Hearthpwn

Hey all, I’m Theo and good to see you in another one of my guides! You might remember me from my previous guides such as my Top 20 Tempo Warrior or Big Priest guide, or from HGG where I got top 8 with The Netherlands. I’ve also finished top 100 the last five months on EU so I know a bit about competitive play.

With this deck I reached Legend on EU due to having a consistently high winrate (70%+) versus druids. If you are looking to beat druids consistently, then this is the deck for you. However, after the patch so far there has been a decrease in druids and increase in a few other decks including hunter. I haven't tested it yet but you might want to change to decklist to fit in for example volcanic potion if you see a lot of hunter or eater of secrets if you see a lot of mage.

This deck is all about removal and grinding out games, something that works very well against druids, both Jade and Aggro, and other board-centric decks such as murloc paladin. After the patch the strategy hasn't changed, but a lot of matchups have, so tech smartly for the meta you are facing.

If you want to see this deck in play, you can watch me play this and other fun but also competitive decks on twitch. I stream daily at twitch.tv/theohs_

Vod getting almost top 100: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/174964787?t=48m04s (pre-nerf)

Proof of Winrates:

Mulligan

Keep in mind that you want to adjust your mulligan if you already keep one or more cards. For example if you find Doomsayer, you also want to keep Frost Nova vs an aggressive deck. Same with Arcanologist where you can keep Medivh's Valet too if you have both in the mulligan.

Vs Warlock: Arcanologist, Arcane Intellect, Medivh, the Guardian, Frost Lich Jaina

Vs Mage: Arcanologist, Doomsayer, Arcane Intellect, Medivh, the Guardian, Frost Lich Jaina

Vs Priest: Arcanologist, Dirty Rat, Arcane Intellect, Medivh, the Guardian, Frost Lich Jaina

Vs Druid:Arcanologist, Doomsayer, Frostbolt, Skulking Geist

Vs Rogue: Arcanologist, Doomsayer, Dirty Rat, Arcane Intellect

Vs Shaman: Arcanologist, Doomsayer, Frostbolt

Vs Hunter: Arcanologist, Doomsayer, Frostbolt

Vs Paladin: Arcanologist, Doomsayer, Frostbolt

Vs Warrior: Arcanologist, Doomsayer, Frostbolt

 

Cards

Arcanologist: Very strong card.

Dirty Rat: Tech card mainly to try to get Raza the Chained versus priests, but can also be very nice versus other decks because it can be a decent taunt vs aggro or pull a jade card versus jade druid.

Doomsayer: Great anti-aggro card to stop their early game, but sometimes you want to hold off on it to combo it with Frost Nova.

Frostbolt: Strong early removal.

Medivh's Valet: Vanilla body with almost a Frostbolt as effect, often a very strong t4 play versus aggro.

Primordial Glyph: Can randomly win you the game, but also often gives you three crappy options.

Arcane Intellect: Strong draw card. Just be careful in slow matchups that you don’t get too far ahead in fatigue with this.

Frost Nova: Stalls versus aggro and wins games when combo’d with Doomsayer. Also good if you somehow get ahead so you prevent your opponent from trading into your minions.

Ice Barrier: A bit of survivability before you get to your 9-drops. Not really strong but you kind of want a 3^rd secret to almost always have a draw from Arcanologist.

Ice Block: Nobody runs Eater of Secrets, so you get an extra turn with this and allows you to plan your next turns without letting your opponent interact too much with it.

Polymorph: Single target removal, easy way to deal with big minions/deathrattles.

Blizzard: Same as Frost Nova and has added benefit of clearing boards versus token decks.

Meteor: More removal and can be used as both single target removal and multiple target removal.

Skulking Geist: Forced to play this card solely for jade druids. Can also be nice versus priests and shamans.

Flamestrike: More AoE removal mainly for token decks, but often is decent versus every deck.

Medivh, the Guardian: Gives you something to contest the board with lategame so you don’t solely rely on Frost Lich Jaina to carry the late game. The weapon often sticks as most people have cut their weapon removal.

Alexstrasza: Mostly used as a defensive tool as this deck doesn’t really run much burst. Can sometimes be used offensively to force the opponent to have answers.

Frost Lich Jaina: The card this deck is kind of build around. Makes all your removal a lot better due to often leaving a Water Elemental behind which means you can basically have infinite threats. Allows you to grind out games versus decks that are forced to play minions and can’t burst you down such as Murloc Paladins.

Replacements

If you don’t have every card, you can try some of these instead:

Second Dirty Rat: Extra help versus combo decks and jade druid.

Bloodmage Thalnos: Extra cycle to find removal quicker and sometimes the spell damage helps.

Acolyte of Pain: Best card to add if you are looking for more draw.

Pyros: Gives you more lategame minions and synergizes well with Jaina.

Counterspell: If you don’t face a lot of aggro, this card can deny some valuable spells like Ultimate Infestation.

Mind Control Tech: More ways to handle the board against jade druid and aggro, also most people never play around this.

Volcanic Potion: Good if you are facing a lot of token decks.

Coldlight Oracle: Can burn important cards versus slow decks or allow you to find your important cards faster.

Gluttonous Ooze: Good if you face a lot of Pirate Warriors or Medivh, the Guardian.

Fireball: Gives you a chance to win by burning your opponent, decent single target removal too.

Eater of Secrets: There are a lot more mages now after the patch, so this is a good tech card if you face them a lot.

Firelands Portal: More removal and leaves you with a minion to contest the board and be a bit more proactive.

Baron Geddon: Fantastic after Frost Lich Jaina, but alone often mediocre AoE.

General Strategy

This deck has basically two tactics depending on your opponent’s deck. The first and most common tactic is just to grind your opponent out of the game by removing everything they play with all the removal this deck has and then win lategame with Frost Lich Jaina. This applies to most midrange decks and against aggro decks you often just need to remove everything and you often don’t need jaina as they will run out of stuff.

The second tactic is to win the game by killing your opponent with minions and Alexstrasza. This tactic is needed versus decks that beat you lategame with just their hero power, so basically Kazakus Priests, Control Warlocks and Taunt Warriors. Just about every other deck should not have enough threats to survive all the removal this deck has or can’t kill you with just their hero power.

During the game you have a lot of removal at your disposal, so it’s important to know when you want to use which one. For example Frost Nova + Doomsayer is incredibly powerful against every aggro deck, so you often want to save it for a lot of value, or use it the turn you want to play your 8 or 9-mana cards. For other removal you have to think; what cards will you struggle with if your opponent plays them and what card is the best counter to it. Also if your opponent plays a deck with very few minions, you often want to save your Polymorph and use meteor instead because lategame you can get a Water Elemental with Frost Lich Jaina up if you still have Polymorph.

Closing Thoughts

If you like those long games where there often isn’t a simple line, this is the deck for you. It is very satisfying to barely survive against aggressive decks and then end up winning the game with 30 hp due to your Water Elementals. Make sure to give this deck at least a try. Thanks for reading and hope to see you at my next guide or in my stream at twitch.tv/theohs_!