My greetings, and welcome to the first of a series of Wild decks spotlights - during each of these episodes we'll focus on a different class and highlight multiple ways (preferably funny ones, but no one despises a little bit of competitiveness here and there) to play it.
In this way, if you like a certain class more than the others, you'll have the chance to explore it even further; on the other hand, if you happened to unpack a Legendary but you've never had the chance to have fun with it yet, these articles may come in handy.
But now, without further ado, let's come down to business - the first class we decided to highlight is Druid! Now that Malfurion got his very well-performing Token Druid deck nerfed in Voracious Reader (in case you've missed it, you can check the relevant changes here), the class doesn't really have a top tier archetype to brag about (Malygos is not in the best shape ever and Jade looks helpless since the nerf to Guardian Animals).
Therefore, here are some niche Druid archetypes that may help the class to feel loved a bit more. Enjoy!
Hijo's Linecraker Druid
Since the new XP system rewards long games above everything, you may want to take a look at one of the most infamous Wild decks to have ever existed. While it's not top tier, [Hearthstone Card (Linecraker) Not Found] Druid is still able to steal wins thanks to the sheer strength of some of its class cards (Ferocious Howl, Lesser Jasper Spellstone and Spreading Plague are crazy good cards) and, of course, its combo. Unless your opponent is running Platebreaker...
Togwaggle Druid
Ysiel Windsinger has never seen that much play since its release almost one year ago, but if certain conditions are met, its effect is far from being bad. Check out this Togwaggle Druid which runs the Aviana-Kun combo over the slower and more inconsistent Dreampetal Florist.
KremePuff's Jade Druid
Being able to out armor Reno Priests feels extremely satisfying - I can tell you that much since I've tried this list personally. Solar Eclipse is almost like a secondary (and immediate) Archmage Vargoth that can grant you huge amounts of armor (easily 50, but I've touched 80 a few times) for just 2 mana. This shouldn't be an issue at all for us since Mana is Druid; The class has access to plenty of mana generation through Lightning Bloom, Jade Blossom and Overgrowth.
Moreover, Ysera, Unleashed and both Yoggs provide great top-end finishers that can seal the game for you.
Evildevil's Tempo Jade Druid
The second Jade Druid iteration in this article. While KremePuff built a more value-focused list, Evildevil tried a more Tempo-oriented list which includes Anubisath Defender and Arcane Tyrant. These minions are nice bodies you will consistently get for free while doing what Malfurion already wants to do - Spreading Plague, Ultimate Infestation and to an extent Starfall, the core cards in Wild Druid that will bring you even more rewards for their cast.
Did you enjoy our Druid spotlight? Which class would you like to see as the next one?
Don't forget to share your own Druid deck creations with the community by adding them to our deck database via our deckbuilder and sharing them in the comments below.
Comments
I'm kinda shocked that there wasn't a write up about the recent surge of Swarm Druid. Since Lightning Bloom was released, that has opened the door back up to tons of Aggro Druid decks running around. I started to change up my wild play to accommodate to the Ultimate Infestation of these decks and I genuinely wonder what their win rate is.
If you're talking about Aggro Druid, we're fairly aware of the deck's strength (we even talked about it at the beginning of the article) - however, for this article (and for the ones will follow it) we'd rather focus on off-meta/niche/emerging strategies.
TWO Jade Druids, and nothing with Greybough? Friends, I feel it is my solemn duty to share the following:
https://outof.cards/hearthstone/decks/21990-treeeeeeees
Summon trees! Earn XP! Impress your friends*!
*assuming your friends are impressed by having fun, and not winning games.
I just wanted to say I think this is an awesome ideal for a series of articles!
I guess I haven’t been playing much the last few days. But was the Reader nerf really THAT damaging to Token Druid? Yes it is the major draw engine, but that deck can sometimes win off other crazy starts and without the draw, right?
Token Druid can still win games with its insane early game highrolls, but see it this way: Embiggen makes Voracious Reader pretty much a Jeeves, which is quite slow for a deck that wants to win games as early as turn 4.