters rely on opposing the Face Hunter's play, another very effective approach is to play aggressively, attacking the Face Hunter before it can attack you, with an early game deck of your own. Defusing the hunter's damage potential can be hard with so many direct damage and Charge options, so the player might instead focus on destroying the Face Hunter as quickly as possible, emulating the Face Hunter's own strategy.

Face Hunters are generally helpless against the Dragon Priest archetype (due to the ready availability of cheap and effective taunts, board clears and heals), and tends to fare poorly against Freeze Mage and Zoolock.

Common Cards

Core Cards

Candleshot
Dire Mole
Fire Fly
Dire Wolf Alpha
Crackling Razormaw
Animal Companion
Kill Command
Unleash the Hounds
Wolfrider
Houndmaster
Leeroy Jenkins

Optional Cards

Leper Gnome
Southsea Deckhand
Tracking
Hunter's Mark
Bloodsail Corsair
Bomb Toss
Headhunter's Hatchet
Scavenging Hyena
Golakka Crawler
Bearshark
Eaglehorn Bow
Ironbeak Owl
Southsea Captain
Vicious Fledgling
Flanking Strike
Tundra Rhino
Bittertide Hydra
Savannah Highmane
Baku the Mooneater

Wild Cards

Wild iconThis section concerns content exclusive to Wild format.

Wild cards that fit well into this deck type:

Patches the Pirate
Alleycat
Fiery Bat
Mad Scientist
Quick Shot
Glaivezooka
Kindly Grandmother
Jeeves

Trivia

  • The Face Hunter's popularity has spawned a number of memes and phrases, such as "Always LegacyHuffer", "Taste my skill", and "Face is the place with the helpful hardware folks".[1]
  • The Face Hunter credo was epitomised by the fan-created parody song "FACE NEVER TRADE" [language warning]. The song's lyrics express the philosophy and strategic stylings of SMOrc, a Twitch emote often associated with Face Hunter, mentioning standard plays such as topdecking exactly the right card, always getting Huffer from LegacyAnimal Companion, and completely ignoring the state of the board. Its repeated chorus lines "Everybody got faces/Me choose to go face/Me don't need to trade/Everybody got faces/Everybody knows that the face is the place" and "If the face plays Taunt/Me still go face" caricatures the deck's mindless stereotype and seeming unstoppability.

References

 
  1. Whirthun on Twitter. (2015-07-14). 

External links

Advertisement