Hearthpwn

If you enjoy my work, I'll be streaming my run to the World Championship here, including every tournament that grants points and ranked play: http://www.twitch.tv/goyugiohpro

12/13 Update: Currently rank 69 after a few hundred more games. Have adjusted the matchups to better fit my growing experience

Hello, you are reading an in depth guide to Aggro Druid. I hit rank 62 Legend on the 8th day of Ranked Play Season 21. Here are some stats from the climb. I may continue climbing with it at the end of the season to secure my rank, but figured I'd write a guide now to pass the time.

Why Aggro Druid?

As of this writing (12/8/2015), Aggro Druid is ranked 4th by LiquidHearth and 8th by TempoStorm, making it a top tier deck. Both Ramp Druid (also called Midrange or Combo) and Aggro Druid are still very strong metagame calls. There are a few key differences between the two. Ramp Druid has key advantages in flexibility, card draw and ramp (increasing mana crystals for future turns). By flexibility, I mean that you can include more extremely strong tech picks such as Harrison Jones.

Unfortunately, Ramp Druid suffers from a very slow early game. Wild Growth and Shade of Naxxramus are both key parts of the Ramp early game and both are anti-tempo cards. The strongest aggro decks in season 21 are way too fast for Ramp to keep up with. My hunch is that Ramp is actually a better call for tournament formats than Aggro Druid. Unfortunately, tournament formats are much different from ladder climbing in ranked play!

Aggro Druid has a much stronger early game than Ramp Druid. It's better suited to handle the diverse array of decks that ranked play will throw at you, and can actually fight fire with fire vs hyper aggressive decks. In my opinion, you should pick Aggro Druid because it's the best Druid build for ranked play. 

Winning with Aggro Druid

Sharp Aggro Druid play can be split up into two phases. The first, early phase is absolutely crucial. You need to hit as many low drops as possible without wasting a single mana crystal. All of your Leper Gnomes, Living Roots, Knife Jugglers, Druid of the Sabers, and such need to hit the board to start damaging the opponent directly. Innervate should be used wisely to smooth out your curve and make sure you're not missing tempo.

The second phase is the kill phase. At this point, your opponent should be softened up for a lethal strike through either reach (Swipe, Keeper, Force of Nature), or comboing minions with Savage Roar. I've actually managed to rarely beat opponents by turn 3 or 4!

Core Build

Aggro Druid is a very finely honed deck and doesn't have a lot of room for adjustments. So again, my deck is pretty straightforward. Here are the core cards to the strategy in my opinion:

• 2x Innervate
• 2x Living Roots
• 2x Leper Gnome
• 2x Darnassus Aspirant
• 2x Druid of the Saber
• 2x Knife Juggler
• 2x Savage Roar
• 2x Mounted Raptor or Shade
• 2x Swipe
• 2x Keeper of the Grove
• 2x Piloted Shredder
• 2x Druid of the Claw
• 2x Fel Reaver
• 2x Force of Nature
• 1x Dr. Boom

You can make an argument that only one Knife Juggler is "core," or maybe Leper Gnomes can be taken out, but there's at least a whopping 25+ core cards in this deck. Not much room to wiggle!

Tech: I'll just briefly write out some tech cards I considered and some choices top players are making to fill in the empty slots. This is a pretty sparse list but I will fill it out as I get more inspiration from pros and comments.

• Mounted Raptor vs Shade of Naxxramus: Simply put, Shade is better vs control matchups because it can build to a glorious climax whereas Mounted Raptor is more of an immediate gratification kind of thing that can 2 for 1 versus aggro drops. I personally think running Shade in Aggro Druid makes it too much like Ramp Druid which defeats the purpose of being aggro in the first place!
• Argent Horserider: I think this card works well conceptually in Aggro Druid. One of the top 8 players at Dreamhack Winter 2015 was running two copies over Leper Gnome. I never tested it though.
• Loatheb: I stopped playing Ramp Druid because there were so many Aggro Shaman decks that absolutely crushed me. So when I built Aggro Druid, I just removed a Savage Combatant for Loatheb. Loatheb is really good against almost every class right now on key swing turns.
• Savage Combatant: With every deck running Shredder, I'm not a huge fan of this card. I tested it for a wee bit and then just threw in the Loatheb.
• Blingtron: This is another card that makes sense in Aggro Druid. And I'm hoping to try to fit Blingtron into every guide I write for HearthPwn. Alas, it wasn't meant to be. I kept comparing the Blingtron in my hand to another drop like Loatheb, and Blingtron lost :(

General Tips:

• General Mulligans. The stone lock mulligan keeps, almost no matter what, are the 1 drops, 2 drops, and Innervate. Without the coin, only keep one of each. With the coin, try to plan out your hands. An example is I have coin, Innervate, Shredder, Leper Gnome, and Druid of the Saber. I plan to Innervate Shredder on t1 with coin, then play Saber. So I pitch Leper Gnome.
• If you have the coin and some suitable early game, you can keep really good cards against matchups. I'll go into more detail in the matchups but stuff like Swipe vs Paladin and Keeper of the Grove vs Mage are good examples for now.
• Early Game- Play Leper Gnome over Living Roots since it's more flexible, unless you plan on Savage Roaring the next turn.
• AHA Moment 1- Innervate should always be used to smooth your curve out. All you have to do is look at your play for the current turn, and your play for the next turn. If your play for either turn really sucks, consider using innervate to put something out. Cards I am happy innervating: Raptor turn 1, Keeper to kill a 2 health guy early, Shredder, Druid of the Claw (not as sexy), Fel Reaver (now we're talkin'), Dr. Boom.
• AHA Moment 2- A lot of decks really, really have problems dealing with an early Fel Reaver. This is why you always want to keep Innervate. It can be a horrible card in the middle stages of the game, just a complete dead draw. But early, ramping out a card like Fel Reaver will single-handedly win the game.
• Innervate tips: If you have a super aggressive hand, feel free to Innervate just to put out insane early tempo. Example against Aggro Shaman: he played Leper Gnome. I played Juggler, Innervated two Leper Gnomes, and basically had no hand. It was worth it.
• Don't innervate two drops for tempo unless you're pushing really hard, really early. If you have a leftover Aspirant or Saber or something in the early to midgame, it's usually better to just wait until the next turn instead of burning Innervate. If you're lategame though and kind of topdecking, you won't get a chance to use Innervate for value so feel free to burn it even for minor tempo gains.
• Fel Reaver tips: Once you play Fel Reaver, you're basically on a deckout clock for yourself so basically just always swing face with it. Try to clear out their Jugglers and other annoying minions with your other cards in hand and other minions though if you can.
• With Fel Reaver, the earlier you play it the better. Also, the less CIH your opponent has the better. You should generally feel happy to just ram it down though. If you don't have a good turn 3 or 4 play, you were gonna lose to the Paladin or Mage anyways. Go hard!
• Keeper of the Grove: Don't forget you can silence your own Aspirant, silence your own Fel Reaver for super value. Keeper is an incredibly versatile card and you really need to save it in certain matchups. If you have a similar value play but can hold Keeper vs Mage or Paladin, for example, you should keep the Keeper.
• 14 Health- This is a key breakpoint since your combo will take your opponent out if they dip to 14 health or below. Never forget this and don't burn combo pieces unless you're about to lose the game if they're close to 14.
• Savage Roar- If you don't have a good play on turn 3 and aren't holding Force of Nature, feel free to Savage Roar for tempo. Example: I had 2 1/1 tokens vs a 3/2 Totem Golem. I just Savage Roar, picked up 4 damage through the 1/1's, and cleared the 3/2 with my face.
• Force of Nature- Sometimes you can play this card to clear board for card advantage, but be very careful doing this when they are close to 14 and you can rip a Roar for game, blouses.
• Reach vs Attacks- If you are close to the kill, you should generally play the cards that require attacking directly (i.e Savage Roar, Force of Nature) before your reach cards (like Swipe, Living Roots, and Keeper of the Grove). This is because they can always play or draw a taunt that blocks your attacks.
• You can often suspect someone is playing a Reno deck if they're playing unusual picks at the start. An example would be something like Bouncing Blade at the start. A lot of Reno decks also have slower starts in my experience, so if something feels "too easy" you should probably save your spells for controlling the board or to end the game in one turn.

Matchups 

• Aggro Shaman (slightly favorable)
• Key Tech: Loatheb
• Swing Cards: Tunnel Trogg (1), Doomhammer (5)
• Mulligan: 1-2 Mana Minions, Innervate
• This matchup was enraging me when I was playing Ramp. But Aggro Druid has a very solid matchup against this deck.
• Druid of the Saber is key, because it will wipe off the 1 drop Trogg without them being able to target a spell.
• Aggro Shaman can't flip the board at all so this is one of the decks I don't mind innervating a super fast early start (i.e a 2 drop + 2 1 drops on turn 1 with Innervate).
• You will win the value game so really, really focus on not taking too much face damage. Feel free to clear off minions rather than attack with face, for example. Try to weave in hero powers as well.
• Aggro Shaman can't deal with early Fel Reavers and this will actually help you outrace them. They also can't just ignore your board because of Savage Roar.

• Control Warrior (slightly unfavorable)
• Swing Cards: Fiery War Axe (2)
• Mulligan: 1-2 Mana Minions, Innervate
• Control Warrior appears less often now. It can be a frustrating matchup. Basically it comes down to whether their obnoxious armor gain can outrace your damage and put them out of combo reach.
• Recent builds have just been stacking way too much armor and get out of range for combo when they stabilize
• Armorsmith can be a pain if you play a lot of low drops. Sludge Belcher is also very annoying for Aggro Druid to deal with.
• Warriors have some of the best answers to early Innervated threats (Execute), but I'm still slapping them down ASAP because what else are you going to do?
• Other than Armorsmith and weapons, Control Warriors have a pretty empty early game so feel free to develop board aggressively.

• Patron Warrior (slightly unfavorable)
• Key Tech: Loatheb
• Patron Warrior will still win with a great hand, but I think Patron Warrior can be a bit too slow if you get a fast start. They don't have great ways of damaging Fel Reaver without taking face damage, and will need an Execute regardless.
• The matchup gets a lot worse if they hit early Armorsmiths
• I would just play everything down extremely quickly, hope for a good draw, and hope they don't draw Armorsmith + Weapon and also be able to make Patrons on turn 5 or 6.

• Oil Rogue (Favorable)
• Key Tech: Loatheb
• Mulligan: 1-2 Mana Minions, Innervate
• Based on my experience, I think Oil Rogue has a pretty bad matchup here versus Aggro Druid. Oil Rogue has a pretty slow start often and ends up eating a lot of face damage.
• Oil Rogue also has very few removal options for our big fatties, maybe one copy of Sap and one copy of Big Game Hunter. So early Fel Reavers and even Shredders and such are very hard for Rogue to deal with.
• If we let the game drag out, they can easily sweep our board with a big Blade Flurry or such. But they are usually in combo range by that point too.

• Raptor Rogue (Favorable?)
• Swing Cards: Unearthed Raptor (3)
• Mulligan: 1-2 Mana Minions, Innervate
• This is a new deck post LoE that is capable of hitting Legend for sure and is probably tier 2 so expect to see it.
• I haven't played a match with Druid vs Raptor Rogue, but I suspect Raptor Rogue is too slow to keep up. Yes they can play something like Egg on 2 then Raptor on 3, but that's only 3/4 of stats put on the board over 3 turns while you're hopefully flooding with a drop each turn.
• Clear all of their deathrattles except Eggs, especially entering turn 3. You don't want them to get extra Loot Hoarder or even Leper Gnome value.
• I would play hyper aggressively though since I know their deck is too slow to keep up with a very fast pace.

• Midrange Druid (Favorable)
• Key Tech: Loatheb
• Swing Cards: Darnassus Aspirant (2), Combo Turn (9)
• Mulligan: 1-2 mana minions, Innervate
• Midrange Druid can suffer from some slow starts for sure. I think Aggro Druid has the edge because of Wild Growth and Shade being too slow sometimes.
• You will lose the long advantage game though. And it's sometimes annoying when they use Ancient of Lore to heal out of combo range.
• All Druids suffer from an early Fel Reaver.

• Aggro Druid (even)
• Swing Cards: Fel Reaver (5), Combo Turn (9)
• Mulligan: 1-2 mana minions, Innervate
• Fel Reaver is a very ugly card for either side to deal with.
• Make sure to do efficient trades to keep tempo going and keep them from spamming minions on the board. Savage Roar will hurt.

• Control Priest (favorable)
• Swing Cards: Northshire Cleric (1), Deathlord (3), Lightbomb (6)
• Mulligan: 1-2 mana minions, Innervate
• I'm not sure why but Priest decks just always tilt me the most. My least favorite class for sure.
• Priest has a big problem with Druid of the Saber since they can't protect Northshire from it.
• Deathlord is a huge problem and hugely annoying if they can put down a Cleric, PW:Shield, or Velen's on it. 
• Try to watch out for Lightbomb since it can really just wipe your board.
• Priests don't run many answers to an early Fel Reaver.
• Clear their board each turn, especially if you can make value trades. Or it will come back to bite you.

• Dragon Priest (slightly unfavorable)
• Swing Cards: Wyrmrest Agent (2)
• Mulligan: 1-2 mana minions, Innervate
• I did not run into any Dragon Priests but I have read from multiple sources that this matchup is unfavorable.
• I would imagine we don't have many early answers to their taunts so Innervating something big might be key.
• Dragon Priest suffers from consistency issues so you should try to jump all over them if they get a slow start.

• Face Hunter (favorable)
• Key Tech: Loatheb
• Swing Cards: Mad Scientist (2)
• Mulligan: 1-2 Mana Minions, Innervate
• Face Hunter is a favorable matchup in my experience. They actually can't ignore your board due to Savage Roar so you can actually outrace them. Swipe is a top performer and you actually run taunts too!
• They generally run Explosive Trap so you want to check for it, then play Fel Reaver when you can. They can't outrace a Fel Reaver or kill it easily so you should win the game easily from that point.

• Midrange Hunter (favorable)
• Swing Cards: Mad Scientist (2), Houndmaster (4), Savannah Highmane (6)
• Mulligan: 1-2 Mana Minions, Innervate
• This is not a common matchup any more. I would imagine Freezing Trap can give you problems but you can always test for it easily by attacking with your smaller guys first.
• Keep their board clear of beasts since they'll probably be trying kinky things such as Houndmaster or even Ram Wrangler.
• Again, Midrange decks like this can't really outrace you so use that to your advantage. Take value trades but also push through face damage and make them trade off your board instead.

• Handlock (slightly unfavorable)
• Swing Cards: Hellfire (4), Twilight Drake/Mountain Giant (4)
• Mulligan: 1-2 Mana Minions, Innervate
• Handlock is a very winnable matchup. In general versus Warlocks, you are looking to get them down into combo range and then end the game in one big turn.
• Because you can win rapidly, I would try not to put them into Molten Giant range before finishing. They can just taunt it up or Shadowflame and wipe your board.
• The matchup is harder if they run a lot of heal and also hit a Reno. We probably lose every time they successfully resolve Reno, to be quite honest.
• I am going for explosive starts in this matchup and looking to end the game even before the combo turn on 9.
• Locks don't have a good answer to an early Fel Reaver.

• Zoolock (slightly unfavorable)
• Swing Cards:
• Mulligan: 1-2 Mana Minions, Innervate, Swipe with coin if your hand is good otherwise.
• This is a close matchup. Innervate your big threats as soon as possible since Imp Gang Boss will be really annoying otherwise.
• Swipe lines up really well with their turn 3 and turn 4 players (Imp Gang and Imp Plosion).
• Try to keep their board relatively clear. You don't want Sea Giants hitting.
• In the games you lose, they will get more pressure on you with Power Overwhelmings, Sea Giants, Reliquary Seekers, and such. In the games you win, you will finish them off with combo.
• However, I'm going pretty aggressively for face damage since you want to put them within range of combo and pressure them from tapping too much.

• Secret Paladin (favorable)
• Swing Cards:  Consecration (4), Mysterious Challenger (6)
• Mulligan: 1-2 Mana Minions, Innervate
• This is a really good matchup for a few reasons. One, they don't interact very well against our board. They don't have a lot of pings to clear stuff like Darnassus Aspirant or even Leper Gnome without taking damage.
• They also have no real answer to early Innervated threats such as Shredder or Fel Reaver.
• They basically play one solid minion a turn and hope Challenger will bail them out. Our Swipe can eat their entire board after Muster.
• You can easily end the game around turn 6 if you get a solid draw. Games you lose will be due to a huge Secretkeeper, a clutch Coghammer, or getting to endgame and not being able to handle Tirion.

• Midrange Paladin (slighty unfavorable)
• Swing Cards: Quartermaster (5)
• Mulligan: 1-2 Mana Minions, Innervate, Swipe (with playable early cards)
• Midrange Paladin lines up very well against us. Zombie Chow clears our early threats, Aldor is the best counter to Fel Reaver, and they have tons of heal to get out of combo range.
• Play for board and clear recruits. Quartermaster is a huge play for Midrange.
• Prior to turn 8, it's really important to keep recruits gone. Yes sometimes they can just Muster and then Quartermaster, which sucks, but the rest of the times you have to deny strong Quartermaster plays.
• I would still just slam Fel Reaver down with Innervate and hope they don't have a counter.
• Unlike Secret Paladin, Midrange will play 2 Consecrate so try to keep your key minions above 2 health and trade off the weaker ones near turn 4.
• The longer the game goes on, the more heal they will find and you will get outvalued for sure. So put the aggro into aggro Druid!

• Tempo Mage (slightly unfavorable)
• Key Tech: Loatheb
• Mulligan: 1-2 Mana Minions, Innervate, Keeper of the Grove
• You want to prioritize getting their Apprentice/Waker off board as soon as possible. Same with their Mana Wyrm.
• Especially if they play an early Scientist, try to save a chump minion for Mirror Entity (any of your low drops qualify, or Keeper of the Grove in a pinch).
• Keeper just +1's Apprentice so it's a pretty huge card to foil their strategies
• Mage has some of the best counters to Fel Reaver, but I have played the matchup from both sides and I would still slap the Reaver down early since they may not have an answer in hand.

• Freeze Mage (favorable)
• Key Tech: Loatheb
• Mulligan: 1-2 Mana Minions, Innervate, Keeper of the Grove
• You need to play this matchup very, very aggressively. You can quickly tell if it's a Freeze Mage by their turn 2 and turn 3 plays. Usually, a ping on 2 or an Arcane Intellect on 3 signifies a Freeze Mage.
• They don't do much for the opening turns so you need to develop a big board and get a big lead in the first three turns. They will eventually catch up with all of their freezes.
• I'm not a huge fan of playing Fel Reaver in this matchup unless it's on turn 3 exactly. It'll win you the game single-handedly if you have a Keeper though since that will both shut off it's drawback and unfreeze it for another 8 damage to the dome.
• Order your attacks to leave the Mage at 1 health if he has Ice Block up.
• If you can game without attacking direct, do so to avoid triggering Ice Barrier.
• You won't get many turns to get a huge Savage Roar off since they play Nova/Doomsayer combo on 5, or Blizz on 6, or Flamestrike on 7. So if you get a good chance to pop Block, take it and Roar.
• Save Keeper for Doomsayer or Archmage. Don't play it otherwise.

Concluding Thoughts

I hope you enjoyed this guide and enjoy playing Aggro Druid. Shoutout to whoever created it since it really is a genius concept. All of the pieces just interlock in harmony and the deck gets a really sweet flow to it when you learn to use Innervate properly. It's not a hard deck to master at all.

Thanks for checking out my guide! My goal is to write a comprehensive guide for every top tier deck once I can master it. You can find a list of guides below.

• Tempo Mage: http://www.hearthpwn.com/decks/373629-legend-in-depth-guide-to-tempo-maging
• Aggro Druid: http://www.hearthpwn.com/decks/389457-t100-legend-in-depth-guide-to-aggro-druid