Hearthpwn

Hi there, and welcome to SeminoleWind's Bill Millin deck. If you're some try hard who needs to win at this game, let me save you some time and tell you to get lost. This is a slow moving, opponent entertaining, card drawing deck. The main theory behind this deck is that card draw is a profound part of many metas, and that doubling down on that draw and the enemy's aggression often is enough to win. This deck is a LOT of fun. I can hardly stand to play this pay to win, thinly constructed game, but somehow, like an ubermenche, this deck makes the game worthwhile to me. You will lose a lot, to decks that are all about aggro. You will win some games effortlessly, and for unexpected reasons. You will kill enemies with fatigue. All the while, you will do it in a way so entertaining, you will often get well played and appreciation from your opponents. 

This is the fifth iteration of this deck, with new insights on it's condition post League of Explorers. 

Strategy:

First of all, the gestalt of this deck is much stronger than any individual portion of it. That is to say, it's cards are often designed to work together, and many elements of it alone are next to useless. For this reason, your goal early game should be to establish an early rotation of cards so that you have many in your hand, and your opponent will hopefully be overdrawing. Ideally, you will play early Coldlight Oracle and Grove Tender to establish early board presence, paired with Dr. Boom  and Druid of the Claw to fake out control elements of the deck. Massing little creatures can be attended with star fall, and Explosive Sheep, and huge creature plays can be punished with control elements of your deck, which will be available owed to them being a huge percentage of your deck. As you get to the mid game, the goal should be to stall the game out, utilizing Poison Seeds-Starfall and Malorne to clear the board of overly dangerous elements, along with natural combat between the minions on the board. The end game will continue this stall and card draw, hopefully ending with opponent fatigued and suddenly realizing that a majority of your earlier plays had a subtext.

Combos:

Poison Seeds****Starfall

An obvious Board clear. Note that it keeps alive whatever is on your side of the board in the form of treants. A great board clear when you have an opponent with powerful and mid-ranged minions swarming your board. Caution though. If you know you have the resources to heal incoming damage, say, the opponent will do 10 damage with the creatures on the board and you have tree of life, you may wish to delay the play for another turn, adding another enemy creature or two to the purge. That's a judgement call that potentially can waste three more cards of your enemy's deck, you'll learn it with experience. 

Poison Seeds-****Explosive Sheep****Moonfire

Pre goblins and gnomes, poison seeds and Starfall was a good board clear, but often with aggro it arrived too late to make a difference in the game.  No more, as long as you have these three cards, and play them in sequence, you can nuke the entire board provided you have 6 mana. It also opens up the option to utilize Starfall for other purposes, say, to nuke that Yeti or to take down a large creature with 4 remaining health. 

Coldlight Oracle****Youthful Brewmaster****Naturalize

Coldlight first, lift it up, and play it again. Adds 4 cards to each player's hand, costs 8 mana, and will burn any surplus cards above 10 the opponent might have, including an additional one when his turn comes around and he draws. Paired with naturalize, you can potentially burn 6 cards from an opponent's deck. Deathwings, Ragnaros, Mind controls, all unplayed that you don't have to deal with later.

/ Naturalize****Lorewalker Cho**** Moonfire

Naturalize will fill a whopping 3 slots in his hand if cast with Lore Walker Cho on the board. In certain Situations, and paired with moon fire, Lorewalker Cho can be as efficient at filling a hand as a Coldlight Oracle. You have to weigh the costs and benefits of utilizing naturalize like this, however.

Deathlord ****Naturalize or Poison Seeds

Usually Deathlord has too crippling a death rattle to be worth it, however, paired with naturalize, you can utilize death lord to actually assassinate huge enemy minions. Use the death lord to clear dinky little minions. Do not attack with it as it's about to die. On the enemy turn, it will be killed, and it will draw out an enemy minion. If it's a little one, hero power it or treat it like any other minion. If it's a big un, poison seeds or naturalize. You can even run a death lord into a super powered minion right before a purge to kill another creature. Utilized in this way, Deathlord acts as one of the most insidious card draws in the game. It kills not only whatever it can manage to on the board, it also wastes whatever effort the opponent puts into killing it, and in the end draws an additional card. Works better vs certain races, very much dependent on how long it will "stick" to the board. Hunters and priests will kill it too fast, save it for the endgame. Against shammies and Rogues, always a fine play.

 

Lorewalker Cho****Any big Minion or board full of creatures.

Spells are often the way that opponents keep big minions under control. Provided he's unkilled by minions or silenced the turn he comes out, whatever resources go into taking him or his allies out will be acquired by you. It is a massive win to acquire a shadow word death, or a flame strike in this manner. That's just granting you more tools to control the board.

Lorewalker Cho****The Coin*****Moonfire

If your opponent has close to a full hand, it is well worth it to shoot off moon fires at random (opportune) targets and spend a coin if you've got it. This will activate cho, fill his hand, and burn whatever card is coming the next turn. The reason is that the enemy will naturally return fire with the 0-cost spells, and because of Explosive Sheep, the dinky one damage of a moon fire will always be more valuable to you than to him. It's about utility, and if you burn a ironbark, a giant, or a ragnaros, isn't that worth a moon fire out of your deck?

 

Matchups:

Mage: The actual threat of a mage deck is high cost damage spells and secrets. This deck is a good mix of big and small creatures, so "faking out" mirror entity with a cold light or a sheep is a good strategy to use process of elimination to figure out what the secrets might be, eat a vaporize, and so forth. If a cho is mirror entitied, chaos will ensue that will only serve your purposes, so try to make that happen. Cho is a great tool in general vs a mage, he'll always get you a frost bolt, a fireball, or poly. ALWAYS, ALWAYS play tree of life if you fall below 10 health. Pyroblast is such a popular finisher, always assume your opponent has one. The good news is mages tend to rely on damage in a steady fashion and you have the tools to deal. Mech mages are a new meta as of late, and are substantially difficult to deal with for this deck, almost a counter. I've won a few games vs Mech mages, but for it to work with this deck things are literally going to have to go your way throughout the game. You're going to have to have poison seeds and a sheep in your hand early, the next poison seeds in your hand with star fall later, Tree of life at the perfect time, and so forth. Seeing as how absolutely broken Mech mage is right now (yeah, 2/3 2 drop with a benefit, that just so happens to summon every creature in the game that's 2-in-1 for less mana, that makes sense), forgive this deck for not being an absolute counter to it.

Priest: Priests have gotten significantly tougher the last couple of expansions. Moderation is key with them. Often with this deck it's better to let them build a board, and grand clear it with poison seeds-sheep or star fall and keep control cards in their hand than to play a card that will just be removed or controlled with a card you know he has anyways. Don't play Malorne against them, ever, and I'd hesitate to play Dr. Boom either. This class seems to Blizz's darling, they have great control, and corny creatures now as well. But try to manipulate your card draw and the resources he's spending so that hands fill up and he thoughtsteals stuff that will hurt him to have.

Rival Druids: Either tend to be counter-mill or savage-roar combo based. Vs. Mill, play your small creatures, and let him build up his card count. When he mills you, respond for an even more devastating mill. You'll probably win, just use your own knowledge to keep your hand low and counter play. Vs. Combo druids, keep your taunts in hand, and try to keep the board as clear as possible. The usually sucky death lords will be your savior when you reach the late game, although if the board gets out of control you may lose. Savage roar druids are tough to win against, because they are guaranteed to get the combo twice as you mill out their deck.

Warlocks: Often are a very easy matchup. Their hero power is essentially: "Do 2 damage and help your opponent's purpose," so that's good. Keep the pace slow at the start, don't play death lords or creatures that will make them spend a lot of cards. When they get to 8 cards, start milling. Save your ooze for Jarraxxus, don't be afraid to take a bit of damage if they play a giant. Try to use your poison seeds to take out at least two major threats at once. The other type is aggro. Utilize Swipe, Starfall, and Explosive sheep to control the board. The good news about warlock aggro is that it can be kept in check with taunts and tree of life can prove a HUGE plot twist on the life of the game.

Warrior: Generally are a pretty fair matchup. Often the damage a warrior does will come from a bloated, buffed minion, or from weapons. Try to control both, view enrage minions as serious threats, and use your hero power often to get your own armor going. Usually a warrior deck is packed full of control, rendering your deathlords worse than useless. On the other hand, Warriors are pretty weak against board clears, and the way they kill you is generally some gimmick you can heal away from the fatality of (Alex, ext.)

Shammy: Bloodlust and hex are your main enemies, as well as earth shock. Usually, because totems are so prevalent, They do make good marks for milling, and often if you can take down key elements of their deck they will be much less of a threat. A full board of totems is a death sentence, though, so do what you can to control the board. Deathlords can clean house so well when it comes to totems, it may be worth to coin one out. It'll probably eat a hex or multiple spells otherwise attributed to your face, freeing up the drop of a late game minion. Very RNG based, unfortunately, taunt totems can dick you over, you burning his two fire elementals can screw him too. Keep in mind that a big minion can do half of your health if windfuried, and if the board is filling up with minions, bloodlust is coming and it may be time to clear.

Hunter: Hunter is, at it's present stage, a very unstable matchup, but it is one a druid is capable of winning. The main thing is to utilize death lords to soak as much damage as possible, and maybe even brew them out and back in, so that they have to deal with them twice. Before tree of life is not the time to play aggressive. The damage you do will be healed anyways, and that two damage you take attacking for no reason and activating an explosive trap may be the damage that does you in. Keep in mind this is the rare instance where you can out board control your adversaries, and if you get tree of life in your opening hand, keep it there. Lorewalker cho can actually do a lot of damage, hunters tend to forget animal companion is a spell, and explosive trap/ unleash the hounds can be just as helpful to you as it is to him.

Rogue: The hallmark of a Rogue is strait damage to the face, lacking board presence, and good control. I'd highly recommend swapping Brewmaster priority from Coldlight oracles to Oozes (if Oil Rogue) and especially Deathlords (If Face Rogue). If picked up correctly, Deathlords potentially can absorb a TON of damage as well as perhaps an assassinate. That damage would otherwise go strait to your face, so get one down early, pick it up often, and have the retaliation ready if one dies. Save Oozes for situations that demand them, not a dinky 1/2 weapon, but rather a 3/4 weapon, one augmented by oil,  or double deadly poisoned. Mill rogues are annoying to play against, but you'll probably win if you face one, because so much of your deck, when picked up, can be placed down again and YOU have the healing and armor whereas he has to resort to Neutral creatures to get it.

Paladins: Paladins are really annoying. A major key to them is to realize that there are two creatures on the board when he drops one: the creature that he played and the creature that it will be next turn when he buffs it. Use pre-emptive strikes against major threats to take them out in the first stage. Your death lords and any major creature in the deck will be paper thin owed to equality, plan your plays out as if you only will get one turn with that particular creature on the board. Use the delay poison seeds trick to bait out buffs and additional creatures, usually, because of their hero power and the various weapons and buffs a pally brings, the deck itself will be thin on creatures.

 

Purposeful neglection:

Malygos This was my first legendary, highly influential in this deck (you can tell by the moon fires) It had it's run, but this card is, given the state of the game, way to slow for practical use, unless you're gonna build your deck around it and one-turn damage. It's hideous when stolen by a priest, it's a capable fighter, but not a game-breaking one, and so on.

Brann Bronzebeard It's the disappointment of the year to state this card really isn't as great as I thought it would be for mill. For rogues it's probably fine, but for druids, It's just too much card draw. If it works at all. a 2/4 body is a magnet for punishment and control, and it can be taken out by any random dinky control spell and a hero power.

Sir Finley Mrrgglton Gave this card a shot. Not really my cup of tea. It's a great turn one drop for this deck, that part you'll like. What's unfortunate about it, is that only one hero power is better than the druid one for this particular deck: That'd be the mage, that you can utilize as a moon fire whenever you've got two mana. Every other hero power is worse. That's just bad odds.

Chromaggus

This is the number one minion I would include that is missing from this deck. Great body that avoids a ton of control, incredible active, can pair it with coin to draw four cards the turn it comes out with a cold light oracle, ext. I recently replaced it with Mukla, because given the current state of the game, so much is determined early and it can be a real struggle to rely on late game cards like this. I would replace Mukla for it in a heartbeat, with no regret. If I had 31 cards, this would be the other card I would put in.

Stalagg and Feugen: Pre Golbins and Gnomes, I included these two Naxx creatures. The theory was that with two poison seeds, the wombo combo potential of both of them dying at the same time made them a worthy inclusion. I did win a lot of games that way, as often it's a great methodology of wasting enemy control. The two are often a great distraction, too. Enemies tend to think: "oh, a stalag-feugen deck" and ignore the fact that you have 6 more cards than them. However, Stalagg is just an awful card, and presence of a rival stalagg and feugen in the opponents deck can really make your elements of control inoperable, not to mention that one can be stolen by a priest, adding potentially two huge enemies that have to be brought down. If I fought nothing but hunters I'd include these guys. The game's bigger than that though.

Dancing Swords: Is the worst mill card in my opinion. It does a lot of damage, sure. Has dropping one turn one with innervate won me a game? Yup. However, it falls to all of the warlock spells in one blow, can't kill a yeti unassisted, and (this is important) helps your opponent's card rotation and not yours while potentially wasting none of his resources. If it was a 4/5 it might be the best mill card. It's not. It's middle of the road and therefore excels at nothing. This has gotten more aggravated by goblins and gnomes, where it's possible to freeze with parts, as well as neuter with shrinkmeister and the like.

Kel'Thuzad- A great card for stalling's sake, as it potentially can rez allies during trades, essentially and potentially giving you another Druid of the Claw or giant, often in a surprising fashion to the opponent. He is easily stolen and mind-controlled by priests, and is such a fine target for faceless manipulation and (insert hard removal) that I excluded him.

Twilight Drake- This card has good synergy with what you're doing, and absorbs removal like a boss, but it is extremely weak against silences, and can be one-shot by a common shaman spell. It also is an extremely weak card in clutch endgame scenarios where you only have one card to top deck with the game on the line. It would be included if Hearthstone was a 35 card game, maybe even twice over, but deck limitations make it an exile from this one. Sorry Twilight Drake! You got me a fair amount of wins.

Innervate- Innervate is a great card insofar as it grants flexibility to your plays, allowing you to start milling early or mill to a greater degree earlier, or get cards out of your hand and on to the board. Paired with swipe, a coin, and Malygos, it can serve as a board clear on turn ten. The problem with it, as well as wild growth, is that it is a tool to play cards quickly, whereas the pace of play of this deck is unavoidably slow.  Again this would make it with 35 cards, but because it neither a. clears minions or the board on it's own, or b. Mills the opponent, it doesn't really belong in this deck.