The Great Wall of Druid
- Last updated Mar 27, 2014 (Live Patch 4973)
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Wild
- 19 Minions
- 11 Spells
- Deck Type: Ranked Deck
- Deck Archetype: Unknown
- Crafting Cost: 10400
- Dust Needed: Loading Collection
- Created: 3/26/2014 (Live Patch 4973)
- DivineFromBehind
- Registered User
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Battle Tag:
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Region:
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Total Deck Rating
46
Hi all, and welcome once again to a DivineFromBehind Deck, The username is especially fitting here, as I often stabilize around 16-18 HP. =P
This deck is the culmination of many popular Druid decks found around the internet; but also reflects the tone of the current meta (deck created 3/25/14). Essentially, this deck focuses on playing large taunt minions and gaining card advantage through tough-to-kill taunts and efficient spells (Wrath, Swipe, etc.)
Look for an opening hand that consists of Wild Growth, Claw, Wrath, Innervate, and a large drop if you happen to catch Innervate. In the early stages of the game, simply look to control the board (as best as possible) with your hero power and Claw and Wrath, while dropping Wild Growth to set yourself up for the mid/late game.
Mid game look to drop heavy taunts (Taz'Dingo, Sunwalker, or Druid of the Claw) to make your opponent trade 2 or 3 for 1. Continue to drop taunts every turn if necessary. Ancient of War is your best friend. How many silences can they have?
The answer is not enough. Like I said, KEEP DROPPING TAUNTS. Sunwalkers are amazing at regaining tempo after a rough early game (which you're likely to have with this deck). After 2 Sen'jin Shieldmastas, 2 Ancient of Wars, 2 Druid of the Claws, and 2 Sunwalkers you're still behind, well hey, we all have those games.
But the beauty of Druid is that even if your opponent happens to take it to late game, you still pack Alexstrasza and Ragnaros the Firelord if needed. These legendaries round out the deck and provide a strong finisher, if needed. You can consider swapping Alexstrasza for Ysera or Deathwing. My most recent variation is running Deathwing actually.
Of course, everyone knows about the 14 dmg Force of Nature + Savage Roar combo, but I've opted to leave it out of this version. Frankly, it was too inconsistent for me, and I wanted to make a Druid deck that could churn out win after win. I'm not generally a fan of "one-ofs", but if you love the combo, play Force of Nature and Savage Roar instead of 2 Sen'jin Shieldmastas.
TL;DR: Play taunts, your enemy rams his minions into the taunts, you play more taunts, ... , profit.
As always, leave feedback in the comments section, and feel free to ask questions. My decks change every day, so I will update this as necessary!
Changelog:
3/27/14: Removed 1 Starfall for 1 The Black Knight. Handlock remains a difficult matchup, so having another way to kill taunted Molten Giants or Mountain Giants has proven useful. Will update if I switch back!
This deck was fun at first. But once I reached 14 (with this in a few other decks in rotation)...it went downhill. I have lost 5 in a row w/ this deck...and back up to rank 15. I've changed a few cards around as well to help offset...but the main problem seems to be a lack of early game minions to put on the board. Having 1 or 2 medium sized taunts on the board by turn 3-5 isn't enough to regain momentum with all the removals and aggros out there. This deck is so incredibly reliant on a good draw in order to be feasible it seems.
I now see this as a fun deck, but one that isn't every competitive.
Where's the love for Ol' Nat Pagle? Auctioneer requires him + spells. Dropping Nat behind a taunter always gets you value.
^^This. Mark of the Wild is just generally better, if for no reason other than the mana cost. It's essentially a Defender of Argus for 2 mana. And as Zenryo said, it can be used to combo with The Black Knight to remove anything.
My favorite replacement for Bloodmage Thalnos before I unwrapped him was Kobold Geomancer, but Loot Hoarder can work too. Because this deck doesn't run Azure Drakes, I would recommend the Geomancer, simply for the 5/2dmg Swipes or 3dmg Starfalls. Try them both and see which one you find yourself wish you had in your hand!
Nice deck. Started at rank 9-2 today morning. Now at 4-3 and trudging forward. 3 losses so far. Deck seems very well tuned. Only card that seems dead in my hand most of the time however is Cairne. Have you thought about replacing it?
Cairne a dead card? I'm pretty sure you can find something out of it, he is a silence magnet, -1 hex or polymorph that would be on your bigger/most essential guys late game. Honestly I think he's just fine. Combo with mark of the wild, if the opponent used all his silence previously, can be a pretty nasty combo.
If you really wanna change it, maybe another starfall/starfire or ancient of lore that I love so much. Good body with 2 drawn cards = <3
Well. I still am running the Cairne. But like it has been pointed out, the handlock is a pretty bad matchup still and I wonder if substituting the cairne (which is almost useless in said matchup) for something else that could help. Also, Cairne has perhaps given me a winning advantage that another card(lets say an argent commander or an azure drake or a faceless manipulator) probably couldn't have in like 1/10 games. So am still trying to sort this out.
If handlocks are really pissing you off, use the faceless-naturalize combo! He might be a little less confident ;)
Thanks for the deck. I gave it a +1 Rating. It's fun and relatively simple. When in doubt...drop another taunt!
Any advice on dealing with control Priest? I'm guessing that is a hard counter to this deck. I have a high win rate against other classes, but I've had a couple 30-0 verses Priests. Priests have so many removals and excel in late game.
Running the deck with Ysera as I don't have an Alextrasza and it is working out pretty well.
Nice deck, been pretty easy to use found that i can just spam the board with taunts and win most of the time:P
You sir, are describing the impregnable Great Wall of Druid. Glad to hear it's been working out for you.
Sounds good. I'm not a fan of Force of Nature, but I do see its uses. So if you are going to run FON + Savage Roar, Onyxia could be fine. Just watch out for those pesky UTH Hunters!
I am having a lot of trouble making it past turn 6 with this deck against rush... Mana curve too harsh. Dropped from 10 to 12 so far.
edit: Made some changes and winning my way back up. Lost to handlock and control shaman, winning everything else starting at low 13. I'll edit with changes when Im happy
Really liking this deck, so far. Thanks!!
Glad to hear it! Post back if you find a certain card or set of cards that helps improve the list!
Replace 1 of the Starfalls with a yeti. (2 is overkill to be honest). The deck is just lacking a solid 4-drop to innervate or coin out at times to get momentum.
Replace Gadgetzan auctioneer with a black knight OR faceless manipulator. (the taunt kill can be game-breaking (same with the faceless), especially in druid mirror match-ups and can instawin you a game. Don't really see the auctioneer doing much anyways). Its more of a rogue'ish card.
Aside from that, looks good :]
Yea I'll give it a try. Honestly, Gadgetzan Auctioneer is dead a lot of the time, and I've been looking for a way to work The Black Knight in, so here's my excuse. I will update the decklist if I see positive results!
On the Chillwind Yeti vs. Starfall, I've just opted for more removal instead of tempo. This isn't an Age of Yeters nor a Watcher Druid deck, so I'm trying out the two Starfalls. So far they've worked nicely for me.
Actually, with how late game this deck is I've found Gadgetzan AMAZING. 10 mana, late draw wild growth = +3 cards. Another one that I like is 5 mana, gad + innervate + mark on the gad (or something else). ANOTHER TAUNT FOR THE WALL BABY! ;)
The two Star Falls I've found very useful for board clear actually. That, and most players don't run a lot of taunts, which makes TBK fairly useless at clearing threats.
Btw, ran 12 games now. It really is a meta breaker. Other Druid decks I've found very dependent on the initial innervate, but with so many taunts across the spectrum I nearly always draw one to save me and regain momentum.
So I've ran 6 games with this deck. I don't have Sunwalker or Cairne so I substituted 2 Ironbark Protectors and 1 Fen Creeper for more Taunt. Only lost twice at rank 11. It's just hilarious throwing out taunt after taunt, each getting progressively bigger. "Here, deal with this!" "OK, try this one on for size!" "Got rid of that one? How about two of 'em!"
lol Same. I play almost every class, I have all cards in the game except for about a dozen or so. I'm purely a casual gamer though. When i play the other classes, and can't get further w/ them, I use this deck...and w/o fail, it gets me over the hurdle. It's like having an insta-win button.
It's also hellafun as you said...just throwing out taunt after taunt. This works great especially vs warriors and rogues who prefer to do a lot of weapon attacks (vs minion attacks).
I can't recall for sure...but I've only lost once with this deck (out of 8 as of the time of this post) and it was against a priest (at least, I think it was this deck that I was using when I lost). Granted, I'm only level 15 or so...but still...I'm an extremely casual player...and don't think of myself as being particularly good at the game. This deck is quite easy to pick up and go with.