Spiteful Druid deck list guide - The Witchwood - Hearthstone (April 2018)

Our Spiteful Druid deck list guide features the best deck list for The Witchwood (April 2018). Our Spiteful Druid guide also contains Mulligan advice, card combos and strategy tips.

Spiteful Druid is a relatively new kind of archetype for the hero, and one which looks beyond cards like Innervate and Wild Growth for inspiration when it comes to cheating out big minions. How exactly? Well, casting Spiteful Summoner reveals a spell from your deck, and then grants you a random minion that costs the same as that spell. Ultimate Infestation is the only possible target in this context, and so you're guaranteed a meaty ten Mana drop.

Along the way you'll field a pretty fast board presence, while also increasing your future Mana reserves through cards like Greedy Sprite. It's already proving to be a pretty popular deck in the new Witchwood meta, and we'll be updating this one regularly throughout the expansion's life-span.

In this article we highlight the most competitive version of Spiteful Druid that you can play right now, and also provide strategy advice on how to pilot it. After that we've got a Mulligan section, gameplay video of the deck in action and a teardown of all the combos contained in this particular list. Finally, we've wrapped things up by highlighting some of the key cards in the deck, so you use them as a jumping off point for your own creations!

We'll be updating this guide regularly, so check back soon for another post-launch update.

Spiteful Druid deck list and strategy

Here's the Spiteful Druid deck that's proving the most competitive in the current early stages of the Witchwood meta. We'll be updating this one continually in the days and weeks ahead so check back soon for another update.

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

Deck Import ID: AAECAZICBJnTApziAtDnAovuAg3eBfIFjQiXwQLrwgLKwwLJxwLKywKHzgL55gLX6wKM7wKJ8QIA

Like its Priest counterpart, Spiteful Druid has done very well out of the new rotation. The only spell it runs is Ultimate Infestation, and so you're guaranteed to pull a ten Mana minion. With a lot of the less desirable ten-cost cards getting cycled out of Standard play, you get a lot more value out of the combo.

You have to get to Turn 6 - or sooner if you've ramped up your Mana reserves - in order to field Spiteful Summoner onto the board though, and so the name of the game is control until the mid-game rolls around. From there, you should be able to put up an offensive fight that quickly overwhelms the opponent.

Here's how the classic three stages of your Spiteful Druid match look:

Early-game: Quite simply, if the opportunity to play Prince Keleseth presents itself, you take it. Once fielded, the Prince ensures that any minions you draw into subsequently have +1 / +1 stats. Otherwise look to use cards like Druid of the Scythe and Tar Creeper to bother the opponent's board, and Greedy Sprite to generate an extra Mana Crystal.

Mid-game: At this point you hope to start fattening up your board by making use of cards like Twilight Drake, Cobalt Scalebane and Scaleworm too. Note that this latter card can do even more board-control work if you have a Dragon in your hand when it's played. As you move from the mid to the late-game, you've hopefully drawn into a Spiteful Summoner play (and hopefully not both Ultimate Infestation spells...)

Late game: If you haven't already taken charge of the proceedings then you have a lot of power to last the late-game. Grand Archivist has further positive synergy with Ultimate Infestation, while Malfurion the Pestilent and Wyrmguard both provide stupendously stubborn options to help you outlast your opponent.

Aggro Opponents

Here are some specific tips for dealing with aggro-focused opponents on the new Standard ladder. We'll update this section - and the one below - as we gain more experience with piloting this deck.

• 1. In both types of match-up you need to control the board, but this advice goes double when you're up against fast decks.
• 2. Taunts are your friend here, and you should do everything you can to protect them. Use other cards, use your Hero Power, and do whatever it takes to keep them in the fight and frustrating the opponent for as long as possible.
• 3. Paladins in particular are proving rampant in the fresh Witchwood meta, and you should do whatever it takes to clear the board down so the opponent has minimal targets to buff.
• 4. The longer the match goes on, the better your odds of winning are. Getting a pair of 1 / 5 Taunts through Malfurion the Pestilent, for example, can quickly provide you with a major advantage.

Control opponents

Next, here are some thoughts on how to play Spiteful Druid when you're up against somewhat slower, control-orientated players:

• 1. The usual advice applies here. Go faster, and get over the finishing line a lot more quickly than you typically would. While you're a relatively slow deck, you're not pure control and will find it harder to keep up in the late-game.
• 2. If you're not already running a deck tracker that follows your opponent's plays throughout the match, consider getting one. Being able to see how many of their typical hard removal options have been used up can make a big difference to your decisions about either trading, or just hitting the other player in the face.

More great guides:

• 1. Hand Druid - Hand Druid deck list guide (Witchwood)
• 2. Spiteful Druid - Spiteful Druid deck list guide (Witchwood)
• 3. Taunt Recruit Druid - Taunt Recruit Druid deck list guide (Witchwood)
• 4. Cube Druid - Cube Druid deck list guide (Witchwood)
• 5. Witchwood Decks - Best Witchwood Decks
• 6. Budget Decks - Budget Witchwood decks
• 7. Monster Hunt - Hearthstone: Monster Hunt guide

Spiteful Druid Mulligan guide

When the meta has become properly established we're going to add advice in here about what to keep when you queue into specific opponents. We just need a better idea of what they're piloting before we can give detailed advice.

With that said, there are some keeps that are proving useful across many match-ups, and so we wanted to highlight them here. We've also got a little bit of insight into why you're looking for each one as well, which should help you build a solid approach to handling the early-game.

• 1. Prince Keleseth: If you played any Tempo Rogue in the last meta, you'll know exactly why we're singling this one out. Get this on the board on Turn 2 - or Turn 1 with The Coin - and your win-rate shoots up. The value is insane!
• 2. Fire Fly: A really useful early-game presence that regenerates a version of itself - sort of - to boot. It's hard to go wrong with this kind of early play.
• 3. Greedy Sprite: The faster you can get hold of your bonus Mana Crystal in the match, the more benefit you'll gain from it across the entirety of the encounter.

Those three cards are pretty much your priority targets for the best possible start as Spiteful Druid. Tar Creeper has further value - particularly in aggro match-ups - but is a less desirable target than the other three. Go all in to find them.

Spiteful Druid Video Guides

To help you get to grips with this new version of Spiteful Druid, we're going to highlight a gameplay video that shows the deck in action.

Although the creator won't be using the exact version of the deck that we're highlighting here, the general insight should prove useful nevertheless:

Spiteful Druid tips and card combos

Here are all of the biggest combos that exist in this exact version of Spiteful Druid. When the deck list changes we'll update this section of our guide:

- Once played, Prince Keleseth will give every card left in your deck pile an extra +1 / +1 of stats. Note this doesn't affect the cards in your hand, and you should always plan to play this card as early on in the game as possible.

- Druid of the Scythe has flexibility to be either a 4 / 2 that can immediately take out a four-Health enemy minion, or a 2 / 4 Taunt that can seriously annoy an aggro opponent early on.

- When Greedy Sprite dies you'll be granted an extra Mana Crystal for the remainder of the match. The earlier you can get this one off the better!

- Remember that Tar Creeper only has its extra Attack on the opponent's turn, and not your own. You might need to do a little bit of full or partial trading to make life tricky for the other player after you've hit End Turn.

- Twilight Drake gains an extra point of Health for each card you have in your hand when the Dragon's put down on the board. It goes without saying that this should be the first play of your turn if you intend to drop it at all.

- When you hit End Turn, your Cobalt Scalebane will select a friendly minion and give it three extra - permanent - points of Attack. It can't target itself though, so you need another target out in play (which can be another Scalebane, it should be said).

- Signature card Spiteful Summoner reveals a spell from your deck, then summons a random minion that costs the same as that spell. With Ultimate Infestation being the only spell in this context, you'll get a ten Mana minion.

- If you have another Dragon in your hand when it's put into play, new card Wyrmguard gains Taunt and an extra point of Attack power.

- Hit End Turn and your Grand Archivist will cast Ultimate Infestation - assuming there's a copy left in your deck, that is.

- Do keep in mind that Primordial Drake's Battlecry damage affects your own minions as well as the other player's!

Spiteful Druid Card Choices and Substitutes

The following cards are considered the backbone of the Spiteful Druid deck and will feature in just about every version of the archetype. If you want to start experimenting with your own take on the format, make sure you make room for these:

Prince of Keleseth: The undisputed king of value in Hearthstone right now. While it's not technically required that you include this Legendary in your Spiteful Druid deck, it's a huge loss of power not to, and not something that can be replicated through cheaper means.

Spiteful Summoner: It's not called Spiteful Druid for nothing! When this card is played, a spell is revealed, summoning a mininon that costs the same. Big spells equal big minions. Simple.

Ultimate Infestation: By including Ultimate Infestation - and only that spell - in your deck, you're guaranteed to get a ten-Mana minion out of Spiteful Summoner. Unless you've already drawn both spells, which happens, and is very sad when it does.

Grand Archivist: Another big spell interaction. At the end of your turn, he'll cast a spell from your deck and...you get the idea. Just be aware that he might randomly send those five points of Ultimate Infestation damage into your face or another friendly minion.

Malfurion the Pestilent: Provides a lot of late-game staying power thanks to a flexible new Hero Power and the ability to summon one of two problematic minions to suit the encounter at hand.

Primordial Drake: Not really a signature card as such, but it's extremely common to include this card as it provides an annoying body on the board and a Battlecry that's potentially devastating for the opponent.