Hearthpwn

Introduction

This deck features a lot of new, interesting cards and seems to be a powerful new archetype. Really looking forward to testing it out, there are several combos in the deck, which allow for insane swing turns and a really powerful lategame.

Game Plan

The goal of the deck is to ramp up mana to play buff and combo cards in order to get the biggest minions you possibly can get for little mana.

Early Game

Try to ramp up as quickly as possible without losing much health. You get out Overgrowth and Nourish out earlier through Lightning Bloom, Nature Studies or even Escaped Manasaber. You might need to drop some of your beasts early in order to not lose too much health and establish board presence.

Mid Game

 It's time to buff up your minions and prepare to cast Survival of the Fittest. Try to draw some of your combo pieces with Twilight Runner or Nourish. You survive through taunt cards, board control and removal such as Swipe.

Late Game

Now you have to make sure you stabilize. You want to get big taunt beasts in place and avoid taking too much damage. In most games it will be smarter to trade as much as possible since after using Survival of the Fittest once or even twice your minions will be so strong that sooner or later you will most likely win - if you don't give your enemy a chance to finish you earlier

Activators

There are a total of 6 activators for Groundskeeper and 8 possible beasts to summon with Guardian Animals. This means that in the majority of cases these cards will be activated.

Card choices

In my opinion Shan'do Wildclaw and especially Speaker Gidra are really underrated. They shine in this deck and combo nicely, as is explained later on.

Escaped Manasaber gives you bonus mana for early ramp or combos and is a well statted beast.

Lake Thresher might be a lot stronger than most people anticipate. When buffed up and recruited through Guardian Animals you get a rush minion that basically clears three minions at once.

Teacher's Pet for stickiness and taunt.

Twilight Runner for card draw.

Winged Guardian does not get recruited by Guardian Animals but is still an insanely strong card that benefits from minion buffs. Think about Embiggen druid, that deck also ran Winged Guardian because it is so hard to remove, especially when buffed up. Can also be combined with Shan'do Wildclaw.

Kael'thas Sunstrider and Ysiel Windsinger might seem like they don't belong into a beast druid deck but they enable some strong combos with the big spells. Also Survival of the Fittest is really hard to play on its own so you try to cheat it out. 

Combos

Ysiel Windsinger can most efficiently be used

• with extra mana through Escaped Manasaber
• with a discounted spell through Nature Studies
• with Lightning Bloom
• with Nourish
• simply with Survival of the Fittest (your soft taunt becomes a 9/9 as well)

Kael'thas Sunstrider + 2x Lightning Bloom or Nature Studies + Survival of the Fittest or Guardian Animals

Speaker Gidra can be combined with several spells, even when used with a cheap spell like Wrath you get an extra 3 mana 3/6 windfury rush. In the best case you combine it with Guardian Animals for a 3 mana 8/11 windfury rush in one turn. If Speaker Gidra sticks on board for a turn you can even combine her with Survival of the Fittest for a 3 mana 11/14 windfury.

Shan'do Wildclaw can either be used on curve or on its own for a mini Keleseth. Otherwise you use it in combination with one of your beasts (preferably Winged Guardian) or Guardian Animals for an extra buffed up beast for only 3 mana.

Possible replacements

Obviously the deck is not tested yet so at the moment you have to speculate on how the deck will perform as well as how compatible it will be with the meta. It seems that there will be an aggro-centered meta so we might have to exchange some lategame cards for extra survivability.

Innervate to cheat out cards like Overgrowth early or activate Kael'thas Sunstrider. Does not compete too well with Lightning Bloom, we will have to see if we still need Innervate

Ironbark for Kael'thas Sunstrider synergy or giving a huge beast taunt (in most cases for free).

Bogbeam for Kael'thas Sunstrider synergy as well as early/mid game removal.

Germination for extra combo potential as well as defensive power. This card will most likely be better in a variant of the deck with Forest Warden Omu

Starfall for extra removal.

Anubisath Defender has some synergy with the big spells but I found the other cards in the deck to be more valuable than a free 3/5 taunt. Might be worth a consideration.

Overflow extra survivability, card draw and big spell synergy.

Conclusion

I'm really looking forward to testing out this deck and sincerely believe that it will be powerful. This guide will be updated with stats once the expansion releases. Let me know what you think about it!