All images courtesy of Legend Story Studios
The Hunt(ed) Has Begun
The lull of the off season is over, and the hunt has begun. In just two weeks since release, we’ve had two Callings, three Battle Hardeneds, and one week of Road to Nationals events to explore The Hunted Classic Constructed metagame. From these early results, it looks like The Hunted falls somewhere between Part the Mistveil and Rosetta, where the new heroes are definite contenders but not oppressive.
Keep in mind, that might change as more heroes ascend to Living Legend and disrupt the metagame even more.
With our first look at how it’s unfolding, let’s recap what we know about The Hunted CC results.
Battle Hardened: Bangkok
Bangkok brought us our first result from the new meta with “Vespa” taking it down on Enigma, Ledger of Ancestry. This event wrapped up before The Calling Memphis but flew under the radar in the wake of Memphis’ triple header weekend. Nevertheless, the stage was set with a win straight from the Part The Mistveil era. Many players were convinced of Enigma’s strength because of new defensive tools like Shelter from the Storm, Quickdodge Flexors, and Put in Context which, sure enough, did make an appearance in Vespa’s list.
As for the rest of the Top 8, plenty of heroes were represented but with few new toys from The Hunted. Nuu, Alluring Desire, Aurora, Shooting Star, Viserai, Rune Blood, Florian, Rotwood Harbinger, and Dash I/O all made it through with no notable upgrades. Victor Goldmane, High and Mighty, however, did run Roiling Fissure, but it seems that targeted aura destruction was not enough to overcome the dreaded Enigma matchup he faced in the finals.
With no breakthrough performances from the four new heroes, the verdict was out on whether they could punch through at Memphis and beyond.
Calling: Memphis
Spoiler alert: they did punch through!
In a field swamped with the old dogs of Zen, Tamer of Purpose, Viserai, Rune Blood, and Nuu, Alluring Desire, the Top 8 reflected the rise of dark horses that targeted a Day 0 metagame quite well. Firstly, Kano, Dracai of Aether had a fantastic conversion rate into Day 2, taking advantage of players neglecting to bring arcane barrier and blasting his way to two Top 8 slots. He finally fell in the finals, though, to the other dark horse of the format… Cindra, Dracai of Retribution.
In the hands of Brodie Spurlock and built by Yuki Lee Bender, a 67 red count Cindra deck took down the whole event. With the lack of ice and taxing effects in the format, the deck didn’t need to be built around a resource base. Instead, it raced consistently and even played through disruption by pushing for card draws via Mask of Momentum and Flick Knives: a quirky interaction where even when a chain link is blocked, a flicked dagger can guarantee a hit goes through to continually threaten Mask of Momentum.
The path of the Cindra deck in Top 8 alone proves so much of the deck’s mettle, beating the highest represented deck Viserai, Rune Blood in a race and getting over the hump of a disruptive Assassin like Nuu, Alluring Desire. Even in the finals when only one arcane barrier was presented, Cindra was able to present lethal more quickly than Kano could guarantee his combo.
While obviously strong, the deck’s run was reminiscent of Calling: Melbourne’s 2nd place Dash I/O deck. Taking a burn hard aggro deck to an event where people aren’t prepared to block correctly can ensure wins after even one turn cycle was played incorrectly. Would players adapt or is the deck able to overcome?
Also of note, an Arakni, Marionette bubbled at 9th… Though their story would mature on day three, the Battle Hardened.
Battle Hardened: Memphis
To round out the weekend, Memphis gave us one more look at Classic Constructed. As we watched the swiss rounds play out, it became clear that the metagame didn’t drastically shift to answer Cindra. Most people were on the same decks as the Calling, but now with even more drive to make Top 8. Sure enough, the heroes that made it showcased even more diversity than any Top 8 of The Hunted so far.
Zen, Tamer of Purpose, Verdance, Thorn of the Rose, Prism, Awakener of Sol, and Arakni, Marionette joined the ranks of Top 8s this season, and even moved on to see a Top 4 with three new heroes as well. Brian Lorenz’s Arakni deck had all eyes on it as we watched him make fantastic plays with Up Sticks and Run and Just a Nick as spicy includes. He fell, however, to Prism, who ended up taking the whole event in an enthralling final game that went to 1hp all.
Prism proved to have a solid matchup with Cindra, who doesn’t run poppers or have heavy armor. Heralds land heavy damage as Angels soak up the return, and, boy, will it end quickly.
With Memphis, the first weekend of Classic Constructed events had concluded. So many new questions were on the table. Was Cindra the deck to beat? How open was the format? Was it time to respect Kano?
Battle Hardened: Barcelona
Lucky for us, we didn’t have to wait long to take another look at The Hunted metagame. Just this past weekend, Battle Hardened: Barcelona revealed the most surprising Top 8 in a long while. Not only were the names exciting, like Pro Tour Champions Pablo Pintor and Arthur Trehet in the same Top 8, but the heroes themselves had the community in uproar. Vynnset, Iron Maiden, Jarl Vetreidi, and Verdance, Thorn of the Rose in the same Top 8? And you’re telling me the finals was Verdance versus Jarl with a JARL VICTORY?!
Jarl is the only deck capable of making Frostbites in the current meta, and that combined with Count Your Blessings proved to be quite the uphill battle for decks with finite resources to beat like Cindra and Vynnset. It also outlasted combo Verdance in the finals, mostly due to a well timed Command and Conquer that stole a critical Rampant Growth // Life in the endgame.
Still, with over 100 players, these results were no fluke and proved that adaptation to the metagame was alive and well, even from rogue heroes.
Calling: Christchurch
The highlight event of the weekend came from the game’s homeland in New Zealand. Calling: Christchurch’s meta was a melting pot of everything we saw in the first weekend with one notable exception. Arakni, 5L!p3d 7hRu 7h3 cR4X slipped through the cracks indeed… The impressive run was in part due to smart deck building with Toxicity yellow as part of the Flick Knives and Kiss of Death combo. By not opting for the red, the pitch effectiveness of a yellow for Hunter’s Klaive kept the deck nimble and adaptive. However, the duality of the hero ability met its match against Nuu in a slog of a game.
Just as impressive, Cindra rocketed her way into the finals for a third time in two weeks. She redeemed herself from the loss to Prism in Memphis and instead ran over the finals in electric fashion. The list mirrored that of the Calling: Memphis, opting for just Warmonger’s Diplomacy and no other blues.
The news of Jarl's rise, perhaps, had not made its way to New Zealand in time.
Battle Hardened: Portland
Back in the States, the west coast got a taste of The Hunted with a Battle Hardened on the same weekend. While details are scarce, we do know that one Verdance, Thorn of the Rose, two Azalea, Ace in the Hole, three Zen, Tamer of Purpose, one Cindra, Dracai of Retribution, and one Jarl Vetreidi rounded out the Top 8. Unlike the Verdance versus Jarl showdown in Spain, the finals had Verdance facing off against Azalea with MajinBae on Verdance taking it down.
I really like the look of this Top 8 as it shows some of the other answers to Cindra on the rise. Azalea, while not dealing Frostbites, is notorious for her hit effects like Remorseless to help race aggro decks and Red in the Ledger to shut them down.
Zen, too, has strong answers to Cindra with his midrange play style allowing for strong one- or two-card blocks such as Wax On while returning hefty damage.
Verdance, while surely not exceptional versus Cindra, seems to be turning the tide into more midrange decks, perhaps with the added value of Ring of Roses.
Road to Nationals Week 1
Lastly, let’s take a look at the first week of results from the Road to Nationals season. With over 1,000 points on the line, the bulk of the rotations this year are sure to start here.
Viserai, Rune Blood, while not winning any of the standalone events, gained 42 points across his 14 wins, putting him at 872. He’s on track to rotate with just 46 more wins across the next three weeks, which is within reason, especially with more Callings and Battle Hardeneds in the pool as well.
Similarly, Zen, Tamer of Purpose sits at 907 which is merely 31 RtN wins away. With his sorry showing in Week 1, though, he may need some larger events to go his way to hit LL.
Nuu, Alluring Desire, who won a hefty 14 RtNs, is not going anywhere this season. She’s barely at 600 points and only going to get better once Zen and Viserai rotate.
Across the rest of the results, there’s some quiet success from Fang, Dracai of Blades and Riptide, Lurker of the Deep, while the recent Battle Hardened winners Jarl and Verdance won nothing!
What is there to make of all these results? More than any meta I’ve seen, it seems like it’s wide open. From aggro to midrange to fatigue to combo, it seems like all decks can get by. So get out there and play (and win) your RtNs!
Wanna see the best new cards in The Hunted? Check out our guides Warriors, Assassins, and Ninjas.
