Gaara's "NIGHTMARE HUNTER" Deck is Back

INTRODUCTION

Gaara knew that the UTH nerf had a lot of consequences for Hunter players, especially since it slows down the game a bit. This has led Face Hunter to be significantly less played nowadays compared to the first official season of Hearthstone. Luckily, Gaara looked again to develop "Nightmare Hunter" and it went well, allowing him to reach a high rank and losing only a few times, relatively.

THE DECK

THE CARDS

Hunter's Mark - Gaara still considers this as one of the best minion removals out there. It's free to cast, and has a good combo with Unleash the Hounds, Stonetusk Boar, Elven Archer, and even Argent Squire. However, the ideal move is to use it with the Archer because Stonetusk Boar has many other and better functions in the deck.

Argent Squire - It is believed that the Squire is one of the best turn 1 plays you can have when you're using an aggro deck. According to Gaara, it survives up to your fourth turn, and it can it has been always annoying for your opponent to get rid of it. Aside from this, it can be used so that you can kill off minions having two health by attacking with the Squire and using Elven Archer or Stonetusk Boar.

Elven Archer - Gaara sometimes uses two of this, especially because it works so well with Hunter's Mark. In addition, the one direct damage is sometimes better than charged Stonetusk Boar, with all of the taunted-up minions out there. If you want to draw an additional card, you can even kill your own Loot Hoarder with it.

Arcane Shot - Having two of these is essential for him nowadays, especially because of the taunted-up minions. With the UTH nerf, direct damage has never been more crucial. It deals well with Zoo by killing off Flame Imps and Knife Jugglers immediately.

Stonetusk Boar - This card has become more important in a hunter's deck more than ever because of the UTH nerf. This card accompanies Kill Command and your direct-damage hero power for the ideal turn 6 play. Moreover, it works well with Hunter's Mark, is useful to have in hand to get that 5 damage from Kill Command, and is a beast, meaning it's in great terms with Starving Buzzard.

Tracking - This is often used to scour your deck for the UTH + Starving Buzzard combo, but you can also dig for the specific cards that you need. It could be Flare or a Hunter' Mark to get rid of some big minion. Moreover, you can dig for secrets such as Explosive Trap to add +1 durability to Eaglehorn Bow.

Flare - With Aggro Paladin and Freeze Mage becoming popular in Ranked and in Casual Play, Flare has become important not only for card draw, but also for turning the tides in your favour. Don't hastily use this when you're against a Mage or a Paladin or even your fellow Hunter, as this one-mana card can prove to be handy.

Loot Hoarder - Gaara sometimes uses only one Loot Hoarder, but he won't replace them with Novice Engineer. He believes that while Novice Engineer provides that card draw fast, it's only 1/1 and hence not worth it compared to Loot Hoarder which also costs two mana but is a 2/1. Sure, it can be useless when it gets silenced, but that additional attack power compared to the Engineer is a good thing for Gaara.

Starving Buzzard - This is still important to have in any Hunter deck, as this is like Divine Favor from Paladin in terms of gaining card advantage in tempo. It still works well with UTH, Stonetusk Boar, and even Ironbeak Owl.

Freezing Trap - Apparently, Gaara has always used Freezing Trap because it really isn't expected by your opponents. Most of all, it comes in handy especially against Ramp Druid because an Innervate + Chillwind Yeti play on the second turn of your opponent is hard to counter without this trap. It would cost more  to use Hunter's Mark and another card just to get rid of the first minion played by your opponent.

Ironbeak Owl - He recently included this card to experiment with it, and it works well in his Nightmare Hunter deck because it is a beast after all, so it works with Kill Command and Starving Buzzard. Even more, it works well against Handlock's Twilight Drake, making its health 1 and allowing for an Elven Archer or a Stonetusk Boar to kill it immediately.

Explosive Trap - This is probably the most useful trap a Hunter could offer right now. It works so well against Zoo,  the mirror match, and other aggro decks. Gaara sometimes replaces one with Misdirection, so it's up to you if you want to substitute it from time to time.

Kill Command - One of the best direct-damage spells in the class, especially with plenty of beasts to ensure that five damage.

Eaglehorn Bow - For Gaara, there are less people now compared to before who use Ancient Swamp Ooze and Harrison Jones, so this is a good weapon to have. What's best is that with Aggro Paladin and Freeze Mage becoming more popular, you can be happy with your Bow getting +1 durability each time a secret is revealed. Even your own traps going off helps.

Arcane Golem - This is a pretty standard finisher in an aggro deck. Straightforward.

Unleash the Hounds - Despite the nerf, this is still the best Hunter card around. Though it might be slower, the UTH + Buzzard combo is still too good for card advantage and sometimes board-clearing. Also, notice that Gaara did not include Timber Wolf in his deck, as he noted that it's too slow in today's meta and that there aren't that much beasts in the deck to make it look essential. This also has a good combo when you play Leeroy first.

Leeroy Jenkins - Another finisher like Arcane Golem. 

With all of this, Gaara hopes that Hunters will once again get some recognition and have players realize that the UTH nerf does not make the Hunter class any less viable in ranked play.

Finally, here's a video of Gaara discussing about the Nightmare Hunter deck:

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