Budget (Cheap) Token Druid Deck List Guide – Mean Streets of Gadgetzan

Token Druid was going in and out of the meta pretty often, but it’s still one of the most popular Druid archetypes over the history of Hearthstone. The deck’s goal is to build a strong board presence by spawning Tokens and then buffing them. One of the main Token Druid’s strength is the ability to refill the whole board after a clear in just a single turn.

It’s a very balanced Midrange deck with a good mix of everything – Ramp, board floods (with Savage Roar) and a lot of cycle are good in slow matchups, while early removal, Taunts and Feral Rage are very solid cards in fast matchups.

Budget Token Druid Card Replacements

High Priority Replacements

Mire Keeper => Fandral Staghelm – Fandral is one of the most crucial cards in Druid decks, it’s incredibly powerful, especially in the decks that run 10+ “Choose One” cards.

Low Priority Replacements

2x Enchanted Raven => 2x Raven Idol – Raven Idol is a very flexible and strong Druid card and it’s another cheap spell to combo with Violet Teacher (potentially giving you another buff card), but it’s not worth to get 4 wings of LoE just for it.

1x Feral Rage => 1x Ancient of War – Feral Rage is mostly useful in the fast matchups as the Armor gain. However, Ancient of War is still good in fast matchups, while it’s way better card in slow ones.

After those replacements, the deck will become viable even in higher ranks. If you’re looking for an alternative, try Jade Druid.

Budget Token Druid Mulligan Tips

High Priority (Always keep)

• Innervate – Early/mid game tempo tool, it might allow you to play 4-drop or 5-drop early or do some Violet Teacher combos more quickly.
• Enchanted Raven OR Living Roots – Turn 1 plays, you don’t keep both, because you want to curve out instead of playing your second 1-drop on turn 2. Generally, if you can choose between both, Living Roots is slightly stronger than Raven, because it’s more flexible.
• Wild Growth – Basic ramp card. The sooner you get to 5-6 mana, the sooner you will be able to start flooding the board.
• Darnassus Aspirant – Solid 2-drop. You don’t expect it to stick, but if it does, you’re getting free mana, which is nice. If it survives you can follow it up with a 4-drop.

Low Priority (Situationally keep)

• Acidic Swamp Ooze – In weapon matchups, e.g. against Warrior, Shaman or Hunter.
• Wrath – Against Aggro.
• Mire Keeper or Violet Teacher – With ramp. If you can choose between those, keep Mire Keeper.
• Azure Drake or Druid of the Claw – With ramp. If you can choose between those, keep Azure Drake in slow matchups and Druid of the Claw in fast matchups.

Budget Token Druid Strategy Tips

• It’s a pretty aggressive deck, so you should try to play it this way. Of course, in the Aggro matchups you play the defensive role, but in any slower matchup you want to push.
• Play around potential board clears, don’t go all-in. Try to bait out the AoE first. Violet Teacher + 2 Spells + Buff should be enough, because your opponent will be scared of the Savage Roar.
• Tempo is very important, the deck has no comeback mechanics, so if you take a slow turn after slow turn (like you draw too much), you might fall behind and lose.
• You don’t always need to save buffs for Violet Teacher. If you have 3 minions on the board, Mark of the Lotus gets solid value already.
• Once you have Savage Roar in your hand, try to set up lethal every turn. Roar can add a lot unexpected damage – with just 3 minions on the board, SR is 8 extra damage for 3 mana. Also, count your damage every turn, because it might be easy to miss lethal.
• If your hand is high on value, you can opt to ramp up with Nourish. It’s a good play if you have second one in your hand, can also work out fine with some other cycle like Azure Drake.