NOTE: I typed this up last night and only posting now. Someone else posted a Face Hunter deck earlier today, but there's is minion-based and mine is burned-based. So I feel like this is still worth posting

Burn Face Hunter did me very well in year of the dragon. However, early DH destroyed the deck and I had only a 50% win rate during AOO before I gave it up.

Now with DH being nerfed and most decks being a lot slower in win they put minions on the board, it's really good again. I went 10-4 before expansion to get to D5 in prep of the launch (note: only from desktop, did not keep track of mobile games but I got there veryyyy quickly), and just went 24-14 D4-L.

I do not think this a tier-1, top-legend deck (especially because it's easily counterable if it became meta). But it is a very quick deck with very good matchups, so I think one of the best to simply climb to legend.

(Note: Crashed during my last game, hence showing 23-14 and Diamond 1 as highest, but picture proof of Legend status)

Proof

Legend: https://i.imgur.com/5ZEoAtE.png

Stats: https://i.imgur.com/ysenxRB.png (1.3 is pre expansion [Bronze to D5], 1.4 is post expansion [D4 to L])

The Deck

2x (1) Arcane Shot

2x (1) Leper Gnome

2x (1) Rapid Fire

2x (1) Timber Wolf

1x (1) Tour Guide

2x (1) Toxic Reinforcements

2x (1) Tracking

2x (2) Explosive Trap

1x (2) Freezing Trap

2x (2) Imprisoned Felmaw

2x (2) Kobold Sandtrooper

2x (2) Misdirection

2x (2) Phase Stalker

2x (3) Eaglehorn Bow

2x (3) Kill Command

2x (3) Unleash the Hounds

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This is NOT an aggro deck. This is a burn deck.

You are not putting minions on the board, you are not playing for tempo, you are hitting their face and then hitting their face some more.

This means you are not susceptible to removal at all and taunts don't hold you back too much considering all the damage from spells deathrattles hero power.

Unless you NEED to trade (eg setting up a secret, getting through a taunt means more damage), do not trade. Make them trade.

Always remember: "Do me trade? Nope. Me go face? Yep"

Changes from Scholomance Academy

Tour Guide replaces the one of of Wolfrider, which is a massive boost because Wolfrider was either a worse play than your other options early or couldn't get past taunt late. It also really opens up turn 3 plays with Stalker and Felmaw, as well as sets up playing Stalker on 2 safely in every matchup.

However, due to it being a very poor card later in the game, I don't see it being a two of.

The bad matchups

Aggro decks since they can kill you with minions before you can burn them out, especially if they can get out of range of Explosive Trap.

The other is massive healing/armor decks. Minor healing/armor is fine, which is what's mostly around right now. If something like Witchwood era Malygos Druid ever comes back though, you have no chance.

The good matchups

Really, basically everything else. The plan is to burn them out by turn 7. If it's past turn 7 and you're in top deck mode, you can still burn them out if they don't have a way to get healing/armor (and sometimes can push through that with the right draws).

Mulligans

Easiest mulligans in the world: Toxic Reinforcement, Phase Stalker, Imprisoned Felmaw ONLY.

The exception: Explosive Trap instead of Felmaw in aggressive matchups that have sub-3 health minions like DH.

Only keep two Toxic Reinforcement in slow match ups (eg Priest)

Matchup breakdown

Demon Hunter

Haven't faced since the expansion but from past experience about I would guess ~40/~60 unfavored now that DH has been nerfed so much. It mostly comes down to if you can Explosive Trap (either by hand or from phase stalker) on turn 4 to clear their initial board. If you don't, you lose. If you can, you have a good chance.

Early Phase Stalker: If you can coin it out on 1 and they don't already have a 1 drop on the board, maybe. You still probably want to save him to try to get explosive trap later. Definitely not raw on 2.

Token Druid

Only faced one, died. This is going to be a bad matchup since they can easily buff outside of Explosive Trap range and just kill you with their guys. Can easily see this being like against prime DH, something like 10/90 unfavorable

Beast Druid

My stats were at ~60/~40 favored. Basically if they have the nuts, you're pretty screwed. If they don't and you have a good hand, then it's hard to lose

Early Phase Stalker: Yes. Their only removal of it is a 3 mana spell they mulligan away, and potentially off a 1 mana discover they probably mulligan away.

Hunter

While my stats say 70/30 favored, I don't think that will be the case going forward; As said above, killing us before we can kill you is our antithesis and Hunter can normally do that with early minions.

That said, you’re a lot better than the current face hunter decks out there since they run things like Dwarven Sharpshooter, Scavenger's Integrity, and Pack Tactics. But Dragon Hunter and an aggressive-style Highlander Deck are hard to deal with are about 25/75 unfavored. Slow style HL deck though you go back to being favored.

Early Phase Stalker: If Corrosive Breath is meta, no; Else if you can coin it out on 1 and they don't already have a 1 drop on the board than yes. Definitely not raw on 2.

Paladin

IMO favored against Libram but my stats put me at 50/50. I had a lot of bad draws, and having experience against decks similar to how it runs you should be favored. Their early minions are weak, it's more of what they do in the mid-game that matters and we should be finishing them off by then. I would still probably only put it to 60/40 though - First day of School can help put them ahead on turn 1 and Libram of Hope is actually Libram of Dispair.

Unfavored against Murloc, as they are an aggro deck that can easily avoid explosive trap. Your best bet is to do as much damage as possible and counter lethal with wolf hounds.

Early Phase Stalker: Only if they don't have a minion on the board

Priest

50/50 matchup: Do they have the 3-mana lifesteal spell early? You lose. Otherwise? You win. If they have it later, spend burn to get rid of that minion.

This matchup is a different playstyle though. Other matchups, you are generally worried about doing the most damage possible per mana given; against priest, resources matter a lot more and chipping away means little since they can heal up. Save cards for burst turns (eg don't throw Arcane Shots and Rapid Fires around willy-nilly). This is only match up that you're not actively trying to kill by turn 7.

Rogue

Galakrond rogue, you eat them up. They do not do enough damage early to kill you, and all of their lackeys just build a bigger unleash. It's about a 75/25 matchup for us.

Aggro rogue is like current aggro Demon Hunter, you really need Explosion Trap to deal with their initial push. I was 40/60 unfavored against it and that sounds accurate.

Early Phase Stalker: Only if you can coin it out on 1 and they don't already have a 1 drop on teh board. Definitely not raw on 2.

Mage

Did not lose once; In fact my all-time, every version, several expansions worth of data, I've lost to mage a grand total of 1 time. The most straightforward match up: Just hit them in the face.

Early Phase Stalker: Previous to this meta I would say yes; Devolving Missiles gives them a tool to deal with it though so I'm going to say probably not. And if Frost Bolt is ever meta, than definitely not.

Shaman

Only faced one this expansion but I don't see how you don't eat them alive; My all-time, every version win-rate is 80% and it doesn't look like Shaman got much better. Even the quest shaman pen flinger floating around (which is fun!) you'll devour.

Early Phase Stalker: Yes, but can VERY easily turn into a no if things like Lightning Bolt, Earth Shock, Devolving Missiles become meta.

Warlock

Warlock hurts themselves. Surprise, this is good for you.

That said, Quest Warlock did give me some issues previously if that ever comes back. Still, my all-time, every version record is 78% against Warlocks.

Early Phase Stalker: Previously always and another reason you're so favored, but because of the new Soul Shard 3 damage card it's now a don't.

Warrior

Risky Skipper Armorsmith is scary and can lose you the game on the spot.

That said, they need to get to that point. There's a reason these 5 classes are at the bottom here: you are very favored against these 5. Did not lose once ranking up this season, and my all time every version win rate is 86% against the class.

Early Phase Stalker: Always

Understand secret sequencing

I think understanding when to play your secrets and how you sequence them is one of the most important things in the deck. Yes, ideally Phase Stalker thins your deck and you don't have a choice (though if you have a secret in hand, you can teach him what secret to play as he won't play a secret you have up).

Misdirection is actually one of the biggest cards in the deck, due to people not playing around it. For example, if their board is one massive guy a lot of minions with <=2 health (Eg, Edwin Lackeys), Explosive Trap before Misdirection is a huge play. They are unable to break Misdirection without swinging with Edwin, meaning either it saves you damage (more time to burn them out) or does massive damage to their face.

This also means you generally don't want misdirection up if you have minions on the board: you don't want the change to be killing your guy. You either want it to hit them in the face, or at the very least take out another of their minions.

As people test for secrets with their worst minions going up, the general sequence you want is Explosive (take out small minions) -> Freezing (Take out another minion for misdirection to have a high chance of going face) -> Misdirection (Their minion to their face).

Another note: If they have a weapon equipped, their weapon will do damage to their minion. Very satisfying when a minion hits them in the face and dies.

In regard to Explosive Trap, you need to weigh the pros and cons of actually killing off some of their board in regards to Unleash Timber Wolf. If it's a bunch of 1/1s, take the face damage.

Freezing Trap is there to protect Stalkers and thin our deck to get to more burn, to protect our face from a singular big minion, and to set up Misdirection.

The Turns breakdown

Things are a lot more variable than what's given so do not take this as gospel; however, this will cover vast majority of cases

Turn 1

If quest in hand: Play

Else if Stalker and Tour Guide in hand: Tour Guide to set up Stalker on turn 2

Else if coin in hand: Look at situations above if coin stalker is the right play

Else if Leper Gnome in hand: Play

Else if Arcane Shot or Rapid Fire in hand: very match up dependent; if it's going to be a quick match, eek out every damage you can per mana you have. If it's a slow match up like Priest, it's better to save for burst at end. If your hand is also crap, it might be better not to send to their face to not give away that you're pure face deck (especially if you have tracking to play instead to look for something to play soon). But if you already have your turn 2-5 plans figured out, which you normally will, send that 1 damage ping to their face baby.

Else if tracking in hand: If you don't have a turn 2-4 play, look for that. If you do, look for end-of-game burn.

Else: "Greetings Traveler" and pass

(EDIT: Good addition from /u/SilphThaw:

If you have coin, TR and Felmaw, wouldn't it always be desirable to coin out the Felmaw on T1? It feels like tapping on 2 and possibly coining out Felmaw on 3 is just very slow. We don't fight for the board, but having tempo will slow down opposing aggro decks. The 5/4 that awakens on turn 3 is very strong and more likely to hit face than one on turn 5)

Turn 2

Phase Stalker in situations listed above: Play

Else if quest up: Hero Power

Else: Felmaw (note: sometimes Felmaw is better than HP with quest up; eg, you're not worried about having gnomes on turn 5 vs turn 4; You want Felmaw to go off before Turn 6 [as next option is to play him turn 4 if no coin]; You care more about having a bigger body on the board on turn 4 rather than 3 small bodies. However, HP with Quest is normally the right choice)

Else: Hero power

Turn 3

Things start to branch too much to do a simple conditional like above. As an example: You have quest up which means you almost always want to hero power. But what if you have no one mana play to play with HP, you have weapon in hand, and you know they'll have taunts in the next couple turns - You'd rather weapon up and hit them in the face, since it'll be a dead card soon and you'll still get quest value later.

But generally:

-Quest HP if you don't already have quest

-Coin or Tour Guide, Stalker or Felmaw, and Hero Power (even without quest up, to get these guys going) is basically always great

-Weapon to face, especially if they'll have taunts soon, gives 6 damage for 3 mana.

-Hero Power 1 mana card as listed during turn 1 is never something you're that sad about

Turn 4

Basically always HP 2 drop. Stalker obviously best choice, Felmaw is never bad, you might choose a secret over either if it counters the enemies current board state (see understanding secret sequencing), and Kobold Sandstorm is still 3 damage. If we're using any 1 drops here, unless it's double Leper Gnome, we're probably sad.

Turn 5

Similar to turn 4, but now weapon is in mix of being played. Possible lethal.

Turn 6

Time for lethal. A lot of times this is with burst damage from some mixture of Timber Wolf/Unleash/Kill Command, with 1 mana spells filling out the rest.

Card Breakdown

Arcane Shotx2

2 damage for 1 mana to face? Hell yeah. Used in situations outlined in Turn 1 and Turn 3, or for final burn

Leper Gnomex2

2 damage for 1 mana to face AND potentially repeatable minion damage? Hell yeah. Used whenever to fill out your mana curve.

Rapid Firex2

2 damage for 2 mana to face? That's alright, especially since it can be sequenced in different turns. Used in situations outlined in Turn 1 and 3, for final burn, to set up Explosive Trap, to ping off a big attack 1 health guy, or...

One of the nice things with rapid fire is the ability to ping your own minions - meaning Leper Gnome or Kobold Sandtrooper. This has gotten me lethal quite a bit, as that 1 damage is now 2 or 3.

Timber Wolfx2

Only played as a combo card with Unleash or Kill Command, but makes them a lot more powerful.

Tour Guidex1

See the discussion above on "Changes from Scholomance Academy"; Can be very powerful but is not consistently powerful to be worried about putting 2 in.

Toxic Reinforcementx2

Top 2 card in the deck. Best on turn 1 or turn 3. Do not waste useful mana on it if the match is going to be decided in the next few turns (especially since you don't get value from it until the turn after you complete the quest)

Trackingx2

Use to find action early, burn late, needed secret, or combo pieces. Generally only play it when you need to find something else; if you already have action, make action.

Explosive Trap Misdirectionx2

Face damage helps keeps us alive. See Secret Sequencing section for more.

Freezing Trapx1

Also see secret sequencing section for more. It's still a rather low value secret though (since it doesn't deal face damage) so we only want it as a 1 of.

Imprisioned Felmawx2

Follow turn advice above. Like Toxic Reinforcement, don't waste useful mana on it on turn 5 if the match is going to be decided before it goes off.

Kobold Sandtrooperx2

The "bad" two drop is still 3 damage to their face. However, only played on turn 4 and sometimes too late when you need face damage now.

This CAN be played on turn 2 instead of HP if you think it can live to attack face, but 1 health makes it so easy to kill and it's normally better to save as an extra resource to play on turn 4/5/6

Phase Stalkerx2

Covered throughout

Eaglehorn Bowx2

Do NOT worry about building charges if they have taunts in their deck or game will end soon. Worst case scenario, you spent 3 mana for 6 damage. You don't need to maximize it's value.

Well, actually worse case scenario is you can't hit face with it. It's one of the weaker cards in the deck because of how bad it is turn 5 when there will likely be taunts, but it's hard to let go of 6 damage for 3 mana. Bottom-5 card in the deck.

Kill Commandx2

Your burn card. Wolf Kill Commandx2 is a great 10 damage finisher on turn 7

Unleash the Houndsx2

Either a great card or terrible card depending on the match up, making it a possible one-of to me. However, worse case scenario, it's an activator for Kill Command. Best case scenario, you counter-lethal somebody. So it's hard to let go of the second one.

Do not be afraid of a simple UTH Timber Wolf on something like Turn 4 if you can do 6-8 damage right then and there.

Non-inclusions

Any tempo-based minion or spell Eg Animal Companion, Dwarven Sharpshooter,

We are not a tempo deck.

Voracious Reader

Too slow by the time we'd get value; We want to hero power A LOT so we're actually not low on cards until turn 7

Dragonbane

Basically like Felmaw of potnetial 5 damage to face; However, costs more, comes down later, and needs to be combo. Just way too slow

Lion/Teron combo

Only good after quest goes off, dead cards otherwise

Scavenger Ingenuity Boar

...just put Wolfrider in your deck if you want a 3 mana, 3 damage charge.

Burrowing Scorpid

Was my initial pick to replace Lifedrinker (4 mana beast that deals damage to face), but Felmaw ended up being way better. It's nice to have another beast activator, but 4 mana for 2 damage is really not good and we only really care about going face, not going stealth (we do not want removal or taunts to be an issue to us killing our opponent - again, not a tempo deck).

Penflinger

The one I'm actually interested in, but I think it probably doesn't do enough. Would be very powerful if more control decks pop up.

Replacements

The only non-rare/common is at worst the second best card (and arguably the best card) in the deck - just craft it yo

EDIT

The more I've thought about the meta (a lot of mid-game taunts) and what I faced, I think I'd make the follow changes (I have not yet been able to test):

-1 Bow (Dead draw once they drop a taunt)

-1 Hounds (So good against Aggro and no Taunts on the board, but such a dead card against Taunts)

1 Pen Flinger (So many 1 mana spells)

1 Burrow (Gives straight face damage on a beast, to allow to combo with Kill Command)

EDIT #2

Haven't been playing it but people in comments talking about going back to Hounds, -Scorpid. With the meta having picked up, I think it's the right move.