Hearthpwn

This is my less than legendary ladder deck, a Druid deck that I managed to build by playing the free to play experience of Arena, Quests and the ladder in order to collect the 1,400 dust necessary to forge all of the rares and epics in the deck and collect most of the commons by opening them in packs. After having "hit a wall" at rank 15 vs the ubiquitous Hunter aggro/combo decks, I decided to analyze my play and my card choices and found cards like Claw, Starfall and Sunwalker were terrible deck choices because Claw was too weak in the late game, Starfall was too slow in the mid-game and Sunwalker was too easily played around.

I then took the time to pay attention to what all of the other Druids were playing, and I'm convinced what all of the other Druids are playing is wrong. A lot of people seem to be trying to establish board control vs aggro by using inconsistent cards like Wild Pyromancer and Earthring Farseer, where opponent's happily play around your cards by not over committing or attacking past your minions. What I found regarding mid-range Druid and board control is that your 2 and 3 drops should consistent of Charge minions like Bluegill Warrior and Wolfrider because they can respond to opposing minions immediately by trading or against combo they allow you to take the "beatdown roll" and attack as soon as possible to maximize their damage output while avoiding spot and board removal.

The next set of cards I found other Druids playing were the legendary 6 drops, Cairne, Sylvanas and The Black Knight, and these legendary 6 drops are not only expensive, but they're unnecessary. The problem with the legendary 6 drops, with the exception of Cairne, is that they don't necessarily generate card advantage. If the opponent sacrifice his board into Sylvanas then her Deathrattle is blanked. If they don't have a Taunter then The Black Knight's Battle Cry is blanked and collectively they do nothing to either maximize damage output or address the board position. I saved the 4,800 dust these legendary cost and replaced them with 2 Argent Commander in the 6 drop slot. Now Argent Commander can maximize damage output or immediately address the board while using Divine Shield to create card advantage.

The final card that I thought was really, really bad was Childwind Yeti. A lot of people seem enthralled by turn 1 or turn 2 Childwind Yetis off of the Coin and Innervate, but considering the amount of resources you expend to play Childwind Yeti most aggro decks can actually trade or race you. As the game progresses, Chilwind Yeti becomes a mediocre top deck, doing nothing to really effect board position. For 1 attack less, you could be playing Sen'jin Shieldmasta, a card that forces the opponent to trade his minions and who has sufficient attack to kill all of the commony played 3 drops in the game. His Taunt helps prevent you from running truely awful healing spells which the Magma Giants and Legendaries love to laugh at.

Once you see the Charge synergy of the deck come together, the really crucial piece of the deck is Savage Roar. This card is amazing, because it either closes the game out on the turn you play Druid of the Claw, Bluegill Warrior and Savage Roar or allows you to make very cost effective trades early with a Noice Engineer and +2 attack to your hero to clear the opponent's board. 

This deck is definitely legitimate, and altho' I conceed the deck could be improved with legendaries like Bloodmage Thalnos and Ragnaros, The Fire Lord.instead of the two Novice Engineers it does an amazing job of controlling the board, burrying the opponent in card advantage and doing unfair, cheaty bullshit by crapping a handfull of Chargers on the board with Innervate and Savage Roar to output so much damage it'd make Pyroblast seem fair.

I haven't found any really bad match ups, that Reynad Warrior deck that seems to be really popular right now is practically a cake walk, Warlock Merlock is pretty even as we use Swipe and Silence to keep things from getting out of hands and the roughest match up I've found is the improved versions of the Hunter aggro-combo deck that stops using the 1 drops for 2 and 3 drops so you can't take back board position and card advantage with your hero power.

Anyway this is what's working for me on ladder as I reach rank 4 and makes me think if a deck without legendaries can go this far then a lot of the 9+ drops are overrated.