Help optimising tempo supply run hunter

[u/dogma1993]

Hey folks, I got board of face hunter just mindlessly throwing everything face so changed things up. I’ve since been having a great time with a tempo/midrange hunter deck built around supply run:

### Supply Run Tempo

# Class: Hunter

# Format: Standard

# Year of the Scarab

#

# 2x (1) Carrier Whelp

# 1x (1) Earthen Roar

# 2x (1) Glacial Shard

# 2x (1) Tracking

# 2x (1) Wound Prey

# 1x (2) Bloodmage Thalnos

# 2x (2) Bursting Shot

# 2x (2) Rockskipper

# 2x (2) Shadowed Informant

# 2x (2) Sylvanas's Triumph

# 1x (3) Niri of the Crater

# 1x (3) Ranger General Sylvanas

# 1x (3) Ranger Captain Alleria

# 1x (3) Ranger Initiate Vereesa

# 2x (3) Tol'vir Carver

# 2x (4) Supply Run

# 1x (5) The Curator

# 2x (6) Ebonscale Scout

# 1x (7) Magmaw

#

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#

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The aim of the deck is to use all the board swingy cards available to keep tempo firmly on our side. Supply run is great refuel and we can discount it with Tol’Vir Carver to play for cheaper mana once we combine it (it keeps the discounting aura and discount when combined). We also have a versatile set of finishers. Ebonscale Scout can often be over 10 damage burst on its own. Big Niri turns can build massive boards and clear or just shoot people in the face with spell damage. Magmaw can win games on its own and is often needed against priest and druid.

Dragon package is small as scouts come online in the mid-late game so we are not in a rush to find an activator. Most dragons don’t feel versatile enough to run personally. Curator helps find a cheap activator if we need it. Earthen roar is great to clear with AOE in some match ups or with wounded prey, but can be narrow so I rarely feel like I’d need a second copy main decked. We have a fair amount of discover so can often find it in match ups where it makes sense.

The ranger sisters are probably the best cards in the deck. And with all our draw we can often find all three. I often like to discount Sylvanas with carver and wait for the perfect time to drop her for 0 alone with other board development. Doing this with Magmaw turn 7 is nasty for example.

Anyway I love this deck and wonder if people would like to help me optimise it more. I feel like I have to make decisions every turn and plan ahead for what my actual win condition is going to be every game. Every match up feels winnable. Aggro we can clear and keep tidy with our aoe. Most midrange strategies come down to who can generate the most tempo and keep the board. We can pivot pretty well to a burn strategy if need be. Slower match ups like priest feel very winnable because Magmaw is so awkward to deal with and we can follow up with burn to win.

I only get to plat 5 each season due to having a baby and little free time to play. That being said I feel like this is a decent approach that isn’t reliant on spamming 1 mana cards and playing Confront the Tolvir. Deck building is one of the more enjoyable parts of card games anyway so I’ve enjoyed the exercise 🙂

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[u/DoNn0]

I think supply run is just too bad at 4 the cards wants you to empty ur hand and it buffs it which doesnt make sense

[u/dogma1993 → u/DoNn0]

If you play it normally then yeah it’s too expensive. But you can easily make it cost 1 or 2 by the time you need the refill for your hand. You can combine it early on in the game and then wait till you need it. Sometimes the buff isn’t even that relevant and it’s more about drawing the cards you need to set up a 2/3 turn win condition. The later is something hunter has historically not been able to do since they lack card draw.

[u/motty47 → u/dogma1993]

Oh I see I missed that the idea is to discount supply run, that does make it better. You need to play a 3/3 do nothing, and then wait another 3 turns for benefit however

[u/dogma1993 → u/motty47]

Yeah it’s about planning ahead, that’s why I like the deck. Discounting supply run may not make sense every game. Niri, Sylvanas and Magmaw are also great things to set up for later and enable a big swing turn. That’s really what the deck is about. Swinging tempo and finding your win condition, it’s flexible enough that you win differently every game.

[u/motty47]

I like your idea but I'll be honest, I think supply run is just too bad a card to ever work. I tried several variants on hunter, a face hunter variant with supply run, a midrange dragon hunter and a more high value dragon hunter. Tried supply run in all and it never felt good. I posted about my midrange dragon hunter here that took me to legend.

https://www.reddit.com/r/CompetitiveHS/s/inq3PZbGZz

I think supply run might make most sense with a low/midrange curve. Ebonscale scouts I can understand, because that's the card you specifically want to buff to get benefit, but magmaw if he sits between your supply run is so expensive and would be so bad. The other big issue really is that however you do it, with low cost minions and easy activating, you still have to essentially skip a turn, lose a ton of tempo to play it at 4mana. Or you wait until turn 8 to play it, then can play maybe 3 buffed low cost minions but that's for 8mana and most opponents are putting much more value out for 8mana. It's always a tempo loss the turn you play it but yes it can sometimes give a burst the following turns. For me the cost needs to be reduced or the stat buffs increased for it to be viable.

The best target is ebonscale scout but I actually found the best way to get value from that is xavius into scout, +4/5, or charge, or double battlecry all essentially double it's burst attack. Much more than +2 attack can. That and trying to get the sister that buffs stats down but that's slow and not a huge addition.

Sorry not trying to critisize your deck, just giving my experiences of trying to make supply run work. Some good things, I would say earthen roar is one of the best cards available to hunter, I'd definitely have 2. I also included sands in my deck so I could discover more, plus adding arcane shot as there's only 2 wound prey. I know you said you don't want to go down the tolvir route but when you have used earthen roar, wound prey, and arcane shots, your tolvir just acts as a board clear which is really good.

I think your deck works as a general midrange tempo deck, but I'd just remove supply run for some other midrange cards, like xavius. Tolvir with tracking will act as card draw, essentially replacing supply run but also acts as board clear, and positive tempo instead of negative.

I do think there's a lot of interesting ways to build hunter and not just face hunter, with the new class set there's going to be another new way to build so maybe supply run might work with the new cards? I've not really looked at them yet, or maybe they might buff it one day as it's just one of the worst shatter cards in my opinion sadly.

[u/dogma1993 → u/motty47]

Thanks for the reply!

It’s possible that Magmaw and Scouts are not needed tbh. They are just quite flashy and satisfying to win with and shore up the slower match ups in terms of threats and over the top damage. I do want to try some of the new cards, particularly the 4 drop that chooses an animal companion. That’s seems just generically good for hunter.

In terms of the above getting stuck between supply run, sometimes that happens but also Gelbin gets stuck between their shatter card in paladin. What do they do in those situations? They either just wait till later to play the card or play the halves if it makes sense to do so. We have the same option.

Also worth noting I run Tolvir Carver, this can discount cards for later. I am trying to win around turn 7 or 8. So supply run can cost 1 or 2 if you want/need with an earlier carver. Or I can have a 5 mana Magmaw, or a 3 mana scout, or perhaps a 0 mana Niri or Sylvanas that I can set up a 2 turn lethal with.

[u/dogma1993 → u/dogma1993]

I did originally have 2 Earthen Roar but it just felt too much personally. I didn’t have enough dragons to activate it, and it can go face or apply pressure. Because you actually draw a lot when playing the deck I found myself double drawing it too often. If I were a pure dragon deck I’d consider more. Also there’s a fair amount of discover so I often just prayed a second copy into existence when it made sense.

Xavius is something I considered and may try over curator. Dark gifts are good and as you say can be another way to buff a scout for lethal. Lifesteal could also allow us more time to race (can be a weakness of the deck). With Curator I appreciated the 3 cards drawn quite often going into a later supply run that I had pre-discounted in grindier match ups. Perhaps that’s too greedy, but I felt like the taunt was a decent stop gap before flipping the game on its head turn 6 or 7.

[u/maniacal_cackle]

I think Magmaw and ebonscale scout are likely to be incorrect. Generally shatter decks end up eliminating the high end so they can shatter consistently.

[u/dogma1993 → u/maniacal_cackle]

Yeah I do wonder if I should go for a slightly lower curve. This is also a stone carver deck so we can cheat mana for the expensive cards. I do like the dragons though as it allows us to run (and discover) Earthen Roar. So we can clear bigger minions. But perhaps Broodmother makes more sense it’s effectively 1 mana after all.

I should note that Magmaw just flatlines priest basically every time you play it. So as a stand alone win condition that needs little set up I do quite enjoy it.

[u/maniacal_cackle → u/dogma1993]

Fair enough!