Introduction
What do you do when things get tough? Survive. Druid has taken a number of body hits over the past month, but that hasn’t completely stopped Malfurion and his roving gang of beasts from pressing forward. On one end of the spectrum, there is Jade Druid in all of its grindy glory, and on the other side there is the extremely quick Aggro Druid. This week, we are going to blend both of those styles by taking a look at JAB’s hybrid list. Normally, it is quite dangerous to blend two decks that are so far apart. However, what makes this idea genius is that both styles, despite having distinctly different game plans, complement each other quite well. Aggro Druid wants to get the early board and dump as many minions as they can, and all Jade Druid really does is drop minions. It is a medley that seems like it shouldn’t work. However, the versatility of being able to switch between aggro, midrange, and control is invaluable in today’s volatile meta.
Key Cards
Mark of the Lotus
We begin our discussion on the token side of the deck. Mark of the Lotus is an insanely powerful card in Aggro Druid, and it gets even better here because you have to do minimal effort to set it up. Typically, you are going to be happy if you can use the spell to buff three minions. That gives you a strong board and definitely means you got your mana’s worth from the spell. While that can be tricky in Aggro Druid, there are a ton of cards here that instantly give you two bodies. Malfurion the Pestilent and every single jade card put two things down onto the board right away. Even a turn like Fandral Staghelm into Jade Idol into Mark of the Lotus can instantly swing a game in your favor. For those reasons, this card makes a fantastic addition to this build because, at the end of the day, you want to create a lot of minions at a very quick pace.
When you aren’t pushing through massive swaths of damage, your goal with Mark of the Lotus should be to get strong trades. You have access to both Jade Idol and Ultimate Infestation. That means you typically don’t care if games go long. In fact, a lot of the time you are going to encourage it. To drag out games you need to make good use of trades and do everything in your power to keep your opponent’s minions back off the board. Mark is perfect for that because, as you are a token build, there are going to be many games where your minions live a turn. That means your opponent is going to calculate certain trades, but they will not expect the extra 1/1 in Druid. Use that surprise to your advantage, and always try to catch your opponent off guard.
Druid of the Swarm
While not the best Druid card from KFT, Druid of the Swarm is a close second. The two mana beast has a ton of utility, and can be used both aggressively and defensively depending on the situation. First, the card does a great job of holding back aggro. Stonehill Defender is one of the most popular cards in the game right now, and being able to get one extra health one turn earlier is invaluable. There are going to be many games where you just need a little bit of extra time. Early minions build quickly these days, but they are also weak. As such, Druid of the Swarm holds back a lot of pushes and does a great job against things like Patches the Pirate and Fire Fly. Anytime you’re facing a swarm build, you want to run this out as soon as possible.
Never underestimate the power of poison. The 1/2 spider is almost never going to be the mode your choose for your two drop, but there is no doubt that it can be amazing in certain situations. You typically want to take the arachnid when you’re ahead in a game and you know your opponent is going to either depend on a big threat or their curve to bounce back. The 1/2 spider is amazing in that situation because it has to be answered. That means your opponent is going to have to spend removal or waste a solid body to take it down. While they are busy responding, you can then pump out some more jade cards and start to run away with the game. The mode is especially powerful when fighting decks with limited removal such as Zoo or Hunter.
Swipe
While Swipe typically acts as a control card you use to fight off aggro, in this list it acts much more like Fireball. That is to say, it can be used as removal, but it also has a lot of utility when it comes to damage. This deck, like so many hybrid decks, can suffer from the fact that you can get too keyed into one mode. You see this as a jade deck, and all you think of is Jade Druid. That means you plan to go long and make big threats. While that is a good plan a lot of the time, it can also cause you to overlook lethal. You have a low curve, which means you have many ways to bring the pain. Do not be afraid to get aggressive with this build and play to your damage. Ultimate Infestation, Malfurion the Pestilent, and Swipe all can give you lethal, especially when they back up an early push. A couple early beasts can knock your opponent down before they get a chance to get on the board. If your opponent ever drops into the mid or low teens, you should look at your hand and see what your damage potential is. If you have no burn, then you typically want to sit back and take the “go big” route. However, if you have a couple of strong spells, play to them instead.
Nourish
It has been a while, but we’re back to discussing the multiple uses of Nourish. Ultimate Infestation is still a very powerful card, and one of the reasons you can even play Druid on today’s ladder. Over the past month, the ten mana card made it so you just ramped with Nourish as quickly as you could. Get to five, jump to eight, and do everything in your power to hit ten. However, as this list has a much lower curve than past ones (and because Innervate is in the great big nerf in the sky), taking the cards can be right a lot of the time. This is not an easy decision to make, but the way you read it is almost always going to be based on the rest of your hand.
If you’re under pressure and you need to find removal, you want to use Nourish to take the cards. Many decks in today’s meta are fast. They want to play to the board, they want tempo, and they want to build to their damage. Getting a few extra crystals typically does not help you fight that because there are many cards here that act as weak top decks. Going big against Token Shaman and then drawing into Mark or the Lotus or a Jade Blossom is going to be a loss almost all of the time. That being said, if you are fine on health and have a fresh Ultimate Infestation or Malfurion the Pestilent in your grip, you need to take the mana. Infestation’s existence makes up for passing to the cards, and your DK can win a lot of games on its own.
Malfurion the Pestilent
Malfurion the Pestilent is still one of the most powerful death knights around, and I wanted to bring him up because he has a lot of specific uses against the meta. What is great about Malfurion is that you are always going to use him differently based on your matchup. For example, you almost never want to play with him the spiders against Priest to play around Potion of Madness, but getting them down against something like Hunter can go a long way. In addition, putting down two scarabs to set up a Mark of Y’shaarj or to block out your Rogue opponent’s Vilespine Slayer can be a way to save a game. The battlecry matters here, and you need to think about the choice. Do you want to fight for the board? Or would you rather get a pair of walls while you try to gain some extra health?
Anytime you’re up against a burn-heavy deck (or Priest) you need to drop the DK as soon as you can. Malfurion the Pestilent has a lot of power from his attack and battlecry, but the three armor a turn is where he really shines in the current meta. Almost every powerful deck can put together damage in some way, and you have to negate that at all costs. Your jade golems will make it so you almost always win the board should the game go long enough. As such, once you shift into the later turns your opponents are going to do everything in their power to put your health under direct pressure. The DK is the only real way you have to negate any burn, and you need to always look for an opportunity to run the seven drop out. Once you have him, try to gain as much armor as possible.
Deck Code
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Matchups
The four decks I see the most while playing on the ladder.
Tempo Rogue
Though Priest could dethrone it any day now, Tempo Rogue still holds the top spot for the time being. The aggressive deck has some of the best minions this game has ever seen, and they can bring the pain in a ton of ways. Most of this game is going to be fought during the first three or four turns. If Rogue gets out ahead of you they will be able to curve right into their bigger threats and kill you before you get anything going. However, if you fight back against an early push and control the pacing with your jades you should be able to win. There is a fine line in this game. You do not want to use your resources too early, but you also don’t want to hang onto them too long. Missing a key Swipe turn can leave you exposed, but you can also forfeit your middle turns by using your removal on small threats. You want to prioritize bodies here. Push things onto the board first and only use your spells once you see how your opponent reacts.
As the game goes on you want to work hard to set up your taunts. Leeroy Jenkins is Valeera’s finisher of choice, but even something as simple as a Southsea Deckhand or Patches the Pirate can hold a Cold Blood from hand. Not to mention, instant damage cards like Bonemare and Cobalt Scalebane. You want to always try to keep a wall out in front of you when you’re low on life. Yes, you may lose some taunts to a Vilespine Slayer, but getting your opponent to burn the 3/4 on a low-priority threat is going to be a great trade. Protect yourself at all costs and always think about the ways your opponent can kill you.
Note: Spellbreaker should be saved just in case your opponent drops down a big Edwin Vancleef.
Kazakus Priest
Love it or hate it, there is no doubt that Priest is here to stay. As long as it has access to Raza the Chained the class will be able to win games. The goal of this match is quite simple: watch our for Shadowreaper Anduin. The Death Knight’s damage is important and will grind you down. To offset that, you need to bring pressure and force them to burn cards. However, don’t fill the board with jades and then suddenly get blown out by the battlecry. The best way to get around the eight drop’s ability is to give him one or two big minions to kill while hoarding a lot of cheap jade cards in your hand. Then, once your opponent transforms, you spam as many golems as you can. That will likely force your opponent to use their damage to control the board, which is an uphill battle they cannot win.
The way you take this one is by putting on pressure and racing to your armor. Malfurion the Pestilent should come down as soon as possible. If you can run your opponent out of cards for most of the match, they are going to have a cap on their damage potential (usually around twenty with Prophet Velen and Mind Blast). That gives you a target you need to rise above. This is so important that when you turn into the DK you typically want to prioritize your hero power over other cards. Yes, getting things down onto the board is very important, but you typically want to get that three armor every single turn. This will put a lot of strain on your opponent and force them into an awkward position. Either save cards to fight against your armor and risk dying to the board, or try to clear and risk crippling their combo. From there, you just make as many golems as you possibly can.
Midrange Hunter
You are a Druid deck, which means you are going to have problems with Hunter. Rexxar has come back in a big way, which spells a lot of trouble for you. The main goal of this game is going to get ahead on the board at all costs. Hunter thrives off of a powerful board, and you need to everything in your power to shut down their curve. Getting ahead of them is not easy, but you need to hyper focus on winning trades more than anything else. If this game goes long you have ways to live, but you are never going to win if your opponent curves into a Houndmaster or a Savannah Highmane. Do not worry too much about how strong your cards can be here. Just use them for what they do. It may not be your first reflex to use Mark of the Wild on one minion, but turning an Enchanted Raven into a 3/3 to get a good trade against a Golakka Crawler can be the difference between losing the board on turn three and having control of the game by turn six. Those small plays are easy to overlook, but they matter. Always study your hand and see how it can help you get a good push.
Zoo
Rounding out our deck discussion is Zoo. Like Hunter, this is going to be a fierce battle where you have to do what you can to take the board. However, unlike Hunter, Zoo comes with a strong end-game plan. Bloodreaver Gul’dan is a very powerful tool that is going to beat you if you cannot get a strong board together before turn ten. In addition, you need to work to get your minions out ahead of your opponent’s. It does not take long for Zoo to get big, nor does it take long for them to dominate a game. However, they also are extremely weak while behind. All it takes it for one minion against an empty board for you to control priority throughout this one. And, once you have access to that priority, you should be able to pressure your opponent. Work hard to turn the tables and become the aggressor.
Poisonous spiders are extremely powerful in this game. Zoo has almost no targeted removal, and by the middle turns they are going to only have a slew of big minions at their disposal. That combination makes the 1/2’s extremely powerful. If you can get the spiders out ahead of your opponent you are almost always going to win this game because of how well they fight Warlock’s play style. Finally, just be aware of your damage here. Zoo loves to Lifetap, which typically puts them into a deep hole. If your opponent is ever in the mid-teens you should start counting your damage to see if you can take them down before they get to their death knight.
Mulligan Guide
Your mulligan is going to be entirely based on curve. You want to start out aggressive and then switch to Jade. In order to do that you need to get going as early as possible. Enchanted Raven, Jade Idol, Druid of the Swarm, Golakka Crawler, Mark of Y’Shaarj, Power of the Wild, and Wrath are your must keeps. All of those cards help you fight back early on and are key to winning against faster decks. From there, Jade Blossom should always be kept with the coin or a curve, Jade Spirit is great when you can curve into it, and Swipe should always be kept with a strong opening against aggro.
Conclusion
I love me a good hybrid deck, and this is one of the most interesting I have ever seen. The jade package, while a bit old, is undoubtedly fun to mess around with. It gets even better when it’s backing up an extremely fast start. There are some slower Druid decks running around the ladder right now, but I don’t think any of them are as good as this one. As I’ve said, versatility is always going to be king. This is a perfect example of that. Though you do not as high of a ceiling as other builds, you have a better early game. And that’s all that matters. Until next week, may you always go infinite.
Published: Nov 1, 2017 09:51 am