If you’re trying to put together some competent Hearthstone decks without breaking the bank, you’re in the right place. We’ve got picks for a bunch of beginner and intermediate sets that you can easily put together to get right into the heart of the action, with none of the entries on our list costing you an arm and a leg before you even take your first turn. Don’t worry, there’s no need to thank us.
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Here are our top picks for the best beginner Hearthstone decks.
Elemental Shaman
If you’re looking for an excellent early-game minion, Wailing Vapor is the one. With fantastic stats and an effect that’s just as good, it gives you an additional +1 attack after playing an Elemental. Due to Shaman’s access to powerful lost-cost elementals such as Cagematch Custodian, Arid Stormer, and Greyworm, Wailing Vapor offers some incredible synergy.
The great Elemental Shammie has a low mana curve. which ensures that you always have cards to play within the first few turns. If you whip out Whack-A-Gnoll Hammer after you’ve gotten yourself established, it’ll give you the extra reach you need to close out matches, and you have enough removal cards like Lilypad Lurker and Serpentshrine Portal to polish off particularly tricky minions.
The three-cost minion Primal Dungeoneer tutors an elemental minion if you draw a Nature spell, and, as every spell in this Hearthstone deck is a Nature spell, this will allow you to draw two cards every time. Thanks to all of this and more, the Shaman has been a powerful and reliable pick over the years.
Face Hunter
Face Hunter is a great opposition to any control deck on the ladder. With a mana curve largely built around only one and two drops, you can play cards pretty much any turn. Take this as an opportunity to plaster the board with cheap minions like Wolpertinger or Demon Companion to get a strong foothold in the early game.
Though the Core Set has cancelled out many of Hunter’s powerful finishers, cards like Quick Shot and Piercing Shot can fill the void, allowing Hunter to gather up the extra power to close out games before control decks can even get to their power turn.
Buffing Trampling Rhino with Warsong Wrangler and Adorable Infestation is a real power move that can completely snatch a game from under an opponent’s nose. As Trampling Rhino splashes all excess damage out to an enemy hero, targeting a weak minion can help you quickly close out games – even with taunts weighing you down.
It’s pretty easy to end a fight before move seven using this Hearthstone deck, so it’s a great choice for climbing the ladder. It’s an awesome deck for beginners as it’s cheap and easy to use, and could viably carry you up to legend rank!
Questline Warlock
As in World of Warcraft, Demon Seed has established itself as an extremely powerful ability, and one of the best cards in Hearthstone to date. If you’re looking to unlock Blightborn Tamsin, this arsenal of removal cards including Drain Soul, Soul Shear, and Unstable Shadow Blast can both help you clear enemy boards, and complete quests.
Thanks to the Runed Mithril Rod, the Warlock now has access to a number of deadly combos once you discount the correct cards. Luckily, it’s easy to draw cards with this Hearthstone deck by using Warlock’s hero power, and the Hand of Gul’dan and Nightshade Matron combination. The Stealer of Souls is also a very handy asset, which changes a recently drawn card to cost health instead of mana.
Best Hearthstone decks
In this section we’ll show you some of the best Hearthstone decks:
Enrage Warrior
Enrage Warrior is one of the best Hearthstone decks because the more an opponent damages your minions, the more potential you have for buffing them.
Essential Cards
Here’s what you’re going to need:
- Inner Rage x2
- Risky Skipper x2
- Sky Raider x2
- Armorsmith x2
- Battle Rage x2
- Corsair Cache x2
- Rampage x2
- Ancharrr x1
- Bloodsworn Mercenary x2
- Bomb Wrangler x2
- Livewire Lance x2
- Warmaul Challenger x2
- Kor’kron Elite x2
- Captain Greenskin x1
- Bloodboil Brute x2
- Deathwing, Mad Aspect x1
- Grommash Hellscream x1
Playstyle
Enrage Warrior is all about buffing damaged units. But it’s also about overwhelming your opponent with a press of bodies. This is one of the best Hearthstone decks because you can get a lot of minions on the field quickly, due to its low card costs.
Your opponent has to deal with them or be overwhelmed, and in damaging them, they give you an opportunity to buff. Even if you lose some, it doesn’t matter, because their low cost also means they are expendable.
Highlander Hunter
Highlander Hunter is one of the best Hearthstone decks because of its smart use of the Secret ability and Zephrys the Great. Essentially, Secrets are ambush spells which activate when certain conditions are met, and Zephrys’ ‘wish for a perfect card’ can give you exactly what you need.
Essential Cards
Here’s what you’re going to need for this deck:
- Shimmerfly x1
- Secretkeeper x1
- Springpaw x1
- Tracking x1
- Sunreaver Spy x1
- Explosive Trap x1
- Freezing Trap x1
- Zephrys the Great x1
- Pressure Plate x1
- Rat Trap x1
- Snake Trap x1
- Snipe x1
- Masked Contender x1
- SN1P-SN4P x1
- Vulpera Scoundrel x1
- Animal Companion x1
- Deadly Shot x1
- Eagerhorn Bow x1
- Hunter’s Pack x1
- Kill Command x1
- Unleash the Hounds x1
- Lifedrinker x1
- Hyena Alpha x1
- Marked Shot x1
- Subject 9 x1
- Zilliax x1
- Unleash the Beast x1
- Dinotamer Brann x1
- Siamat x1
- Zul’jin x1
Playstyle
You may wonder why there are only single cards in Highlander Hunter – that’s because Zephrys the Great’s ability requires no duplicate cards in a deck. It shows you how powerful a Hearthstone deck is if you’re willing to build your whole strategy around it. Highlander Hunter is one of Hearthstone’s best decks because of its use of Secrets to block enemy strategies, and how it strengthens and summons units based on those Secrets.
Pure Libram Paladin
This Hearthstone deck uses the innate synergies of ‘Libram’ cards to great effect, while also reducing their cost using the Aldor cards.
Essential Cards
Here’s what you’re going to need:
- First Day of School x2
- Aldor Attendent x2
- Argent Braggart x2
- Libram of Wisdom x2
- Hand of A’dal x2
- Goody Two-Shields x2
- Gift of Luminance x1
- Lightforged Zealot x2
- High Abbess Alura x1
- Blessing of Kings x2
- Blessing of Authority x2
- Aldor Truthseeker x2
- Libram of Justice x2
- Devout Pupil x2
- Lightforged Crusader x1
- Lady Liardrin x1
- Libram of Hope x2
Playstyle
Pure Libram Paladin is all about early game aggression, using Hand of A’dal and Shotbot, keeping your minions alive using Goody Two-Shields, and strengthening with Libram of Wisdom. Lightforged Zealot gives you some great value attack power, as does Blessing of Authority. The Libram of Hope, which if you’ve used the Aldor cards, should be discounted, can also be used to great affect, as can the Lightforged Crusader, and Lady Liadrin, in terms of giving you lots of cards with which to continue overwhelming your opponent.
Cheap Hearthstone decks
In this section we’ll show you some of the cheapest and most cheerful of Hearthstone’s decks:
Spell Druid
Spell Druid is a cheap Hearthstone deck that’s very strong, overwhelming your opponent with the sheer number of minions it can bring into play.
Essential Cards
Here’s what you’re going to need:
- Innervate x2
- Moonfire x2
- Crystal Power x2
- Treenforcements x1
- Ironbark x2
- Power of the Wild x2
- Wrath x2
- Bogbeam x2
- Fungal Fortunes x2
- Savage Roar x1
- Overgrowth x2
- Soul of the Forest x2
- Glowfly Swarm x2
- Exotic Mountseller x1
- Kael’thas Sunstrider x1
- Overflow x2
- Gift of the Wild x1
- The Forest’s Aid x1
Playstyle
Spell Druid may be a cheap Hearthstone deck, but that doesn’t mean it can’t pack a punch also. The focus is using spells and abilities to negate card cost, allowing you to flood the field with minions, then buff them to the point that your opponent just can’t defend. It’s an extremely strong strategy, especially if you use Kael’thas Sunstrider effectively.
Dragon Hunter
Dragon Hunter is a cheap Hearthstone deck, mainly because it uses very low cost cards, but it’s also pretty effective. Dragon Hunter goes hard and fast, dealing damage, and overwhelming opponents before they have a chance to react.
Essential Cards
Here’s what you’re going to need:
- Dwarven Sharpshooter x2
- Tracking x2
- Blazing Battlemage x2
- Guardian Augmerchant x1
- Corrosive Breath x2
- Explosive Trap x2
- Pack Tactics x1
- Phase Stalker x2
- Faerie Dragon x2
- Animal Companion x2
- Primordial Explorer x2
- Stormhammer x2
- Scalerider x2
- Burrowing Scorpid x2
- Evasive Feywing x2
- Big Ol’ Whelp x2
Playstyle
Dragon Hunter may be a cheap Hearthstone deck, but even with low-cost minions and spells, it can get you some bang for your buck. Dragon Hunter focuses around using Secrets to control your opponent and negate their moves, while also getting aggressive early, playing plenty of damage-dealing low-cost minions.
Totem Shaman
Totem Shaman is both a cheap Hearthstone deck, and is one of the strongest Shaman decks in general, using spells and totems to give you a huge amount of versatility in play.
Essential Cards
Here’s what you’re going to need:
- Totemic Might x2
- Totemic Surge x2
- Lightning Bolt x2
- Sludge Slurper x2
- Storm’s Wrath x2
- Surging Tempest x2
- Evil Totem x2
- Sandstorm Elemental x2
- Flametongue Totem x1
- Lava Burst x2
- Mana Tide Totem x2
- Marsh Spawn x2
- Serpentshrine Portal x2
- Totemic Reflection x2
- Splitting Axe x2
- Bloodlust x1
Playstyle
Totem Shaman is a cheap Hearthstone deck, but it can still do a lot for you if you want to play Shaman. As you might imagine, this deck focuses around Totems, multiplying and buffing them until they utterly overwhelm an opponent. Essentially it’s all about strength in numbers.
What is Hearthstone deck tracker?
Hearthstone deck tracker is a useful tool if you want to have an in-game overlay with tracking, and with stats to improve your game. Unfortunately, the Hearthstone deck tracker isn’t available on Google Play right now, but you can currently download it for PC. Hearthstone deck tracker is also officially allowed by Blizzard – though for tournaments it’s a slightly different matter.
How do I join the hearthstone Reddit?
Another good place to find curious deck builds is the Hearthstone Reddit. This is well worth a look if you want to see the big things happening in the game. We’d also recommend giving Hearthstone Top Decks a look, which has lots of good community-made decks.
That’s everything from us! We hope this selection of Hearthstone decks, and cheap Hearthstone decks help you out. If you want to download Hearthstone for yourself, you can find it on Google Play and the App Store. Or, if you’d rather make in-game money than take on the might of meta monsters, check out our free Monopoly Go dice guide.