Secret Hunter Deck Guide – Counters, Deck Code, Mulligans – Rise of Shadows (RoS)

Our Hearthstone Secret Hunter Deck List Guide features the top deck code for this archetype as well as a detailed deck guide that will run you through everything you need to know on how to pilot this deck. Secret Hunter has long been a deck that has been around the game in many different forms, and it has returned in Rise of Shadows and has been gaining more and more popularity.

Secret Hunter is a pretty old archetype, and versions of it took advantage of the very powerful Mad Scientist . It really got some popularity when Cloaked Huntress came on the scene. Both of those cards have rotated out of Standard, but Secret Hunter has found new life with synergistic cards like Secretkeeper , Sunreaver Spy , and Masked Contender . The class also is one of the few left with a hero card, and Zul'jin fits right into this deck that features quite a few spells.

Secret Hunter Counters

Secret Hunter is countered pretty easily by Token Druid. It just has too many ways to refill the board and punish your inability to take back control. They can pretty easily keep your board clear, and unless you get the right cards at the right time this matchup is going to be rough.

Secret Hunter Deck List & Code

Secret Hunter Gameplay

Secret Hunter Mulligan Guide

We're looking for our early drops that take advantage of secret synergy to start snowballing the board.

Always Keep

• Secretkeeper - One of the best cards in the deck that can snowball pretty quickly if you've got a couple of secrets to pair with it.
• Sunreaver Spy - Really strong card if you can get the buff on it. A 3/4 for 2-mana is very good and will be tough to deal with. If you have nothing else, you can play this if you don't think you can get the buff in future turns. It's more important to just continue having a board.
• Masked Contender - This one is easier to hit on curve than Sunreaver Spy. The stat-line isn't too bad, especially against aggressive decks. Getting an extra Secret out of your deck is also pretty powerful.

Situational Keeps

Keep the secrets when you have a card from the above list of always kept cards.

• Rat Trap - Good against faster decks like Token Druid and Tempo Rogue who might be playing quite a few cards early in the game.
• Snake Trap - Good for expanding your board a bit, sticking a beast for the following turn.
• Snipe - Good for protecting your board and allowing you to get some early damage in and be proactive on the following turn.

Secret Hunter Play Strategy

We're really looking to get off to a good start with this deck, and that means hopefully having something to play in the early game. Our best option is Secretkeeper and following it up with a secret. We've also got Sunreaver Spy , but this card works better if we can coin out a secret and play it the following turn. Otherwise, it's fairly awkward and you'll have to decide if it's worth just playing it on the board as a 2/3 on turn two. Masked Contender , while a three mana card, is also good in the early part of the game. We're hoping to play a Secret, then be able to get value out of the Masked Contender on the following turn.

Animal Companion is also a strong early game play, and rolling the right beast at the right time can help carry you to victory. The taunt option is possibly one of the better ones, because it can protect your other valuable minions.

We're mostly looking to manage the board with our spells and secrets. Explosive Trap can halt wider boards, but unfortunately it will only trigger if your opponent decides to go to your face. Freezing Trap is great for decks that are putting down one minion per turn, and no matter what they do they're going to trigger it if they attack. Rat Trap is stronger against decks who play a lot of cheap cards. These are usually aggressive decks like Token Druid and Tempo Rogue. Snake Trap will hopefully get us some minions to work with on the following turn. Marked Shot is a solid option because it can get us a second card, and we aren't a deck that has much card draw. Baited Arrow is very slow, but it's great if we can get the Overkill from it.

In the later game, we're hoping to refresh our hand with Subject 9 . This card is extremely powerful, and will pull a bunch of secrets out of your deck. If we're looking to finish then the combination of Rabid Fire and Vereesa Windrunner 's weapon is very strong. If we can hold off on using those spells, that gets us a potential of 12 damage for 4-mana!

Our final way of either turning the game around or finishing it off is Zul'jin . This deck plays a lot of spells, so we're going to get a bunch of secrets back, but we'll also hopefully get some Animal Companion s and Unleash the Beast s on the board that will give us enough firepower to finish the game!

Secret Hunter Card Choices

• Rapid Fire - Good utility spell for finishing off a minion and dealing a bit of extra damage. This also synergizes with Zul'jin if you can get to that part of the game.
• Secretkeeper - One of the more snowball-y cards in the deck. This card can win a game if you can feed it enough secrets and your opponent can't deal with it in time.
• Explosive Trap - Good against wide boards like Token Druid and Warlock Zoo.
• Freezing Trap - Strong card against big minions, but also just good against decks who are putting down one minion at a time. This allows you to advance your board and not have to trade down a minion for a turn.
• Rat Trap - Strong against decks that play a lot of cards, this is usually better in the early game against stuff like Tempo Rogue and Token Druid.
• Snake Trap - Widens your board and gives you some minions to play with on the following turn.
• Snipe - Snipe can catch an opponent off-guard and immediately remove a minion. This helps potentially give you another turn to develop your
• Sunreaver Spy - Would be great on curve, but that's not always going to happen. This is always going to be best when pairing it with a secret, but it also works as a decent turn two play.
• Animal Companion - One of Hunter's best cards, and can do a lot for you if the right beast pops out at the right time.
• Eaglehorn Bow - Pretty good weapon by itself, but even better if you are able to continually buff up the durability and continue to get swings with it. This should mostly be used for taking down minions, but can also put your opponent on a pretty quick clock.
• Kill Command - Good for taking down a minion, but also works as a great push for lethal.
• Masked Contender - Solid secret synergy card that pulls a secret out off our deck and works particularly well on curve.
• Unleash the Hounds - Good for punishing wide boards, and can work as a push for lethal in the later parts of the game.
• Lifedrinker - We can get into health trouble later in the game, so this is a good card for restoring enough to survive an extra turn or two. Also, obviously good for getting in that extra damage we need.
• Marked Shot - Solid removal and gets us an extra spell to work with that we actually get to choose. This also feed Zul'jin which is helpful.
• Baited Arrow - Very slow card, but if we can get the 5/5 Devilsaur out of it then we're happy.
• Subject 9 - Very strong card in this deck, pulls out a bunch of secrets out of our deck and gives us some stuff to play with in the later stages of the game.
• Unleash the Beast - Another really good card with Zul'jin, and is very solid on its own for making trades.
• Vereesa Windrunner - Gets you a weapon that you can use to buff your spells for potential lethal. This is especially good with Rapid Fire which turns each one of those into a 1-mana 3 damage spell.
• Zul'jin - Can burn out the opponent or help clear their board, Zul'jin is a great get back into the game card if you've played enough spells and he targets the right spots.

Secret Hunter Card Substitutions

Vereesa Windrunner is not required for this deck, so don't feel that you need to craft her if you don't have one. If you don't run Vereesa, you'll probably want to cut Rapid Fire and add a couple more secrets into the deck.

• All Current Secrets: You can play around with the distribution of the secrets that are in the deck. You can run double Snake Trap , Snipe , or Rat Trap if you'd like. Cutting an Explosive Trap is a common move to make room for some of the other options.
• Deadly Shot - Strong card against decks that play one minion per turn and aren't looking to spread the board.
• Sunreaver Warmage - Your deck is running a few 5-mana cost spells in the deck and this card takes advantage of that. You can also decide to run double Unleash the Beast if you want to make it better.