Now that it’s been a couple of weeks since Hearthstone’s Knights Of The Frozen Throne expansion was released, we can take a hard look at the meta. Jade Druid currently dominates the upper ranks with an over 50 percent win rate at rank one against all decks according to data collector Viscous Syndicate. It’s also, by far, the most consistent archetype in the expansion, easily beating most Control match-ups and barely struggling against Aggro like Pirate Warrior. If you play Jade Druid, you’re going to be moving up the ladder quicker than your opponents, I can tell you from experience.
I’ve been playing my Jade Druid deck, with Kun The Forgotten King and Spellbreaker to handle those pesky taunts, and am currently hard stuck at rank one. Going up against another Malfurion in a mirror match-up is either an easy win or impossible. If they curve out every turn, meaning Wild Growth into Jade Blossom into more Jades, you can’t keep up unless you have the same. Then, it just becomes a card-draw fest, with Ultimate Infestation filling your hand for a nominal fee of ten-mana.
Hearthstone’s subreddit has been in complaint mode because of UI and what they feel it’s doing to the game. There are threads dedicated to raging at the Jade Druid archetype, with players fed up at the tedium it brings to the game. Reddit user Sheepthunder writes in all caps so you know he means business: “I STILL DON’T UNDERSTAND HOW ULTIMATE INFESTATION IS OKAY LIKE A 5 MANA MINION WITH 9 MANA WORTH OF CARD DRAW AND GAINING 5 ARMOR ON TOP OF DEALING 5 DAMAGE IS 20 MANA STAT. HOW THE FUCK IS THE CLASS THAT CAN REACH 10 MANA ON TURN 5 CAN HAVE SUCH A CARD.”
Another user, fawbz, has played against Jade Druids for 75 percent of his matches, which does seem fairly likely. “When a deck or class becomes so powerful that the entire meta shapes around it as it is right now, it just isn't healthy for the game,” he writes. Others have tried to normalize Ultimate Infestation, claiming that it’s just a really good 10-mana card. They fail to take into account that Druid can ramp up earlier than any opponent, making it much easier to play the broken swarm injector onto the field. If Druids didn’t have access to Innervate or Wild Growth, Ultimate Infestation would be a fairly normal card. It would still be really good, but playing around it would be possible. Popping a 5/5 minion onto the board, drawing five cards and gaining five armor on turn five is kind of nuts.
So, what can be done about Jade Druid? You can play a counter to the deck, like Murloc Paladin, which is filled with early aggression and buffs to beat your opponent into a pulp before they have a chance to stand up, but that isn’t enough. In Aggro Shaman’s heyday, almost a third of all the games played on the ladder were against it. Tunnel trogg into Totemic Golem was too good to beat, causing a good amount of baby rage from Hearthstone players.
Team 5, the developers behind the game, really do need to step in or the Knights Of the Frozen Throne meta is doomed. Having a choose two option on Ultimate Infestation would be enough to knock the card down to size. Drawing five cards and getting a 5/5 ghoul should be enough to keep the card good, without it being the ridiculous game changer that it is right now.
Have you figured out a better solution to the Jade Druid problem? Tell us in the comments.
