Hearthpwn

Thank you for viewing my deck!

I've been using a similar deck in the ladder (Using cards like Fandral Staghelm and Jade Idol) and it's going okay - reasonable win rate against Control Warlock decks, strong against aggro, etc. Curious as to see how it will fare in the new year and if any new cards will make this deck stronger/weaker in the new meta.

The general aim is to control the game using removal and Taunts, all whilst gaining armour and ramping up mana, until you can play cards such as The Lich King when your opponent is still on low mana which can make it difficult to remove. Ramping up to Ultimate Infestation into Mountain Giant the turn after is also a great swing turn.

The main issue that I can see with this deck, however, is that without Jade Idol the deck cannot prevent itself from being fatigued and also lacks the very strong late-game horde of Jade Golems. Additionally, Fandral Staghelm rotating out means that a card with such good synergy in this deck will not be featured, which is a huge loss.

Mulligan Guide

Against aggro: Oaken Summons, Swipe, Lesser Jasper Spellstone, Tar Creeper.

Against control: Oaken Summons, Wild Growth. Nourish, Branching Paths.

Play Guide:

The first five turns are pretty important in any game, especially with this deck. They're about controlling the board as well as ramping up mana to play powerful cards and control the board more effectively.

Turn One:

Turn Two:

Turn Three:

Turn Four:

Turn Five:

When playing decks such as Murloc Paladin or Dude Paladin, cards such as Murloc Warleader and Knife Juggler should be prioritised and clearing those are more important than ramping mana. Taunts are useful against any deck too, especially these aggro decks. 

Card Choices

Malfurion the Pestilent is an obvious staple card for almost any Druid deck. It is an excellent hero card and his hero power really helps swing games in your favour. The versatility of his Battlecry and his Hero Power help against both aggro and control decks. The deck is much weaker without this card and is 100% worth crafting.

Hadronox can bring back very powerful Taunts such as The Lich King and Witchwood Grizzly and can bring back that late-game control that this deck was missing after the rotation of Jade Idol

Cards such as Ironwood Golem and Tar Creeper are excellent defensive cards which have great synergy with Oaken Summons. They help limit the effectiveness of aggro decks pretty effectively.

Witchwood Grizzly is amazing against aggro decks as they generally have pretty small hands, and will also come back with full stats from Hadronox.

Ferocious Howl can gain up to 10 armour as well as drawing a card - seems to me like an auto-include in this deck. A great card which really helps to tie this deck together.

Substitutions

Malfurion the Pestilent - There is no replacement for this card. It is far too important to this deck.

Hadronox - A Rotten Applebaum or a Sleepy Dragon would suffice, but I definitely recommend saving up the dust for this legendary in order to optimise this deck.

The Lich King - Much like the suggested replacements for Hadronox, a Rotten Applebaum or a Sleepy Dragon would suffice. This card is less important than the other two legendary cards in this deck, but still worth crafting due to the synergy with Hadronox and the obvious power of the card itself.

Honourable Mentions

Wrath is a very nice early-game single-target removal card, I just struggled to find a way to fit this card into my deck. You could argue that removing Lesser Jasper Spellstone or Naturalize could be a good option, but I personally didn't want to drop either. I may experiment trading it in in the future, but for now it's not one of my priorities.

Earthen Scales misses out for a number of reasons - it can be a dead draw when you don't have a minion in the early game (Or if it has low attack like Tar Creeper), much like Barkskin.

Barkskin is a nice card; it buffs any Taunt minions, gains armour, and has a low mana cost. The only problem with this card is that I wouldn't consider it to have any benefit to having it in this deck over Naturalize or Lesser Jasper Spellstone.

Arcane Tyrant has great synergy with Ultimate Infestation, but other than that a pretty poorly valued card. Not enough to warrant a place in this deck.

Greedy Sprite would be nice to incorporate into this deck as its a card which gains you mana and also can be brought out by Oaken Summons (Although this has less value than Ironwood Golem and Tar Creeper), but I don't see what I could take out for it.

Astral Tiger  solves the problem of fatigue that the rotation of  Jade Idol created, but is tricky to put in. The card has good value with Oaken Summons and isn't too understatted, but it just can't really fit in the place of anything else and frankly isn't strong enough.

Strongshell Scavenger has great synergy with Spreading Plague and Hadronox, but the main reason that I'm not including this particular card is due to the fact that it is brought out by Oaken Summons. A real shame as I would certainly consider finding a way to weasel this card in somehow if it was 5 mana.

Rotten Applebaum looks to be a great card, remind me a little of Sludge Belcher (Albeit not as well valued in board presence) and can help recover HP against an aggro rush. 

Bewitched Guardian is a perfect fit for this deck in all ways but one - Hadronox. Having a 4/1 come back is much worse than, say, a 1/5.

Witching Hour would be in this deck if it wasn't for the high chance of bringing back a Scarab Beetle or a Frost Widow.

Any questions? Ask in the comments!

~BinG