Budget Aggro Druid (LoE Edition)

Editor’s Note: With the new Standard Format in 2016 for Hearthstone, we highly recommend going for cards in the Classic set and Whispers of the Old Gods (Standard Format). Here are budget guides, also from Sheng, to get you started!

• Budget Standard Standard C’Thun Druid
• Budget Standard Midrange Hunter
• Budget Standard C’Thun Mage
• Budget Standard  Aggro Paladin
• Budget Standard C’Thun Priest
• Budget Standard C’Thun Rogue
• Budget Standard Midrange Shaman
• Budget Standard Zoo Warlock 
• Budget Standard Combo Warrior

Introduction

Greetings, I’m Sheng, a Legend rank constructed and 7.5 win-average arena player. I run HearthstoneCoaching.com where our coaches have helped students around the world reach many of these same achievements.

If you’re new to Hearthstone, or just have a limited collection of cards—I feel your pain. It is often difficult to find cheap but viable decks to play on the Hearthstone ladder. Given this dilemma, I’ve set out to help those of you with a limited collection by creating budget decks for each class.

Requirements

1. Reach Level 10 to unlock all of the Basic cards for this class.
2. Complete the Naxxramas, Blackrock Mountain, and League of Explorers expansions.
3. Have 1400 Dust for crafting cards.

Deck Playstyle

• Aggro Druid utilizes the mana acceleration of Druid cards like darnassus-aspirant and innervate to quickly gain tempo over opponents.
• This deck is very similar to Midrange Druid, but focuses less on value and more on killing our opponent as quickly as we can. Thus the inclusion of cards like leper-gnome and charge minions not typically found in Midrange Druid variations.

Minions – 22

2x leper-gnome

• An excellent minion that allows us to establish a presence on the board early. When he dies, he also hurts our opponent, which fits right in with our deck’s theme.

2x darnassus-aspirant

• One of the best, if not the best 2 mana minion introduced in TGT. This card replaces the wild-growth that would normally be found in most Midrange Druid decks.
• In addition to accelerating your mana, its 2/3 body makes it durable enough to contest the board against aggressive decks opening with leper-gnome or shielded-minibot.
• You normally can’t expect darnassus-aspirant to survive too long, but if she allows you to ramp into a 4 mana minion like violet-teacher or piloted-shredder on turn 3, you’ve gained a huge tempo advantage already.

2x druid-of-the-saber

• An extremely flexible minion. We can use him for spot removal on turn 2 to kill another 3/2 like knife-juggler with charge, or to serve as another charge minion to buff with savage-roar.

2x knife-juggler

• A pretty synergistic card for us, as living-roots can put two tokens on the board while enabling two tokens. Knife Juggler allows us, when ignored, to chip crucial points of damage off our opponent’s life total with daggers.

2x mounted-raptor

• Mounted Raptor is a mini piloted-shredder. Its ability to spawn a 1 cost minion after it dies is especially beneficial in our deck, as it leaves behind a minion that can be buffed by savage-roar.

2x keeper-of-the-grove

• Keeper of the Grove is an incredibly versatile minion whose Battlecry should almost always be used to gain tempo on the board. If you have other options on turn 4, save Keeper of the Grove until he can silence or clear something with his Battlecry.

2x piloted-shredder

• An incredibly sticky minion whose purpose is to trade multiple times with our opponent’s minions. Positioning is an especially important consideration when playing with and against the Shredder as it’s possible for cards like dire-wolf-alpha and flametongue-totem to be spawned where the Shredder dies.
• Unless you’re playing around a Hunter’s explosive-shot or a Rogue’s betrayal, I recommend playing the Piloted Shredder in the middle of your board to benefit from the small chance you’ll spawn something that will buff your other minions adjacent to it.

2x savage-combatant

• An oft-overlooked minion with a pretty insane passive ability. This card is extremely strong if you can innervate it early, as you can completely control the board with your hero power.

2x azure-drake

• Azure Drake is an incredibly synergistic card for us. He allows our swipe to become a much better consecration, and gives our wrath the ability to cycle while dealing 2 damage.

2x druid-of-the-claw

• Like the keeper-of-the-grove, Druid of the Claw is an incredibly versatile card. You can utilize him to charge an opponent for lethal, or to take out a minion that needs to die, or simply taunt him up as a 4/6.

1x loatheb

• Loatheb is an amazing card… when played correctly. 5 mana for a 5/5 is fair, but it’s Loatheb’s ability to shutdown opponent’s spells that makes him so valuable. Play Loatheb on turn 6 before a mage can cast flamestrike on turn 7 and he’ll win you the game.

1x kelthuzad

• Another win condition for our deck, Kel’thuzad is a 6/8 minion that needs to be answered immediately. If you have any semblance of a board before you play Kel’Thuzad, he can help you clear your opponent’s board and then spawn your minions back to full health. This is especially incredible when paired with Deathrattle and Taunt minions.

Spells – 8

2x innervate

• Innervate is a key spell that allows us to play our bigger minions much sooner than other classes. The theory behind Innervate’s inclusion is that while it costs us a card to play, whatever minion we play along with it will allow us to make up for our card deficit by trading two for one or better.

2x living-roots

• A new card introduced in TGT that’s incredibly flexible. It’s very similar to holy-smite and arcane-shot, but has the added ability to spawn two 1/1 saplings instead of doing direct damage.
• With power-of-the-wild and violet-teacher, this is a great way to build up a large board of 2/2 minions using only 3 mana.

2x savage-roar

• Our primary form of burst in our deck, after building up a board of minions we can Savage Roar to trade our 1/1 minions away for more valuable minions, or for lethal damage to our opponent.

2x swipe

• The best Druid removal spell. Swipe keeps us in the game against Paladins, Hunters, and other very aggresive decks keen on flooding the board with tokens. Swipe can also be used on your opponent’s face for lethal damage.

Mulligan Guide

In general, you want to mulligan to setup your first three or four turns. Please note that there is a distinction between going first and going second in Hearthstone, and this should factor into your mulligan choices.

When going first, your advantage is the ability to play first. In addition, you gain mana crystals before your opponent. To take advantage of this, you want to be aggressive in your mulligan to put minions on the board.

When going second, your advantage is mainly the-coin, which gives you tempo over your opponent for a single turn, and also an extra card. Depending on the nature of your deck, whether it’s Aggro, Midrange, or Control, you’ll be looking for different things.

• When playing an aggro deck, you’ll be looking for the same cards going second as you would going first. The objective is to quickly populate the board and bring down your opponent’s life total.
• When playing a midrange deck, you’ll also be looking to get onto the board early, with the caveat that you can keep a single copy of a situational minion or spell that you think may be useful to counter an opponent. This spell might be something like a kezan-mystic to counter classes with Secrets or removal like frostbolt.
• When playing a control deck, you’re looking to save the coin until much later in the game, generally when you can bring out a large late-game threat earlier than usual.

While I won’t make an exhaustive list, these are some of the cards you should consider keeping in your opening hand when playing this deck. In general, your goal with this deck is to get onto the board as soon as possible. It’s important to dig for an early 1 or 2 mana minion to play so you can begin to pressure your opponent’s life total.

Minions

• 1 Mana: leper-gnome
• 2 Mana: darnassus-aspirant, druid-of-the-saber, knife-juggler
• 3 Mana: mounted-raptor

Spells

• 0 Mana: innervate
• 1 Mana: living-roots

Gameplay Video

Upgrades

Here are some substitutions that will improve this budget deck. If you’re looking to craft cards to play this class, it’s best to start with the “Key Substitutions” first before working your way to the “Nice-to-Have” Substitutions. Unless stated otherwise, you can substitute a single copy of an upgrade card instead of two if you don’t have both.

Key Substitutions

• 2x savage-combatant ? 2x force-of-nature

Nice-to-Have Substitutions

• 2x azure-drake ? 2x fel-reaver
• kelthuzad ? dr-boom

Conclusion

I hope you enjoyed this guide! If you have questions, feel free to use the comment sections below. Our team at HearthstonePlayers would be happy to answer them.

Coaching Lessons

If you’re interested in reaching Legend rank, or earning unlimited gold from arena, my team at HearthstoneCoaching.com would love to help! We’ve provided over a thousand hours of excellent coaching to students around the world. 

Want to Become Better at Other Games?

I also run RankOneCoaching.com, where our top coaches will develop a personal plan for you to achieve your dreams in other games. Personal lessons are an in-depth experience and most students improve significantly after just one full session!

---