Hearthstone Wiki:Archived/Combo Demon Hunter

Wild format
Il'gynoth and Felfire Deadeye, the two main tools for Combo Demon Hunter decks, have rotated to Wild, making Combo Demon Hunter a Wild-exclusive archetype. For more information, see Game format.

Combo Demon Hunter (a.k.a OTK Demon Hunter or Il'gynoth Demon Hunter) is a midrange and combo hybrid Demon Hunter archetype.

The deck focuses on using Il'gynoth's ability to kill the opponent in one turn with Lifesteal cards, either using large attack buffs stacked onto Aldrachi Warblades or with spells empowered by Mo'arg Artificer. An aletrnative OTK win-condition is using Felfire Deadeye along with a spell that summons a large amount of minions, such as Expendable Performers or Command the Illidari, then repeating Kurtrus, Demon-Render's hero power multiple times for a massive amount of damage.

Il'gynoth variant

This section concerns content exclusive to Wild format.

The following cards are usually in the deck.

Core cards

The following cards are played in most or all versions of the deck:

Optional cards

The following cards are played more than occasionally, but not always:

Felfire Deadeye variant

This variant runs a similar set of core cards, but instead of utilizing Lifesteal synergies, it aims to OTK with these cards.

History

This deck was centered around the synergy between Kael'thas Sunstrider and Twin Slice. Playing the original 0 mana Twin Slice and Second Slice triggered Kael'thas, allowing the Demon Hunter to cast Inner Demon for free. Doing this twice allowed for a total of 20 burst damage, which could be stacked further by Chaos Strike or weapons like Aldrachi Warblades and Warglaives of Azzinoth. While this usually wasn't enough damage to outright kill the opponent, the rest of the deck focused on pressuring the opponent, keeping their health low enough to finish off, or having enough damage left over to end the game after the combo had been used. The deck also used Altruis the Outcast to potentially add lots of damage.

The archetype achieved this combo by very rapidly digging through the deck, thanks to neutral draw and demon hunter's naturally strong draw cards. The 20 damage combo could initially be done for only 6 mana, meaning a good hand could end the game early. Since the deck is emptied so quickly, some decks used Zephrys the Great to clean up should they not have enough damage for lethal.

The deck was hurt significantly in Patch 17.0.2.45932, which raised Kael'thas from 6 mana to 7 mana and Altruis from 3 to 4 mana. While still viable, the deck fell to the wayside with a faster meta and more efficient aggro and tempo builds for demon hunter. However, the nerf in Patch 17.4.1.51510 buried the deck entirely when Twin Slice and Second Slice were increased to 1 mana each, making the full combo impossible to perform without prior mana reduction.

A new variant of Combo Demon Hunter, largely known as Lifesteal OTK Demon Hunter, was introduced by Madness at the Darkmoon Faire with the addition of Il'gynoth. This variant focuses on using Il'gynoth's ability to kill the opponent in one turn with Lifesteal cards, either using large attack buffs stacked onto Aldrachi Warblades or with spells empowered by Mo'arg Artificer.