Malygos Hunter

Hello Hunters!

I just wanted to see how folks have been building around Malygos this expansion.

I've gone down the Highlander path (attached) because it was working last expansion, but I'm wondering if going spell/secret heavy and combo'n with Vereesa Windrunner is working better for anyone.

Even within the Highlander build I'm curious what techs folks have been having success with, e.g. I've been tempted to throw in a Zilliax, Bone Wraith, or Khartut Defender to survive all the aggro but have held off so far in favor of a more consistent Jepetto pool.  Face Hunter is a particular problem and I considered Flare for a bit, but currently run Snipe instead as it has more universal use and can counter a Phase Stalker if you drop it going into their Turn 4 (or 3 if they have coin).

And to preempt any salt, yes, I know I could test out all these things myself.  However, there are a lot of people more skilled than I on these forums (so I may not think of every change and my experience piloting them may not be indicative of their true power) and my time is limited these days so I tend to stick with safer builds.

Thanks as always fellow Hunters!

I've been playing around with it too the last couple of days. I am currently trying something close to the original build from Rise of Shadows with mixed results. Your build is probably(and at least had more of a back-up plan when you draw Maly). I think the deck will be in a better place as face hunter numbers currently are dwindling.

If I could make one suggestion it would probably be to replace Sathrovarr with Vereesa Windrunner as you're probably not gonna be able to have something on board to use it on and Vereesa is very strong when reduced to 1 mana. However, I'm interested in hearing what your results are with Sathrovarr.

I also would advise against putting in anti-aggro minions as they mess with your Jepetto pool and Hunters has plenty of options to contest the board with spells. 

I don't think Frizz Kindleroost would be a good card in this deck as it is another card for the the Jepetto Joybuzz pool and you want as little as possible of those. Furthermore, with the amount of fast decks around these decks, I do not believe you would have enough time in most games to first play Frizz Kindleroost and then be able to combo your dragons with the necessary spells. That said, if you draw it before turn 4, it's obviously very good but that is not very often the case

Quote From Ganjadalf

I've been playing around with it too the last couple of days. I am currently trying something close to the original build from Rise of Shadows with mixed results. Your build is probably(and at least had more of a back-up plan when you draw Maly). I think the deck will be in a better place as face hunter numbers currently are dwindling.

If I could make one suggestion it would probably be to replace Sathrovarr with Vereesa Windrunner as you're probably not gonna be able to have something on board to use it on and Vereesa is very strong when reduced to 1 mana. However, I'm interested in hearing what your results are with Sathrovarr.

I also would advise against putting in anti-aggro minions as they mess with your Jepetto pool and Hunters has plenty of options to contest the board with spells. 

Thanks for your feedback!  I agree that I should give Vereesa another shot and I think I'll try her in a non-Highlander build so I can double-up on the burn spells.  Although I also agree that she's much better than Sathrovarr when played from hand so I'll re-think adding her to my Highlander build as well.

Thanks as well for you advice on avoiding anti-aggro minions, this makes sense to me and I'm glad others feel likewise.

My experience with Sathrovarr:

• Most of the time it functions as another Faceless (i.e. you rarely use the card in hand or the one shuffled back in deck because you're going for lethal) but makes discounting "Faceless" more consistent and can be combo'd with a 5-cost Faceless if you hit either Malygos or Brann with your other Jepetto draw. 
        
• If you draw both Faceless and Sathrovarr with Jepetto you can still play them on a 7-cost Brann for 3x the King Krush which has won me a number of games.  
  
  
• The 9-cost Sathrovarr makes a 1-cost Zephyrs not such a bummer and I've also used it a couple times on the 0-cost dragons from Alexstrasza (or on a 1-mana Alexstrasza which is the other weaker Jepetto target).  I've also hit both Sathrovarr & Zephyrs with Jepetto on occasion and even with 9-mana Zephyrs typically offers Tirion so you can play two 1/1s + two Tirions on Turn 10 (with another Tirion in hand) which isn't too shabby.

Overall, I've been pretty happy with Sathrovarr.

Quote From doingtheobvious

It's a decent concept, but kind of dicey since you have to hope Joybuzz hits your heavier combo pieces.

That aside, Frizz Kindleroost should be a strong consideration for this list.

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Ganjadalf

I don't think Frizz Kindleroost would be a good card in this deck as it is another card for the the Jepetto Joybuzz pool and you want as little as possible of those. Furthermore, with the amount of fast decks around these decks, I do not believe you would have enough time in most games to first play Frizz Kindleroost and then be able to combo your dragons with the necessary spells. That said, if you draw it before turn 4, it's obviously very good but that is not very often the case

 

Thanks for the Frizz suggestion as well!  I was thinking along the same lines at the start of this expansion and used him as a replacement for Emperor Thaurissan.  While he definitely softened the blow of drawing Malygos early (and enabled another strong Turn 7 play via Alexstrasza), I ended up cutting him due to a number of FeelsBadMan moments when I hit him with Jepetto.  However, I definitely didn't play enough games to know for sure whether it was worth the drop in Jepetto consistency.

Hmm, the combination with Brann might indeed make Sathrovarr strong enough to stay. You could perhaps add Vereesa Windrunner on top of it and swap out a spell. That way you kinda change the lay-out of the deck from a Malygos deck to a deck which has multiple good pulls from Jepetto which might increase versatility. I think I'll probably try your list tomorrow and add Vereesa Windrunner to see how it performs.

I have tried your specific list yesterday with mixed results. Nearly every game that went the distance were relatively easy wins. However, nearly every aggro match-up is problematic. A well timed unleash or explosive might help you somewhat. Sathrovarr indeed was a good card in the deck, I did not try Vereesa Windrunner because I did not feel she could have won me any game I lost. The problem is that currently the meta is(not yet) suited for Malyhunter. This might of course change in time but I think there are not a lot of options to improve the aggro matchups right now.

Quote From Ganjadalf

I have tried your specific list yesterday with mixed results. Nearly every game that went the distance were relatively easy wins. However, nearly every aggro match-up is problematic. A well timed unleash or explosive might help you somewhat. Sathrovarr indeed was a good card in the deck, I did not try Vereesa Windrunner because I did not feel she could have won me any game I lost. The problem is that currently the meta is(not yet) suited for Malyhunter. This might of course change in time but I think there are not a lot of options to improve the aggro matchups right now.

Sorry for the delay, but thanks for trying out the list and sharing your experience!

I'm sorry you found mixed results, but in all honesty that was my experience as well and I think you're right that the meta just wasn't/isn't well-suited for it at the moment (e.g. I used to farm Quest Rezz Priests but there have been less of them in my ranks as Face Hunter has waned a bit).  Thanks again though for brainstorming and trying out the Sathrovarr combo :D

And in case you play Casual, I've been working on a non-Highlander Vereesa Windrunner build that's not as powerful but still pretty darn fun.  Tons of room for improvement though...