Hearthstone Mechanics Spotlight: Druid
This is a new series that I plan to finish and update so long as Hearthstone remains interesting to me. For the first entry I wanted to begin with the class I’ve probably played the most, certainly in the early years of Hearthstone: Druid. I want to delve into the supported archetypes of each class, focusing on the mechanical identity of the class as it has evolved over time. So let’s take a trip back to 2014, when Hearthstone just launched to see where Druid started and where it has gone since then.
As Hearthstone enters its 10th year with 29 main sets and adventures, this examination is no short exercise. I will try to keep things concise but make no promises. I may touch on specific decks but I’m more interested in the higher-level archetypes supported by the class cards added each expansion. The main focus is Druid class cards, though there are certainly some very impactful neutral cards that can’t be ignored.
Basic/Classic
Supported: Ramp, Tokens, Choose One, Restoration, Taunt, Hero Attack
This set of cards comprise the backbone of most Druid decks for several years. Druid’s core identity is ramp and the flexibility of Choose One cards. Druid’s removal comes in the form of damage-based spells such as Moonfire, Wrath, Swipe, Starfall, and Starfire. Naturalize is its only example of hard removal, paired with a significant downside, at least in terms of early Hearthstone where individual cards make have a much larger impact.
Keeper of the Grove and Ancient of Lore are utility minions with subpar stats for their cost. The Choose One mechanic gives all such cards some degree of flexibility, which is why Druid can play a midrange strategy so well. Druid of the Claw, Ancient of War, and Cenarius offer a choice of offense or defense, and the former two make for particularly beefy taunt minions.
Playing into the Druid fantasy we have Claw and Bite which are effectively one-charge weapons with a bit of armor gain to mitigate using your face as removal. Savagery has some synergy with this, but must be paired with Bite to be remotely effective.
From the start we have the seeds of two of Druid’s most well-supported archetypes: ramp and tokens. Wild Growth and Nourish are staples, while Force of Nature and Soul of the Forest bolster the token strategy. The biggeset payoff for going wide is Savage Roar. The Force of Nature + Savage Roar combo became class-defining. Notably we will see that Blizzard moves away from burst damage effects like Savage Roar and removes charge from the Treants summoned by Force of Nature. Token strategies will still be supported in the future, but the payoffs will be tied to maintaining a board state rather than a burst finisher.
Druid is one of the few classes with reliable card draw in the base set. This is a philosophy that has shifted over time in both Hearthstone and Magic: the Gathering. Essentially, both Blizzard and Wizards of the Coast, veritable definers of the digital CCG and TCG genre, realized that to make their games flow, all classes/colors need some access to card draw. In a digital game like Hearthstone this can also be covered by card generation. Card selection and temporary card draw (cards that must be played immediately or within a number of turns) are also valid substitutes. Nourish is the best card draw spell in classic Hearthstone, and the option to play Wrath as a 1-damage cantrip is always valid. As such, slower classes relied on neutral cards like Acolyte of Pain to draw cards.
Curse of Naxxramas
Supported: Tokens, Deathrattle
Each class only got 1 new card in Hearthstone’s first expansion, which was of the smaller “adventure” variety. Poison Seeds is technically removal but it is not transformative like Polymorph or Hex. As such, it pairs well with deathrattle effects, and is very poor against the opponent’s deathrattles. Combined with Starfall, this does give Druid a (mostly) guaranteed board wipe for 9 mana. We don’t see this kind of removal ever again, so I’d consider it a “break” of Druid’s class identity.
Haunting Creeper and Sludge Belcher both leave behind tokens that can be lethal when combined with Savage Roar. Shade of Naxxramas is in a similar category, a difficult to remove minion that could simply lie in wait of Savage Roar. In case you haven’t realized yet, but Force+Roar combo is the finisher of choice for midrange Druid for a long while.
Goblins vs Gnomes
Supported: Deathrattle, Beasts
Every class got mechs in GvG, but deathrattle mechs like the infamous Piloted Shredder excelled in Druid. Dr. Boom was a powerful threat to ramp into.
Of the class cards, the most interesting is Recycle in my opinion, despite seeing little play. It addresses Druid’s weakness to big minions, but 6 mana is a lot even for Druid. It is temporary removal, but it is a strong tempo effect if you’re casting it on an expensive threat.
Druid of the Fang is the first foray into an explicit Beast synergy. Note that Druid of the Claw’s Cat and Bear forms have the Beast tag, as will all “Druid of the ___” cards in future sets.
Blackrock Mountain
Supported: Ramp, Beasts
Another adventure with just two class cards. Druid of the Flame is a flexible 3 drop that Druid lacked. The 2/5 form is great for cleaning up aggressive minions, and the 5/2 form was there if you were feeling cheeky. Volcanic Lumberer is basically a downgrade to Ironbark Protector, as the cost reduction condition was difficult to meet.
I must talk about Emperor Thaurissan, which was the ideal ramp target for midrange Druids. One round of cost reduction could make the classic 22-damage Force of Nature + double Savage Roar possible without an Innervate. it accelerated all your other greedy plays, and opened up the possibility for absurd combos that would normally be impossible (even in Druid). It was a strong card for sure.
The Grand Tournament
Supported: Beasts, Mana Cheat, Tokens, Ramp
TGT brought new direction to Druid, beginning to push its previously established boundaries. Beast synergy is in full swing with Wildwalker and Knight of the Wild, and Savage Combatant was a reasonable 4 drop with one of the more usable Inspire effects, in my opinion. Druid dips its toes into pure mana cheating (not just ramp) with Aviana and Astral Communion.
Druid gets some much-needed early game in Living Roots, an Arcane Shot variant that supports token strategies, and Darnassus Aspirant. Living Roots is phenomenally flexible, and Darnassus Aspirant is a reasonable 2 drop. Druid was mainly relying on neutral minions to fill its early curve at this point. Aspirant’s ramp falls between Innervate and Wild Growth on the temporary to permanent scale, but provides your opponent with the opportunity to interact with your ramp, something precluded by the aforementioned spells. The feeling of helplessness when you have no way of preventing your opponent from enacting their plan feels especially bad when you know that your opponent is building some sort of complex combo. Druid’s ramp also feels this way sometimes, as we’ll see in the far future when Wildheart Guff is released. Darnassus Aspirant is a respite from that feeling of helplessness. It’s also a hilarious low-roll from a Piloted Shredder.
Mulch is similar to Naturalize in that it is hard removal with the downside of giving your opponent card advantage. 3 mana is much more palatable than 6 (sorry Recycle), but it’s important to note that at this point individual cards had more value than they do compared to current Hearthstone. Mulch fits with the flavor of Poison Seeds, replacing your opponent’s minion with something random in-hand rather than Treants on-board.
From a design standpoint, Justicar Trueheart also helped to transform the game by transforming how players thought about hero powers. The hero power is a fundamental aspect of Hearthstone, and interacting with hero powers is a new direction. Upgraded hero powers reinforce the existing synergies and gameplay strategies of the classes, but as we’ll see with Hero cards and the infamous Genn and Baku, adjustments to how hero powers work has a large impact on gameplay.
League of Explorers
Supported: Spells, Deathrattle, Beasts
Raven Idol is a spectacularly flexible spell that highlights one of the best card game mechanics of all time: Discover. League of Explorers was game-changing in many respects but Discover had the biggest impact by far (yes, even though Reno defined a deck archetype). Raven Idol can slot into any Druid deck that wants extra flexibility (a hallmark of midrange decks) or cares about Choose One or spell synergies. We will see more of those later.
Mounted Raptor is a nice resilient 3 drop with Beast and deathrattle synergies. Jungle Moonkin is an interesting symmetrical effect that plays into the Boomkin class fantasy. Druid is at this point one of the best abusers of spell damage alongside Mage. Swipe is particularly potent with even +1 damage, and Moonfire is key to any Malygos combo.
Though not specific to Druid, I’ll touch on the headline legendaries of the set: Reno Jackson, Elise Starseeker, Brann Bronzebeard, and Sir Finley Mrrgglton. Reno provided a game-swinging effect but had a harsh deck restriction. Still, the effect was strong enough to justify sacrificing consistency by making your deck singleton. Elise pushes the boundaries of card generation in that she generates a card that generates another card, the first time we have to jump through a second hoop to get the payoff. Brann is straightforward but powerful, 3 mana seems to be the sweet spot for this effect and he has surprisingly never been adjusted despite the combos he enables.
Sir Finley is interesting in that he allows classes to break out of the archetypes defined by their hero power. Hero powers strongly influence the long-term gameplan of a class: i.e Priest and Warrior typically play control while Hunter typically plays aggro. But Finley allowed such decks to change their fundamental archetype to a degree. Over the course of the game, you weren’t locked into the hero power you started with, so Warrior could swap for an aggressive hero power like Steady Shot or Life Tap. You could discover Totemic Call or Reinforce to generate board presence. Fireblast, Shapeshift, or Dagger Mastery could help control the board or push damage.
Naga Sea Witch is another notable symmetric card that has a disparate impact on aggressive, low-curve decks compared to greedy decks with many high-cost cards. It’s an interesting design that eventually had to be nerfed because of the shenanigans it enabled.
Whispers of the Old Gods
Supported: Choose One, Tokens, Beasts, Taunt
Druid got a lot of tools in this expansion, including a card that I had effectively predicted based on the nerfs to Keeper of the Grove and Ancient of Lore: Fandral Staghelm. Fandral and similar effects in the future push Druid’s Choose One cards to an entirely new level. It is also very satisfying to see the combined forms of the “Druid of the ___” cards. This is the first explicit synergy with Choose One effects outside of their natural flexibility.
There is new support for go-wide token strategies such as Addled Grizzly, Mire Keeper, and Wisps of the Old Gods. Mark of Y’Shaarj continues the growing trend of Beast synergy.
Dark Arakkoa is simply a good taunt for the cost by 2016 standards, but Druid did get some other C’Thun suppoer in Klaxxi Amber-Weaver. C’Thun minions made for a reasonable baseline minion curve, and the neutrals Twin Emperor Vek’lor and Doomcaller made for particularly potent ramp targets.
The Old Gods themselves provide big payoffs for greedy ramp decks. Forbidden Ancient sort of counts as a ramp payoff card, but raw stats are unspectacular. The cycle of Forbidden cards as a whole is quite interesting, though. Druid already has a fair amount of flexibility with Choose One cards while cards like Innervate allow you to maneuver around your mana restrictions to play the cards you need off-curve. But for other classes, the ability to utilize all your mana in a turn can be a little more difficult, thus the Forbidden cards can be much more appealing.
One Night in Karazhan
Supported: Beasts, Aggro, Restoration, Spells
Enchanted Raven is a simple yet effective 1 drop with no downside, which was unheard of for a 1 mana 2/2. Menagerie Warden further supports a midrange Beast Druid strategy, rewarding you for ramping into an early Druid of the Claw or Savage Combatant.
Moonglade Portal is the first new restoration card in quite a while for Druid, which is probably the 3rd or 4th best healing class in the game depending on where you put Warlock (also barring Warrior, which utilizes armor and not technically healing). As we will see, developers fluctuate between healing and armor gain in Druid, and they are the only class that gets both forms of effective healing.
Arcane Giant is a card that became more and more playable as time when on, especially in Druid. Spells-matter is a big theme in Druid, bolstered by its base of cheap spells in the classic set, as well as slightly more expensive staples like Swipe and Nourish.
Mean Streets of Gadgetzan
Supported: Jade, Tokens, Beasts, Mana Cheat, 5+ Attack Minions
I’ll begin by touching on the introduction of multi-class cards. I think it is great as a concept: batching together classes using an underlying mechanic or strategy. In this expansion we have the Jade Lotus (Druid, Rogue, Shaman), Grimy Goons (Hunter, Paladin, Warrior), and the Kabal (Mage, Priest, Warlock). Each has its own mechanic (jade golems, handbuff, and singleton) that is implemented in different ways by the individual classes. We also got a cycle of cards that allowed you to discover cards from a different class. That itself isn’t entirely new, as Grand Crusader was a neutral that gave you a Paladin card. Occasionally we will see neutral cards that discover or generate class-specific cards, but otherwise this mechanic is in Rogue and Priest’s identity.
Jade Druid, a classic strategy that fits with Druid’s propensity for ramp and summoning progressively larger men. Jade Idol is a fascinating card that highlights the flexibility of the Choose One mechanic. You can forgo immediate board presence to stow golems away for later and stave off fatigue, but you also delay buffing them up by doing so. The rest of Druid’s jade synergy cards are all well-costed, you didn’t feel bad playing Jade Behemoth or Jade Blossom at most points in the game. While this mechanic was highly parasitic, there were still enough support cards for the deck to be playable in all three of the Jade Lotus classes. It’s possible I was the only one playing Jade Rogue, though (and still do in Wild!).
Druid gets token/go-wide support in Mark of the Lotus and Pilfered Power. Virmin Sensei continues the trickle of Beast support, and Lunar Visions is another case of mana cheating. Kun the Forgotten King opens up more shenanigans with cards like Aviana.
I would consider Celestial Dreamer a throw-forward to Journey to Un’Goro which has a lot more minions with 5+ attack and more payoffs for them. The Druid class has some of the largest minions, so it makes sense that this begins to appear as a synergy. Large, expensive minions play well with ramp effects.
Journey to Un’Goro
Supported: 5+ Attack Minions, Armor, Beasts
Druid has a suite of cards that care about holding minions with 5+ attack in-hand and support such a strategy (such as Tortollan Forager). There are some small anti-synergies with Choose One minions, such as Shellshifter whose baseline is a 3/3 that can become either a 5/3 or 3/5.
The biggest innovation is Quest cards, which always start in your hand and give you a reward when you meet the conditions, which are tracked over time. Appropriately, Druid’s Quest cares about minions with 5+ attack.
Earthen Scales is the first Druid card (aside from Kun, but he was mainly played for the mana refresh) that generates armor and not attack. The armor on Claw and Bite helps to mitigate the downside of using your face as removal. Armor is a variant of healing, so this new direction doesn’t seem like a “bend” or “break” of Druid’s identity. But this card could be seen as the start of a push into a new direction for Druid’s class identity.
Knights of the Frozen Throne
Supported: Choose One, Beasts, Tokens, Taunt, Deathrattle
Hero cards are the game-defining innovation this set, and Malfurion the Pestilent is one of the great ones. Flavorfully, the classes are all twisted, and for Druid this means that the typical Beasts are bugs and Nerubians (later errata’d to Undead). Spreading Plague is the first answer to a wide board that Druid has received since Swipe and Starfall in the base set (Poison Seeds arguably fits). It is a wonderfully (if aggravatingly) Druid-flavored answer, as it synergizes with board buffs and Savage Roar. But this is only just the start of KFT.
Gnash is a nice medium between Claw and Bite. Webweave is pure token generation on a spell, which is within Druid’s wheelhouse (see Power of the Wild and Force of Nature) that gets even more support in future sets. Fatespinner is our first secret Choose One, a variant that creates a neat mind game but was unfortunately not strong enough to see much of any play (despite being an AoE damage option in Druid).
Now onto the heavy hitters. Hadronox solidifies the taunt Druid archetype, which is a variant of midrange ramp that I always enjoyed. At 9 mana with no immediate board impact, it is still a potent card. This is also the first instance of reanimation in Druid, which is occasionally explored. Druid’s reanimation is always restricted to a subset of minions (in this case taunt minions). Compared to Priest, this means Druid can play supplementary minions that don’t muddy its pool of reanimation targets.
And of course, there’s also Ultimate Infestation. The individual effects are all within Druid’s identity: damage-based removal, card draw, token generation on a spell, and high mana cost. But when combined onto a single card it feels like a “bend” if not an outright “break.” Drawing 5 cards is a lot, and this is a spectacular card to ramp into. You don’t feel bad expending two Innervates to play this.
Kobolds & Catacombs
Supported: Armor, Choose One, Mana Cheat
This is the set where we see that “armor-matters” is a mechanic the designers want to add to Druid’s identity. The pair of Oaken Summons and Ironwood Golem highlight this perfectly, and Druid’s entry in the Spellstone cycle (Jasper Spellstone) upgrades as you gain armor.
Branching Paths is the first and only Choose Twice card, which unfortunately does not synergize with Fandral and other effects that allow you to choose both options in a Choose One effect. It is well-costed, and Choose Twice is even more flexible than Choose One.
Twig of the World Tree is similar to Astral Communion in that it cheats you to 10 mana (before it was nerfed). As the only Druid weapon at the time, it wasn’t game-breaking. Of course, Medivh from One Night in Karazhan did allow you to overwrite it to get the effect early, and the interactions with it only became easier from there. The nerfed version simply refreshes your mana crystals, which is much more palatable while still holding to the mana manipulation theme of the original.
The Witchwood
Supported: Handsize, Beasts, Reanimator, Tokens, Spells
Genn and Baku aside for a moment, the themes for Druid in this set are Beasts and holding cards in-hand. Witching Hour added some potency to Hadronox builds while also opening up other Beast-based shenanigans. Reanimating Hadronox requires some setup and is much less egregious compared to effects that pull copies of minions from your deck.
Ferocious Howl, Wispering Woods, and Bewitched Guardian all care about how many cards you are holding. While this synergizes with the card draw available to Druid and its tendency to hold multiple high-cost cards in hand, the handsize-matters strategy is historically associated with Warlock. Witchwood Apple and even Forest Guide and Splintergraft support this strategy. These didn’t really coagulate into a deck, but the individually strong cards did make the cut in other archetypes (namely Wispering Woods and Ferocious Howl).
Wispering Woods and Witchwood Apple subtly support token decks. Witchwood Apple didn’t end up seeing much play in purely spell-based Druids looking for board presence, but Wispering Woods did. Wispering Woods is the kind of payoff that spell-based decks like.
The Boomsday Project
Supported: Treants, Mana Cheat, Clones
Treants and mana cheating are the name of the game this expansion. Treants support token/go-wide strategies and we have cards that explicitly care about Treants: Dendrologist and Mulchmuncher. Treants as an archetype haven’t reached a critical mass quite yet.
Dreampetal Florist provides potent mana reduction, while Flobbidinous Floop and Gloop Sprayer are strong copy effects. Floop can be banked for later (I cast many 3/4 Lich Kings back in the day), while Gloop Sprayer requires minions to stick on board. Unsurprisingly, Floop saw much more play. Floop’s Glorious Goop has the potential to generate a lot of mana in token/go-wide decks.
This expansion introduced the Magnetize mechanic, but Druid gets no class mechs this time around outside of Mulchmuncher.
Rastakhan’s Rumble
Supported: Hero Attack, Beasts, Treants
Attacking minions with your face gets a fair amount of support here, including Pounce, Spirit of the Raptor, Savage Striker, and Gonk. Pounce becomes a Core set staple in the future, which is telling of how the designers want Druid to play. It is mainly a cheap substitute for Claw, though, compared to some other more telling decisions in the Core set, such as the notable exclusion of Savage Roar. Gonk falls into the category of “shenanigan enabler” though we have to wait a few sets for Gonk-based OTKs to arise.
There are some Beast synergies in the set, including Predatory Instincts, Stampeding Roar, and (if you squint a bit) Mark of the Loa. Mark of the Loa could be considered token support as well, but more interestingly we get our first Treant evolution effect: Treespeaker. It’s a potentially strong effect, turing a 2/2 into a 5/5, but Treant-specific support is still lacking. The slow trickle of synergy pieces like this (Frost Shaman is another example) means there isn’t enough support to put together a strong deck within the same standard rotation.
Rise of Shadows
Supported: Tokens, Spells, Restoration
Token go-wide strategies get a fair amount of support in this set, including Dreamway Guardians, a new spell that generates two tokens. Acornbearer, Blessing of the Ancients, and The Forest’s Aid provide a solid foundation for token decks. Twinspell is a big boon to Druid that generates a lot of value in a single card slot.
The other supported archetype this expansion is restoration Druid. Moving away from armor for a bit in favor of actual healing, we have Lifeweaver, Crystal Stag, and Lucentbark as payoffs for restoring health. Dreamway Guardian and Crystal Powers are both enablers. The downside of mechanics that care about how much you’ve healed is that it requires you to have taken damage. In some matchups, this doesn’t happen reliably, such as against control.
Resource generation is another big theme. Alongside the aforementioned Twinspell cards, Keeper Stalladris has the potential to generate a lot of extra spells, and Crystalsong Portal is a strong discover effect. Dreamway Guardians, Crystalsong Portal, and The Forest’s Aid all support a minionless Druid archetype. Unlike other pure spell decks, Druid’s spells generate board presence. Combined with Druid’s board buffs, this strategy proves quite effective.
Saviors of Uldum
Supported: Mana Float, Big Spells, Choose One, Restoration, Tokens
We get the first explicit payoffs for floating mana in this set. This is an interesting mechanic at a higher level because in most cases you want to spend as much mana as efficiently as possible each turn in Hearthstone to generate tempo. But having incentives to actively choose to float mana puts more of an emphasis on saving cards until you need them. Sometimes it can be enough to hold the current board state and not overcommit into an opponent’s removal. Payoffs for floating mana help to highlight these strategic decisions and can act as level-up moments for players. Having excess mana also synergizes with Druid’s propensity to ramp excessively.
We also get a variant on the 5+ attack minions matter theme: 5+ cost spells matter. The cards themselves in this expansion are minions, but this theme fits well with the expensive spells that Druids tend to run.
There is some Choose One support to go alongside Stalladris form last set, but the reward from Untapped Potential (Ossirian Tear) is the method of choice to double-dip on your Choose One effects (sorry Stalladris).
Hidden Oasis and Overflow help to support the restoration synergies introduced last set, but Hidden Oasis is more notable as a spell that generates a large taunt minion that happens to synergize with Ossirian Tear.
Now let’s talk about BEEEES!!! This is a removal spell in Druid that is disguised as a token generator. It feels like a bend, but like Ultimate Infestation it is technically within Druid’s identity. It also feels like a Hunter card (and the ZOMBEEEES!!! Secret is indeed a Hunter card), since Hunter also gets damage-dealing spells, Beast synergy, and small token generation. This kind of damage-dealing spell scales up with static minion buffs rather than spell damage (like Dire Wolf Alpha or Addled Grizzly, for example), which can make for some very clever plays. However, this still feels off given Druid’s historic lack of direct removal.
Descent of Dragons
Supported: Tokens, Treants, Dragons, Hero Attack, Big Spells
Descent provides a smattering of cards across a variety of archetypes, which is nice for the third expansion of the year. Embiggen synergizes with minion-based go-wide strategies (notably not spell-based token generators). Treenforcements, Shrubadier, Aeroponics, and Goru care about Treants, finally reaching a tipping point of support. Breath of Dreams and Emerald explorer provide some fitting Dragon synergy. And finally we have Yseara, Unleashed which could be considered Dragon synergy but is moreso a big ramp payoff.
Sidequests are an interesting variant of Quest cards, and Druid gets two: one for attacking with your hero and one for playing minions. The latter fits better with Druid at the time while the former sees a resurgence in the future. The last time we saw support for attacking with your hero was Rastakhan’s Rumble, which is still technically in the same standard rotation.
The associated mini-set added some interesting cards: Rising Winds is a token generating spell with Choose One synergy and Twinspell. Steel Beetle cares about 5+ cost spells and rewards you with armor. Winged Guardian is a beefy taunt with reborn and built-in protection, making it very difficult to remove for your opponent if they don’t have any board presence. From a design standpoint, all three of these are spectacular: the modality of Choose One alongside Twinspell, armor synergies alongside big spells, and the combination of keywords on Winged Guardian (not to mention the Beast tag) all feel very Druid-y. You could argue that Reborn or the Faerie Dragon effect are not strictly Druid mechanics, but Reborn was new in Saviors of Uldum and Druid loves big taunt minions so I give it a pass.
Ashes of Outland
Supported: Spells, Mana Cheat, Ramp
Spell Druid gets a lot of support this set, and we also have a mana cheating theme. Bogbeam is the marriage of these two, a removal spell that can cost 0 if you have 7+ mana crystals. Fungal Fortunes and Glowfly Swarm are the big payoffs for playing only spells, becoming meta-defining cards. Overgrowth is a great roleplayer that is both ramp and a spell, so it’s played in both such archetypes.
To top off the mana cheat theme we have Ysiel Windsinger, the spell counterpart to Aviana. Unfortunately Ysiel herself is a minion, but she can help enable some shenanigans. Imprisoned Satyr, like Dreampetal Florist from Boomsday, only reduces the cost of a minion in your hand, so mana cheating of an entirely different variety than Ysiel.
Ironbark is a decent spell for pure spell builds that bolsters your token-generating spells for 0 mana. Bogbeam is definitely the stronger of the two, but the Nature spell tag is a nice benefit on Ironbark that is relevant in the future.
Scholomance Academy
Supported: Spells, Nature Spells, Beasts, Tokens, Big Spells
We see the return of multi-class cards and the introduction of spell schools as a mechanic. Druid pairs with Hunter and Shaman in Scholomance. The Hunter synergies are mainly Beast-based, while Shaman cares about token generation and big spells. Plus we get Lightning Bloom, old school Innervate with Overload 2, a small price to pay for the power that is OG Innervate.
Spellburst is a new mechanic that provides a one-time effect after you cast a spell. Druid is certainly a spellcasting class, but having such effects on minions does not play well with the pure spell Druid builds. With that said, Gibberling is a spectacular token generator for go-wide strategies. Adorable Infestation provides good value for such decks as well, quite a lot of value for just 1 mana.
Nature Studies is Druid’s cheap discover effect this expansion. Mana cheat on a cheap spell that generates more spells is perfect for spell Druid.
There are some other Beast synergies in Partner Assignment and the dual-class Hunter cards. Guardian Animals is also effectively the return of the Recruit mechanic from Kobolds & Catacombs, restricted to 5 or less cost beasts. There are some strong 5 cost beasts, so this card is played thoroughly.
Madness at the Darkmoon Faire
Supported: Spells, Mana Cheat, Tokens, Armor, Taunt
We get a couple more dual-class cards in the same pairs as Scholomance, both of which are cheap spells that discover cards in Druid’s case. Lots of support for spell Druid in this expansion, including more removal with built-in mana cheat: Lunar Eclipse. But its partner, Solar Eclipse, is arguably the more potent addition. Funnily enough, Kiri, who generates a copy of each, sees little play. But Kiri is not a spell, so it makes sense.
Moontouched Amulet, Arbor Up, and Cenarion Ward are all great addition to spell Druid, the latter two can be back-breaking with Solar Eclipse. Umbral Owl is a minion that players actually do run in their spell builds, mostly because of the built-in mana reduction and Rush. The Beast tag is not bag either.
Arbor Up is also a great boon for go-wide decks, providing that burst of lethality historically granted by Savage Roar.
Corrupt as a mechanic plays well in ramp Druid. Faire Arborist would fit better in a token strategy, rather than ramp. Dreaming Drake is a decent 3 drop, and the Dragon tag is appreciated.
Greybouch is a very cool design that can be difficult to remove if you maintain a board presence. Alternatively, in Wild you can combine it with Hadronox or N’Zoth and make it very difficult for your opponent to break through your wall of taunts. 4/6 taunt for 5 mana is a reasonable stat line for the cost, and the resilience is an upside.
Year of the Gryphon Core Set
Supported: Beasts, Treants, Tokens, Choose One, Ramp
Notable exclusions are Innervate, Wrath, and Savage Roar. There is support for Beasts, Treants, tokens, Choose One, and of course ramp. Feral Rage and Pounce are substitutes for Bite and Claw, but Choose One on Feral Rage makes for an interesting decision point.
Forged in the Barrens
Supported: Taunt, Beasts, Tokens, Nature Spells, Mana Cheat
This is the first time since Hadronox that we get explicit taunt synergies. Mark of the Spikeshell, Razormane Battleguard, and Plaguemaw the Rotting are the main synergy cards. Ramp Druid always likes to have taunt minions to protect itself, I personally didn’t build a midrange Druid deck without them.
We have some Beast synergies (Living Seed), go-wide synergies (Pride’s Fury), and a cross between the two (Thorngrowth Sentries). The spells fit well into pure spell Druid.
Following from spell schools introduced in Scholomance, Druid gets strong Nature spell synergies in this expansion, including the extremely potent Lady Anacondra and Deviate Dreadfang in the Wailing Caverns mini-set. Guff (the minion) cares about Nature spells, but slots into a go-wide token strategy rather than the mana cheating shenanigans enabled by Lady Anacondra.
It doesn’t help that Celestial Alignment was also introduced in this set. If Lady Anacondra is already on board upon casting, it is often trivial to ramp back up with cards like Overgrowth and Nourish and draw and cast multiple spells. Even if your opponent manages to stick it out, I will remind you that the original Celestial Alignment affected both players. Mercifully it is not a Nature spell, but it was still trivial for Druid to play the second copy on a later turn to reset the opponent back to square one.
United in Stormwind
Supported: Tokens, Beasts, Clones, Spells, Choose One, Hero Attack, Big Spell
Aggressive go-wide Druid got a lot of tools with this expansion. Druid of the Reef is a good 1 drop for board control, Vibrant Squirrel generates a lot of tokens, Composting can help refill your hand if you’ve overextended your board, and Sow the Soil is a mini Savage Roar. Oh, and Oracle of Elune duplicates any low-cost minion. Notably, cost-reduced minions are also doubled by Oracle of Elune. Might I interest you in an Umbral Owl?
Spell Druid, on top of the Oracle of Elune interaction noted above, received a lot of goodies here too: Moonlit Guidance generates value and Best in Shell creates taunt tokens.
Jerry Rig Carpenter is an interesting card that tutors up a subset of cards and generates value. This makes it a very flexible piece for all manner of archetypes, depending on which Choose One cards synergize with your deck.
Kodo Mount is in a similar board in that it provides spell-based board presence (assuming you already have a minion) as well as a useful buff for go-wide strategies. It wasn’t the strongest Mount card, but it’s a total of 8/4 stats with Rush for 4 mana.
There is a resurgence of hero attack strategies, including the Druid Questline: Lost in the Park. Park Panther is a strong removal spell, but unlike BEEEES!!! this feels much more appropriate for Druid. Wickerclaw is also a payoff for these synergies, but is very weak as its baseline. 2 drops that aren’t good on turn 2 are not the best fit for aggressive decks.
Sheldras Moontree fits with the spell synergies and mana cheating nature of Druid. Spell Druid builds at the time were heavily spell-focused, and casting a Moonlit Guidance for free is not enough value to justify Sheldras. The glue that holds Druid decks together is its suite of cheap spells. Druid gets cheap card draw, discover effects, and interaction. Sheldras wants a deck with a few big spells, but that is not feasible for Druid. For a non-aggro deck, Druid without all the 0-3 cost spells would be too sluggish.
Fractured in Alterac Valley
Supported: Spells, Tokens, Choose One, Beasts, Ramp
More spell, token, and Choose One support. Capture Coldtooth Mine is a flexible card that can have a strong impact during deckbuilding. Unlike other Choose One cards, though, you’ve usually built your deck with one of the two options in mind and thus are unlikely to ever choose the other. This effect makes you very conscious of how you build the top end of your deck, as this is the option you’re typically building around.
Clawfury Adept, Frostwolf Kennels, Heart of the Wild, Dire Frostwolf, and Frostsaber Matriarch are great go-wide decks. Wwe also see a Beast subtheme here. Frostsaber Matriarch, like Umbral Owl, is another card that could abuse the interaction with Oracle of Elune.
Pathmaker, Pride Seeker, and Raid Negotiator all offer Choose One synergy, but they acted more as utility cards if anything, rather than the backbones of a new archetype.
In a sign of how far the game has come since 2015 or so, Boomkin is unplayable. Maybe if it had taunt that would’ve been enough to push it over the edge into playability. But the modality of healing 8 or dealing 4 is not enough for a 5 drop in 2021.
There are two infamous cards from this expansion, though one was from the mini-set to be fair. Let’s begin with Wildheart Guff. Enabling 20 mana turns did a lot to increase the combo potential of Druid. Druid has the survivability tools to make it to the late game to pull off such combos and Scale of Onyxia gave it board control on demand. Both of these cards were meta-defining and class-warping. Scale is the one that pushes the boundaries of Druid’s mechanical identity. Although similar to Force of Nature, Scale is much more cost-effective: 7 mana for 10/5 worth of Rush stats across 5 bodies. The granularity of 5 bodies makes for a very flexible removal spell, in contrast to BEEEES!!! which all had to hit the same target. Similar to BEEEES!!! this is effectively a removal spell disguised as a token generator, with the big different being that these tokens could be played onto an empty board.
Year of the Hydra Core Set
Supported: Choose One, Beasts, Ramp, Armor, Tokens
More support for Choose One synergies as we see the return of Fandral and Ancient of Lore. Wrath also makes a triumphant return alongside Living Roots for cheap removal with Choose One synergies. Mounted Raptor is a sticky minion with Beast synergy that replaces Menagerie Warden from the last Core set. Wild Growth and Nourish comprise the classic ramp package. Earthen Scales is an interesting inclusion that is a good survivability tool for spell-based Druid decks and other ramp decks.
Voyage to the Sunken City
Supported: Spells, Beasts, Big Spells, Mana Float, Nature Spells, Handsize
This set has a wide variety of cards supporting myriad archetypes and synergies.
Let’s first explore how Druid interacts with the new Dredge mechanic. Aquatic Form is a skill-testing card that makes spell Druid and aggressive Druid decks more consistent. Azsharan Gardens and Bottomfeeder give you strong cards to Dredge off the bottom. Bottomfeeder seems like a fixed Jade Idol, giving you potentially infinite value and protection against fatigue damage. Azsharan Gardens is a handbuff card, which is unusual for Druid whose wheelhouse is typically board buffs. It is largely useless for token-based go-wide strategies. Sunken Gardens, however, feels like the board buff you’d expect in Druid, but it requires too many hoops to jump through for a token deck to get the payoff.
Dozing Kelpkeeper and Green-Thumb Gardener both support big spell Druid. Kelpkeeper found its way in spell Druid lists as one of your few minions since it provided much needed board control for a very small mana investment. Naga Giant is a notable neutral from this set that also fits into spell Druid. Flipper Friends is a strong Choose One spell that generates board presence. Romp of Otters is a backup Scales of Onyxia, and the baseline 5 mana 6/6 taunt from the Order the Orca option is simply good. The Nature tag on Flipper Friends is important for future Nature spell synergies.
Spirit of the Tides represents a small resurgence of “mana float” strategies. As a baseline you could play this on turn 3 as a 3/4, but Spider Tank doesn’t make the grade these days.
Herald of Nature cares about casting Nature spells, appropriately, and can buff your board. As a baseline 3/3 for 3 mana, this fits into go-wide token strategies, assuming you have the Nature spells to consistently activate it. Nedra the Heretic is a payoff for casting many different spells.
Miracle Growth is a callback to handsize-matters Druid that also gives spell Druid much needed card advantage and defense. With 20 total mana possible, you could even cast this and most of the cards you drew from it (just kidding, Druid players are exceptionally greedy, you’d need at least 30 mana). With Earthen Scales added to the 2022 Core set, you can also gain a significant amount of armor from the plant token. Earthen Scales got nerfred from 1 to 20 mana during this period, as it interacted very favorably with Miracle Growth and Naga Giant, making Druid just a little too resilient against aggro decks.
Seaweed Strike is removal akin to Swipe, but much more aggressive if you get the extra +4 attack. It is a Shadowbolt with upside and a Nature tag, which isn’t unheard of in Druid. To make the cut, damage-based removal spells need to hit meta-specific breakpoints. If there are too many X/5 threats by turn 3, Shadowbolt is useless. This feels a little like a bend in Druid in 2022, which hasn’t seen cards in the same vein as Starfire or Swipe since Hearthstone’s inception.
Murder at Castle Nathria
Supported: Deathrattle, Spells, Choose One, Tokens, Nature Spells
Locations are the first new card type since Heroes and they are a great tool that gives players periodic bonuses. You can play a location and hold charges until you need them, with the downside that the location goes on cooldown for two turns. Druid’s location is Hedge Maze, which provides Druid with more deathrattle synergy, a mechanic that I would consider more histrocially synergistic with Huner and Rogue. Druid does have some strong deathrattle effects, including Death Blossom Whomper and Sesselie of the Fae Court released this set.
Attorney-at-Maw is from the mini-set, but it is the first silence effect in Druid since Keeper of the Grove. The Choose One options here both play well in an aggressive deck. Immunity can help you maintain board control, while silence can allow you to ignore large taunt minions.
Planted Evidence and Incarceration are good tools in general, particularly useful for spell Druid. Incarceration has not seen widespread play, despite being similar to Mulch and Recycle, cards that cover Druid’s lack of hard removal. Incarceration is a tempo tool, 3 mana to remove a minion for 3 turns is more similar to Sap or Maiev Shadowsong.
Natural Causes and Plot of Sin are both token-makers, and Natural Causes is a reasonable removal spell in its own regard. Spell Druid is not wanting for options at this point in standard.
Widowbloom Seedsman is ramp and targeted card draw all in one mediocre body. Not to downplay how much of a workhorse this card is, the mediocre body is simply a consolation prize for your opponent.
Dew Process is an interesting game-changing effect. Druid had cards in the past with symmetrical effects, including draw and ramp so this is not unheard of (Grove Tender, Biology Project). A permanent effect versus a one-time bump is vastly different. Dew Process only really fits into decks where fatigue is the game plan. While at first blush it looks like it could fill the role that Jeeves played for aggro decks that often spew their resources as fast as possible, Dew Process is too symmetrical for an aggro deck to leverage. While control decks often have a lot of unused cards in-hand at the end of a game against aggro, drawing them closer to their answers is still too high a risk for an aggro deck to take. Notably, Dew Process draws the extra card at the start of the turn, so your opponent is the first to benefit from the effect.
I can’t not talk about several of the neutral minions this set. Enabled by Wildheart Guff and the 20 mana cap, high cost neutrals such as Insatiable Devourer, Sire Denathrius, and even the Jailer find their way into Druid decks. Infuse plays very well with the token generation in Druid, especially Scale of Onyxia and Flipper Friends. It’s important to bring a few other neutral players into the game: Prince Renathal and Brann Bronzebeard. Including an extra 10 cards is not a downside to Druid decks with too many options already, strong card draw and survivability tools, and strong late-game combos. Brann+Denathrius was the finisher of choice. Insatiable Devourer is hard removal that ends up being closer to Sylvanas or Mind Control in terms of how it swings a board.
Finally we have Topior the Shrubbagazzor. This gives you a permanent effect that rewards you for playing Nature spells with 3/3 whelps with Rush. This means any Nature spell generates board presence. Most of Druid’s spells are in the Nature school, and many are cheap cantrips or can discover more Nature spells.
To tie it all together, extra tokens fuel Denathrius, which you can guarantee to draw with Capture Coldtooth Mine. I would argue that Druid reaches peak consistency this expansion and has overstepped the acceptable bounds of resource generation between all the discover effects and the maximum mana increase from Wildheart Guff.
March of the Lich King
Supported: Armor, Hero Attack, Taunt, Reanimator
We see the return of two dormant archetypes: armor and hero attack. Plus some support for taunt and resurrect and a new Undead synergy.
Lingering Zombie is a sticky minion with the Undead tag. It’s a reasonable inclusion for token decks. Elder Nadox, Nerubian Flyer, and Wither are your Undead support and payoff cards, while Nerubians like Death Beetle, Underking, Anub’Rekhan, and Crypt Keeper also technically have the Undead tag. An Undead-focused aggro deck didn’t quite arise from this expansion leveraging Elder Nadox as its substitute Savage Roar, but the components are there. Death Beetle didn’t see the amount of play that Charge cards typically do, but Manathirst 11 means you’d have to be on the Wildheart Guff plan.
Chitinous Plating is a nice survival tool that is a strong armor generator. This is a key player for Anub’Rekhan decks. Beetlemancy fills a similar role that can also generate tokens. 5 mana for 6/6 worth of taunt is in line with Flipper Friends, though Beetlemancy lacks the Nature tag. Underking and Crypt Keeper help to support the armor Druid archetype, giving the deck strong board control and board presence. It’s important to point out yet again that Wildheart Guff and Brann Bronzebeard are still in standard at the time, so Anub’Rekhan enabled some wild swing turns, even after it got nerfed. This really solidifies armor as a Druid archetype, but it’s interesting that Druid also has healing synergy. Sets fluctuate between the two, and I don’t believe that Druid needs to commit to one over the other.
Rake is a good attack increase that scales with other attack buffs and provides removal that doesn’t put your life total in danger. This is not entirely out of character for Druid, but it feels closer to Swipe than Claw. Rake is the card Savagery wishes it was.
Unending Swarm could be a good tool for aggressive decks to repopulate the board, but 6 mana is too high for aggro players. Life From Death would also fit into an aggressive deck, though it’s a card that would need to already be in your hand when you start to lose your board. It’s not what you want to topdeck. The lesson here is that go-wide decks don’t like to spend 6 mana on a single card unless it’s winning the game.
Year of the Wolf Core Set
Supported: Spells, Choose One, Ramp, Tokens, Handsize
Let’s take a break to look at Druid’s current Core set to see what is being supported. We still have a good basis of spell-based removal and token generation, see Living Roots, Lunar Eclipse, Power of the Wild, and Wrath. We still have the staple ramp cards Wild Growth and Nourish but we also see the return of Innervate.
Druid of the Claw, Ancient of Lore, and Cenarius are perennial top-end cards. Witchwood Apple is a nice inclusion that supports handsize-matters and Treant strategies, though it can be too slow for some token aggro builds. However, with the recent Treant support coming with TITANS, the Treant strategy should be playable.
The current standard sets don’t have the powerful payoffs for pure spell builds of old. TITANS doesn’t provide any new payoffs either, so I expect the archetype to wait until next set to be reignited.
Kiri and the individual Lunar and Solar Eclipse cards are included int he Core set, but Kiri still sees little to no play. Lunar Eclipse is a good removal on par with Wrath, and Solar Eclipse is still there waiting for spell-based shenanigans.
Festival of Legends
Supported: Hero Attack, Armor, Restoration, Treants, Beasts, Choose One, Big Spells, Tokens
An offshoot of the hero attack archetype, Festival gives us Free Spirit and Groovy Cat that permanently increase your attack and armor from your hero power. Harmonic Mood is a variable Bite while Zok Fogsnout is a payoff that gives you board presence (sometimes to an absurd degree). Popular Pixie supports the hero power archetype, while Spread the Word is card draw that is discounted by your hero’s attack.
We see the return of multi-class cards with new pairings: Druid now teams up with Priest and Warlock. In general I love multi-class cards, which can give classes effects that push the boundaries of their usual mechanics. The Priest-aligned cards have some healing effects in contrast with the Warlock-aligned Blood Treant. Funnel Cake is a minion heal that can also give you a burst of ramp, while Fanboy is simply a minion buff. Funnel Cake’s mana generation can open up some spell-chaning shenanigans.
Doomkin is a mean ramp card that de-ramps your opponent. Destroying your opponent’s mana crystals does feel like a cross between Druid and Warlock effects, though there are very few cards that do this in the history of Hearthstone. Revenant Rascal is a Warlock card but is symmetrical. Warlock often destroys its own mana crystals for tempo (or increases your opponent’s mana such as with Demonfuse). Druid is certainly the class of mana manipulation, but it can also disrupt the opponent’s mana such as with the original Celestial Alignment. Clearly Druid has moved away from de-ramping your opponent and that half of Doomkin’s effect is meant to be Warlock’s contribution.
Peaceful Piper is a Beast Druid synergy, which we haven’t seen in a while. In practice, you’re using her to tutor up a specific card from your deck. Free Spirit and Groovy Cat are notably both Beasts, so Peaceful Piper can fit in hero power Druid.
We get the seldom-seen offshoot of Choose One in Rhythm and Roots: “Choose One (Secretly).” This is a value card, but 2 or 4 turns can be a long time to wait. Wildheart Guff has rotated out of standard (thankfully), and as such Druid decks can’t just sit back and wait anymore. I feel this card would’ve seen play alongside Guff, but now Druid tends to be more proactive.
Timber Tambourine is a great name and is in the vein of the 5+ cost spells matter synergy, but now accepting all expensive cards. Summer Flowerchild also supports this in a way, since it cares about 6+ cost cards, but even giving you the ability to draw 2, it doesn’t seem strong enough.
Drum Circle is another board in a can, but without Rush like Scale of Onyxia this falls short. The board buff option is relevant, but 7 mana is sometimes too much to ask for go-wide token decks.
TITANS
Supported: Spells, Treants, Mana Cheat, Restoration, Choose One, Nature Spells, Clones
Now is time to venture into speculation, but my analysis from a mechanical standpoint should still hold up. Anyway, there are two big additions in TITANS: Forge and the Titans themselves.
Forge is a mana-sink mechanic that allows you to spend 2 mana to upgrade a card. The card still costs the same, allowing you to split the Forge cost across two turns if necessary.
Druid also has two spells that “Blossom” after a set number of turns when held in hand: Forest Seedlings and Frost Lotus Seedling. This is similar to Manathirst and arguably Infuse or the Spellstones, which are all mechanics that upgrade a card after a set mana threshold or other conditions are met. I really like the use of time as a resource here, and I’m hoping to see more if it in the future. Forest Seedlings importantly upgrades from two 1/1 Saplings for 1 to two 2/2 Treants. Additional cards in this set support the Treant synergy, so there is incentive outside of the stat buff to hold onto this spell until it blossoms. But even at its baseline, Forest Seedlings is the sapling half of Living Roots. The main draw of Living Roots is its flexibility, but 1 mana for two bodies is desirable for both spell and token strategies.
Titans are big minions with 3 powerful activated effects. These must also be spread out over time (barring some copying shenanigans), while the minion itself can’t attack until after its third use. In the meantime, your opponent can interact with the Titan and attempt to remove it before you get full value. Classes that can protect their minions via taunt, buffs, and heals will probably get the most use out of Titans. Many Titans also have additional effects, and Eonar, the Life-Binder creates a 5/5 Ancient with taunt every time you activate her ability. This built-in protection and the powerful effects are enough to justify the 10 mana cost. The effects themselves are appropriately large: draw until your hand is full, refresh your mana, or heal your hero to full health. This means that you can play her and have 10 more mana to work with that turn, or simply use her to heal yourself to full, negating your opponent’s feeble attempts to defeat you. in all fairness, 10 mana is a lot even for Druid, but this card generates a lot of value, and refreshing mana is highly abusable.
A number of cards in this expansion support the Treant archetype, which I feel now has enough support to make it a valid variant of the token Druid strategy. Conservator Nymph evolves one of your Treants into a 5/5 Ancient with taunt, and the taunt is an important keyword that makes this much more desirable than Treespeaker. Blood Treant could be justified in such a deck, giving you a 3/4 and 5/5 taunt for 3 mana and 5 life. Ancient of Growth is similar to Treespeaker, but with the taunt upgrade, or it can bring along 3 Treant friends. That’s a lot of bodies in one card that also reduces the cost of Cultivation by 3 on its own. Speaking of, Cultivation is the big payoff for a Treant build, as it is a significant board buff that can cost less than Arbor Up or even Savage Roar. I’ll take this opportunity to mention that Savage Roar and such burst damage effects have been effectively rorated out of Druid. Shaman still has Bloodlust in its Core set, and Druid can use permanent buffs but it no longer gets cheap burst out of nowhere.
Embrace of Nature and Disciple of Eonar support the Choose One archetype. More copies of this sort of effect make them more consistent when your deck relies on them being active. Embrace of Nature also tutors up a specific subset of cards from your deck, so it will almost certainly see play.
Lifebinder’s Gift generates Nature spells, but can also give you mana cheat for a specific subset of spells in your hand. Mana cheating is always strong, and Druid does have an affinity for Nature spells. Frost Lotus Seedling is a good baseline effect, especially if you have the ability ot wait 3 turns for it to provide an extra card and 4 additional armor. When combined with the cost reduction form Lifebinder’s Gift, Frost Lotus Seedling could get the nod over non-Nature draw spells.
Freya, Keeper of Nature is poised for shenanigans. Druid still plays well with big minions, and copying Eonar will be a very strong play. Copying your hand could lead to OTK combo setups (but more likely in Wild). 8 mana is a steep cost if you’re duplicating your hand and not impacting the board. Even copying your minions requires you to already have significant board presence. Eonar’s ability to refresh your mana crystals gets around the mana investment of Freya.
State of Druid: 2023
Finally, let’s look at the current state of standard, compiling the supported archetypes/synergies to see where Druid stands. The givens are Ramp, Tokens, Spells-matter, and Choose One, which are core mechanics in Druid.
Starting with Voyage to the Sunken City, we see a fair amount of Nature spell, hero attack, armor, restoration, Treants, Beasts, handsize, and big spell synergies.
Taunt, reanimation, and deathrattle synergies have a few entries, but not at the forefront. Freya is the latest clone effect since Floop and Gloop Sprayer from The Boomsday Project.
Druid still has good card draw and damage-based removal. Rush minions are fairly limited, and Spirit of the Tides is the lone card that cares about floating mana still in standard.
