by JR Cook - 10 years ago     show comments

Every Friday a legendary member from team DKMR breaks down Don’t Kick My Robot’s “Deck of the Week” . These decks are seeing a lot of play either in constructed ladder or tournaments. Team DKMR explains the deck lists and how to play them. Make sure you check out Don’t Kick My Robot if you want to become a better player or check out their premium services if you would like them to do a 1 on 1 coaching session with you to help you better your game. View past Deck Lists of the Week.

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[DKMR]Brad here to bring you the deck of the week! This week we are going to be covering is midrange Druid. Most people are familiar with one of the strongest cards in the game, Innervate, which makes this deck extremely hard to handle at times. Innervate Yeti turn 1 can be devastating to almost all decks unless it can be dealt with by Sap or combination of cards like Backstab Eviscerate. That being said, Miracle Rogue is a deck that Druid struggles against. Although Miracle Rogue is a struggle for this deck, there hasn’t been as much of it going around  due to the counters on the ladder such as Cancer Rogue, which uses Charge minions and Leper Gnomes to do a lot of damage fast, which is too fast for Miracle Rogue to keep up with.

The Deck

2x Innervate: One of the most overpowered cards in the game. Allows you to play a Chillwind Yeti on turn 1 with the coin or an Ancient of Lore on turn 5. This is just a power card, sure it gives you -1 card advantage immediately but most of the time your opponent often has to use 2 or more cards to take care of the Innervated minion. This is a must have in all variations of Druid decks.

1x Mark of the Wild: Not only can you use this on your own minions for a cheap buff, don’t be afraid to use this on your opponents minions; it can be used with Big Game Hunter and The Black Knight for a removal.

2x Wild Growth: Has reasons very similar to Innervate; it allows you to ramp into your stronger minions quickly. With Druid having very few turn 2 plays that involve innervate, this is often better than hero powering. This card often loses value if not used before turn 6, if drawn after turn 6, usually it’s better just to hold onto it until turn 10 when you can draw a card from it. This effectively thins out your deck as well which makes it easier to draw the combo pieces. Often it is incorrect to coin this card on turn 1 unless you have a harvest golem in hand to play it the next turn.

2x Wrath: A strong removal spell. Basically this card allows you to choose between a shiv or a frostbolt. A very versatile card which is definitely worth it’s mana cost and a staple in almost all Druid decks.

2x Savage Roar: Playing 2 of these cards allows you to draw into the Force of Nature/Savage Roar combo more reliably. You don’t need to use this card with Force of Nature, you can also use it to simply help trade your minions more efficiently or push the extra few damage needed for lethal. Turn 10, you can play Force of nature, Innervate, 2x Savage Roar for 22 burst damage out of nowhere.

1x Big Game Hunter: With the lack of removals in Druid, this card is almost needed. Without this card, killing any minion with 7 or more attack can often result in using 3 or more Druid cards to clear it. Big Game Hunter is the solution to this problem. Without this card, it is neasly impossible to win against Handlock as well.

2x Harvest Golem: Simply the most powerful turn 3, 3 mana neutral card in the game. A very hard minion to remove in 1 turn which can also lead to a stronger Force of Nature/Savage Roar combo.

2x Swipe: A very cheap AOE for what it does. With the help of Azure Drake‘s spell power, it can clear zoo or shaman boards very easily. It can also be used to push the extra 4 damage needed for lethal. Once again, a staple in most Druid decks.

2x Chillwind Yeti: Has very good stats for it’s manacost. As we mentioned earlier, innervating this creature is a very powerful play. Often this creature lives for more than 1 turn which can make it an easy 2 for 1 or just getting in some damage to the face.

2x Keeper of the Grove: Another versatile Druid class card. Silence can be key in certain matchups. These include warrior to silence acolyte of pain or Cairne Bloodhoof, and Handlock to silence the Twilight Drakes. The 2 damage is important to be able to finish of creatures in any matchup or helps a lot in the zoo matchups.

2x Azure Drake: Spell damage can turn Swipe, an already good card, into a great card. This card also draws a card when it’s played, so essentially innervating an Azure Drake on turn 3 is a 4/4 with spell power for 3 mana with no downside because the draw makes up for the use of innervate.

2x Druid of the Claw: One of the most powerful 5 mana cards in the game. It can either be used as a charge to do 4 damage on the turn it’s played or a large taunt which generally takes more than 1 card to removal. Be aware of The Black Knight which can easily lose the game if they Black Knight it the turn after you play it.

2x Force of Nature: Can be used in the Force of Nature/Savage Roar combo or for a board clear. We use 2 of them so that it’s more reliable to draw the combo and it doesn’t rely on the combo to be a good card.

2x Argent Commander: This card helps push the extra damage needed to finish off the opponent and can be used to clear 4 health minions with no ease. Cards like Azure Drake and Gadgetzan Auctioneer can be annoying to clear without having this card in the deck.

1x The Black Knight: As I mentioned earlier, druid has almost no good class removal cards. Mark of the Wild synergies with this card aswell for a turn 8 play to remove almost any creature. This card helps a lot in the mirror match, Handlock, and against Shaman.

2x Ancient of Lore: One of the most powerful draw engines in the game with a large body to back it up. It automatically gives +2 card advantage prior to playing it and the heal can also often be useful if you’re getting low on HP.

1x Ragnaros the Firelord: The great thing about this card is that it does something the turn that it is played. It can deal 8 damage to a minion without taking damage but the downside is obviously that you cannot direct the 8 damage.

Mulligans

Generally speaking, you want to mulligan for your early drops. These cards include Innervate, Wild Growth, and Harvest Golem. If you start with innervate, you usually want keep a card that you can innervate out as well, an example of this is Chillwind Yeti. If you don’t have any of these cards in your hand, usually you just want to mulligan everything to try to acquire them as early as possible. As I mentioned earlier, Wild Growth loses value the later on in the game than you get and often you will have a hard time playing it between turns 4-6 because it’s usually better just to play a minion. Wild Growthing on turn essentially gives you access to 6 more mana throughout the entire game because you get an extra mana crystal every turn after you play this card, which makes it important to get it as early in the game as possible.

The Gameplan

This deck is all about getting out constant 5+ health minions out each turn to be extremely difficult to deal with most of the time. These minions include Chillwind Yeti, Druid of the Claw, and Ancient of Lore. AOEs often don’t clear the board completely and with the help of the Force of Nature and Savage Roar combo, games can easily end on turn 9. Using cards like Innervate and Wild Growth, Druid decks can often run out of cards quickly which is why a lot of card draw is needed. Azure Drake, as well as having spell damage for Swipe and Wrath, is a great draw mechanic. Ancient of Lore is also one of the most powerful draw mechanics in the game, second to Gadgetzan Auctioneer in a Rogue deck.

Alternate Card Choices

1x Cairne Bloodhoof: Another very strong innervate target and sticky creature. There are times this card is better than Argent Commander, but Druid needs faster cards like Argent Commander to beat the current meta but I am not totally against the fact of playing 1 Argent Commander and this card.

1x Cenarius: A very powerful card when it hits the field. The only real downside to this creature is that it doesn’t do anything right when it hits the board like Ragnaros does unless you’re using it’s buff effect but if you have the creatures on the field to buff, usually you’re going to win the game anyways.

1x Bloodmage Thalnos: A cheap spellpower card and card draw. Can help cycle through the deck for important combo pieces and make Swipe very powerful. With druid having very few cards to put spell damage to use though, it doesn’t make the main cut.

[DKMR]Brad streams weekdays http://www.twitch.tv/Bradhs. You can find all of DKMR’s streamers on their website with the days that they stream!

Written by [DKMR]Brad

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