Rastakhan’s Rumble Treant Token Druid: The Past and Future of the Archetype

Token Druid has been with us ever since the old Hearthstone Classic days, when the synergy between Violet Teacher and Power of the Wild was first discovered. We had hundreds of different iterations of this archetype over the years, more recently taking a very specific shape, becoming more a combo-oriented build. Boomsday Project has pushed a twist on that archetype – Treant Druid.

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Treant Druid came really close to being viable back in Boomsday Project, but Rastakhan’s Rumble might be the final push the archetype needs. Even though it didn’t get much support this time around, the card it did get is quite powerful.

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Treant Token Druid in the Past

Token Druid is not really a deck from a distant past. Even though the mid-expansion nerf patch really did hurt it, it used to be one of the most prominent and powerful decks early in the Boomsday Project. Here is one of the most popular deck lists from the time:

Of course, Giggling Inventor did cost 5 and not 7, and that was one of the reasons why the deck was so successful. You see, Token Druid was mostly about sticking a few minions on the board and then bursting the opponent down with cards such as Savage Roar and Branching PathsWispering WoodsSoul of the Forest was always the best combo, but you only had two, so if your opponent could clear them, you now had a hard time sticking a bigger board. Giggling Inventor, and Saronite Chain Gang to a lesser extent, were other ways to do it. Because the deck played so many small Taunts, it turned out that Strongshell Scavenger has became a good option. Just buffing two of them, the card was already worth it (+4/+4 on top of a 2/3 body), and if you could hit more than that, it was insane.

Giggling Inventor’s nerf did hurt the deck quite a lot – it was no longer worth to play it at 7 mana, and without Giggling, Strongshell Scavenger was also less appealing. Players have cut all of those and started running Violet Teachers again. The deck is still quite viable, but no longer as powerful as it was a 3 months back.

However, Boomsday Project wanted to push Token Druid in a slightly different direction. Above, you can see my theorycraft from pre-Boomsday days. A deck that in the end turned out to be not as good as lots have suspected. While we’ve pretty much figured out that a full Treant synergy deck might not work out, we thought that at least some of the synergies will find play.

With the new, very powerful synergy, it might finally be the deck’s time to shine. Or maybe the oldschool Token Druid will turn out to be a better choice once again?

Treant Token Druid Card Choices in Rastakhan’s Rumble

You see, Rastakhan’s Rumble didn’t really add a lot of cards that would fit into Treant Druid deck. Namely, it only added one. Most of the Treant synergies come from the previous expansion.

Treespeaker is the card I’m talking about. But it’s not just any random synergy card, it’s something that can really make the entire archetype viable. 5 mana 4/4 stats are weak, but turning your 2/2’s into 5/5’s is an insanely powerful effect. It takes just a single Treant for the effect to be okay – you have 5 mana 4/4 that gives +3/+3 buff. On the other hand, new Ancients can’t attack again, so maybe one of them is not good enough. But with two of them – turning two 2/2’s into 5/5’s already turns a nearly harmless board into something that can put your opponent into a quick clock.

With so many ways to summon Treants, this might be the card that was needed. Your opponent will have to clear every Treant you drop, or otherwise they can turn into a massive board of 5/5’s just like that.

Treant Token Druid in Rastakhan’s Rumble

This time I’ve only prepared a single theorycraft, because there’s not that much wiggle room there. You see, current Druid class has so many staples that after putting all of them, you’re left with only a few card slots you can use to put your win conditions into.

Here’s the deck. There are two main win conditions here. First one is the same as in the regular Token Druid – flooding the board and bursting the opponent down if it sticks. However, the second win condition is turning your Treants into 5/5’s, a board that lots of the decks simply can’t clear.

The deck has a bunch of ways to summon Treants. The best one is still Wispering WoodsSoul of the Forest. While it doesn’t summon them immediately, you often end up with a few Treants alive after doing some trades, facing a board clear etc. Then you can just drop Treespeaker on top of them. Other than that, you can summon two Treants with Landscaping, two with Tending Tauren and three with Force of Nature. Both Landscaping and Force of Nature can be combo’d with Treespeaker on the same turn. On Turn 8, you can have a board with 4/4 and two 5/5’s – a pretty high tempo play. On Turn 10, you can add an extra 5/5 to the mix. You basically force a big board clear, or else you most likely win the game with some Savage Roars and such.

I also like the synergy between Force of Nature and Arcane Tyrant. On Turn 5, it can be a massive tempo play. 3x 2/2 + a 4/4 on the board can mess up with your opponent’s game plan, either by giving you multiple bodies to trade with or by putting a lot of pressure.

What I like about the deck is that Treespeaker is a threat your opponent simply can’t ignore. Which means that you can use your Treants to bait AoEs, something that this kind of deck benefits greatly from. Just play Force of Nature on Turn 5 and your opponent will most likely want to clear the 3x 2/2, because if he doesn’t, they can become 5/5’s. And that’s one AoE less to worry about in the grand scheme of things.

Some of you might wonder why didn’t I put Mulchmuncher in the deck. Well, first of all, it’s a bit hard to fit it in. But there’s also another reason. You see, since Treespeaker TRANSFORMS your Treants, the cards have a bit of an anti-synergy. Minions that are transformed don’t die. It basically means that if you transform a full board of Treants into 5/5’s, which is your ultimate goal, Mulchmuncher won’t get even a single discount. Since you will be trying your best to hit Treespeaker on as many Treants as you can, it can be difficult to get a cheap Mulchmuncher until the very late game.

Closing

That’s all folks, thanks for reading. What do you think about those theorycraftings? Did you also think about this archetype? Will you What would you add or remove from those deck lists?

Be sure to check out our other theorycraftings, and hopefully we’ll see you in game when Rastakhan’s Rumble launches on Tuesday. Good luck on the ladder and until next time!

Stonekeep

A Hearthstone player and writer from Poland, Stonekeep has been in a love-hate relationship with Hearthstone since Closed Beta. Over that time, he has achieved many high Legend climbs and infinite Arena runs. He's the current admin of Hearthstone Top Decks.

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Leave a Reply

5 Comments

  1. Yrkomm16
    December 4, 2018 at 12:22 am

    Cenarius is too slow?

    • Stonekeep - Site Admin
      December 4, 2018 at 2:49 am

      I feel like Tending Tauren is better in this deck. It adds a T6 play that’s other than Plague (because you don’t always want to, or even can, Plague on curve). And in the late game, you already have a lot of different plays you can make, like start comboing Wispering Woods with Soul of the Forest, or Treants (like Landscaping / Force of Nature) with Treespeaker.

      But if you want, you can test out Cenarius instead of Tauren.

  2. Skilgannon
    December 3, 2018 at 2:53 pm

    I would go mulchmuncher over tending tauren despite anti synergy

    • Reinan
      December 3, 2018 at 3:06 pm

      Tending Tauren is like a cheaper Cenarius is way too good for this deck imo.

    • Stonekeep - Site Admin
      December 3, 2018 at 3:25 pm

      Hard to say, I feel like Tauren is more flexible than Mulchmuncher. But I will need to play around with it and see how quickly can you get Mulchmuncher to just a few mana points (or even better, to 0 mana) assuming you also play Treespeaker.

      I’ve already played with Mulchmuncher in Boomsday Project and it was actually more difficult to get down to 0 mana than I’ve initially expected, and the deck wasn’t even running Treespeaker (obviously).