Hearthstone: Even Druid deck guide (Genn Greymane)

Genn Greymane is one of the signature cards that was revealed during the announcement of The Witchwood expansion, and it's a Legendary which challenges you to build a deck using only cards that cost an even amount of Mana. Do so and your Hero Power cost will be reduced to one, allowing you to fill in the gaps in your Mana curve rather handily.

What will this mean for the Druid though, and what cards will be affected by Genn's restrictions? In the first of a series of articles looking at this Legendary's implications on the game's heroes, we've highlighted all of the cards that you won't be able to make use of in these kind of decks.

Although Wild has become increasingly popular in the last few months, it still lies very much in the shadow of the Standard format, and so the first iteration of our Genn Greymane Druid guide focus on the restrictions that the card represents for this latter mode.

If there's demand to expand into Wild then we'll include the format in a future update. For now, we've simply compiled a few notes on the most popular Wild decks seeing play in the current meta, and what Genn's restrictions might mean for those decks (spoiler: bad news for the most part).

Genn Greymane and Druids in the Classic / Basic sets

Here are some of the more notable Druid cards from the Classic and Basic sets that will not be compatible with Genn Greymane due to their Mana cost.

Although not all of them are seeing play in the current meta, we include all cards from these sets as they may well become more relevant with the synergies afforded by The Witchwood:

Classic

• Naturalize (1 Mana)
• Savagery (1 Mana)
• Mark of Nature (3 Mana)
• Druid of the Claw (5 Mana)
• Force of Nature (5 Mana)
• Nourish (5 Mana)
• Starfall (5 Mana)
• Ancient of Lore (7 Mana)
• Ancient of War (7 Mana)
• Cenarius (7 Mana)

Basic

• Claw (1 Mana)
• Healing Touch (3 Mana)
• Savage Roar (3 Mana)

Genn Greymane and Druids in the Standard format

If you want to use Genn Greymane for a Standard deck when he launches, note that you won't be able to make use of the following cards from those sets that will form part of the Year of the Raven:

The Witchwood

• Druid of the Scythe (3 Mana)
• Ferocious Howl (3 Mana)
• Witching Hour (3 Mana)
• Bewitched Guardian (5 Mana)
• Gloom Stag (5 Mana)
• Duskfallen Aviana (5 Mana)

Un'Goro

• Jungle Giants (1 Mana)
• Earthen Scales (1 Mana)
• Elder Longneck (3 Mana)
• Living Mana (5 Mana)
• Verdant Longneck (5 Mana)
• Giant Anaconda (7 Mana)

Frozen Throne

• Crypt Lord (3 Mana)
• Gnash (3 Mana)
• Fatespinner (5 Mana)
• Webweave (5 Mana)
• Malfurion the Pestilent (7 Mana)
• Hadronox (9 Mana)

Kobolds and Catacombs

• Barkskin (1 Mana)
• Lesser Jasper Spellstone (1 Mana)
• Greedy Sprite (3 Mana)
• Ixlid, Fungal Lord (5 Mana)

Other Baku / Genn deck guides:

Genn Greymane and Druids in the Wild format

Here are some of the most popular Druid decks being played in the Wild format right now. Although the meta will shift once again when the new set goes live, we've put together some basic thoughts on how Genn's restrictions will affect the archetypes at launch, and as we wait for a new Wild meta to establish itself:

It won't take you long to look at this list and realise that Genn Greymane is a pretty poor fit for all of the current Wild decks. Baku the Mooneater on the other hand seems like a much, much more powerful tool. Again, we'll just have to see how things actually shake out in the live Witchwood meta.

Jade Druid:

Jade Druid will be a Wild-exclusive archetype once The Witchwood goes live, as so many of its foundational cards belong to the Gadgetzan set which is of course being rotated out. Furthermore, here are the commonly used cards for the archetype that won't be compatible with a Genn Greymane deck:

• Jade Idol (1 Mana)
• Lesser Jasper Spellstone (1 Mana)
• Living Roots (1 Mana)
• Naturalize (1 Mana)
• Jade Blossom (1 Mana)
• Nourish (5 Mana)
• Malfurion the Pestilent (7 Mana)

Malygos Druid:

• Lesser Jasper Spellstone (1 Mana)
• Living Roots (1 Mana)
• Naturalize (1 Mana)
• Jade Blossom (3 Mana)
• Faceless Manipulator (5 Mana)
• Nourish (5 Mana)
• Malfurion the Pestilent (7 Mana)
• Aviana (9 Mana)
• Malygos (9 Mana)

Aggro Token Druid:

• Dire Mole (1 Mana)
• Enchanted Raven (1 Mana)
• Fire Fly (1 Mana)
• Living Roots (1 Mana)
• Mark of the Lotus (1 Mana)
• Sir Finley Mrrgglton (1 Mana)
• Crypt Lord (3 Mana)
• Savage Roar (3 Mana)
• Living Mana (5 Mana)

To find out all the latest on Hearthstone's eighth expansion, make sure you take a look through our comprehensive Witchwood guide. We've also got everything you need to know about the new single-player content in our Monster Hunt guide!