Budget Token Taunt Druid Deck List Guide (The Witchwood)

Our Budget Token Taunt Druid deck list guide for The Witchwood expansion will teach you how to play this explosive Druid list. This Budget Token Taunt Druid guide includes Mulligans, Gameplay Strategy, Card Substitutions, and Combos/Synergies!

Introduction to Budget Token Taunt Druid

Token Druid has long been a top-preforming Budget Hearthstone deck. Druid has numerous means of generating token minions and building a resilient board. With enough minions in play, area buffs such as Power of the Wild and Savage Roar can quickly finish off opponents.

After such a long dominance of Aggro Token Druids, many players forget that Violet Teacher was once a powerful card in the Token Druid shell. This forgotten four-drop returns to Druid, now paired with Oaken Summons to reliably Recruit Teachers from your deck.

This variant of an old favorite takes advantages of some of the potent Taunts that have been released in past expansions. The high health total on these minions makes them premium buff targets for Token Druid.

While this Budget Token Taunt Druid does miss out on a few power cards, most notably Ultimate Infestation and Malfurion the Pestilent, this deck is still capable of racking up wins on the Standard ladder.

Take a look to see the mulligan guide, a general overview of the play strategy, and recommendations for card replacements.

Check out Hearthstone Budget Decks & Guides for All 9 Classes!

The Witchwood

Unfortunately, The Witchwood expansion offered very little for Druid. In fact, this deck features no cards released in the new set. Worse yet, the Year of the Raven spelled the end of Mark of the Lotus‘ dominance in Standard Token Druid.

Still, this Taunt-based archetype can help punish aggressive, board-centric decks prevalent in the early Witchwood metagame. In cases where an opponent extends too far, there is serious potential for a counter kill thanks to the continued strength of Spreading Plague.

Budget Token Taunt Druid Mulligan Guide

High Priority Keeps

• Wild Growth – Even in this Token-based deck, ramping early is critical to your gameplan. Keep Wild Growth in just about any matchup.
• Oaken Summons – Recruiting minions form your deck is part of where this deck’s power lies. Playing this card on curve as often as possible is critical.
• Power of the Wild – Many forget that Power of the Wild offers a 3/2 body for two mana. Against aggressive decks, this can help fend off early games minions. When facing control, it can bait out early removal.
• Crypt Lord – If you miss Wild Growth, especially, it makes sense to hang on to Crypt Lord so you have something to do at three mana.

Low Priority Keeps

• Wrath – Against aggressive decks, it makes sense to hold onto Wrath to clean up boards. Against slower-developing decks, however, it often winds up dead for a few turns.
• Lesser Jasper Spellstone – Likewise, Spellstones can pick off critical early-game minions but doesn’t do a whole lot when the opponent isn’t committing anything to the board.
• Swipe – Other classes have the potential to generate a lot of tokens themselves. Fortunately, their tokens are quite a bit more fragile than yours and can be cleaned up with a single Swipe.
• Violet Teacher – One of the means of generating token minions, Violet Teacher can remain in hand if you’re confident you can stick her on turn four.
• Spreading Plague – If you know your opponent plans to go wide on board, Spreading Plague is a reasonable keep when paired with mana ramp.

Budget Token Taunt Druid Play Strategy

Like many midrange Druid decks, Budget Token Taunt Druid wants to ramp early in the game to set up powerful mid-game plays. As such, landing an early Wild Growth makes a huge difference in the realization of your gameplan.

If you miss your ramp (or even if you don’t), the deck still has a fair amount of spot removal to pick off opposing minions at the start of the game.

Turns four through six are really where this deck hits its power curve. Oaken Summons is an MVP in this deck, Recruiting powerful minions directly into play. Likewise, a Druid of the Claw or Cobalt Scalebane hidden behind Taunts can wreak havoc on opposing boards.

With your board stabilized, Nourish can help you find burst from Savage Roar or Power of the Wild. Soul of the Forest, on the other hand, can cement your board advantage against most mass removal.

Budget Token Taunt Druid Future Card Replacements

• 2x Cobalt Scalebane > 2x Ultimate Infestation – Scalebane is great hiding behind Taunts and buffing low-attack minions, but Ultimate Infestation is too strong a card not to include when you have any amount of mana ramp.
• 2x Crypt Lord > 2x Branching Paths – Branching Paths provides some redundancy with Savage Roar with a more lasting attack buff.
• 2x Wrath > 2x Wispering Woods – After casting UI or Nourish for draw, you’re going to have a lot of cards in hand. Wispering Woods leverages this hand advantage into a board full of tokens.
• 1x Swipe > 1x Malfurion the Pestilent – Not only does Malfurion provide an incredible late-game value engine, but he brings additional token minions into play.

Budget Token Taunt Druid General Replacements

Here’s a list of cards you can add to this deck if you happen to have them or are missing anything in the decklist.

• Sea Giant – Since you’re already flooding the board, it makes sense to take advantage of the cost reduction from Sea Giant.
• Arcane Tyrant – If we know anything about Hearthstone, it’s that free is good. Casting UI into a zero-mana Arcane Tyrant is a massive power spike in this deck.
• Tar Creeper – It’s a bit of a toss-up between Tar Creeper and Crypt Lord at the three-mana slot. The former provides a more immediate impact on the board, but the latter has potential for more long-term value.
• Greedy Sprite – With Ultimate Infestation in your deck, it makes sense to include additional mana ramp. Without it, however, you often wind up ramping into nothing. Still, Greedy Sprite fits reasonable well in this deck’s gameplan.
• Strongshell Scavenger – The poor synergy with Oaken Summons leaves this Taunt buffer on the bench, but he can be replaced for the Recruit spell directly, if you prefer.