Hearthpwn

Hi everyone,

I'm a Vietnamese hearthstone player that has played the game since season 1. My battletag is Valky#1699 and I'm playing on NA server so please feel free to add me if u feel like it as I enjoy talking about hearthstone in general. I have reached legend several time in the past and my favorite deck is Handlock.

Proof:

http://imgur.com/81CYRSC

This is my Yogg Druid deck that I climbed to legend this season on NA server.This is a VERY HARD deck to master as I dropped from rank 1 to rank 7 just to adjust the deck with the current meta. You may find my list similar to some of the Yogg Druid deck posted here but I need to clarify that I never looked up any Yogg Druid list before I built this one. Like Miracle Rogue, there is no obvious play whatsoever. The key to play the deck is to make a board just big & sticky enough to bait out their AoE/single target clear then develop another board the next turn. Remember: Every card you save up the turn before can benefit you a greater deal the turn after.

There are about 10 different combos in this deck, I'm just gonna mention the most popular one.

- Skip turn 1, Wild Growth turn 2 then Violet Teacher + Innervate + Power of the Wild (without coin); similarly, Ramp up then Violet Teacher + Coin + Power of the Wild on Coin.

- Wisps of the Old Gods + Power of the Wild on turn 9. This combo is not strong but considering it's turn 9, some of their aoe spells should be used up.

- Fandral Staghelm + everything that sparkles in your hand. Try not to drop Fandral then end turn if not necessary. Instead, do Fandral + Raven or Fandral + Coin + Wrath next turn. The dream combo is Fandral + Innervate + Wisps of the Old Gods. If u pull it off and they don't have a good answer the turn after, the game should end.

- Bloodmage Thalnos + removals: Drawing off Wrath is super important in this deck. I use Wrath to draw 80% of the times. Don't Wrath a King's Elekk or Huge Toad turn 2 on coin if you have Wrath + Thalnos in hand, save it for the next turn (look back the bold statement). Thalnos + Swipe is also insanely strong and unexpected. Good players usually set up their field around a Swipe but they would never set up around Thalnos + Swipe (really who would?). Against Shaman and Zoo this is a nightmare for them. This is usually a winning play if u clear board against aggro.

-Yogg: 3 Mindblasts and a Pyroblast on their face sounds like a good combo?

Note:

- Overcommiting the board with 1/1s from Violet Teacher (more than 2) and not buffing them up with Power of the Wild is generally a bad play. Since they die to every aoe in the game, notably Swipe/Ravaging Ghoul/Brawl.

- Similarly, if you drop Wisps of the Old Gods turn 7 and your board get cleared effectively by Ghoul/Swipe/Baron or countered by Unleash the Hounds you will lose. Only swarm when you expect no more aoe from them. An exception is to drop it to bait out a brawl then its perfectly fine. More than 1 C'Thun Warriors I faced dropped Brawl in fear of the follow up Savage Roar.

- The number of spells that buff a minion in the game is less than the number of spells that harm a minion or deal damage so mathematically it benefits you more to keep your board empty and their board as big as possible before you play Yogg-Saron Hope's End. Based on my experience, best time for Yogg is when there are 8-12 cards in your deck but if you aren't about statistics then just say f*ck it and go praise the Yogg.  

Mulligan:

- Generally you want to mulligan for as many low-mana spells as possible:

- Always keep 1 Wild Growth, 1 Living Root, Raven Idol can be mulligan out if your hand is good enough/very bad or you are looking for a combo piece.

- Keep Innervate + Mire Keeper.

- Keep Thalnos + 1 Spell deal damage vs Hunter/Shaman.

- Keep Violet Teacher with Wild Growth.

- Never keep 5+ mana cards.

- Always keep 1 Power of the Wild. Summon a Panther to pressure when necessary.

 

My record from Rank 5 to legend was 41 - 15. My losses were against : 1 Dragon Warrior; 2 Cthun Warrior; 1 Aggro Shaman; 1 Midrange Hunter; 3 Yogg Druid; 6 Zoolock and 1 Miracle Rogue.

I mainly play on my phone at work (yea please don't ask why) so I did not have any trackers available so I noted the match-ups by pen and paper.

This is what I feel about this deck vs the current meta and the winrate:

vs Dragon Warrior (80-20): Dragon Warrior is the easiest matchup yet the most popular deck to face in high ranks. Keep Mulch for Rag/Drakonid Crusher, remove the board with your spells, Raven Idol a heal/Feral Rage if available, keep your HP above 15, play around Ghoul aoe.

vs Shaman (70-30): On the first 3 turns you should be able to verify different variants of Shaman and respond accordingly. Remember faster shaman doesn't run Hex or Lightning Storm while Totem Shaman runs both. I won't go into detail on how to play around these cards. Against faster deck just ramp up and heal, drop taunt and Raven Idol for good spells. Don't be greedy on the combos. Save Mulch for a possible Flamewreathed Faceless. Games usually don't last very long. Against Totem Shaman you want a Thalnos Swipe combo ideally and bait out Hex with Druid of the Claw for your Ancient of War. This is the harder matchup among the 2.

vs C'Thun/Control Warrior (70-30): I'll group the 2 decks into 1 category since they have similar playstyle. Ideally you want to bait out their 2 brawls make a big board. Both decks run Ghoul so make a 2/2 board to bait out Brawl. Beware that Control Warrior runs Baron. Avoid over-committing to the board. I almost always dropped Yogg in these matches.

vs Zoolock (50-50): This is by far the hardest matchup in the meta for Yogg Druid. If you have bad hand or you cannot efficiently clear their board every turn you lose. A version of Zoolock that run Wrathguard and Lance Carrier is even harder for this deck. Against this matchup you want to develop your board with Living Roots then buff up with Power of the Wild and trade as efficiently as possible then force them into a Swipe/Wrath board clear.

 I played some matches against Pally/Mage/Priest too but never lost a match.

 

Edited on 18/07/2016:

- 1 Ancient of War + 1 Sylvanas

- 1 Druid of the Claw + 1 Savage Roar

- 1 Mire Keeper + 1 Soul of the Forest

-1 Wisps of the old gods + 1 Emperor Thaurissan