Malygos Druid Play Strategy
The biggest combo is to play Flobbidinous Floop and Faceless Manipulator the turn after you play Malygos and attack with the last charge of Twig of the World Tree, then play both copies of Swipe and Moonfire for 50 damage (this is assuming your origional Malygos doesn’t survive a turn, which it won’t most of the time. If it lives the damage goes up by 24 if there are no Taunts in the way). Unless you’re up against Warrior or Druid you’re unlikely to need all that, but it gives you some breathing room.
Players don’t like to give you a 20 mana turn so weapon removal is currently all over the place. With just Floop, one Swipe and both Moonfires you can still deal an easy 21 damage, or with 22 with Floop, Faceless and both Moonfires. You can expect to have you weapon removed much of the time. Faceless Manipulator’s main purpose is to raise the damage ceiling of the Malygos combo, but it can be played for tempo if your opponent has an appealing target on board.
VS Aggro Decks
Against aggro Malygos Druid just tries to get to the later stages of the game when the aggro deck starts to run out of steam. In these games the Malygos combo rarely ends up mattering, and combo pieces can be used as removal with fewer consiquences. You have to be pretty careful about whether or not to use Biology Project early on as ramping an aggro deck can be pretty detrimental. An example of when it would likely be safe to play early is if your opening hand is Biology Project, Wild Growth, Spreading Plague. This way you at least have an answer if your opponent goes wide with the extra mana you gave them. Depending on what you draw early it might not even be good to play it yet there. If your first draw is Nourish it’s a much safer play than if your first draw is Moonfire. Against aggro it’s probably best to wait until you have something you want to use that mana for to play your Biology Project.
Remember you can use Alexstrasza on yourself to heal to fifteen. While this version plans to play Malygos before comboing, against aggro the first Malygos will often stick, so if you’re presented with a safe opportunity to jam it onto the field it’s usually a good idea even if you don’t have Floop to follow it up (the Swipe next turn will clear most boards). Floop can be played either on curve or after an Arcane Tyrant to grab some tempo against aggro.
VS Control Decks
The Malygos combo is much more powerful in control matchups, so try as best you can to hold onto your damaging spells. You will often be tempted to waste a Moonfire to avoid overdrawing after an Ultimate Infestation, but if you’re in a matchup where you’ll need it it can be best just to risk it.
Against other combo decks like Shudderwock Shaman or the mirror, Naturalize is a great tool to ruin the opposing game-plan. Against Shudderwock Shaman it can be helpful to leave their Mana Tide Totem out to make them more susceptible to this.
As with aggro, you also need to be careful about playing Biology Project against control. If you have nothing to do with the extra mana you’re only giving your opponent more room to play their cards. Consider what cards your opponent might be able to play after a Biology Project (for example if they run The Lich King you might not want to play it into their turn six if you don’t have an answer) and hold off if you don’t need it.
Hold onto your Branching Paths if you can, this card can be an over-costed Savage Roar and that will win more games than you think. This isn’t to say you shouldn’t use them to draw if you have no better option but don’t toss them away for armor without a good reason. Considering your opponent will be removing your weapon most games Branching Paths is a good way to make up some of that damage.
Malygos Druid Mulligan Strategy & Guide
VS Fast Decks
Ramp is your best friend no matter what the matchup, so Wild Growth and sometimes Biology Project are the best to have. Lesser Jasper Spellstone is another really good card to have early if you can upgrade it. A single upgrade clears most early threats like Vicious Fledgling and Hench-Clan Thug. Swipe is good to keep, especially against Odd Paladin but even if the 1-damage aoe won’t matter much in the matchup as the 4-damage portion of the spell also clears most early threats like those listed above.
Spreading Plague is a strong keep against aggro as the wall of Taunts it provides can buy a lot of time. Malfurion the Pestilent can be good to keep if you have some ramp, but keeping a 7-mana card can be detrimental if you don’t have anything to do before your seventh turn.
VS Slow Decks
Mulligan heavily for Wild Growth, Biology Project and Nourish. There is so much draw in the deck that ramp is all that really matters early. If you have a Nourish and either Wild Growth or Biology Project already, keeping Arcane Tyrant can be good to establish some early tempo. Keeping Twig of the World Tree is often correct even though you might not play it on curve. The sooner you have it the less likely your opponent is to have drawn their ooze (but you can assume they have one in their deck somewhere) before you can attack with it enough times.
Malygos Druid Card Substitutions
Oaken Summons is a very powerful card and depending on how aggressive the post Boomsday Project meta is than it may be worth it to put the package back in. In this case Floop would likely have to go, but there’s been so many “highroll” decks this past year I wouldn’t be surprised if people played both and hoped for the best (although that sounds bad to me).
Floop's Glorious Gloop is interesting. Against the right deck you could play it, Swipe their board and gain 7 mana. This deck doesn’t generate many minions and the standard version of decks like this don’t have efficient board clears like Poison Seeds so I’d be surprised if it was worth it. When you Spreading Plague most of the minion trading happens on your opponents turn so I wouldn’t expect to get a lot of Gloop mana out of that. Again, depending on the meta it might be worth it.
Prince Taldaram is an option over Faceless Manipulator that would allow you to add hero power damage to your 20 mana combo, which from only that perspective is strictly better. To do this though you would have to remove Ferocious Howl, which I don’t think is worth it considering this deck already cuts Oaken Summons.
This deck has a more reliable Malygos combo, so I cut The Lich King from the list. There’s a good chance he’s still worth including.
Juicy Psychmelon has possibilities if you add Dreampetal Florist and maybe The Lich King. Four mana to go grab Malygos and something that can reduce his cost by 7 could be strong. That sounds super gimmicky and half the time you’ll draw Alexstrasza instead of Malygos.
If the meta is aggressive enough Wrath might find it’s way back into the deck. Two for deal three is pretty good against early aggro minions, and at worst the card is a 2-mana cycle.
I’m wanting to Craft this deck, however, because the Boomsday Project is soon to launch, is it Worth crafting maly and twig?
This will probably still be a dominant deck even in the next expansion, but for 1 this isn’t a good list, go to hsreplays and look around there for a list you like, and 2, just wait until a bit after the expansion to see which decks are the best, so don’t craft or disenchant anything until the new expansion as a rule of thumb
Aight Thanks!
I use lxid instead of arcane it works better for me because I use 2 inervates to kill because since I get 4 maylgos’s instead of just 2 i do 42 damage in one turn
Maly druid often doesnt just straight up win with the maly combo, Your goal is to pressure with stuff like alexstraza, tokens from plague/ui/arcane tyrant, and the lich king to drop your opponent down enough to where malygos can finish them off. Most aggro decks will pressure you before you can combo and most control decks run ooze now to kill twig. The highest win rate lists actually dont even run faceless since it isnt very flexible in favor of starfire, which combined will still deal 30 damage with moonfires and swipe.
How does this work when we dont find maly or twig in the early/mid game? And when we dont find either?
The deck has so much cycle, that against control matchups you’ll find them eventually, and against aggro match ups you aren’t even aiming for the combo really, you’re just trying to control them
And when u control the aggro? How do u win? Alex and damage? Or anything else? Plus, against taunt druid, big mage and evenlock, how is it? Sorry for many questions…
Try a lxid over the 2nd arcane then practice the deck a little my combo is save moon fires draw when you can over ramping with nourish and game
Lxid then faceless finish your weapon malygos double moon fire face
When you control an aggro deck, sometimes they’ll just concede, but you can win through just dropping a malygos and moonfire, you could also just tempo out an alexstrasa as that will put you in lethal range for next turn with all of the spells and spell damage, just be sure that you don’t wait for your combo peices if it means you lose, like if you used on swipe, but you think you’ll need the second one to win, it won’t matter if you lose. In control your plan is the combo, just manage your hand and try your best to not burn any cards through draw. I’m not a huge fan of this deck list, but it’s more situated towards aggro which might be better because of zoolock. I also don’t like monkeyman’s deck, because a big reason of why this deck is so good is because of it’s versatility.
Malygos Druid is a very flexible deck that can function as combo, control, or ramp-midrange depending on hand context and matchup. Identifying your opponent, recognizing what their game plan is, and tracking what resources they have left in their deck, combined with your early draws, will dictate what you should play toward. The following is a breakdown of the various ways to make your opponent blow up and what type of decks they’re typically (not always) used against. The following also assumes you are using the Faceless-Howl-Innervate version of Malygos Druid, pioneered by Orange.
Deck code:
AAECAZICCP4BtAOTBMUExAbCzgKZ0wKb6AILQF/pAdMD5AigzQKHzgKY0gKe0gLb0wK/8gIA
There are 3 main ways to win with the deck:
Burst Combo
Survive and Counter-attack
Tempo / Pressure (a.k.a. Ramp and Bomb-train)
Burst Combo
OTK 36+ Damage (requires Twig)
Resources required: Twig with 1 durability, Malygos, Faceless, Swipe, both Moonfires
Execution: Play Malygos, break Twig, Faceless on Malygos, Swipe – Moonfire – Moonfire on the opponent
Explanation: This outputs 36 damage from spells. You can boost that with any minions that stick, and with the Twig hit (Bonus – use Innervate after Malygos to hero power for some extra juice when you snap the Twig. If you are DK Malfurion, that’ll give you an extra 4 damage – 3 from DK, 1 from Twig – allowing you to do 40 total and KO a quest priest post-Amara.). If they don’t have any heal cards and rely on armor stacking, if you can Alex them at some point before the combo it helps a lot too. Useful against any opponent that can get more than 30 HP, through armor or other means, such as Control Warriors, Quest Priests, or other Druids, as well as other decks that will keep their HP topped off or be able to heal up after an Alex.
OTK 31 Damage (requires Twig)
Resources required: Twig with 1 durability, Alex, Innervate, DK hero power, Malygos, both Moonfires
Execution: Alex opponent’s face, Innervate and use Hero Power to hit face and break Twig, play Malygos, Moonfire – Moonfire on opponent.
Explanation: Alex sets opponent’s HP to 15, Innervate Hero Power hits for 4 to knock them to 11, then Maly with both Moonfires is 12 more damage, letting you kill an opponent from full HP. Useful against opponents who make you burn your Swipes for removal and keep you on the defensive. Also useful against opponents who can’t get above 30 HP and have ways of topping off after an Alex, like Control Shamans, Control Priests, and Control Paladins.
Multi-turn Burst Combo (no Twig)
Resources required: Alex, DK hero power, Malygos, Innervate, both Moonfires
Execution: Alex opponent’s face and pass, play Malygos, Innervate, Hero Power face, Moonfire – Moonfire
Explanation: Alex sets opponent’s HP to 15, then you just need to survive a turn to deal 15 exactly with Malygos, hero power, and the Moonfires. Useful when Twig is unavailable/oozed/used for tempo earlier and your opponent either can’t heal or has exhausted all healing options.
Extra Credit: Lich King can give Death Coil, which is 2 mana for 5 damage. Combined with Malygos and Innervate, that’s 10 damage. This can give you some extra oomph instead of Hero Power on your combo turn if the opponent has a lot of armor or you used one of your combo pieces for removal.
Survive and Counter-attack
Resources required: Removal tools, Spreading Plague, and lots of armor
Execution: Throw stuff in your opponent’s way, use your damage spells for removal as efficiently as possible, and armor up to face tank some damage (Branching Paths is likely used for armor in this scenario). Exhaust the opponent’s resources and then stick something they can’t remove (Alex, Lich King, Maly, a large Spreading Plague-Branching Paths for attack combo) to go on the offensive and close the game out. Malygos is usually used as a removal tool in this scenario, combined with Moonfire to take out a big(ger) threat, or just to establish a threat the opponent can’t ignore and needs to waste resources/minions to kill. Alex is used either offensively or defensively in this scenario depending on how you see the following few turns playing out and how much gas your opponent has left. Twig is almost always used for a big swing/tempo turn to flip the board state, not necessarily to burst combo the opponent.
Explanation: Between UI giving 5 armor, Ferocious Howl giving up to 10 armor, Branching Paths giving up to 12 armor, and the DK hero power giving 3 armor per use, it’s possible to gain an enormous amount of extra HP with this deck. Keep the board manageable in the early game (removing snowball minions) and then slow the opponent down in the mid-game with a Spreading Plague while you draw to gather your resources for a counter-attack, you should be good to go. If your opponent happens to run a big finisher like Lich King or Doomguards, a neat trick with this deck is to Faceless it and then Naturalize it to turn the tables. Decks that force you into this game plan are typically tempo-aggressive decks like Warlock Zoo, Odd Paladin, or Odd Rogue that use their life as a resource (so you won’t need to save all your burn to kill them) and end up with cheap minions on the board that you can leverage in a Spreading Plague. This win condition is also a decent plan in the mirror match against other Malygos Druids if your opponent gets their Twig before you get yours – they’ll be able to break theirs first, meaning they can burst combo you before you can burst them, so they’ll probably be drawing through their deck to get their combo pieces, giving you time to build your armor total past their maximum damage output, keep ahead of them in the fatigue race, and then Naturalize their threats to tick them into fatigue and/or use Twig and your combo to clear their board/stick threats they can’t remove.
Tempo / Pressure (a.k.a. Ramp and Bomb-train)
Resources required: Ramp (Wild Growth, Nourish) and one or more of your big minions (Lich King, Malygos, Alex) in your early game hand. Twig and Arcane Tyrants help too.
Execution: Ramp your mana, get a big minion out as soon as possible, and then draw like hell to refill your hand, replace it with another biggie if it gets removed (and Faceless it if it isn’t removed), use tempo removal (Spellstone, Naturalize) to protect your board, and beat the opponent to death before they can get their deck’s engine rolling. Equip Twig early and break it for an 18-20 mana turn to overwhelm the opponent’s defenses.
Explanation: This game plan requires specific early-game hand context to work and the opponent needs to not have enough mana to reach their removal turns in time before you get value from your big minion, or not have enough tools in hand to remove your big minions in sequential turns. This is a risky line of play in some cases, but if you can get a read on the opponent’s hand that they don’t have the tools to respond, this will give you a quick win. Getting an early Twig and not saving it for the combo is one way to guard against weapon destruction – sometimes their Ooze is in the lower half of their deck. If they destroy your Twig, oh well; you got them reacting to you instead of executing their own game plan. This plan works well against Shudderwock Shaman (forces them to have an early Hex and/or use their Healing Rains to survive, possibly opening the door for a pivot to the Multi-turn Burst Combo).
Additional Tips
Naturalize can force your opponent to take fatigue damage toward the end of the game keep that in mind for games that go long or for opponents that draw aggressively.
If you suspect your opponent has weapon destruction, then you shouldn’t tunnel-vision on one of the OTK game plans and be flexible with your resources. Play Twig and break it as early as possible to get a big tempo swing. If it gets destroyed before you can break it on your turn, then you’ll need to pivot to exhausting the opponent’s resources.
Sometimes you need to overdraw yourself to find a resource and take the chance you’ll burn it. If you’ve got 7 cards in hand and 5 cards left in your deck and one of them is a Moonfire, using a UI to draw those last 5 cards gives you a 20% to burn the Moonfire, but also an 80% chance to draw it and assemble your combo faster than the
This is an extensive guide from reddit it’s in the competativehs subreddit (https://www.reddit.com/r/CompetitiveHS/comments/906x4q/malygos_druid_win_conditions_witchwood/)
Is this deck worth crafting?
Yeah, this deck is great
I just want to mention, that most pros are running a list featuring prince taldaram and two inervates to get realy huge burstswings with maly (9)->attack with twig-> faceless (5)-> taldaram (3) = +15 spellpower so you deal 32 damage with doublemoonfire, not even mentioning that you can potentially add 2x inervate into swipe for another 19 damage face for a total of 51 facedamage that s even enough for amara with the 5 armor from the deathknight. the aditional spellpower of taldaram also lets you use parts of your combo to survive if necesairy cause you usually don’t need the full combo (and you sometimes can copy an enemy minion to stall.
Taldaram isn’t a great choice if you’re running an Oaken Summons package though, like listed here…
alexstraza would be better
most popular legend list cuts wrath and the oaken summons package for lich king alex naturalize and starfall. Been playing this one at rank 5 and it’s doing pretty well.
You can get the same effect with lxid I run lxid and deal 42 with moonfires o always get 4 malygos
the difference is, that ixlid is way less flexible, you can use taldaram on other targets, if necesairy (like enemy tarcreeper or sometimes even thalnos) in non-controle-matchups