Electric Nightmares

Our four part series about generative AI and its use in video games

If you click on a link and make a purchase we may receive a small commission. Read our editorial policy.

Jade Druid deck list guide - Hearthstone - April 2018

How to climb the new expansion ladder using Jade Druid in Season 49.

Jade Druid is a Hearthstone deck that actually shares quite a few things in common with the well-established ramp archetype that you might already be familiar with. This time around though - and as the name suggests - you've got some exciting new Jade Golem cards from the Mean Streets of Gadgetzan expansion to play around with as well. A few new toys from the 2017 sets have only made this deck even more powerful with time.

If you're unfamiliar with the process, the Jade Golem mechanic is simple but deadly. The first of these minions you summon will have a paltry 1 / 1 of stats, but the next one will have 2 / 2, the third will have 3 / 3 and so on. You have many means of summoning an ever-increasing number of these creatures, and so you can quickly build an astonishingly powerful army of minions.

In our guide to this powerful Hearthstone deck, we're going to kick things off with a closer look at of one of the most popular versions of the deck to hit the Kobolds and Catacombs meta. Following that we've got a few important Mulligan tips to help you get off to the strongest start in every match. Finally, we finish things up with a tear-down of all the most important combos and synergies available in this particular version of Jade Druid.

UPDATE - 12th MARCH 2018

The most popular version of Jade Druid being played right now ditches the Spellbreaker of old for a copy of Wrath. This deck will be retired entirely once the new rotation begins in April, but right now this is probably the best version of the archetype you can use.

BREAKING NEWS! - A new expansion is coming! Our massive Hearthstone: The Witchwood guide contains details of the new cards, mechanics and single player content coming to the game.

Jade Druid deck list and strategy

This is the version of Jade Druid that's seeing most play on the ladder right now. Having fallen out of favour somewhat, you should expect more changes to Jade Druid in the months ahead. Rest assured we'll continue tracking it as long as the archetype's part of the meta.

DruidNeutral
2 x Jade Idol2 x Arcane Tyrant
2 x Lesser Jasper Spellstone
2 x Wild Growth
1 x Wrath
2 x Jade Blossom
2 x Branching Paths
1 x Fandral Staghelm
2 x Ironwood Golem
2 x Oaken Summons
2 x Swipe
2 x Nourish
1 x Aya Blackpaw
2 x Jade Behemoth
2 x Spreading Plague
1 x Malfurion the Pestilent
2 x Ultimate Infestation

Select and copy the long ID string below, then create a deck in Hearthstone to export this deck into your game.

Deck Import ID: AAECAZICBMQGrqsClL0CmdMCDUBf5Ai0uwLLvALdvgKgzQKHzgKU0gKY0gKe0gLb0wKE5gIA

Card replacements:

- 1 Fandral Staghelm / + 1 Crypt Lord: Fandral is a nice effect if you have the dust, but Jade Druid can still crush without it. There’s no direct replacement so you can throw in almost anything. Some players have been having success with Crypt Lord as a filler card.

- 1 Malfurion the Pestilent / + 1 Crypt Lord: A cheaper alternative to give you a bit of security from aggro. Definitely weaker, but a reasonable choice if you've no other option.

General strategy:

The signature cards in this deck all support the summoning of your Jade Golems. While the first of these creatures brought into play will only have weak 1 / 1 stats, the second will be a 2 / 2, the third a 3 / 3 and so on ad infinitum as each game plays out.

As a result of these shifting stats, it's incredibly important that you anticipate your opponent's possible removal or AOE clear options in the next few turns, so that you summon these creatures at a size that will make life as difficult as possible for the opponent to deal with.

It's not always easy to do this, but familiarity with the latest shifts in the broader Hearthstone metagame will give you a powerful advantage here. The more you play it, the more you'll understand this deck's incredible strengths and inevitable weaknesses.

Fundamentally, the name of the game is to ramp hard here. The Mulligan section below goes into more detail, but you want to both increase your Mana options nice and quickly, while also beginning the snowballing process of building those deadly Jade Golems.

We note this card in the combo section at the bottom of the page, but don't forget about the incredible value that Fandral Staghelm can help you to achieve as well. With this card in play, both of your Choose One options are triggered on related cards.

Consider the outrageous amount of value that can be achieved, for example, by combining this card with Jade Idol, then using Ultimate Infestation to build a monstrous fighting force.

Final tips:

- Knowing which option to use with your Jade Idol is vital when it comes to generating the kind of infinite value machine that keeps you in games while your opponents are deep into fatigue. The first choice should almost always be to reshuffle it into your deck, then as the game continues consider how useful that extra minion will be on the board, or if you can safely shuffle again. The golden rule: always have one left over you can use it to reshuffle in and sustain your presence in the game.

- Thanks to the immense value of Ultimate Infestation there’s hardly any punishment to be found by emptying your entire hand of ramp cards such as Wild Growth, Jade Blossom and Nourish. Don’t be nervous if you feel like you’re not doing anything for the first few turns but ramping - setting yourself three or four Mana Crystals ahead to drop a Ultimate Infestation on what is essentially Turn 6 or 7 is going to win you the game. The worst thing here is to overdraw because you've held onto too much!

More great Druid guides:

Jade Druid Mulligan guide

The Mulligan process for Jade Druid is really quite simple and varies little between individual match-ups. In general, you are always going to benefit from keeping Wild Growth and Jade Blossom, and so these are your most important cards to dig for.

Why? Well, the sooner you can get Wild Growth and Jade Blossom into play, the greater the benefit you'll achieve overall - you just keep on benefitting from that extra Mana on every single turn. No matter what else is happening on the board these are your Turn 2 and Turn 3 plays if you have the cards to hand.

Jade Idol is another common keep in this deck, but by no means as important as these first two cards - dig deep for them!

At this stage it doesn't feel as though a hero-by-hero Mulligan overview is necessary, as the advice is so consistent across all match-ups. If that changes though we'll continue expanding on this are of our Jade Druid guide.

Jade Druid tips, combos and synergies

Even if you've played this deck before, it never hurts to take a refresher course on all of the core combos involved.

- If the card you want to play features the Choose One mechanic, then you'll actually receive the benefit of both options as long as Fandral Staghelm is alive and out on the board. The cards are affected in this list are: Jade Idol, Nourish and Malfurion the Pestilent. Make sure you plan out your turn carefully as a result of this powerful potential synergy.

- New card Branching Paths will allow you to pick the same effect listed on the card twice if that's what you want. You don't have to pick two of the three options, you can simply double up on your choices!

- Oaken Summons will randomly choose a minion from your deck pile that costs four Mana or less and put it on the board. Targets in this version of the deck are Fandral Staghelm or Ironwood Golem.

- There are five cards with Jade Golem synergy in this deck list: Jade Idol, Jade Blossom, Jade Behemoth and Aya Blackpaw. Your first Jade Golem will be a 1/1 minion, but each subsequently summoned Golem will gain +1/+1 stats. You can create a truly intimidating board presence over time with this mechanic.

- Note that both the Battlecry effect of Malfurion the Pestilent and your new hero power synergise with Fandral Staghelm's bonus effect.

- If you've cast a spell that cost five Mana or more, you can play Arcane Tyrant out for free on the same turn. Look to Nourish, Spreading Plague or Ultimate Infestation to achieve this effect.

- Watch your hand size with Ultimate Infestation, as it's easy to over-draw from your deck and end up burning a crucial card or two in the process.

- If your opponent has more minions than you on the board, casting Spreading Plague will equalise the board width. Once cast it'll summon a 1 / 5 Taunt minion, but if the opponent still has more minions than you it'll be cast again. This repeats until you have a symmetrical board (in terms of minion numbers, that is).

- For the uninitiated, here's how the Druid's new Lesser Jasper Spellstone works. For one Mana you can play it to deal two damage to a minion. Once you've gained a total of three Armor, however, that increases to four points of damage. Gain another three Armor and the card tops out at six damage.

This article contains additional reporting from James Pickard.

Rock Paper Shotgun is the home of PC gaming

Sign in and join us on our journey to discover strange and compelling PC games.

In this article

Hearthstone

Video Game

Related topics
About the Author
John Bedford avatar

John Bedford

Contributor

John is Metabomb's Editor in Chief and looks after the day to day running of the site when he's not writing about Hearthstone.

Comments