Token Druid Deck Guide – Counters, Deck Code, Mulligans – Rise of Shadows (RoS)

Our Token Druid Deck List Guide features the best meta option for the Rise of Shadows expansion! This deck has started to really explode in popularity in the early stages of the new set, and we'll be going over mulligans, play strategy, card choices, and substitutions for any cards you are missing.

Token Druid has been a deck that has had many forms. Some have relied heavily on Violet Teacher , and others have been far more aggressive and took advantage of Druid's infamous ability to ramp and get a bunch of cheap minions on the board early in the game. Both of these tactics took advantage of minion buff cards like Power of the Wild and Savage Roar . Rise of Shadows gives Druid some more new options, and the deck has taken some old Treant synergy and made use of it.

Token Druid Counters

Token Druid is one of the top decks on the ladder right now due to it being pretty cheap as well as it having quite a bit of ability to stay in games they have no business winning. It is doesn't have great matchups against Tempo Rogue and Control Warrior. If you are looking for the true counter, however, then you will want to turn to Warlock Zoo! That is one of the absolute best options you have right now to counter Token Druid on the ladder.

Token Druid Deck List for Rise of Shadows

While going full Treant turned out to be kind of a bust, it looks like splashing it is the key to this deck currently! This is one of the most popular versions of the deck with the highest winrate.

Token Druid Gameplay

If you'd like to see the deck in action, you can check out the video below for some early Rise of Shadows Token Druid gameplay:

Token Druid Mulligan Guide

We're looking for cheap minions, or spells that will give us multiple minions on the board.

Always Keep

• Acornbearer - Just a great turn one play that you can trade into anything and get value back for it.
• Dreamway Guardians - Gets us a couple of minions early in the game so we can potentially guarantee something to work with on the following turn.
• EVIL Cable Rat - Similar to Acornbearer, but we get one of the potentially powerful Lackeys back once we play it. All of the options work well with this deck, but in particular the one that gives a friendly minion +1 Attack and Rush is particularly good.
• Landscaping - Believe it or not, you're very likely going to want to keep Landscaping in your mulligan. Spreading the board right now is very strong with the lack of AOE out there. It's better if you've got a 1 or 2-drop, but you will most likely always want to keep it.

Situational Keeps

• Keeper Stalladris - Can be kept in the right hand. If you've got a playable card, and you've got a cheap Choose One card then you can hold onto Keeper Stalladris.
• Wispering Woods - This card is crazy in this deck right now, especially with stuff like Acornbearer that adds cards to your hand. Keep it if you get a keepable 1 or 2-drop.

Token Druid Play Strategy

The name of the game is overrunning our opponent with our cheap minions and buffs. We'll try to trade up as much as possible with these weaker minions, but we're not as board control heavy as Zoolock. You will want to start pressing for damage when you get the advantage, and start counting damage when you got that Savage Roar in your hand.

The early game is all about pressuring our opponent by forcing them to continually have to deal with our board. Acornbearer is your best early play, we can hopefully trade something and then end up with a couple more plays that will go well with buffs. If in your first couple of turns you are able to have at least a few minions on board, you can consider going in on buffing it if you aren't super concerned about AOE (depends on the class you are against). You can also make this determination based on if you have a hand that will be able to reload your board. Cards like Dreamway Guardians , Landscaping , Wispering Woods , all mean you can likely get away with being aggressive early on because you have ways to refill.

There's no need to be super greedy with cards like Keeper Stalladris . If you can get one guaranteed Choose One, then you are happy with that. It's not always going to be a huge swing, and just getting one is enough to be worthwhile. This also goes for Archmage Vargoth . If you are against a deck that doesn't run a ton of removal, and you have an empty board, go ahead and play the card without a spell. It has good stats, and is pretty hard to remove. While it will sometimes get dealt with, taking a risk on a chance to get a full mana turn with it in the early game can lead to victories. Knowledge of decks and what they run helps when determining whether this play is worth taking or not.

Again, in the vein of not being greedy is with Savage Roar . Yes, this is a great finisher card, but if you can use it to completely clear a problematic board from your opponent then you should do so. This isn't the ideal situation, but it's better than flat out losing the game. This also goes for Soul of the Forest , while it's nice to hit it on a full board, it can sometimes be worth playing it on a board with a few minions on it. Generally, this play is better if you are heading into a likely AOE turn from your opponent.

As we get towards the end of the game, we're looking to keep pressuring our opponent with the constant additions of minions to the board. They are likely long out of AOE at this point, and it's time to start dropping cards like The Forest's Aid and threatening lethal from hand with a buff.

Token Druid Card Choices

• Acornbearer - This is a solid card to start the game off with. It's not as good as Fire Fly, which was a staple for aggressive decks, but it still gives you some cheap minions that can be problematic for your opponent once you start being able to buff your board.
• Crystalsong Portal - It's not too hard to hit all three minions because this deck will have you dumping your hand of minions pretty consistently and you run a lot of summon minion spells. This is a great way to refill after dumping your hand.
• Dreamway Guardians - Now this is a solid card for us and getting a bit of healing is pretty rare in aggro decks. It won't always matter, but there will be times when this buys us enough time to survive and swarm the board.
• EVIL Cable Rat - The Lackeys are very strong, so getting another cheap minion with a strong effect is just what this deck wants.
• Keeper Stalladris - Kind of a slower card (you don't want to play it by itself), but getting extra resources from Power of the Wild, Wrath, and Mark of the Loa is extremely powerful.
• Power of the Wild - This will see play in either version of the deck. We can get a minion on the board, or we can buff our board. Generally, we are looking to buff the board with this card.
• Wrath - Far more likely addition to the deck in the Violet Teacher version. Solid removal spell that sometimes gets us a card, it also pairs pretty well with Keeper Stalladris.
• Blessing of the Ancients - Not nearly as good as Mark of the Lotus , but still a quality spell that will help us buff our board. We want to stick as many minions as possible to receive these type of buffs so they can avoid being wiped away with AOE. There will be games where it's possible that this carries us because we can play it twice on the same turn in the late game.
• Landscaping - Get us two minions on the board, and synergizes with Vargoth for a potential extra two Treants.
• Savage Roar - One of our big finishers, although it sometimes works as just a way to clear a problematic board. This is a great card for token decks, so we expect it to find a spot in this list for sure.
• Archmage Vargoth - We've got a lot of good cheap buff spells, and we can strengthen our board even more with a repeat visit from those spells by Archmage Vargoth.
• Mark of the Loa - Flexible card that can buff a minion, or summon a couple of 3/2 raptors. This also works great with Stalladris and Vargoth.
• Soul of the Forest - If you want to demoralize your opponent, then get a wide board that looks like a juicy AOE target and cast Soul of the Forest to protect it. It's very hard for opposing decks to deal with two full boards of minions.
• Swipe - One of the core Druid cards, just solid damage and potential to clear off weak minions. Can be used to push for lethal, or just as AOE.
• Wispering Woods - While you wouldn't think this card would be good in a deck like this, we actually have ways to take advantage of it. We can get three cards from Crystalsong Portal to add to our hand, and even play that with Archmage Vargoth for an extra card. We also have Archmage Vargoth who will be adding two cards to our hand if we cast a Choose One. It's not that out of the realm of the possibility to get a board full of wisps!
• The Forest's Aid - While I initially thought this card was too slow, it looks like that just isn't the case. Even if you are held off in the early game, your opponent is still going to have to deal with a wide board of 2/2 Treants coming after them. Even if they deal with the first board, they are going to have to deal with it again the next turn!

Token Druid Card Substitutions

This is a pretty cheap deck so there's not a ton you will need to replace. There are some Epics though, and Keeper Stalladris still hasn't proven he's completely worth crafting just yet.

• Argent Squire - Strong early game minion that can trade and receives buffs well.
• Mecharoo - Another good early game minion, it's kind of similar to Acornbearer but gets more of an immediate board presence after death.
• Dire Wolf Alpha - Great in token decks, but better when you are looking to trade more often.
• Hench-Clan Hogsteed - Aggressive early game minion that can trade and replace itself with a minion.
• Knife Juggler - Better with more Deathrattles, but still would work well in our list because of all our summon minion spells.
• Scarab Egg - Better in a version that runs Dire Wolf, but we have enough buffs to take advantage of this card in the current version.
• Tending Tauren - Pretty slow minion, but has synergy with Stalladris and does two things that we're looking for out of a card for this deck.