Template:Baku the Mooneater strategy

Baku provides a very powerful bonus from the start of the game, at the cost of seriously hurting your deck building. Many staple cards cannot be used with Baku. However, it's possible to substitute cards with otherwise worse versions. For example, Gluttonous Ooze can be used instead of Acidic Swamp Ooze and Ironbeak Owl can be used instead of Spellbreaker.

One of the notable downsides of Baku the Mooneater is having to put Baku herself into your deck. As a vanilla 7/8 for 9 mana, Baku is essentially a dead draw, especially so for the more aggressive decks that many of the upgraded Hero Powers support.

Baku's strategy is wildly different for each class.

• Demon's Bite allows you to put on high pressure each turn, dealing 2 damage for only one mana. It also pairs incredibly well with Aldrachi Warblades and Flamereaper, enhancing their effects doubly over Demon Claws. Demon Hunter has access to a few attack-based odd minions, like Battlefiend and Satyr Overseer, as well as the neutral Hench-Clan Thug. The main weakness of Demon Hunters is their lower card pool than the other classes, requiring them to use more neutral cards. They also have to give up some of their most powerful card draw like Skull of Gul'dan and Spectral Sight.
• Dire Shapeshift is a flexible ability, letting you either effectively gain armor or chip away at enemies. It has the dedicated support, Gloom Stag, which allows for a strong Taunt backbone. It synergizes well with Gonk, the Raptor, giving you more damage to work with at any time.
• Ballista Shot puts on a huge amount of pressure each turn, allowing Face Hunter decks to focus hard on the opponent. This is supported by odd-cost cards like Wolfrider and Animal Companion. It also has high synergy with Defend the Dwarven District decks, allowing for an even higher damage output with each hero power use; low-cost spells such as Rapid Fire and On the Hunt which complete the questline quickly are also available.
• Fireblast Rank 2 allows for high value trading and applying pressure to your opponent. Black Cat is a great support card for this deck. This favours Tempo and Value decks. Additionally, many strong Elementals are odd (including Frost Lich Jaina), allowing for an Elemental backbone. Jan'alai, the Dragonhawk works perfectly with this power, since it only takes 4 hero powers to trigger his effect.
• The Silver Hand generates multiple minions each turn, which is invaluable for Aggro Paladin. While they lose out on board-wide buffs like Level Up! and Sunkeeper Tarim and all 2-drops, they make up for this with the sheer number of Silver Hand Recruits and Divine Favor and Unidentified Maul — all of which help aggro Paladin's strategy. Several Silver Hand synergy cards are also odd-costed, such as Warhorse Trainer, Quartermaster, Muster for Battle and Steward of Darkshire.
• Heal is a powerful value Hero Power, capable of keeping minions and yourself topped off. It works very well with Quartz Elemental, easily keeping it swinging. While Priest has access to Glitter Moth, that card is generally unimportant for what a Baku deck requires. Raza the Chained further increases the utility by allowing the substantial heal to be used free of charge, though coming with additional deck restrictions, and missing out on Reno Jackson, Kazakus and Zephrys the Great.
• Poisoned Daggers is incredibly efficient in the early game, making the first few turns incredibly powerful. It is a strong fit in Tempo Rogue, which keeps many of its staple tempo cards like Hench-Clan Thug and Vilespine Slayer.
• Totemic Slam gives the Shaman's Hero Power more flexibility, giving a guaranteed Strength Totem or Stoneclaw Totem whenever it is needed, and with Totemic Reflection, Primal Fusion and Thunder Bluff Valiant, one can build up a veritable army of Healing Totems. However, Totemic Slam's increased power comes much more situationally than other upgraded hero powers, and odd decks will lose many powerful cards such as Hex, Devolve and Totem Golem, mounting the Shaman with a harsh deck-building restriction. The removal of Wrath of Air Totem also greatly hurts the utility of this effect.
• Soul Tap is only a marginal improvement over Life Tap, especially since Warlock has access to plenty of healing. The sacrifices needed for it aren't worth the benefit.
• Tank Up! is a strong bulking tool, especially when you can begin the extra armor immediately. Many of Warrior's best cards are odd, such as Brawl, Shield Block, and Shield Slam. You can also use Fire Plume's Heart with Baku, which works well with the large number of strong odd-cost Taunts. Warrior also has decent substitutions, such as Fiery War Axe instead of Blood Razor. Also effective in Mech decks, where it keeps its core cards like Eternium Rover, Omega Assembly, Dyn-o-matic, and Dr. Boom, Mad Genius.

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