Miracle Rogue Matchup Analysis: Vs. Token Druid

justjimmy

Published: May 31, 2014 09:25 am

Welcome friends! My name is Blackacre and I piloted the Miracle Rogue to Top 20 NA. After receiving numerous requests for a guide on how to mulligan/play each of the major matchups in the metagame I have given in and created a comprehensive guide, containing 11 matchups analysis.

Matchup Analysis

The modern Token Druid deck functions like a combo deck. Few of the individual cards in the deck are powerful, but they synergize together in powerful ways. Their aim is to flood the board with cheap minions like argent-squire and loot-hoarder during the early game and then ideally play either a violet-teacher or gadgetzan-auctioneer to gain a large amount of value from the many spells in the deck. Once they have developed a board they use power-of-the-wild and savage-roar to extract additionally value from their small minions.

Since the power of this deck comes from the synergies it contains, it should be our goal to disrupt their game plan. We should aggressively clear the board of all minions on each turn.

Mulligan Guide

backstab

Backstab can offer a useful tempo boost in this aggressive matchup, but it does not line up well against the minions you are likely to see. The early game minions from the Token Druid are Argent Squire and Loot Hoarder, and the middle/late game minions are all outside of the 2 damage range of Backstab. Since this is the case, we are better off looking for more useful cards in the matchup.

preparation

Preparation falls into the category of cards that we want to see during the matchup, but aren’t interested in having in our opening hand. Throw this back and hope it shows up later in the game.

shadowstep

As is almost always the case, we don’t want our starting hand clogged up with Shadowsteps. We are much better off looking for more impactful cards.

cold-blood

Cold Blood should never be kept in your opening hand.

conceal

This matchup is certainly not slow. However, Token druid is not a hyper aggressive deck either. Since this is the case we can afford to keep a Conceal in our starting hand IF we have a Gadgetzan Auctioneer to go with it. Otherwise you should mulligan it.

deadly-poison

The minions in the Token Druid deck have 1, 4, 5, or 6 toughness. Obviously, the 3 damage that Deadly Poison represents does not interact well with any of these. As such, you should mulligan these.

blade-flurry

Blade Flurry scales in value with the number of minions the opponent plays on the board and Token Druid plays a lot of minions! Since this is the case Blade Flurry is an extremely valuable card in the matchup and is definitely worth keeping in the opening hand.

eviscerate

Eviscerate is a fine card in the matchup. There are plenty of targets for the 4 damage. However, as is often the case, we are better off playing threats than we are trying to answer our opponent’s threats. Since we understand this fact, we should only keep an Eviscerate in our opening hand if we also have early game minions to play as well.

sap

Sap is not ideal in this matchup. The only time we would be happy Sapping a minion in the matchup is when we are already far ahead in the game and can afford to burn the mana to further our tempo lead. That limited scenario does not make keeping Sap worthwhile.

shiv

Shiv is fine in the matchup. It can help deal with early Argent Squires / Loot Hoarders, and can combine with an Eviscerate to deal with a Violet Teacher. Keeping one of these in your opening hand is advised.

edwin-vancleef

VC is fine in this matchup. You do still have to worry about a Keeper of the Grove to silence him, so don’t go crazy using resources to build him up.

fan-of-knives

FoK shines in this matchup. The 1 damage it deals can be extremely effective at answering a Violet Teacher that has created an army of minions.

si7-agent

This is one of the rare matchups where SI:7 Agent is not truly great or terrible. It is simply good in this matchup. The card is useful in clearing early minions, but it will often be outclassed by larger minions in the midgame. Since this is the case, I would recommend keeping this card in hand only if you have an easy way to combo it.

bloodmage-thalnos

Thalnos is a rockstar in this matchup. It offers a useful board presence in the early game and can be perfect for comboing other spells in the mid/late game. The spell power it offers is also incredibly potent in this matchup. Absolutely keep Thalnos in your starting hand.

loot-hoarder

Loot Hoarder is generally a great turn 2 play and this matchup is no different. In the worst case scenario it will eat the divine shield off of an Argent Squire, and even that is not a terrible outcome.

earthen-ring-farseer

This card is simply fine in the matchup. If you have no other early game minions in your starting hand I would suggest you keep this for the certainty it offers. If you happen to have other more potent minions then it would best to mulligan it.

leeroy-jenkins

Leeroy Jenkins should never be kept in your opening hand.

azure-drake / gadgetzan-auctioneer

These cards are as powerful as always. However, the moderate amount of aggression that is offered by the Token Druid deck means we can’t keep an unlimited number of 5 mana cards in our opening hand. I recommend keeping between 1 and 0 of these depending upon the quality of the other cards in your hand.