Unseal the Vault [Beast Hunter]

Deck Idea

The goal of this deck is to abuse the Starving Buzzard revert in tandem with Unseal the Vault to create a persistent, mid-range Beast Hunter deck. In short, summon a lot of beasts, abuse their synergies, and Ramkahen Roar the opponent to death! In my experience, Quest Hunter's main flaw while it was in standard was its lack of draw and lack of finishing burst after Leeroy was Hall-of-Famed; now that the Quest is a wild-exclusive archetype, the deck has access to more draw and more burst.

General Strategy

This deck's main goal is to follow a strong curve while summoning a plethora of reactive (rush) beasts. Because this deck runs the Quest, there is only one other 1-mana card, Springpaw, due to its flexibility, reactivity, and beast synergies. Furthermore, because we are almost always passing on turn 1 to play the Quest, this deck heavily focuses on reactive minions that can keep the board clear. Once we unseal the vault, we have access to a nasty burst combo from hand to finish the game; in fact, for ten mana, we can deal 14 damage on an empty board with Leeroy + Hounds + hero power. The best part about this combo is that most people forget to play around Unleash the Hounds in wild since it is generally a weak card in the format, so we get an additional three damage for each minion our opponent leaves on the board.

Card Decisions

Starving Buzzard is really the star of the deck that enables this archetype. Even if a single Buzzard only gets 1-2 draws, it is still very impactful; I know it looks super tempting to play Buzzard + Swarm of Locusts on turn 8 to draw six cards, but that combo is so rarely necessary for this deck to be effective.

Faceless Corruptor is a little slow in wild since its nerf, but it really shines when playing a token-based deck. Because this deck summons so many tokens, Faceless Corruptor eventually finds a moment to upgrade one of its fellow minions.

Desert Spear is definitely a sleeper card in this list because of how versatile it functions in the deck. It works to draw cards with Starving Buzzard, can easily be transformed into another Faceless Corruptor on curve, or just keep the board stabilized.

Zilliax is mainly for the healing in this deck. In my experience, this archetype's main flaw is no longer card draw or burst damage but rather staying alive long enough to kill our opponent. Unfortunately, Zilliax was the only card I could find that worked to give Hunter the healing needed for this deck without being too slow/defensive.

Kazakus, Golem Shaper slots very conveniently into this deck for multiple reasons. Kazakus has proven himself already as one of the best cards from Forged in the Barrens, and he is certainly a powerhouse in this deck too. As of the time of writing, the only other 4-cost card that slots into the deck well (in my opinion) is Sky Gen'ral Kragg, and while Kragg is definitely a strong card that has perfect synergy with this deck, he doesn't really stack up to the power of Kazakus (especially since we can pick to summon another Golem). Additionally, Kazakus can provide inaccessible outs for the deck that Hunter normally doesn't have easy access to--most importantly, HEALING!

Ace Hunter Kreen is either the best card of the match, or a 3-mana 2/4 with taunt. We often are trading our board over and over into the opponent's since we are playing from behind, and Ace Hunter Kreen can be the difference between our board sticking or not. Usually, if our board sticks through one turn, it is easy to take control of the game for a win; Ace Hunter Kreen is here to help us do that when it otherwise wouldn't be possible.

Brann Bronzebeard can be described similarly to Ace Hunter Kreen for this deck--either the best card of the match, or a 3-mana 2/4 with taunt. Almost all the battlecries in this deck hugely benefit from being doubled--in particular, the card draw and Kazakus. Because the battlecries of this deck are so impactful, Brann was an obvious choice to me.

Veranus is included to swing back otherwise unwinnable boards, and it works as a great on-curve play if we have minions on our board that can't clear our opponent's board. Veranus isn't the most important card in the deck, but the prevalence of Resurrect Priest makes this dragon's inclusion worthwhile.

Substitutions & Alternates

In general, I think this archetype is a pretty tight list if you want it to be competitive. Thanks to Buzzard's buff, the archetype has viability, but it necessitates heavy beast synergies. However, there are still some cards with flexibility to them.

Veranus is likely the most obvious card to swap because it is effectively a tech card. In most matchups, Veranus isn't that important, and many other legendary cards that have beast or minion-summoning synergies likely will be just as impactful as Veranus--High Inquisitor Whitemane comes to mind since she is in the core set at the time of writing.

Kazakus, Golem Shaper is not a card I would recommend swapping, but if you don't have him, Sky Gen'ral Kragg fits very will in his place.

Ace Hunter Kreen is another card that could probably be replaced with just a strong beast or summoning card. Pantry Spider fits both criteria for the same mana as Ace Hunter Kreen and is a card I considered including in the deck anyway. Spirit of the Lynx could be a fun and interesting replacement for some of these legendaries, but I suspect it will usually be way too greedy for the wild meta.

Zixor, Apex Predator is not critical for the deck's success, but Zixor Prime can be game-winning; if you're missing Zixor, a strong 3-cost beast can take it's spot. Halazzi, the Lynx also fits well in this deck, but I chose to exclude Halazzi since it is rather slow and the deck has plenty of summoning cards and hand refill options.

Zilliax is not necessary by any means, but I found it extremely useful to stay alive in games that I otherwise would have lost.

There are many other cards that could fit into the list that haven't been mentioned, but I didn't include them because they seem a little too slow for wild or don't have the best payoff for Hunter. Some examples are Teacher's Pet (beast and summoning synergy), Khartut Defender (summoning synergy with healing), and Bone Wraith/Saronite Chain Gang/Sludge Belcher/Giggling Inventor (summoning synergy with taunt). Moreover, some cards that seem like obvious inclusions I excluded because they either weren't reactive enough or scaled poorly; for example Wolpertinger/Alleycat seem like obvious picks, but they are aggro cards rather than mid-range cards. Other honorable mentions that could be used if you need alternate/budget options are: Hunting Mastiff, Kindly Grandmother, Bloated Python, Pantry Spider, Bug Collector, Derailed Coaster, and Adorable Infestation.

Final Notes

I had a lot of fun with this deck, and it progresses towards two of the Forged in the Barrens achievements! I played the deck at the beginning of the expansion release, and I had a 63% winrate over 43 games. If you like the Unseal the Vault playstyle, this deck won't disappoint.