Fear the Wild! (Control-Ramp Druid)
- Last updated Nov 12, 2014 (Naxx Launch)
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Wild
- 18 Minions
- 12 Spells
- Deck Type: Ranked Deck
- Deck Archetype: Unknown
- Crafting Cost: 9560
- Dust Needed: Loading Collection
- Created: 10/8/2014 (Naxx Launch)
- TheToxicNuke21
- Registered User
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- 5
- 13
- 26
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Battle Tag:
TheToxicNuke#1608
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Region:
US
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Total Deck Rating
489
Introduction
Hi! I'm TheToxicNuke21, a long-time Druid main, and I thought I'd share my favorite deck with you guys. to help give you guys some of the winrates that I've achieved over the past few seasons. This deck was originally used to counter control after the Starving Buzzard nerf in September, as I thought that Hunter would be abolished completely. As we all know, it lives on, but that's not what this deck is about, so if you're seeing a lot of hunters, I'd advise another faster midrange druid, or no Druid at all! However, this deck has very strong (and fun!) matchups against Handlock, Control Warrior, and Death Priest.
While this deck is control, it is faster than most controls due to the very high burst with the double combo. This could also allow you to clear a board with one of the combos, leaving you with one in your deck to use as face burst. There are also many ways of securing board advantage with this deck, such as using cards like Shade of Naxxramas and Cairne Bloodhoof for efficient trading, getting free value through minion kills with Big Game Hunter and The Black Knight, getting awesome board clears with the Bloodmage Thalnos + Swipe combo, or using any of your several other combos to turn a game in your favor, or secure a win.
Combos
- Force of Nature + Savage Roar: This one's pretty obvious, and it's one of your only real win conditions if you don't have board control. If you use an Innervate with it on turn 10, you can play another Savage Roar for a whopping 22 damage!
- Faceless Manipulator + Big Game Hunter/Keeper of the Grove: This play can get you a massive amount of board control and even turn a game around completely if your opponent plays a massive minion or a legendary with a strong effect that you can take for yourself.
- Innervate + Keeper of the Grove: Doing this on turn two can swing the tempo in your favor against aggro decks, namely Zoo.
- Ancient of War + Innervate + Faceless Manipulator: This is a combo that won't happen too often, but when you can pull it off, it's pretty incredible. Going from a potentially empty board to having two 5/10's with taunt on turn 10+ can easily turn a game around for you, especially against an aggro type deck.
Potential Card Swaps
- -2 Shade of Naxxramas, +2 Harvest Golem: You can do this if you're going against a lot of aggro, as Harvest Golem: is very strong at trading with small minions efficiently.
- -1 Azure Drake, +1 Loatheb: Make this swap if you're going against a lot of Miracle Rogue or Freeze Mage. If played on the correct turn, it can really screw up their combos if you play it on the right turn. Against Freeze Mage, play it on the turn after Alexstrasza is played, so that the Mage can't burst you down on that turn. Against Miracle Rogue, play it on the turn after Gadgetzan Auctioneer is played to prevent miracles from happening, but only if you're unable to clear the Gadgetzan Auctioneer that turn. Killing it is almost always better than denying miracles for a turn.
- -1 Cenarius, +1 Ragnaros the Firelord: If you're having trouble finishing people off with this deck, you can opt for this to give you that extra 8 damage push, but I've found that the RNG can potentially lose you more games than it wins, and usually if you save Force of Nature and Savage Roar, you should usually have more than enough damage. However, that doesn't mean you should be greedy and hold on to one forever when you can get a board clear with it.
- -1Ancient of War, +1 Ysera: Make this swap if you're going against mostly control, because Ysera is a very hard card for the popular control decks to deal with (it's out of Priest's Shadow Word: Pain/Shadow Word: Death range, needs a big Shield Slam or something to go with Execute from Warrior) and AoW gets The Black Knight'd a lot, giving your opponent INSANE value and tempo. Thanks to Goakery for the card swap suggestion.
- -1 Bloodmage Thalnos, +1 Harrison Jones: If you're against a lot of Handlock and Control Warrior, this is pretty much a key replacement, as a 5 damage swipe is far less useful against control than destroying a weapon and drawing cards, which can potentially single-handedly win you the game.
Mulligan Guide
When figuring out which cards you want to mulligan, you want to first attempt to make an assumption of what deck type you're up against. Against all decks, you'll want to keep Innervate, Wild Growth, and Shade of Naxxramas. If you're against aggro, you'll be looking for the Innervate + Keeper of the Grove combo to secure early tempo, as well as Wrath to take care of their early minions. Swipe is also quite good to have against Hunters, but you should usually wait it out for the best possible time to use it.
Conclusion
Well, that's about it, so it's time for the shameless self-promotion! I stream occasionally, playing mostly variations of this deck on the ranked ladder. Check it out at http://www.twitch.tv/TheToxicNuke21 and follow me on Twitch to get an email whenever I start streaming. Please rate the deck if you found it helpful, and feel free to leave any questions or criticisms you might have about this deck in the comments or in the stream chat when I stream. It is my first HearthPwn deck, so I'm very open to criticism, but try to keep it constructive. Happy climbing!
Replacement for Cenarius if Rag isn't an option? I could understand that it helps to have Cenarius, but he's not high on my priority list right now.
Thanks! One more thing, though; how about Bloodmage Thalnos?
Been thinking of adding Sylvanas Windrunner over Bloodmage Thalnos lately, looking more and more appealing.
What is a good replacement for Cairne if I don't have Sylvanas?
A Sunwalker would work pretty well, as it's another annoying minion to have to deal with. Alternatively, you could use a second Ancient of War or Azure Drake.
Spectral Knight even though its a 5 drop it's pretty similar.
Haha, nice job on that one! Keep up the winning!
Thank YOU so much for the awesome words of encouragement! Good luck against those pesky priests.
This is far and away the best Ramp list Ive seen in a while.
This comment just makes me happy every time I see it. Thanks so much for the kind words!
Just wanted to say great job on writing the guide. Good explanation of the tech cards for the different metas. This is a solid and nice to see Bloodmage getting some action!
Thanks, really appreciate the feedback!
How do you use the "Faceless Manipulator + Big Game Hunter/Keeper of the Grove" combo if faceless manipulator doesn't proc the battlecry of the copied creature?
You usually will just find another target for faceless manipulator, as copying battlecries is essentially useless to you.
What he meant was you would copy something like a Rag and then big game it, not literally copy the big game
Made. My. Day.
How is your win ratio against priest?
it doesn't seem like you put many 4 attack minions in your deck (yeti, spectral).
I have always had trouble against priest as I face them often on ladder and the only deck I have been having ok win rate was with my druid deck but that is mainly to the fact that most pf the minions have 4 attack.
I am just wondering especially since belchers give me a pain in the ass when they get shadow madnessed.
It's usually pretty up in the air against priest, as in a 50/50 or a 60/40 but that's just because of its amazing control ability. Since there are only a few minions in this deck that can be deathed, it's usually okay. When I play sludge belcher I try to keep the 5 attack minions off the board so they can't get that 1/2 slime for themselves. If you're seeing a lot of priests, you can throw in spectral if you like, as it is pretty good in the matchup, but this deck doesn't really have any objectively bad matchups.
A very nice looking and clean ramp druid! Shows what ramp druid should really look like.
Damn, I mostly play Hearthstone casually and to be honest I never realized you could pull off crazy combos like this. Even though I only play Rogue I kinda wanna try this out now to see if I can pull it off myself. Pretty interesting.