Hearthpwn

UPDATE (January 28, 2014):

This is what I am currently using. Since the nerfs to blood imps, the warlock rushes have calmed down. Also, The Black Knight is no longer in style, so massing taunt seems like a decent idea. Loot hoarders and Pagle have replaced Novice Engineers after their nerf (they don't even survive to hero abilities now). Currently sitting on Legend 21 on NA server.

 

UPDATE (December 20, 2013):

-1 Acidic Swamp Ooze

-1 Tinkmaster Overspark

+1 Slyvanas Windrunner

+1 Ancient of War

This is what I have been running for the last few weeks now. The deck's biggest threats are Warlock rushes and freeze Mages, both of which received some nerfs in the last few weeks, making our trusty Druid even stronger. I still think that a Warlock rush with a perfect starting hand is just about impossible for any deck to handle, but this deck has a fighting chance. You just can't be afraid to trade minions at every turn - even a pretty faerie dragon. The deck focuses very hard on the midgame, turns 4-6/7. I have not dropped Shattered Sun Clerics or Argent Commanders despite their HP nerfs, because I think they are still both great for their costs. I have experimented some with Sunwalkers over Argent Commanders or one of each, but ultimately losing the charge minion was very noticeable. Topdecking an Argent Commander can be what you need to win; Sunwalker... not so much.

More to come later.

 

UPDATE (November 23, 2013):

-2 Chillwind Yeti, +2 Novice Engineer

-1 Starfire, +1 Acidic Swamp Ooze

This deck cannot lose. If you lost with these exact cards, you did something wrong. /Unbeatable 

 

UPDATE (November 19, 2013):

As requested, I have updated the deck to what I am currently using. I'm afraid it has turned into a terribly vanilla deck full of the usual suspects as far as neutral minions go. The information below (not in bold) is outdated and refers to a previous version of the deck. I dropped the Innervates in favor of some early game minions as well as made some other drastic changes to the deck. I think my initial winning streak was just a lucky run of drawing the right cards early on. The changes are as follows...

-2 Innervate
-1 Mark of the Wild
-1 Big Game Hunter
-2 Ogre Magi
-2 Nourish
-1 Cairne Bloodhoof
-1 Ysera

+1 Bloodmage Thalnos
+1 Ancient of Lore
+2 Keeper of the Grove
+2 Faerie Dragon
+2 Sun Shattered Cleric
+2 Harvest Golem

I tried to pick minions that are useful when drawn at any stage of the game (since you cannot control when you draw them). Harvest Golem is just there because I feel the card is insanely strong and usually always creates two-for-one card scenarios, something I highly value. I replaced Ogre Magi with Chillwind Yet - this is something I go back and forth on frequently, I think the cards are very very close in value. The Ancient of Lore has saved my bacon a few times in close games, and topdecking it is a great feeling for the extra cards. Much more valuable than Ysera I believe. The Keepers are a bit underwhelming, but the fact that they accomplish two things in one card makes them necessary. And lastly, I dropped Big Game. I am just not currently seeing that many huge minions in the currently meta. I was ending games with Big Game and Tinkmaster left as the two cards in my hand. I decided to keep Tinkmaster since he is far less restrictive and useful. He can, for example, break through a taunt minion when you need to deal lethal damage. He is a nice failsafe.

INTRODUCTION

In a meta-game overrun with priests, mages, and hunters, I was looking for the best deck to tackle them all. To my surprise, the answer came with the Druid. Yes, I am a 3-Star Master (who isn't?). A rating system means nothing, though, when you can never go down. I climbed backed to 3-Star Master in one night after the wipe, hardly a difficult accomplishment either. Much MORE important toward my credentials (and why you should keep reading!) is that I was ranked #25 on the US server pre-wipe. It's true! Go look on the battle.net forums. Go on now, I'll wait.... See? I'm good and you should listen to me. Onto the deck!

 

CARD CHOICES EXPLAINED:

Innervate is there for two reasons: (1) to rush out a 4cc or 5cc creatures early (since there are no early drops), or (2) to extend your mana pool past ten crystals so you can summon two minions, cast two spells, etc.

Claw and Wrath are for keeping the board clear early on, along with your hero ability. They should never be used if you can kill something with your hero alone.

Big Game Hunter and Tinkmaster Overspark, the wildcards. Druid's only spot removal is Naturalize, which is an absolutely terrible card. Letting your opponent draw two cards is simply not acceptable regardless of the card's cost; I would not run it if it was 0cc. Big Game is there for obvious reasons, to kill hard-hitting minions. Tinkmaster is there to deal with minions that Big Game cannot, such as Ysera or any minion a Priest has pumped up, for example. I find that even when it turns into a 5/5, it's not an issue for the Druid as they have a number of ways to deal 5 damage to a minion; and the 1/1 can be killed off with the hero ability. I was skeptical at first to put the card in the deck, but after playtesting I would never consider removing it - feels perfect, just have to play smart.

Swipe, Starfall, Starfire are your three big nukes, two of them being (possible) AoE. Remember that Starfall can no longer target the hero, so play accordingly. Before the patch and nerf to Druids, I ran with 1x copy of Starfire. But since the change to Starfall, I feel two are needed. Use your nukes wisely - when they're gone, they're gone.

Chillwind Yeti and Ogre Magi are the 4cc minions of choice because of their 4-attack and relatively high health. A T1 coin, innervate, Yeti can be devastating for your opponent to deal with. 4-attack minions are preferred since they cannot be targeted by Priest removal, which runs rampart in the meta.

Azure Drake and Druid of the Claw are chosen for 5cc minions. Same 4-attack anti-Priest rules apply to them. Druid of the Claw is one of my favorite cards in the game due to its extreme versatility. T2 or T3 Druid of the Claw with Innervate and watch your opponent squirm.

Nourish will almost always (85% plus of the time from my playing) be used for the card draw. 5cc to draw 3 cards is a pretty great deal when you compare it to other cards that do similar. Only use it for the mana crystals very situationally - i.e. you have a Ragnaros in hand and feel that dropping it next turn would be a good/correct play. I have considered dropping 1x copy of this, but I have not found anything that would fit better.

Argent Commander and Cairne Bloodhoof... ahem, see a trend yet in minions I am selecting? Maybe some may view this as overkill against Priests, but I find my minion choices themselves to be good overall. The fact that they all have 4-attack is just a bonus! Argent is a fantastic card and usually always nets a two for one in card advantage.

Ragnaros and Ysera are your late-game bombs. They are there to do one thing and one thing only... end the game. If you drop either and the game isn't over in two (or MAYBE three) turns, you played them wrong. There is a time to play each (aka when all of the mind controls, polymorphs, hexes, etc are gone). Knowing when to play them comes somewhat with practice too.

Mark of the Wild used to be Nat Pagle in its place, but Nat is currently bugged (as of this writing - see Blue posts about it on the battle.net forums). Nat is only drawing 25% of the time now, which makes him a horrible card. Anyway, I chose this little minion buff over it. In general, I hate minion buff cards (besides maybe Blessing of Kings), because it almost always results in a two for one card advantage for your opponent. But this one isn't too bad for its cost. The two extra damage has actually won me a game!

 

REJECTED CARDS:

Wild Growth is only useful if drawn in your opening hand. Any time you draw this midgame, it's a dead draw. Gaining a mana crystal at turn 5 and above is almost useless. It's a wasted cardslot.

Naturalize was already explained above, see Big Game Hunter and Tinkmaster Overspark section.

Healing Touch is overall not a bad card. I might replace Mark of the Wild with 1x copy of this. In general, though, if you are forced to heal, you have already lost. VERY rarely will this card change the game for you.

Bite is overcosted in my opinion. It was useful in combination with Savagery before Savagery was turned into a terrible card, which is also rejected due to its limited use and overall lackluster effect.

Keeper of the Grove was a card I used to never think of removing. But silence is seeing less and less play these days, and two damage is very underwhelming. Looking at the stats, I simply did not like the card. There are too many things that can do it better.

Ancient of Lore, Ancient of War, and Cenarius are all overcosted in my opinion. Cenarius was good at 8cc, but at 9cc, he eats up your whole turn. I would always rather drop Ysera than him, always. And the Ancients are just meh overall. Lore is much, much better than War. War can be silenced and make him useless, at least Lore does something on cast. I just find 7cc to be a very awkward mana cost to work with.

 

CONCLUSION

Priests will draw many useless removal cards against you. Mages will have difficulty with the number of medium sized threats you drop, forcing them to use bad polymorphs. Hunter with One-Turn-Kill / Unleash the Hounds is just an overall disgusting combo.when they draw all of the correct cards. Always use Druids of the Claw's taunt ability and make good use of your Mark of the Wild. Put up a wall, keep the pressure up, and hold on tight!

Thanks for reading. I'm open to suggestions, but I overall I am very satisfied with the deck and went 15/15 (100%) playtesting it. Granted it is a small sample size and a few of my opponents made some glaring mistakes. I will continue testing and provide an update.

UPDATE: Played the deck some more tonight... have yet to have a loss! 26/26. I think a fast/rush mage would give this deck some problems, but surprisingly all of the mages I've run into have been slow/control ones (lucky me). I've even survived and won against two Murloc rushes.