[Top 20 Legend] Aviana-Kun Malygos Druid
- Last updated Feb 21, 2017 (Gadgetzan)
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Wild
- 14 Minions
- 16 Spells
- Deck Type: Ranked Deck
- Deck Archetype: Malygos Druid
- Crafting Cost: 10520
- Dust Needed: Loading Collection
- Created: 2/20/2017 (Gadgetzan)
- user-20917973
- Registered User
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- 6
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- 53
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Battle Tag:
N/A
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Region:
EU
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Total Deck Rating
14
[Update]: After a few more wins against Aggro Rogues, I managed to make it to top 20. I must say, it is a way better matchup than Miracle Rogue, so for those giving this archetype a try, it's one easier matchup in the meta. I will try to push for top 10 later.
For my favourite archetype (combo), a deep grave has been already dug by Blizzard for the next rotation.
So before we begin the year of ultimate curvestone (not like it wasn't curvy enough), I decided to give my beloved Malygos a final run, this time with Druid, and I've almost exclusively played this deck after hitting legend. Obviously Malygos will stay in Standard, but the possibility to make a decent combo deck around it will be more than likely gone.
My first version included a copy of Moonfire. I was getting a decent winrate until a big wave of skilled Face Warriors appeared, pushing it back down to 50-55% after 80 games. Moonfire was useless in those matchups, so I teched in Doomsayer instead, resulting in a 70% winrate (32-14) since. Probably overperformed in the current meta, but definitely a deck where your choices actually matter and influence your success rate.
The not-so-obvious card choices:
Raven Idol: The card I tried to exclude many times for a free slot, but it won me many games, either by providing health or additional burn for the Malygos combo.
Doomsayer: Personally I don't like including it, but face decks are just too dominant. Even Rogues joined the dark side, and it's especially good against them.
Druid of the Claw: Included mainly because of Warriors, but lines up well against many common minions. Also an additional 4 damage with the Malygos combo, in case you are short of damage.
Mulch: There are multiple targets (even in an aggro deck) that Druids can't deal efficiently without a single target removal.
Gadgetzan Auctioneer: Having to cycle through your deck faster, a copy of Auctioneer must be included. It can help you get lethal after playing Aviana and Kun, even if you don't have the combo pieces yet.
Alexstrasza: A versatile card to include. Sometimes saves you from aggro by healing yourself, a big reach itself after your opponent played Reno, or just simply reduces the required burn from your hand to OTK your opponent.
The possible replacements mostly consist of second copies of cards that I have already included in the deck. Feel free to adjust them according to the meta and/or your personal experience. Different decks are more popular on different ranks. Moonfire is also a good replacement if you ever find yourself playing against slower decks.
Matchups:
Below I will list the most common encounters, without going into extreme details. Just a few advices and what to watch out for.
Ronald Mage / Renolock
Possibly the best matchups you can queue into, but there are some things you need to keep in mind for both of them. If Dirty Rat pulls out either Aviana, Kun or Malygos (and gets removed), your combo is ruined, and winning becomes a lot harder unless you were ahead already, so try keeping a minion or two in hand if possible. Kazakus potion (especially the mass polymorph) can be troublesome too. Always mulligan for ramp cards, and if you have it, you may keep your midrange cards like Nourish, Azure Drake or Emperor. Keep Mulch against Renolock. Against Renomage, Ice Block makes the combo trickier. You will often go close to fatigue before launching your combo, so try to save Alexstrasza after popping the Ice Block, allowing you to finish the mage with just minion damage the turn after. There will be times when they draw bad and you get board control early, so don't be affraid to push for lethal even without the combo parts.
Face Warrior
After the best matchups, here is the worst. Hope that they draw bad and you get lucky, that's basically it. Even the mulligan is hard, because the efficiency of your early drops highly depend on what minions they start with. Try to find Living Roots, Doomsayer, ramp, Innervate, sometimes I even keep Raven Idol or Wrath to deal with Bloodsail Raider or Kor'kron. If you can survive the early game and clear most of the board, Ancient of Wars will win you the game. You can be aggressive with your minions at this point. If a 9 mana empty Aviana is your best option to survive, go for it.
Dragon Priest
Contrary to popular belief, Dragon Priest is nothing like Reno Priest. It's a tempo deck, not a control one, therefore is not an easy matchup, but still should be favored for you unless they get an insane start. Keep Doomsayer, and your 5 drops if you find ramp. Cycle for your combo, Malygos + Swipe is your best answer against anything they can possible do. Dropping your Malygos empty is not a bad play, they can't deal with it without a heavy board or a stolen Mulch.
Face Shaman
Similar to Face Warrior, an unfavored matchup, maybe a bit more managable if the Shaman misses a perfect curve. Mulligan for Living Roots (best Buccaneer counter), ramp (Innervate, WG, Mire Keeper), Doomsayer, etc. Prioritise on keeping the board pressure low, playing a War into a bunch of 1 drops won't help you, if they will trade efficiently with a Flametongue Totem.
Jade Shaman
This is a matchup which will generally be decided by how fast you can pull your combo (or at least, a decent swing turn) together. Maybe I should have cleared this up earlier, but by "combo", I don't always mean the full OTK. It's just setting yourself to a position where you will have the highest chance of winning/surviving. Cycle fast with Nourish and Wrath, if possible. This is generally true for all matchups, which are not played against heavy aggro: always draw with Nourish, unless you can set up your combo with the ramp. This deck is not that minion based, so you will run out of answers if you priorize ramping with your card draw mechanics.
Keep ramp and your midrange minions, and if you have other options, don't play a single big minion into their hex. Also keep Living Roots if you know they run Pirates besides the Jades. Keep Devolve + Spellpowered AoE in mind if you go all in too early.
Jade Druid
Similar to Jade Shaman, but you have more time because early aggression from their side is unlikely. I think this is the most 50-50 matchup, which is decided by who can get and keep the board first, therefore hard mulliganing for your ramp cards is not a bad idea. Keep your midrange minions and Nourish if you got ramp. Eventually their Jade cards will be too much to handle, but by that time you should be able to pull out a swing turn. Aviana-Kun plus a big board is good, even if you can't kill him or don't have Malygos. Dealing with a big board was never the strong point of the Druid class.
Miracle Rogue
The worst matchup right after Pirate Warrior. No one really likes keeping Feral Rage or Swipe in hand, but dealing with Tomb Pillagers and Azure Drakes is painful without them, not to mention the early Pirate aggression or a big Edwin. Pray that they don't get an Auctioneer + Conceal early on, or you might as well concede, there is absolutely no way to deal with it. Ancient of Wars getting sapped are painful, too. Good curve, early ramp, a lucky Mulch and a well timed Doomsayer can maybe give you some time to turn the chances around.
Face Rogue
The new, but not less cancerous archetype of Rogue is surprisingly easier than the Miracle one, despite the deck being more aggressive, but still a bad matchup. Mulligan for anti-aggro tools, they should run out of pressure after a few turns. Their reach is what makes them really problematic, Leeroy + Shadowstep, combined with some Eviscerates is devastating unless you have a taunt up. Taunts, however, are powerful against them, considering most of the lists cut Sap from their lineup.
Final words:
I am fully aware that this deck is far away from being Tier 1. In fact, I believe Jade Druid is still the better choice for ladder. A slight advantage might come from exactly that: your opponents will expect Jades, not a combo variant. Jade Druid is just so straightforward and boring, I can't even imagine playing it for more than 10 minutes...
Also, if you find yourself only playing against only Shamans and Warriors (especially those who are close to Legend: rank 1-5), I don't advise playing this deck. There is nothing more infuriating than losing to non-stop aggro where the only game interaction happens on your face, and you can do nothing about it.
Otherwise, feel free to try it out, only 1-2 months left to do so in Standard. One of the only decks I still enjoy playing, and feels rewarding to make the correct decisions.
Instead a second ancient of war, I ll go second druid of claw
This isn't a criticism, more of a curiosity for me, but why should someone use this variant over the C'Thun version? In the C'Thun version, you don't have to worry about saving spells for the kill, you only need to run 4 buff minions that are still useful (taunt and 2 damage), and you can just drop C'Thun as a win condition if you get lucky on draws. What makes Malygos version better?
C'Thun version is a bit better against the slower decks, because the only really bad Dirty Rat pull is C'Thun itself. You can also mill your opponents easily if they don't know what type of Druid deck you play.
At the same time, it relies heavily on the combo, meaning that if C'Thun is in your bottom few cards it might be too late.
Against aggro, I think it's worse. Coldlight Oracle and Naturalize isn't exactly the tool you need to counter them. Also, with the Malygos version, it's easier to win versus aggro without using any combo pieces.
Reno Mage, due to the comeback mechanism of Reno + Polymorph after Ice Block, might be a bit stronger against C'Thun, but since C'thun version cycles faster, the mage might not be able to get all these cards in time. Against Jade Druid, C'Thun is probably stronger.
It really depends on the meta and the exact tech choices you include in your version.
If you don't want to use Emperor only because he will rotate out, then might as well play it because this entire deck will be useless after the rotation (Aviana).
For just preference purposes, you can switch it up with a second Azure Drake or Raven Idol.
man, would like to have the luck you have with this deck, 10 direct losses to everything, this deck is useless in this meta, and you should play the old gods variant at least you can kill something with that
Why should it be me to change my deck, when you are the one failing with it? If it's not working for you, play a different version or another class then.
not working for me is bull, the bad draws and starting hands you get wit this deck are legio, and you loose to every aggro by turn 5 or 6 as you are to slow to develop anything
To get this rank, I surely had to win all my decent matchups and have the face shamans not draw the nuts. Still, you are overexxagerating, as aggro matchups aren't unwinnable either.
Obviously, being at the end of the season, it's not advisable to bring this deck to the ("competitive") ladder, as more than 40% of the players above rank 5 run Shaman. Maybe after the Buccaneer and Claws nerf.
I've been running pretty much the same list but with 2 Drakes and no DoC, and two raven idols and no doomsayer. I'll have to give the doomsayers a shot, but I think drake is almost always better because of how quickly this deck needs to cycle.
Gratulations for your Top 30 result. I achieved legendary rank last season with a quite similar deck. ( http://www.hearthpwn.com/decks/708439-aviana-kun-malygos-druid ) Since we have some different card choices I would like to discuss them with you, hopefully to further improve my deck.
Your choices: Raven Idol, 2nd Mire Keeper, Doomsayer, Emperor. My choices: Moonfire, Thalnos, 2nd Druid of the Claw, 2nd Azure Drake.
I will definitely give Raven Idol a shot since Moonfire has many situations where it has almost no value and Raven Idol is even better with Auctioneer or Fandral.
I also tried Doomsayer. There were so many situations where an aggro opponent managed to removed him, even when he got coined out. Contrary to your experience I struggle more against midrange decks than aggro. So I decided not to run him.
I excluded 2nd Mire Keeper rather quickly, since he is bad in the late game and sometimes is even too slow to play on curve (e.g. when you have to take about a berserker on T4). He only really shines when you can combine him with wild growth or innervate in my opinion.
I really struggle to include Emperor or not. Too often I had to play him on curve without a significant Tempo gain (T6 Emperor, T7 AoW...). Are there situations where he gives real advantage beside great Auctioneer turns with discounted spells?
Thank you in advance for your opinion on these choices.
Hello, sure, happy to discuss these.
I've already explained why I don't like Moonfire and switched it out to Doomsayer. Sure, it can be removed if the aggro decks get a crazy curve, but how does Moonfire help the situation in it's place? At least Doomsayer soaks 7+ damage, and it's also more useful playing before a Tomb PIllager / Twilight Drake / Mountain Giant / etc. turn, so you can drop a midrange minion on empty board after.
Raven Idol: I simply like this card, for the reasons listed in my guide, it's basically a "switch" between handling aggro and control. Sometimes I even keep it turn 1 if I already have ramp in hand.
Thalnos is a tech choice I don't really like in this deck. Sure, a spell powered removal helps controlling the board, but I feel like if that's my best option, I'm already lacking better cards in both numbers and quality. Pairing it with Swipe only helps against Shamans in the midgame, which might be too late at that point.
I can agree on the cut of 2nd Mire Keeper, the problem is the lack of replacements on the 4 mana slot. Also, the main problem with the deck is that you have to ramp and cycle at the same time, meaning that Nourish should be used for cycle. Mire Keepers help you set up for it, while providing at least some body on the board. It contests Feral Spirits, but of course, way better in the Reno matchups and against Jade Druid.
One Druid of the Claw is enough for me, the card is simply not powerful enough to include a duplicate in my opinion. The only main advantage is that you can use it both defensively and offensively (either pushing for lethal or instant removal).
So the last debate is between a second Azure Drake or Emperor. Equally good, if you ask me. Emperor is basically a taunt, even if you don't get much tempo value out of it. The most noticable turn 7 combos after a turn 6 emperor is Fendral + Nourish or Azure Drake + Swipe, both of those won me many games, enough that I will still include it in my deck.
Hope it helped a little. Your version is just as viable, these tech choices are situational anyway.
So its weak against all the popular meta matchups.
Which Druid isn't weak against aggro? Stating the obvious won't change this fact, and I have already explained it in the final words.
You are favored against Reno matchups, Jades are kind of 50-50, and aggro is bad, but that doesn't mean you can't grab plenty of wins against them.
favored against reno??? what do you smoke? Reno is autoloss if it is mage, and you will get burst down by warlock if you dont have your combo fast enough
Renomage is possibly the best matchup you can get, since their minion pressure is lower than the one coming from Renolock. The "strategy" is in the guide, in case you missed it.
I just checked the deck tracker, this season my winrate agaisnt Renolock is 75%, and against Renomage it's 82%. Most of my losses came from a lucky Dirty Rat pull, so getting "burst down", as you assumed, barely happened.
You keep telling me what's working and what's not, while the stats clearly prove you wrong, so maybe you are the one who should get off the drugs. Did I get lucky to get a higher rank? Possibly, against a few rogues and warriors at the end, but definitely not reno decks. You can't really get lucky agaisnt heavy aggro anyway, you need them to draw bad.