For a while, the druid was not really a viable class to play due to the meta and the class’s reliance on high mana cost cards. That being said, with the shift in the meta and the cards available for the class, playing a Druid has quickly become one of the strongest, most well-rounded classes to play. Due to their hero power and class-specific cards, the most effective way to currently play a Druid is to play a control-oriented deck. One thing to keep in mind is that the deck is extremely expensive and substituting some of the cards isn’t as easy as other decks. This is for players who have a larger collection and are looking to explore more in-depth and involved decks to play when it comes to winning. 

 Strategy

The concept of the deck is to basically stall long enough to get to mid-game where you can start gaining control of the pace of the game and really pull out ahead. The deck is very versatile for several reasons including the following:

• You can use your Hero Power to help maintain board control during the early turns where you may not necessarily be able to do much else.
• An early Innervate can leave the opponent devastated and unable to respond to a card that you can essentially play potentially 2 turns earlier than it’s supposed to be played.
• You can respond to the board with Druid cards that offer 2-for-1 situations (aggressive or defensive). Typically it is better to go the defensive route but having the option to go offensive and taking advantage of the options can really work out in your favor if played right.
• The right mixture of heal, draw, damage, and board clear puts you in the sweet spot for being well-rounded.

Most decks tend to be straight forward in play-style such as the current aggressive Warlock-based decks and Hunter decks but the Druid is a far different play-style from that, leaving you with far more options to pull a victory at the expense of your games typically averaging longer times.

Clearing Cards

• Hero Power
• Claw
• Wrath
• Tinkmaster Overspark
• Swipe
• Keeper of the Grove
• Starfall
• Sylvanas Windrunner
• The Black Knight

Explanation 

This deck has amazing clearing power and heavy hitting cards or alternatively cards that provide an amazing defense while still putting out consistent damage. What really sets the deck a part are the tempo cards that just leave you leaps ahead of your opponent. Innervate is a great example of this as well as Sylvanas Windrunner, Tinkmaster Overspark, The Black Knight, Keeper of the Grove, the Ancient of Lore and Ancient of War, the list goes on.

One thing to keep in mind is that there is no clear-cut way to play the control Druid. You shouldn’t always goes for the face like you would with an aggro deck but you shouldn’t always clear every single minion either. You’ll have to make the conscious decision of which move to make given the situation you are in but one thing to note is that the deck can be very forgiving given the fact that players are given so many options with the cards that are a part of the deck list.

Quick Tips and Combos

• Innervate+ Strong Counter Card to Your Opponent (some examples include Innervate paired with the following):
  • Harvest Golem on Turn 1 against an Aggro Deck
  • Keeper of the Grove on Turn 2 to kill an enemy card (ie. Knife Juggler) while put a 2/4 into play
  • Druid of the Claw on Turn 3 in Bear Form, placing a 4/6 taunt card into play at an early stage
  • Ancient of Lore at Turn 5 for a 2 card draw or 5 health heal (depending on if you are facing a rush deck such as a Mage or if you need the card advantage on your opponent)
  • Ancient of War at Turn 5 for a 5/10 taunt, which many Aggro Decks just cannot deal with at such an early stage without sacrificing much of what they have
• Bloodmage Thalnos + Swipe for a 5 direct damage nuke and 2 damage Area of Effect as opposed to 4/1
• Hold on to The Black Knight for a strong taunt if you suspect the opponent will have one (ie. Against another Druid or against a Paladin with Tirion)
• Almost always draw the 2 cards on Ancient of Lore unless you are facing a rush deck and need your health / armor up in an effort to fend off the rush
• (Aggressive) Tinkmaster Overspark + a weak minion of your own (such as Novice Engineer) in an effort to buff it to a 5/5 Devilsaur
• (Defensive) Tinkmaster Overspark play on an opponent’s strong card (ie. On something like an enemy Ragnaros or Sylvanas Windrunner or a large taunt such as an Ancient of War)

Remember that you have a lot of options, especially with the Druid specific cards that give users more than one option when coming in to play. Try to maintain the pace of the board and stay one step ahead of your opponent as your mid-game to late-game is one of the strongest compared to any other decks in the current meta.

Potential Cards

There isn’t a lot of wiggle room with this deck and it definitely is more expensive to craft but that doesn’t mean you need to have the same exact deck list. Cards you may want to consider in the deck:

• Replace Nat Pagle with another card with draw potential such as Loot Hoarder or Acolyte of Pain
• Replace a Swipe with a Bite if you keep running into aggro decks and are still having trouble keeping up. The card is nowhere near as good as Swipe but the extra armor can save lives (particularly yours in this case)
• If you keep running into opponents who keep utilizing Big Game Hunter, take out Ragnaros and replace him with another card such as Cairne Bloodhoof (Cairne can’t be targeted by cards such as Big Game Hunter or by cards such as Shadow Worth: Death)
• If you don’t have Bloodmage Thalnos your alternatives are Kobold Geomancer if you are looking for the spell damage or a Loot Hoarder if you are looking for card draw (based on your play style)

Conclusion

Try out the deck and let us know what you think! Keep in mind that this deck is definitely much harder to play and understand. It will take a lot of practice to get a good sense of how to play against different matchups, specifically against decks with Giants. That and facing a mirror deck will be extremely frustrating (more so than others)!

Credit for this deck goes to MayhemGaming who posted about this on Reddit.

** For Patch 1.0.0.4217