Introduction

Even druid got a major boost in recent expansions, and is incredibly fun to play if you like having a deck with multiple sources of synergy. It has a lot of cards that directly benefit from the 1 mana hero power, hero attack damage synergy, taunt synergy, buff synergy, and beast synergy. I've been refining this deck for over a month and the decklist finally feels really solid and enjoyable to play. Due to this unfun meta, I'm playing in wild casual so I do face some top meta decks but also a wide variety of others. I wouldn't recommend playing this deck in wild ranked at diamond or above, use something else if you want to climb. This deck is meant to be played in lower ranks or to have fun in the wild casual meta, which is actually quite nice (not the same 3 decks over and over, and you can always concede to very unfun decks). If people like this sort of deck that's not for ranked climbing but is fun and interesting to play in wild casual and lower than diamond, I'll post others like it and make in depth guides for them too.

 

Guide

Table of Contents

1. Deck Overview - The general idea of the deck and its strengths and weaknesses.

2. Win Conditions - General gameplan and win conditions against different deck types.

3. Mulligans - Some tips for the mulligan.

4. General Tips - General tips on playing this deck and card interactions to watch for.

5. Card Choices - Some insight about the cards included in this deck.

 

1. Deck Overview

Even Druid is an aggressive deck that relies on getting board control and then using its minions to win. It can have some burst damage from cards that give your hero attack, but minion based board gameplay is the main gameplan of this deck. It has the potential for early game tempo snowballing with Razormane Battleguard, and later in the game Embiggen will make your smaller minions bigger threats. The deck has a decent amount of card draw and can last for a while into the midgame even if the early threats are removed. It can be aggressive against slower decks while playing defense with taunts against more aggressive decks to eventually take board control and win.

 

Strengths

Good at getting on board early and fighting for board control.

Good at maintaining pressure consistently from the early game to the midgame, not running out of steam for a while.

Great at fighting against weapon attack and charge minion decks using taunts.

Can snowball and kill slow combo or value decks that don't draw removal very quickly.

 

Weaknesses

Decks with a lot of removal can outlast your minion waves.

Decks that cheat out a ton of stats early can be tough to win against.

 

2. Win Conditions

Against aggro: Don't rush aggro matchups, focus on gaining board control and defeating their early waves. Embiggen is going to turn your small minions into bigger threats so you will outvalue aggro in the midgame and lategame. Cards like Park Panther can rush into minions and give your hero attack to destroy others. Savage Striker is great for tempo and removal in one card. Razormane Battleguard along with taunts is another option. Your buff cards can be used to make surprise favorable trades. Finally, if you are losing a board control battle you have Blademaster Samuro who can be improved by Embiggen and your buff cards and can swing back board control for you especially against wide boards.

Against combo: You need to maximize attack damage face to win before their combo, you can often ignore their minions and let your taunts protect key minions like Wickerclaw. Focus on getting snowbally cards like Wickerclaw and Razormane Battleguard on board early. Wickerclaw can gain a ton of attack very quickly and push face damage to win, while Razormane Battleguard can create massive tempo by cheating out a lot of taunt minions early.

Against control: Be careful to not overcommit on board into board clears. Get your snowballing minions like Wickerclaw and Razormane Battleguard to rush them down early if possible, if they survive that maximize your card draw value and try to pressure them down with big threats buffed by Embiggen.

Overall, this deck has a ton of different synergies that blend together, and you are looking to maximize the benefit from those synergies to get board control, then push face damage using your board and if necessary, use some hero attack gain cards for the final bit of burst if a control deck regains board control.

 

Usually after this I would write a matchups section. However, I've been playing in wild casual while waiting for ranked nerfs, and the meta is very diverse there. I faced so many different decks that I can't do a matchup guide for any particular matchup. However, I do find it interesting that the deck went 5-1 against Questlocks in casual so maybe it can do ok in ranked. Still, the sample size is low so it's hard to draw any conclusions.

 

3. Mulligans

Always keep Embiggen, keep both if you get them.

If you have Razormane Battleguard, keep taunts and try to mulligan other non Embiggen cards to try to get more. The exception is mulligan Encumbered Pack Mule if you have another taunt in hand as well or if you don't but can mulligan at least 2 other cards.

If you have neither Embiggen nor Razormane Battleguard in your starting hand, mulligan all of it. You really want one of those cards for the early game.

Overall, when you mulligan aggressively for Embiggen or Razormane Battleguard early game highrolls, you get at least one of these most of the time, and sometimes both. Even if you don't, mulliganning so aggressively rarely hurts you because you have a lot of 2 cost minions in the deck and will likely get a playable hand anyway.

 

4. General Tips

Generally play Embiggens as early as you can, it's a key card to improve the strength of your deck and cards like Encumbered Pack Mule and Blademaster Samuro will benefit extra from this buff.

Coining out Razormane Battleguard turn 1 or playing it turn 2 into a taunt minion is a great play. The taunt will help Razormane Battleguard survive more turns to tempo out more taunt minions for free.

Keep in mind which of your minions are beasts and taunts to be able to plan using Mark of Y'Shaarj and Mark of the Spikeshell and maximize their value.

If you have an opportunity to do a great trade on board, it's often worth it to use Mark of the Spikeshell and Mark of Y'Shaarj even if you won't get their bonus card draw or card generation effects.

Sometimes you should save a buff spell for a future Blademaster Samuro turn, especially if you see you have him in hand and are against a wide board aggro deck.

Savage Striker can be used with Pounce, hero power, Park Panther, and Savage Combatant to deal more damage to an enemy minion and help a lot with board control.

Make sure to play Wickerclaw before you hero power, play Pounce, or attack with Park Panthers on any given turn so he can start getting buffed.

With Crystal Merchant, it's not necessary to always draw a card from it. Balance tempo and the board situation with your hand size. Especially against combo decks where you need to push as much face damage as possible early, it's often better to have more tempo than card draw.

Use your taunt minions strategically to protect key minions like Wickerclaw, Crystal Merchant, and Park Panther.

 

5. Card Choices

 

Hero Power Synergy

These cards have synergy with your cheap 1 mana hero power from being an even deck with Genn Greymane.

 

Hero Attack Synergy

These cards have synergy with either benefitting from or giving your hero power attack. Something to note is that Wickerclaw gains attack from each source of hero attack damage. So in one turn, if you hero power, play Pounce, and attack with a Park Panther, Wickerclaw will gain 6 attack.

 

Taunt Synergy

Taunts can be cheated out with Razormane Battleguard for great tempo, and are good by themselves to protect key minions and against aggro. Encumbered Pack Mule gives 2 taunts to your hand when drawn which is extra fuel for Razormane Battleguard, while Mark of the Spikeshell can also add more taunts to your hand.

 

Buff Synergy

 

Embiggen is a key card for this deck, it makes your minions a lot stronger. Encumbered Pack Mule will make an extra buffed copy in your hand after it. A lot of minions in this deck benefit extra from buffs due to having divine shield, rush, or a unique ability like Blademaster Samuro.

 

Beast Synergy

Finally, there's a bit of beast synergy in this deck where it has a lot of beasts that let Mark of Y'Shaarj draw a card when played on them.

 

In addition, outside of these synergy packages Crystal Merchant has been a card that performed really well for card draw. Using buffs on it including playing it after Embiggen and using taunts to protect it means you often draw multiple cards from it over several turns.

 

The deck has a lot of different synergies that often overlap. Maximizing the benefit of all of these synergies is a good strategy to lead to victory, and leads to multi dimensional, interesting gameplay.

 

 

Conclusion

This is a flexible aggro deck that can shift to midrange using Embiggen, has a board based playstyle, and has many different synergies to play around with. Let me know of any questions or comments about it below, and if you like this sort of deck in general.