Hybrid Druid is new meta (Combo/Taunt)
- Last updated Jul 2, 2015 (Blackrock Launch)
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Wild
- 18 Minions
- 12 Spells
- Deck Type: Ranked Deck
- Deck Archetype: Unknown
- Crafting Cost: 6060
- Dust Needed: Loading Collection
- Created: 6/11/2015 (Blackrock Launch)
- dimonenka
- Registered User
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- 4
- 9
- 17
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Battle Tag:
dimonenka#2339
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Region:
EU
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Total Deck Rating
135
This actually works!
Hello and welcome. I introduce you my hybrid Druid! It is a combination of 2 decks: combo druid and taunt druid. The purpose of the deck is to take the best of both decks and overcome weaknesses they have on their own.
Combo druids have been empowered since BR release with one great card, which is Emperor, so you could use your combos and win games even earlier, considering you have your ramp and your pressure. Still, druids could have been considerably easy killed by aggresive decks with much early pressure, which are very, very popular right now.
Taunt decks of Malfurion, on the other side, are usually pretty good vs agro, as that is their purpose in the first place - to have an unbrekable wall of endless creatures. But the weakness of the deck as i see it is that while they can stop face damage, they dont have much ways to seal the game, they have to trade and release creatures and thats about it. Win condition is only tempo, and often it isn't quite enough as it's too slow, and being slow means giving yout opponent a chance to find burst to end the game before you. And versus control decks it can suck arse as well.
And here comes a Hybrid deck. While having dos combos to seal a deal when needed and ramp to accelerate the process, it has many taunts to prevent you from dying while gathering your combo, and even plan B with winning just by succecfully trading minions with KT and getting a big board. This sounds good in theory and works versus most popular decks nowadays in practice.
Lets get into the cards.
Note, that this is only my opinion. If you get the idea of this deck, adjust it for your own. Innovate!
Innervate x2, Wild Growth x2 - your mana manipulation, as well as Emperor. Must have.
Wrath x2- card draw/removal. Must have.
Savage roar x2 - Must have. Card is very strong as a part of a combo, and as a card itself.
Three mana drops - you might not need a BGH against hunter, but i doubt you can play ladder without it, as now almost every deck has a target; MCTech can be replaced to the second shade, for example, but i personally love the card, it is either an okay 3 drop or a massive tempo swing.
Swipe x2- One of few actual removals. You might take only one, but i strongly prefer both.
Keeper of the Grove x2 - strong card, i consider it as a must have.
Sen'jin Shieldmasta x2 - you actually can replace em with Piloted Shredders or replace one with one Mystic, the choice is yours. I prefer more taunts.
5 mana taunts and Loatheb - you can vary them as well, put a Harrison Jones for example. You might go for Azure Drakes, but i don't like them in this druid, nor in any druid. This deck stil gotta have much taunts.
Force of Nature x2 - yes, you might take only one, but in most, not face-hunterous, matches you'd better have 2.
Doctor boom - still freaking OP, still wonderful with combo.
Ancient of war - taunt. Very, very strong one. Love it. Might have had 2, but have no place.
Ancient of lore x2 - must have. Heal and carddraw and a strong creature, come on.
KT - yes, this is a must have too.
Cards you might wanna add:
Zombie Chow x1 (If you want first drop to control the early board), Robo Cub x1 (Same purpose and a taunt. Yes noone uses it, but still might work. Right? Idk.), second BGH (If that's your fetish), Kezan Mystic (same and same for the following), Piloted Shredder x1 or x2, Harrison Jones, Azure Drake (Please don't), Sylvanas, Black Knight, second Ancient of War, Healbot, Cenarius (You might wonder, why it isn't ong the list. First, i don't really like this card. Second, i don't have it.), Ragnaros? (i doubt it).
Mulligan:
The rule i use for most games is simple: you go for early removal (Wrath), and turn 3-4 drops. If you already have ramp, you should not discard 5 drops as well. If you have all the ramp, doctor boom might be fine too. I hope you get the idea. You should have something to play in early turns. Plus, you need BGH vs Handlocks, you probably need swipe vs Hunters, and so on - common sense is your helper.
Conclusion:
Screw it, i am already tired. Thanks for your attention, try this deck out as it works very well, have fun with this deck, have fun with all the decks, have a good day, have a good life.
Upd about card switches.
Just so you know. Many people suggested to put Kezan Mystic - you can switch MCTech or one of sen'jins or shade for him. Some says that Deathlord is better than shade - so put him in if you lack taunts. It's okay to switch Loatheb for Harrison. But don't replace Kel Thuzad, he is essential.
Ok, you won.
Cenarius seems to be more reliable, so i replace KT for him. And temo mages and hunters are popular, so kezan works, thou MCtech is still good.
Matchups.
So, here is a quick matchup overview by JohnBellHood, who took legend with this deck:
"For the record, these were my stats over the final 3-4 days of the season:
Hunter 9-4
Paladin 12-4
Warrior 13-5
Warlock 5-5
Rogue 4-3
Shaman 1-0
Priest 2-3
Mage 2-6
Druid 1-5
I think that gives a pretty representative sense of what the deck does and does not do well. It has all the tools to dismantle aggro and weapon classes. It beats up on Patron and Control Warriors with the wonderful 31 point combos (double savage + Force + 1 5-attack minion). It has some of the same problems Druids have always had against HandLock. It can struggle against decks that snowball sticky minions, hence Zoo can be tricky, but not unwinnable. Druid mirrors against Combo-Oriented decks are weak. When a Druid gets double Shade or starts playing Shredders against your Sen'jins, it's a bad matchup. Most of the Combo Druids just have more efficient burst than this deck does. Finally, Mage is a bad matchup in both Mech and Flamewaker incarnations. The MechMage has Mirror Entity and BlastMage, which are a pain to face. The Flamewaker snowballs minions that Swipe doesn't really clear. 1 of my Mage wins was against a Freeze Mage; the other matchups are really quite bad. Basically, I would say that if you see a meta without many Mages or Druids, this deck is superb."
What about Loatheb for Harrisson?
Sometimes, I feel Loathed is just a 5/5 for five.. !
Harrisson can win game.
It's a viable change! If you find Harrison more important, put him in. Both can win games and both can be just creatures, so use a card you yourself find better. =)
I think KT is one of the most important cards in the deck, without KT deck is just a combo druid with few more taunts. But anyway, use decklist you find fitting!
Good deck, i just suggest replace -1Ancient of Lore and add [card]Ragnaros the Firelord [/card]or Alexstrasza you need more big minions for late game, imho :)
Well, Ancient is pretty big itself, i think. And 2 aditional cards will allow you to use all your mana for next few turns. But Cenarius gotta be good in this deck, if you want more expensive stuff.
Don't forget Lore is a must agaisnt hunter.. this 5 heal win game man !
I don't really know how this is new. I've been playing a free (No Adventure cards) version of this deck for three seasons now. Granted, though, I'm glad that other people are realizing how powerful it is! Now we're happy to see Face Hunters, and we're happy to see Mech Mages, because the Combo-Taunt Druid just blows them away. Or, it doesn't blow them away, per se. It just lasts like a Priest on drugs, hiding behind minions and more minions and so much value that their rushes can't reach you. And, if they do? Well, you've saved up enough cards by now! You've got that combo ready for the end, and it most often already is the end. Especially against weapon classes like Paladin, Hunter, and Rogue that use up their own life to kill you (and fail in doing so).
Anyway, I'll stop fangirling over how fun this deck is. As for myself, I prefer to have a Sunwalker and a Nourish instead of the two Ancients of Lore, but then I don't run the Adventure legendaries, so shizzle's different. Happy playing!
Well, the idea of the deck lies on top, imo. I'm sure there are many people who played combo/taunt druid before. It's jsut i am trying to popularize it as it is petty strong in this meta, and as i made a viable list of cards to fit the idea of the deck. I mean, many people post here just their versions of meta decks with few changes and still recive upvote. So it's not like i'm saying it's completely new, it just isn't popular for some reason.
Thanks for the commentary!
I highly recommend Arcane Nullifier X-21 over tazdingo in this deck. Tazdingo is primarily useful against a huntard deck, but is susceptible to Kill Command. Nully kills pretty much anything in a hunter deck and pretty much guarantees at least a 2/1 every time he is used.
Hm that's an interesting point. Only drawback is against Patron...
Nullifier is very deck and meta specific. I think it works well in Rogue as a roadblock to aggro and tempo decks and a nice target for Oil because it's hard to remove. It can also combo nicely in Shaman with the Power Mace. Here, it's a bit of a liability against Grim Patron, and it makes too little impact against the many 5/5s out there, eg. Shieldmaidens, Emperors, etc.
Yea, i know, those hunters. You can put here Kezan and/or Healbot to help with that problem. Many people below suggested kezan instead of MCTech for ladder. Even zombie chew might be a good choice. It's just i use this deck for tournaments, and this list is better there. Ladder, probably, needs even more anti-agressive stuff, so yea, try kezan and healbot as i said.
I hit legendary with this list, running MC Tech over Kezan last season (June). The deck is honestly very good against Hunters. I went 14-4, and one of the losses was to a weird Control Hunter. It just really needs to be played tightly. You can't panic. Generally use Ancient of Lore for Healing, Let the Hunter burn out his resources killing your taunts. Don't be afraid to use a combo piece for board clear. Try not to let him keep minions on board. Don't buff his weapons by popping secrets unless you have a big taunt like a Sludge or a Ancient of War. And above all, watch your curve. Turn 3 Innervate Sludge into turn 4 Sen'Jin is far preferable to Turn 2 Innervate Sen'Jin.
Doctor boom is still most op legendary itself, and it's awesome with combo, so i'd suggest to keep it. Though sylvanas or golem might be good in this deck as well as 6 drops.
Good deck with 70%+ winrate.
For me switched Mind Control Tech with Kezan Mystic
Thats totally viable!
good point. i think Kezan Mystic better than mind control tech for hunter and mage.
Kezan is good, i agree, but second sludge is good too. Maybe, you should just play 1 force of nature and kezan instead of secon. Or you may add a zombie chew instead of second force and replace MCTech with kezan.
This deck is GREAT! I replaced one of the Force of Natures with a Worgen Infiltrator for an early board presence though.
I agree, zombie chew must be better than worgen =)