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https://i.redd.it/bkwfljgzk6531.png

Intro

Hello all, I have recently reached my highest ever legend ranking. I have been to legend rank 4 or 5 times in both standard and wild and usually end up somewhere in the dumpster but this season was the easiest legend climb that I've ever had in addition to a great climb once I got into legend. I made my climb with quest mage, and then kicked around ranks 100-200 for about 3 days before I changed to togwaggle druid. From there, I've climbed from rank ~220 to where I currently sit at rank 23. The deck has been absolutely insane for me, its got the tools to have a consistent game plan against aggressive decks and it just destroys anything slower that can't disrupt you.

The deck is extremely strong and has a very unique game-plan - essentially relying on the defensive core of druid cards to carry you to your combo pieces and then stealing your opponents deck (after you are likely "ahead" in the fatigue race) and giving them a few useless cards from your own deck and watching them die in fatigue.

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Stats (recorded from ~220 legend to current rank 23)

https://imgur.com/pptV6nn (sorry the image sucks!)

Deck List

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2x (0) Innervate - The main card you will use for comboing Aviana with. Has a lot of flexible use especially in games on the coin.

2x (1) Lesser Jasper Spellstone - Your main source of hard removal. Best saved for the threatening minions you know an opponent has.

1x (3) Ferocious Howl - 1 copy seems good. Great for additional armor, but too slow for 2 slots.

2x (3) Jade Blossom - The new wild growth, and the body is relevant against aggro

1x (4) Archmage Vargoth - Reason #1 why this deck is able to work. The synergy with oaken summons and many other spells is totally busted. Just be careful casting UI with him on the board...

2x (4) Branching Paths - Slow card but so great that it gets a two-of the in the deck. Allows for you to adapt to pretty much any situation.

1x (4) Hecklebot - Amazing stats, potential to bust up opposing combo decks (I honestly have yet to have this happen). Nothing feels better then pulling him and vargoth on 4 against aggro and the opponent just insta-cedes.

2x (4) Oaken Summons - Synergy with vargoth makes this card insane. Even pulling hecklebot alone is good.

2x (4) Poison Seeds - Great against decks that go tall (big priest, even sham). Can turn a massive board into a modest one. Can totally screw over opponents when paired with spreading plague on a wide board.

2x (4) Swipe - Decent hard removal/AOE. I don't think any druid deck except token ever doesn't play without good ole' swipe. Absolutely ridiculous with Vargoth

1x (5) Starfall - Decent flex card, can hard removal up to 5/5 stats or AOE against token. Obvious synergy with poisen seeds.

2x (6) Nourish - Earns a spot in this decklist. Ramp is important in any deck that wants to play UI.

2x (6) Spreading Plague - This card really is disgusting, especially against token decks. Buffing the scarabs to 3/5 is sometimes enough to just flat out win against aggro.

1x (7) Azalina Soulthief - Pretty self explanatory card. Steal opponent's hand, make crazy stuff happen.

1x (7) Malfurion the Pestilent - Amazing card, great synergy with the overall deck plan.

1x (8) Jepetto Joybuzz - Reason #2 why this deck is viable. Adds so much speed to your cycling and running only a few minions makes his pulls very consistent.

1x (8) King Togwaggle - Self explanatory card, deck is built around this guy! Worth noting that if your opponent ever has 10 cards in hand you can just play him and steal their deck with no ransom given.

1x (10) Aviana - Even at 10 mana, still an amazing card and Jeppetto makes it very likely that you are going to be able to consistently combo with her without having to spend forever digging for that last piece.

1x (10) Kun the Forgotten King - Combo piece #2, in some games you wont need him (explained below). In some games you can play him for 10 armor if you just need to survive to win.

2x (10) Ultimate Infestation - Much better card then melon in this deck. Because we play essentially a fatigue game, this card plays perfectly into the plan. In most games we want to ramp to 10 mana ASAP and cast this.

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Exclusions

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Biology Project - Lets face Barnes -> Y'sharraj -> Ragnaros on turn 1!

Juicy Psychmelon - Adds some speed while sacrificing our aggro matchups. In general the deck is already quite good against slower decks, so this card just makes good match-ups better and bad matchups worse. We also want to cycle through much of our deck before we combo, so having 5 combo pieces in hand for a long time gives you a clunky hand that is vulnerable to disruption.

Emperor Thaurissan - Too slow, bad against aggro. We already have 3 cards (4 on the coin) that allow us to "mana cheat" Aviana so adding one more is unlikely to help and also makes our pulls from Jeppetto less consistent (we would rather just pull Aviana then pull Emperor to use on Aviana).

Ironwood Golem - I opted for hecklebot instead. Probably doesn't matter much, I think the disruption ability is relevant and a 3/8 is playable from hand against token decks anyways.

Mulligan

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In general, jade blossom and oaken summons are keeps 99% of the time. Spellstone and swipe can be kept against aggro (and plague specifically against paladin). Against control decks howl, nourish, and jeppetto can be kept. You can keep malfurion specifically against mage since most play some burn game-plan and you want to stack armor ASAP.

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The Combo

The "basic" idea of this deck is playing togwaggle and azalina in the same turn to steal your opponents deck and then copy the ransom with azalina so when they play it you can play it in return and permanently take their deck. Before the Aviana nerf, combo druid was busted and could just play without any other cards but now with aviana and kun both at 10 mana we need some help! With two innervates and jeppetto, we get just that.

The main combo of this deck is to play Aviana, innervate, and then play Kun, Togwaggle, Azalina (must be that order!) to steal your opponents deck and also have a bunch of mana left over to do ridiculous things like play a bunch of their busted minions or spells. Jeppetto makes this even more insane because:

1. If you hit either togwaggle or azalina with Jeppetto, you dont even need Aviana or Kun at all.
2. If you hit Aviana, you can combo immediately in some cases and do not need Kun at all.
3. If you hit Kun, you can play Togwaggle -> 1 mana Kun -> Azalina and you don't need Aviana.
4. If dirty rat or whatever pulls Aviana or Kun, you dont automatically lose
5. The "worst" version of the combo that still technically works is to play Aviana, innervate, Togwaggle, innervate, Azalina. This can overcome losing Kun to dirty rat or whatever.

If you CAN play Aviana or Kun with your combo, ALWAYS do it even if you don't have to because they allow for some disgusting mana cheating plays. Take that big priest!

General Playing Tips

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- Vargoth is an amazing card but CAN backfire if you make some silly mistakes. Never coin/oaken summons, be wary of using spellstone (only in necessary situations or times where the odds are greatly in your favor).

- Don't waste your innervates. Innervate/UI or innervate/nourish is always great but remember that when you are using an innervate you are now requiring yourself to find the other copy or hit the right minions with Jeppetto to combo. I'm not saying don't EVER innervate/UI on 9 but just think before you mindlessly do.

- Once you have all of your combo pieces in hand, go crazy. Cast UI with 10 cards in hand (bonus points if Vargoth is on board), cast nourish and mill a bunch of stuff. Getting closer to fatigue will make your time easier "post swap" since you don't auto win when stealing your opponents deck. If you draw crazy good and have every combo piece in hand but still have 15 cards in your deck, you should generally try to burn a few if you think you can do so without putting yourself in real danger.

- You can combo with just Togwaggle and Azalina if either gets mana reduced from Jeppetto. You don't need Kun to combo, you don't even need Aviana in some games. They are "optimal" since you can mana cheat a lot more and make totally outrageous plays but if Aviana gets pulled from combo disruption you don't auto lose anymore.

- Its obviously best to try to use all of your important cards once you combo. You will often have 7-8 mana left after comboing, and you can either use cards that have value or steal your opponents hard and see what goodies they have for you. Remember that you don't auto win when you combo, so still play defensively. If you get Lich King and Rag from a big priest, dont just slam them mindlessly think about what your opponent may be trying to do.

- This deck does not run a ton of removal but you also do not have to kill everything to win. A lone obsidian statue smacking you in the face can often be ignored while you continue to dig for your combo.

- This deck definitely has an "element of surprise" as most players will likely not start thinking you are a combo druid until no jades are played around turn 6/7. Use that to your advantage (some pointers in more detail below).

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Match-ups

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Druid

Jade (unfavored) - If the druid is not clueless and manages to draw jade idol before you combo you will have a hard time since you won't be able to fatigue him. In general, I think this is a matchups where you want to play as many "jade idol" things as possible (jade blossom, vargoth etc) as if you can get him to play his jade idol early you greatly increase your chance of being able to combo before he finds his other ones. Combo as fast as you can and hope for the best. I've managed to beat a few by stealing his jade idol and getting him very close to fatigue so he's just cycling idols and we can eventually beat him on board with more plays but this is still an inconsistent plan.

Aggro (favored) - Oaken summons just dumpsters token decks. Most of his minions are vulnerable to swipe, spellstone etc so just keep the board manageable (don't have to kill everything) until you can spreading plague and its usually over as most token druid will go wide as fast as possible.

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Hunter

Mech (even) - When you lose, you normally lose fast. This deck tends to run out of steam around turn 5, so surviving until then is usually enough to win if you have the tools to do so. Try to keep his board in check and hope he can't buff anything to outrageous levels early on.

Secret (favored) - Outside of barnes shenanigans they rarely can put up enough pressure to stop your combo and probably can't deal with the massive board your combo creates.

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Mage

Quest (moderately favored) - Put stuff on the board, gain armor. Unless they draw out of control, you normally can survive whatever final push they try to dish out and stealing their deck often ruins their ability to effectively execute said final push. Bonus points if you can steal his quest

Tempo (favored) - Easier then quest mage, you just have to have some answers for his early game minions. Don't let the board get out of control and gain armor any chance you get. More often then not, they will die in fatigue after playing aluneth while you sit behind a board of scarabs laughing.

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Paladin

Odd (favored) - Spreading plague just destroys this deck. Poisen seeds is a decent counter to the new paladin secret. Don't be overly greedy here, as the one play that can totally ruin you is loatheb on 5 into quartermaster the following turn while you sit there unable to do anything. If you can cast plague or swipe, use them. Odd paladin is also a deck that needs board to win, so once you have any means of comboing with Aviana/Kun its often best to do so regardless of deck swapping as if you can take the board you usually just win regardless.

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Priest

Big (moderately favored) - I love nothing more then having the big priest assume I'm some poor jade druid they will murder and then stealing their whole deck. Like most combo decks, big priest will beat you if they barnes on 4 and resurrect a bunch of stuff really fast but otherwise you can normally combo well before they can kill you. Play defensive and cycle as fast as you can. My experience thus far has also been once you do combo the priest is often sitting there with a hand full of removal since you don't play anything that would force him to use hysteria/lightbomb ect. Be wary of using poisen seeds on a massive board for having 10 treants screamed into your deck...

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Rogue

Odd (favored) - This deck is a bit tame compared to what it used to do. In general, we have enough armor to survive their early aggression. Like other aggro decks, oaken summons into vargoth just destroys their gameplan. Also like aggro decks, try to position yourself so you arn't totally screwed to a loatheb on 5 (having an upgraded spellstone is often good so you can remove something still on 6).

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Shaman

Murloc (even) - Kill angler, warleaders, and scargill. If you can do that, you will win almost every time. Easier said then done unfortunately. This deck snowballs out of control crazy fast so keeping their hand and board small is the key to winning. Spreading plague does nothing if his board is buffed since he will either play devolve of just punch through it and kill you next turn. KEEP HIS BOARD SMALL, only route to victory. This is one matchup where you forget about your combo and just do whatever it takes to kill stuff, so don't feel bad playing coin/innervate/swipe on turn 2 to kill that angler.

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Even (unfavored) - The matchups this deck folds to are decks that have a way to outlive our combo (infinite) or decks with a bunch of big beefy minions. Even shaman is not an unwinnable matchup, but it definitely sucks. We will never kill everything and generally have to find our combo as soon as possible and hope it's enough. Try to wait until he dumps a bunch of big minions to use poisen seeds, else he will just drop more big one's next turn (which he might anyways).

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Warlock

Mecha'thun (even?) - I might have just been lucky/unlucky but I did not face many despite this being a popular deck. However, the strength of our deck is that we combo faster then them but may not actually have the aggressive tools to stop them from comboing themselves... this is one opponent who may not be too upset to get branching paths and nourish from our deck. We can win by 1) comboing first and they don't have a piece or 2) letting them cycle FASTER then us, comboing, stealing their combo and killing them before they can combo. I'm hoping I meet more of these opponents as I'm genuinely interested in the craziness that this matchup could bring.

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Warrior

Pirate (favored) - They like to go face, we can put taunts in front of face, or make face have lots of armor. They don't like armor. If you can survive until turn 5, you should win. If you get oaken summons on curve, you almost can't lose.

Odd Warrior (moderately favored) - You have all the time in the world to set up your combo, however winning in fatigue may not be an automatic expectation against his deck which also looks to do the same. Try to get way ahead of him in the fatigue race (cast UI/nourish to burn cards etc). Its probably best to wait until you are near the end of your deck to swap, as you should be able to get 5-8 cards ahead of him. Elysiana being odd warrior playable also adds some potential to the match, though I don't think it affects much unless your opponent manages to find a way to keep you from stealing her.

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Some closing thoughts

I have enjoyed climbing with this deck as much as I have ever enjoyed playing this game. I hope I can offer some people some interest to start playing more combo druid (notice I didn't even include the mirror match in matchups because I have yet to play one!). And for you big priest haters, I'll just leave this here:

https://i.redd.it/20lb1bbi26531.png