r/wildhearthstone
▲ 88 r/wildhearthstone
No, thanks. I'll empty my hand myself.
Turn 1: Transform most of the cards in your deck into Pot of Greed.
Turn 2: Hope for a lucky draw.
Turn 3: Win the game if you did not get unlucky and your opponent did not play Razorscale.
Should such (non)games exist?
u/etorraG — 1 day ago
I was scrolling HSguru and saw that XL HL Questline and Steal Priest have decent playrate. Do any of you have experience with them?
I've never encountered the decks but from a glance they both seem quite bad. I especially remember Illucia and Harvester being a terrible combo since you can often only steal one or two cards.
The decks in question:
u/Historical_Ad_6091 — 1 day ago
LET'S MAKE WILD BETTER №1. Greetings travelers! Today I'm starting a new column in which I'll be showing you changes to Wild cards that would make the game in this format a little more enjoyable. Share your opinion in the comments, who knows, maybe Blizzard will see this and pay attention to Wild
My main goal is to slow down the format a bit, rethink toxic cards, and give older cards a chance to shine, even if it doesn't impact the meta. Wild isn't just for the fast meta decks; there are plenty of interesting strategies that need support to have any chance of competing.
When nerfing the cards, I tried to rethink them rather than kill them. While doing so, I kept the standard format as minimally affected as possible. I apologize for the image size. This is a test version of this column. If anyone has any ideas on how to make things more beautiful and user-friendly, please let me know. For now, there are only 14 cards + 1 (non-collectible)
Let's start from the beginning. I wanted to preserve Irebound-Brute's defensive function while toning down its offensive potential, as it sometimes comes out on turns 3-4, and the attack reduction should give it more time to respond, while still remaining an effective defense against aggression.
Sigil of Skydiving – unfairly left nerfed by the developers. This should help Pirate DH and Pirate Shaman compete with Discolock.
Confront-the-Tol'vir is already becoming a problem in Standard, and it's absurdly powerful in Wild. A change is unlikely, as it could significantly weaken the class in Standard right now. But later this year, when Standard sees a rise in one-mana cards, the developers will have to take notice. I wanted to keep the card playable for Odd Hunter, so I left it at an odd cost, but at 5 mana it will feel much more reasonable.
Zul'jin - poor Zul'jin. Looking at him and Confront-the-Tol'vir, I can't look at Zul'jin without tears. Look what they did to my boy. I changed the cost and armor to be closer to current playable hero cards in Wild, while changing the text to be similar to Confront-the-Tol'vir, allowing it to combo with direct damage cards.
Sword-of-the-Fallen - I initially considered bringing back its pre-nerf 1/3 for 2 mana. But then I remembered that some people play Odd Secret Paladin (yes, they exist). So I decided to make it a 2/3 for 3 mana, and also gave it the ability to play Secrets directly from hand. This makes it more convenient for board control and more comfortable in situations where Secrets are in your hand. However, it slowed it down slightly to compensate for its comfort and board control.
Crusader-Aura is inconsistent with its canon, and I wanted to fix it. I also wanted to change the most powerful aggro paladin card in history (yes, this card, not CtA or BtA, is the strongest in CtA paladin). In WoW canon, its text reads:
Mount movement speed increased by 20%.
[The duration of fear effects applied to you is reduced by 20%.]
Rush is the most appropriate keyword for this. I also made it convenient to use before BtA and CtA.
Prismatic-Beam - I think the developers shouldn't have reverted this spell back to its pre-nerf state. This card makes other Paladin clears too weak in comparison. Moreover, the full combo isn't available to either Odd or Even Paladins. I wanted to simultaneously nerf its absurd anti-aggro potential and bring it back to Even Paladins.
Swiftscale-Trickster—both currently the strongest Rogue decks are built around this card. I wanted to slow it down and bring it closer to the general Naga synergy, since the card was released in Sunken City. A Rogue with big spells is an interesting concept that will eventually see more support, but right now Swiftscale-Trickster in its current form is not something you want to queue up against
Quasar - I didn't want to kill this card, but rather remove the ability to kill on turns 3-5. This restriction should slow down the potential for a burst turn. At the same time, I wanted to make this card appealing to more greedy Rogue archetypes.
Party-Fiend - I believe this card is the main culprit behind the explosive start of current Discolock versions. While it's not the strongest card in the archetype, it's not the best card to build a strategy around spamming the board early. I've reverted the cost back to its nerfed state, but given it more stats so that Zoolock or Pain Warlock can utilize it.
I didn't include Battle at the End Time here because, in its current form, it's easier to ban it from Wild before it leaves Standard. It's currently unplayable in Standard, so it won't be nerfed. What to do with it after it rotates is a different story. For now, the best and most likely solution for Blizzard is to ban it from Wild, as they once did with Demon Seed.
Razorscale - I wanted to make CtA Paladin a deterrent to other decks like Quasar Rogue, while also making it a more viable tech card for control decks.
Elwynn-Boar is where I spent the most time. I tried to maintain the spirit of this card as a South Park reference, while making it harder to execute and less toxic for the opponent.
I intentionally made the weapons 10/100 in reference to their namesake. I think my version of Elwynn-Boar and Sword-of-a-Thousand-Truths better captures this legendary reference.
Both Kazakus were long overdue for a change. Even in Standard during the Razakus Priest era, Kazakus remained in the shadow of Reno and was never a viable High Power card for deckbuilding after Reno's departure to Wild. With the release of Mixologist, Kazakus simply lost all hope of being used in decks. I believe that at 3 mana, it balances perfectly with Mixologist, where you get +1 attack and more optionality in exchange for a deckbuilding requirement. However, I also considered buffing some of the effects of 5- and 10-mana potions. But for now, I've settled on that.
Kazakus, Golem-Shaper - a situation similar to its Kabal version. However, this one was sometimes overshadowed by other more valuable 4-mana legendary cards, even during the Standard Barrens era. For example, Paladins preferred Cariel Roame as the only 4-mana card in their decks. There are also opportunities to improve the Golems themselves, but for now I've focused only on changing the cost and deckbuilding requirements.
These are just a few of my ideas, and they mostly concern current meta decks. If you liked them, I'll make more of these fan theories about Wild card nerfs and buffs. Maybe one day the developers will listen. Wild isn't just about 20 meta turbo decks, but also thousands of cards that need a boost.
u/EUPyramidHead21766 — 1 day ago
▲ 45 r/wildhearthstone
Top 6 legend with the worst deck in the game : a cinema mage guide
Is it gamermoment? No his rank is too bad. Is it KVLT? No he’s not playing dungar. It’s COPPERSCUM!
Playing his favorite deck, girls mage. Or lesbian mage. Or flamewaker mage. Or as it is categorized on hs guru, the worst deck in the game, JtU Quest Mage, with a whopping 41% winrate on dia-leg, 10 points below the next worst deck with an over 1000 games sample.
So why would you be interested in playing the worst deck in the game? Because I want to see if the deck can break in the 30’s winrate wise. Promoting the agenda is the priority.
Currently at 58% with about 300 games in high legend. You can check the leaderboards EU for my rank (6 or 7 at the time of writing this).
First of all, the correct decklist:
2 Freezing Potion
2 Hot Streak
1 Open the Waygate
1 Evocation
1 Finley, sea guide
2 Conjured mana biscuit
2 Smoldering Grove
2 Primordial Glyph
2 Rewind
2 Stargaze
2 Sorcerer’s Apprentice
2 Magister’s Apprentice
2 Burndown
2 Flamewaker
1 Xavius
2 Wisdom of Norgannon
2 Arcane Giant
The card choices:
The deck has been basically the same 28 for an year now. The last two cards have swapped back and forth and lately I’ve been on finley-evo as the last two. The reason? Finley evo Is still broken as a draw engine if you get both, and nutty evos are nutty content for stream purposes. The same is true for Finley during combo turns when I always rope the time warp and then slam my desk or kick my bed.
The other 28 cards are stock. Waker provide you a gorillion damage and it’s your early board control and wincon vs aggro decks, giants are 0 mana 8/8 that you can sometimes tempo very early , again, for the aggro/board matchups, your draw engine is the fire spells , the fire prep, wisdom that become a 0 mana draw in ur combo turns and gazes. Sorcs + biscuits are the mana cheat and potion is 0 mana ice block but actually better because it works against boar as well.
The mulligan:
Fire draw spells - You keep those always. The more the merrier.
Finley – I think this is GENERALLY a keep, especially on the play, unless you have a great hand already (like sorc + burndown). Two reason for this. If you solo keep finley and then get evo, you essentially got a 2 mana draw 7, which is, obviously, insane. I should do some math on this but I’m pretty sure this is gto. Second, this deck really lives and die by getting the early fire spells draw, so tossing a double giant hand or a rewind + waker hand is extremely good (please for the love of god do not keep bad cards with finley). There are hands that are harder to toss, but generally speaking, if you don’t have a way to draw by turn 2, toss and try to find that turn 3 burndown. You can also like go grove into finley or burndown into finley if you missed ur sorcs.
Sorcs – I think you keep the og sorc most of the time, especially on the coin. On the play, you probably keep neither because you really, really want to see the draw before anything else. Magister is only a keep if you already have a good hand, like burndown/grove. This is because if you keep magister, you’re twice as likely to draw a brick sorc (2 sorc’s apprentice still in deck) compared to drawing a brick sorc if u keep sorc apprentice (1 other sorc apprentice still in deck). It’s also easier to go off with og sorc and fire draw since you can hot streak burndown for 0 and play ur groves for 1.
Xavius – Generally speaking, you keep this unless you’re against aggro or combo. Obviously, if u keep this, toss finley.
Never keep - freezing potion, any arcane spell (I’ve kept hot streak once or twice in 1k games but you shouldn’t), evo without finley, flamewaker, giants
The gameplan:
The standard line:
Draw->draw->xavius-> pop-off on 5.
Self-explanatory, the cookie cutter line that generally wins against most things as it is a turn 5 lethal. In most games however, you won’t be able to go for this line either because your opponent is threatening lethal faster than that or you just don’t have draw into draw (severe skill issue).
The Razorscale gameplan:
Against decks that play razorscale, you must play assuming they have it unless you can’t. This mean, coining out or tempoing out flamewakers on 3, picking removal with your turn 2 glyph, and, in some scenarios, tempoing out a sorc on 2 if you see they kept a card and they’re telegraphing the razorscale, especially if you have duplicate sorcs.
The aggro gameplan:
Similar to the razorscale line, you need to keep in mind their damage breakpoint and play around as much as possible until you can’t. This means that going for biscuit into waker for example is a good line because as long as you can semi-clear their board and stabilize u’re gonna gain 1 or 2 or even more extra turns, you’ll get back the cards you’ve used to stabilize with ur natural draw, while having more mana to go off with them. Another common line is if you have a lot of good arcane spells (Aka biscuit-rewind-gaze), one sorc in hand, and a giant, it’s good to loop some arcane spells and biscuits just to tempo out a giant on turn 3-4, giants on 3 still wins games vs aggro, or at least, give you a lot of time.
The Trogg on 1 gameplan:
You can concede unless you have the turbo nuts. The animations are gonna make it impossible to go off and warp in a single turn, and troggs are gonna absorb literally infinite damage off waker.
The combo mirror:
Tempoing ur sorc is generally correct here unless you know you have an insane popoff coming up soon (aka double sorc + gaze + smth else playable). Most combo decks have an hard time clearing a tempo sorc and sometimes are faster than you (quasar), and tempo sorc allows you to lethal on 4 easily, sometimes on 3 on the coin (I had a tempo sorc into waker coin biscuit rewind biscuit gaze rewind biscuit biscuit lethal on 3 against a quasar that played a shack on 3 on the play. On my latest stream if you’re interested).
The quest completion:
Try to keep in mind the quest completion. If you’re not on coin, it’s best to try and rewind a spell that give you another spell (aka biscuit or glyph), because otherwise you won’t have enough for ur completion, barring a good evo with 2 playables which is not super reliable (again, big psi here).
Bonus tiktok content:
See the razorscale point above, they’re a mega razorscale deck and they also play raise dead so oftentimes it’s better to keep the clear for the combo turn if u can. Also remember that curator will always draw it, so you sort of have to pop-off as soon as they play it (unless you discovered removal), especially since they will generally play tiktok a turn or two later at most.
Other common matchups:
Boar is generally free cause you play double 0 mana time warp and you go off earlier on average and play 0 minions which means they have to clear their own board before popping off.
C2A is unplayable if they play trogg. The card just will make you rope because even on full board the game will prompt 7 animations after each spell, making the game a slog. See the general tips on aggro.
Quasar is usually half a turn faster than you, so they’re favored even if not by much. The advantage you have over quasar is that you’re slightly less susceptible to aggro since you have flamewaker, and your deck is actually interesting to play so it’s not gonna give you brainrot.
Odd hunter is a free matchup. They have no disruption, you give them no minion targets for their overwhelm and they’re slower than you by a full turn, sometimes more.
Tol’vir is similar to odd, but it’s not as free because it’s faster especially if they play vicious on 1 they can kill on 4 easily, but it’s still favored.
Libram is generally very favored, unless they have the nuts aggro start combined with the rebuke/cold feet warcrime duo.
Questline DH is slightly favored unless you’re playing in top 100 and they understand what they’re doing and what turns they should mana burn you, in which case the matchup feels bad. Especially if they’re playing momentums and disposes and lion’s frenzy to get the edge vs quasars and druids, since you’ve susceptible to those as well. If they’re playing the standard aranna list that’s all in on the token package, the matchups is less bad, but still unfavorable.
In short, matchup chart:
Favorable: druids, tiktok, reno decks, librams, odd hunter, tol’vir hunter, boar, warsong
Skill difference matchups (aka slightly unfavorable): aggro, quasar, questline DH, triple7/miracle
Unplayable: XL shadow priest with all the usual suspect tech cards, any aggro with trogg
Where code? Wouldn't be a COPPERSCUM post with a code. Bonus mental activity to keep ur brain fresh.
Shoutout to all the players still playing the game for the love of it.
u/TheRealGZZZ — 1 day ago
Is there any information available on the chinese meta similiar to HSguru?
With hearthstone growing in china it feels like a lot of statistics aren't accounted for. I don't suspect that the chinese meta is all that different from the western meta but it would be fun to know if they are valuing cards differently and playing something that we do not.
u/Historical_Ad_6091 — 1 day ago
[WILD changes/nerfs] What do you guys think wild should be?
What do you think about some cards are so cancer now guys? In my opinions, wild should be slow down a bit, or at least have enough tools to deal with them, and more fun decks can be played:
- Quasar (T4 win?)
- Boar (T6 auto win?)
- Quest DH (Maybe the best deck in wild now?)
- Tol'vir (It's really a 3 cost and not even a legendary)
- Cursed catacombs (Discard Lock)
- Tick Tock quest (Except Reno Druid, I don't think any Reno deck can deal with them)
- Boogie Down (CTA Paladin)
With me, too powerful low cost/mana cheat cards will make wild less fun to play, it will be more like a lucky draw game, and we play when think the opponent is a coward spam cracked decks.
u/Embarrassed_Ship5946 — 1 day ago
HL Velarok improvement suggestions?
I've been playing the HL Velarok list i found in HSguru and it's hellafun, although i do not have Breakdance, Sir Finley nor Loatheb so i replaced it with other cards like Neophyte, Lord Xavius, Nightmare Fuel and Smothering Starfish, while removed Counterfeit Coin that was kinda iffy in this deck. What improvement would you suggest? it is not a very competitive deck sitting at a 45% win rate for me but it's hella fun to play. Cheers
Code:
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u/Broad-Distance-7263 — 2 days ago
▲ 36 r/wildhearthstone
What are good Adaptive Amalgam synergies?
Trying to milk this card for fun decks so any good ideas where it works really well?
Things I tried so far:
- [[Stranglevine]], gets pretty insane with doubled Deathrattles so works quite well in Lie in Wait quest Rogue to preserve stacks between boardclears
- Death Knight got access to [[Death Growl]] that let's you copy any deathrattle to this card so lots of deathrattles to combine it with, there's even infinite combo if you copy [[Thunderbringer]], it will die and resummon right away from the deck. Or there's also a [[Ravenous Kraken]] so you can make amalgam that summons any other minion you want on death.
- Additional DK pivot is Imbue buffing this card on each summon, especially if you copy deathrattle of that dragon that creates damage spell
Though overall it's hard to make playable deck with it so it's more of a side gimmick for any other good deck with spare slots
u/qustrolabe — 3 days ago
Any Descent Aggro Death Knight Deck? Please Leave it in the comments, I was not able to make one that beats the warlocks
reddit.comu/TieCreepy3832 — 2 days ago
▲ 71 r/wildhearthstone
What spicy reverts would you like to see?
I’d love to see Tony back in his OG form. it had some cool uses in combo decks as an unconventional wincon, and also for aggro, where Tony served as a cool punish to opposing boardclear piles that didn’t contest board enough. it got nerfed for standard because of Tony+jailer (another cool card to revert) but I don’t think such an interaction would be any more competitive in Wild than any of the other Druid ramp decks.
what are some powerful cards you’d like to see reverted? yogg titan, OG illucia, and board lock Reno hero require thesis defense.
u/CounterSlop — 3 days ago
▲ 114 r/wildhearthstone
The ultimate tech card !
Razorscale this, Boompistol bully that, naaaaah, this bad boy right here is the true combo disruptor! If the opponent is smart, they just take the 8 starting damage(only happened once) but if they decide to humour you, majority of the time fuck up their curve, and toss the hot potato back, you won.
Because you have just agreed to MY terms and rules, and im playing this in burgle rogue, so i control the game now >:). Also its just a funny card and has a cool effect
u/Optimal-Taste-599 — 3 days ago
Custom matchmaking
Wouldnt it be nice to be able to ban some cards so you dont have to play against them?
Would make for a nice new gamemode or brawl at least i think
u/Used-Art-1663 — 2 days ago
▲ 23 r/wildhearthstone
undertaker tol’vir hunter
made it to legend again after a long time of struggling to even get past diamond 5, and did so with a deck i built myself! and it takes advantage of a card i haven’t used in years, undertaker!
### taker tolvir
# Class: Hunter
# Format: Wild
#
# 2x (1) Arcane Shot
# 2x (1) Barbed Nets
# 1x (1) Flare
# 2x (1) Leper Gnome
# 2x (1) Miracle Salesman
# 2x (1) Rangari Scout
# 1x (1) Raptor-Nest Nurse
# 2x (1) Ricochet Shot
# 2x (1) Saronite Taskmaster
# 2x (1) Shimmer Shot
# 2x (1) Sizzling Cinder
# 2x (1) Tracking
# 2x (1) Trinket Tracker
# 2x (1) Undertaker
# 1x (1) Urchin Spines
# 2x (1) Vicious Slitherspear
# 2x (1) Wound Prey
# 1x (2) Arrow Retriever
# 2x (3) Confront the Tol'vir
# 2x (3) Ethereal Oracle
# 1x (3) Exarch Naielle
# 1x (3) Prince Renathal
# 1x (3) Street Trickster
# 1x (4) Griftah, Trusted Vendor
#
AAEBAe7GBwiAB5W6AsG5BJfvBKfTBuLjBu6fB9SvBxCSBfYO7IwDqZ8Eqp8EnbAEiLIEmpIFqqQFhY4Gjp4GleIG5OoGr5IHzpsHu8AHAAA=
#
# To use this deck, copy it to your clipboard and create a new deck in Hearthstone
u/bobtheruler567 — 3 days ago
Inevitable Decks
I've been playing a lot of companion hunter in standard and realized one thing I enjoy is the inevitably. If I make it to 10 cost beast, I basically win the game at that point.
So it made me wonder, which wild decks are like this? (Please don't suggest demon seed)
u/Nice_Cress7129 — 3 days ago
▲ 21 r/wildhearthstone
Top 100 Legend Kael'thas Druid Guide: Turn 3 OTK (sometimes)
Decklist
Not my own creation: https://hearthstone-decks.net/barnes-druid-31-legend-unknown-score-11-7/
### Kael'thas
# Class: Druid
# Format: Wild
#
# 2x (0) Aquatic Form
# 2x (0) Innervate
# 2x (0) Lightning Bloom
# 2x (0) Moonfire
# 2x (1) Biology Project
# 1x (1) Moonbeam
# 2x (1) Waveshaping
# 1x (2) Bottomless Toy Chest
# 1x (2) Capture Coldtooth Mine
# 2x (2) Magical Dollhouse
# 2x (2) Moonlit Guidance
# 2x (3) Pendant of Earth
# 1x (3) Swipe
# 1x (5) Barnes
# 1x (6) Kael'thas Sunstrider
# 2x (6) Starfire
# 2x (8) Sleep Under the Stars
# 2x (10) Ultimate Infestation
#
AAEBAZICBkCFuAKuugOwpQTV0gTZsQYM0wO3BofOAo/2AvDUA6+ABK6fBK7ABJqgBpSxBtW6BqqvBwAA
#
# To use this deck, copy it to your clipboard and create a new deck in Hearthstone
Background
Reached top 100 NA for the past three months playing Barnes Kael'thas Druid. In the previous months, I played Champions Druid and peaked at top 5. But after Ysiel was nerfed, I switched over to Kael'thas Druid, since the deck plays similar cards. Kael'thas Mecha'thun was my first time legend deck back when Kael'thas reduced spells to 0 (completely broken), so I have some fond memories of Kael'thas OTKs.
The deck is a solitaire deck that doesn't interact with the board whatsoever (more so than Quasar Rogue imo), so this is definitely not a deck for everyone. However, it's fun to pilot the deck based on the matchup and the combo APM turn, so I would recommend this deck to those who like flashy APM turns with quick matches.
The deck is surprisingly consistent and usually does its OTK turns 4-5. I've had Turn 3 OTKs quite a handful of times, thanks to Biology Project ramping 2 extra mana crystals.
Warning: Do NOT play this on mobile. As an APM deck, you physically cannot OTK due to the animations. I play on a Mac with the default trackpad, so I'm sure if you can also OTK with a decent computer.
Finished the Legend Climb today ending with 10 wins in a row.
Damage Potential
At its core, the basic gameplan is: Draw Barnes, play Barnes to get Kael'thas, shoot bunch of spells at opponent's face.
Based on the spells in the decklist, we have:
2x Moonfire (2)
1x Moonbeam (2)
1x Swipe (4)
2x Starfire (10)
2x Ultimate Infestations (10)
for a total of 28 damage, which is not enough to do the full OTK.
Each copy of Magical Dollhouse (+1 spell damage) gives +9 damage if you cast all your spells while it's active, so we have 46 damage. However, we usually need to spend some of our low cost cards like Moonfire to proc Kael'thas and card-draw cards like Ultimate Infestations during the combo before getting to play the Dollhouses, which cuts the damage.
This is why in Renathal matchups, you need to spend Moonlit Guidance or Bottomless Toy Chest to fish for copies of damage cards or Dollhouse that you need to finish off the opponent's health.
Every damage to face matters, since you might not be able to play all your spells due to the animation time and turn length. So on turns 2-4, if you Hero Power, just go face instead of trading with a minion. The OTK happens early enough that the extra damage to face is usually better than killing an enemy minion.
When to OTK
The most important part of the deck is to know when you have to execute the combo. Sometimes, you just have to play out the combo to avoid tech cards and lethal from opponent next turn and hope that you can find these extra damage copies and Magical Dollhouses on time during the combo turn.
You can usually go in for the kill when you have either Barnes/Kael'thas, 2 cheap spells, and a big spell (SUtS or UI). The cheap spells can be anything that will refresh your mana (Innervate, Lightning Bloom, Biology Project) or costs 0. Aquatic Form is a good combo with Waveshaping played earlier to ensure that you can increment the Kael'thas spells while getting another cheap spell from Aquatic Form.
An example game would be as follows:
Turn 1: Waveshaping
Turn 2: Hero Power
Turn 3: Pendant of Earth to draw Barnes
Turn 4: Coin/Innervate, Biology Project, Barnes, Ultimate Infestation, Lightning Bloom, ..., and play your other mana refresh and draw cards to OTK with Kael'thas
Some advice:
SUtS refreshes your mana, so playing Biology Project before your other cheap spells is recommended. With SUtS, draw first to see if you have enough card draw (UI or another SUtS). If you do, refresh 2x to get the mana. Or go draw 1x and refresh 1x to get more cards.
When you do the OTK, after casting UI, I recommend checking the history tab to see what cards you've drawn before the draw animation of UI concludes so that you have a better idea on what card to play next (Dollhouse, cycle spells to play SUtS, etc.).
Count your Kael'thas spells! It's important to know when your spells cost 1 from Kael'thas, since the card cost graphic isn't updated immediately when available.
Mulligan Guide
The goal is to OTK turns 3-6 (ideally 3-5), so the mulligan section below will be geared towards finding an early Barnes (Barnes + additional mana).
If you draw Kael'thas early, it's not the end of the world. The combo is going to be one turn later, though this can decide the outcome of a match.
Always keep: Barnes, Pendant of Earth, Waveshaping, Aquatic Form
You only need one of Barnes or Pendant of Earth, so mulligan other copies away if you have any way of getting Barnes. Pendant of Earth's main purpose is to be played on turn three to draw Barnes. I prefer keeping Barnes over Pendant of Earth so that I don't have to play Pendant on Turn 3 and less chance to draw into Kael'thas, but Pendant can be a keep against aggro so that you can heal for 5 by drawing Barnes.
Waveshaping and Aquatic Form are efficient draw cards to fish for early Barnes.
Sometimes keep: Bottomless Toychest, Moonlit Guidance, Innervate, Biology Project, Lightning Bloom, Sleep Under the Stars, Ultimate Infestation, Capture Coldtooth Mine, Magical Dollhouse
Bottomless Toychest and Moonlit Guidance: Discover cards to get early Barnes. Less useful than Aquatic Form or Waveshaping due to costing more, but are good cards to find early Barnes. Keep one if you don't have the other premium options above in Always Keep. Be careful with Moonlit Guidance copying Barnes, since this means Barnes has a 50/50 of pulling another Barnes or Kael'thas.
Innervate, Biology Project, and Lightning Blooms are keeps only if you have a way to play Barnes early. Otherwise, I recommend against keeping them, since you really want to find Barnes (Barnes or Pendant of Earth). If you have a way to find Barnes, only keep one copy of these in mulligan, since you need to find SUtS or UI as well.
Biology Project > Innervate = Lightning Bloom keep in this order if you have Barnes tutor. Biology Project can be played early to ramp you two extra mana crystals (good to accelerate the combo, so play early if you think you can combo next turn to have more mana available. do be careful that the opponent has +2 mana next turn, so play cautiously) or played on the combo turn as +1 mana, so it's better for the added flexibility. Innervate and Lightning Bloom are both good to play Barnes early with Kael'thas and are also good during the combo turn to get the extra mana.
SUtS and UI are similar to the above mana cards. Like above, only keep if you have Barnes tutor, and only keep one copy to draw into your cheap spells. SUtS is better than UI for the draw + mana refresh, but keep UI over SUtS if you already have other mana refresh available.
Capture Coldtooth Mine is flexible for being able to tutor a low cost spell for Kael'thas or a high cost spell (UI) for the card draw. Keep if you have Barnes tutor.
Magical Dollhouse: Exclusively keep for the Renathal or armor matchups (expected decks are Mage, Priest, Druid, Warrior, Death Knight). You need all the damage you can get. Otherwise, they're not necessary and you would rather find cards for Barnes tutor.
Rarely keep: Kael'thas, Swipe
In Renathal matches, Kael'thas can be kept if you have mana ramping available from Innervate/Biology Project and the card draw from SUtS/UI. The deck relies on OTKing as soon as possible, so finding a way to tutor Barnes is better for the 1 less mana compared to playing Kael'thas. Renathal decks are slightly slower, and you need some time finding the Dollhouses and
Swipe is a decent card to specifically counter Razorscale. It's a decent keep against Paladin (CTA), but only if you have a way to get Barnes tutor. Better to OTK a turn earlier than have a card draw used for Swipe.
All the other cards are used as cheap spell or damage for the OTK, so they can be tossed away.
Matchups
I don't think there's any matchups that are too heavily favored or unfavored for Kael'thas Druid, since the deck can cheese out wins super quickly but also folds to bad card draw RNG. In general, Renathal classes are harder to deal with due to the added health and tech cards.
Favored
Seedlock: Seedlock doesn't do enough damage or have enough tech cards to threaten Kael'thas Druid. Builds a medium-sized board by turns 3-5, but a little too late. Also does self-damage making the combo turn much simpler.
Boarlock: Boarlock doesn't perform their own combo faster than Kael'thas.
Quest Priest: Doesn't threaten enough; mainly has survivability, which Kael'thas OTK just ignores.
Odd Questline Hunter: Does some damage but not enough to stop the Barnes combo by turn 5.
Slightly Favored
Quasar Rogue: This is primarily personal experience, since I don't know how consistent Quasar Rogue is to do their combo by turn 5. Quasar Rogue usually requires setup in advance for Quick Pick or Knickknack Shack. Rogue has a lot of card draw, but Kael'thas Druid hits the combo a turn earlier from experience.
Miracle Rogue: Builds a decent board by turns 3-5, but it doesn't do it fast enough to stop the OTK. Cult Neophyte is a problem, though, which is why it's only slightly favored.
Discolock: Primary reason why it's so important to play Barnes instead of Kael'thas. Just one turn is usually the difference in losing and winning. Discolock can build big boards and do direct face damage, but it's just slow enough to squeeze out the OTK. Soul Barrage nerf helped a lot.
Big Shaman: Ancestral's Call is the only real issue. Otherwise, just play Barnes and OTK.
Libram Paladin: Dumps a lot of stats early, but a turn slower than the OTK usually. Watch out for Cold Feet and Rebuke.
Imbue Mage: Most Imbue Mage decks I've encountered are quite unoptimized. Renathal versions are slightly tougher to beat, but Imbue Mage just doesn't do enough damage, especially as the Reckless Apprentice combo is non-existent against Kael'thas Druid. Objection and Ice Block are the primary concerns, but the deck is slow enough that you can usually kill the opponent the next turn against Ice Block or play Barnes then a following Kael'thas next turn against Objection.
Non-token QL Demon Hunter: Builds a board very quickly but not as fast as Token QL. Glide is sometimes annoying, but the OTK is fast enough that Glide is not as big of a concern. Main concern is Mana Burn against a big board.
Even
Token QL Demon Hunter: Token QL DH builds a board fairly quickly with the tokens and Remnant of Rage. Scary but manageable with early Barnes.
Renathal Druid: 40 health, armor, and tech cards are tough to deal with though. But it kinda just ramps then dies if you hit the right cards.
Ticktock Warlock: Lots of tech cards and 40 health. Similar to Renathal Druid; you can OTK with early Barnes.
Unfavored
CTA Paladin: Builds a board with Irondeep Trogg and slams Crusader Aura, so the game is usually over by turn 4-5. On top of that, Razorscale, Rebuke, Nerub'ar Weblord, Oh My Yogg, etc. makes the matchup very difficult.
Odyn Warrior: It's just so much armor early on with Unleash the Crocolisks and Igneous Lavagorger. As stated above, this deck can deal 46 damage with two Dollhouses, so it's already cutting it close. You have to hope Moonlit Guidance and Bottomless Toy Chest gives more copies of your damage cards.
Renathal/Hostage Mage: 40 health, Objection, Ice Block that's recycled over and over. Quest variant is less difficult than Hostage Mage, but Renathal Mage has the survivability post-Ice Block that Imbue Mage doesn't really have that makes the matchup almost impossible after an Ice Block.
Closing Thoughts
This just about covers Kael'thas Druid. There's definitely some niche situations I haven't covered like deciding whether to activate Dollhouse early to proc Bottomless Toy Chest vs save the charge for the combo turn, but hopefully this is a good baseline.
Kael'thas Druid is a fairly consistent combo deck. It's pretty good at climbing once you've gotten used to the deck, though your success may vary based on the pocket meta.
It's a deck that somewhat depends on early card draw RNG, so don't be discouraged if some games don't go your way (e.g. unlucky Kael'thas topdeck or not drawing any cheap spells after UI).
The deck is also pretty cheap: Kael'thas is free, so the deck costs ~3600 dust with Barnes, 1x Capture Coldtooth Mine, 2x Sleep Under the Stars, and 2x Ultimate Infestations. So give it a shot if you like APM combos 👍
u/OneCommon579 — 3 days ago
How do I effectively counter solitaire decks like Boarlock and Quasarogue??
Hey all.
Words cannot describe how much I despise 100% solitaire decks, especially Boar Warlock and Quasar rogue, that either do not draw correctly or win on turn 5 automatically.
What cards or decks even can I run to consistently counter them? Ive found luck only in running a mage secret package (Objection and Counterspell) that sometimes help, but I really want to hard counter them as much as I can.
I am brewing a battlecry disruption shaman with spell cost increasers and dirty rats, but do you have any other ideas? Any specific card suggestions, like the dragon that increases card costs to 2 would be appreciated.
u/drebengolem — 4 days ago
The best way to spend 2300 gold
So I recently got into wild hearthstone and grinded up to the above mentioned amount. What would be the best use of this : the league of explorers adventure (which has meta relevant cards) or gold packs (which boost dust)?
u/lzylad — 4 days ago
Legend once again after hiatus, odd ql hunter
I already had everything except the ql itself, as much as I hate the deck itself, I didn't have to craft anything else outside the questline and I knew it'd be a breeze to legend. Faced multiple final bosses yesterday and took a break after constantly tilting between D2-D1 and final bosses. after several hours break, finished my climbing to legend. The last final boss was shadow priest which I'm glad the game finally cut me an easy break again. Now it's time to just not play hs anymore for the rest of the month/season!
u/MSakuEX — 4 days ago
▲ 18 r/wildhearthstone
From a standard player
Wild is the superior mode standard just devolved into curvestone with going 2nd having like -15% winrate,also 0 interesting decks
u/Gehrman12 — 4 days ago