Houndmaster

Houndmaster is a hunter minion card, inducted into the Legacy set, formerly from the Basic set.

Strategy
This is an excellent card for any deck featuring Beasts. It is an aggressive 4 Attack, 3 Health minion (these stats normally cost 3 mana), paired with a Battlecry that grants a friendly Beast 2 Attack, 2 Health, and Taunt - the traits of the 2 mana Frostwolf Grunt - granting the value of 5 mana for a cost of only 4. In fact this Battlecry is even better than Frostwolf Grunt, since these stats are merged with the original stats of the buffed Beast and in most cases can be used right away (essentially an indirect Charge).

The one downside to the card is that it requires a Beast to make use of its Battlecry. Without this, Houndmaster is simply a more aggressive and more expensive Spider Tank. That said, Houndmaster works excellently with any Beast deck and can usually find a target fairly easily in most hunter decks. Ideally, use it when the Beast has already had a turn to rest, enabling its bonus Attack to be put to immediate use. Alternatively, it can be useful for instantly creating a Taunt for hasty defence. The combination of these two bonuses makes it ideal for creating a strong defender, but can be risky when the target Beast is a valuable minion, as Taunt will put it on the front line for enemy attacks.

Overall, Houndmaster is very cost efficient and a great addition to any hunter deck.

When playing against Houndmaster, keep in mind a Silence will not remove the buffs if used on this card. The Silence must be used on the minions that receive the Battlecry.

Quotes

 * Summon
 * I let the dogs out.


 * Attack
 * Arrrr!

Trivia

 * Houndmaster's summon quote is a reference to the 2000 hit "".
 * The artwork for this card comes from the World of Warcraft Trading Card Game "Worldbreaker" series, for the card Leader of the Pack.

Patch changes

 * Moved from Basic to Legacy set.