Introduction
This is the matchup analysis of Fatigue Warrior versus Druid.
Sample Decklist
We’re using this decklist as a basis. Keep in mind there are decklists with slight variations, each one tweaked to the player’s own taste and the meta they’re facing.
Mulligans
Cards To Keep
Shield Slam Fiery War Axe Bash Bouncing Blade Death’s BiteSituational Keep
Execute with an activator
Slam is the best one but Fiery War Axe is also okay
Shield Block with the Shield Slam
Justicar Trueheart if the rest of your starting hand is good
Druid Meta Decks
Ramp Druid is an easy matchup. Midrange Druid and Token Druid really depend on the draws. If Druid gets a good Ramp or Darnassus Aspirant opening and you can’t kill it, it’s going to be hard. If Druid won’t get a lot of early tempo into combo on turn 9, you should be safe. The new Aggro Druid runs out of steam pretty fast and all you need to do is survive.
Vs Midrange Druid
General Strategy
I’ll talk about the most popular matchup, which is Midrange Druid. Token Druid is pretty similar, so the playstyle doesn’t differ that much. The only thing about Token you need to know is that you want to save Brawl for their big Violet Teacher turns.
The only way this match can spiral out of control is that if enemy snowballs the board early and you have no answers.
Early Strategy
Darnassus Aspirant can snowball early, so you NEED some way to deal with it. The easiest one is Fiery War Axe – it clearly kills it and you still have a 3/1 weapon in your hand. Bash or Bouncing Blade also can be fine. If they play it on turn 2, you can Coin them out to deal with it. Not the most efficient move, but you do what you have to do. If they Coin it out on turn 1, the only answer you really have is Axe. But since they end up with 3 mana, unless they have Innervate as a follow-up, you can afford to wait one more turn to deal with it.
Midgame Strategy
Midgame turns are the hardest ones – if you survive at decent amount of health, you pretty much won the game already. You just need to stay out of combo range and continue removing whatever they play.
With Darnassus Aspirant out of the way, the only really annoying thing they might play in the mid game is Piloted Shredder. Your weapons and Bash work nicely against it. The problem is that you have to waste two hits to deal with it.
Slam is a nice card in the mid game, it activates the Execute and allows you to weapon down their mid game threats.
Bouncing Blade is crazy good in this matchup – if they play a single big threat you can just kill it for 3 mana. If they have two threats on the board, it’s also fine – you kill one and probably damage the second, so you might put it into the range of other removals or just Execute after.
Brawl rarely gets value, so if enemy ever gets out 3 minions on the board, just play it and don’t think about it. Even if it gets rid of 2-drop and 3-drop, it’s already good enough value.
Justicar Trueheart is awesome – it allows you to get out of range of even a double combo quickly. Once you’re at ~30 health, you should be really safe and nothing is going to kill you.
Late Game Strategy
The  late threats that Midrange Druid runs are usually Dr. Boom and one copy of Ancient of War. The first one can actually give you a decent Brawl, the second one is a piece of cake to get rid of – just use the Bouncing Blade or Execute (or Shield Slam if you have enough Armor).
You don’t want to play greedy against Midrange Druid. Since the games are going to be really long, you’re going to face the “double combo” (Force of Nature + 2x Savage Roar) a lot. It deals 22 damage plus a lot more for every minion present. While you can stay out of 22 damage combo range, every minion makes it harder. So hit the 1/1 with the weapon if it means you’ll stay out of the 22 damage range – don’t let him have anything on the board in the late game.
Tips
Try to Armor Up every turn if you can. You need to build up health and extend the game into late game.
Vs Ramp Druid
Ramp Druid is probably one of the easiest matchup you can imagine. They play one threat per turn and make almost no tempo plays. If they somehow get out more than 1 minion on the board, possibly with stuff like Aviana, just Brawl it.
You kill every threat they run in their deck and fatigue them out.
Don’t waste big removals like Execute on their smaller drops. Keep the big removals for big stuff and kill small stuff with Slam, Bash and weapons.
Resources
- For the deck overview, check out this guide.
- For alternate and tech cards, visit this guide.
- For other guides and matchup analysis of Fatigue Warrior, visit its meta deck section.
- For other popular meta decks, visit the meta decks page – it’s updated on a weekly basis.
Published: Oct 19, 2015 09:03 am