Hearthstone’s Journey to Un’Goro expansion card reveal season is underway, and one of the most unique revealed cards so far is Hemet, Jungle Hunter.
Is it any good?
Hemet, Jungle Hunter
Hemet, Jungle Hunter is a 6-mana 6/6 with a Battlecry that destroys all cards in your deck that cost 3 or less. Huh?
The first thing to remember when evaluating this card is that whenever you can add consistency to your deck, it is a good thing. That is the reason we add multiple copies of cards to our decks, and why cards that allow you to manipulate your deck are so good. It is even a part of why Patches is good, it gives both tempo and takes a weak draw away from your deck.
Hemet adds a lot of consistency to your draws, as it removes all of your unused early-game cards from your deck. Unfortunately, it also removes most of your damage spells and hard removal and brings you closer to fatigue, so a control deck is probably not the ideal environment for Hemet.
Going combo
Hemet could be useful in a combo deck: you remove unnecessary pieces from your deck to make drawing your combo more likely. The immediate application that comes to mind is Holy Wrath + Molten Giant Paladin, with Hemet removing all other cards and allowing you to Holy Wrath face for 25.
Unfortunately, this combo is not that easy to pull off, as if you happen to draw your Molten Giants early, you just lost your win condition. Likewise, you cannot play Hemet and Holy Wrath on the same turn, so if you have just one Molten Giant left in the deck, you will draw that before you get to Holy Wrath. If you have a Coin, then you could do it in one turn though. So, if you also run Burgly Bully to give you coins.. But then again, Bully is not guaranteed to create coins, and if you have the Bully in the deck under the Giants, you cannot get a sure combo if you play Hemet.
Therefore, the Holy Wrath + Molten Giant Paladin seems gimmicky at best.
Right now it is hard to find a combo deck that wants Hemet. Malygos decks generally run a lot of cheap spells, so Hemet does not help them. It could only be of use if there is already enough damage in hand, and you only need to find Malygos.
If there is a combo deck that wants to run only pieces that cost 4 or more, Hemet could find a combo home. Other than that, a reliable home is hard to find.
Going Quest Hunter
Hemet has some interesting synergy with the Hunter quest, The Marsh Queen. You need to run a lot of 1-cost minions in order to complete the quest, and they are obsolete afterwards. However, the quest reward Queen Carnassa fills your deck with good 1-cost minions, so if you play Hemet after the Queen, all the good stuff is destroyed alongside the poor ones.
Swarm Hunter has a window of opportunity to play Hemet once you have drawn enough 1-cost minions to complete the quest, but have not yet played Queen Carnassa. However, after playing the Queen, Hemet becomes unplayable as it destroys all the Raptors from the deck.
Going aggro
In general, Hemet does not seem to have a natural home in an aggro deck. However, in certain circumstances it could find a home in one. For example, say that your important burst finish costs 4 or more, with all the slower stuff in the deck costing 3 at most. By playing Hemet, you ensure that your next draw is Leeroy Jenkins, or Fireball, or Jade Lightning. You can build an aggro deck that with Hemet is guaranteed to top-deck burst damage the following turn.
The downside is that you’re running a 6-cost 6/6 in your deck, which otherwise does not do much for you.
Going ramp
A Ramp Druid might be interested in Hemet. You remove all unused Innervates and other early-game cards from your deck, and start picking up one big minion after another.
Astral Communion is rotating to Wild now, but that kind of heavy top-end Druid deck could find a spot for Hemet. Unfortunately, Hemet does not destroy an unused copy of Astral Communion from your deck.
Going midrange
Midrange decks with limited card draw could also be interested in Hemet. By eliminating your early game, you ensure that the rest of your topdecks will be influential cards.
Conclusions
Hemet, Jungle Hunter is an interesting card with lots of potential applications. Whether any of these turn out to be good enough remains to be seen.
Control decks are the only type that are completely out of question, and some classes, such as Rogue, rely so heavily on low-cost cards throughout the game that Hemet has little to offer. However, it can find home in combo, aggro, ramp, and midrange decks, so there are plenty of potential applications to try.