Hearthpwn

**Updated 4/21 with some Card Explanations and Matchup Guides**

**Updated 4/22 with a little more Hunter Matchup Explanation**

**Updated 5/1 with optional tweaks**

**Updated 5/2 with stream link**

**Updated 6/13 with link to updated version of deck**



Hey everyone, sorry I've been absent from updating for awhile.  Many of you have been asking for the updated version of the deck that I currently use and below is the link to that deck.  I hope you all enjoy it and as always ask any questions, I will be around again to answer all the questions I can to help you guys reach legend (:

http://www.hearthpwn.com/decks/63104-easy-legend-2-0

I have just started to try a little bit of streaming today.  It's mostly a test and I will see where it takes me in the future.  But if you'd like to see how i play this deck here's my link to my stream:
http://www.twitch.tv/cornpuff

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Update of Deck 5/1

Towards the end of last season I did a lot of deck testing, subbing in and out cards with this deck.  This is an updated version of the deck which I am using to ladder with at the start of this season.  So far I'm 8-1 with the deck this season and seeing both upsides and downsides to this version.

-1 Cairne +1 Sylvannas :  I feel sylvannas is a great legendary for a 6 drop that many decks will have to play around and run their cards into it to get rid of it.  Also being able to taunt sylvannas with mark of the wild sometimes forces them to have to do this.

-1 Nourish +1 Sunwalker :  I'm still not sure about this.  Having one more sunwalker is awesome, but I feel sometimes I have a lack of card draw towards the end of games.

-1 Rag +1 Ancient of Lore : I felt rag was too random and often times caused too many yolo plays which would backfire.  Ancient of Lore allows you to get a little more card draw after taking out nourish and allows you to heal vs those aggro decks.

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I didn't expect people to actually become interested in this deck, but with the amount of people complimenting the deck and also having questions I pushed out a little guide to help.  Thanks Guys!!

Just reached legend with this deck.  With aggro decks being popular current meta, this fades out decks such as handlock that usually can hard counter druid.  With that being said this deck helps counter many aggro hunter and zoolock decks allowing you to reach legend easily (:

Get out your big taunts early with cards such as innervate, wild growth and nourish, making it hard for aggro decks to rush you down.  Mark of wild is also perfect for survival to keep you alive long enough to start gaining board control with your taunts.

For going up against most decks I like to mulligan for wild growth, wrath,  innervate (depending on the matchups)  I like to also keep keeper of the grove in situations where it will be a good early removal card against zoo.  

Mark of the Wild is a great card to use to buff up your kodo and other beefy cards.  It's also used as a great removal if you have no other way to remove a card you can Mark of Wild+Black Knight combo, or Mark of Wild + BGH combo.

Here are a few card explanations:

First off, many of you may ask "Why no token or ancient watcher deck?"  I feel many of these decks are too slow for the current aggro meta.  Those decks rely on other cards to help synchronize each other and if you don't get them together your games become much tougher.

Innervate :  Always mulligan for this card.  It's almost the best in any match up to allow you to get early board advantage with a big minion.

Mark of the Wild : Great card to help stall games vs aggro and mid range hunters.  If you're in a bad situation Mark of the Wild + The Black Knight combo can be very useful.

Wild Growth : This is a great card to mulligan for control matchups.  This card will put you ahead and often times start throwing up those taunts that other control decks can't deal with earlier in the game.

Keeper of the Grove : Great card to mulligan for zoo match ups.  One of my dream hands vs most zoolocks and aggro hunters is Innervate + Keeper of the Grove to get that early game removal and board control.

Healing Touch : One healing touch in your deck can be the difference of dying or living one more turn to finish off your opponent.  I found this card has saved me many times.

Nourish : This is a great card to either get ahead in mana or gain card draw.  At first I didn't really like this card, but after using it from rank 5 to legend I began to realize there are many situations where this card can actually put you ahead in the game.

Stampeding Kodo : This is by far one of my favorite cards in this meta.  Removing those zoo and hunter cards with this card and then buffing it up with Mark of the Wild can put you really far ahead in a game.

Ancient of Lore : A great card for survival or card draw.

Ancient of War : These are your huge taunts that make it impossible for those aggro decks to get through.  Always use these cards as taunts and never as a 10/5.  Using Faceless Manipulator on these cards can overwhelm those aggro decks.

Matchup Explanations:

vs Zoolock:  As I've described in card explanation a very good starting hand can be innervate with nice taunts, or innervate with keeper of the grove for some removal and board control.  Wraths are also great cards to keep here.

vs Midrange Hunters:  Innervates are obviously a top priority here again.  Hunter is the most popular class currently and you need to remember they only have 2 hunters marks.  With the amount of taunts this deck has you should easily gain board control.  I've been asked how i deal with Savannah Highmane .  It's very situational.  You can taunt it and clear it with black knight, or BGH.  Or if you have some board control you can kill it, drop a Bloodmage Thalnos and swipe the face to clean up the board.  It's always dependent on what you have in your hand, but these are some moves I find that I do often.  If you know the hunter has already used a Scavenging Hyena , silencing it with Keeper of the Grove is also a great option.  Again, this deck has many taunts, you could even let your Ancient of War soak up some highmane damage and kill it next turn if you feel the hunter has no removal for it.

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*Updated Section* : I have received numerous questions about the hunter match up since it is the most common match up right now.  Many of you have added me on battle.net asking questions about when to play certain cards etc. Keep in mind that the below strategies are only for hunter, and they are how I personally play which may not always work for everyone.
Question: A common question is asking when to innervate.  
Answer:  Never innervate into a giant taunt early in the game.  This will most likely put you very far behind.  You want to feed the hunters your smaller taunts to see how they handle them.  They will most likely have to use hunters mark etc on these smaller taunts, making your larger taunts much more effective.  Also, never innervate into a card if you aren't capable of making a play the next turn.  If they remove the card without you having a play the next turn you will most likely lose the game.
Question: Another question I've received a few times is about how to play keeper of the grove.
Answer:  I generally save them for hyenas, silencing savannahs or killing an early piggy animal companion.  Never throw this card away on anything other than these unless you absolutely need to.  A good strategy to make sure you have a keeper for savannahs is to also (if its relevant to how the board is) buff up their hyena by clearing their cards and then using BGH on their hyena.  BGH isn't used for much in this matchup but i still wouldnt just throw it away either because it could be used on large hyenas or even a taunted savannah.
Question:  What is a good opener vs hunters?
Answer: This is obviously very situational, but i believe hunters have a hard time dealing with an innervate into senjin on turn 2.  If you have wrath in your hand and they play something that cant clear your senjin, you are going to be able to have a very good lead on the hunter.
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I hope these answers help some of you that have questions.  If you guys have anymore questions let me know I'll be happy to update the guide with some answers.

I find that this decks toughest matchups are vs control warriors and handlocks.  But like i've previously said with hunter being the top meta class, this has phased out many handlocks allowing druids to become a strong class in countering these aggro decks and ranking up quickly.

I'll make more matchup guides in the future, but I wanted to describe some of the more common matchups.

Any questions about cards I didn't explain or just how to use this deck and hit legend before the meta changes add Alumni#1683