Hooru Hatebears

This is a midrange style deck that puts large creatures in play that disrupt the opponent. The deck can be broken down into two parts: removal and units. The deck has a lot of fun interactions and can adapt to however the opponent is playing. The following are a list of my card choices and how typical matchups work when playing with this deck. It can be fairly consistent when piloted correctly but it requires a wealth of knowledge of what the opponent is playing in order to do so effectively.


Card Choices

Our removal package consists of 3 Permafrost, 3 Vanquish, 4 Vanquisher's Blade, and 4 Avigraft. 1 Avigraft and 1 Vanquisher's Blade are allocated to the market for consistency.

Most of the removal options need no explanation, however, the most important card to discuss is Vanquisher's Blade as it does two major things: the first is it is a renown trigger for Aniyah, Arctic Sheriff (as the extra +2/+2 and aegis makes her one of the best units in the deck for closing out games) and the second is the relevance of the grave lock text with the prevalence of reanimator strategies.

The rest of the deck is our units to disrupt the opponent and close out games.

Kothon, the Far-Watcher is the most uninteresting of the suite as he is merely there to provide early game blocking and can be a great source of card advantage late game. The flying he gains in addition to a 4/4 flying owl means that he can get over most blockers and deal damage to face.

Copperhall Bailiff is my personal favorite card in this deck. He solves the issue of being too slow against aggro strategies without being forced to play boardwipes like Hailstorm. On top of that, Bailiff isn't dead in control or midrange matchups as he pops aegis on every enemy unit with his summon effect.

Mirror Image is our most flexible unit (yes, despite its spell type, it is most definitely a unit). It plays very well with 90% of the units in this deck as extra Bailiff, Svetya, or Enforcer triggers are nice in tangent with another. It also is likely what puts Aniyah over the top, as the first mirror image gives you a second 6/6 with Aegis Aniyah that can still have Renown triggered.

Valkyrie Enforcer- all around great card. Good at shutting down annoying units like SST or even opposing flying units. He has very good interactions with Aniyah and Permafrost when used to silence endurance units; however, be warned not to use him on a previously Permafrosted unit as it will un-stun it.

Winchest Merchant- The best possible merchant for this deck: adds a lot of consistency and versatility. Need I say more?

Sheriff Marley- While she may be the "weakest" card in the deck, a 4/4 aegis body is nothing to scoff at and she provides some card advantage to boot.

Svetya, Orene of Kosul- Svetya does a great job of combating spell-heavy control decks. She can delay the opponent a turn or two while we search for answers and her activated ability is very strong in games that are running long and you need to put a unit or two in play to finish the game out.

Aniyah, Arctic Sheriff- Everything I could say about her has pretty much already been said. She is a massive gain in tempo against any unit based deck and she usually lives long enough to be better protected with her Renown. All-in-all she is one of the best beaters in the deck, despite not having the evasion nearly every other unit has.

Saving the absolute best for last, we have Eilyn, Clan Mother- she usually wins games on her own. She is two Valkyrie Enforcer's combined with a ulted Kothon, all while also being able to wipe the enemy board. We want her as much as possible so one copy easily makes it's way into our market.


Market

Our remaining two market cards not discussed are Vision of Austerity and Adjudicator's Gavel. Vision deals with pesky relic decks that are all too abundant (though with it needing to come down so late to combat things like Martyr's Chains, it is best to just try and get under these strategies before these relics ever resolve). Gavel is purely there as Vanquisher's Blade number 5 to stop the aforementioned reanimator strategies.


Matchups

All-in-all, this deck as a very easy time dealing with aggressive and combo strategies. Midrange games are fair and control matchups tend to be our weak spot (as we aren't quite fast enough to close the game out before they gain an immense amount of card advantage or drop a relic that our deck has no ways of efficiently interacting with).

I have managed to make it to masters twice with the deck already though, I must admit, it isn't the easiest deck to pilot to masters. The biggest hurdle with this deck is the need to asses which role you should be taking dependent upon a given matchup. In general, with more aggressive strategies you tend to play as a control player, dealing with as many units as possible until the opponent is out of gas. Against combo, you should play your disruption in the best possible way to stop the opponent's combo until you are able to finally finish out the game. Against midrange, you should play slightly more aggressively while digging for answers and sequencing as many 2-for-1's as possible. And against control, you should play as aggressively as possible to end the game with damage and a higher tempo. Trying to durddle around in a control matchup is almost a for sure loss, as they are usually always able to gain more raw card advantage than you and leave you with no resources.