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(Strategy) MetaDeck #1 - Big Druid Beats

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Hey gang - I'm The Rum Ham. I'm a 3-star master constructed player, maintain a 70% win rate in Arena, and regularly get paired against big name players by the matchmaker. I'm hoping to write a weekly deck column here on r/hearthstone with playtesting data on a deck I feel is underrated and well-positioned in the meta, with tips and insights to help you with your own deckbuilding.

EDIT: Added a decklist with mouseovers! Thanks for the advice!

Gameplan - Big, Early, and Often

Do you like playing big, bruising beaters two turns before your opponent can?

Me too. That's why I play Big Druid.

The deck breaks down three keys parts: Mana Acceleration, Big Beats, and Splashy Spells. You mulligan aggressively to get Mana Acceleration, then present Big Beats early in the game. Your curve is very top-heavy and with an early jump in mana you quickly overwhelm the opponent with bigger minions before they get a chance to play threatening minions of their own. If they do develop a board, you have flexible and powerful Splashy Spells to generate tons of value.

A standard game might go Wild Growth on 2, Chillwind Yeti on 3, Druid of the Claw (Charge) on 4, Argent Commander on 5. For many opposing decks, that's too big, too early, and too often. Most removal can't trade one-for-one with those creatures, and most decks don't have enough removal for three in a row. They may kill your first and second bruiser, but eventually they run out of answers to your threats and crumble.

The reason why this midrange deck works while other classes struggle is its incredible consistency. Aggro decks dominate in unknown metas because they can play so many interchangeable cards that they rarely have bad or clunky draws. We have 13 minions with 4+ ATK, and 20% of our deck is card to get us there faster, there is simply nothing the opponent can do to stop us from mashing one after the other on the board every single turn of every single game.

The Decklist:

Image Form

Mouseover Form!

Mana Acceleration:

• 2 Wild Growth
• 2 Innervate
• 2 Pint-Sized Summoner

Big Beats:

• 2 Chillwind Yeti
• 2 Keeper of the Grove
• 2 Azure Drake
• 2 Druid of the Claw
• 2 Argent Commander
• 2 Ancient of Lore
• 2 Ironbark Protector
• 1 Ragnaros

Splashy Spells:

• 2 Nourish
• 2 Wrath
• 2 Swipe
• 2 Starfall
• 1 Starfire

The Record:

Each week I play 20 Ranked games with the exact decklist and record it. Big Druid Beats went 15-5, including a sexy 9-1 going second.

Playtesting Record - 75% Win Rate (Red dot games are below)

Game 1 - Living the Dream vs. Warlock

Game 2 - Textbook Game vs. Mage

Game 3 - Bigger is Better vs. Druid

Why This, Why Now:

Big Druid is well positioned against Mage, Warrior, and Priest decks, all of which are popular right now. Priest decks struggle with 4-power minions, and Big Druid packs a whopping eight creatures with bodies of 4/4 or greater, many with Charge. Mage and Warrior rely on cheap board wipes and weapons to generate card advantage against boards of smaller creatures - Fiery War Axe doesn't look so great against a Turn 2 Chillwind Yeti. When every minion is rocking 4 or more toughness, normally good cards like Frostbolt and Multi-Shot sit dead in your opponent's hand.

Best Case Scenario: The 1-2-3 Yeti

I tried to write down one single line of play, but there's so many variations that it comes down to getting your favorite frosty friend on the board early. Wild Growth into Turn 3 Chillwind Yeti. Innervate for a Turn 2 Yeti. Coin + Innervate = T1 CY GG. If you can wait an extra turn, this all works with Druid of the Claw as well.

That's not even counting the odd game you win to complete nut draws - 2 Innervate into a Turn 1 Druid of the Claw on the play, for example. Or that time I cast a turn 4 Ragnaros. You win turn 4 Ragnaros games.

Worst Case Scenario: Unlucky Mulligans

Big Druid is heavily reliant on hitting a turn 2 ramp card of some variety - that's why we play the unreliable Pint-Sized Summoner. Having 6 acceleration spells for redundancy is too important to skimp out on the gnome. Despite that, you occassionally still have no acceleration after a full hand mulligan. This happens way more often when you go first, and when it happens you are in trouble. You CAN win these games, but you need a slow start from your opponent as well.

The deck is weak to really aggressive draws that aren't easily solved by a Swipe or Starfall.

Pros: Redundancy and Power Level

Redundancy in deckbuilding terms refers to how many copies of a similar effect your deck has. Aggro decks are redundant because for the sake of attacking, most of the 3/2s are interchangeable, so you can run eight copies of various 3/2s and be happy with any of them on any given game. Redundancy is very important in decks because you always want to have what you need at your fingertips so you can consistently execute your gameplan. Redundancy makes that possible!

For Big Druid, we have six cards (20% of your deck!) to help you drop the 15 big minions early. This puts mana acceleration as a strategy ahead of decks that lean on (for example) Knife Juggler, because there isn't a card that serves as a 3rd and 4th copy of Knife Juggler. Big Druid has Innervate and Wild Growth as more or less interchangeable for our plan. Pint-Sized Summoner is risky because of needing to survive the turn, but having it for consistency is more important. Besides, sometimes they don't have an answer. I've ridden a Pint-Sized workhorse to victory more than once.

Big Druid's top-heavy curve means that the longer the game goes the more you are favored. Eventually you are playing nothing but powerful bomby cards, and your opponent is going to be topdecking Leper Gnomes. Druid's Choose mechanic helps the redundancy, as cards like Druid of the Claw can serve both as a Charge minion when you want to race, or a Taunt minion when you want to stabilize.

So look again at the decklist: Six mana accelerators. Eight 4-power minions. Ten cards that draw cards. Seven minions that can deal damage the turn they are played. Four board wipes. You don't necessarily lose flexibility either - you still have Silence, Spell Damage, and Heal effects for the lines of play where you need them.

Cons: Slow to React

Big Druid has a strong proactive gameplan that it wholly commits to executing. The downside is when you have to be reactive, usually to a fast aggro draw, your options are limited. You usually cede early board position then play one big minion or spell per turn. If multiple problems that need attention present themselves, you have a difficult time if the solution isn't brute force. Knife Juggler followed by Feral Spirit, for example - playing a Yeti, that can only kill one wolf per turn leaving the Juggler to his Knives, doesn't look so powerful in response to that.

Mirror Image, Feral Spirit, Defias Ringleader, Hogger, and Sylvannas all present annoying problems when you can't get ahead on the board. Burn decks also have a decent matchup since they get around your superior board position with 10+ damage to the face.

Budgets and Sideboards

If you're missing some cards and looking to fill the gaps or just generally experiment with the list, I've got your backs! Keeper of the Grove can be replaced by Spellbreaker, though you'll miss the 2 damage ability you get even better against Priests. Fen Creeper and Silver Hand Knight fit in the deck nicely, but missing the Charge minions changes the pace of the deck dramatically.

If you want to play around with the minion numbers, any of the Big Beats minions can be replaced by Twilight Drake or Sunwalker, and if you have any value Legendary minions they probably fit in here. Cairne, Sylvanna, Hogger, Ysera, Bloodmage Thalnos, etc can be added to taste. If you want to improve your matchup vs. aggro decks, 2 Claw will go a long way. Force of Nature can be a powerful enough spell to warrant a spot.

That's it for week 1! Give Big Druid Beats a try and feel the power of the Turn 1 Yeti!

Thanks for reading! If you have any questions, I'm happy to answer them! Please comment with suggestions, after recording these videos I intend on getting a better microphone, but is there anything else I can do to improve this weekly column? Let me know!

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