Stars Align! The Fiddler's Twig
- Last updated Mar 30, 2019 (Level Up Nerf)
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Wild
- 12 Minions
- 16 Spells
- 1 Weapon
- Deck Type: Ranked Deck
- Deck Archetype: Star Aligner Druid
- Crafting Cost: 17540
- Dust Needed: Loading Collection
- Created: 10/16/2018 (Boomsday)
- PowerOfCheez
- Registered User
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- 14
- 57
- 97
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Battle Tag:
PowerOfCheez#1873
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Region:
US
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Total Deck Rating
224
Updated 10/19 Notes:
Now that Nerf is active, made the planned change to North Sea Kraken for the pre-nerf Alexstrasza and to the deck name, since its no longer 'prep' but live.
Floop in.
Edited out pre-nerf list version references;
Moving older update notes to spoilers near the end.
Added spoilers for individual card choices (in and out) and tips.
Improved use of white space with separator lines.
Lowering to +20 when I will add specific combo sequences for various options and damage totals available with the build.
Adding Mulligan/Matchup guide at +30.
Will add video if any of the site's streamers (Kiwi, Kris, or Tommy Wave for example) makes one available in the comments.)
Stars Align by Lindsey Stirling (She has a Lunara feel to her, minus the horns and hooves, lol. On request, I added more info on her in Comment #13. Lindsey Stirling herself gives permission to share Stars Align at the end of the video.)
Unusually, the nerf hammer fell softly, relatively speaking. This may show you why. The list is now fully post-nerf.
COMBO ENABLER CARDS:
Obviously this is intended to get Aviana back to 9, which gives you the most outs. Because hands tend to be full with SA Druid, it can be very good in that way, even without Aviana in hand, especially if you need a body/soft taunt on the board. Having The Coin or Twig of the World Tree or Flobbidinous Floop leaves you another way to combo, if you go that route.
Twig of the World Tree, has a LOT of benefits in this deck (see Twig tech spoilers below) besides just ramping, but does give you a way to get 10 mana back without having Kun the Forgotten King at all, in case you do not pull him or the second Juicy Psychmelon. Or so you can get the combo off several different ways, to accomodate various situations.
Twig Tech Notes: Twig of the World Tree has several versatile tech properties that give the deck a few extra wrinkles beyond a little more ramp.
Enabling the combo is its primary purpose, so we'll start there, but I added spoilers on other ways it can be used to extend the reach or achieve the combo.
For standard enabling, you either break it with a swing when its durability is 1 right after playing a full cost Aviana.
Alternatively, you can break it by playing Medivh, the Guardian for 1 with The Coin (or without, if Aviana was discounted by Emperor Thaurissan or Flobbidinous Floop). This enabler is most useful if you lacked Kun, the Forgotten King.
Here are additional ways you can make the Twig work for you:
More Combo Options with Twig:
You can change the order of the combo with Twig in play! Instead of starting with Aviana, you can start with Medivh, the Guardian, just as soon as you hit 8 mana (which can be very early with the other ramp)!
Atiesh, Greatstaff of the Guardian breaks the Twig of the World Tree. That jumps you to 10 full mana from 8, making Medivh, the Guardian part of a ramp combo.
To go this route does require The Coin or that Aviana be reduced by Emperor Thaurissan, unless you are trying to stick it for a turn (maybe due to Floop in hand).
Twig is Anti-Explosive Runes:
It helps you get around the combo-breaking Explosive Runes!
By playing Medivh, the Guardian first with the Twig in play, you trigger the secret without losing Aviana as you start the combo, reset to 10 mana, and can start with a 9-cost Aviana (or 10w/The Coin} the same turn.
You do have to Ancient Brewmaster-bounce Medivh, the Guardian back to hand and replay him to get Medivh back to 7 health (If you don't have North Sea Kraken and need both Star Aligners to proc), but it saves a win condition for you in a tough match-up.
Extra Mana for Combo Card Fishing During the Combo Turn:
Another great extra wrinkle is that you can get a lot of extra mana during the combo turn... this can be critical if your opponent is one turn from lethal and you do not yet have all the cards you need.
With Twig of the World Tree in play, drop a reduced 9 cost (or natural 10 w/The Coin) Aviana, then Kun the Forgotten King to reset mana to max, use all but one of Kun's 10 mana to fish for combo pieces!
Play any cards to find what you need (Witchwood Piper if you are missing Brann Bronzebeard or Ancient Brewmaster, Juicy Psychmelon if you need that second Star Aligner, or Branching Paths/Nourish/Wild Growth for a Hail-Mary prayer to the RNG'zus of drawing.
Just save one mana for Medivh, the Guardian to break the Twig (or the final Twig swing), and voila, reset after having gone fishing for the coup de grace!
You have to be on it, though, as this adds a lot of actions/animations to the turn. Don't try this on your mother's old computer!
Extra Mana for Greater OTK Max Damage Reach:
Similarly, you can use the extra mana before the reset to double Swipe first, then go off, which extends the max damage range of the OTK.
These open a vast range of strategic options you do not have without the Twig of the World Tree in the deck.
Flobbidinous Floop was not native in this list because it is a highly situational combo enabler, much more than the others.
Flobbidinous Floop's main use is to give you a second crack at Aviana (cheap enough to combo on its own), if the first full cost one fails to stick.
It has a few other uses beyond flooping the Star Aligners (mostly w/Loatheb, Emperor Thaurissan, and Kun the Forgotten King), but, unless you need to play in on curve to slow down opposing aggro/tempo plays, you are going to hold it, usually.
Although obvious why its on here, as a combo enabler, the fact that The Coin is the one card you are more likely to start any game with than any card in your deck, makes it worth inclusion in the list of key cards. See below for why Innervate did not make the cut, but add to that, the frequency of having this card as one more reason.
OTHER CARD CHOICES:
Removing Blingtron 3000 (and its status as a top substitute)
With Aviana at 10 now, using Blingtron 3000 with Twig takes away an Aviana enabler (swinging with Twig at 1 Durability to reset mana to 10; using Blingtron 3000 to break it for ramp earlier removes Twig from its availability for a mana reset after playing a 10 cost Aviana). As the ramp to 10 alone doesn't do as much for you without some other Aviana enabler in hand, I felt Blingtron 3000 had to be replaced with a more direct enabler in Flobbidinous Floop.
If you do not have (or like) Floop, I would suggest reverting back to Blingtron 3000 as a sub. You do still have the other enablers, and it is good tech. Its old shenanigans still work if you have The Coin or get Aviana discounted with Emperor Thaurissan.
I will miss it against Aluneth, Skull of the Man'ari, Kingsbane and Warrior, which are all difficult and the weapon removal helped. I still go back and forth on this slot, depending on the meta on any given day.
No Biology Projects
I played slightly different versions of SA Druid for about six weeks prior to this, almost all without any Biology Projects (nor Innervates), and had no trouble. Having no Biology Projects does slow down the game (much fewer five minute wins) but did not greatly drop my win rate.
No Innervates
I tried this list with Innervates when the nerf was announced, and switched them for other options that work to enable the combo with Aviana's new cost.
The reason is unlike its early ramp potential in other decks, you generally have to hold the first Innervate, which makes it completely dead (except for the combo assist).
Other combo assist options (Twig of the World Tree/Emperor Thaurissan) do a better job contributing to board development or offense.
Naturalize vs. Lesser Jasper Spellstone
You can run Lesser Jasper Spellstone instead of Naturalize, but I prefer the latter. It never has to be boosted and is overall less limited removal. More importantly, Naturalize can often be used to burn opponent draws, which is a huge boon in many match ups, including the mirror. Lesser Jasper Spellstone is better against aggro, though, no doubt, so, your preference, or, split the difference.
You could use the Loatheb slot to sub in something else. Although fairly standard in SA lists, it is basically tech. However, Loatheb is nearly invaluable for those occasions when you can only get halfway there with the combo and need to protect your board from AoE (or Spreading Plague in the mirror) for one turn... with Brann Bronzebeard in play, Loatheb makes spell casting impossible. Its the single best way to protect your board for a turn when you will need it.
For me, the biggest thing about the nerf is not making the combo harder by needing help for Aviana to get going, but because of the increased possibility of delaying Kun the Forgotten King, less for his mana reset (in this build) as much as because you need his 7 Health body.
For this reason, we use North Sea Kraken (post nerf) in place of Alexstrasza (pre-nerf). This gives you a pull on the 9 slot post-nerf for Juicy Psychmelon in place of Aviana, one that adds a 7 health minion to the list and that adds at least some additional battlecry damage. This increases the decks reach when you can play it AND both Star Aligners, and is situationally useful in other ways with the partial combo.
Alexstrasza (from the pre-nerf list) is more devastating than North Sea Kraken when the opponent is at full health (especially when they have armor, also), but North Sea Kraken gives you an extra 7 health minion in case you have to do the combo without Kun the Forgotten King via Twig of the World Tree (see that spoiler).
CLOSING COMMENTS:
Lowering to +20 likes when I will add specific combo sequences for various options and damage totals available with the build. Adding Mulligan/Matchup guide at +30.
Will add video if any of the site's streamers (Kiwi 'n' Bacon, KrisLive, or Tommy Wave for example) make one available in the comments.
'Favorite it' (the heart) and have your settings set to get notified of updates on 'favorited' decks (if you want to know when updates happen).
Thanks for your +1s!
10/17 Update Notes
(Updated 10/17: Cut one Innervate for Emperor Thaurissan, who can restore Aviana's cost to 9 and is pretty good with your generally full hand.
Cut the other for Blingtron 3000 as a personal preference (both for ramp with Twig and as occasional anti-legendary weapon tech).
You could instead put Flobbidinous Floop in this slot if you prefer how it can play as Aviana a turn after her on the cheap, or just keep an Innervate if you don't have those.
Leaving most references to Innervate in the article, as it still applies when you have The Coin or if you choose to keep one in your list).
Hi i made my own list with mechatun as well:
I was at 4 health vs big priest then i otk him with aviana, innervate kun and alextrasa bran and 2 star alligner
mechatun is second win condition
https://hsreplay.net/replay/hkhDUo4dDaMhMmMP72cqsR
Elephant in my room... does that lady really play the fiddle like that or is that some sort of MTV bs?
You know, thank you for asking that! I had hoped someone might be as intrigued as I was. I only found out about Lindsey Stirling a week ago or so when I Google searched 'Stars Align' to see if it gave me anything memey I could throw in here, and was really surprised with how much I liked it and her. As a result I looked up more and found out a lot:
She really does play and dance at the same time like that, with insane energy; just check out the strength and muscle tone in her legs in the video below! She has been playing and dancing since she was a child, and was on America's Got Talent, season 5 (I think) as a teen. She has concert footage on YouTube, where you can see her live performances. She dances AND plays the violin craaaazily! I love how she mixes genres, like rock, dub step, celtic, and more.
You can tell its live because you can sometimes hear it affect her violin play (although I am not sure her vocals are not sometimes sync'd or just played during at least portions of her concerts, because, its crazy enough to dance and play violin, I imagine throwing the vocals in too is a bit much to expect).
Of course, Stars Align was an MTV style video, but check out her live stuff... here is a video with snippets of probably every song in one concert set. Its 17 minutes long, and she doesn't come out till about 1 minute in, then you get like a minute or so of each song in the set, so just skip through till something catches your ear/eye if you don't have time for it all.:
Lindsey Stirling Summer Tour 2018 Montreal 2018-07-30
Turns out she did soundtrack stuff (or maybe just cover videos, not sure) for Assassin's Creed 3 and 4 and she has a video with her playing in the Skyrim theme song, so she definitely has ties to the gaming industry, too.
Here is a link to her official YouTube channel, where those and other videos (like her versions of Lord of the Rings songs) are available:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MOg8Cz9yfWg
and to her website: https://lindseystirling.com/home/
BTW: I am no way affiliated with her, just a very new fanboy, and since someone asked, wanted to share what I have had the pleasure to learn!
Love watching PowerOfCheez playing this deck. Well thought out and a lot of times surprises me with wins I don't see coming. Awesome guy to learn from and awesome deck! Glad he befriended me!
Edit.
Thanks, WildWillyD! I wish I could have streamed and captured some of those games you spectated, but I need a computer with a working microphone to do it, my laptop mic sounds like its under 30 feet of water, lol, so I gave up till I can get a new one. I'd have to capture games that have unusual finishes to make it worth watching, since the usual victory path is about as boring to watch as to experience.
I enjoy the deck, but I really did expect (and wish) that they would have nerfed it better... it would have been far better to make Star Aligner only damage enemy minions, or a Choose One (damage to minions or enemy, which would kill the battlecry doubling off Brann, also).
Of course, that would kill the deck entirely, but I do not think that is necessarily bad.
BTW, I know WildWillyD is a newer guy here and I wanted to alleviate suspicion that he might be a dup account. I posted proof here below, but, for the ultra skeptical, mods can easily verify the IP address of origin is completely independent of mine, please feel free to write one to ask.
WildWillyD is a newer player and mostly FTP, while I am definitely a long timer and PTW (on NA, FTP on Asia and EU). There are newer players on here, with low trophies/short time, but not every such account is a scam, though I understand the skepticism.
He's a really nice guy (as you can tell from his post; I'm not, so much, lol). If you message him here, I am sure he would be glad to increase his friend list on HS and invite you. Mine is full up.
As the proof shows, I did send him a message that I posted an article here so he could check out the article, because I knew he spent a lot of time watching me play, even when he didn't have the spectate quest, and I knew he had seen it in action. It also shows some of the history going back several weeks, when I was playing different versions of this earlier.
Anyway, edited this to be generic, it was originally a reply to someone who was suspicious, but they quite kindly edited their original thought after this. Wanted to leave it up in general for others who might wonder, as the skepticism is understandable.
Deleted repost (was trying to reposition it in the thread, failed, and now the system wont let me delete the post, oddly, so... technical difficulty fun.
Yeah, I try to be a nice guy... although I made it for the first time to rank 10 in wild, so may be turning a little bit meaner...grrrr watch out. my id on hearthstone is WildWillyD#1524 if anyone needs a friend. beware I love to spectate tho...haha
Congrats on your rank 10 in Wild (with Even Shaman)!
I think that guarantees a golden rare in your end of month loot. Rank 5 guarantees a golden Epic, I know for sure.
So far Im 27/4 with your deck. Ppl scream "cancer" but both Jade and aggro hunter beats me so its not terminal cancer, just well thought out.
That's good to hear. thank you for commenting! I went 33-3 from 25 to somewhere in the upper teens before I settled into around 65%, which then dropped to closer to 58% in the single digits.
Agreed, aggro hunter is really tough. Several aggro match ups, are. I mean, at the upper rungs, you do not often get the gimme wins that people find cancerous about the deck. You get those now and then, but its the exception, not the rule. Its a challenge to stay alive usually, long enough to go off. This deck is certainly not the only one with a nut draw that is tough to beat.
I win (and lose) some games by fatigue. Reasonably often, I have to find a way to win with minion damage, usually when I am forced to do a partial combo only to board clear or die.
Occasionally, and I always find this interesting, the right path is Ancient Brewmaster at 4 mana into Loatheb at 5. There can be many twisted decisions along the way, and I enjoy that, win or lose.
I made (and still make) a lot of mistakes... it does actually take some skill to pilot if you do not get the nut draw, sometimes more more skill than I have, lol. I do not doubt better players would have better win rates with this than mine!
So far 33 / 7 i didnt get to play much today, and I changed a few minor cards. my last 2 games were losses against a Big res Priest (who I beat in our first match, and he got super lucky with RNG in the second) and then a kingsbane rogue, which I never stood a chance. how can they not nerf kingsbane? it was way more cancerious than 7,8,9,10 drood...
[Edited for post nerf list change that removed Alexstrasza for North Sea Kraken:] Because you will have to kill a Kingsbane Rogue as fast as possible, before lifesteal gets out of hand, you often have to drop only the partial combo instead of taking time to fish for it all... Loatheb
and Alexstrasza areis key at this point. If they already have the Lifesteal buff, try to drop most of the combo with Loatheb (and preferably Bran) with everythingEXCEPT Alex (unless he lets you kill them by dropping him first, or you need his life to stay alive).This way, even if they live, they cant use anything except new taunts to stop face damage the next turn (your board is protected from all but Kingsbane, Rush/Charge, and Vilespine Slayer, so you win if they cant kill and stop all but 15, after you drop Alex to nullify whatever life they gained right before that push.Your tech hope against Kingsbane is to wait until they break it but do not recover it
save Blingtron 3000 until its in playand they have at least 6+ cards in hand, then, use Naturalize (or two) to cause them to overdraw. The odds on this getting Kingsbane of their deck are slimmer the earlier you do it (bigger deck size. lower mill odds), but you can't afford to wait; if you have the window... any odds are better than none. Still, they usually beat me unless they get a crap hand and I get a nut draw.