Introduction
This is one of my favourite decks. It is the Ramp Druid from days long past, reworked for today’s standards. (Get it? Standard mode… standards… ha.) Basically, the deck works one of two ways. First, you draw Astral Communion in your first few cards, and simply steamroll your opponent. Second, you don’t draw Astral Communion but you make use of all your ramp anyway. Basically you get to eight or more mana crystals by turn five, typically. Then you proceed to play massive threats until they give in. It’s a great off-meta deck that still does very well! It’s not quite as consistent as other decks, but it’s much more fun.
Astral Communion Decklist
This decklist is highly susceptible to change. Which is good, since not too many players have all of these legendaries. In fact, I changed up the list myself, since the original had Icehowl and Soggoth, who I don’t have. If you are missing some of the big legendaries, feel free to replace them with others. The really important ones are Deathwing, Ragnaros, and Alexstrazsa. Chillmaw and Arch-Thief in particular are easy to replace. The original decklist I used also didn’t have Mire Keepers, but I find they are good for consistency.
Playstyle
Obviously the biggest goal you have is ramping up. One of the hardest parts of this deck is deciding on mulligans. Your goal is to have at least one Innervate and Astral Communion in your opening hand. However, you do have other low cost cards, and deciding what to keep can be tricky. My general rule of thumb is keep Raven Idol to search for one of them, keep Wild Growth obviously, keep Wrath, and then throw everything else back. There’s another mulligan situation that I run into sometimes however. If you have Innervate and Astral Communion in your opening hand, you want to mulligan for ramp. You want to keep cards you won’t want later. So for example, if you have an Astral, Innvervate, and Nourish, you may want to keep the Nourish so it’s not in your deck.
Once you get to a high enough mana total, you’re simply going to want to play defense for a bit. This is where putting Icehowl and Soggoth in your deck will help. Make use of your big taunts and healing to stabilize. Then simply overpower them with your many bombs.
Good Matchups
This deck rolls most control decks. You’re so top heavy that they simply can’t deal with your threats. If you are against someone you know has board clears, play it slow. You don’t need to overcommit when every one of your cards are massive threats. Learning what board clears each deck runs is a big deal with this deck. As long as you don’t get outvalued, you should win.
Bad Matchups
Aggressive decks are bad. I’ve lost to several Aggro Shamans and Dragon Warriors after hitting my Astral Communion on turn three. If you don’t manage to hit a relevant card the very next turn, it’s almost impossible to claim the board. If you do find yourself against lots of aggressive decks, Soggoth is really good. Putting more healing in your deck can be good, but it’s a very double edged sword for control matchups. This deck is simply better in midrange and control metas.