Welcome to the first edition of my guides to PauperHS! I’m Hasklon and I will be helping you figure out this strange new format. Today we will be looking at the auto-include common neutrals of Hearthstone.

Starting with the card in the spotlight, Antique Healbot. This card is very strong, because it allows control decks like the Warlock, which doesn’t have many healing spells, to have two big heals. With this card you can keep your health high while using the powerful Life Tap. Because Warlock is so likely to take damage, any Warlock except full face variants would be wise to include this mech.Because cards like Reno Jackson and strong taunters like the Sludge Belcher are gone, good anti aggro cards are rare,which makes Antique Healbot important to include in many decks. It is also very useful in Warrior and any control deck in general, since it not only heals but gives you a 3-3 too.

In summary, you should have at least one copy of it in every control deck worth its dust.

Next we are moving onto the poster child for bad RNG, the Piloted Shredder. This card is quite bonkers, because in Pauper we lose most of the good four-drops. Only Yeti, Senjin and Shredder are worth including. Shredder beats out the Yeti in my opinion, because you can kill it off with a Shredder attack and a ping. It can also be played a turn earlier with Mechwarper. Almost every deck wants to play the Shredder because it is such a strong card to play on turn 4 while curving out. Your opponent has to hope you don’t get a big minion like Millhouse Manastorm. The three health puts it outside of Holy Nova, Consecration and nicely dodges hard removal.

I expect to see this card in almost all Pauper decks. Only decks I would consider not running this card in are heavy control decks, like Priest and Warrior. They would rather play two Senjin Shieldmasta instead, Warrior because of Bolster and Priest because of buffs. Also note that Senjin is a good answer to your opponents Piloted Shredder on turn 4.

Moving onto the Jeweled Scarab, also known as ”Cheat Bug”. This card was ran in basically any kind of deck in our first Pauper tournament. That is because of its effect, which makes you able to ”cheat” and get rares, epics and legendaries. Especially good because you can grab spells of high rarity or get the right card you need. It can fit into almost any deck, because it is a good two drop that gives card advantage.

I have analysed (googled to see the 3 mana spells) the best classes for Jeweled Scarab. What I have found is that Mage, Hunter, Priest and Shaman have the best spells to get. Mage gets their secrets, always a pain to figure out which one it is. They also get cards like Forgotten Torch, Arcane Intellect and Polymorph Boar. Hunter’s 3 mana spells are all very solid, there is no bad spell you can pick. For example; Kill Command, Unleash the Hounds, Animal Companion. Priest gets strong value cards like Shadow Word Death, Thoughtsteal and Velens Chosen. Shaman gets powerful toolbox cards like Lightning Storm, Hex, Healing Wave and Feral Spirit. Shaman has the strongest comeback cards, since it also has Elemental Destruction.

In conclusion, Jeweled Scarab is a must-include in Shamans. It gives so much utility that they lack.

Finally, the Zombie Chow. The strongest anti-aggro minion in the game on turn 1, it is a powerhouse.

Zombie Chow will see play in a lot of different decks. Mostly it will be control and Midrange, but I can personally see some kind of board control deck like Token Druid trying out this card. On turn 1, it can kill every single other 1-drop in the game and it can kill many strong 2-drops, like Mad Scientist, Jeweled Scarab and Acidic Swamp Ooze, cards that the control deck might not be able to kill as quickly. It should be included in all control decks because of the strong tempo it gives that allows you to breeze through to the late game, where you are strongest. The heal is irrelevant for those kinds of decks, as they usually win by having a strong board presence, not inching over with burst damage. It adds consistency in general to decks, as it makes them less likely to be run over early.

The Zombie Chow will see lots of play in all classes except Hunter and Rogue.

Thank you guys for reading this guide! Hope you can leave feedback and come back for the next article.