Hearthpwn

Quote from Ganrokh »

So I've got pretty high win rates against all classes except Priest. I've done really well against every class except Priest. In fact, I haven't won against a Priest yet. I've gotten decent draw against priest, I just get destroyed everytime.

What are you losing to specifically? Priests are not the best matchup, but you shouldnt be having as much of a problem as your are relaying that you are. Let me know some more details and maybe I can help you out. 

It is very similar to my deck but with the Ancient Watcher engine in it. I am a fan of that engine, but not in druids. I personally feel that the druid card suite is very well suited as is to deal with all aggro decks, and therefor you are taking some valuable cards away that you could be using instead. Its like, you are forcing a good taunt engine into the class with the access to the best taunts in the game. 

I do like your deck though, glad its working out for you. 

That is my list for reference. 

Quote from the9tail »

Playing this deck at Rank 12 at the moment, only loss in the past 4 games were to a Rogue playing Spiteful Smith. 6 HP was abit hard to take down and buffs his weapon made it hard to keep even a 5/10 on the board for very long.

Nice! Yeah I think Spiteful Smith is an under looked card. It provides a very sturdy body with a nice enrage effect all for a decent mana price.

Quote from MSW112 »

Tipp for tourneys: Don't prep for current meta, prepare for predicted next meta ;)

This man speaks the truth. In ccg's, you always want to try to stay a step ahead in major tournaments.

Quote from ChrisBegin »

Hey man, pretty neat Deck you crafted there.

Any chance on having some starts / explanations on how i should mulligan and play with it ?

Thanks !

Yeah of course, Im glad you enjoy it. Here are some of the things I try to do with the deck...

First off against aggro I mull very aggressivly. If I see lock/warrior/hunter/rogue I almost always try to mul til i have a Claw in hand. That card is very very solid at slowing down their tempo until you get a good wall out. Other ok starts are an Innervate with a Druid of the Claw. Honestly even with a slower start against aggro, it is very very easy to come back against any kind of aggro between the taunters and the life gain you can dig out of some pretty bad situations very well. All the cards in the deck have very high trade value so its pretty easy to keep both board and card advantage in hand. 

Locks specifically I wont ship a Swipe either. Too many times have I been upset at tossing Swipe opening hand to search for a Claw or a Loot Hoarder and I have regretted it. 

Mages are actually a pretty easy match up for this deck. You can keep almost any starting hand against them under 5 mana and be fine. Its one of the few times where I will keep any card in my hand that gains life though. Having a Healing Touch opening hand is normally not ideal, but I will keep one against mages because there is only one in the deck and wether they are aggro or giants you will need it. 

I have been facing a lot of other druids today for some reason and The Black Knight and Big Game Hunter have been so clutch. Big Game Hunter is used 95% of the time against Ragnaros the Firelord and generally I try to hold off on The Black Knight for one of their Ancient of War. I play slower and more reactive against druids than any other classes. 

Healadins can be kind of a pain in the ass. The deck is really good and very consistent, and even though its my worst match up, this version seems to have the highest success rate. I play very aggressivly with my Claw and Bite in the early game as well as my Druid of the Claw. You need to be careful and put out enough pressure for them to want to burn one of their Equality combos on you and then you turn right around and drop another threat. You have to keep the pressure up with out over extending which takes some practice. The biggest thing about facing any paladin though is to no matter what, save one of your Keeper of the Grove for Tirion Fordring. 2 seperate occasions I have had someone rage quit after that before, felt really good :-)

Priests can be kind of a pain in the ass, but luckily there are not too many of them now a days to worry about. I love innervating out a Ysera on turn 7 though so you can get solid value out of it. Mind Control is still a card but it is more of a 1 of or a none of in lists I have seen lately. If you are going late game, try to bait out MC's though on some of your taunters before you drop rag or ysera if you are worried about them. Again, play this match up slow. 

Dinner time! Thats all i got for now, Ill add more if anyone else shows interest or if i can think of any more useful info :-) 

I had cairne in for a long time, big fan of that guy. For all the taunts in this deck though I found myself wanting one more. Every time I pulled cairne against anyone other than a mage, I was wishing I could defender of Argus him which just doesn't go well in this deck. 

I'm glad you seem to enjoy the deck, the late game is very strong,  I have list to only 1 mage in the past 3 days due to not having a heal when I needed it, but that's just gonna happen sometimes. 

Let me know how the cairne and other changes work for you and I'll give em a shot :)

This might sound strange but your deck is almost aggro but not midrange or control. Its like it manages to be confused with itself so therefor might not perform like it could. I think you need to figure out what kind of deck you want it to be and then use more supportive cards to help it achieve that specific goal. 

Yeah abomination and sunwalker keep getting swapped for each other depending on my mood for the day. Currently I feel like Sunwalker is a fine choice but I guess it really just comes down to personal preference.

As for the earthen ring farseers, those guys are way more valuable than they appear. The heal is solid for you against mages, great for your tanks agaisnt aggro/midrange, they provide a 3/3 body that blocks and either trades or puts a big guy in range of your other removal, honestly it is one of my favorite and most useful cards in the deck.

2 starfall and 2 healing touch is excessive. You dont need the extra aoe because you trade so efficiently and you also have swipe. You dont need the extra healing touch because while 1 is pretty mandatory now a days, I find with 2 they end up sitting in your hand when you could have had a better more proactive card in your at your disposal. 

This is the druid deck I have been having a pretty high success rate with lately. Its also a blast to play and has answers for pretty much everything in the current meta game and has spots that are easy to trade and tweek depeding on whats popular for the current week. I love the flexibility and consistency of this deck. 

To start off with I know the deck isnt cheap and the legendaries can be substituted for cheaper cards but it will take away from the power of the deck which is kinda unavoidable. Ill go over some of the reasons for the cards I choose that arent your expected druid cards...

The 2 Earthen Ring Farseer have just been so damn impressive the more i play with them. They trade well against most anything an aggro deck will play, they heal your taunters and they provide the necessary life against those mage decks that everyone and their mother are playing. 

The one of Healing Touch is a necessity now a days unfortunatly but its not bad in any match up and I have never been upset drawing it. I also feel the Big Game Hunter is Important for druids because it just kills rag which is also in pretty much every deck list and leaves you with an ok body afterwards and all for 3 mana, how can this card be bad!

Only 1 Nourish and 1 Starfall. The noursih is always used for the card draw but I feel 2 is overkill. The starfall is just another catch all, aoe if you need it and cant pull a swipe, or 5 damage to the face of what ever you need to smack (hi sylvannas).

The Ancient of War and Ancient of Lore are amazing cards. I have toyed with 2 lores and just found that it wasnt necessary. If you feel you really want the extra life gain feel free to add the second, but with all the other life gain and you never really end up with no cards in hand so its seemed excessive. 

The legendaries... Bloodmage Thalnos is just one of the best cards in the game, the card is pure value and should be in most decks, same with the Ragnaros the Firelord. I really like Ysera in this deck, I know a lot of people dont, but personally Im a huge fan and she is a great finisher. Sylvanas Windrunner is just another one of those cards that are so good how could you not want one in your deck. On to the one that may seems strange... The Black Knight. I honestly feel like this is one of the most over looked, yet so valuable legendary right now. This card has done so much work for me in a world of defender of argus' and other druid decks running around, he seriously needs to get some more love.  

Anywho, I love this deck, and while there are constant tweeks of 1 or 2 cards, it generally stays the same and has been extremely consistent for me and very fun to play as well. I would love to hear some input from the community to see what I can do to maybe make it better and push for that legendary rank :-)

No.

Some good early game tools that help a mage keep their health up are mana worms and also Ice barrier. Personally i would swap the counterspells out for the ice barriers. The counterspells are for control type decks which you should not have a problem with because your late game should crush theirs, but the barriers give you a decent amount of armor which helps agaisnt the rush decks which you are having a problem with, seems like an easy swap imo. 

Im not a huge fan of Water elementals, a good swap that could work for you is to trade them for the shield masta. Again, buys you more time agains the aggro decks that you are struggling with. Only other things i would change would be to get a 2nd pyro in and get rid of the frost nova. You wont need the nova with the other changes. Frost nova is fine in combo mage, but it doesnt really provide any kind of board impact which you need, and you always want to have a pyro in hand to finish off the game with. 

And yes, argent commanders are still one of the best neutral cards, if not the best, in the game even with the nerf.