For the longest time Hearthstone only had nine playable classes, but recently another was added: the Demon Hunter Class. This class has a lot of really unique intricacies to it, and is the only class in the game with a Hero Power that only costs 1 Mana instead of 2.
Upon release, the Demon Hunter was, quite simply, disastrously overpowered. That said, they've made some changes, and while it's still certainly a solid deck, it seems to be much more in line with the other better classes. Let's take a look at what the Demon Hunter excels at, and give a glimpse at some of the best cards unique to the class.
10 QUICK DAMAGE
One of the biggest strengths of the Demon Hunter is their ability to get some quick damage out there. It has a few 1 or 2 cost minions, a 0-cost card that can increase your heroes Attack by 2 if you use them both in the same turn, and 2-cost weapon (which also happens to summon a couple of minions), and a Hero Power that increases your Hero's Attack Power by 1.
Opponents are going to have to figure out how to deal with your early board control, or else take quite a bit of damage on the first few turns.
9 FREE DAMAGE
Once that early game is through, the Demon Hunter can also get some essentially free damage. There are a couple of cards that we'll get into later on that deal 10 damage to the enemy after a couple of turns, or 6 damage at the end of each of your turns.
This damage doesn't jeopardize the minion that deals the damage whatsoever, forcing the enemy to deal with the minion themselves, even if they have a Taunt minion in the way.
8 PLAN AHEAD
One of the unique aspects of the Demon Hunter Class is the Outcast mechanic. Outcast causes a card to have a secondary effect if it happened to be at the end of either side of your hand, and these extra effects can sometimes be crucial to the card being with the Mana-cost.
Keeping an eye on your Outcast cards and planning ahead as to when you'll be able to use them is going to ensure that you get the best results.
7 BE ADAPTABLE
At the same time, you're going to have to be adaptable.
It's impossible to know when you're about to draw an Outcast card (except when you've just played Sightless Watcher), and sometimes it's best to throw the plan out the window and use that card you just drew in order to get the extra effect from it.
6 WRATHSCALE NAGA
Let's get into some of the best cards available for the Demon Hunter. Some of these cards are going to be ones that you absolutely are going to want to have in your deck, others will be ones that you may want to have around for certain builds, but aren't necessary for all of them.
The Wrathscale Naga is one that you can take or leave, but in the right situation, is going to be utterly devastating to the enemy. With this 3-cost, 3-Attack 1-Health minion on the board, each time a friendly minion dies, 3 damage will be dealt to a random enemy. Combining the Wrathscale Naga with Coordinated Strike or Command The Illidari, both of which summon a slew of 1/1 minions with Rush, can legitimately decimate an enemy's board, and make a heavy dent in their health, all in the same turn.
5 ILLIDARI FELBLADE
The Illidari Felblade is one of those Outcast cards, and while it can be useful without the Outcast effect, it's not usually going to be worth the cost without it. The Felblade is a 4-cost, 5/3 minion with Rush, the Outcast effect giving it immunity on the turn that it's played.
This essentially gives you 5 risk-free damage on any enemy minion on that turn, with that immunity even preventing it from things like Poison or cards that can randomly destroy friendly minions upon death.
4 IMPRISONED ANTAEN
The Imprisoned Antaen is a 6-cost, 10/6 minion that stays Dormant for the first two turns it's active. When it awakens, it deals 10 damage randomly split between all enemies. Because this starts Dormant, once it's been played, the enemy cannot do anything at all to get rid of it, essentially making it a ticking time-bomb that's going to explode in 2-turns.
Some enemies opt to keep their minions in their hand until this has gone off, giving you 10 free damage on their Hero's health; others will fill their board with minions in order to keep the damage there instead of hitting their Hero.
3 PRIESTESS OF FURY
The Priestess Of Fury was one of the most out-of-line cards when the Demon Hunter came out, and has been somewhat toned-down recently. This is a 7-cost, 6/5 minion that, at the end of each of your turns, deals 6 damage randomly split among all enemies.
Simply put, if the enemy can't deal with this minion on the first couple of turns that it's active, the match is probably over. Getting this on the board with a Taunt minion in the way, or against an enemy without a lot of removal, is going to likely end the match quickly.
2 NETHRANDAMUS
Another card that is, quite frankly, ludicrously powerful, Nethrandamus is a 9-cost 8/8 minion that has an effect that can either be mostly-useless or completely bonkers, depending on how long it's been in your hand. Nethrandamus' Battlecry summons 2 minions, and each time a friendly minion dies while this is in your hand, the cost of the 2 minions is upgraded, all the way up to 2 10-cost minions, if 10 friendly minions have died while this is in your hand.
It's truly easy to get this to 2 10-cost minions when cards like Coordinated Strike and Command The Illidari exist.
1 MANA BURN
Lastly, Mana Burn is another really strong card for the Demon Hunter Class, especially in the early game. The Demon Hunter is super-adaptable in the early game because of their 1-cost Hero Power, and since this card is also 1-cost, it makes it easy to fit into one of those first four or five turns. Mana Burn reduces the opponents available Mana Crystals by 2 on their next turn, which can really hamper the effectiveness of certain decks and set back their plans by an entire turn.
These are absolutely not the only great cards in the Demon Hunter Class; this is just a few. Play around with it, experiment, and find what works best!