Highlander Quest Druid Theorycraft – Saviors of Uldum – August 2019

Apart from the class Legendary that helps with the Highlander-style of deckbuilding, there’s also a neutral one: Zephrys the Great. This card, that is a candidate for possibly the best card designed in the history of the game, is “perfect” in any situation. The card takes into account the state of the board, plus the health bars of both players, and selects the best card to cast from the pool of all Basic and Classic cards available. That could mean a Flamestrike to clear the opponent’s board, Mind Control to take a big enemy minion for yourself or a surprise King Krush for lethal!

The new Quest, Untapped Potential, can be used to extract a huge amount of tempo and value out of the class’s identifying mechanic, Choose One cards. Cards like Wrath and Starfall become really potent spells, while minions such as Druid of the Scythe and Druid of the Claw catch people off guard. Later on, Cenarius can cement and small advantage you have on the board and Hidden Oasis can help you get back into a losing game. One important note, regarding the Choose One mechanic, is Keeper Stalladris, that provides another great way to extract a good amount of value from your Choose One cards, generating card advantage. That card advantage is crucial in a Highlander-style deck, since your options are broader in the scope, but limited in number.

Although this list combines the Highlander theme with the new Druid Quest, this is surely not the only way that the deck can be built. One can opt to exclude the quest, building the deck around high-value minions for a stronger late game, or just include a good amount of tempo cards, making the deck a bit more midrange, and more aggressive as a result. Zephrys the Great is, basically, a get-out-of-jail-free card, which gives you a bit more freedom to be greedy or aggressive.

Even though the Quest is one way that the deck can be built, a good alternative could be a Treant package, that aims to use Elise the Enlightened as a way to get more resources for token generation. Duplicating cards like Witchwood Apple and Landscaping can provide several turns of fuel to keep flooding the board, making a single Savage Roar enough to bring your opponent down to 0 health. That list would be limited in the amount of Choose One cards in contains, opting to be a lot more aggressive when fighting to establish a board presence.

On the other hand, a more “fun” approach for the deck could be building around Lucentbark with the highlander theme, with the goal to duplicate him and a bunch of healing cards, so you can bring both of the copies back turn after turn. That deck would be significantly more defensive-minded, maybe even including cards like Doomsayer to slow down the pace and get to the late game, although historically highlander decks tend to be weak to aggression, because of the lack of second copies for key cards in the early-to-mid game.