In-depth Legend Midrange Druid Guide with Matchups and Mulligans

Introduction

Greetings! I am ThorSmash. I have been playing Hearthstone for just over a year and have made Legend every season since April. I also playing Arena a considerable amount, averaging 6.3 wins per runs.

Today, I want to provide a Midrange Druid guide for the TGT era. Although the deck itself is very old and Midrange Druid has been a strong deck for some time, TGT pushed the deck into Tier One status by virtue of gaining additional mana ramp consistency in the form of the card Darnassus Aspirant (Living Roots and Savage Combatant gave Midrange Druid other helpful tools, but these cards are far less important to the deck’s recent success). This particular decklist comes from Tempostorm’s most recent Meta Snapshot (as well as previous Snapshots), and is the decklist I used to reach legend last season. I used a combination of this list and Patron to reach legend earlier this month as well.

Midrange Druid’s Unique Features

Midrange Druid has two particularly unique features compared to other decks. First, the deck can Mana Cheat with the following cards: Innervate, Darnassus Aspirant, Wild Growth, and Emperor Thaurissan. This allows Druid to play out bigger threats faster or answer an opponent’s threat while developing a broad state ahead of curve. However, we will never keep two copies of Wild Growth in the mulligan because we then have a high risk of not being able to use that extra mana in future turns.

Second, the deck has strong burst in the form of two copies of the Combo (Force of Nature and Savage Roar). Of course, regular Combo does 14 damage from hand + (x2 number of minions on board). With innervate at ten mana or Emperor Thaurissan reducing the cost of two Combo pieces, we can pull off what I like to call the Wombo Combo of Force of Nature + Savage Roar x2 does 22 from hand + (x4 number of minions on board). Using these unique strengths in each matchup (and covering Druid’s weakness) is the key to victory. And yes, Wombo Combo is an homage to my first love, Super Smash Bros. Melee.

A feature unique to Druid as a class is the “Choose One” mechanic of Keeper of the Grove, Druid of the Claw, and Ancient of Lore.  The value and flexibility these card provide allow druid to consistently make strong plays in the midgame.

The Game Plan

Aggro (Aggro Druid, Face or Hybrid Hunter, Secret Paladin)

Key Cards:

Innervate Darnassus Aspirant Keeper of the Grove Living Roots

Against Aggro, the key for us is to play our hand quickly and stabilize the board as soon as possible and/or quickly establish strong enough threats to out-race the Aggro player. We won’t be able to safely play Wild Growth going second, but we could keep a Wild Growth + Keeper of the Grove Package going first (and thereby likely make a big tempo play on our Turn 3). On turns 1-3, depending on our hand and the opponents’ plays, we will do some of the following: play Darnassus Aspirant, Wrath or Kill with Keeper of the Grove a high priority enemy target (e.g. Knife Juggler or an opponent’s Darnassus Aspirant, or a threatening secretkeeper, establish living roots or shade of naxxramas for board presence, or even play a tempo-BGH if lacking another turn 3 play). On Turns 4-6, we will attempt to aggressively dominate the board and deny our aggressive opponent from taking us out of the game.

We will look for ways to clear their board with swipe, kill weapons while establishing a threat with Harrison Jones, clear their board with Force of Nature, create a 6 health taunt with Druid of the Claw (or charge down a key minion), and establish our strong midrange minions to begin the counter attack, particularly Loatheb and Piloted Shredder. Emperor Thaurissan should be played as a 5-5 body even if we have no Combo pieces; he will sometimes act as a third Taunt that our opponent chooses to clear. On Turns 7+, we will looking both for ways to close out the game ASAP or to extend our life since our aggro opponent may be threatening lethal. This will include: Ancient of Lore will often be used for heal, calculate what cards we could topdeck to find lethal (or draw via wrath, azure drake, etc.), sometimes hero power for the extra 1 health, play Loatheb to block enemy burn spells.

Midrange (Midrange Paladin, Dragon Priest)

Key Cards:

Wild Growth

Darnassus Aspirant Piloted Shredder Dr. Boom

Against other Midrange Decks, we are looking to ramp up early in order to play threats ahead of curve, win board control without overextending into board clears, set up lethal via Combo or Wombo Combo, and defeat our opponents via burst, or less often, attrition. On turns 1-3, we will aggressively seek to ramp via Wild Growth or Darnassus Aspirant. We won’t keep wrath in the mulligan, but we might be forced to wrath a knife juggler or Northshire Cleric if we have no other turn 2 play. An early shade of Naxxramas is quite strong (via innervate from turn 1, coining Wild Growth or Darnassus Aspirant into Shade of Naxxramas, or a normal turn 3 if we fail to ramp).

On turns 4-6, we will usually be looking to play a solid threat even turn or find a value board clear via swipe, wrath, and hero power. Innervating from 4 Mana to Emperor Thaurissan is often correct even if we don’t have Combo pieces because it provides us with a solid 5-5 body early while allowing us to gain tempo on future turns via the cost reduction. Although board control matters, since we have more burst than any other popular midrange deck, prioritize playing threats over clearing the opponent’s board.

On Turns 7+ we will set up lethal via Combo or occasionally win by attrition. Ancient of Lore should almost always be used for draw. We will play Dr. Boom as soon as possible to dominate board and hopefully play him before our opponent finds a hard removal. If our hand allows, we will avoid playing Emperor Thaurssian until we have two Combo pieces in hand so that we can Wombo Combo without innervate.

Control (Control Warrior, Handlock)

Key Cards:

Wild Growth

Shade of Naxxramas Piloted Shredder Azure Drake Ancient of Lore

Against control decks, we are the aggressor and we are looking to close at the game by playing threat after threat into some form of burst. If we play too passively, our opponent’s high value late game cards (e.g. Ysera) will overwhelm us in the late game because the quality of cards we will often topdeck is not as high (such as Darnassus Aspirantt or Innervate. On turns 1-3, we ideally want to ramp via wild growth rater than Darnassus aspirant as wild growth is permanent while our control opponent will often have tools to immediately kill Darnassus Aspirant , such as Fiery War Axe or Darkbomb.

An early shade of naxxramas is incredibly powerful as it will grow to a point where it can threaten lethal or trade up considerably (such as into the first half of Sludge Belcher). On turns 4-6, we want to play the strongest threats available and force our opponent’s to have answers or take too much damage. At the same time, we must be careful to play around our opponent’s board clears (hellfire, shadowflame, brawl, flamestrike, etc.).

We generally are favored against other control decks because these decks give us time to ramp up into our above curve threats and we can close the game out via a large amount of burst. With this in mind, we want to minimize variance and avoid “all-in” plays such as double innervate into Dr. Boom or putting our handlock opponent into an easy Double Molten Giant + Sunfury Protector play, etc.

Matchups

Vs Aggro Druid

Mulligan (Always Keep):

Innervate

Darnassus Aspirant Living Roots

Mulligan (Sometimes Keep):

Keeper of the Grove (if we already have ramp)

Wild Growth (if going first or with a shade of naxxramas on the coin)

Once we see a Leper Gnome, Knife Juggler, or Druid of the Saber, we must prepare to outlast our faster, more aggressive cousin.  Killing their Darnassus Aspirant is critical because it is incredibly difficult for us to efficiently remove an early Piloted Shredder and an early Fel Reaver can be disastrous unless we happen to draw Big Game Hunter. Since their deck will not run Ancient of Lore, we generally want to trade away the board when given the chance in order to win via our higher average card quality.  However, since our deck only runs two taunts in the form of Druid of the Claw, we may sometimes be forced to race the Aggro Druid rather than attempt to clear every small threat. Since this deck runs two Fel Reavers and Dr. Boom, and we have no other hard removal, we almost never want to play a tempo Big Game Hunter.  Since their deck forgoes wrath, we need only play around swipe and, to a lesser extent, living roots.

Vs Midrange Druid

Mulligan (Always Keep):

Wild Growth darnassus aspirant shade of naxxramas innervate

Mulligan (Sometimes Keep):

piloted shredder (if ramp already in hand)

Azure Drake (if Ramp and Four Drop already in hand)

The key card to find in the mulligan in the mirror matchup is often wild growth because it provides a permanent ramp effect and reduces the chance of a dread draw later in the game.  The game is often decided by who curves out better and thus has initiative.  The druid who is forced to play defensively will usually lose the game.  Ideally, one would save silence for sylvanas windrunner or ancient of war in case their version runs those cards, but it is better to play a tempo Keeper of the Grove than to pass the turn or make a weaker play.  Ancient of Lore is almost always used for card draw rather than heal, quite often even when they are threatening lethal.  If you fall behind on board, one copy of the Combo will often be used to clear the board and this is generally one of the few ways to turn the game around since Swipe is not great for clearing Druid’s higher health minions.  If you don’t have a strong play otherwise, you should often consider cycling the wrath if there is a decent chance you could draw into one.   Trading shade of naxxramas into Druid of the Claw or Emperor Thaurissan is almost always a good play because of how important board is.  Once you get to six mana, and if you  have a wild growth in hand, its best to save it for cycling at ten mana.  The exception is when you have Combo in hand to finish the game and use it to ramp from seven to nine mana.

Vs Dragon Priest

Mulligan (Always Keep):

Innervate

Darnassus Aspirant Wild Growth

Mulligan (Sometimes Keep):

Piloted Shredder (if ramp)

Dragon Priest’s main card draw engine is Northshire Cleric, which makes removing it a key priority for us. We will often want to save our Keeper of the Grove for after the priest commits to playing Velen’s Chosen on a minion, but sometimes we will settle for playing in on a Twilight Guardian and Wyrmrest agent if it has also been buffered by Power Word: Shield. The priest generally runs limited burst, so we are almost always using Ancient of Lore for draw and we are only required to take good trades on board. If the Priest plays passively and does not commit to the board, we will be careful to play around Lightbomb. Many priests run no Big game hunter Targets, which means that a Tempo Big Game Hunteris often a better play than simply hero powering on turn 3. Since our Darnassus Aspirant and Keeper of the Grove are always at risk of being stolen via Cabal Shadow Priest, we want to trade them into enemy minions whenever given the chance.

Although we play around it less, our Azure Drakes and Druid of the Claws can also be stolen by the Shrinkmeister + Cabal Shadow Priest combo. Sometimes our Ancient of Lores can allow us to win via Card Advantage, but generally we want to close out the game via Combo before the Dragon Priest can comfortably drop Ysera, which we have no easy way to remove.

Vs Hunter

Mulligans (Always Keep):

Innervate,

Darnassus Aspirant,

Living Roots

Mulligan (Sometimes Keep):

Keeper of the Grove(if we already have ramp)

Wild Growth (if going first or with a Shade of Naxxramas on the coin),

Harrison Jones (if at least two other cards are good)

Playing Around Traps

Since Hybrid and Midrange variants are more popular, we will want to play around traps in the following order of priority assuming we are given no other information (e.g., a mad scientist into Knife Juggler into Eaglehorn Bow opening): freezing trap, snake trap, explosive trap, bear trap, misdirection, snipe. If we see Worgen Infiltrators, we will assume face hunter and think that explosive trap is most likely followed by snake trap. If we see webspinner, we will assume freezing trap and then snake trapor bear trap as secondary considerations.

Gameplan

The key to this matchup is early board control followed by racing the hunter since their hero power offers inevitably if we do not kill them soon enough. We are favored against face hunter because they generally don’t run freezing trap and don’t have Savannah Highmane/Dr. Boom for us to deal with, and we are the underdog against midrange variants since freezing trap and Savannah Highmane are hard for us to handle.

If a trap is in play, we should try to get the following creatures bounced back via freezing trap (in order of priority): a sapling from Living Roots, Darnassus Aspirant, Treant from Force of Nature, Keeper of the Grove). We should silence a mad scientist with keeper of the grove if we had no creature besides keeper to bouce back (since we wont have time to play a 6 mana keeper) but we should kill the scientist with Keeper of the grove if we can freeze a Sapling, Darnassus Aspirant, or a Treant from Force of Nature.

Killing any beasts the Hunter has on board is incredibly important in order to play around Kill Command, Houndmaster, and Ram Wrangler. An early keeper is incredibly powerful for us as it can kill knife jugglers or Huffer for free. Harrison Jones is actually fairly low impact because the matchup is about tempo rather than card advantage, which means we only keep him in the mulligan if the rest of our hand is good and we will play him as a generic 5-4 on turn five if we don’t have another good play.

If the game dictates, using Force of Nature to clear board or soak up a freezing trap can be strong plays because the Hunter runs no heal and limited taunts (usually just Misha or Houndmaster, occasionally sludge belcher), which means we can often finish the game off with our creatures on board and Savage Roar.

Vs Secret Paladin

Mulligan (Always Keep):

Innervate

Darnassus Aspirant Living Roots

Mulligan (Sometimes Keep):

Piloted Shredder or Keeper of the Grove (if we already have ramp)

Wild Growth (if going first or with a shade on the coin)

Swipe(if at least one other card is an ‘always keep’)

Harrison Jones (if at least two other cards are good)

Since you can’t know on ladder whether you are facing Secrets or Midrange Paladin, mulligan for Secrets Paladin and adjust accordingly if you see cards like Zombie Chow.  However, as a recent post on the Competitive Hearthstone Subredit points out the secrets and midrange paladin lists are becoming blurred so it can be harder to differentiate the archetypes based on the first few turns.

If we see Argent Squires and secretkeepers, we should assume our opponent is playing a faster version of Secrets Paladin and try to dump our hand in order to avoid Divine Favor value. If we see the Paladin skip a turn one play entirely, we should prepare more for Dr. Boom and Tirion Fordring as finishers. In either case, we should try to save Big Game Hunter because it will be useful against an Avenge-buffed Mysterious Challenger or a Dr. Boom.

Keeper of the Grove is best used to kill a knife juggler, silence anything that has had Blessing of Kings cast on it, silence a buffed secretkeeper, or silence tirion fordring. This matchup can be quite hard unless we are able to hit a strong curve and deny their board almost entirely. Unless we see signs of midrange paladin (Zombie Chow, Aldor Peacekeeper, etc.), we generally can’t afford to play quartermaster, but we must recognize that any body can be buffered by Blessing of Kings.

Playing Around Secrets

We must make educated guesses on the secrets based on how the Paladin plays his secrets. If we see him play a secret with two minions on board, our first guess should be avenge. If he plays a secret into Shielded Minibot, we should prepare for redemption. If he plays a secret into coin muster for battle, we should assume competitive spirit.

Vs Midrange Paladin

Mulligan (Always Keep):

Innervate

Darnassus Aspirant Living Roots Wild Growth Harrison Jones Shade of Naxxramas

Mulligan (Sometimes Keep):

Piloted Shredder or Keeper of the Grove (if we already have ramp)

Swipe (if we have already have ramp)

The gameplan is very similar to Secrets Paladin: ramp up, clear their board, and finish the game via Combo. Against midrange, however, we must be more careful to play around the following cards: Equality + Consecrate, Murloc Knight, Quartermaster. Additionally, we know for sure that the paladin will be running Dr. Boom and Tirion Fording (although these are quite common in most secrets lists nowadays). Harrison Jones should ideally kill an ashbringer or truesilver champion. However, we don’t need to be greedy: an on curve Harrison that draws roughly two cards by killing a Light’s Justice from Muster for Battle is ok as well. Tirion and Sludge belchers are the only taunts we need to worry about in terms of stopping a planned Combo lethal. Our dr. boom is less valuable (And thus should never be double innervated out) because of two Aldor Peacekeepers and one Big Game Hunter in our opponent’s deck.

Vs Control Warrior

Mulligan (Always Keep):

Innervate

Wild Growth Harrison Jones Shade of Naxxramas Piloted Shredder

Mulligan (Sometimes Keep):

Darnassus Aspirant (if no wild growth in hand)

Azure Drake (if we already have ramp)

Ancient of Lore (if the rest of the hand is really good)

If we are given both Darnassus Aspirant and Wild Growth, we will toss the Darnassus Aspirant in order to secure ramp and to avoid giving the Control Warrior fiery war axe value (which we will keep because of Darnassus Aspirant and Piloted Shredder). Piloted Shredder is an incredibly strong card against Control Warrior because they generally are forced to use two weapon charges against both halves of the body, especially if we achieve ramp and can play piloted shredder before the warrior can play sludge belcher in response.

Against a control warrior, our two other MVP cards are Harrison Jones (which typically destroys a death bite’s charge while giving us a card and 5-3 body) and Ancient of Lore because it allows us to keep up in card count.

Playing around the now-standard two copies of Brawl is incredibly important and means that we should take a good Shade of Naxxramas trade when we can find it. Since Gorehowl is only sometimes included, we should use Harrison Jones against Death’s Bite or if the Warrior happens to leave a two charge firey war axe equipped. If the warrior does not have minions in play (a common situation), we generally want to charge our druid of the claw in order to get 4 extra damage in (removing four armor can be critical to deny shield slams).

This matchup use to be more druid favored, but the warrior gained Bash and Justicar Trueheart in TGT, which hurts us. Bash acts as a third fiery war axe for removing our early threats and can kill minions through Taunts or help activate shield slams. Justicar Trueheart, if given time, will allow the warrior to armor up out of range of Combo and eventually overwhelm us with his supply of late-game bombs. Our late-game card quality is also lower then before TGT since we have two copies of Darnassus Aspirant and one copy of living roots.

As against other control decks, we can often play the beat down role and burst the warrior out of the game via Combo, Wombo Combo, or early Combo via innervate. However, since Control Warriors run limited card draw, we can also sometimes can beat them via attrition (especially if we have Ancient of Lore in Hand or if we can one-shot or silence acolyte of pain).

Vs Handlock

Mulligan (Always Keep):

Innervate

Darnassus Aspirant Wild Growth Shade of Naxxramas Keeper of the Grove

Mulligan (Sometimes Keep):

Piloted Shredder or Azure Drake (if we already have ramp)

Big Game Hunter (if you know for sure it’s handlock)

We are generally considered favored here against Handlocks, which means we should take the low-risk play when possible. If a Shade can be innervated on turn 1, it will easily grow out of Hellfire range and present a very strong threat for us. We should take care to play around hellfire and shadowflame, but we generally will not bother to clear an ancient watcher unless it has been taunted or the shadowflame would be too devastating to our board.

The Handlock lists that are popular nowadays do not run Siphon Soul, which means that an innervated Emperor Thaurissan often cannot be answered easily by the warlock. Keeper of the Grove is useful mainly in order to silence voidcallers or Twilight Drakes or to find lethal through Taunts.

In this matchup, we will often want to use wrath to cycle in order to find more high-impact cards. When considering our clock to win the game, we should remember that Handlock has only limited burst in the form of 1 Doomguard, two Darkbombs, and two Hellfires (and technically Lord Jaraxxus swinging for 3 damage). The ideal scenario is to build a threatening board in the first 4-5 turns and put the Handlock to 16-20 health in order to threaten lethal. Sometimes, the correct play is not to play too much around molten giants. For example, I would often rather put the Handlock to 4 health (and thretean lethal via swipe) than to leave him at say 16 health.

Vs Zoo Warlock

Mulligans (Always Keep):

Innervate

Darnassus Aspirant Shade of Naxxramas Keeper of the Grove

Mulligan (Sometimes Keep):

Wild Growth (if first or with a turn 3 Shade of Naxxramas on the coin)

With the nerf to Patron, Zoo has a chance of returning to the metagame for two reasons. First, Patron was a bad matchup for Zoo. Second, Handlock, which counters Zoo, is likely to lose some popularity because Handlock loses a good matchup in Patron disappearing and Secrets Paladin, a bad matchup for Handlock, will likely be more prevalent after the Patron nerf.

Playing against Zoo is a lot like Secrets Paladin: make the highest temp plays as possible, and deny their board whenever possible. If given the chance, we should preemptively silence and clear Nerubian egg in order to avoid Abusive Sergeant or Power Overwhelming value. Once we see a voidcaller, we should save Big Game Hunter for Dr. Boom or Mal’Ganis.

There is an important difference between clearing the Zoo down to 1 or 0 minions. However the difference between 2 or 3+ minions is less important since we are generally trying to play around defender of argus. If we have the tools to do so, preemptively popping haunted creepers to deny Abusive Sergeant, Power Overwhelming, or Knife Juggler value on the first half of the body is helpful. Do not waste silence on Imp Gang Boss unless it has been buffed by Defender of Argus. We slightly prioritize clearing Demons to non-demons because of potential Mal’Ganis value (and occasionally Demonwrath tech).

Vs Tempo Mage

Mulligan (Always Keep):

Innervate Darnassus Aspirant Wild Growth Shade of Naxxramas Keeper of the Grove Living Roots

Mulligan (Sometimes Keep):

Piloted Shredder or Azure Drake (if we already have ramp).

This is a hard matchup for us and we can struggle if the Tempo Mage draws well. The only card we feel good about feeding the mage’s mirror entity is Darnassus Aspirant and Keeper of the Grove and Shade of Naxxramas to a lesser extent. For this reason, we always silence mad scientist rather than killing it. We will have difficulty clearing Water Elemental or Piloted Shredder, which means building our own board before they drop these sticky four drops is essential. The flamewaker is our highest priority kill target, and it will often be protected by frostbolts and mirror images. After mirror entity, we should play around Counterspell and Effigy. For counterspell, we will ideally test with a coin or innervate when we have the potential of making good plays with the extra mana in case this secret is something different.

Play Wild Growth rather than wrath a Mana Wyrm on turn two as you will have the extra mana to kill the mana wyrm later. In this matchup, it is about 50-50 whether the Ancient of Lore is used for healing or card draw. We will heal if we are desperate to survive and probably have the cards to close out the game, but we should attempt to draw to find lethal rather than play around double fireball or even fireball + Frostbolt (unless we are far ahead).

Potential Card Choices

Ancient of War

Ancient of War does not make an apperance in this list for a number of reasons.  First, when Patron and Control warrior were both popular in previous seasons (and the start of this season), especially as one approached legend, Ancient of War was a big liability in the warrior matchup because of execute.   In particular against patron, unless the Druid had already baited both executes, losing an entire turn only to have the Warrior spend 1 mana to remove a 7 mana creature was a huge blow. The card is also vulnerable to shadow word death, which is a large 4 mana tempo swing against Dragon Priest in particular.  The card also underperforms relative to what one might think against Face Hunters because double Ironbeak Owl is common.

In the mirror matchup, it also ends up as a 5-5 due to every Druid archytype running double Keeper of the Grove.  It is ok against Midrange Hunter because they typically only run 1 Ironbeak Owl, but it is still vulnerable to freezing trap.  The card really shines against Secrets Paladin and Tempo Mage, both of which often run no silence.  It is ok against Zoo because those lists run 1 Ironbeak Owl typically.  It is vulnerable against Midrange Paladin because that deck typically runs 1 Ironbeak Owl as well as 1 or 2 copies of Equality.

Essentially, I think this card is too much of a liability against the field at this time, but can be a valuable choice if the personal meta you are facing is lacking hard removal and silence.  If you want to include Ancient of War, here’s an example decklist of Thijs’ Midrange Druid from the ATLC Finale.

Harrison Jones

Harrison Jones is currently included in the list, but the card shines the most against patron warrior by denying a turn 5 Death’s Bite Grim Patron + Inner Rage + Death’s Bite Deathrattle combo (which creates four patrons).  With Patron likely to fall out of the meta, one should consider whether this card could be cut in the future, especially since Rogue and Shaman are both unpopular classes on ladder.  The card generally produces ok value against Paladin, unless it destroys the Ashbringer, which is obviously tremendous value.  The card also produces only ok value against Hunter because their weapons are low mana investments and the matchup is more about Tempo than card advantage.  Definitely a card to monitor; it can easily be replaced by a Sludge Belcher, Azure Drake, or Savage Combatant or Sylvanas Windrunner

Sylvanas Windrunner

Sylvanas Windrunner is making her way back into Druids lists.  Obviously she is a great card in a slower meta, but with the fall of Patron I think we are going to see the meta speed up since Patron was a great anti-aggro deck that still had a strong winrate against midrange and control.  It can be run alongside Emperor Thaurissan, but if for now I’ll keep the Emperor since he shines in all matchups (by providing tempo against aggro, and by enabling Wombo Combo against midrange or control).

Savage Combatant

savage combatant is another strong tool for Druid in TGT, especially against Aggro or Midrange decks.  The card really shines when the Druid can get it out early via innervate or Wild Growth against fast decks.  However, the Combatant is vulnerable to common midrange cards including Death’s Bite, Truesilver Champion, Piloted Shredder, Frostbolt with spell damage, ping or flamewaker shots.  It’s something to consider, but it lacks the flexibility of Piloted Shredder and the utility of Keeper of the Grove, which means its usually a one of inclusion that provides a 5th four drop.

The lack of three health creatures in the meta game makes me also reluctant to play this card, as well as the fact that Druid would often rather play a strong minion on curve than use the hero power.  Nonetheless, this card seems play in a lot of Druid lists and is definitely something to consider.

Concluding Thoughts

Midrange Druid has been a strong deck for a long time and the addition of Darnassus Aspirant in TGT seems to have cemented its place in the current meta.  Playing Druid teaches one the immense power of playing minions.  Since this and other Midrange Druid lists have only weak removal in the form of Wrath and Swipe, the deck depends on using minions to enable good trades.

Moreover, every minion on board puts pressure on the opponent because of the deck contains two copies of Savage Roar.  For further reading on the value of playing minions over spells in general, read this guide.

Thanks for reading guys! Please feel free to ask questions in the comments.  For example, I choose not to cover replacements for certain cards, but I’m happy to field those questions in the comments.  Also, I highly recommend that you try Midrange Druid if you are newer to Hearthstone or are playing ladder with a more competitive mindset for the first time.  This is because the deck is consistent for ladder and teaches valuable fundamentals that will transfer over to playing other decks.

Happy Laddering!

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