Also should mention that I think Earthen Ring Farseer is better than Harvest Golem for this list. Good enough board control early, has an actual effect later in the game, and since we don’t play BoK we can’t take advantage of our opponent ignoring our 3 drop.

Cool deck. I gave it a good, honest shot in top 50 legend.

Very close to being a great deck, but I don’t think it can fully hack it in the current meta. It does the same thing a warrior does (remove and heal) but it lacks card draw. Holy Light may be cheaper than Shield Slam and give 1 more hp but it doesn’t cycle a card. Other than Wild Pyromancer we don’t have anything that can help trigger multiple draws for an Acolyte of Pain, which is a standard card draw choice for control decks in classic HS.

It does some attractive things that other decks don’t, but still doesn’t have a strong enough finish to win its good matchups convincingly. For example, against Rogue we can play Truesilver on 4 to clear a 3/3 and their Azure Drake on the next turn. Then we cast Pyro -> Coin -> Consecration, Pyro -> Equality, Equality -> Consecration to clear Gadgetzan. Even though this is tough for rogue to deal with, they can still patiently wait for our taunts to be removed or sapped and then just OTK us with Leeroy — since our taunts cost so much it’s hard to play enough in a turn to not lose.

Against zoolock (which our deck counters) we can still lose to t1 Priestess, especially if it gets a Harvest Golem to 5 hp, outside of our removal range. Even if we handle our opponent’s board early we don’t necessarily win because they can still have card advantage due to us not drawing cards.

Also I think Holy Light belongs in the list. It’s too tough to stabilize our hp total against aggressive decks like hunter or zoo without it (we’re taking damage for turns 1-4).

Still a nice list.

I was 53% against both classes between ranks 1 and 5 (I haven’t played this deck much in legend). The odd matchup (face hunter and odd paladin) is better for you. The idea is simple: hit Swipe at a time when you can stop them from leveling up their recruits. Against hunter, the idea is also simple: hit Swipe at 4 mana to clear Animal Companion and their 1-drops. Don’t play any ramp cards until you’re safe, don’t try to draw any cards until you’re safe.

Sunkeeper discovery from Stonehill can lose you the game to either paladin deck — if they play Stonehill always assume they have the Sunkeeper.

An example hand I’d keep against paladin would include wild growth, swipe, nourish, and primordial drake. This hand ensures you get your mana where you need it by ramping after you swipe, then playing another taunt/clear the next turn.

The bottom line is you can’t play the value game or be greedy against these decks. You will outvalue their deck many times over with Hadronox resummons, so don’t worry about the long game. Only worry about surviving.

I sense some pro-Druid bias from you, tauntdruid 😉

Cube choice explained above. It’s possible to play, but rarely will you ever need more than one or two resurrects of your board (which is possible without the cube).

Void Ripper is an interesting choice (alternative to savage roar). It would interfere with Oakheart pulling Hadronox (or at least Ironwood Golem).

Keep in mind that there is a burst damage win condition here, like with cubelock. The 1x Druid of the Claw can charge + cube + naturalize for 12 damage.

There’s nothing more gratifying with this deck than a 5-cost Oakheart 🙂

Didn’t include the Paladin matchup previously. I haven’t seen many paladins recently (although Finja’s really fun in Paladin!), so my experience is limited. Finja will most likely win the game against Paladin hands down if you get him. Fun fact: Pyro + Equality doesn’t kill a board of murlocs, because the Warleader’s buff applies after Equality is cast and before the Pyro triggers.

Best way to beat Paladins is to get a couple of early minions on the board and keep dumping bigger ones. They won’t usually deal with the first couple minions you play, and will then start Truesilvering/playing big minions themselves. A board state where you have one big minion and one or two smaller minions with some removal in your hand is best.

Innervated Savage Combatant is strong in this matchup, as it will hit a turn before Truesilver is playable. If it gets Peacekeepered, you can hero power and still get value while playing a cheap minion. This is a good setup for the above mentioned small/big minion board.

Five health minions are hard for Paladin to deal with if they don’t have any 1/1’s on the board. Buffing your minions to this HP will force a peacekeeping effect or Equality.

Tried this substitution myself, can’t advise it. The only minion I like playing on 3 is innervated out, and otherwise having the reach to trade up into dragon decks or to lethal an unsuspecting Reno deck is important.

Finja interactions:
* Sir Finley – you don’t want to pull Sir Finley with Finja. He has no direct affect on the board, and you want to pull charge/buff minions to remove/create a board. This makes it more important to find him in your opening hand. You can also play Finley the turn after you play Finja to have a buffed Finley and decide which hero power you need to win the game.
* Warleader – be very happy when you have a warleader in your hand with Finja. Four attack will almost always trade up on the board and activate Finja’s effect. It also ensures that if you played Finley earlier, you will get a charge minion with 4 or 6 attack to deal with anything else on the board. Warleader also buffs Finley before lethal damage is calculated, if you pull him out of the deck. For example, if you attack a 4-attack creature with Finley and pull a warleader, he will receive a 1 HP buff before the stack is resolved, leaving him alive with 1.
* Bluegill – if you know that Finja will pull at least 1 Warleader, it’s sometimes best to keep these in your hand early to ensure they get real value. 4 damage for 2 mana is good.

Sir Finley choices: keep in mind that you usually want to be playing cards instead of hero powering, so your choice isn’t going to impact the game much.
* Life tap – good against Reno decks, possibly ok against Priest and Druid. I’m surprised how seldom life tap has actually helped me with this deck, as I usually don’t find myself too low on cards. Tapping against Priest or Druid means you’re going to play a smaller minion and struggle to get back on the board. Don’t ever take life tap against other decks, it’s unlikely that the cards you’ll generate will be the one “I needed that!” card.
* Heal – better than armor, decent against pirates and full aggro Shaman because your hero power, while being useful to ping, can only realistically be used to tank a couple of minion shots as your life total will get in lethal range too quickly.
* Mage ping – I usually take this, as I fear losing the board to greedy value trades. It also goes around taunts, and I would almost say is strictly better than the Druid hero power in this deck.
* Dagger – almost strictly better than the Druid hero power with this deck as well. The 1 armor isn’t going to save you, but removing 2 pirates with a dagger will. You should only need to hero power once in a game to make the dagger worth it.
* Hunter – doesn’t affect the board, so it can be dangerous to take. This Druid deck doesn’t play like a hunter deck, i.e. it doesn’t deal guaranteed damage each turn with a low-cost card then hero power. Your win condition with this deck is almost always a big board, so play cards instead of smorcing.
* Paladin/Shaman – meh. Only one Savage Roar in the deck, so Shaman is worse. 1/1’s are easy to remove and unlikely to impact the board state for their 2-mana cost (that’s two 2/2 ravens worth of mana).

vs Priest (unfavored) – if they curve out ahead of you, it’s unlikely you’ll win. Play around Priest’s weak spots: they have to good way to deal 1 damage (so value trade when you can), and they can’t remove 4-attack creatures (which is Druid’s sweet spot). Ergo
* Marked raven (not panther) into Wyrmrest
* Zoobotted panther (4/3)
* Innervated 5-drops (four attack), or plan to Innervate the Curator out on 5.

Savage Roar can help you trade up on the board if you establish a couple creatures early. Faerie Dragon is sometimes good in this matchup, but be aware that if you coin it out you’ll lose a trade to Wyrmrest agent.

vs Shaman (slightly unfavored) – the best way to beat Shaman is to mulligan for a bag of chemo. If you don’t get that, you can still roll Shamans with Finja. Always assume they have an ideal starting hand with bolt, totem golem, Buccaneer, a weapon, and tunnel trogg. I usually assume they have wolves also, to be on the safe side. When you mull, put together a plan in your mind to deal with these inevitable plays.
* Mark + Panther trades favorably into Totem Golem.
* Living Roots safely deals with Buccaneer.
* Big things Innervated early might mean you save yourself a crucial turn forcing them to remove instead of playing Flamewreathed Faceless. This card will destroy you if you’re not on the board already, as the next creatures you’ll play will all eat removal while he smorcs you.

As always, don’t let a Shaman keep anything on the board or flametongue will punish you.

vs. Rogue (volatile matchup, even) – Rogues’ starting hands are finicky. Watch how many cards they mulligan to see how coordinated their hand is. If they keep all their cards, you might have a scary Edwin staring you down, so be prepared. Go wide on the board; your bigger creatures all have 4 HP, which is a juicy range for Rogue. Rogues sometimes will just get crazy hands that will beat any deck.
* Living roots is good, especially with the coin – wait to see if they play Buccaneer, then play it for 1/1’s. It’s not exactly “baiting” the Rogue, but I find that when a Rogue daggers on two instead of playing a pirate I’m happier. When they see two 1/1’s they will want the hero power value.
* Finja is devastating to Rogue – they can’t clear a full board, so it will usually force them all-in. Be pragmatic about taunting up when you sense they want to do Rogue things to you.
* Faerie Dragon is a notorious anti-Rogue card – SI:7 is not as popular, they will almost always face tank the Dragon. If they can’t deal with it early, Zoobot on 3 can be a great way to trade up into Tomb Pillager.
* Turn 5 Warleader + Bluegill – not something to mull for, but worth mentioning that this is a much better way to kill their turn 5 Drake than swiping it. Warleader’s 3 health usually requires a hero power to complement their removal, so it sets them behind in tempo.

vs. Warrior (you’re slightly favored against pirates, lose to taunt control): it’s all about emptying your hand and controlling the board. Tempo turns early will decide the match.
* Living roots is the best card here. If you’re caught without a two drop, wait to remove Bucaneer with it.
* Coined Panther + Mark – Warriors don’t comfortably do 4 damage at a time, so this will get you a 2-for-1.
* I’m not a fan of keeping any murlocs. Bluegill don’t trade favorably with anything for its mana cost.
* Innervated Druid of the Claw can be huge.
* Play for value on the board, but not for card value. You don’t really care about running out of cards.

vs. Reno mage/Reno lock (very unfavorable) – be mindful of Doomsayer in the early turns. You’re better against Reno mage than Renolock, but both decks tech a lot of board sweeps. Druid of the claw in taunt form is a good insurance policy against board sweeps because it’s unlikely to be removed with the rest of your creatures without them having to use all their mana.

Savage Roar can be good against Reno decks. Since you’re already not favored, surprise kills with a couple of creatures on the board are one of your only outs.
* Sir Finley – you want to life tap against these decks. If you can create a meaningful threat on each turn and not have to worry about dumping your hand, you’re in good shape.
* Faerie Dragon, Panther + Mark – Shadow Bolt costs 4, so a marked beast will force them to spend a whole turn removing instead of tapping or playing Twilight Drake.

I’ve piloted this deck from 10 to 5 so far this season, I can help you out. Mulligans are super important, that first.

General:
* Always keep Finja.
* Druids don’t play 3 drops, so if you have innervate in your hand, keep a 5-drop (Druid of the claw is almost always the best Innervate target aside from Finja).

vs. Druid (volatile matchup with Innervate, even): they want to ramp early with Jade, but struggle to deal with a large board. You want the most minions possible in the early turns so you don’t get caught by a ramped Ancient of War. Make them choose between ramping and removing inneficiently with Wrath.
* Don’t keep any murlocs, except Finja. Also mull Zoobot and high-cost creatures if you don’t have Innervate.
* Look for a beast + Mark. Faerie Dragon is possibly the best card to keep, especially two.