A designer wrote to my box with the following list. I figure being as I am now in-charge of deck fixes, I might as well lay down a few rules. I might help me creatively to know where you wish me to take the deck in question. I would like to try and satisfy all my readers and submitters but this is not possible. So at least tell me what would make you, the submitter, satisfied with the fix. Thanks everyone. Enjoy.

 

“Hey I wanted to submit my a Druid deck into for a fix. I noticed that 
Druids have the nicest draw card out of Innervate but they don't seem 
to have a strong enough abilities to hold their own in combat. So I'm 
wondering if you could help me with this Ogrimmar Grunts Deck that I 
have. It's uses the draw power out of cards like innervate and feral 
rage to draw into the cards Circle of Life and Kaal Soulreaper.

Allies:
18 Ogrimmar Grunts
2 Kaal Soulreaper

Abilities:
4 Innervates
4 Bear Form
4 Maul
3 Feral Rage
3 Circle of Life
4 Healing Touch

Equipment:
3 Devilsaur Leggings

3 Its a Secret to Everyone
4 Your Fortune Awaits
4 Torek's Assault
4 Kibler's Exotic Pet”

 

Well I would like to admit first that this is a first for me. To have a deck use the unlimited creatures is certainly something I would never have tried by myself, at least for constructed play. In that light, I aim to make this more of a tougher breed of casual deck. The primary weaknesses of this deck are the facts that the grunts need two mana to cast and they are one toughness no matter how many are in play. Lucky for this deck, the designer built a druid deck inside this plan. Both aspects of this deck can be improved, the draw back is that one can only be improved by sacrificing space from the other. I did my best to contact the designer but to no avail, so I will choose for him.

 

To boost the power of the unlimited allies, we’d need cards to back up large numbers of creatures and to access many amounts of them at one time. That’s where the greatest aspect of the druid deck falls in, the best draw power in the game. I would look at this play as the backbone for the deck:

 

Turn one: It’s a Secret to Everyone

Turn two: Resource + ISE for Grunt #1

Turn three: Resource x2 + ISE for Grunt #2, swing with #1 for 2 dmg

End of Opponent’s turn: pop ISE to find Innervate, another grunt, etc.

Turn four: Swing in for 4 dmg, lay Resource #3

End of Opponent’s turn: cast innervate

Turn five: Cast 2 grunts, swing in for 8 dmg

Turn six: swing in with all grunts for 16 dmg

Total dmg: 30

 

By turn 5 using this play you achieve 14 dmg, and on sixth turn death is certain for any hero. Is this combat scenario possible? Not really. Why? Protectors, burn spells, and other nasty tricks the opponent can play have a good chance of coming up to ruin this little plan.

 

So how can this work? Since a good deal of your creatures are two-costed, that leaves next to nil turn one plays. The first problem this deck would face is the protectors, they come out quicker and they defend for a lot. Voss is the greatest anti-protector in the game, and to aid our cause it costs one mana and is the value of a good grunt. Four go in

 

+4 Voss Treebender

 

Burn spells and the like are difficult if not impossible to prevent. This is the glaring weakness of the deck, things like Panax the Unstable and Frost Nova will destroy this deck without mercy. The only way to help get around this at best is to draw cards and to recur things. I see the wisdom in adding Kaal, normally I would disagree with such a choice but in this case I agree with the need for it. Chasing a-me 01 is something that I would also suggest.

 

+4 Chasing a-me 01

 

What else to add? To put some real flavor into this deck, lets add something that makes everything a grunt: Zorm Stonefury. +1 to all attackers is a powerful thing, and a shoe-in for this deck.

 

+4 Zorm Stonefury

 

Now the worst part in this deck fix, the cutting. As I stated before, with the dual aspects of this deck, there is no way to maintain one while improving the other. So lets get this over with. The first to go is bear form. I say this because of the rest of the cards bear form is the one that does the least, it takes up mana and it only grants you bear form. What use is this? None.

 

-4 Bear Form

 

Devilsaur Leggings is a nice card, but better suited for another sort of deck. One that can deal damage without dealing with retaliation, which is not this deck.

 

-3 Devilsaur Leggings.

 

Healing is something I am not fond of, but in this case if the deck should run out of steam against a heavy defense, it is useful.

 

-2 Healing Touch

 

It kind of pains me to make this next cut because the designer liked it, but that’s the name of the game when deck deconstructing is the game. When playing competitively it can sometimes be unwise to stay loyal to a card, especially if it has become disloyal to you. My primary reasoning behind this is the fact that this costs 8 mana, and I would expect the allies to die well before that turn comes around.

 

-3 Circle of Life

 

One last minute adjustment to give this deck some real kick would be Ophila Barrows, this card is worth it’s weight in gold. It cancels out the most popular quest in the game with ease: Chasing a-me 01. Protector and a huge health are just icing on the cake.

 

+3 Ophelia Barrows.

 

To make the final cuts, I’ll get out cards that solidify the grunt master plan.

 

-1 Maul

-3 Feral Rage

+1 It’s a Secret to Everybody

 

Those were tough calls, just because they were powerful cards for the hero. I will advise to the designer that these changes were made to suit the unlimited strategy of the deck and unfortunately I couldn’t please everything. I hope this helped, here’s the final product.

 

Allies:
18 Ogrimmar Grunts
2 Kaal Soulreaper
4 Voss Treebender
3 Ophelia Barrows

4 Zorm Stonefury

 

Abilities:
4 Innervates
3 Maul
2 Healing Touch

4 Its a Secret to Everybody
4 Your Fortune Awaits
4 Torek's Assault
4 Chasing a-me 01

 

Good hunting,

 

Aganej2