[Updated] OP Beast Druid
- Last updated Aug 27, 2016 (Karazhan)
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Wild
- 17 Minions
- 13 Spells
- Deck Type: Ranked Deck
- Deck Archetype: Beast Druid
- Crafting Cost: 4220
- Dust Needed: Loading Collection
- Created: 8/6/2016 (Old Gods)
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Total Deck Rating
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Decklist :
Hello my friends ! This is my theorycraft about Beast Druid in this expansion.
EDIT : I wanted to thank you all because you help alot in getting this deck more refined, and I'm pretty sure we will enjoy this deck once it comes out ! :)
I / Who Am I ?
II / Notable Inclusions
III / Might Consider
IV / Gameplan
V / Mulligan Guide
VI / Budget Replacements
VII / Change History
Who Am I ?
None of your business.
I'm a Legend EU player, but I'm far from being a great player tho. I love theorycrafting, Hunter, Druid, and combo decks. This expansion brought some preeeetty cool stuff on the table, and I think Druid received the most broken card of this expansion in Menagerie Warden.
By the way, sorry for my english as I'm not a native speaker (french here !), I'd be glad if you help me correct my mistakes tho :).
Druid received 3 excellent cards in ONiK, all of them being excellent addition to the Beast archetype.
If you disagree with some choices, lets talk about it in comments.
Have fun :)
Notable inclusions :
Enchanted Raven : 2/2 on turn 1 is solid. The Beast tribe makes an excellent combo with Mark of Y'Shaarj on turn 2 resulting in a 4/4 turn 2.
Stranglethorn Tiger : Solid pick by itself. Pushed as a core card by Menagerie Warden, which I'll explain later on.
Menagerie Warden : What a card ! Allow combos with various beasts in this deck, such as Stranglethorn Tiger for 2 5/5 stealth on turn 6, followed by a huge burst (Savage Roar, Power of the Wild etc.) For instance, double Tiger + Savage Roar = 16 dmg (7+7+2), with Tiger being really hard to remove.
Azure Drake : An excellent 5 drop. Drakes are solving the draw problem. You now have 6 possible draws in the deck which is totally fine.
Might consider :
Violet Teacher : With 15 spells, a low curve and alot of small buffs, Violet Teacher is a strong card. If you don't draw into your combo pieces, you can still play the token game and win on a Savage Roar Combo.
Brann Bronzebeard : This card could be a flex spot as it seems too greedy even to me, but you may pull off the Brann + Menagerie Warden combo sometimes. Spectacular. There are only 2 targets though, Zoobot and Menagerie. Fun but inconsistent here. And this kind of aggroish midrange decks are meant to be consistent.
Soul of the Forest : with a very fast curve, you may vomit your hand and have no comeback options for board clears. Soul of the Forest could be it, and is likely to hit 2-3 average targets, which is nice against Brawl, Swipe or Flamestrike. Our 4 drops are quite important tho, and I'm not sure about cutting one of em. Feel free to include this as a 1 off if there are many board clears in the metagame.
Raven Idol : The deck needs some more card draw in my opinion, and Raven could be an interesting option when you are looking for a Savage Roar lethal or a removal. Cutting your early drops could hurt the consistency of the deck though.
Dire Wolf Alpha : With 4 one drops (Roots and Raven), the Dire Wolf is more consistent than before. Makes your Raven to trade with Tunnel Trogg for example. But for now, Druid of the Saber may just be better.
Moonglade Portal : This card is the heal Druid needed to stabilize against aggressive decks, as it can either heal face or a damaged Druid of the Claw. The 6 slot is proven to be one of the best stat-wise, with an average 5/5, and some top tier in Cairne or Sylvannas. Solid. However, with our aggressive gameplan, we want to have board control, it may come too late. Think about it as a 1-of if you want an heavier curve.
Zoobot : 3/3 3 mana, gives +1/1 reminds me of old Shattered Sun Cleric, which was definitely a card. Given how many turn 1 and 2 beast you have, you may curve this out well. Helps you trade the board (against Totem Golem for example) and from there, you should stay on board all game. 3/3 is a solid statline which definitely needs an answer aswell so you will often 2 for 1 with this card.
Gameplan :
Your usual game plan is to abuse Beast synergy early game with Mark of Y'Shaarj and Zoobot to gain some momentum and be ahead on board. You want to damage your enemy face asap, making efficient trades, in order to pull a double Stranglethorn Tiger thanks to Menagerie Warden for a minimal 16 damage with 1 Savage Roar on turn 7. Twisting Nether comes too late on turn 8 to stop this, so the Tigers are likely to stay on turn 7, although Paladin could Equality+Consecration.
Mulligan Guide :
Always keep :
Living Roots / Innervate / Wrath / Druid of the Saber / Enchanted Raven
If you already have Innervate, also keep :
Fandral Staghelm / Savage Combatant / Druid of the Claw
If you already have a Beast, keep Mark of Y'Shaarj, and if you curve out smoothly, you could also keep a 3 drop.
Budget Replacement :
- Don't have Fandral Staghelm ? Another Savage Combatant or a Violet Teacher are fine !
History :
08/08 : removed Huge Toad & Dire Wolf Alpha for 2xDruid of the Saber
08/09 : removed Zoobot, Moonglade Portal, and Savage Combatant for 2x Violet Teacher and a second Druid of the Flame
08/12 : removed 1 Savage Roar for a Raven Idol.
EDIT 26/08 1AM :After some playtesting, some changes may occur !
Currently tried 3 versions over 1 hour, at Legend rank, and I will playtest some more hours before I make the changes.
But overall, here are my first observations :
- As we (all) thought, Menagerie Warden is busted AF and I was able to pull it with a good beast every game, except those won before turn 6.
- More often than not, you WILL gain board control.
- Swipe and Wrath are enough removal, letting you deal dmg face with your minions.
- Violet Teacher SEEMS too slow after playtesting. I will test some more hours tho.
- Druid of the Flame seems clunky in the 3 spot, you will usually have alot of options on this turn, so I removed them (for now) and playing with 2 Azure Drakes instead. While it is a good anti-aggro tech, you have the most savage early in the meta so it isn't a problem.
- I finally added a second Druid of the Claw, smoothing the curve.
- Removed Raven Idol for a 2nd Savage Roar. The reason is, your board is actually very often so big that there are many situations you wished you had this SR for lethal, and you do not. Just a consistency. Also, it makes more sense since I will probably remove Violet Teacher.
Lets talk about it in comments, so that we make the good changes to this deck. :)
EDIT 08/27 : Removed 1 Savage Roar, added 1 The Curator
might be a card I get later, but will probably try this without the card first anyway.
You don't have Wild Growth but you have Innervate, if you can get him on turn 2 it may work. That being said, i think Fandral Staghelm works the best in ramp/token druid. It's not really a card you want to play early imo because you don't get the value from it, even if the stats are okay/good.
What about Jungle Panther instead of Druid of the Flame ? It is also in the same stealth theme with the other stealth minions.
Thank you very much for your response, everything you said is logical. :)
Since Menagerie isn't out yet, I left the Savage Combatant's in. Good Beast synergy, and useful with the Hero Power buff.
That said, I also like the Addled Grizzly if you can keep it alive a turn. Handy with Mark of Y'Shaarj too for some extra draw. If you coin it out on turn two, they may waste some early game stuff on it, which is great for bringing out Mounted Raptor on T3.
A single Soul of the Forest is good to protect against board clear. But I'd dump the Violet Teacher and the Raven Idol to make room for more beasts. And a single Feral Rage is nice for extra armor or removal.
Fandral is a bit greedy, but you can make it work since there's so many Choose cards here. Brann might work, but only once Menagerie Warden is out, not before that. Even then, there aren't enough battlecries in this deck for it. Might be useful as a distraction though.
And while Knight of the Wild is not a good card by itself, if you include just one and you happen to get it in the mulligan, then it's always nice to be able to play a 5/5 for basically free.
I run 2x Savage Combatent instead of Menagerie Warden. And actually sounds good!! (rank 17 - 14)
It is like fandral doesn't make any sense in this deck. Kinda like the minion giving +3 health more than fandral here for concistency as you will get value out of a beast than out of the choose one effect
- 2 Violet teacher + 2 Nourish
- 2 tigers +1 Druid of the claw +1 savage combatant
and the deck will work better in mid-late game
Love the deck, crossing out "None of your business" is the single greatest thing I've seen on this website xD
My only problem with this deck and beast druid as a whole is that there is almost 0 beast synergy other then the warden and mark so a lot of cards like druid of the saber and druid of the flame aren't even needed. Only combos you need is mark on raven/raptor and warden on tiger and i think the other beasts should be replaced with higher valuable cards.
replacement for fandral please ?
Thanks dude^^
looks like you will be top decking a lot with no card draw
I hate that this exists, it's just so... Btw, good theorycrafting bro.
Not so much as playing against it. Kappa
What do you think about these changes?
This looks right to me. Dual savage roar is a risk. Savage Combatant doesn't need spells to get value and this isn't actually that cantropy a deck.
C'est parfait! Merci beaucoup!