Hearthpwn

Game play videos in the high ranks

Introduction - Why Midrange Druid?

Midrange Druid is a deck that has been listed in the top tiers of all meta snap shots since I am playing Hearthstone (1 year ago). When Hunters dominated everything, Druid was strong.  When Patron was super OP, Midrange (aka Combo or Fast) Druid was considered a decent alternative and most players brought it to the Blizzcon Qualifiers. After Mysterious Challenger dropped the beat, the deck was always regarded as high tier and now it recently hit first place in the tier list of tempostorm.com two times in row. There are plenty of guides about it out there, but for me there was always something missing and card choices were not explained in detail that much. I had trouble mastering the deck, but this season I finally made it to legend (I actually made it to top 300 legend before with the deck, but hitting legend with a deck is always a bit special to me). This guide is meant for new players who aim for mastering this deck. Everything will be very detailed. If you are a high skilled player already, the guide will probably a bit too text for you, but I will link other guides for reference.

Proof of stats

Core cards

In my opinion the cards too good to cut in this deck are:

• 2x Innervate - One of the most broken cards in the game. This allows you to accelerate crazy. Turn 2 Dr. Boom is possible every once in a while. Turn 2 Shredder, Turn 3 Azure Drake or 4 Emperor is pretty standard.
• 1x Wild Growth - Very similar to Innervate. This lets you accelerate into your high mana threats quickly and some usage in the late. See section Wild Growth vs Darnassus Aspirant for details.
• 2x Savage Roar - The best finisher in the game if you control the board. Insane together with Force of Nature, Innervate and Emperor Thaurisan.
• 2x Keeper of the Grove - Super flexible card for early and late game. It deals with Knife Juggler, Mad Scientist as well as Sylvanas and Ysera.
• 2x Swipe - Insane board clear. Super powerful against cards like Imp'losion or Muster for Battle.
• 2x Piloted Shredder - One of the strongest 4 drops in the game. Synergies very well with Savage Roar.
• 2x Force of Nature - Together with Savage Roar, this is your main finisher. It is also nice as board clear or to deal with Freezing Trap.
• Emperor Thaurissan - Since the deck runs a lot of expensive and powerful cards, the mana reduction is super valuable. He also enables super 22 (or more) damages combos.
• 2x Ancient of Lore - In my opinion, the second most broken card in Druid after Innervate. On the first sight a 5-5 for 7 mana looks weak, but when you consider that drawing 2 cards is usually 3 mana, the 5-5 for 4 mana looks suddenly sweet. Furthermore, if you need it, you can even chose to heal. Remember that you can also heal minions. I actually lost a mirror match where I left up a 7-2 Boom which I wanted to kill next turn. My opponent just healed the Boom and I could never finish it. In 90% of all cases drawing is the best for you. If you are new to the deck, just always draw unless you are dying.
• Dr. Boom - Boom bots are strong with Savage Roar and, well, anyway super strong.

 Flexible cards

Vs Aggro

• Living Roots - This card is very strong versus aggressive decks to kill 2-1 minions such as Leper Gnome or Abusive Sergeant. It also deals with high priority targets like Knife Juggler or Sorcerer's Apprentice. The 1-1 tokens have nice synergy with Savage Roar and are nice to pop divine shields. They are also surprisingly strong vs Warrior.
• Darnassus Aspirant -  This card is very strong against aggressive decks, because it allows you to accelerate your curve and put something on the board. If it trade against a Knife Juggler, that is usually fine for you. If you think that you definitely need the extra mana crystal on the next turn, try to defend this by all means. The more Paladins you are facing, the more you want to add 1 or 2 copies of this to your deck, because in the early game they have a hard time dealing 3 damage. This is pretty bad against Warrior.
• Wrath - Very standard early removal card. I like to play 2 copies with 2 Azure Drake's, but this is by far not a must play in my opinion. Usage: Cycle only if you need cards because your hand is empty or awkward. Killing an early 2-1 or 1-1 with this is usually a mistake. You have your hero power for that. Save it in the early for cards like Knife Juggler, Sorcerer's Apprentice or the first half of the Piloted Shredder.
• Sludge Belcher - Decent taunt vs aggro Shaman or Face Hunter. It is also decent against some control decks like Control Warrior or in the mirror match to prevent the combo. However, for me this is still a strictly anti aggression tech.
• Mind Control Tech - Nice if your opponent floods the board with mid game minions and can make the day against a Dr. Boom + something. Strife Cro recently played 2 copies as a tech choice. I prefer having at least one Shade. Weak against Warrior and in the mirror match up.
• Zombie Chow - Can be found in older deck lists as anti aggression card. Since the introduction of Living Roots, I would not play this anymore. The roots are just more flexible and less bad in the late game.
• Mounted Raptor - Nice early game card which is hard to remove. Some synergy with Savage Roar. It shines vs cards like Mana Wyrm, Tunnel Trogg and Voidwalker, but is pretty weak against 2-1s. I played with this a lot, but I slightly prefer Shade of Naxxramas and Mind Control Tech, once you know how to play with them.

Vs Control/Midrange

• Big Game Hunter - Standard tech vs big minions. If you face a lot of Handlocks, Control Warriors, Secret Paladin or decks with Fel Reaver, you can run 2 of these. I would almost always play 1 unless everything is full of aggro and maybe Priest.
• Azure Drake - Really nice card draw and the spell damage is surprisingly strong with Wrath and Living Roots and insane with Swipe. After playing a long time with this I really love the card in Druid. Right now I would always play 2 of these. In a very aggro heavy meta I would consider to cut 1.
• Ancient of War - Another tech card against Control that also works well sometimes against aggro. But for instance Face Hunter is usually running 2x Ironbeak Owl which makes Ancient of War less efficient. I also don't like Ancient of War vs Paladin because they have Equality, Keeper of Uldaman in addition to common silence. Sometimes this can get hard countered by The Black Knight. For my taste, this was usually one 7 drop to much for the curve. I would never cut Dr. Boom or Ancient of Lore for this unless you don't have them.
• Loatheb - In my opinion you usually have the decision to make if you want to play Loatheb, Harrison Jones or Sludge Belcher. Loatheb is generally a decent choice, because it good against almost everything. It buys you a turn against aggro decks with spells. It shuts down an Oil Rogue completely for a turn, prevents a Druid from playing Combo or protects your board against Brawl or Flamestrike for a turn. Strong against Control Warrior, Freeze Mage and not bad against aggro. After playing this deck a lot this is my personal favorite for the 5 slot, but you need to think carefully about when you play it.
• Harrison Jones - Only play him if the meta is really weapon heavy. In my opinion, Harrion is not a decent answer to Tirion Fording unless you have enough power already to kill Tirion and then you are winning anyway. Paladin weapons are ok for Harrion, but it is really designed to destroy Warriors, Rogues and Shaman's Doomhammer. Most of the time I would not recommend to run Harrison.
• Shade of Naxxramas - Nice tech card vs control which used to be staple in Druid with 2 copies. It is a bit hard to use and you need experience to play well with it. Don't reveal it too early and don't reveal it too late. When is too early and when is too late? Well that is very situational and very hard to explain. Against aggro you want to reveal the Shade right away. Against control you want to get more value e.g. kill the 3-5 of a Sludge Belcher or trade into a 5-5. Decent times to reveal: (1) Empty board and you also have a Piloted Shredder, (2) you also have a taunt like Druid of the Claw, (3) the attack sets up for lethal next turn, (4) it kills a priority target like Flamewaker. I like to run one of these right now, because it is generally weaker card against aggro.
• Raven Idol - A very interesting very flexible card. Discover is slightly broken, because the probability of getting a class card is 4x higher than getting a neutral card. Also it is very powerful to choose between 3 cards when you know an exact board state and the match up already. This card allows you to tech your deck during the game! It is a very cool mechanism and to be honest I played 2 copies of this 80% of the season. I just took it out for another Living Roots and another Wrath, because they worked to well with Azure Drake. With Raven Idol, most of the time you want to discover a spell, because the overall quality of Druid spells is pretty decent. If your hand is full of spells already and you need minions, you can also for a minion. The only disadvantage of Raven Idol is, that sometimes you get cards that absolutely contribute nothing to your board situation and pay 1 mana and 1 card for that, however, this is very unlikely. The advantage is that often you will get a card that is totally overpowered in your situation. For instance, on turn one I love to pick up a Wild Growth or an Innervate. To name some unusual cards that rock sometimes against aggro for instance: Mark of the Wild, Mark of Nature, Healing Touch or Claw. Against control: Nourish, Poison Seeds (insane vs Patron!), Dark Wispers or Starfire. One time I was playing vs Zoo and got 4 Swipes in my deck due to Raven Idol. The opponent surrendered after I played my 3rd Swipe ;). One time I was playing vs Freeze Mage, killed his Alexstrasza, Archmage Antonidas and he brought me down to 6 HP with Ice Lance', Frost Bolt's and 1 Fireball. I had the chance to pop his block with combo, but I knew I would be dead next turn so I took my chance with Raven Idol which got me a Tree of Life and that won me the game. After playing a long time with Raven Idol, I have to say that I love the card, but the 1 Mana is still a thing often times and I would not recommend to play it if the meta is really aggro. Against control it is a valuable addition, I am just not sure what exactly to cut.
• Druid of the Claw - Very flexible card that requires a bit experience to use. These days I find myself playing this more often in charge mode instead of taunt mode. Good examples for charging this are: (1) It kills a priority target such as Flamewaker or Knife Juggler, (2) you play vs Mage and board is empty and/or he has a potential Mirror Entity in play, (3) the 4 damage set up for lethal next turn or the board is empty and you already hold the combo, (4) it helps to remove a big threat like a 7-7, (5) you are playing against Paladin and he doesn't have Truesilver Champion equipped. This way you play around Equality and Keeper of Uldaman which are strong vs the 4-6 taunt. (7) Your best outcome of the taunt is that it kills a 6-4 such as Piloted Sky Golem - then you can just charge in your 4-4 anyway and get the best trade for sure! You want to taunt this when: (1) you fear to die next turn vs charging minions like Grom, Combo or Leeroy, (2) empty board for both sites and the opponent is at full health and you hold not combo (3), vs Warrior who has a Death's Bite equipped, (4) some weird board situations when your opponent has Sylvanas in play.
• Sylvanas Windrunner - Very strong tech card against control. I personally don't like her that much, because she is very weak against aggro. With this deck you usually have enough late game anyway and that's why I like to cut Sylvanas. I would never cut Emperor, Boom or any Lore in favor of Sylvanas. She shines more in decks that have Brawl or Shadowflame. I would definetely think about adding her in a tournament, but in my opinion average ranked games are too fast for Sylvanas.
• Savage Combatant - Pretty cool card which I love to play in Aggro Druid, however, I never found the time to play it. Definitely on my list for testing though. The only question is like always: "What to cut?".

Match ups

Generic Mulligan: With this deck you always keep with no exception: all copies of Innervate, one copy of Wild Growth and one Living Roots.

Other cards are situational or depend on the rest of hand. If I have the coin and 2x Innervate, I would keep an Ancient of Lore or Dr. Boom vs almost every opponent. If I have two innervates, I would keep Emperor or Azure Drake.

1. Druid

• Keep: Darnassus Aspirant
• If you have Mana acceleration keep a Wrath for a potential Darnassus Aspirant. If you have Innervate(s), keep (in order of priority) Azure Drake, Shade of Naxxramas, Druid of the Claw or Piloted Shredder.
• If you know exactly that you are up against Aggro Druid, you can keep the BGH in the mulligan.

Aggro Druid - The tempo game

This match up is all about tempo and board control. Use your hero power to deal with early Leper Gnomes. If my curves allows it, I would even coin the hero power to kill a Leper Gnome. E.g. Turn 1: Coin to kill it, turn 2 wrath/wild growth, turn 3 shade/shredder/keeper. Use Wrath to deal with Knife Juggler or Darnassus Aspirant right away. Swipe is strong vs Savage Combatant. Fel Reaver is strong in this match up and that's why you want to keep the BGH if you know for sure that it is Aggro Druid. Make sure to check if you can burn more cards, before playing the BGH. This match up is an example why I don't like to play Sylvanas as she is almost useless here. After turn 5 or 6 you usually know if you can stabilize. Most of the time you will be winning the game, if you didn't lose too much health in the early game. In this match up, you strongly want to consider healing with Ancient of Lore, since your opponent runs out of steam easily. I would almost always taunt the Druid of the Claw, unless I am at high health and threaten lethal. Always remember that he runs the Combo just like you and is likely to have it if he holds cards after turn 6, because his most expensive cards are 5 mana.

Midrange Druid - The mirror

Midrange Druid and Aggro Druid are very similar and all about tempo and board control. Its very rare that both players run out of cards and it ends in a top deck mode. Make sure to play a minion whenever you can unless you have to remove a major thread like Emperor. Using a Combo to clear the opponents board is sometimes the way to come back. If you can afford it, play around the 14 damage Combo. I would almost never play around the 22 damage Combo, unless I have strong reason to believe that my opponent holds these cards. Playing a tempo BGH on curve is rarely a good idea, because Keeper of the Grove and Wrath are good counters. Use your spells to protect your minions and try to control the board by all means with high tempo plays. I would almost always draw 2 cards with Ancient of Lore in this match up. If you taunt or charge Druid of the Claw if pretty difficult and depends a lot on the board state. I like to pressure my opponent and therefore I always consider charging the Claw, but don't do that if your opponent is at high health, the board is empty and you didn't see a Swipe from him, yet. If you are new to this match up, taunting is most of the time the better option. Here Sylvanas is pretty strong in contrast to Aggro Druid, however, I prefer Emperor. Azure Drake is also powerful as if draws a card, is a decent threat and the Spellpower comes in handy. E.g. you can now Swipe a fresh Shade of Naxxramas and an Ancient of Lore at once. The key is to control the board and use your resources efficiently with high tempo.

Other Druids

Not much other Druid decks are out there and the match ups are all fairly similar. Sometimes you find an Egg Druid where you have to clear everything as good as you can to deny him value from Soul of the Forest and other buffs. Sometimes you play versus a ramp Druid with threats like Kel'Thuzad, but again the match up is about board control, except you don't have to worry that much about the Combo.

2. Mage

• Keep: Darnassus Aspirant, Keeper of the Grove with coin
• If you have Innervate(s), keep (in order of priority) Piloted Shredder, Azure Drake, Druid of the Claw or Emperor Thaurissan.
• If you know 100% its Mech Mage with Fel Reaver, you can keep the BGH, but this rarely happens.

Tempo Mage - A tough opponent

Tempo Mage is favored, mainly due to Mirror Entity. If you run 2x Darnassus Aspirant (DA), this match up gets a lot better for you. If you see the Mad Scientist already on turn 2 and don't have the Keeper of the Grove to silence it, you might want to save the DA for the Mirror Entity. Flamewaker is another huge threat. I like to remove it asap with for example a Swipe or a charging Druid of the Claw. Keep in mind that they sometimes run Counterspell and trigger it with a useless Wild Growth, Innervate or worst case Savage Roar or Wrath. Once both of you are out of cards, its a good sign but you still have not won. Sometimes you top deck Innervate while he gets Arcane Intellect into Azure Drake and just wins. If you can afford it, try to stay at 8 health, because of Fireball. I never play around Pyroblast in this match up unless he tries to exactly put me at 10 and holds one card for a long time.

Freeze Mage - You'll like it!

How do you know its Freeze Mage? If he pings on turn 2, it is already likely to be Freeze Mage. Acolyte of Pain is 100% Freeze Mage. If he plays a Secret on turn 3 and you have a minion or are going to hero power anyway you can check for Ice Barrier which confirms the Freeze Mage again. Once you know for sure that it is Freeze Mage, you want to use your resources differently then vs Tempo Mage. Against Freeze Mage you almost never want to silence the Mad Scientist in contrast to Tempo Mage. You want to save your silence to deal with Doomsayer or remove a freeze effect of one of your minions to pop an Ice Block or have lethal. A well used silence is key to be good against Freeze Mage. Furthermore, the Ancient of Lore should be saved for after Alexstrazsa unless you have no board pressure at all and need cards. Dr. Boom is very powerful here, because the boom bots can kill the Mage on his turn. Sometimes a Doomsayer is guaranteed lethal if you play it right with the bots. I prefer to charge the Claw here, but sometimes you want the extra e.g. before turn 7 vs Flamestrike. Remember that Loatheb usually leaves him with very little options and almost denies a complete turn, however, do not play him before his turn 9 where he usually wants to play Alex. Using your hero power is often a good option, because 2 or 3 health more can be annoying for the Mage. Once you know the match up and are confident identifying Freeze Mage players, you are highly favored and only very skilled Mages will give you a hard time.

Other Mages

Every once in a while you hit a Mech Mage or an Echo Mage. Mech Mage is similar to Tempo Mage, but you definetely want to kill every Mech if you can to deny value from Tinkertown Technician and Goblin Blastmage. Echo Mage is similar to Freeze Mage and based on Molten Giant's and Echo of Medivh. Here leaving the opponent at high health until you set up for a super huge Combo is nice, but its hard to figure out that the opponent is Echo Mage. In doubt I play like vs Freeze Mage until I see a Belcher or a Duplicate.

3. Paladin

• Keep: Darnassus Aspirant, Keeper of the Grove and Swipe with coin.

Secret Paladin

Today, you face almost only Secret Paladin and the match up is tough. Here Darnassus Aspirant (DA) and Living Roots really shine and Swipe is the only answer to Muster for Battle. If you can, try to keep his board clear to weaken the power of the Secrets. Overall the match up is more or less even. After you played this a couple of times you will know the order of triggering the Secrets. Often times (but not always) you want to trigger first the Noble Sacrifice which automatically triggers Avenge and Redemption. Remember that the current versions of the Secret Paladin run 2x Avange, 2x Noble Sac and usually one of Redemption, Repentance and maybe Competitive Spirit. Evaluate if it is good for you to trigger Secrets before your actions. Sometimes it might me ok, to leave one small minion alive to trigger Comp Spirit just for a simple +1/+1 instead of facing a Muster for Battle the turn afterwards. Rule of thumb: try to clear everything before the challenger comes and don't trigger anything after the challenger was played if you can't clear all. Keeper of the Grove is very good in the early game to deal with Blessing of Kings, Avenge and divine shields or Knife Juggerls, but remember that you usually need one Keeper to deal with Tirion Fordring, so use the second Keeper wisely. Always check how much pressure you can apply over the next few turns. If the Paladin is low already, it might be correct to switch to his face instead of clearing the board if you can combo him down in 1-2 turns. At some point it is a race to the face. I really like to charge in Druid of the Claw in this match up and deal face damage or kill minions, because many Paladins cut the Truesilver Champion and run 2x Keeper of Uldaman which is very strong against a 4-6 taunt. Usually they have very little defense except for Tirion or Sludge Belcher.

Aggro Paladin

Here you want to blow out your resources as fast as possible. Using a Savage Roar on turn 3 to kill a Knife Juggler is often a good play. Same goes for coining the hero power to kill a Leper Gnome. You just need to survive a bit, because the late game is yours anyway.  Similar to Face Hunter.

Midrange Paladin

Tough match up where the opponents Quartermaster is often times your death, because you have no cards to deal with a couple of 3-3s except for Raven Idol spells or the very ineffective Combo. Therefore you almost always want to Swipe a Muster for Battle, if the opponent can play (or coin) the Quartermaster. The late game often belongs to the Paladin due to the Hero Power and/or [cardJusticar Trueheart[/card]. Very often you have a small window to finish him before the game ends, but due to many defense mechanisms such as Healbot or Lay on Hands.

Other Paladins

At the time I was playing this deck, Murloc Paladins were not super popular, yet. So sadly I can't tell much about the match up. I will add information once I know more.

4. Priest

• Keep: Darnassus Aspirant, Keeper of the Grove

Control Priest

Control Priest is very weak if you can keep his board clear. Cards like Velen's Chosen and Power Word: Shield have less power, his Hero Power is almost completely denied and Northshire Cleric has trouble drawing cards, which is very important for the Priest. Make sure not to overextend into the multiple board clears (Lightbomb, Auchenai Soulpriest + Circle of Healing and Holy Nova). This game is usually decided by the player who establishes the early board control. Keeper of the Grove can be a good comeback vs a big Deathlord. So do not hesitate to silence a Deathlord with PW Shield and/or Velen's Chosen.

Dragon Priest

Dragon Priest is a bit tough, because the opponent has very efficient early game minions.

To be continued.

5. Rogue

• Keep: Darnassus Aspirant

to be continued

6. Shaman

• Keep: Darnassus Aspirant, Wrath

to be continued

7. Hunter

• Keep: Darnassus Aspirant, Keeper of the Grove with coin

to be continued

8. Warlock

• Keep: Darnassus Aspirant, Keeper of the Grove with coin
• If you have Innervate(s), keep (in order of priority Azure Drake, Druid of the Claw, or Piloted Shredder. Emperor Thaurissan and Ancient of Lore with coin.
• If you know exactly that you are up against Zoo, keep Swipe.

to be continued

9. Warrior

• Keep: Piloted Shredder
• If you have Mana acceleration keep (in order of priority), Shade of Naxxramas, Piloted Shredder, Ancient of Lore, Druid of the Claw and Azure Drake.

to be continued

Other guides/resources from me

• [Legend S18 & 19] TGT Midrange Hunter *Update* Unknown Deck by tomwaitforitmy - Sep 25, 2015 View Deck String Export to BBCode Export to Cockatrice Export to MarkDown Export to Html Clone this deck
  Minion (18) 1x Dr. Boom 1x Loatheb 2x Savannah Highmane 1x Sludge Belcher 1x Haunted Creeper 2x Ironbeak Owl 2x King's Elekk 2x Mad Scientist 2x Piloted Shredder 2x Webspinner 2x Houndmaster	Ability (10) 1x Unleash the Hounds 2x Animal Companion 1x Explosive Trap 2x Freezing Trap 2x Quick Shot 2x Kill Command	Weapon (2) 2x Eaglehorn Bow
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• [Legend S19 & 20] Secrets to counter the secrets! Unknown Deck by tomwaitforitmy - Oct 27, 2015 View Deck String Export to BBCode Export to Cockatrice Export to MarkDown Export to Html Clone this deck
  Minion (18) 1x Dr. Boom 1x Tirion Fordring 2x Mysterious Challenger 1x Aldor Peacekeeper 2x Knife Juggler 2x Secretkeeper 2x Sludge Belcher 1x Haunted Creeper 2x Keeper of Uldaman 2x Piloted Shredder 2x Shielded Minibot	Ability (10) 1x Competitive Spirit 2x Muster for Battle 1x Redemption 1x Repentance 2x Avenge 1x Blessing of Kings 2x Noble Sacrifice	Weapon (2) 1x Coghammer 1x Truesilver Champion
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• [Legend S20] Aggro Druid - Rush the Paladins! Unknown Deck by tomwaitforitmy - Nov 5, 2015 View Deck String Export to BBCode Export to Cockatrice Export to MarkDown Export to Html Clone this deck
  Minion (20) 1x Dr. Boom 2x Fel Reaver 2x Shade of Naxxramas 2x Darnassus Aspirant 2x Keeper of the Grove 2x Knife Juggler 1x Savage Combatant 2x Leper Gnome 2x Druid of the Claw 2x Druid of the Saber 2x Piloted Shredder	Ability (10) 2x Force of Nature 2x Innervate 2x Living Roots 2x Savage Roar 2x Swipe
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• Standard *Update* Face Hunter - How to play & how to counter! Face Hunter Deck by tomwaitforitmy - Aug 8, 2015 View Deck String Export to BBCode Export to Cockatrice Export to MarkDown Export to Html Clone this deck
  Minion (15) 1x Bloodmage Thalnos 1x Leeroy Jenkins 2x Knife Juggler 2x Abusive Sergeant 2x Argent Horserider 2x Argent Squire 2x Faerie Dragon 2x Fiery Bat 1x Flame Juggler	Ability (13) 1x Tracking 2x Unleash the Hounds 2x Animal Companion 2x Explosive Trap 2x Quick Shot 2x Hunter's Mark 2x Kill Command	Weapon (2) 2x Eaglehorn Bow
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• My guide to the high ranks
• My guide to legend
• YouTube
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• Chat with me and the gang on discord

Work in progress - come back tomorrow to see more! ;)

Progress of the guide 50%

What is coming?

• Detailed match up descriptions
• Section about "Choose one"
• Section Wild Growth vs Darnassus Apsirant
• Common mistakes
• Detailed strategy section
• Further resources