Well, I guess I was a bit hasty on the assumption than. The reason why I assumed it weren't updated is due that I looked though the spells and did not see any naturalize in it. Considering the praise you have given it I assume it's still in there somewhere, or did you opt to remove it for something else?
You can also use a Force of Nature + Soul of the Forest combo 6 dmg + 3x 2/2 minions and ofc it benefits minions already on the board if you have some.
I do like the combo, but that combo works much better with a deck that uses multiple small minions like Murloc Raider, Razorfen Hunter, and Imp Master. The combo by itself is actually quite weak, all you really summon in a blank board are three 2/2 minions. When you couple that with a full board because you play swarm and you throw in a Raid Leader, now you're playing with fire! This isn't the type of deck for that though, I rely on only a couple of strong minions support the damage on my spells.
Well, I guess I was a bit hasty on the assumption than. The reason why I assumed it weren't updated is due that I looked though the spells and did not see any naturalize in it. Considering the praise you have given it I assume it's still in there somewhere, or did you opt to remove it for something else?
Oh, no, I forgot to add Naturalize into it. It just so happens the Ooze switch didn't update for some reason. The opening post and deck was updated, so feel free to look into some of the new content!
I'm also sure you'll love the Azure Drakes. Some of my other friends swear by them, a 4/4 body and draw power is enough. Add some Spell Damage on that and you got yourself quite the minion! As for a Force of Nature, maybe you can enjoy the use of Argent instead. It's not all too far apart when you think about it, just slightly different functionalities.
Ancient Mage is to good, to not take him in a spelldamage deck. I dont realy like spelldamage for druid, because his spells are so expensive and his realy op spells doesnt even benefit from spelldamage ;<
Druid has a multitude of AoE and direct damage spells that other classes couldn't fathom having together in the same deck. At a cost in the 4~6 range, there's still a decent amount to do in a single turn. Yes, there are situations where you may find yourself using only spells in a turn, but with Spell Damage, you can clear the board and have a cheap minion out. This issue of constantly trading off cards turn by turn to no change in momentum is exactly what I addressed with Naturalize.
What other spells could be strictly better than an ample amount of Swipe, Wrath, Starfire, and Starfall in a single deck? Are you talking about the buffs? Bite/Claw/Savage Roar? Wild Growth/Nourish? I rarely see Druid decks without two of the first four I mentioned, let alone none, even if they ran other spells.
As for Ancient Mage, he definitely isn't bad, I'll give him a whirl in place of one Ogre Magi, but his stats leave much to be desired. I'll report back in the near future about the addition of AM.
It's a valid point, but it should only applies to two minions in actuality and only one in this deck:
Ogre Magi and Azure Drake are both perfectly fine minions, 4 mana 4/4 are good stats and Azure Drake can even be played in a non-spell focused deck on its own merit. The two cards in question are Kobold Geomancer and Dalaran Mage, Kobold has somewhat lackluster stats as a 2/2, it loses to 2/3's, 1/3's if the opponent has a ping, and trades even with 3/2's. The idea is that going against a 3 health opener is easily solved with Druid's hero power. Kobold usually has no issue trading like a 3/2 would early game. Generally, you don't want to play Kobold if you have other options - By the numbers, Kobold isn't too good. What makes Kobold strong are cards like Wrath and Claw to protect it early game, while buffs like Shattered Sun Cleric and Defender of Argus are able to allow it to trade higher. This simply means that playing Kobold would essentially have no different effect than playing a 3/2 because of the lack of 4 health opening plays. With that out of the way, we have an incredibly cheap source of spell damage to buff up our game-changing spells. Turn 6 has some major damage with Swipe + Spell Damage, clearing up to the 5 health mark for the ever-popular Yetis and Sen'jins. If not, we have a possible 5 damage with Wrath, Spell damage, and our Hero power. Going into turn 7, we have a 3 damage board clear nuke. The potential clear is amazing as we hide behind respectively beefy minions at 4 health.
I don't run Dalarans because I consider them horrible and I rarely, if at all, open with Thalnos. Situations where I open with Thalnos are usually in tandem with Shattered Sun Cleric. I also don't run conceal in my Rogue spell damage deck, there's usually no point in hiding a Kobold or Ogre Magi.
Healing Touch, BBB, and Tauren are all cards I dislike in this deck. A single Healing Touch is fine, but it gives you no momentum and you don't necessarily have the mass draw of Nourish or two Ancient of the Lore to support that kind of negative value. Booty Bay sits an an unimpressive 4 health - many, if not all classes, have an answer for this. Tauren is one of the worst taunts in the game, 3 health dies much too easily and at 3 mana, the value of the card as well as its purpose in this deck do not fit at all.
As such, I'll propose a few alternatives: Alex -> Ironbark Thalnos -> Harvest Golem Keeper -> Spellbreaker Azure Drake -> No meaningful substitute; try Silverhand Knight Twilight Drake -> Yeti Force of Nature -> Starfall/Claw/Bite
If you have him, go for it. I can't see any problem with Malygos in control Druid deck. In that case, you might want the second Starfall. You can even drop Alex for all intents and purposes, throw in Malygos and maybe another Ancient of Lore to bring the deck to a fully standard spell damage control deck and win through card advantage into a Malygos with a couple of spells to close the game.
My reasoning behind this is because your primary win condition in this deck is with Alexstrasza, with this in mind, you may draw Alexstrasza mid-game and start to completely ignore the opponents health because of the health slash late game. This could conflict with Malygos's purpose to burn the opponent and control the field, keeping both of the dragons may lead to three things: leaning too far into late game, potentially dead draws, and a conflict of interest. It may or may not be worth it adding Malygos, but that's how I'd start to find out.
I have the Druid deck template I based this deck off of in my reserves, and to be honest, I think it plays better in general. Kind of weird to think about, but the deck is incredibly strong and consistent because of the natural spell power Druids pack. I'll do a write-up on that some time tomorrow for anyone who might be interested in a cheap, high-end Druid deck.
More recently, I've begun to start off with a strong, base control deck, then I slowly swap cards or pairs of cards as I play and end up with the decks I'm currently using. Some of them may not end up better, but I enjoy the decks that I make/play and those are the ones I like to share most.
I tested out Ancient Mage, his best out of 4~5 games was... surviving a Truesilver attack. No kid, that's about it. I have a few major problems: the cost of it is relatively high for situational use, you expect minions out on the field already and even then you need to be late into the game to play any meaningful cards. Having even 2 minions out late game with the freedom to play him for meaning impact (say, board clear), is very few and far between. Any situation otherwise, I didn't find him the best of choices as a regular drop because of his poor attack. He's honestly a slow card that needs either cheap spells to manipulate the damage or control of the board and multiple threats. For example, if Hogger or SHK survive a round or used in tandem with double summons to create threats.
I did change my opinion of him, he's not as worthless as I imagined aside from his health being pretty decent for a card at 4 mana. He has a home in a deck, but there are conditional requirements to exploit his potential: a strong emphasis on board control with quantity of minions and cheap spells, neither of which this deck can support.
@Tippa: Glad you're enjoying the deck, thanks for your input thus far. I'm looking forward to more.
Thanks for the deck! I am a beginner Druid player (generally go Rogue/Priest/Paladin) and I haven't got a very deep deck strategy with this class so I gave it a try. I have very few Epics and no Legendaries so this is what I came up with:
Out of the cards I'm missing I most miss Alex or some high-mana cost disruptor. Ancient of War is ok, but he's either a bit toothless with taunt or squishy with 10 attack. He's good to hide behind an pre-existing Argus taunt wall but I haven't been able to pull that off much. I took Reckless Rocketeer just to fit the aggressive nature of the deck but that card hasn't proved very effective either.
Worgen Infiltrator has proven effective as an opener, in combination with hero powers and/or Wrath. But perhaps there is a better 1-cost card to take as an opener? Thoughts?
Ogre Magi's and Swipe are a brutal combo by turn 8 (or 7 since I frequently save my coin). If I already have a Kobold or Drake out, it's a 6 and 3 boardclear... Ouch!
Power of the Wild and Savage Roar have paid for themselves with a few wins. If you can get a decent Argus taunt wall up and surviving a turn, then you can do massive damage with the +3 attack and more survivability with +1 health. Alternatively Power of the Wild comes in handy with it's 2-cost 3/2 minion if I'm desperate.
Overall, I went 6-2 so far in Diamond 1-star... I feel pretty good about that considering my lack of experience with Druid. Thanks again! Hopefully I'll build off this deck as I get better cards.
Oh! Forgot to mention that Acidic Swamp Ooze is indeed a must for this deck. Don't waste these on openers! A Warrior just equipped a weapon in my last game, then upgraded it twice for 4/4 stats. I hit it with an ooze and he ragequit - I only had a Shattered Sun Cleric out on the board :) Both of us had full health... One-dimensional strategy perhaps?
I'm either not playing this deck correctly, or it just isn't suitable for the current slash-at-your-face meta. Tried it for 7-8 games today and the only time I wasn't caught backpeddling to try and recover was versus a priest who didn't cast a single thing except a Northshire cleric up till turn 6. :( It caught my eye because I haven't used Alexstrasza since control was actually considered strong, not much luck though. Went 1-7 before I packed it up and walked away with a bit of a skeptical frowny face.
I'm either not playing this deck correctly, or it just isn't suitable for the current slash-at-your-face meta. Tried it for 7-8 games today and the only time I wasn't caught backpeddling to try and recover was versus a priest who didn't cast a single thing except a Northshire cleric up till turn 6. :( It caught my eye because I haven't used Alexstrasza since control was actually considered strong, not much luck though. Went 1-7 before I packed it up and walked away with a bit of a skeptical frowny face.
Hmm, sorry to hear that. I'm only 2-star Diamond, so I can't speak for the highest levels of play. But at my level I'm still doing very well with the deck. I just overwhelmed a Priest by turn 7 (he didn't concede, I actually killed him within 7 turns).
The turning point for me is if you can get two minions out in the earlygame (preferably at least one with Spell Damage +1) and then play Defender of Argus. That's a game changer. If the opponent doesn't board clear, then I can continue to buff those three minions and do huge damage. There are only a few spells that can boardclear 3 health in early/mid-game. If he plays a bunch of minions in response then I almost always have a boardclear of my own ready (swipe, starfall).
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Well, I guess I was a bit hasty on the assumption than. The reason why I assumed it weren't updated is due that I looked though the spells and did not see any naturalize in it. Considering the praise you have given it I assume it's still in there somewhere, or did you opt to remove it for something else?
I do like the combo, but that combo works much better with a deck that uses multiple small minions like Murloc Raider, Razorfen Hunter, and Imp Master. The combo by itself is actually quite weak, all you really summon in a blank board are three 2/2 minions. When you couple that with a full board because you play swarm and you throw in a Raid Leader, now you're playing with fire! This isn't the type of deck for that though, I rely on only a couple of strong minions support the damage on my spells.
Oh, no, I forgot to add Naturalize into it. It just so happens the Ooze switch didn't update for some reason. The opening post and deck was updated, so feel free to look into some of the new content!
I'm also sure you'll love the Azure Drakes. Some of my other friends swear by them, a 4/4 body and draw power is enough. Add some Spell Damage on that and you got yourself quite the minion! As for a Force of Nature, maybe you can enjoy the use of Argent instead. It's not all too far apart when you think about it, just slightly different functionalities.
http://www.youtube.com/user/vtxaishi
You're not going crazy, I edit 2~3 times each post
Druid has a multitude of AoE and direct damage spells that other classes couldn't fathom having together in the same deck. At a cost in the 4~6 range, there's still a decent amount to do in a single turn. Yes, there are situations where you may find yourself using only spells in a turn, but with Spell Damage, you can clear the board and have a cheap minion out. This issue of constantly trading off cards turn by turn to no change in momentum is exactly what I addressed with Naturalize.
What other spells could be strictly better than an ample amount of Swipe, Wrath, Starfire, and Starfall in a single deck? Are you talking about the buffs? Bite/Claw/Savage Roar? Wild Growth/Nourish? I rarely see Druid decks without two of the first four I mentioned, let alone none, even if they ran other spells.
As for Ancient Mage, he definitely isn't bad, I'll give him a whirl in place of one Ogre Magi, but his stats leave much to be desired. I'll report back in the near future about the addition of AM.
http://www.youtube.com/user/vtxaishi
You're not going crazy, I edit 2~3 times each post
It's a valid point, but it should only applies to two minions in actuality and only one in this deck:
Ogre Magi and Azure Drake are both perfectly fine minions, 4 mana 4/4 are good stats and Azure Drake can even be played in a non-spell focused deck on its own merit. The two cards in question are Kobold Geomancer and Dalaran Mage, Kobold has somewhat lackluster stats as a 2/2, it loses to 2/3's, 1/3's if the opponent has a ping, and trades even with 3/2's. The idea is that going against a 3 health opener is easily solved with Druid's hero power. Kobold usually has no issue trading like a 3/2 would early game. Generally, you don't want to play Kobold if you have other options - By the numbers, Kobold isn't too good. What makes Kobold strong are cards like Wrath and Claw to protect it early game, while buffs like Shattered Sun Cleric and Defender of Argus are able to allow it to trade higher. This simply means that playing Kobold would essentially have no different effect than playing a 3/2 because of the lack of 4 health opening plays. With that out of the way, we have an incredibly cheap source of spell damage to buff up our game-changing spells. Turn 6 has some major damage with Swipe + Spell Damage, clearing up to the 5 health mark for the ever-popular Yetis and Sen'jins. If not, we have a possible 5 damage with Wrath, Spell damage, and our Hero power. Going into turn 7, we have a 3 damage board clear nuke. The potential clear is amazing as we hide behind respectively beefy minions at 4 health.
I don't run Dalarans because I consider them horrible and I rarely, if at all, open with Thalnos. Situations where I open with Thalnos are usually in tandem with Shattered Sun Cleric. I also don't run conceal in my Rogue spell damage deck, there's usually no point in hiding a Kobold or Ogre Magi.
http://www.youtube.com/user/vtxaishi
You're not going crazy, I edit 2~3 times each post
Healing Touch, BBB, and Tauren are all cards I dislike in this deck. A single Healing Touch is fine, but it gives you no momentum and you don't necessarily have the mass draw of Nourish or two Ancient of the Lore to support that kind of negative value. Booty Bay sits an an unimpressive 4 health - many, if not all classes, have an answer for this. Tauren is one of the worst taunts in the game, 3 health dies much too easily and at 3 mana, the value of the card as well as its purpose in this deck do not fit at all.
As such, I'll propose a few alternatives:
Alex -> Ironbark
Thalnos -> Harvest Golem
Keeper -> Spellbreaker
Azure Drake -> No meaningful substitute; try Silverhand Knight
Twilight Drake -> Yeti
Force of Nature -> Starfall/Claw/Bite
http://www.youtube.com/user/vtxaishi
You're not going crazy, I edit 2~3 times each post
How do feel about Malygos in this deck?
If you have him, go for it. I can't see any problem with Malygos in control Druid deck. In that case, you might want the second Starfall. You can even drop Alex for all intents and purposes, throw in Malygos and maybe another Ancient of Lore to bring the deck to a fully standard spell damage control deck and win through card advantage into a Malygos with a couple of spells to close the game.
My reasoning behind this is because your primary win condition in this deck is with Alexstrasza, with this in mind, you may draw Alexstrasza mid-game and start to completely ignore the opponents health because of the health slash late game. This could conflict with Malygos's purpose to burn the opponent and control the field, keeping both of the dragons may lead to three things: leaning too far into late game, potentially dead draws, and a conflict of interest. It may or may not be worth it adding Malygos, but that's how I'd start to find out.
I have the Druid deck template I based this deck off of in my reserves, and to be honest, I think it plays better in general. Kind of weird to think about, but the deck is incredibly strong and consistent because of the natural spell power Druids pack. I'll do a write-up on that some time tomorrow for anyone who might be interested in a cheap, high-end Druid deck.
More recently, I've begun to start off with a strong, base control deck, then I slowly swap cards or pairs of cards as I play and end up with the decks I'm currently using. Some of them may not end up better, but I enjoy the decks that I make/play and those are the ones I like to share most.
http://www.youtube.com/user/vtxaishi
You're not going crazy, I edit 2~3 times each post
I see your reasoning behind Alex with the deck, and being able to focus on board control and not worry about the enemy health so much. Good points.
Still.. something about stomping a pyroblast mage with Maly would make me happy.
Update!
I tested out Ancient Mage, his best out of 4~5 games was... surviving a Truesilver attack. No kid, that's about it. I have a few major problems: the cost of it is relatively high for situational use, you expect minions out on the field already and even then you need to be late into the game to play any meaningful cards. Having even 2 minions out late game with the freedom to play him for meaning impact (say, board clear), is very few and far between. Any situation otherwise, I didn't find him the best of choices as a regular drop because of his poor attack. He's honestly a slow card that needs either cheap spells to manipulate the damage or control of the board and multiple threats. For example, if Hogger or SHK survive a round or used in tandem with double summons to create threats.
I did change my opinion of him, he's not as worthless as I imagined aside from his health being pretty decent for a card at 4 mana. He has a home in a deck, but there are conditional requirements to exploit his potential: a strong emphasis on board control with quantity of minions and cheap spells, neither of which this deck can support.
@Tippa: Glad you're enjoying the deck, thanks for your input thus far. I'm looking forward to more.
http://www.youtube.com/user/vtxaishi
You're not going crazy, I edit 2~3 times each post
Hey Aishi,
Thanks for the deck! I am a beginner Druid player (generally go Rogue/Priest/Paladin) and I haven't got a very deep deck strategy with this class so I gave it a try. I have very few Epics and no Legendaries so this is what I came up with:
Out of the cards I'm missing I most miss Alex or some high-mana cost disruptor. Ancient of War is ok, but he's either a bit toothless with taunt or squishy with 10 attack. He's good to hide behind an pre-existing Argus taunt wall but I haven't been able to pull that off much. I took Reckless Rocketeer just to fit the aggressive nature of the deck but that card hasn't proved very effective either.
Worgen Infiltrator has proven effective as an opener, in combination with hero powers and/or Wrath. But perhaps there is a better 1-cost card to take as an opener? Thoughts?
Ogre Magi's and Swipe are a brutal combo by turn 8 (or 7 since I frequently save my coin). If I already have a Kobold or Drake out, it's a 6 and 3 boardclear... Ouch!
Power of the Wild and Savage Roar have paid for themselves with a few wins. If you can get a decent Argus taunt wall up and surviving a turn, then you can do massive damage with the +3 attack and more survivability with +1 health. Alternatively Power of the Wild comes in handy with it's 2-cost 3/2 minion if I'm desperate.
Overall, I went 6-2 so far in Diamond 1-star... I feel pretty good about that considering my lack of experience with Druid. Thanks again! Hopefully I'll build off this deck as I get better cards.
Oh! Forgot to mention that Acidic Swamp Ooze is indeed a must for this deck. Don't waste these on openers! A Warrior just equipped a weapon in my last game, then upgraded it twice for 4/4 stats. I hit it with an ooze and he ragequit - I only had a Shattered Sun Cleric out on the board :) Both of us had full health... One-dimensional strategy perhaps?
I'm either not playing this deck correctly, or it just isn't suitable for the current slash-at-your-face meta. Tried it for 7-8 games today and the only time I wasn't caught backpeddling to try and recover was versus a priest who didn't cast a single thing except a Northshire cleric up till turn 6. :( It caught my eye because I haven't used Alexstrasza since control was actually considered strong, not much luck though. Went 1-7 before I packed it up and walked away with a bit of a skeptical frowny face.
Hmm, sorry to hear that. I'm only 2-star Diamond, so I can't speak for the highest levels of play. But at my level I'm still doing very well with the deck. I just overwhelmed a Priest by turn 7 (he didn't concede, I actually killed him within 7 turns).
The turning point for me is if you can get two minions out in the earlygame (preferably at least one with Spell Damage +1) and then play Defender of Argus. That's a game changer. If the opponent doesn't board clear, then I can continue to buff those three minions and do huge damage. There are only a few spells that can boardclear 3 health in early/mid-game. If he plays a bunch of minions in response then I almost always have a boardclear of my own ready (swipe, starfall).