[LEGENDARY] Rushino's Demolisher Zoo
- Last updated Aug 14, 2014 (Naxx Launch)
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Wild
- 17 Minions
- 13 Spells
- Deck Type: None
- Deck Archetype: Unknown
- Crafting Cost: 5640
- Dust Needed: Loading Collection
- Created: 8/9/2014 (Naxx Launch)
- Rushino
- Registered User
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- 10
- 10
- 47
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Battle Tag:
Rushino #1601
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Region:
US
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Total Deck Rating
799
NAXX CHANGES ARE HERE, AND DECK MAY EVOLVE AS THE FINAL WEEKS OF NEW NAXX CARDS BECOME AVAILABLE!
WARNING: This deck is not easy to play.
I feel this deck deserves a lot of attention for its ability to really perform consistently in a diversified meta environment. I realize in sharing a deck with a high skill cap, that not all players are going to use this deck efficiently..especially in their first 10-30 attempts. As a result this deck may, or may not get the attention it deserves. There are complex strategies, mulligans, and answers on every turn. If this deck does reflect positively in the community(Via posts, thumbs up , etc) , I will go after my quest list :) ,
Sageturk has said it best, and to quote him, he said "To everyone having trouble with it, I recommend you simply keep playing casual until you don't lose anymore. It took me probably 20-30 games before I got the hang of it (luckily I've experimented with a semi-similar deck in the past). Also, if at all possible, record your games - doing this about 5 times will help you see at what point you made a bad play…because almost every loss with this deck can be traced back to a single bad play (usually around turn 3-4)." --this statement is extremely accurate on this deck.
I called it Demolisher Zoo because this deck
1) Has Demolisher in it and was derived from my old Demolisher deck here: http://www.hearthpwn.com/decks/59316-legendary-rushinos-demolisher-druid
2) Was called Zoo because of the various cards in the deck. This deck runs 20 Different cards, so a lot of choices can be made, and finding an answer to a board problem is much more feasible.
3) I have found myself doing interesting combos with this deck, and knowing what to play is important. Try to catch a live stream if you wish to increase your efficacy with this deck
With all the new deck synergies and strategies out there, I noticed a lot of other Druid players were having issues with deck consistency. The goal of this deck was to try to create consistency for Druids, when at first glance is a bit tougher to view the synergies, but when testing and playing, you will realize that this deck has a higher skill cap(mostly due to the "1 x [Obvious Card to Run Two Of Here]"
When it comes to Druid decks, I think you will agree with me that this takes one of the highest skill caps to play efficiently.
Skill Cap Reasonings:
1) A lot of 1 copy cards gives you a ton more options in what to play. You will realize yourself improving your win % as you learn the most effective plays to do every turn.
2) You must do A LOT of mathematics, sometimes 2-3 TURNS IN ADVANCE! For this reason I suggest you don't hit "End Turn" without really thinking what could you draw and what could happen in the next few turns.
My Current Quests-
Give a complete card description
If I get enough thumbs up or feedback, I'll post every deck matchup.!
I will give tips on how to improve
I will give complex situations and detailed answers for tempo control and board control
I will show how to substitute and tech vs your own meta!
More quests to be listed.!
STREAM IS NOW * OFFLINE * 8-9-2014 19-2 Record
http://www.twitch.tv/mark_melnick/
Online and have a question? Add me: Rushino#1601 NA Server
General Win Condition:
The win condition of this deck is most often in your games, the Force of Nature + Savage Roar combo.
Pros:
• Always is fun to play, and you do indeed feel yourself improving when using it!
• Stands a chance to everything out there!
• 9 cards that can potentially be used to draw, makes cycling through the deck a breeze.
• Is a lot of fun to play!
Cons:
• High skillcap can give different results based on the skill of the individual
This deck performs great vs everything I have been up against. My few losses have come from Warriors, in which a few of them managed 2 x Armorsmith against me while playing 2 x Whirlwind I have beaten more Warriors than I have lost to.
Every Card- Explanations
Best used to put pressure early on. Great combo's into a turn 1 Demolisher or Harvest Golem. If you go 2nd, is great for turn 1 Sen'jin Shieldmasta or even a Keeper of the Grove early vs some matchups like rush decks and Warlock Zoo, Can be a great first turn play, or can be held for a combo for a turn 7 Force of Nature + Savage Roar combo
Must be played intelligently. Unless you're facing rush there is no need to ever to use The Coin on Turn 1 so you could Wild Growth right afterwards. If you have a Harvest Golem or a Demolisher you can justify using The Coin Turn 1 so you may have 3 mana for your 2nd turn. I have found after Naxxramus that the best way to use The Coin is to use it when you need to bring out a board control play..i.e. Keeper of the Grove turn 3 to kill an enemy Knife Juggler
I can not emphasize this enough as every game is situational. However if you have the ability to use it for 1 Damage + Draw, and follow it up with your hero ability, it is almost always worth it for you and gives you an edge. Unless you lost board control vs a Zoo type deck, you should almost always figure out ways to use the card draw advantage.
The thing has a huge target on it's face for 3 mana. I've seen this thing be the target of Soulfire, Hex, Polymorph, Execute, Swipe, Earth Shock, Siphon Soul, etc. The card draws so much aggro, it's threat level speaks for itself.
I realize some people fear this card because of enemy Nerubian Eggs. In my playtesting this was a rare situation that I had to be afraid of. Also fact remains that Demolisher fires at the start of your turn, so even if the Egg gets hit, you still have a chance to deal with the 4/4 Minion before it just 1 shots your Demolisher next turn.
The thing it really does best is neutralize Zoo, and hero power abilities. With having 4 health, it also makes it pretty difficult to take out without some force. Works best when behind a taunt, or when you have board control.
Perfect card to drop off a turn 1 Innervate. Messes Shaman Totems up, and helps control tempo vs Zoo and other rush decks alike!
Great against Zoo, chewing down Giants from a Handlock deck, and great for doing finishing damage. Combos great against Zoo Turn 6 with Bloodmage Thalnos
The ultimate question should be here, is why this card over another copy of Azure Drake?
a) It costs 1 Mana less and that makes huge differences in having an easier mana curve.
b) Draws aggro just like an Azure Drake, and can easily be taken out just as effectively....however for 1 less, you lost a little bit "Less"
Great against Zoo off an early Innervate or The Coin. Try to hold this card back vs Druids, where you may want to silence a Taunt. Also very good to silence those pesky Nerubian Eggs
Huge threat vs all rush decks, great to block in your Demolisher after turn 3.
Great card to keep Area Of Effect pressure on the board. Adds nicely to Unstable Ghoul, and Swipe. Rush decks worst nightmare withBloodmage Thalnos present
Vs Priests I will almost always make this a 4/4 rush(Shadow Word Pain/Death Immunity). Vs most other decks, unless there is a huge threat on the board that needs to be cleared, I will make this bad boy a 4/6 taunt. I will often turn this bad boy into 4/4 Charge vs Mages and Warriors who drop out an Acolyte of Pain.
Everyone with the exception of most Miracle Rogues will have something that this bad boy could target. Versus Rush heavy metas, Does an excellent job in helping us regain board control and tempo.
Perfect card to play to add that extra damage to opponent via Force of Nature + Savage Roar. I chose this over Loatheb, which is an excellent substitution, because if you don't have board control, Loatheb won't accomplish much. Stranglethorn Tiger can be played on a turn where you plan on regaining tempo the next turn after...and this card can practically not be removed the turn it is played.
Great card to get rid of 3 Zoo Minions, and perfect card to combine with Savage Roar for the win. If you draw 2, feel free to use 1 copy "carelessly" as you will never get use of having 2 in your hand at all times.
Kills any taunt minion, and ever since Naxxramus, I feel this card has doubled in usefulness.
Extremely Versatile, and does best playing when you have an advantage on board control. Loves healing 5 behind a taunt minion, and loves drawing 2 when board is clean, or board is yours!
MULLIGAN- Section being added now :)
Rules-
I will break down priority cards to keep vs every matchup.
#1- Keep all Top Priority Cards.
#2- Keep Medium Priority only if you have at least 1 Top Priority Card.
So in simple terms....
Top Priority- Never mulligan this card
Medium Priority- Only keep if you have at least 1 Top Priority card
Ok first of all i love your deck, played alot with the first 1 as Well but there is 1 thing that bothers me, and that is that the "demolisher druid" no longen runs 2 demolishers so i subbed 1 unstable ghoul for 1 demolisher
but since im noob and dont own either tbk or bt i put in a kobold geomancer and a 2nd druid of the claw, iTS been wokring pretty well, and thought id share for people with the dame problem
anyways thanks for the deck, hope you read this since id took me a long time to type this on my phone and sorry of oo use bad english :)
+1 - I too have been trying to get 2 Demolishers in :) I'm going to try your change!
I like the idea of the deck, but I strongly disagree with "you will realize that this deck has a higher skill cap(mostly due to the "1 x [Obvious Card to Run Two Of Here]." Running more one-ofs gives you more options yes, but it reduces consistency and makes it more difficult to play not by virtue of more options but by virtue of not being able to execute a gameplan game after game. A warlock Zoo deck with all one-ofs would be more difficult to play and have a higher skill cap, but it would just be worse because you don't have two of all the strong cards. In what situation would you rather have a Stampeding Kodo than a second Druid of the Claw, for example?
Stampeding Kodo over Druid of the Claw situations?
Vs a Zoo deck....vs any deck that drops Deathlord...Doomsayer...etc?
I also have never had as much consistency in any of my prior decks, so while I do see your point, I strongly disagree with you based on my results...
One thing you didn't take into account is that when you have a decent amount of draw you could potentially be holding a Druid of the Claw and a Stampeding Kodo. More options always equals more skill. The consistency will come from your ability to increase your draw engine so that you actually have these multiple options in your hand/ Considering that some peoploe here ran 19-0 with this deck before losing doesn't show much credence to your idea that the deck would lack consistency based on running 1 copy of cards that every player feels they need 2 of. The flaw in your thought process again is that drawing many cards gives you additional options...when you have different roads you can cross instead of fewer roads, your decisions do become more difficult, hence the higher skill cap.
I love running a four or five one-ofs in decks that can draw many cards, such as Miracle Rogue and midrange Hunter, but this deck doesn't have that much deck velocity compared to those and has EIGHT non-legendary singletons. Obviously there will always be situations where card X (your tech card) outperforms card Y (the standard choice), but card Y is better 75% of the time, so you should run 2 copies of card Y. This isn't always the case with Handlock & midrange Hunter and miracle Rogue where you commonly have 7+ cards in hand in the mid-to-late game, but Druid doesn't have that many cards unless you got a top-heavy draw and the game is practically over already.
For draw here you have Ancient of Lore, 1 Gnomish Inventor, and situationally Wrath and Wild Growth. Not that much, plus you have double combo cluttering up your draws.
Your results (and others with this deck) are impressive, but people get to legend and win games with Hunter decks without 2 Trackings. A guy Top 8'ed a Magic GP with a deck that had 4 Cryptic Commands and no other nonland multiples in his main deck. Winning with a certain setup doesn't make it right.
+1 for your post
Again I understand what you are trying to say.
I also don't think Hunter's "need" 2 x Tracking..
You said winning with a certain setup doesn't make it right....again I have to disagree with you here.
When I won NY Magic back in 1995, I did it with a Eureka deck that noone has ever seen before, and took 1st place...14 out of the 16 finalists for this tourney ran the classic 5 color combo deck with powerful cards from every set..(Keep in mind I was playing vs people with Power 10 cards, as there was no "standard" back than ;p) I guess what I am trying to say here is that my decks usually think outside the box, which is exactly what this Hearthstone deck is....
Also never underestimate throwing off your opponents game when they start seeing cards in conjunction with each other that they can rarely predict. :)
It is great to have unusual cards that people don't play around; I agree with that.
Hunter doesn't NEED 2 Tracking, but the nature of the class is that certain cards are so so much better than the rest that you need to see them every game (Buzzard-Unleash, Highmane), so why not give yourself the best chance to find them?
Congrats on the championship back in 1995, but keep in mind Magic (and CCG) theory has advanced so far since then. It is possible to win and be suboptimal (not saying that's the case here, just in general), the easiest examples being when card availability is an issue (a guy wins the first tournament after a new set with only 2x the new dual land, for example) or someone accidentally registers 61 cards. Herthstone isn't any different. I could throw Core Hound in my Miracle deck instead of Cold Blood and still win most games, but it wouldn't be correct.
+1 " It works quite well, if your opponent is a little bit experienced he will play assuming you have two copy of those cards, which is destabilizing for him."
Couldn't agree more with this statement
Toolbox deck...I like that!
Have you considered replacing Druid of the Claw with Sludge Belcher? I've been messing around with it in my druid deck, and it's been really helpful against the resurgence of Hunter.
+1 I haven't and I'll try it out via playtesting!
I haven't had a chance to try this deck yet, but I'm interested in watching a stream of you playing this. Is that coming any time soon? Thanks! :D
Add a Thalnos substitute on the description, plz :)
absolutely I shall! :)
Thank you for this deck, I'll NEVER play ZoO again!
-former warlock
deathlord would be better than ghoul?
+1 In many situations yes, but the Unstable Ghoul gives a clear advantage for me vs Zoo...not to say Deathlord isn't good vs Zoo as well, it's just when facing certain decks like Priest, and Warrior who can easily remove Deathlord, it becomes a lot scarier to run it in the deck...
Different metas, different strokes....I'll do some playtesting with your recommendation ty
Thanks for another deck Rushino. I've had lots of fun playing all of them. Looking forward to seeing more!
EDIT: Any advice on the control priest match up? It appears to be giving me the most trouble.
Priests and Warriors are the decks hardest matchups :)
Vs Priest you must manage to hold board control early and make sure they don't get a lot of draw via Northshire Cleric
Ugh, this is the druid deck I've been looking for. I've been messing around trying to get a deck that worked like this for what feels like a long time. only played a handful of games with it, and all in casual as you reccomended, but I am unbeaten and very pleased.
Note that I left out a starfall, demolisher and tiger in exchange for an azure drake, a druid of the claw and an ancient of war. When I can craft a starfall I might reconsider.
+1
Stevo this is the Druid deck I have been searching for a long time as well. I was very excited to share it with the community for potential responses as yours, however due to the higher skill cap with this deck it seems this deck will never get the full attention it deserves.
It took me DAYS of calculating and playtesting to come up with this list. It was the hardest deck for me that I have personally created. There are so many other facets that I'd love to share, but again, I will spend more time putting work into decks that get larger community responses.
Thanks for enjoying it! and I am hoping this thread will get the attention it deserves so I can explain how to effectively bring this deck to the next level...It will end up taking me at least 15-20 hours of writing, so it will be a huge time investment for me :)