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Introduction |
Today, we're starting a new project: the community homebrew corner. Its purpose is to give exposure by interesting, unorthodox for the meta decks, created by the community and promote creative thinking this way. After all, Hearthstone is not just about climbing up to legendary - there's a ton of fun stuff to be tried in casual mode when you're tired of grinding the ladder.
Understandably, most of the decks featured here won't get you to legendary and are likely to be casual-only builds. Yet, we feel thinking outside the box should be rewarded just as much as building the most competitive-worthy decks. We'll also try to reach to pro-players and get their feedback on the community-created decks so we can add extra level of coolness to the feature.
The homebrew corner debuts with Cultofneurosis' Druid mill deck which goes way out of the standard Druid decks and tries to fatigue the opponent to death by burning all his cards away.
Want to get featured? Simply be creative, publish your decklists on GosuGamers and if we like it, you'll be frontpaged!
- Radoslav "Nydra" Kolev
Editor in Chief
Written by: Cultofneurisis
[deck linked style=float:right;margin-left:15px;margin-right:-30px;margin-bottom:10px;]38[/deck]Have you been hearing the incessant complaining from people always facing the same deck? Decks come and go, with the most recent ones being reynad's Aggro Warrior deck, the standard Hunter To-The-Face deck, and Strifecro's Druid and Shaman decks. It is in our hands to change the rigid meta by creating our own unique decks.
Even if your own original deck is not quite as good as the most popular deck being played at that time, you will always have the element of surprise on your side, because you will be able to know the cards in their deck, and they won't know anything about what you are playing.
One such deck that takes full advantage of your opponent not knowing what you are playing is a deck I have created that carries over a concept ftom Magic the Gathering. This concept is milling (translated as destroying cards from opponents deck), or in the case of Hearthstone fatiguing the opponent by making him run out of cards.
The fatigue mechanic in Hearthstone scales, so the first empty card drawn deals 1 damage, the second deals 2 damage, the third deals 3 damage, etc, so you can see how your opponent will quickly lose once he reaches the bottom of his deck.
The main objective of this deck is to make your opponent run out of cards. Although there are certain cards to help you with that, the mechanic itself is not a core one for Hearthstone so the choice is not vast. To accompany those cards, we have tons of cards meant to "burn" the opponents hand (flood their hand to 10 cards in which case the next cards they draw get destroyed). Because of the slow nature of this deck and how it may last to the point of you both running out of cards, you must be able to ensure you can outlast your opponent. That is why there are many healing cards incorporated into the deck as well.
This deck will be played like your normal control deck, where keeping board control is one of your highest priorities. If you give up the board control, you might be able to be rushed down before you have a chance to wither away your opponent's deck. There are lots of spells in this deck, which aim to give you more options on your turn except just one obvious move to play. This might make it harder to play with this deck at first, but it makes every game different and always fun.
This deck is not the cheapest, but most of its cost comes from the two legendaries being used. Unfortunately, Lorewalker Cho is very vital to this version of the deck, so you might not be able to get away with swapping him out, but Mukla could probably be traded with another card.
There are three main aspects to this deck: Milling, burning, and healing.
Milling will directly get rid of cards from your opponents deck.
Burning will cause your opponent to discard a card directly from his deck because his hand is full.
Healing will be how you outlast your opponent, as you may end up fatiguing as well.
Milling:
[card]Naturalize[/card] is a card where you get to have your opponent draw 2 cards from their deck without you having to draw as well, giving him a 2 card disadvantage. (In normal games, this would be known as a 2 card advantage, but because your whole goal is to get him to lose cards, him gaining cards is now a disadvantage to him.) Hard removl usually comes at a hefty price (Assassinate costs 5 mana for example) but this card only costs 1, and even mills their deck of 2 cards. This is the best card in your deck and is a must-have for this reason. But don't let the low mana cost persuade you, it is still hard removal and might be better to use in the mid-late game depending on the deck you are versing.
[card]Coldlight Oracle[/card] makes both of you draw 2 cards. This hurts you both as far as milling goes, but you've come prepared for a long game and they have not (see Healing). This works well also as a combo, like with your burning cards (see Burning) which will make them discard 2 cards directly instead of drawing 2 cards if their hand is already full. Drawn during the fatigue phase, this card is a good finisher, fatiguing twice on your turn, and once at the beginning of theirs. The oracle is another must-have in your deck, and is one of the higher-priority cards to Brewmaster, so make sure you protect him or only play him in conjunction with the Brewmaster.
Burning:
[card]Lorewalker Cho[/card] synergizes with your low cost spells that you will flood the opponent's hand with once you get him out - [card]Moonfire[/card]s, [card]Innervate[/card]s, [card]Claw[/card]s, [card]Wrath[/card]s, [card]Swipe[/card]s, [card]Starfall[/card]s, Mukla Bananas and the Coin if you were lucky!) The only two cards that you do not want to give to your opponent are Healing Touch (which is explained in the Healing section below) and Naturalize, because you don't want him to be able to mill you back! You have up to 15 spells to flood his hand with when Lorewalker Cho gets out, and that doesn't even include any of your opponent's own spells; so needless to say it should not be that difficult keeping his hand full (unless you are facing an aggro deck).
[card]King Mukla[/card] will force two very cheap cards into your opponent's hand (1 mana Bananas). This means that not only are you getting the great 5/5 for 3 that he is known for, but the Bananas are again in your favor because you should be able to always keep them in your opponent's hand using Lorewalker Cho (you get the back when he casts them, so you can return them to him).
That means that your deck has 12 (13 with the Coin) spells that you will look to flood his hand with, and that's just the beginning. All spells that the opponent casts will also be affected, so you can send them back at him giving you more spells to cast to fill his hand. You also have King Mukla who was forcing those two bananas into this spell rotation.
Healing:
[card]Healing Touch[/card] is one of the best healing spells in the game, healing any target by 8 for just 3 mana. However, you will be looking only to use it on yourself. The goal is to out-heal your opponent in case you both end up fatiguing, so it is important not to send this card to your opponent's hand with Lorewalker Cho.
[card]Earthen Ring Farseer[/card] is probably the most versatile and stable healing neutral card, being used in many deck in both constructed as well as arena. A healing card that popular cannot be missed out on in this deck.
[card]Ancient of Lore[/card] is your late game as well as being able to heal you for 5. This card can also prove helpful if you need to dig for that Naturalize or Coldlight, but be cautious because making yourself draw might hurt you later in the game in this deck.
[card]Youthful Brewmaster[/card] doesn't really belong in one of those categories, but he is very valuable to this deck. Of your 12 other minions, 9 of them have useful Battecries that you will want to take advantage of.
| Most Druid decks being played right now are slow late-game decks. You have an average advantage in these matchs because they will likely not empty their hand and also play slowly, which means they are dragging the game out for their deck to be depleted. The big threats they run are also great and easy targets for your Naturalize, because it means they would have thrown their turn away using all of their mana for that card, and you will deal with it very easily. |
| Aggro decks without a doubt will be your hardest match-up. Burning means almost nothing in these matches because your opponent will probably never have a full hand anyway, so be very wary of how you burn, it could even be smart to not play Lorewalker Cho as to not give your opponent more things to use on you. However, your deck has enough control and heals that you are still able to win by outlasting them. |
| Even though Mages are no longer playing as slowly as they were with Frozen Giants, they will still hold plenty of cards in their hands. Their decks are more mid-range than full on aggro, which does make it slightly more difficult than if you were playing a very slow deck, but the Druid mill still has the advantage here since it should not be hard to burn them. Most Mages will also play [card]Loot Hoarder[/card], [card]Nat Pagle[/card] and/or [card]Acolyte of Pain[/card] because of the synergy with their hero ability, which is great for you because they would be milling themselves! Use this to your advantage. |
| These decks also end up seeming to be mid-range like Mages, meaning you have an advantage but it's not the easiest match. What Paladin does have are many answers to the style of play you will not be employing. You don't really care if you can deal damage or if you have minions played, so they might have their hand cluttered with cards they are looking to get more value out of. Annex from the editor: In the current meta, the Giants Paladin of Koyuki is getting more and more popular and this might be a difficult match-up because the build features a lot of healing. Druid is naturally unfavored against these Paladins in general (no reliable ways to remove all the Giants and [card]Tirion Fordring[/card] besides [card]Naturalize[/card]) and this one should be too, given its slower nature. |
| Definitely your easiest match-up. Not only are these decks very slow, being in your favor, but Priests will play a card that is very much in your favor: [card]Northshire Cleric[/card]. Northshire Cleric will make your opponent draw if any minion is healed, so this is when you can be flexible with what you are healing. It might be better to heal other minions instead of yourself with all of your heals if it can mean getting rid of your opponent's deck even fast. It is even better if they can get one out on turn 1, because that means they will draw several times before realizing what you are doing and be frantically trying to destroy their own minion. |
| Another harder match-up, as most Rogue decks are aggro/miracle as well. Rogue has a few draw cards like [card]Shiv[/card] and run minions like [card]Gadgetzan Auctioneer[/card] which will help, but not an overwhelming amount. This will simply be an outlasting match again. Cards like Moonfire should probably be used for board control instead of waiting for Lorewalker Cho in these aggro match-ups. |
 | Shamans can be easy as well as hard, but I would say are leaning way more on the easier side. Most play for the long slow game, which is very good for you, and they also like to get their totems out which means they are spending mana on things not in their hand, making it easier for you to burn them. However, a minor trend in Shamans seems to be a OTK of sorts, using Windfuries and Rockbiters, and [card]Leeroy Jenkins[card] can be commonly played, so make sure to keep your health high. However, a major advantage for you is if they play [card]Mana Tide Totem[/card]. Not only will they be drawing twice every turn, but once they figure out what you are doing, they will struggle trading it away because it has 0 attack. |
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Control Warlock decks should also be fairly easy, because they will be easy to burn unless they get to cast their [card]Lord Jaraxxus[/card] or [card]Alexstrasza[/card], which will give your opponent additional health. Aggro Warlocks will be very hard because not only will you be unable to burn them, but Murloc decks have added synergy with themselves compared to other aggro decks. Just remember that board control is very important. It might be worth it to aggressively mulligan for some early removal spells too. |
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Another difficult match-up because they will rush you (if they're playing the Reynad verions, of course). Aggro decks seem not to have too much late game, and Reynad's deck in particular seems to focus on doing a finishing blow with charge minions, so keeping your health high with all of your healing is vital and can prove to make all of the difference. It is also important to remember that your hero ability can be very useful against a lot of aggro decks. Annex from the editor: From my point of view, control Warrior should be an even harder match-up. The slower have a reliable source of healing through their hero power and [card]Armorsmith[/card] and a great power in the mid-turns to apply pressure. |
| Almost all decks are playing for what they think is card advantage, but it will be card disadvantage against your deck. I already mentioned Loot Hoarder, Acolyte of Pain, Northshire Cleric, and Mana Tide Totem, but other popular cards you will encounter are Nat Pagle and Novice Engineer. Nat Pagle will be seen in many decks, and you will want to treat him the same way I said to about Mana Tide Totem. |
GosuGamers is thankful to Marcin for helping us and providing his thoughts on this piece. Make sure to follow him on his channels:
[deck linked style=float:right;margin-left:15px;margin-right:-30px;margin-bottom:10px;]103[/deck]I like the general idea of the milling and burning strategy. It was a popular strategy in both Magic the Gathering and World of Warcraft TCG. In Hearthstone we've seen it a couple of time in "funny" videos. I hope that Blizzard will support this deck archetype in the future giving us a "milling" minion.
Having said that I'd like to suggest a couple of improvements to the deck. First I'd like to add some more defensive power in a form of taunt. We want to live as long as possible to execute our milling spells and where Naturalize is great to deal with something bigger like a [card]Chillwind Yeti[/card] or [card]Fire Elemental[/card] we also need to deal with the small stuff early. Here I'd like to implement a simple mechanism a lot of Druids use which is [card]Ancient Watcher[/card] - [card]Sunfury Protector[/card] combo. We also get an extra synergy with [card]Youthful Brewmaster[/card] out of the Protector as well as even more taunts on minions like [card]Earthen Ring Farseer[/card], [card]King Mukla[/card] or [card]Coldlight Oracle[/card]. Extra taunts should greatly increase our longevity and we can also silence the Watchers to kill something annoying.
Unfortunately to accomodate some space for those cards we will need to cut the [card]Moonfire[/card]s and when they go [card]Lorewalker Cho[/card] is just not worth it anymore. He might have been to dangerous to being with as we not only fill our opponent's hand to max size we would also give them innervate to play all the want. This was too risky in my opinion. Another fun card that we can use instead is [card]Elite Tauren Chieftain[/card], which also fills our opponent's hand.
As Lorewalker Cho goes away our spells have a bit less of significance, so I'd also cut one [card]Claw[/card], [card]Starfall[/card] and [card]Healing Touch[/card] to find space for 2 [card]Ancient Brewmaster[/card]s. We really want to abuse Clodlight Oracle to the maximum and make our opponent draw as many cards as possible. This means that we can protect it with big taunts and then return it to hand with one of Brewmaster. Plus the big Brewmaster has a lot of synergy with most of the deck anyway.
As an alternative you can run 1 x Ancient Brewmaster and get back on 2x Ancient of Lore, but that's a preference call. I was also thinking about 1 x [card]Deathwing[/card] as an "oh shit" button to reset the board, but it might be too much.
Overall I think it's a cool idea, but to be competitive it would probably require more work. If you play it versus friends, or on ladder you will definitely surprise many people and surprise is a key to victory!
