The Comprehensive The Great Dark Beyond Preview

 

Rangari Scout

A cheap minion that’s not intended to fight for board with its relatively weak body, but one that can offer us massive value in combination with discover effects. Hunter is getting a lot of support for a discover archetype. Rangari Scout acts as its main value engine as it double discovers and potentially hands us a massive card advantage. Generating copies also means that discounts are copied and its compound synergy with Detailed Notes is a good example. Exarch Naielle makes discovering much easier to do alongside Rangari Scout, while Pet Parrot or Astral Vigilant can help us develop multiple Scouts in play. They stack.

It’s not difficult to see us being able to chain multiple discover effects on the same turn we play Scout, so if we can get numerous copies of cards with the help of a 1-mana minion, it’s more than worth it.

We don’t believe Rangari Scout will be limited to a dedicated discover archetype either. A package of these cards can easily find its way to other decks. That makes it a staple for almost every late-game-oriented strategy in the class going forward.

Score: 4

Detailed Notes

There have been plenty of discover effects that resembled Detailed Notes. You get to discover a card, while the cost of discovering is offset by a discount of the same cost. This creates the possibility of cheating out a card earlier than its intended cost. These cards tend to be played often. Only those of a very questionable pool of discovery fall through the cracks.

No worries of that here. The discover pool of Detailed Notes is of a very high quality. Hunter has a bunch of strong beasts it would love to find in many situations, some of them potentially game changing. Furthermore, there’s a significant number of 5-mana beasts, which means we can drop them as early as turn 3, directly following up a turn 2 Detailed Notes.

Detailed Notes is a strong candidate in a wide variety of decks. It has strong synergy with Rangari Scout in a discover-focused deck. It’s guaranteed to be included in Reno Hunter, while Egg Hunter could find it serviceable.

Score: 3

Extraterrestrial Egg

While a massive upgrade on Nerubian Egg, it’s likely to be played alongside it. Extraterrestrial Egg matches Nerubian Egg’s identical starting stats (0/2), but the minion it summons on its deathrattle is larger (3/5) and immediately attacks the lowest health enemy upon spawning. This means that popping the egg has an instant impact on the game state with the additional benefit of the 3/5 beast’s ability to hit face if the board is cleared.

The attack isn’t random. We can “funnel” the 3/5 beast to the desired target via trades on our turn. It’s an incredible target for Yelling Yodeller. That makes our opponent want to clear it off the board, yet trading into it can get very awkward.

The only situation in which this attack is a drawback is if our opponent can pop the egg and value trade the beast for free (with a 5/5, for example), but we don’t think that specific situation offsets the massive advantage usually gained by this egg. Should become a staple in Egg Hunter.

Score: 3

Biopod

At its baseline, Biopod isn’t too impressive. A 2 mana 2/2 that deals 2 damage to an enemy is nothing to write home about, but the damage scales with its attack value. This means that buffs to Biopod increase its damage potential. In the context of a growing starship, Biopod can do some serious work. Remember that Biopod’s deathrattle stacks in a starship. If we have a starship with two Biopods and 8 attack, the starship deals 8 damage twice upon dying. Add a Yelling Yodeler to the mix and you’re dealing 32 damage. This is an OTK on an empty board that can be executed on turn 9.

Hunter does have the ability to burst opponents down already with a buffed Hollow Hound and Always a Bigger Jormungar, but Biopod might be able to do it more reliably. The opponent’s counterplay in this situation is the opposite from ABJ, as you want to play as many minions as possible to soak the damage, but it might be difficult to do if the Hunter can clear boards and exhaust the opponent’s resources.

Biopod represents a clear win condition for a Starship Hunter deck. The only question is whether it represents an upgrade on the class’ current late game methods, which are admittedly weak. We believe that Starship Hunter has the potential to be defensively sound, which is an important step to competitive viability.

Score: 3

Laser Barrage

This is a big secondary payoff for Space Hunter. A baseline Laser Barrage is serviceable. Dealing 3 damage for 2 mana is the standard for early-game removal, but an upgraded Laser Barrage is objectively nuts.

For 2 mana, we get to clear as many as three minions in the early game. That’s a massive swing. Do keep in mind that Laser Barrage can almost never be fully active on turn 2, as the cheapest starship piece costs 2 mana, but it’s unlikely that the effect gets full value on turn 2 anyway. Furthermore, the uptime for Laser Barrage past turn 3 should be very high, provided we run all the starship pieces available to us.

Some players may focus on the class’s starship pieces, but this is the kind of secondary payoff that can really help Starship Hunter become competitively viable.

Score: 3

Alien Encounters

A couple of 2/5’s for 5 mana isn’t too bad of a deal. It compares favorably with similar effects, such as Saronite Chain Gang. 10-health for 5 mana in taunts can be considered a reasonable card, even if it might not make the cut in a constructed deck.

But here’s the thing: Alien Encounter is going to cost little to no mana in practice. Whether it’s a discover-focused deck, or just one with a discover package, Alien Encounters is guaranteed to be discounted very rapidly.

Just a couple of discovers means we’re playing this card for 3 mana, which is an insane stabilizing play in faster matchups. Hunter has plenty of discover options at 1 or 2 mana, so this is a realistic curve. Once you get to the mid-game, Alien Encounters is probably going to cost 0 mana, turning it into a huge swing that can stop an aggressive deck in its tracks.

Out of all the discover-synergy cards in the deck, this is the one that makes us want to play a discover package the most, wherever we can. An absolute powerhouse that gives Hunter the chance to turn the corner and bridge into its late game.

Score: 4

Parallax Cannon

A 3-mana 4/3 weapon is very strong. Parallax Cannon is comparable to Swordfish if it’s properly supported. Swordfish requires a heavy investment in the pirate tribe, while Cannon requires us to discover. In a discover-focused archetype, which is getting big support in Hunter this set, activating Cannon consistently shouldn’t be a problem, especially when we’re heavily incentivized to discover thanks to Alien Encounters. Exarch Naielle makes the requirement trivial.

The only thing that’s a bit awkward about this weapon is that it’s not great on-curve, unless we’ve played Astrobiologist on turn 2. But it’s great to play on turn 4 after Exarch Naielle, along with a Tracking hero power.

Weapons that represent a lot of damage should be respected in the Hunter class. Parallax Cannon provides Discover Hunter strong game closing potential. The Spellburst also allows us to trade with it while avoiding taking damage, which we consider to be a small bonus.

Score: 3

Specimen Claw

Much like Biopod, Specimen Claw scales with buffs, but in a more subtle manner. The bigger the stats it has, the more trading power it possesses. In the context of a large starship, Specimen Claw can lock out the opponent from being able to develop a board. The high health total is very useful for this purpose. However, this could be a redundant ability if our starship is meant to end the game the moment it’s launched thanks to Biopod and Yelling Yodeler.

A major issue we have with the card is that it’s not great standalone, while costing more mana than Biopod. It can be a little annoying on turn 3 against a deck with a low curve, but the opponent has some level of control over the trade, so they can avoid playing 2-health minions into Claw and making its impact relatively inefficient. It’s also a very bad card in slower matchups.

If Starship Hunter ends up not reliant on a full starship package, Specimen Claw could be the one to make way. If the mechanic proves to be parasitic in nature (the more, the better), then Claw will see play.

Score: 2

Exarch Naielle

A game changing card for Hunter’s late game prospects, Naielle provides a new hero power for the class: a 1-mana Tracking. This is infinitely stronger than Life Tap, as we pay half the cost, take no damage, to draw a card to our liking.

The flexibility and consistency provided by Naielle is significant. Hunter tends to fall off in the late game partly because of an absence of card draw that makes the execution of its win conditions less reliable. Naielle fixes that by letting us constantly dig into our deck to find the pieces we need to end the game.

Naielle is the cornerstone card for a discover archetype. It accelerates our ability to discount Alien Encounters. It trivializes activation of Parallax Cannon. It increases the ceiling on the value we can get from Rangari Scout.

We suspect there won’t be a single Hunter deck with late game aspirations that passes on Naielle. It’s a low hanging fruit of late game consistency that doesn’t require any sacrifice to include, with no real stat penalty on its ability. It clashes a bit with Reno, but, if it helps us find Reno more often, we probably don’t care.

Score: 4

Gorm the Worldeater

Gorm is an egg eater extraordinaire. The card was designed with the intent to follow-up a turn 2 Extraterrestrial Egg or Nerubian Egg, while preceding a turn 4 Mystery Egg. Finding Gorm early means that developing eggs becomes a very powerful game plan that can put a significant amount of pressure on the opponent relatively early on.

Gorm is a bit awkward if we don’t have eggs to feed it, but that shouldn’t be a problem considering we have an abundance of eggs available to include in our deck. It’s a big minion that can get out of dormancy as early as turn 4. Although it doesn’t have any keywords that scale its massive stats further, not every deck can deal with a 12/12 on turn 5, especially if it needs to deal with whatever we pop out of our eggs in the process too.

Relatively niche card, as we don’t like it in non-egg decks, but should be very powerful in the archetype it’s designed for.

Score: 3

Final Thoughts

The Great Dark Beyond Set Rank: 2^nd

Overall Power Ranking:  4^th

Hunter was desperate for a powerful set to inject some energy and enthusiasm into the class. We believe it got a fantastic set overall and one that opens many possibilities.

We like the class’ starship package conceptually. Out of all starships, it’s the one that possesses the most inherent lethality. Yelling Yodeler on a big starship can outright kill opponents with minimal counterplay. Pair that with strong AOE effects, such as Laser Barrage and Star Power, and we could make it difficult for the opponent to soak the damage with their board.

The Discover package should be very exciting, as it has massive late game potential and consistency. We believe that Discover Hunter can generate an absurd amount of value that is comparable to a Thief Rogue at its peak. Rangari Scout, when paired with Pet Parrot and Astral Vigilant, can fill our hand forever. Alien Encounters is an incredible stabilizer for the deck, helping it bridge into the late game.

Eggs are also on the menu. With Terrestrial Egg and Gorm, you’ve got a big boost in the deck’s early game power. It already has a decent late game, with lethality provided by Always a Bigger Jormungar, so these are promising additions that can put it over the top.

Most importantly, Hunter looks interesting! The class tends to struggle holding people’s attention for prolonged periods, but this set can solve that problem.

We have some experience in learning which decks gain a bigger audience compared to others. If Discover Hunter proves to be competitively viable, then we believe it may become one of the most popular archetypes in the class’ history. It’s a home run in both flavor and feels-wise.