Holyji’s Menagerie (Zoo) Druid Deck List Guide

Some Zoo elements mixed with Beast Druid combine to make Menagerie Druid! Thanks to Holyji for allowing us to re-host their guide!

Overview

Menagerie Druid aims to quickly develop a wide, sticky board and buff it for massive damage or trading potential with cards like Power of the Wild and Savage Roar. The deck plays almost exclusively for board control until you can set up lethal. If you fall behind, Innervate, Swipe, charge minions, Savage Roar, big Fandral turns, and sometimes even a yolo Raven Idol can all be used to swing the game back in your favor.

• Proof of Legend
• Stats starting from ~1k Legend

Cards

• Innervate – The best wingman in Hearthstone 🙂
• Dragon Egg – Sticky one drop that lets you cash in on minion buffs easily and gives you a DIY Imp Gang Boss with Mark of Y'Shaarj.
• Living Roots – Flexible early game card that can be an instant board reload, spot removal, or reach.
• Raven Idol – Simulates card draw and only gets better the more sure you are of what you’re looking for. Take a minion when your hand is full of damage and/or you need more bodies. If you already have a solid board, you will usually want a spell (27 total) to fish for damage or an emergency board refill like Wisps or Force of Nature.
• Sir Finley Mrrgglton – Druid hero power is decent as a board control tool, so try to keep it as long as it’s useful. If you know your opponent is control then an early swap is fine. Hunter and Warlock hero powers are almost always the best; totems are actually great with this deck; Mage is situationally useful; dudes are ok I guess.
• Faerie Dragon – This guy really sticks against some classes (Mage, Rogue, Druid, even Warrior without a weapon) and will carry you in some games, especially with Power of the Wild buffs.
• Loot Hoarder – Cycle is essential to get timely buffs.
• Mark of Y'Shaarj – Try to get the cycle in more value based matchups, but overall you won’t get it often. The half off Blessing is usually good enough because most of your minions have big butts and other assets.
• Power of the Wild – Can be a cat if you’re desperate, but this card is so good when you have a couple minions.
• Argent Horserider – Absolute MVP. Both charge and the bubble make him ideal for buffs.
• Mounted Raptor – Poor man’s Piloted Shredder but has Mark, Barnes, and Curator synergy.
• Savage Roar – Even a 2 minion board converts into a 3 mana Fireball. Don’t be afraid to use it to push damage when you can get good value from it or to clear your opponent’s board if you need to.
• Barnes – He’s not as insane as he is in some other decks, but he’s still pretty good because you benefit simply by getting bodies on the board.
• Fandral Staghelm – Absolutely broken card with any of the Choose Ones in the list. Prioritize getting immediate value against control decks, but tempo Fandral is fine against other decks that fight for the board.
• Swipe – Strong flexible card that serves as reach, single target removal, or board clear.
• Druid of the Claw – Almost always a 4/4 charger, but sometimes it’s a 6/6 charger.
• The Curator – Draws a new board from your deck. 3 draws is insane; 2 is still very good; 1 is ok.. I guess.

Other Cards

• Enchanted Raven – I don’t think it’s very good unless you get the dream t1 Raven t2 Mark.
• Argent Squire – Might be better than Egg honestly. The bubble is great for buffs and there aren’t a ton of egg activators in the deck, so there is some additional testing to be done here. I think egg has higher upside (Imp Gang Boss vs. Silvermoon Guardian), but Squire would probably get more pokes in.
• Acidic Swamp Ooze – Amazing as a one of in place of a dragon.
• Crazed Alchemist – why not. Decent Shaman/Doomsayer tech. Not a ton of combat tricks in the deck so you can’t abuse it too hard
• Druid of the Saber – decent card, but not quite good enough
• Knife Juggler – if I had to make a 32 card deck, he’d be my first pick
• Savage Combatant – maybe but I’ve never been impressed by the card

Mulligan

You’re looking for Innervate, Dragon Egg, and Living Roots. If you have Innervate, you can keep a good target (Barnes, Fandral Staghelm, Druid of the Claw). Otherwise, try to set up a strong early game curve in your opening hand.

Matchups

Largely just my opinions, there isn’t a ton of data to prove anything yet.

Maly Druid (Favored)

Your minions are hard for a Druid to clear to begin with and Dragon Egg ruins Swipe. Early Power on a big board of tokens is usually enough to end the game because they need double Swipe or spell power Swipe to clear, both of which usually aren’t available until later in the game

Secret Hunter (Favored)

Freezing isn’t very good against your tokens, Snipe isn’t terrible for most of your minions, try to deny Snake Trap value until you can Swipe it, and deny Cat Trick for as long as possible but it’s not a huge problem since you can trade favorably with your minions or cleanly clear it with Living Roots from hand.

Tempo Mage (Favored)

Try to keep your Egg alive, as it can make your boards difficult for them to deal with. Roots is usually best as 2 dmg for their 3/2s because the tokens just get cleared by Flamewaker and Arcane Missiles

Freeze Mage (Favored)

You generate boards too fast and can push a ton of early Savage Roar damage. Save burn/chargers for when they start freezing your board so that you can still pop the Ice Block. Usually not worth playing Sir Finley Mrrgglton in this matchup unless you’re desperate for armor/healing or damage.

Malygos/Miracle Rogue (Favored)

Buffed tokens are generally hard for a Rogue to deal with early and they’re only working with 2 Fan of Knives. Swipe is good against Azure Drake, Tomb Pillager, and Gadgetzan Auctioneer.

Midrange Shaman (Unfavored)

Try to get a lead early (e.g. respond to coin Totem Golem by going wide when they can’t Maelstrom Portal then buff the following turn or Egg into Mark works well) and always be ready to answer the threat of Thunder Bluff Valiant. Shaman is a nightmare for most decks, especially anything that lives and dies on the board like this one. I think you need to hard mull for Innervate on the coin or have double 3 mana plays.

Control Warrior (Favored)

You have strong value plays (e.g. Fandral + Idol for hand reloads, draw from Mark) and can play around Brawl by buffing 2-3 minion boards rather than developing more. Hold on to chargers as much as possible to combo with Roar to burst them down.

Pirate Warrior (Favored)

You have a couple taunts and can easily take board to burst them down. Raven Idol can also grab you some heal if necessary.

Control Paladin (Unfavored)

Try to set up the OTK.

These matchups are more like guesses since I only played against 0-2 of each and didn’t get a good feel for the matchup:

• Priest (?) – Probably fine; your beefy cards have 4 attack and you have Power to adjust your 3 attack minions to the appropriate amount.
• Zoo (?) – Probably favored; highly dependent on who has the better start, but you have Swipe.
• Renolock (?) – Probably ok; play the value game and around board clears (Demonwrath, Hellfire, Shadowflame, Twisting Nether) and go for the OTK.
• Dragon Warrior (?) – Probably ok; you start faster and your sticky minions should win the board battle.

Closing

I’ve been getting a lot of friend requests asking about the list, so I thought I’d share the wealth. While my sample size isn’t huge, the deck can consistently do some very unfair Druid things. Early Innervate plays typically win you the game on the spot, and I can’t count the number of absolute BS discovers from Raven Idol to snatch victories. I wouldn’t say that it’s very hard to play, but you do need to accurately assess your hand and the board state to determine the winning game plan as your cards are very flexible and can adjust to what you need. Generally, try to use the least flexible cards first so that you can have more options later in the game. Anyway, hope you guys enjoy the list, and feel free to shoot me any feedback!