Today we gonna take a look at another Meta deck of the first week in the Rise of Shadows. Token Druid is now a really defined deck that sees a lot of success on the top of the ladder. With very few weaknesses this deck is in the top 3 of the best win-rate decks currently in the game.

Because of the two keys factors in the current state of the game, Token Druid is almost an unbeatable force on the ladder. The first one is that after rotation, classes have lost access to a large portion of board clears and strong controlling tools, and the second one is that Druid at this point has a critical mass of Token generation cards at the disposal. There are so many of them that most Control decks that are usually good against this archetype are falling short when trying to deal with all of those board floods Druids are able to do. Let's take a look at the decklist:

At first glance, we can see that this deck is a bit slower than what we would usually see in a token deck. Only two 1-drops and then a heavy 2, 3 and 4 slots in the curve. Late game is covered with The Forest's Aid Twinspell and some combos like Wispering Woods into Soul of the Forest.

Star Cards:

Acornbearer is nuts! (pun intended) If you get it on turn 1 it can give you so much advantage because even if the opponent has a way to trade into it or just remove it you get a guaranteed turn 2 resources or just later Tokens that will be buffed and bring even more value. Tokens are also 1 mana so they easily fit into any turn you have extra mana. A lot of things are packed in this rather small card and it is amazingly good.

Keeper Stalladris just fits so well in this archetype that even with a low amount of Choose One Spells it just works. In this list specifically you can see that since it runs only Power of the Wild, there is also a chance to get a Choose One Spell with Dendrologist but all in all, it is a 2 mana 2/3 body that is good for buffing and it comes with a potential upside. In earlier versions or the deck, people run cards like Mark of the Loa and Wrath but it seems that it isn't necessary, Stalladris can work almost as a standalone card as well.

The Forest's Aid although not considered the strongest card of the deck, it is what actually makes the deck. The card is so packed with value that it is often what you are playing when your opponent is already having trouble with removing all those token that you are generating during the game. A great Anti-Control card that gives you wins especially in those match-ups where your opponent has many removals to disrupt your early to mid game but then falls short in removing so many Tokens that can come from just one card.

Also, a card worth mentioning is Archmage Vargoth. This card fits in the deck so well because every spell in the deck can only benefit you even when cast randomly and when played with the first Forest's Aid cast you can get an extra copy of the leftover card to your hand to make that card even better.

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Match-ups:

Now, this is an interesting topic with this deck because Token Druid is at least a bit favored in most of them, mostly by 1-5% which isn't that one-sided advantage but it is an advantage nonetheless.

Warriors currently all play some kind of Control style decks which means they are slower and try to clear the board but don't have too many minions out on the board at any time. This favors Druid because if you fill the board and they don't have an answer just once you could possibly win the game immediately, with big Savage Roar or couple of buffs that add up massive amounts of damage in a single turn. Because they are playing passively the whole game it is hard to know when you are committing enough to justify the use of those precious board clears. This goes also for Priests and Mages that are so slow that they won't be able to keep up with the pressure and most of the time end up dying really fast.

Big Shamans have the same issues as those above mentioned but Murloc Shaman is a bit different. Especially if they go first and start stacking a lot of Murlocs on the board, the synergy of that tribe can create so many favorable trades that they tend to overwhelm the board. Good use of Swipe is needed in this match-up to make that turnaround where you are the one with more stuff on the board and when this happens Shaman can't remove all your minions and then the buffs start to give you an advantage. Murloc decks don't have too many cards draws and card generation so the plan is most of the time to starve them of their resources and finish the game with cards like The Forest's Aid and Wispering Woods with Soul of the Forest. A bit harder match-up with a slight advantage for Shaman going first but still manageable.

Hunter these days is leaning toward Mech decks and this is also very good for Token Druid because the style of play is mostly based on stacking Mechs with Magnetic effect but because of that, they can't really clear many small minions. They don't run Unleash nor things like Timber Wolf or Hyena and this further improves the match-up making it quite easy. Midrange Hunter still exists and has a strong deck but if you just keep in mind that Unleash combo you should be okay as well. Hunters also struggle with managing resources versus so many Tokens, they usually run Zul'jin but that is a 10 mana card and the game is pretty much over on turns 7-8-9.

Rogues really struggle this expansion with wide boards and that is all what this deck those so yeah, this is a big advantage. The worst thing that might happen is something like early 10/10 Edwin and you can't do much about it. Rogues depend on a good opening hand and Myra's Unstable Element to quickly finish you off before you kill them. I'm a bit puzzled with this match-up because it shows it on databases like HS Replay that it is a 50-50 win ratio but when playing it feels like Druid has an upper hand.

Paladin is the least popular class in the expansion but the last couple of days people started playing this Mech deck. It turns out that it is a really hard match-up for the Token Druid. I don't know much about it since I didn't encounter it myself but we can see that unlike Mech Hunter, in Paladin there is Annoy-o-Module that can make a really huge taunt and also Zilliax that if they land on a 7/7 left from Mechanical Whelp just stops every aggression that you might try to impose. Kangor's Endless Army can then make another big wall of Taunts and then there is Tirion. A huge amount of big Taunts and Secrets like Redemption and Autodefense Matrix make it hard to push through, even when you have many Tokens that you can buff you just can't go face and finish the game. Consecration is also a thing and 2 damage clear is just enough for most of the tokens that you produce. Really hard match-up indeed it is clear why this is a bad match-up for the Druid even though I didn't experience it myself.

Lastly, we have Warlocks. Control Warlock isn't really popular pick but Zoo Lock that we had in the last review is, and oh boy is it a tough match-up. This is probably the worst one because of Zoo Lock is so fast on the board and probably most of the time has more minions on the board that can easily make more efficient trades, Magic Carpet really shines versus token, both because of its high health and because 1-drops can trade immediately. This is almost a one-sided battle where Warlock will just outrun you on the board and you can't produce enough tokens to take over the board.

Mulligan:

Versus Aggro: Keep Acornbearer, Power of the Wild, Landscaping, Swipe, Vargoth Acornbearer is really important because it is the only 1-drop but it is unreasonable to expect to have it every time so PotW is a safe pick because if you need you can just play it on turn 2 as a 3/2 minion. Landscaping and Swipe help to fight for the board early, and Vargoth is a good pickup because of its defensive body that is great in taking the board from smaller minions and there is always an upside if he sticks at least for a turn.

Versus Control: Keep Vargoth, The Forest's Aid, Wispering Woods, Acornbearer
In slower match-up you want your heavy hitters, The Forest's Aid even though its an 8 mana card, it is what will most probably win you the game, Vargoth has a great chance to stick or just force a removal from the opponent. Wispering Woods is also a good choice because you will also be able t play slower, meaning that you will get more out of the card. Acornbearer is just always a good start, keeping it is a great idea. Also, keeping Stalladris and PotW is quite good because you will have time to play them to get the extra value.

That will be all for this review. I don't have stats today because I mainly played this deck on my friend's phone but in the global databases, this deck hovers around 55%-58% win ratio globally so yes, it is definitely a strong pick. Nicely built deck with really only two bad match-ups (Zoo Lock and Mech Paly). Depending on how the meta shifts in the following week, this could even be the best then out there.

Thank you for reading!

, z3ll