[Top 10 Legend] Ragnaros Cube OTK Druid
- Last updated Mar 24, 2018 (Patches Nerf)
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Wild
- 10 Minions
- 19 Spells
- Deck Type: Ranked Deck
- Deck Archetype: Ramp Druid
- Crafting Cost: 12840
- Dust Needed: Loading Collection
- Created: 3/21/2018 (Patches Nerf)
- MetricTrout
- Registered User
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- 6
- 20
- 43
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Battle Tag:
MetricTrout#1723
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Region:
US
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Total Deck Rating
206
It's the time of the season. The last days of the Kobolds and Catacombs meta are winding down. As such, the ranked meta has largely been "solved". Despite this, I managed to hit Top 10 Legend rank by playing this unique combo deck almost exclusively from Rank 3.
As a reference, there were more than 500 people in Wild Legend in NA at the time this screenshot was taken.
Like most other Druid combo decks, this deck relies on the synergy between Aviana and Kun the Forgotten King. After Aviana and Kun have been played, then Ragnaros the Firelord is summoned for 1 mana. Then, Carnivorous Cube is used on Ragnaros, and Faceless Manipulator is used to copy the Cube. Finally, Deathwing (or Poison Seeds, if the opponent's board is already empty or close to empty) is used to clear the board. The net result is 4 Ragnaros are summoned on an empty board, dealing 32 damage to opponent hero. A second Faceless can be used if more than 32 damage is required.
The combo was probably first conceptualized shortly after the expansion was released, long before I stared playing it. However, I do believe that I'm the first one to have piloted this particular deck to Legend Rank; at least, I haven't encountered anyone else playing this so far. There are a lot of intricate decisions to be made when playing this deck, and I'm certain my play was far from perfect. Nevertheless, I managed to obtain a high spot on the Wild Legend ladder with it. This is because that, despite the obscurity of this combo, I believe it is completely viable and well-positioned in the current meta.
Aside from the combo, the core of this deck is largely based of my Malygos Druid list, which I used to get 12 wins in the Wild Brawliseum and finish #14 Legend last season. As I have explained in my Malygos Druid deck writeup, I'm running only a single copy of Ultimate Infestation, as I believe 2 copies of UI are excessive in combo Druid variants. (Incidentally, my specific decklist has the highest winrate currently out of all the Malygos Druid variants on hsreplay.net. The second highest winrate deck is this one, from Sicapent, which is also running a single copy of UI. While the sample size is small, this does present evidence that additional Oaken Summons targets provide more value than a second copy of UI.)
In addition, I am running Feral Rage in place of a second copy of Poison Seeds. This is largely a meta call; I've been facing a lot few Warlocks on ladder recently, and a lot more Paladins and Burn Mages. EDIT: I replaced the Feral Rage with a second Poison Seeds in the decklist, as I feel that should be the default version of the deck. However, the position in the deck occupied by the second copy of Poison Seeds can definitely be replaced, with Feral Rage or any other appropriate card, if the meta calls for it.
One strength of this deck is that the combo pieces are strong cards on their own. Against decks without strong removal, playing Ragnaros by himself is often the correct play. As for Deathwing, he is often a win condition by himself against certain aggressive decks, particularly Paladins. I've won a surprising number of games by simply surviving until a point when I can clear the board with Deathwing.
While it is true that most of the meta has been determined by now, that doesn't mean you have to resign yourself to playing the same few decks that everyone else is playing. This deck is proof the there is still room for innovation, even this late in the expansion cycle. If you're looking to try a unique deck that can still find success on the ladder, try this deck out!
Great deck! Thanks! :)
I miss:Malfurion
Aviana
Kun
Deathwing
I can craft only one of these, who i have to craft?
Awesome deck, I hitted rank 120 legend with it the last month. This is not a meme deck at all, it has good matchups vs paladin, secret mage, jade druid and maly druid. The people saying it gets crushed by paly are plain wrong.
Great to hear you're having success with the deck. I think one advantage this deck has over Malygos Druid (and I'm not saying this deck is better, just that it has certain advantages) is that the unique combo pieces (Ragnaros the Firelord, Carnivorous Cube, and Deathwing are better stand-alone cards than the unique combo cards of Malygos Druid, as the Malygos and 2 Moonfires don't have much impact on their own. I suspect the reason that some players are struggling against Paladin with this deck is that they aren't playing the combo pieces by themselves. In aggressive matchups, all you have to do is stabilize; you don't need the Aviana combo at all. This deck has enough powerful late-game cards to grant victory against aggro even if some of the combo pieces get discarded by Deathwing (which most aggro deck can't deal with anyway).
love the Deck, I am currently at 34-14 with it (pretty low ranks to be fair). http://prntscr.com/j2wdt6
But this Deck offers both aspects to me that I love
Its fun to Play and has a good winrate, so I am happy with that :D
Some questions that i have:
- Did you think about some potential changes with the new set comming up?
- Its really hard to Play UI in my opinion. It can be really god to dig for the Combo in the last few Cards or on curve, but out of all my games I played it max. 5 or 6 times. Most of the time my Hand is to full by the time I have enough mana or draw the Card and I cant dumb enough becouse i have to many Combo peaces already. Do you think its still woth playing it for the rare but powerfull Impact? Isnt a Card like Azure Drake a better Option? Just some thoughts :P
- what do you think of the Greedy Sprite [/Card] in the Deck? Maybe for [card]Fandral Staghelm?
Keep up the good work man :)
As I mentioned in my reply to Yurosaki below, there are times where Ultimate Infestation gets difficult to play. However, it's usually fine to discard a card from playing UI if you already have drawn a few combo pieces, as its unlikely that a specific burned card is a remaining combo piece. If you draw 5 and discard 1, you are far more likely to draw into your combo pieces than discard them. There will still be games where UI can't be played, and that's fine given how powerful the tempo swing of UI is. Against slow decks, I would consider keeping UI in the mulligan if you have the ramp (Nourish in particular) to play it early. Against aggro, of course, it doesn't matter what you burn, as you don't need to combo to win anyway.
I don't like Greedy Sprite at all, and it's been abandoned from the popular Malygos Druid decklists as well. The problem with Greedy Sprite is that its 3/1 body doesn't do anything once you have already reached 7 mana or so. It's only benefit is that it can be pulled from Oaken Summons, but it's much better to put in a Oaken Summons target that has an actual impact during all stages of the game, such as Fandral or Tar Creeper. Plus, Greedy Sprite's ramp effect is too slow due to it being a Deathrattle. You have to play the Greedy Sprite, and then it has to die, and then you only get an empty mana crystal, so the effect is that you only get the mana ramp 2 turns later typically. By that point, the ramp isn't as relevant anymore.
I don't foresee the new expansion having much of an impact on this, or any existing control or combo Druid deck in Wild. The new Druid cards seem to be at a low power level, especially when compared to what is already available for Druids in the Wild format. The one exception may be Ferocious Howl, which serves the same purpose as Branching Paths in providing card draw and armor gain. One advantage that Ferocious Howl provides is that it costs 3 mana, which is far less contested than the 4-mana slot in these types of decks. At the very least, I think Howl is better than Feral Rage, which was in an earlier version of this deck.
Thanks for your time and insights :)
Deck is not good at all.. Combo barley comes up and you find yourself using more of the piece for the combo early on to stay in the game. Played 10 games and won 1.. Not good at all.. Maly druid is way better then this cookie cutter deck..
Actually, pro player Control has played this deck much earlier.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=9szXqmGLucU
Anyways, great work man. :)
Hitting that legend with your deck just in time. Had to sub in Azure Drake instead of UI because I don't have one haha
Azure Drake still has a pretty good synergy with swipe and also gives me that insta draw.
Well, thanks for sharing. Loving your deck.
I honestly have a hard time playing UI in this deck a lot of games, usually have too many cards in my hand and inevitably mill a combo piece if I UI.
Azure drake seems like a pretty good inclusion
Speaking of milling cards, I have a great winrate with this deck, but am 1-8 vs mill rogue!
try to mulligan for your combo pieces because I am pretty sure I only lost one game vs mill rogue. I guess keeping combo pieces works for me.
Congratulations on hitting Legend.
About Ultimate Infestation, I do agree that it can often be difficult to find an opportunity to play it. Once you have drawn UI, you should be looking to empty your hand to a point where you can play it. If you can't empty your hand, it probably means you already have most of you combo; in that case, you can often afford to burn 1 or 2 cards, with the knowledge that it is unlikely that the cards you burn are specifically the remaining piece of your combo. It feels terrible when you do burn your combo, but this is a card game, and you have to play the probabilities.
I agree that Azure Drake is a logical replacement for UI, and the spell damage and the fact that you can't overdraw from the Drake poses some noticeable advantages. This particular card replacement would require some playstyle adjustments, such as being more aggressive in drawing with Nourish as opposed to ramping. Judging from your success with the deck, though, it seems you have that already figured out.
hi! why only one cube?
Because this is a combo deck, not a control deck based on value like Cubelock. Your win condition is to assemble the combo pieces: Aviana, Kun the Forgotten King, Ragnaros the Firelord, Carnivorous Cube, a Faceless Manipulator, and Deathwing to kill the enemy hero in a single turn. A second Cube does not enhance the combo in any way. The reason two Faceless Manipulators are in the deck is for matchups like Druid, where dealing 32 damage in one turn may be insufficient due to armor gain. Having a second Faceless increases the damage output of the combo to 48. In other matchups, the extra Faceless can be used prior to the combo, to copy a minion such as Voidlord for tempo.
Note that the fact that there is only one Cube in the deck does not preclude you from playing it outside of the combo in aggro matchups. Against aggressive decks, simply surviving and outlasting them is a win condition on its own. In these matchups, Carnivorous Cube can be played on its own for a 4/6 body or on damaged or silenced Taunt minions such as the 1/5 Scarabs or Ironwood Golems.
slash and burn druid?
Baron Rivendare?
I tested Baron Rivendare out against the AI, and it doesn't work. Even if it did, there would be no point. Because of board space, the maximum amount of Ragnaros you could summon with this combo would be 6, as the 7th spot would be occupied by Deathwing. Two Faceless Manipulators on the Cube already provide the maximum amount of Ragnaros.
Awesome deck mate! I had written up a similar one right before Ragnaros went to hall of fame: https://www.hearthpwn.com/decks/747707-by-fire-be-purged-amoraszunes-pre-hall-of-fame. The concept is very similar, but you have totally taken the idea to new heights. I love the consistency.
I do think that adding a Majordomo Executus could be a lot of fun though, and help you pile on 8 more damage, just drop him for 1 mana before Deathwing. Don'† know what you would swap him for though ;)
Great work with this though, it is so important for the game to innovate with decks and ideas like this during the later stages of a meta! Happy purging! ;)