Community Druid Decks / Win Ratio Logs

Hey guys I have linked up with a few of the very good druid deck players on these forums and we have all talked and practiced our decks amongst each other druid vs. druid or other classes etc.

Pulling the community together into one general knowledge place is crucial in any hardcore game setting or even for more casual and laidback players to browse and get an idea.

So what I am intending is we can use this thread as a post blog for any of our current decks, experimental decks, or theory crafting on decks and strategy.

Like I mentioned before to my fellow druids and friends I am huge on competitive card games and would love nothing more to see the Druid class (however underplayed people say we are) to have a huge impact in the tournaments in the months / years to come.

So basically feel free to link, chat, or ask questions and post your win / loss ratios with the deck or overall ratio if you feel to gauge yourself (I know in beta it can be sloppy as we are all still getting the feel).

My battle tag is John#12435 if you ever want to get ahold of me in game to play or chat. Thanks for your time and below is my Deck and W/L atm!

Current total W/L: Masters 2 = 67-25 (73% ratio) This was from lvl 1 the whole way to now 31 @ Masters 2 so I did have some sloppy early game losses when I had no deck structure and I threw away 2 games by freaking starfiring my hero by accident lolol. Anyway I expect it to keep raising the more I play. I have only been in beta for about 5 days now hence my low games played.

Deck Build: (10/30/13)
Wrath x 2
Acidic swamp ooze x 1
Faerie Dragon x 2
Big Game Hunter x 1
Shattered Sun Cleric x 2
Claw x 2
Swipe x 2
Emperor Cobra x 2
Defender of Argus x 1
Keeper of Grove x 2
Azure Drake x 2
Nourish x 1
Starfall x 2
Druid of the Claw x 2
Starfire x 2
Argent Commander x 2
Black Knight x 1
Ragnaros x 1

Future Adjustments:
Maybe a Bloodmage Thanos?
Edited by John on 10/30/2013 2:08 AM PDT
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John I've tried your deck that you posted in other forums. It does win around 60% I've seen. But I've been searching for that really really powerful druid deck that is going to give me a 90% win rate. I've been trying for 2 days tweaking decks, starting from scratch, and it always feels like a huge element of luck on the draw or if the opponent isn't rushing you etc......

I only base this on my own Rogue deck, which wins 90% of the time, and beats all the current META out today.

Paladin Divine sheild/rush
Hunter Unleash hte hounds
Priests control/MC
Warlock rush
Shaman Aggro
Druid Control.
Edited by Skaith on 10/28/2013 10:26 AM PDT
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I agree completely as most of us having been chatting. Druid is in an odd middle place it is powerful and can be utilized to win but its also strange.

This control deck has a 60-70% win ratio. Most your loses will be from aggro decks which in all honesty I expected.

Let me break down my thought processes. I love druid I enjoy this class and deck and its what I want to stick with and work on, a couple things to take into consideration.

1. Aggro decks (hunters in particular) are all going to be looked at and tweaked before release I can guarantee you this. They already did rogue and they will do the rest.

2. Druid deck is steady and almost placed in a grey area atm. Its not too strong or too weak so I can expect them to leave druid alone and not buff or nerf us allowing us to gain maximum practice and continue to build onto our same strategies.

3. Our Druid control decks can actually beat the decks that a lot of other classes have issues with. I almost never ever lose to warriors, shammies, or pallies. Mages, Rogues, are like 50-70% win ratios, then against hunters and warlocks it can get iffy depending on deck build. Playing warlock rush or hunter rush I almost have like a 25-45% win ratio. They are just good and as mentioned in #1 will be tweaked before release.

I mean best I can say is to do what I keep doing and practice, practice, practice and just keep building and working. When real release comes and we see how first structured tournaments go we can go from there.

I am going to watch Blizzcon tourney but I highly doubt druid will be played. If I was there I would totally give a shot with my deck until I fight Trump's Hunter rush deck or Murdocks Warlock rush deck lol. But keep up the work and it will all smooth out.
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Also what I forgot to add too was anybody who is a Magic fan or most card games at a lot of tournaments involving a lot of people you will see a lot of people running generally same powerhouse decks or decks that are "in". This is common to see and this leads to a lot of people studying certain deck builds and how to counter these decks.

Basically in a tournament setting as I am sure we all have seen before the winner usually comes out on top as an underdog deck that has never been seen before in mass scale play. Basically the new shocker deck. Its like a one hit wonder he or she uses to snag a win because people didn't understand it or weren't ready for it. Just like SC2 with that one EU dude who plays the wackiest outcast strategies but finds many ways to win this way by just throwing off peoples typicall defense or offensive strategies. Also like Blizzcon 2011...I think with PHD Korean team nobody saw coming.

Basically Druid isn't everyone's go to deck, and many are just counting it out and not even bothering. I think this is a mistake and will play hugely to our advantage down the road. If you threw a solid Druid control deck into Blizzcon in 2 weeks I honestlly think it would get some attention and with a solid player behind it could make it far, could it take the tourney maybe probably not. Could it goof its way to semi-finals I think so.
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Also I was just reading the 2013 Blizzcon Invational rules and this is very interesting. They are doing a best out of 5 games. You bring 3 Decks all different classes. If one of your decks lose its not allowed to be played again. So its a best of 5 with deck removal at loss. This could play hugely to our advantage if this is how the rest of the tournaments will be staged. Use a Rogue / Mage / Druid setup and I think you could counter anything. I would probably play Mage > Druid > Rogue in that order that way to maximize chances of winning the round.
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John, Your deck isn't bad, I tried it out. It was similar to what I was running before reading your other threads. Like you, Druid is my favorite class, mostly because I used to be a WoW player, I enjoy Jack-of-all-trades sort of classes. Rogue is a close second to my favorite character.

That said, I have been working endlessly on trying to get a Druid deck to work as well as my rogue deck. I could farm gold all day on my Rogue, and I want to have that experience on my Druid as well.

The problem I'm finding is that our spells cost too much compared to other classes. Are removal spells are usually in the 4-6 mana, when I can get those kind of removes for 1 - 3 mana on Mage and Rogue. The difference is huge. On rogue, I can wipe board, and play a minion to start board control. ON Druid I always feel like I wipe and then hand the turn back to the player.

But my major problem is with the other spells, mostly rendered obsolete because of the META.

Soul of the forest (or whatever the 4 mana deathrattle card is called). I wanted to make this deck work so bad. I got it to work maybe 2 or 3 times out of 20 or so matches. It's soooo expensive, and not worth it unless you have 3 or more creatures out. But creature removal and aggression is so common in META of decks today which makes this very luckluster.

Innervate - If this card had "draw a card" It would actually give the druid a unique angle to pick. Since we have the best mana generation, it would ensure we don't lose card draw because of this. How it is now. You play an awsome minion or taunt, and it gets hexed, sheeped, assinate, shadow word, silienced, before you get to use it. Thus losing 2 cards in the trade.

Mark of Nature/ Natures buffs (the 2/2 and the 4 attack, 4 health taunt). Same thing. Silence kills this card so you end up losing 2 cards and your card draw gets hurt.

Savegery - Tried to make this work. Gimmicy with Bite, and even then felt lackluster

Healing spells - Maybe good agaisnt a mage deck trying to get you to 10 fast, but I prefer minions that heal.

Ancients - War is not really good because of the 5 life, Lore's battlecry is more useful.

Weak legendary as well.

So what are the awesome cards the Druid gives us?

-Druid of the Claw (the only card I actually choose differently all the time).

-Keeper of the grove (I feel he is too expensive, but he's still good)

-Ancient of Lore (healing/card draw with a 5/5)

Wrath/ Swipe/ Starfall (spell damage)

So yes, we got a good taunt/charger, and some spells, but the Mage/Hunter/Rogue have better spells. And all our good cards are 4 -7 mana cost mostly. Which means you need to prioritize your Neutral 4-6 cards (which there are a ton of good ones).

So then our decks are mostly 4 - 7 cost cards, and we throw in some 2 cost cards, but it still doesn't feel enough. If an opponent plays badly early game, then we have a chance.

If I get a good swipe, then I also win. It almost feels like I rely on those 2 factors to win. But on my rogue, I feel in control every game.
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We've been shooting ideas off of each other for awhile John, and it's awesome to see that your deck is nearly identical to mine.

I've finalized my Control Druid deck except for 1 spot in which I've been testing several minions out. But here's the current build:

2x Claw
1x Naturalize
2x Wrath
1x Bloodmage Thalnos
1x Ooze
2x Faerie Dragon
1x Big Game Hunter
1x Emperor Cobra*
2x Shattered Sun Cleric
2x Swipe
2x Chillwind Yeti
2x Keeper of the Grove
1x Nourish
2x Starfall
2x Azure Drake
2x Druid of the Claw
2x Starfire
1x Rag
1x Ysera

*Testing out cobra's, I've used Dalaran Mages, Harvest Golems, Scarlet Crusaders, Leeroy, and Twilight Drakes in this spot, Cobra's aren't final.

I'm leaning towards replacing Cobra with Twilight Drake, it will make the deck slower but Twilight Drakes are a huge threat unless they have silence; Further testing is needed however.

The main advantage about this deck is that if the opponent doesn't out-pressure your early game, you will have a very easy time beating any deck. Faerie dragon's backed up by claw and wrath will allow you to win any early game matchup except for MurWarlock; you just have to hope you get these cards early.

If you don't get faerie dragon by turn 2-3 then you just want to use removal on their minions 1 by 1 until you can drop a drake or yeti turn 4 (if you really hate priests, drop a coin turn 3 yeti). Use shattered suns to buff up your faerie dragon: remember that Faerie can't be targeted so the opponent must have the correct battlecry or weapon to deal with it early. With the amount of removal you have, no enemy minion should have the time to trade with your Faerie turns 1-3.

This deck starts to really shine turn 4, or turn 3 coin. If the opponent had a better early game (usually only pure aggro decks can achieve this), you can continue to use your removal spells. I've had many games where turns 4-7 I used swipe, starfall, starfire, starfire, as the opponent continued to drop big mid game hitters like yeti's and drake's. If you have board control or the board is clear at the start of turn 4 you've probably already won the game. Most opponents can't deal with a yeti drop and are forced to either drop their own big minion which you can starfall turn 5, or they are forced to use premature hard removal on the yeti/drake (sheep, hex, assassinate).

Late game is usually the same for most games, keep using removal and your big meat minions until you drop Rag and Ysera. Very few decks can match my late game because of the versatility of silencing Keepers and Druids of the Claw combined with your fantastic removal spells. If you're behind late game, naturalize their biggest minion and drop ysera the same turn, it just might win you the game.

I prefer Druid to Mage or Shaman simply because of the versatility of keepers, druids of the claw, and Starfall. These cards allow this deck to do extremely well against a large variety of decks, where as Mage is more pigeon-holed into 1 specific play style. I also have the strong belief that Swipe is the 2nd best aoe in the game behind Blizzard. Bloodmage Thalnos+Swipe for 6 mana is just amazing, and if you already have an Azure Drake out then you're sitting pretty.

This deck goes 8-2 in your favor versus priests. Yeti's, Drakes, Druids of the claw, and Faerie Dragons just tear priests a new one, just be prepared for a long game. Don't get impatient and drop Rag or Ysera early, and never drop Rag until you have your big game hunter in hand to instantly remove Rag after he gets mind controlled.

I also like how many choices you have with this deck, you can easily play very well or very poorly with the same hand of cards; patience and skill are well rewarded.

One final note for now: don't be afraid to use Starfall for 5 damage, smote that enemy big meat minion down with reckless abandon!
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Here's the list of matchup win loss ratio's for my deck (all opinion of course).

Any Priest: 8-2

Aggro Mage: 5-5
Lockdown/spell Mage: 6-4
Secret Mage: 6-4

Aggro Warrior: 6-4
Control Warrior: 8-2
Enrage Warrior: 8-2

Aggro Druid: 6-4
Control Druid: 5-5

Unleash Hunter: 2-8
Control Hunter: 8-2

Aggro Pally: 6-4
Divine shield Pally: 4-6
Mid-range Pally: 5-5

Spellpower Rogue: 7-3
Aggro Rogue: 4-5
Miracle Rogue: 5-5

Control Warlock: 7-3
MurWarLock: 2-8
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Deck W/L: 181-30 (85.8%)

All games are played at Masters 3 (didn't make a druid deck until after masters 3).

2x Claw
2x Power of the Wild
2x Wrath
2x Faerie Dragon
1x Big Game Hunter
2x Harvest Golem
2x Shattered Sun Cleric
1x Tinkmaster Overspark
2x Swipe
2x Keeper of the Grove
2x Violet Teacher
1x Starfall
2x Azure Drake
2x Druid of the Claw
2x Starfire
2x Argent Commander
1x Ragnaros the Firelord

The deck is essentially a control deck that doesn't die early or mid game. More often than not you build card advantage throughout the game by trading efficiently with your minions, removal spells and hero power and then finish with Ragnaros. You also have the option to burn at a certain point with direct damage.

Some reasoning behind some picks:

The 2 and 3 drop minions:

Faerie dragons are almost guaranteed to trade early game and give you some safety. If you turn 2 Faerie Dragon into turn 3 Cleric you can buff your dragon, kill their 2/3 and live giving you a 4/1 that they likely can't remove. Harvest golems are just a great minion for stalling your opponent. Power of the wild can be used as a solid 3/2 whenever, used later to buff your minions to make favorable trades and combos well with Violet Teacher.

The removal minions:

Big Game Hunter is essential for a control druid deck. Naturalize just doesn't cut it. Tinkmaster Overspark is essentially a 3 cost polymorph that has a 50% chance to be a 5/5 instead of a 1/1. You also get a 2/2 minion. I 99% of the time use this card in the late game to take down a minion that druids normally don't have much of a response to, eg Tirion/Ysera/Ragnaros. If its a 1/1, cool you can use your hero power to remove the squirrel. If it's a 5/5 you can follow up with a starfire or just trade minions. Either way a 5/5 plain minion is nothing compared to a Tiiron or Ysera. Argent Commanders are just amazing, regularly trade 2 for 1.

Everything else is pretty standard in a Druid Deck. The removal spells (2 Claw, 2 Wrath, 2 Swipe, 2 Starfire, 1 Starfall). The Azure Drakes are amazing. Keeper of the Grove is insane utility. Druid of the Claw are versatile and 4/6 taunts are very strong. Ragnaros should be in every deck ever, period.

The violet teacher isn't seen much, but its great. You have so many spells that if left out she can just pump out tokens, and it synergies really nice power of the wild if you didn't drop it on turn 2. The power of the wild causes the 1/1 to be summoned and then buffed, giving you a 2/2 token. 3/5 are super solid stats too, same as a Taz Dingo but without the taunt. If you just get 1 token out of her it's 4/6 worth of stats, more than a yeti.

This deck has about a 86% winrate at the moment with the majority of loses coming from poor draws against Warlock Aggro. A murloc warlock with good draw is ridiculously hard to beat. It kind of eats priests alive because of the abundance of 4 attack minions and their inability to deal with Faerie dragon and Harvest Golem efficiently. The only big mind control target is Ragnaros and you can just follow that up with a Big Game Hunter or Tinkmaster and end up trading evenly.
Edited by Exactable on 10/28/2013 3:18 PM PDT
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Hmm common theme is Rag, in most of these decks, Perhaps thats the reason I'm not having much success. I'll try some of these decks and see how it works.

Interested about the violet teacher. I just need to grind Rag I think. At 600 Dust right now and a longs way to go.
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If you add Rag, make sure you have a Big Game Hunter as well.
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I've won plenty of games without Rag, but i would say right now he one of the best legendaries. Just don't think he alone wins games though. You'll be sorely disappointed if you ever run into a priest.
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Hence not playing rag until you have Big Game Hunter in hand as well.
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Yes, I run Big Game Hunters already. I've tried Druid Legendary and Ysera and both feel weak compared to Black Knight / Sylvanna. Don't play the later if you are going agaisnt priest though
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10/28/2013 04:10 PMPosted by Skaith

I play rag after 1 mind control vs priest when i have big game hunter, it's well worth the risk of them not having their 2nd MC yet.

Ysera I only play after both MC's have been played, but I most likely won the game already at that point.

The main thing to remember though is that priests give you very little trouble at all in a control Druid deck.
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I removed 2 bites for 2 claws, Bite is just too expensive and not worth the cost in most situations.

I am going to remove Ysera for Bloodmage Thanos.

I am removing 2 yetis for 2 azure drake to try to see if I can still pressure removal on azure drakes since the +1 SP which I am sure I can.

I don't know if running 2 azure and 2 twilight will work but if not ill just drop the 2 twilight cause I really like azures.

Now I want to remove 1 starfall, and Naturalize.

I kind of want to try Youthful Bremaster x 2 ? For the ability to put a Keeper back into my hand for another silence or +2 damage removal. Or Defender of Argus x 2 for a low cost 3/3 and gives 2 minions taunt. I feel if we had 2 taunts on board this could force more removals mid game too.

Idk I will test out and give feedback soon as I can
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@skaith you have a link to your rogue deck, would love to check it out. Looking for a good setup.
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I also think if they silence a minion of ours aka druid of claw with taunt or any for that matter, if you return it with brewmaster and replay it, I think its not silenced anymore I just have to try this all out.
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10/29/2013 08:46 AMPosted by Hephres

I don't have all the cards I want (mainly Bloodmage and VanCleef legendaries), so you could replace a few if you had the legendaries.

2x Backstab
2x Eviscerate
2x Shiv
2x Defias Ringleader
2x Fan of Knives
2x Shattered Sun Cleric
2x Ogre Magi
2x Sen'jin Sheildmasta
2x Spellbreaker
2x Assassinate
2x Azure Drake
1x Slyvanas Windrunner
2x Argent Commander
1x Sunwalker
1x The Black Knight
1x Stormwind Champion

I would replace 1 Kobold or a spell breaker for BloodMage Thanos Legendary
I would replace Stormwind Champion with any card you want (Van Cleef if you have him).

The deck focuses on insane ramp up. Use your dagger and spells to take care of guys on the field. And the 4/4s are just hard to deal with. Lots of them giving you spellpower and drakes giving you card draw.

Knives, Drakes, Shivs are all card draw.

Save Black Knight for a taunt and you will win the game EVERY TIME, he so damn good, he goes in all my decks.

Don't worry about losing your spellpower guys, they are there to trade and to help you with your cheap spells. Save the kolbold for a turn 5 2 damage AOE with fan of knives if you have it in your hand.

If the opponent ever lets you get 2 or 3 spellpower minions out, its GG, your shivs, your backstabs are just too cost effecient.

The deck isn't quite aggro, and it isn't quite miracle rogue/spellpower, it's a pleasant cross in between. For some reason, it's robost enough to handle most decks and any situation. And all the 4/4 guys will drive priests crazy.

An example of some turn 4 or 5 finishers. Opponent let me have an oggie and drake out (after i was using backstabs and shivs to clear field, So I played a kolbold and 2 eviscerates for 7 each, attacked with the two 4/4s and in that turn did 21 damage.

Games can end like this pretty easy.

and a coin defias turn 1 is always a winning game.......

I wish there was something this stable for druid, as It's my favorite class. I play rogue because everyone says it sucks, but I like to prove them wrong. I tried Johns and Icarium's decks last night. 50% win rate about. I also tried out the violet teacher deck and was also hit or miss.

I then tweaked it, added more beefy tree ents, and actually did better and won the 3 games i tried before going to sleep. I'll test more today and post my deck if it has some amaze ball results.

Keep sharing any advice. And maybe I'm just playing your deck wrong John, though I tend to think i'm a pretty good player. I just won a local Hearthstone Tourney amongst friends that spend $100+ on decks with that rogue deck.
Edited by Skaith on 10/29/2013 9:30 AM PDT
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Control Druid is in a nice balanced spot at the moment, certainly not OP by any means.

As far as the top tier decks are concerned, Druid directly counters some and is directly countered by others. Unfortunately these tend to be 8-2 win ratio's for these matchups, something that you don't want to see in tournament play, getting them down to 7-3 or 6-4 will make for a better meta.

Rogue is pretty much in the same spot but with 1 key difference: the coin. If you get the coin as a Rogue you have a much larger chance of winning than if you play first (considerably more-so than any other class). Coin+scrub is the best turn 1 opening you can get, fiery war axe, flame imp, faerie dragon aren't far behind. The fact that the coin counts as a spell is just baffling, obviously it's an intentional design, a design that is seriously flawed.

I like rogue a lot, I have every rogue card x2 including a Van Cleef. However rogue just pales in comparison to divine shield pally and aggro mage, the 2 decks I'm having the most success with.

I'm not calling you out Skaith, but I would be beyond surprised if rogue can do consistently well in a decently sized tournament against tier 1 decks. If you've had success with your rogue deck then kudos to you: we're trying to replicate the same "surprise deck" with control Druid for tournaments.
Edited by Icarium on 10/29/2013 2:01 PM PDT
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