Gadgetzan Quick Hearthstone Deck Guides: Jade Druid, Pirate Warrior, and Dragon Priest

Stonekeep goes over some of the stronger lists that have cropped up and writes some quick guides to get you started with them.

Introduction

Mean Streets of Gadgetzan expansion was just released. After the initial pack openings, most of the pro players and streamers have started their own deck brewing and testing. There is no meta, there are no cookie cutter lists, everyone on the ladder is experimenting with whatever cards they’ve opened. For many players that’s the most fun period of time.

However, if you have no ideas for the decks or not enough time to test things yourself, don’t worry, I’ve got you covered. Below I will list a few most successful (so far) lists from pro players with short guides for each one of them.

If you want to check out the full, constantly updated list of new deck lists, click here!

First deck I want to talk about is the Kolento’s Jade Druid. Come to think about it, the deck is actually almost identical as the one I’ve theorycrafted a few days ago (the only difference is Brann Bronzebeard instead of Ancient of War in my list). Kolento has played it for over two hours with a solid win rate (he went from rank 16 to rank 9 very quickly).

Right now, there are two most popular Jade Druid versions – more heavy on Golem synergies like this one and more heavy on cycle/spell synergies like Dog’s one. It’s still too early to tell which one is stronger, but both are doing really nice job so far.

Mulligan

Ramp takes the highest priority when it comes to the mulligan. You keep Wild Growth, Innervate or Jade Blossom every time. If you have your ramp already, in a slower matchup you can keep some of the mid game plays – especially Azure Drake or Nourish. In the faster matchups, on the other hand, you also want your early removal. Cards like Living Roots and Wrath will let you deal with their early threats and not take too much damage. It might seem counter-intuitive, but you throw both Raven Idol and Jade Idol. On turn 1, both of those cards are pretty weak. When it comes to Raven Idol, while it might give you a ramp, picking other cards is difficult – you simply don’t know what you will need later in the game. It’s best to play it alter when you’re sure about the matchup you’re in and the cards you want. And when it comes to Jade Idol, while it might help you with starting the Jade Golem train rolling early, Ramp takes much higher priority. Jade Idol is much better later when combined with Fandral or Auctioneer.

Gameplay

The deck plays like a slower Midrange deck with a lot of late game snowball potential. Your main game plan is to ramp up early, remove whatever your opponent plays, start playing your Jade Golem cards in the mid game and the start performing the Gadgetzan Auctioneer/Fandral Staghelm + Jade Idol combos in the late game.

The most important thing when playing this deck is to try to keep up on the tempo with your opponent as well as you can. The first few Jade Golem cards you play are very weak, but you will be able to outvalue any deck in the long run. So don’t worry about having to 2 for 1 a minion for example.

In faster matchups, your main goal is to survive. Try to remove all the threats they play while not taking too much face damage (prioritize using removals over your Hero Power to kill stuff, every life point counts). You should start having the advantage in mid game once you ramp up a bit and possibly drop your Taunts. Prioritize healing (e.g. Healing Touch and Taunt gain (e.g. Mark of the Wild when picking a card from Raven Idol. If necessary, you can also pick high tempo small removal like Wrath or Living Roots. Once you get the board control, try to finish the game as quickly as possible. Don’t give them more turns to draw burn damage – especially if you’re at relatively safe life total or have a Taunt on the board, you prefer to deal 3-4 face damage than trade into a 1/1. I’d say that fast, Aggro decks are probably one of the better counters to Jade Druid.

In slow matchups, you can ALWAYS win the long term value war, so your only issue is the tempo. Try to ramp as quickly as possible and then start cycling while removing whatever early/mid game minions they might have. Don’t play your Jade Idols until you have a lot of cycle in your hand. Once you do, play Jade Idols (shuffle 3 more copies into your deck). After you draw a few more, it’s time for the Fandral or Auctioneer synergies. Once you have a few Idols in your hand,  play one of those + start spawning Golem/shuffling Idols into your deck (Fandral does both at the same time, with Auctioneer you have to alter between the options). That should pretty much set the game. Now you try to draw as much as you can and play one or two Jade Golems per turn. Your opponent will be so busy trying to deal with them that he should give you free reign over the game. As long as you get to that point without losing hard on the life or board, you have the game in your pocket.

Another deck that was suspected by many to take over the meta. While it’s still very early, it’s already quite popular on the ladder. And if you’re not bound by the code of honor, it might also be the best time to play it. Everyone is experimenting with new decks and fast, Aggro decks are best at punishing poor deck building and slow, greedy decks (that seem to be way popular early). If you want to be THAT GUY ruining other people’s fun (that’s also pretty fun, right?), this will be a perfect deck for you.

Mulligan

Mulligan with this deck is really simple and consistent, that’s one of the reasons why it’s so strong. You basically throw away everything that’s 4 or more mana – well done, you’ve mastered the Pirate Warrior. No, wait, there is more. Your highest priority cards are 1-drops (besides Patches the Pirate, you ALWAYS want to throw it away). You really want to open with a 1 mana card, preferably N'Zoth's First Mate, Sir Finley Mrrgglton  or Small-Time Buccaneer. Southsea Deckhand is not a great 1-drop if you don’t have a Coin + N’Zoth’s First Mate, but it’s still better than nothing. You also want to look for 2-drops – Hobart Grapplehammer, Bloodsail Raider and Fiery War Axe. If you have smooth 1 -> 2 you can also keep a 3-drop. If you open with a Fiery War Axe, you also keep the Dread Corsair, as you can drop him for 0-1 mana on turn 3. Now, Upgrade! is pretty tricky. I like to keep it when I have either N’Zoth’s First Mate or Fiery War Axe. If I don’t, I throw it away. It’s not really great to play it as a 1/3 weapon, you prefer to buff something.

Gameplay

You know the saying “the face is the place”? Yes? That’s your main game plan with Pirate Warrior. It doesn’t mean that absolutely every attack ever will be targeted at the opponent’s Hero. But most of them will. The plan is to rush enemy down and let him handle the trades. But here is the main early game rule – minions are for face, weapons are for trading. “Wasting” that 3 damage from Fiery War Axe is worth it if you’re going to protect a minion on the board, a minion that can deal consistent damage every turn. So don’t hesitate to use your weapon to protect your minions.

It’s especially true in the faster matchups. In Aggro vs Aggro mirrors, the deck that gets out of the early game with tempo advantage, usually wins the whole game. Even something as small as an extra 1-drop over your opponent can lead you to victory. So in those matchups, by all means, make the trades. You want to be the one making them, because then you’ll pick the best and most efficient ones. Aggro decks rarely have any comeback mechanics, so if you win the board, you should win the whole game.

Versus slower decks, you want to do the least amount of trades possible. You need to be smart about them. By making the right trades you can protect your more valuable minions (for example, it is worth it to kill a 3/1 with your 1-drop in order to protect your Kor'kron Elite) or play around the AoE (e.g. trading off your 1 health guys against Shaman’s Maelstrom Portal). Since you’re the one dictating the pace of the game, you want to do as much damage as possible. For example, holding off to your last charge of Arcanite Reaper when you have a way to buff the durability next turn. However, you don’t want to unnecessarily prolong the game. Around turn 5-6, a Control deck usually takes over the board, starts gaining health or plays Taunts.

The most important skill when playing an Aggro deck like that is knowing the right balance between trading and face damage (especially in fast matchups). You also want to know how much you can commit to the board. You want to play enough minions to be able to win the game, but not too many to not get screwed by obvious AoEs.

Also, one last note – if the situation is dire, if you start to lose the game, go all-in. Just play everything you have, try to rush your opponent. I’ve won some games like that, I just hit face with everything, played my whole hand and hoped that he has no way to answer that. If you’re in a bad spot, you should take risks like that.

Priest got a lot of new tools this expansion – both Control and Dragon versions. But since Dragon Priest was probably already the stronger out of the two + it got better, close to broken cards, the power jump of the archetype is insane. It might be too early to tell, but I suspect Dragon Priest to be one of the strongest meta decks in the months to come – at least until next expansion, when half of the deck rotates out of Standard.

Sjow has shown some of its power already. At the time I’m writing this, he’s at ~75% win rate with ~40 games sample size.  Even if it doesn’t necessarily tell us anything about the deck’s future power, it means that it works well right now.

Mulligan

The deck’s first game plan in most of the matchups is to play and win the tempo game. If that plan fails, the deck can still go back to the more control-oriented game, but you want to have a fast start anyway. Skipping an early turn might hurt a bit, so you go for the low drops – Northshire Cleric, Twilight Whelp, Netherspite Historian and Wyrmrest Agent have the highest priority when it comes to minions. One note, though, is that Northshire Cleric is a better keep in faster matchups (where the 1/3 body itself can maybe trade into a 1-drop or prevent your opponent from playing 1-2 attack minions) and Netherspite Historian is better in slower ones (because the card itself is also pretty slow, but you can sometimes already decide on your game plan based on the card you pick) Kabal Talonpriest is a keep if you have some other early game minions, by itself the card is pretty weak (just a vanilla 3/4 if you don’t hit the Battlecry). When it comes to the spells, you want to keep Power Word: Shield (there is almost no reason to not keep it, as you should be able to fit it into your turn quite easily and it cycles) and Shadow Word: Pain (outside of some matchups that don’t commonly play minions in the early game – e.g. it’s not a good keep against Druid). You can actually keep the 4-drops too if you have a good curve (e.g. 2 -> 3 -> 4). Strong minions on the curve is one of the main strengths of Dragon decks, but to really abuse that you need to actually hit that curve.

Gameplay

Dragon Priest is an interesting deck, because it can take two different approaches. Depending on the matchups, your draws or your needs, it can play both a higher tempo and more control game. It’s pretty flexible when it comes to that. It’s not a real “tempo” deck and it’s not a real “control” deck, but it takes something from both worlds.

First thing you worry about, like I’ve mentioned in the Mulligan, is your curve. Your goal is to curve out as best as you can. In fast matchup curving out means that you can keep up and not get rushed. And in slower matchups it means that you might actually have an opportunity to rush your opponent. But in any case, board control is your #1 priority. You run no burn damage, no real finishers, if you want to win the game – you usually have to do it in an old-fashioned way, with your minions. The general rule is that if you have a good trade on the board – you take it. Priest Hero Power actually synergizes pretty well with the deck overall. After you take the trade, you can heal your minions up to keep them on the board. That’s how you can get a lot of value in Control matchups – if you utilize the healing correctly, your minions (high health ones in particular) will get a lot of value. In faster matchups, though, you should prioritize playing new minions over healing the old ones – you don’t need value anyway, you need the tempo.

You win faster matchups by – like always – just surviving. If you get a nice early game curve and keep up with them, all you need to do is to constantly remove everything they play and set up your own walls. Both 4-drops are amazing against fast decks – Twilight Guardian is a nicely statted and cheap Taunt, while Priest of the Feast can get you some extra healing + it’s a high priority to remove, so it often ends up having quasi-Taunt too. In the mid game, you want to heal yourself every turn – minions are disposable, keeping your health high is important. One exception to this rule is healing a Taunt minion – you should do that against decks that mostly rely on the minion damage. It’s going to save you 2 health anyway, but can keep your Taunt alive longer. Don’t do that against decks like Tempo Mage, which can win with the burn!

In slower matchups, after the initial early game tempo, you need to establish some sort of game plan. If you are winning on the board and your opponent has shown no signs of AoE board clears, you can follow this plan and start punching him in the face with whatever you have. Unless you’re pretty sure that he has no AoE, try to keep 2-3 minions on the board at the same time. It should be enough to put the enemy under pressure while not overcommitting. If the tempo game plan fails, you can start playing the value game. Netherspite Historian and Drakonid Operative are great for that plan, just pick the highest value cards. They also combo really nicely with Brann Bronzebeard – if you’re going for the value plan, don’t drop Brann unnecessarily. Try to combo him with other cards immediately. Try to squeeze as much as possible from each card and your Hero Power, while still putting some pressure on your opponent. It’s important, because it might make him use his cards inefficiently – e.g. Warrior Shield Slamming your 4-drop because he has to remove it somehow. It might seem that the deck isn’t equipped to play the long game – it runs no late game Dragons. But with Historian and Operative, you’re almost guaranteed to get some of them.

The last thing I want to mention is managing your Dragonfire Potion. It’s a key card in the new Dragon Priest and it’s a little similar to the good old Lightbomb. You obviously use it when you’re behind, but sometimes you might want to bait your opponent into playing more stuff. Especially if you play against a board-centered deck like Zoo Warlock or Midrange Shaman, they just NEED minions on the board to make things happen. So if you have no good play anyway, you can sometimes afford to pass a turn or two in the mid/late game to make them play into your Dragonfire Potion. If they don’t play stuff – that’s also fine, because they give you more time to draw the right cards. Remember that Dragonfire Potion doesn’t affect Dragons – not only yours. So if your opponent has an Azure Drake (for example) on the board, it won’t kill it. It’s most important to remember that when playing a Dragon mirror, try to get out as much as possible from the card when your opponent has some non-Dragons on the board, even something like 2 is fine.

Closing

That’s all, folks. Remember that those aren’t full guides – they’re just short, quick ones to help you with getting started in the new expansion. If one (or more) of those decks will turn out to be really successful, I might write a full guide about it. If you liked this one, I can do another compilation of successful streamer decks with short guides!

If you have any questions or suggestions, feel free to leave them in the comment section below. If you want to be up to date with my articles, you can follow me on Twitter.

Good luck on the ladder and until next time!