It’s been nearly a month since the Block Format arrived here in Zangarmarsh. How are our local players coping up with all of the sudden changes? Here are some of the ideas that we have, straight from the battlegrounds. First up is the Druid class.

When Block started, this was my go-to class of choice for aggro simply because of one card: [Gift of the Earthmother]. Okay, make that two cards – the other one’s [Avatar of the Wild]. That aside, Druid also has decent card draw in [Energize], decent early removal in [Nature’s Focus], and a great reach spell in [Twisted Wrath]. With all of these options, it’s not surprising that a couple of aggressive variants popped up on the very first day of Block constructed utilizing these cards, along with other personal preferences like Cat Form cards and [Earth and Moon]. I’d share my incomplete list that has been netting me weekly 3-1’s this month, but here’s a more complete version of it which I’ve been testing in MWS.

Hero: [Leisha of Darnassus]

Allies: 32
4 [Apprentice Teep]
4 [Windspeaker Nuvu]
4 [Loriam Argos]
4 [Rufus Clayborne]
3 [Haratha Hammerflame]
4 [Stevrona Forgemender]
4 [Magni, the Mountain King]
3 [Jessa the Lifebound]
2 [Sinestra]

Abilities: 22
4 [Avatar of the Wild]
4 [Gift of the Earthmother]
4 [Nature’s Focus]
4 [Favor of Nature]
4 [Energize]
2 [Twisted Wrath]

Locations: 4
4 [Twilight Citadel]

Quests: 2
2 [Entrenched]

The deck plays out just like how it looks: straight-up aggro. The abilities are more or less some of the best that the class has to offer, but the centerpiece of the deck is the Restoration Talent, Gift of the Earthmother.

The ability is insane if the opponent isn’t ready for it, since most heroes can’t afford to take more than a hit from a buffed ally, and by turn 4 it’s likely that there isn’t anything on the board that can match up to it. Alternatively, you can use your little monster to control their board. You also get two cards should it die. It is also an Instant, which gives it more flexibility especially when baiting for unfair trades and looking for openings.

On the other hand, opponents who are familiar with the deck (and there are a lot of them, given that the deck is a spin-off of the popular Lanthus deck in Core) will opt to control your board instead, limiting the use of Gift. This is where the faction comes in. Alliance allies are known for their survivability with powerful keywords such as Elusive and Aberration, thus allowing them to fare better than most allies. In addition to that, to make sure that Gift will almost always have a target, I used allies and abilities which generate tokens.

Magni doesn’t need any introduction. He’s either a free 1/1 token and resource or a decent-sized protector.

[Twilight Citadel] is the wallet-breaker of the format, and staple to more than just a few decks out there. Its role here is primarily token generation. It has the least efficiency though, as far as its job is concerned – there were games where I didn’t even have a chance to make a dragon.

[Favor of Nature] may not be the best turn 2 play, but there are times when it is necessary – like when trading allies while on the draw or baiting out removal. It works best on Nuvu, who can attack for 6, but it goes well with any ally. The best part is that you get a sort of refund when the ally dies in the form of two 1/1 tokens, so it provides board advantage in its own little way. Especially when followed with…

[Stevrona Forgemender]. Aside from Stashing her to ready a token (like that huge Avatar kitty), she can be played to buff them, which will matter in the mid-game when you have a couple of little dragons or treants running around, and they go from poking the opponent to actually dealing decent damage. She has good stats for her cost too. With 5 health, she’s likely to survive the turn and become a potential target for Gift.

[Jessa the Lifebound] is no [Weldon Barov] in terms of protective ability, but that doesn’t mean she isn’t good. In the aggro mirror where allies are traded in the early turns, suddenly dropping a huge protector on turn 5 can be back-breaking, especially when the opponent overextended to deal with Gift during the previous turn. Against control, she’s another huge threat that has to be dealt with. She spews not just two, but three treant tokens when she dies, which is a big deal with Stevrona in play. You can also make her do that voluntarily, with the help of…

[Sinestra]. Maybe it’s too soon to call her the new Saurfang, but she definitely provides the reach that the deck needs. In the beginning, I just randomly placed her there for laughs (really, who would expect her in a deck like this?) but I soon realized that those “A WILD SINESTRA APPEARS!” moments are oftentimes game-breaking, considering that the opponent has to possibly deal with the other allies, tokens, Gift, and Jessa during the previous turns.

Basically, all of these add up to form a number of tokens throughout the game, thus increasing the chances of landing Gift successfully.

The other allies in the deck were chosen to work well with Gift. I picked [Apprentice Teep] over [Garet Vice] because the latter gets killed either by tokens or an assortment of Assault 1 effects and small weapons. Unless you can protect him, you will want your Aberration guy to have more than 1 health. On the other hand, Teep can’t be attacked, and will continue to pound on the opponent undisturbed unless they decide to play protectors or target her with direct removal.

Nuvu is a beast on play. Put him down on turn 1 and watch the opponent think about whether they should play their Magni token and Garet Vice. Should he survive the early turns, his ability to attack twice makes him a prime target of the deck’s buffs.

[Loriam] Argos is the deck’s main 2-drop, and he does a lot for the cost of two. His downside is that most 1-drops can trade for him, so it’s important to also keep the opposing board clear before playing him.

Rufus is the main utility ally of the deck, and is primarily there as a surprise ally to target Gift with. He also saves non-Aberrations from non-combat damage too; quite important with all the Twisted Fire Novas and Searing Pains around.

Haratha is the alternate 2-drop if it’s not safe for Loriam to come around. She’s decent stat-wise, and her ability to deal 3 damage when she dies works well with [Twisted Wrath] and [Sinestra], which helps when all that’s needed is a bit more reach to kill the opponent.

As for the quests, the 2 [Entrenched] can be anything. [A Matter of Time] or [Cleansing Witch Hill] might work better here.

The deck does suffer from some issues, particularly about card draw, mirror matches, and having no answers to abilities and equipment. With the poor selection of quests available, having an empty (or a near-empty) hand becomes a common sight with this deck after turn 5, and you might need to draw into an Energize at some point in order to keep going. On the plus side, it could happen to your opponent too, and the deck’s no slouch when it comes to topdecking threats. Still, control decks (i.e. Paladins) can find ways to grind you out of threats and you can’t reinforce your board fast enough – that just happens. On the other hand, it could also go either way – baiting their threats out while continuing to put pressure. As I’ve mentioned before, that will depend on your ability to draw. Energize helps here a lot, Gift helps a bit too, but I doubt most of the current quests will do any good, unless you can get two cards out of it.

About the mirror match, the main issue here is that it’s a bit die-roll dependent. Sure, the opponent might choke at some point or miss the curve, but for the most part the guy on the draw will be playing some hard catch-up. This is where the token strategy helps a bit, allowing your guys to trade with theirs while retaining some board presence to deal with their next threat. The worst case in the mirror is that it sometimes comes down to who can successfully cast Gift first – the other guy will then have limited options: trade board advantage just to kill the big ally or attempt to race in damage.

The last flaw (and perhaps the biggest) is the deck’s inability to deal with opposing abilities and equipment. If they have armor, you just have to brute force your way in. If they have weapons, just grit your teeth as you go through them. This becomes harder when dealing with abilities like opposing Gifts, Aspect of the Wild, [Power Word: Barrier], [Riptide], [Chains of Ice], and (sigh) [Withering Decay]. Blame this on the removal of [The Natural Order] and [Natural Repossession] in one go. Poof goes Druid utility, but at least there are Obsidian Dragonkins to fall back on if you really need to.

So that’s it for Druid aggro. This doesn’t mean that it’s the only option available for the nature-loving class, but currently, it’s one of the more popular choices. Druid control is yet to be tested, but there are already great ideas that the players are building upon – mainly ramping to huge Avatar, allies, or Ysera using [Devout Aurastone Hammer] and [Repurposed Lava Dredger].

Next up will be the most popular aggro deck in our local battlegrounds (seriously, in the the 4 rounds of play last week, 3 were spent fighting this class, and there wasn’t a week that went by without facing at least one of them) – Hunters!

Until then!