Neo Ramp Druid Guide

Hello everyone! Its been almost a week since I started working on this, making changes and playtesting several cards, and after a lot of playtesting I finally managed to get the perfected ramp version for this current meta. Since its a mix of all the druid variants, token, ramp and midrange, I decided to call […]

Hello everyone! Its been almost a week since I started working on this, making changes and playtesting several cards, and after a lot of playtesting I finally managed to get the perfected ramp version for this current meta. Since its a mix of all the druid variants, token, ramp and midrange, I decided to call it “neo-ramp”, because the starting point of my research was my druid ramp deck.

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Lets start with the development of this deck, I started to see ramp druids trying to go midrange lately, using FoN+Roar combo more often than not. Why that happened? The meta evolved around miracle rogue for too long, you can not ignore its existance. It has been 3 months since its most consistent form poped up, and it still is the strongest deck in the game by a good margin.

In order to counter that, decks started to go more and more agressive, even control decks such as warrior are dropping late game and board presence for pure agressiveness, because just trying to make the game last long will mean your demise. That being said I started developing a druid ramp build for myself, the first thing I realized was that even tho people were playing savage-roar+force-of-nature double combo, they were still playing Yetis, and that did not seem right at all to me!

I started by testing my own list, with a lot of different cards than the current one hold, but with double FoN+Roar combo and violet-teacher. The teachers were just too good, with a deck that runs double savage roar there is absolutely no reason NOT to go teacher over yeti, so keeping them was an obvious choice for me.

After that I started noticing the second FoN was just too overkill, so I took it out for more consistent slots, the whole agressive state of the deck made me swap my sunwalkers for argent-commander which performed really well overall.

Then I came to the last addition to the deck, the early game was just too unstable. I mean, it was good but not good enough, bloodmage-thalnos was underperforming because of tempo loss, and since this new meta is all about tempo I decided removing both thalnos and cairne-bloodhoof and adding double sunfury protector to the deck. The reason I figured she as the best 2-drop for this deck is because not only she is a decent 2-drop, she also scales well into the mid-game and late-game by giving your big minions taunt thus protecting your own HP bar.

Then the deck was completed, moving from a heavy late-game deck into a midrange-ish deck with the possibility of early agression.

Deck Breakdown

innervate: you all know why this is here! It is the main reason druid is the best choice for heavy tempo oriented meta.

Wrath: oh boy, this card is just too good. its a very versatile card and I can not see myself running any druid deck without a pair of these.

Wild Growth: Again, tempo is key. Getting your big minions faster is still huge in this game, even tho the deck went into a more midrangeish strategy, this card is still good enough to justify it being picked.

Sunfury Protector: I explained why I added this girl on the introduction, but in case you missed she is a resonable 2-drop, as well as a tempo generating creature in the mid and late game. She scales better than other 2-drops, so I picked her.

Savage Roar: This time you dont even NEED to combo this with force-of-nature because you have 2! The idea of this card is the same as before, giving you reach to get out of some dificult situations as well as to have lethal damage.

harvest-golem: The best neutral 3-drop in the game, we need to go out early, so this guy is an automatic adition to this kind of deck with this specific strategy.

Swipe: Probably the best removal druid has, you can not play druid without running 2 of those.

Keeper of the Grove: A extremelly versatile card, you are never angry to have one of these in your hand. a very strong card for many different possibilities.

violet-teacher: a better option for this specific deck than chillwind-yeti as a 4-drop.

Azure Drake: This guy generates card advantage AND has a strong/reliable body, as well as the spellpower that usually helps a lot.

druid-of-the-claw: arguably the best minion in the entire game. its versatility makes it so this card is always a good adition to druid deck, no matter the type.

force-of-nature: Combos with savage roar for massive damage, as well as works as an emergency sweeper against aggro decks.

argent commander: the whole idea of the deck is to go agressive gaining value while doing so, this guy is just a plain example of this.

the-black-knight: druid still lacks removal, this guy helps with it while still maintaning a resonable 4/5 body. a very strong card in whatever situation you are allowed to use its battlecry.

ancient-of-lore: An extremelly versatile late game card, helps giving you fuel to keep up with the game as well as works as emergency heals in case you need them.

cenarius:  Too much sinergy here, since I was running a Ramp deck I could afford adding this guy to the deck.

Matchups

Easy Matchups

Warrior Control: The deck seems too outdated for this meta, your trades are better and you can easily put his back against the wall, I have not lose a single game to a warrior control as of yet.

Hunter and Priest: Those guys are just too underpowered for this meta, unless they pull off really good starts and manage to keep those up while you can not get your game together, this should be an easy game. Keep in mind I have not faced many of these guys even tho I played about 80 games with this deck so far.

Other druid variations: Outside of Token druid, which is just an RNG game and should be in the medium matchup section, no druid deck can generate as much tempo as this one, so you’ll always have an edge while playing mirror matchup against your fellahs from the woods.

Mage Freeze Control: You have too many charge minions so freezing your board wont help them much. this match is just too good.

Mage and Warrior aggro: This deck is usually very strong against these outdated version of aggro decks, have not lost to one as of yet.

Medium Matchups

Tempo Rogue and Shockadin: RNG, always RNG, play safe here guys! You will eventually win if you manage to get your life total safe and board presence, but their ultra explosive starts can give you a headache because both these decks have nice ways of keeping their hands full.

Miracle rogue: Go for board here, always putting your minions in attack position, try to make the clock work against them by rushing them down before they can do anything, this match is between easy and medium, because even if they manage to get control of the board wiping off your minions you can always finish them with FoN+Roar combo.

Handlock:  This decks version can get an warlock down from around 15~18 health to zero in one turn with very little board presence, we also have BGH and TBK to get rid of possible threats they try to impose us, but they do can get the board stabelized before we win the game, go for early agression and try to finish the game with an alpha-strike savage roar hit.

Paladin Control: They have too many anti-midrange tools to deal with your early agression, but if you keep up the pressure eventually they fall behind, remember you can silence your own vanilla minions that got hit by aldor-peacekeeper just to get that extra damage going. Go for favorable trades here but dont overcommit to the board, because they have different ways of wiping your board.

Shaman Midrange: If you cant rush them go for board control, eventually they run out of resources and that usually happens faster than you. This can go both ways because shaman have efficient ways of getting board presence and druid lacks sweepers. Always remember they can not heal themselves!

Hard Matchups

Warlock Zoo and Murloc: These are medium-hard matchups, the reason I put these here is because they have a lot of ways of getting board presence faster than you, this match is winnable (different from old ramp vs miracle, which was just an auto-conceed) which is good for you but you have to go for board as soon as you can, try to defend yourself until you have stabelized the board. Remember warlock aggro decks were always a nightmare for midrange-ish druids because they dont run as much big taunts as late game heavy ramp druid builds.

Yes! Warlock aggro IS the only hard matchup for this deck, BUT its still winnable, which means this deck is an extremelly good choice for this meta!

Conclusion

With this I finish the article, remember the meta shifts very quickly, and this deck may become obsolete in the future, but as of right now it is the best shot you’ll have at druid 😀 I  hope you all enjoy this guide and manage to get very high on the ladder using it.

Remember to follow me on twitch, twitter and to subscribe to my youtube channel!

http://www.twitch.tv/budabudie

http://www.twitter.com/nubahearthstone

http://www.youtube.com/nubahearthstones

This is it for now guys, see you in the next article o/


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