Hand Druid Deck List Guide – The Witchwood – April 2018

Class: Druid - Format: raven - Type: control - Style: meta-deck - Meta Deck: Hand Druid

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Deck Import

Our Hand Druid deck list guide will go through the ins-and-outs of the potentially viable deck from the The Witchwood Expansion! This guide will teach you how to mulligan, pilot, and substitute cards for this archetype! For now the deck guide is theorycraft, but as soon as the expansion goes live we will start updating it right away!

Introduction

According to the majority of the Hearthstone community, Druid hasn’t received the greatest additions with the newest expansion “The Witchwood”. The class surely had more than fifteen minutes of fame in the last Standard year, not at last thanks to the Jade mechanic which is now gone for good.

But Team 5 has other plans with Druid: Looking at the newly released cards, profiting from a lot of cards in your hand seems to become an upcoming archetype. We know that this kind of archetype can work like a charm, and Hand Warlock is a great example for it. But does Druid already have enough tools to make a draw-centric control list work?

General Strategy

First of all, there is one big drawback when comparing Hand Druid to Hand Warlock: It does not have a Hero Power that draws cards basically for free. Many may think that this alone disqualifies Druid from nurturing a valid draw-centric archetype.
However, Druid has another way of cheating its way into a hyper-control meta: Ramp. Yes, cards like Mountain Giant or Twilight Drake get better with every additional card in hand, but what if you can play them a turn earlier instead? That thought is essential if we want to understand the purpose of these new “Hand” cards. That’s enough theory, for now, let’s get into the General Strategy of this deck!

One of Druid’s new spells, Witchwood Apple, does everything Hand Druid needs: First and foremost, it provides three cards for a mere 2 mana. It also results in having three decent 2/2 tokens in your hands that you can contest the board with if you didn’t hit one of your “Hand” minions after the mulligan. Just remember: If you are going second in the game, and if you play this card on turn 2, you can play Mountain Giant on turn 3. That alone makes this card good enough to get included into this list.

Ferocious Howl is another tool to collect cards in your hand and cycle through your deck to get to your precious minions. 3 mana for drawing one card may sound ridiculous in the first place, but the Armor gain based on hand size is nothing to sneeze at. As we know from cards like Branching Paths, Armor is a valuable resource especially against Aggro opponents, and Ferocious Howl will most like produce 4 to 6 Armor when being played. It is also a great topdeck in the late game, just because you don’t care about Armor in that moment anyway and may want to cycle through your deck.

Wispering Woods is another spell that profits from a lot of cards in hand. For 4 mana, you only need to have four other cards in hand to make this comparable to a card like Stand Against Darkness. Druid of course has not as many tools to buff its token on board as Dude Paladin has, but again, if you have played Witchwood Apple on turn 2 or 3, this card easily creates six or seven wisps on the board. With that in mind, Power of the Wild and Branching Paths can easily bolster up this powerful board state even more which creates a solid answer to Aggro archetypes like Dude Paladin or Tempo Warrior. It is also possible to tech in a Savage Roar which makes Wispering Woods a legit threat that could represent 23 damage on board on turn 5 if seven wisps are in play.

Bewitched Guardian is the only new minion in the deck, and there is not much to say about it. Most players call it an expensive Twilight Drake, and they are not wrong with that. It is fair to justify the addition of Taunt for 1 additional mana, but based on the evolving meta game, it is absolutely okay to run just one copy of this minion. It can still curve pretty nicely if you play it after everyone’s favorite drake, and that really is the only reason why we run that card in the first place, because Nourish is still the number one play on turn 5 for this list.

As already said, Mountain Giant is the real backbone of every card-centric control deck, and that doesn’t change for Hand Druid. Getting an 8/8 into play on turn 3 will be unmatched and could be one of the reasons that this archetype can compete in hyper-control matchups even without the help of the Jade mechanic.

All other cards in this list represent Control Druid at its finest:

  • Lesser Jasper Spellstone: A great removal tool in the early game, Druid’s spell stone benefits from new cards like Ferocious Howl.
  • Power of the Wild: Not your typical Control Druid card, but Witchwood Apple tokens and Wispering Wood Wisps love to get buffed in the early- to mid game.
  • Wrath: Card draw and removal in one card, a staple in almost every Druid list.
  • Wild Growth: This one’s a bit tricky. On the one side, Hand Druid need to keep cards in hand early, but we also want to ramp up mana. But as already said, ramping up also benefits the playstyle of Hand Druid, and on average this card will still perform very well in the archetype.
  • Greedy Sprite: Losing Jade Blossom is a big hit for any Control Druid list, and that is the sole reason why this minion was printed. It contests the board and can beat a lot of other 3-mana minions most of the time. The deathrattle effect surely is suboptimal, but running one of these can help especially when going second in the game because it allows you to coin out Greedy Sprite into a good trade into a clear board for Twilight Drake or Mountain Giant.
  • Branching Paths: Druid’s “Jack of all trades” card perfectly fits the Hand Druid theme; it can add cards to your hand, attack to your token minions, or Armor in case of dire need against Aggro opponents.
  • Swipe: Similar to Wrath, Swipe enables Control Druids to ramp into the late game while still being alive.
  • Nourish: Ramp or card draw, based on your situation, will always be helpful.
  • Spreading Plague: The king of defensive cards that can stabilize an empty board over multiple turns, interacts incredibly well with Power of the Wild and Branching Paths.
  • Ultimate Infestation: Another main reason why Druid as a whole will still have a place in the meta game. Great source of card draw, board presence, defense and damage reach.
  • Malfurion the Pestilent: Arguably one of the strongest Hero cards in the game, this fellow helps to win the game in the long run. The altered Hero Power provides great survivability with the ability to push 3 damage each turn to end the enemy.

In the end, Hand Druid seems to be a solid choice for the rocky road called meta game that lies ahead of every player with the introduction of both the Witchwood and the Year of the Raven. Due to great amounts of board clear and token minions, this deck will perform insanely well against any Aggro archetype, and the potential to cheat out a Mountain Giant or Twilight Drake on turn 3 also increases win rates against mid-range or control lists.

The newly introduced cards may not be able to fill the shoes of the old Jade mechanic, but Hand Druid lists have a great base that can get improved through tech additions like Spellbreaker, the Astral Tiger/Oaken Summons package for example to adjust to the current meta situation.

Tharid

Julian "Tharid" Bischoff, a dinosaur in the fast-changing world of esports and self-proclaimed Warcraft expert, already created Hearthstone-related content for Red Bull, ESL and Hearthhead.

Check out Tharid on Twitter!

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16 Comments

Discuss This Deck
  1. seth
    April 20, 2018 at 10:17 pm

    do people actually win with this deck?

    • Ace
      May 8, 2018 at 11:39 pm

      got this deck and this is terrible, keeping me below, rank of 10 from 6, regretting investing on such deck cards.

      • Genji
        May 9, 2018 at 3:05 pm

        whats your average ladder rank?

  2. AuraFlux
    April 18, 2018 at 4:25 am

    This deck has better matchup than the Spiteful…seriously, it eats Hunters/Mage/Paladins/Rogue and Warriors for breakfast, it only loses against Baku Hunter (depend) and Cubelock (very bad MU)…

  3. AuraFlux
    April 15, 2018 at 3:08 pm

    wow it works very well o__o

  4. Ironsecret
    April 14, 2018 at 1:24 pm

    Hand druid is supposed to be a tempo deck, ramp doesn’t work

  5. SilentBeasty
    April 13, 2018 at 10:36 am

    Played around 15 games, won 2

  6. CrimsonStrike
    April 12, 2018 at 10:16 pm

    I built the deck exactly how it is presented here. It’s not easy to get early game, it’s gets better during middle and late game it’s pretty much uncontested. Every time I played this deck I had the thought “OH NO, I’M GOING TO LOSE,” then we’ll hit turn 8-10 and it’s over, you have armor stacks and getting beefy creatures on the field is a cake walk. It’s probably the most fun I’ve had since I made Quest rouge. So from a fighting stand point, it’s a 6 or 7 out of 10, does what it’s supposed to, just has a really slow start almost all the time. Personal enjoyment 10/10, most fun I’ve had with a deck in a long time.

    • Tharid - Author
      April 13, 2018 at 7:07 am

      Great to hear! This list was theorycrafted as a base to use for the archetype as a whole (something a lot of people often forget around here), cool that it does work without any changes.

  7. Tino
    April 12, 2018 at 7:11 am

    it seems a bit slow and your removal early is not that good, you either need to get drake, guardian or wrath in your starting hand, but maybe the meta slows down and it’s not too slow? but zoo for example might make a return and zoo just destroys this deck.

  8. Springtail
    April 11, 2018 at 10:53 am

    This version seems too slow considering what we know will be in the upcoming metagame in terms of warlock.

    I developed a version ages ago which brings together past concepts to increase ability to board flood. Cards such as living mana have been used in hybrid builds before and also mean your hand size is retained.

    Respectably, my version is first draft and I may have gone too deep into token support with a savage roar finisher – prehaps the new 5 mana hand size taunt will be optimal instead. Besides this I dont think asure drake is worth running over the deck thinning oaken summons.

  9. Grosshokie
    April 11, 2018 at 9:45 am

    I brewed almost the same deck but I don’t have greedy sprite, only one UI and include Sea Giants. Do you think Sea Giants will work since you will commonly flood the board with either whispering woods or spreading plague? I also wonder if two UI’s will be clunky in a deck that will never actually play two of them in one game. Input?

    • Tharid - Author
      April 11, 2018 at 11:28 am

      Sea Giants are a great idea, but I think they need a greedier meta to work, and the first weeks of a new expansion are not that greedy to begin with. I will test it out in the long run depending on how many Warriors we will see.

      • Furrama
        April 16, 2018 at 12:39 pm

        Might I suggest this deck list instead if you want to go Sea Giants? https://www.hearthpwn.com/decks/1083813-giant-hand-druid

        This deck works great against aggro pally, if you’re more aggressive at the start. Witchwood Apple isn’t very good if you don’t get that early Stone Giant and it makes UI clunky later, don’t use it.

  10. Stonekeep - Site Admin
    April 11, 2018 at 7:52 am

    To be completely honest, I really don’t think that Hand Druid is going to become a meta-defining deck. Still going to test the hell out of it on the first days, because I really like the class and it looks super fun!

    • Tharid - Author
      April 11, 2018 at 11:30 am

      It’s not as powerful as old Jade Druid, that’s for sure. After writing this guide I can say though that I’m pretty convinced that this deck will find a place in meta game, just because it runs very well with a lot of different tech cards. The list has a really small card base compared to other decks like Control Warlock, and you can use that to improve bad matchups by a mile!