[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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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
Worth to craft Fandral? I do like Druid... Do you think that this deck is able to get legend?
Not OP, just giving my opinion, if you really like Druid you should craft Fandral Staghelm and Cenarius, these two cards are very good for most druid decks (Cenarius is not really necessary in this deck because it's very aggro, but it works well in Token Druid or any other version besides aggro).
Tested him a bit(maybe 6-7 games). I swapped him out quite quick. My thoughts are that you would rather play/keep Enchanted Raven and Living Roots in the opening instead of finley, or just some sort of innervate play. I rarely hero power on turn 2(bad hand). Top decking finley late game also hurts with the little card draw this deck has atm. Sure there are situations where he is useful though.
This might change with the inclusion of Menagerie Warden though. I suspect it will give the deck some more lasting power. Maybe another hero power in later stages of the games could be useful.
Class cards:26, neutral cards:4.
Druid in a nutshell.
Hey what do you think about putting in knight of the wild? Haven't tried it yet, but seems like it could be a solid card
It has to be in your hand in order to get reduced. So it's pretty slow and low value. A 4 mana 6/6 isn't even too impressive nowadays.
Oh i didn't know it worked that way :D thanks guys!
This may not seem like a good card, but I like using Silithid Swarmer now that its considered a beast.
Hemet Nesingwary may have to come out of retirement once menagerie is released.
Hemet's long since retired, friend. Unless you play Wild of course.
Hey what can i replace druid of the flame and mounted raptor for? I dont have those cards. If there really isnt any replacement, i could try to get one of them. in that case would flame>mounted or mounted>flame?
the thing is that those cards are from solo adventure so not craftable and i might be able to unlock the wings for one of them. :C
You should go for Druid of the Flame first, it's a very consistent 3 drop because you can go 2/5 or even 5/2 if there's no enemy threats on the board or if you just want to try a high risk high reward type of play. And don't forget you can get a 5/5 if you have played Fandral Staghelm before Druid of the Flame.
This deck is surprisingly good, I'm sure it will be much better when the Menagerie Warden is released. A few notes:
Overall, it's a good deck. With Menagerie Warden, it can be amazing, we will see when the card is released.
I'm using Azure Drake atm, it feels way too slow to play Nourish when you're trying to play aggro and not very ahead, and even if Drake isn't as good as Stranglethorn Tiger it's better than Nourish imo.
What do you think of replacing druid of the claw with something like a cairne or sylvannas?
Not OP, but I think it's a bad idea because half of the idea of the deck is beast synergy
You want to copy your Druid of the Claw with Menagerie Warden. This deck needs more 5 drop beasts like DotC and Tiger, and 4 drop beast. In the same time should go for consistent early agressive game.
in your opinion is the legendary card worth crafting?
If you're planning playing more Druid decks, is worth it. Fandral give you so much value, even if you only use a Reven Idol/Wraith. IMO Fandral is a good class legendary and it have a spot in almost every Druid deck but I don't think is really necessary for this deck, you could swap it for a savage combatant and the curve is still the same.