Hearthpwn

The list I have here is much more aggressive than the other "Beast Druid" or "Fandral" lists, and I think it's generally more viable. Without a burst charge combo to close the game out, I just don't think midrange is as viable for Druids now as it was before. Instead, this deck works by getting board presence early, and threatening burst with Savage Roar or [card]Power of the Wild/card] consistently. This forces your opponent to trade down just to keep the board clear, and gives you guaranteed tempo for at least the first 4-6 turns.

 

At that point, your opponent should be low enough on life that you can draw into whatever damage you need to close it out. This can come from a charge minion (Druid of the Saber or Druid of the Claw), it can come from a hero power (Sir Finley Mrrgglton) or from direct damage spells (Swipe or Living Roots). Even if you haven't hit that point, you can often turn the game around by building yourself a new board from scratch through Violet Teacher or Fandral Staghelm with Power of the Wild or Living Roots.

 

TLDR: Face is the place with limited exceptions. More on specific matchups below.

You don't mulligan for particular cards with this deck. Instead, you mulligan for your curve. You need face damage before your opponent starts dropping any of the many taunts that Whispers have added to the game. What you need to do is build a threatening board right off, force them to clear it, and then keep on the pressure.

 

Always keep: Living Roots, Innervate and Sir Finley Mrrgglton.

 

-Everything else is dependent on curve. If you have two 2-drops, even if they're great, throw one to get a solid 1-drop, 3-drop or a Mark of Y'Shaarj. Don't mulligan for particular cards: mulligan so you have a turn 1/2/3 play in mind. The better your curve, the more pressure you'll have, which is how this decks wins.

 

Exceptions:

-For Warlock, keep Swipe

-For Warrior, keep a strong 4-drop card, like Violet Teacher or Fandral Staghelm. These games are slower, so you can plan for a combo.

The stars of this list are Fandral Staghelm and Mark of Y'Shaarj/card].  Both shine, but in opposite parts of the game. (Honourable mention also goes to [card]Sir Finley Mrrgglton, who can help you win games you'd thought you'd lose.)

 

Although it's good at almost any point in the match, Mark of Y'Shaarj is best played on turns two or four. Ideal, you coin or innervate into a solid beast on turn one, then boost it with Mark on turn two. This not only guarantees you a good hit right off (usually 5 damage), but it makes your board scary enough that your opponent has to deal with it. On top of that, it gives you card draw so you have follow up. Tempo is everything with this deck.

 

Fandral chips in at the other end of the game. Around turns 7-9, you've either already won or you're running out of options. Fandral steps in here to give you a major tempo swing, which can often give you a shot when you thought you were out of options. Best combinations are Living Roots for a mini Implosion, Power of the Wild to build a board out of nothing, and Nourish, which is amazing but hard to pull off, as it costs 9 mana.

 

Finley is also key here. My preferred choices are Steady Shot / Life Tap -> Totemic Call -> Fireblast / Dagger Mastery -> everything else... You need to use your judgement here. Life Tap is preferred against Priest or most control, but Steady Shot against Warlock, Rogue or taunt decks. Against Warrior, Totemic Call can be very strong, as it combos with Addled Grizzly, Power of the Wild and Savage Roar.

 

Important note about Savage Roar: Because you no longer have the combo, do not save this card for the end of the game. In my experience, you rarely get to combo it off of more than three minions. What does that mean? If you have three minions play it NOW. Yes, that can be on turn three after you played Living Roots and Flame Juggler. No, you're not getting 14 damage out of your hand, but you are getting 12 damage on turn 3!! A couple good draws after that, and the game is over.

After just over 50 games, here are my stats, broken down by class. All of these are from the Month of May, 2016:

<colgroup><col width="100" /><col width="100" /><col width="100" /><col width="100" /><col width="100" /></colgroup>

	SUM of Win	SUM of Loss	Win%	Totals
Druid	4	2	66.7%	6
Hunter	3	2	60.0%	5
Mage	2	0	100.0%	2
Paladin	3	1	75.0%	4
Priest	4	1	80.0%	5
Rogue	5	2	71.4%	7
Shaman	10	3	76.9%	13
Warlock	3	4	42.9%	7
Warrior	2	3	40.0%	5
Grand Total	36	18	66.7%	54

 

 

As you can see, this deck does extremely well against some of the most common decks on the ladder. In particular, it does very well against C'Thun Druid, is strong against Miracle Rogue, and just destroys N'Zoth Pali and any kind of Shaman. Since Shaman is, in my records, the most common class by far, this deck is extremely strong for climbing right now. 

 

So far, Zoolock has been the hardest matchup for this deck. Warrior is also a challenge, but with the right draw, you can take out control or patron before they really even get going. I have a winning rate against Hunter now, but I suspect that will dip as more people play and refine the new midrange hunter lists that have been tearing up the ladder lately.

Against just about every deck, you should play the same way: go face early, and try to close out the game with direct damage after they start dropping taunts. The only exceptions here are Aggro Shaman and Zoolock. Against those two, you take generally the opposite approach: start by doing everything you can to keep board control and try to maintain some cards in your hand. You then switch later to a burst combo to close it out. (This works better against Shaman than Zoo just because of the matchups.)

Tired of seeing the same paladin, priest and warlock five times in a row, followed by two aggro mages? Me too! So, why not try something different but still pretty effective? No one expects Druid of the Fang!!

I got it up to Rank 7 in the December 2015  season, and I'm confident that it could have gone  higher if I had more time and/or care when playing. Also, after a series of modifications, I'm pretty positive this deck is about as good as it can be in the current meta. A couple new, low-cost Druid beasts could really take it over the edge.

 

The Idea

Since I don't have as much time to play as many out there, I like trying decks that are a bit unexpected. They tend to throw off the competition, and, frankly, just keep the game fun. Druid is my main class, and, since Blizzard has been planting elements for a Druid Beast deck for some time, I decided to give it a go. Since the theme seemed to be an early ramp-up, I thought about replicating Aggro Druid but with beast synergy.

Card Choices

The whole concept of this deck started by replacing the typical aggro druid's Fel Reaver with Druid of the Fang. They're both big value, 5-cost minions. Of course, Druid of the Fang only works when you have a beast on the board, so I had to swap in a few more beasts. Since the win condition usually depends on Savage Roar, the key beasts I swapped in were sticky ones, like Haunted Creeper and Mounted Raptor. Power of the Wild is another useful addition, because it can either buff all of your little minions, turn Force of Nature into 9 damage, or become a beast itself to proc Druid of the Fang.

Druid of the Fang is an undervalued card. Because it transforms, it cannot be silenced, and Sap just puts a 5-cost 7/7 Beast back in your hand :). It is clearly the star of this deck, and dictates almost every other choice made here. (Of course, it's also a prime target for entomb and, so try to get it out before turn 6! It's also a prime BGH target, but most people don't keep BGH in their opening hand against Druid, so that's another good reason to get this out early and surprise people.)

After tinkering quite a bit, I swapped out Knife Juggler (gasp!) for Emperor Cobra. Emperor Cobra is, I admit, a strange addition. I added it in because I was struggling mightily against Priest, Renolock and Control Warrior. With that addition, I had a decent success against Priest, who usually doesn't carry an easy removal for it. I still struggled against against Renolock and Control Warrior, but saw a small increase in my win rate against those as well. The main target against priest is Deathlord, and against Warlock you want to save it for the giants or anything with taunt. You very rarely get to actually proc it's ability; instead, you play it the turn before your opponent is about to set up something big. (After a warlock clears the board, for example.) It throws your opponent off one turn, which gives you a chance to either combo or throw down Druid of the Fang, which procs off of the Cobra. This can give you a fighting chance in games you thought were lost.

Sir Finley Mrrgglton is also in there for control decks. He still didn't give me a winning rate against Warlock or Control Warrior, but he made those games closer. He also gives the ability to just completely destroy Freeze Mage, and he occasionally gets you Life Tap against midrange decks. Lifetap in an aggro Druid is godly!

I've thought many times about swapping out Darnassus Aspirant for something else. People have proposed many things to me, including Druid of the Flame, Wild Growth, Knife Juggler, even Savage Combatant. The thing is, I really like the three health on her -particularly against paladins (Shielded Minibot and Consecration), and  she ALWAYS gets killed by your opponent immediately, which helps draw off their three damage removal spells and can slow them down. (Also, if you open with her, your opponent often does not know what type of Druid your running, which can be helpful.) The only real option I see is to replace her with one more Living Roots and a single Druid of the Flame. In fact, I may try this if I pick this deck up against seriously later in the season. Another strange thought is to try Stampeding Kodo for tempo swings. It costs too much for an aggro deck, but it's pretty sticky. Worth a thought.

Druid of the Saber and Druid of the Claw are staple in any aggro Druid, and are even more effective here due to the beast synergy.

Dr. Boom is here because... well... because. He also sets up for a Savage Roar win condition.

How to Play

Take the board early, and get within combo range. A surprise burst is your win condition, so always try to set up for one. Be careful, though, not to overextend. You have no card draw, so once you have enough threats on the board, you can feel free to lay back a bit.

Since you have so many sticky minions, you can often pull out an unexpected win with either just Savage Roar or Power of the Wild or Force of Nature. You usually don't need the full combo. Always keep in mind how close you are to a win with your hand, and try to take your opponent by surprise. For example, say it's turn 5, and you used Haunted Creeper to get a 7/7 Druid of the Fang on the board. With a Saber and Savage Roar in your hand, you can now dish out 18 damage on turn 6. (Think about that for a second...) Say, instead you have a Mounted Raptor and a Haunted Creeper on the board, and your opponent board clears leaving you with three 1-attack minions. With the same hand, you still have 15 damage on the board, you've drained one of their board clears, and you still have 4 minions on the board. You win by surprising people, so always keep this in mind.

Mulligan

Mulligan is easy, given your very low curve. Always keep Innervate, and really any other 2-cost minion. There are a couple class-specific highlights to keep in mind, but generally just try to set up for your first couple turns.

Your ideal is to innervate into a Druid of the Fang on turn three or coin into it on turn four. Therefore if you have innervate in your hand, I almost always keep Fang. Otherwise, I usually throw it for a 2-cost minion. Against or Warlock or Priest, I also like to keep Fang if I have the coin. This is because the Fan surprise tends to only work on them if you get it out early.

If you have Innervate but no Fang, then try for a three drop. Innervating into a Mounted Raptor on turn one is a great way to start any matchup, and basically guarantees you tempo for the first few turns.

Remember that a stealthed Druid of the Saber is your best bet to getting Fang out early, so be careful of when you play it and when you take it out of stealth. I'm saying this because it's not always best to coin it out on turn one and pull it out of stealth on turn 2. (Sometimes it is best to do that; just think about it.)

You generally don't want Sir Finley in your opening hand, but there are times when it's not bad. Having a 1/3 on the board right off is never terrible. He's good against Hunters, because you basically always know what hero powers you'd rather against them, and he can be useful opening against Paladins. Against other classes, it's often better to save him until you know what you're dealing with.

Another great opening is using Living Roots for two 1/1s on the opening turn. Don't shy away from it. Even if your opponent just hero powers one of them on turn two, this  means that they've burned two mana, will take one damage, left you with a minion on the board, and allowed you to put a powerful 2-cost minion down. With the coin, you can get a Mounted Raptoron turn two, and really put the pressure on. That's a lot of value for a 1 mana card!

Never keep Power of the Wild. This card is best used as either a win condition or a way to proc Druid of the Fang on turn 7. (Turn 5 with innervate.)

A Few Specific Mulligans:

Against Mage and Shammy and Priest, you want Druid of the Saber to take out their 1/3 opening minions. (This is the time that's it's generally worth taking it out of stealth early.)

Against Priest, you want Emperor Cobra for Deathlord (if it's an Entomb Priest) and Wyrmrest Agent, and you want anything with a deathrattle, because of the many, many board clears they run these days. Cobra is useful against Renolock and old-school Handlock as well, but it comes into play later in the game, so it's not important to mulligan for it.

Against Pali and Warlock, keep Swipe. Otherwise, you can toss it for board presence.

(Not a mulligan, but a playing note: it is almost always good to make your Druid of the Claw a charge minion to take out their Flamewalker. I know it goes against your basic instinct to taunt him up, but it's almost always worth more value this way, as the Flamewalker can just run you over. The only time I don't do this is when I'm a turn away from winning with a Druid of the Claw to the face.)

Strengths / Weaknesses

This deck is great, but not super consistent. It has extremely favorable win rates against certain classes, and terrible win rates against others, without much in between.

Strengths: It it absolutely dominant against other aggressive decks, particularly Aggro Pali, Egg Druid, and regular Aggro Druid. Face Hunter is also a favorable matchup, but you have to be careful how you play around your opponent's secrets. (I was just over 90% against all other aggro last season. I'm not making that up.)

Patron Warrior and Secret Paladin are also very favorable matchups. (I was 8-1 vs Secret Pali over last season.) 

Freeze Mage is also very favorable. Remember that you only need one decent threat on the board or one deathrattle minion at any given time. This is the one and only time you play deliberately slow. Try to only have one deathrattle on the board at a time, and use Finley for armor or healing. With this approach, you really cannot lose. (Only one loss to a Freeze Mage last season.)

Middling Matchups: Mech Mage and Tempo Mage are about 50-50. (I was exactly 50-50 against those two last season.) Remember to take out that Flamewaker with your Claw.

Hard Matchups: Any control deck will give you a hard time. There's just too much board removal these days, and Reno Jackson can just waste you. You have to play aggressively enough to get within combo range, but not so aggressive that you run out of options. Hope for a good hand, and Finley can save you if the game goes late. Still, expect losses here -particularly against Control Warrior and Renolock; it just happens. Control Priest is hard too, but the Emperor Cobra is surprisingly effective against it. Time it well, and you have a decent shot.

My win rate against control decks was abominable with this deck. After adding in Cobra, I was 3-5 against Entomb Priest, and better against Dragon. Still, very low win % against control generally. At this point, I think it's just the nature of the deck. They run with so many board clears, it's just hard to keep the pressure on. Expect long games, where you lose at the end. No fun. (This should be made up for by the next game, where you just destroy a Secret Paladin!)

I hope some readers like this deck and have fun with it! I found it to be really just a blast to play, and always takes your opponent by surprise. (Expect some threats when you win with a Druid of the Fang to the face. After a win, do not even think about accepting that friend request!!)