Natural Remedies Mill Druid
Decklist
Hey, do you like playing Control Paladin but feel like the games are over way too fast? Try the Resident Sleeper deck! You’ll be able to grind to Legend with all the speed of a tectonic plate dipped in treacle. There are couple of key things to note about the deck: First is that it’s only real win condition is outlasting your opponent until they either run out of damage or die from fatigue. To that end the deck is packed with heals for you and board clearing cards for enemy minions.
Dog’s Mech Druid
Alongside StrifeCro, Dog is one of the preeminent Druid decksmiths, and his mech build is rock solid. It’s essentially the core Druid shell—Swipe, Innervate, Keeper of the Grove etc–paired with all the best mech cards plus Dr Boom to round out your curve. (Remember the boombots are mechs too.) Not especially flashy, but certainly effective.
The ‘mill’ part of the strategy comes from using cards like Coldlight Oracle and Naturalize to force cards into your opponent’s hand. Caveat: You only want to be doing this when their hand is already full, so you burn their subsequent draws. These draw cards are actually best used when your opponent is already into fatigue, thereby escalating the amount of damage they’re taking.
Aside from each game taking an absolute age to play, don’t be under any illusion that the style is easy either. It’s not a case of just slapping down some heals and clearing when you can. Timing, and getting the most value out of comboing cards like Wild Pyromancer, is everything. As is knowing when to drop Tree Of Life for a full health reset for both players.
Still, this is undoubtedly one of the most innovative builds to come out of the Goblins vs Gnomes set, so props to ChaosFollowing for creating it. To see the deck being played, check out this video by streamer Kripparian, who helped bring the deck to public attention. So blame him when you’re toiling against it.
Brian Kibler’s Lightbomb Priest
Decklist
Since joining the Hearthstone scene, Magic: The Gathering Hall of Famer Brian Kibler has become best known for his Priest builds. Having patented the Deathrattle minion-heavy Undertaker Priest after Naxxramas, his latest creation is a more control-flavoured deck, but certainly no less potent.
Savijz’s Lightbomb Priest
Finnish pro Janne ‘Savijz’ Mikkonen offers a similar take on Priest, though he manages to squeeze in a single Zombie Chow as extra insurance against early-game aggro, plus a copy of Sneed’s Old Shredder for some late-game RNG lulz. He also techs in a copy of the barely used Mass Dispel to Silence troublesome boards, which should prove handy against Hunter and Mech Mage especially.
Of the new cards, the most interesting is the Lightbomb AoE spell. It provides a devastating response to powerful boards—especially a Warlock who’s just dropped double Molten Giants—which was something Priests previously struggled with. At 6 Mana, it certainly feels like a more effective answer than Holy Fire, which is cut from this list.
Kibler also includes the new Priest class legendary, Voljin, which combos beautifully with Holy Smite as another answer to fat minions. There’s no room for Shrinkmesiters, though, and it’s notable that no other GvG cards feature either. The set’s lack of representation in many of these ‘new’ decks is slightly disappointing, given the sense prior to release that the metagame would be turned on its head.
Some notable picks from the Expert set include Harrison Jones, which is all but essential in this current weapon-heavy meta, while Shadow Madness plus double Cabal Shadow Priests are there to wreck any aggro opponent’s day. A single Mind Control is also run, as the perfect trump card in control vs control games. Overall, this is a surgeon’s deck, used to methodically unpick your opponent’s game plan before delivering the deathblow.
StrifeCro’s Mech Mage
Decklist
Zetalot’s Medic Mage
Soon after the release of GvG Sean ‘Day[9]’ Plott was comboing Molten Giants and Echo of Medivh to hilarious effect. His deck is here, but for a more recent take on Control Mage check out Zetalot’s version. It’s very tricky to play correctly, because as with Hyped’s Giants Mage you need to ensure the right one of your minions gets duplicated, but plenty of fun.
Of all the hero classes, Mage is the one to benefit most from the arrival of the new Mech tribal cards. Shortly after the set came out, master deckbuilder StrifeCro put together this list which combines Mage’s core burn spells with a slew of robotic minions which can potentially be played at a discount thanks to the cost-reduction effect of Mech Warper. The only thing it really lacks is an effective AoE clear, so you might want to consider a single Flamestrike. It shouldn’t really be necessary though, and doesn’t suit the deck’s ‘play Mechs, go face’ ethos.
Part of the reason why Mechs work so well in Mage is because you have access to two of the best new class-specific cards in the form of Snow Chugger and Goblin Blastmage. The deck is easy to play, too. You just mulligan for your early Mech synergy cards—Mechwarper in particular—then play them on curve, using spells to remove your opponent’s creatures or finish them off with direct damage to the face. So, as a result, it’s all over the ladder right now. Thanks StrifeCro!
Next page: Rogue, Hunter, Paladin
