Hearthpwn

I just created this deck and I am really excited. From theorycrafting and first tries, I think this has to be the future!

One week later: Weeell, I think I was only partly right a week ago. Undatakah is fun, but very slow and helps only in very specific matchups that make up for 5.3% of the decks. For a new Taunt Druid version which focusses on the Witching Hour combo without Oakheart (I know: BOOORING, but it is better imho) take a look at this deck Taunt Druid - The Future Part. 2

What is wrong with the old Taunt Druid?

The Taunt Druid could play most of his important minions only after he reached 8 or 9 mana. Moreover, many high winrate Taunt Druids run only one Dragonhatcher. That means that your Oakheart turns are usually gonna be rather meager - you might draw Dragonhatcher first, you might not.

There is just too much luck involved: Do I draw Oakheart on turn 9? Is there a Dragonhatcher left when I draw Oakheart? Are there even Dragons left in the deck after the first Dragon is pulled? Do I pull Hadronox and does it get silenced or hexed?

The chances of drawing Oakheart on turn 9 and having a Dragonhatcher in the deck are, depending on how much you draw, below 25% if you run 1 Dragonhatcher. Add the condition that you still want a least one Dragon in your deck and you are slightly above 20%. Since it's turn 9, you have played on average 2 taunts - one Golem and an 8 cost taunt. You don't really want to pull Hadronox because it duplicates weak taunts and furthermore it is open to hex or silence. With one Golem in the deck, that gives you a 50/50 chance. So the chances that everything goes according to plan on turn 9 is slightly above 10%.

And Oakheart turns do not have the huge impact they have for Big Druid, so the swing turn usally does not win the game. And most of the game you just don't draw it until turn 9. Also you don't want to depend so much on luck to win a game!

The Future

So we have established that the Dragon combo is slow and rather inconsistent. What if there was a Taunt Druid deck that is faster and better against aggro, more consistent AND ensures via 2 options that you can play multiple Hadronoxes? And what if there where minons that are ressurected even stronger than Sleepy Dragons and can be played not on turn 9 but on turn 6?! Damaged Stegotrons are 5/12 minons when ressurected and can be played much earlier!

And do I care about Mage sheeping one of my Taunts? NO! Astral Tiger adds extra Hadronox Combos together with Da Undatakah. If you played 2 Astral Tigers and Hadronox, Undatakah is shuffled twice into your deck and resummons all taunts whenever he dies. That combo doesn't care about beasts or no Beasts.

Juicy Psychmelon always draws you Hadronox as well as some strong Taunts. There is no more premature Hadronox ejaculation with Master Oakheart. You can play Hadronox when you want it!

Strategies

Wait with Juicy Psychmelon against Control Warlock in order to play around Demonic Project

Use witching hour and cube first if you are afraid of silence and don't have a Greater Jasper Spellstone for your Undatakah to instantly kill it! People will silence this stuff and think it is over! But then comes Da Undatakah for the win!

Witching Hour is sort of an insurance against the disruption of the Undatakah combo. It is just one card and I think this is truely worth it (Cube can be used in other ways too).

If you play against another Taunt Druid or a similarly slow deck, you might want to keep your Ironwood Golems and Oaken Summons to make your taunt pool more potent.

Don't play more than one (if you are planning to use Cube before Undatakah), max. two Astral Tigers before playing Da Undatakah because it reduces your chances of getting infinite Hadronox Combos.

The counterstrategy for all Mages and Shamans is to Hex or Polymorph the first Astral Tiger. That removes both resummoning strategies. If the meta comes that far, the counterstrategy is to spellstone the own Astral Tiger

And don't forget about the Witching Hour Cube combo! :)

Mulligan

As usual look for ramp!

Against aggro you want to keep Wild Growth, Oaken Summons as well as removal e.g. Spellstone or Wrath vs. Odd Rogue, Naturalize vs Even Warlock and Swipe especially vs. Odd Paladin.

If you want to see the deck in action, take a look at KiwiinBacon's video!

Card alternatives and the version without Undatakah

vs Aggro (somehow, during the day there is always more aggro :)

One problem with this deck is, that Oaken Summons does not consistently draw a Taunt Minion in the early game because it can pull Astral Tiger. If you are having trouble with aggro decks, a more traditional version with no Undatakah/Astral Tiger and an additional Witching Hour and Cube instead should perform better. The one turn combo Witching Hour + Cube is easier to pull off than Undatakah + Spellstone as you might have used Spellstone for other enemy minions.

The Udatakah combo is a hell of a lot of fun, but it is only needed in heavy fatigue situations, vs. Big Spell Mage (not Odd Mage) and Shudderwock and Even Shaman. And they make up for 5.3% of the decks as of today.

For more discussion on Undatakah vs. no Undatakah take a look at this new version which focusses on the Witching Hour combo without Oakheart: Taunt Druid - The Future Part. 2

If you face a lot of aggro decks like Odd Paladin or Zoolock and can't win, try replacing  one or two Damaged Stegotrons with Rabble Bouncers.

You can also replace a Ferocious Howl with Zilliax. Since Oaken Summons is less consistent with Astral Tiger, Zilliax as removal + lifesteal + taunt helps a lot against aggro. And once you play Hadronox, you get more instant removal and heal as well which helps a lot against Aggro.

Recent changes

My firsts version included Damaged Stegotrons instead of Furious Ettins. They could be played one turn earlier and are even stronger than Sleepy Dragony when resurrected. However, they have no synergy with Juicy Psychmelon, so I tried Furious Ettin in my second version. But when I looked at the winrates of the two decks, the Stegotrons fared  better than the deck with Furious Ettins so I took out Zilliax (which is not doing so well for many taunt decks) and replaced one Furious Ettin with Stegotron to keep the big 5 12 minion but also keep some Psychmelon synergies.

FTP Comments

This deck also has the advantage that it is a bit cheaper. You don't need Master Oakheart or the Dragonhatchers and you can replace Primordial Drake with Ironbark Protector or Furious Ettin if you don't have them. And if you don't have Da Undatakah, well then the old combo will have to suffice.

I truely recommend crafting the Undatakah even for FTP Players. It's a  great neutral card and can be used in a variety of Decks (Undatakah Even Paladin, Mech Deathrattle Hunter, Undatakah Deathrattle Rogue). Many of them use Zilliax and Undatakah and thus you get a lot of decks with two legendary cards. I care a lot about that too, because I'm ftp myself. Two years now, so I have less restrictions, but I know you can't just craft any deck. Btw: adding a second account helps because you get twice the rewards each time a new expansion gets out. I have one account for my usual stuff and another one where I craft further away decks (like Recruit Hunter) and disenchant most cards.

I'd like to hear your experiences! Please comment below.

Great job everybody! Only a 0.4% higher winrate, and this is the best Undatakah Druid deck (Screenshot Source). Eventually I think, this will happen naturally, as the Undatakah combo will be more often disrupted. But we have a second win condition! Long live the witch!

Thanks for all the videos and feedback!