Dalaran Heist Druid Guide
This guide is designed to aid you in your adventures through The Dalaran Heist. It goes into great detail regarding Treasure and Bucket choices when it comes to playing the Druid Henchman, Squeamlish, to help you make optimal choices in creating a deck throughout The Dalaran Heist chapters.
Overview
The Druid class is represented by the Henchman Squeamlish. You will begin with the Shapeshift Hero Power and a 10 card starter deck. Once you begin using the Druid class in The Dalaran Heist, you will begin unlocking new Druid Hero Powers and starter decks for you future runs.
Hero Powers
Each class has 3 available Hero Powers that can be chosen at the start of a run.
The Shapeshift Hero Power is the base Druid Hero Power used on your first Druid run and is an Average Hero Power as it can remove low-Health minions, but it comes at a large cost of Mana and Health.
The Lifebloom Hero Power is unlocked by playing a total of 15 Choose One cards with Druid in The Dalaran Heist and is an Excellent Hero Power that can be used to heal up a large minion each turn for huge value.
The Touch of Bark Hero Power is unlocked after gaining Attack a total of 25 times with Druid in The Dalaran Heist and is considered an Average Hero Power. While the buff itself can snowball out of control, it is very slow to offer good value.
Starting Decks
After you have chosen your Hero Power, you will be able to choose from 1 of 4 10-card starting decks. Initially, you will only be able to choose from one deck, but you will unlock more in your future runs as you defeat bosses with the Druid class.
Ferocity
Ferocity is the default Druid starting deck. It features a mix of Tokens, Beasts, and Armor-gain for reasonable openers and is an Average deck choice and consists of the following 10 cards:
Druid Cards | Neutral Cards |
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Two Paths
Two Paths is the second Druid starting deck and can be unlocked after defeating 5 bosses with the Druid class. It is a Good starting deck that contains Mana Acceleration and defensive tools and consists of the following 10 cards:
Druid Cards | Neutral Cards |
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Nature's Boon
Nature's Boon is the third Druid starting deck and can be unlocked after defeating 10 bosses with the Druid class. It is an Average starting choice themed around healing effects and attacking with your Hero and consists of the following 10 cards:
Druid Cards | Neutral Cards |
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Random Druid Deck
The option to have a Random 10-card Druid Deck to begin with can be unlocked after defeating 15 bosses with the Druid class. The cards chosen are completely random and offer little to no synergy. The starting deck is a Bad choice and should only be chosen if you want a challenge.
Treasures
After defeating the 1st, 3rd, 5th, and 7th boss in a Dalaran Heist run, you will get to choose 1 of 3 random powerful Treasure cards that you can add to your deck. The Treasures after the 1st and 5th boss will offer passive effects and the Treasures offered after the 3rd and 7th bosses will be powerful playable cards that you can add to your deck.
The tables below contain a list of all the possible Treasures and Passive effects available and give them a general rating as to how good they are for the Druid class. The comments give further details as to how and why the Treasures are good in addition to some of the Card Buckets that they have good synergies with.
Treasure Cards
Treasure | Rating | Comments |
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Dreamgrove Ring | Excellent | Dreamgrove Ring itself has quite a high variance in results. However, summoning 5 minions alone is very strong. However, there are many Legendary minions that win the game on the spot if you summon 5 copies, such as Ragnaros the Firelord, The Lich King, and Ysera. |
Super Simian Sphere | Excellent | Super Simian Sphere provides a consistent method of board control that, alone, can keep any normal board in check, while providing a significant amount of damage per turn against empty boards. |
THE... Candles? | Excellent | THE... CANDLES? makes full use of the Twinspell mechanic, providing a board clear that can be played 4 times throughout the game. Its flexibility allows is to clear 2 large boards, or many small ones to allow your minions to freely pressure opponents. |
Annoy-o Horn | Good | Annoy-o Horn provides a solid amount of value by fully populating your board with smaller minions. |
Banana Split | Good | Banana Split is a tempo tool that can quickly expand your board. It is somehat reliant on having a strong target on the board, but is incredibly powerful when used correctly. |
Big Boomba | Good | Big Boomba provides an immediate board clear while immediately clearing the board the following turn. While the initial clear may be strong, the second effect can be very slow and unnecessary. The card is best used to stall the game in decks that use a large amount of high-cost cards. |
Case Study | Good | Case Study provides immediate access to a range of Quest rewards, without needing to fulfil the Quest's requirements. While all Quest rewards are strong, some are significantly stronger for some decks than others, so the randomness of the Discover effect has a slight negative impact on the Treasure. |
Elder Taggawag | Good | Elder Taggawag is another repeatable board clear similar to THE... Candles?. However, as the card is shuffled back into deck each time, it is not quite as flexible. |
EVIL Propaganda | Good | EVIL Propaganda combines a board clear and populates the board at the same time, offering extreme value. The only drawback of the card is its high cost, making it not quite as useful in more aggressive decks. |
Hyperblaster | Good | Hyperblaster provides a consistent source of removal every single turn which will allow you to develop your board each turn and snowball out of control. It is the strongest of the "Good"-rated cards. |
Master Scheme | Good | Master Scheme is a well-rounded card that provides everything you could ask for in a single card. However, due to being a Scheme, the card requires many turns to power up and can be quite unimpactful if not drawn early enough. |
The Box | Good | The Box is a good choice if there are no other good Treasures available. Its ability to change into a new Treasure each turn means that you will often be eable to get Excellent Treasures like Dreamgrove Ring or Super Simian Sphere if you hold onto it for long enough. |
Untold Splendor | Good | Like The Box, Untold Splendor provides access to a range of different Treasures and is a good pick if there are no other good Treasures available. |
Dagwik Stickytoe | Average | While Dagwik Stickytoe may not seem too powerful itself, it should be noted that many bosses near the end of chapters lack significant card draw. This means that removing cards from their hand is very valuable and can cause them to run out of steam very quickly. |
Duplatransmogrifier | Average | Duplatransmogrifier is a unique effect that turns all minions in your deck into one specific minion for the remainder of your run. This can be a very double-edged effect as it will remove all of bad cards from your deck, but it can be very hard to develop a strong Mana Curve when all minions in your deck cost the same. |
Fly-By | Average | Fly-By is a fun Treasure with a very inconsistent effect. Although the potential to do 50 damage at once to a boss may seem strong, it is very misleading. Against earlier bosses, encounters are unlikely to last long enough for the bomb to be drawn. Whereas against later bosses, their Health pool is so high that 50 damage is not very significant. |
Gnomish Army Knife | Average | Gnomish Army Knife provides a minion with a range of powerful effects that can change the outcome of a game. However, the high cost of the card makes it heavily reliant upon having a minion in play already for that card to have a significant impact. |
Golden Candle | Average | Golden Candle provides a huge boost in value by turning your deck into powerful Legendary minions. It has great synergies with Treasures that discount cards like Robes of Gaudiness and Scepter of Summoning. However, without these Treasures it can be very risky due to the high variance of Legendaries. |
Grimmer Patron | Average | Grimmer Patron is a solid card that will continually give value as long as it is able to survive. However, it is a huge liability when played from behind as the card, and the first copy it summons, will be immediately removed by opponent. |
Sow the Seeds | Average | Sow the Seeds has a significant impact on the strength of minions in your deck. However, as a 5-Mana card, the effect comes into play very slowly and additional card draw is often required to get full value from the effect. |
Swampqueen's Call | Average | Swampqueen's Call provides the effect of The Storm Bringer for just 2 Mana. As the card is also replayable in the same turn, it is possible to play it multiple times for a consistent result. However, the card is heavily reliant on flooding the board before being used. |
The Muscle | Average | The Muscle provides a big tempo boost by providing free cards. However, the effect can be very inconsistent due to the randomness of the cards given. The card is significantly stronger choice if you also have Battle Totem. |
Continuum Collider | Bad | The large Health pools in later encounters make the additional turn generated by the card almost never enough to close out the game and any tempo generated can be swiftly removed by the additional turn taken by your opponent. |
Elistra the Immortal | Bad | Decks drafted during the run often contain very minimal amount of buff cards and it is unlikely that a significant number can be used on Elistra the Immortal. |
Loyal Henchman | Bad | Loyal Henchman's effect is far too slow and far too weak to consider drafting. |
Murgatha | Bad | In a vacuum, Murgatha's ability may seem very strong. However, with a few extreme exceptions, Dalaran Heist decks are not able to consistently play enough cards for the Overload effect to offer enough value. |
Orb of the Untold | Bad | Orb of the Untold functions as a relatively weak board clear. The finite damage it deals is fine against early boards, but is incapable of dealing with large boards like Big Boomba can. The additional fact it can deal direct damage may also seem good against earlier bosses, but soon becomes a liability toward the end of a run, where bosses will have huge amounts of Health. |
Overpowered | Bad | Overpowered provides a small tempo boost by allowing a card to be played a second time. However, the card is not strong enough for a Treasure unless it specifically copies your other Treasure card. |
Soulreaper's Scythe | Bad | Soulreaper's Scythe is a reasonable weapon that grows in strength each game it is used. However, it can be unreliable as it needs to be used against most bosses for its value to accumulate. Due to this, it is a terrible pick if chosen on the second round of active Treasure cards, after the 7th boss. |
Passive Treasures
Treasure | Rating | Comments |
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Emerald Goggles | Excellent | Emerald Goggles is a huge tempo-boosting Treasure that is stronger than it initially looks. The Treasure will continually discount the left-most card in your hand after each card you play, allowing you to potentially discount your entire your hand if you play your cards from left to right, resulting in many fast victories. |
Robes of Gaudiness | Excellent | Robes of Gaudiness is an excellent tempo tool, and perhaps the strongest Treasure to date in any single-player content. It should be noted that for odd-Cost cards, the Mana Cost rounds down, allowing 3 drops to be played on turn 1, 5-drops on turn 2 and so on. To ensure you get the maximum value out of this Treasure, you should prioritise card buckets with the highest-cost minions after you pick it. |
Captured Flag | Good | Captured Flag is a well-rounded Treasure that gives a flat boost to your minions throughout the game. It is particularly strong in Token decks where the Treasure can buff additional minions that are summoned. |
Cloak of Invisibility | Good | Cloak of Invisibility allows a great deal of flexibility for your minions, allowing you to dictate all trades that are made and extract additional value from heavily-injured minions. |
Potion of Vitality | Good | Potion of Vitality is a deceptively strong Treasure most of the time. Although it offers no real tempo or value in itself, the additional Health it provides gives you more time to use your cards efficiently to outvalue bosses. Picking up 2 copies of the Treasure will also result in you having more than double the Health of the final bosses you face. |
Resourcefulness | Good | While the value of the Treasure can vary a lot, any early-game weapon serves as an excellent tool for controlling the board to dictate the pace of the game. The high base Health of your Hero against the later bosses gives you a lot of breathing room to trade with your weapon. |
Rocket Backpacks | Good | Much like Cloak of Invisibility, Rocket Backpacks gives you the initiative when trading with your minions and allows you to extract significantly more value from your cards as a result. |
Scepter of Summoning | Good | Scepter of Summoning is a good Treasure that can function similarly to Robes of Gaudiness. It allows big minions to be played cheaply, but offers no benefit for smaller minions, making it essential to pick up as many card buckets containing big minions once you have picked it up. |
Wondrous Wisdomball | Good | Wondrous Wisdomball is a fun Treasure that just so happens to be extremely powerful. It will randomly trigger various powerful effects that are almost all positive, such as clearing the board, duplicating spells, drawing additional cards, and turning the minions you play into random Legendaries. |
Battle Totem | Average | Battle Totem is generally a strong Treasure. However, Druid lacks card buckets that are dedicated to Battlecry minions that some other classes have access to. |
Book of Wonders | Average | On average Book of Wonders is a fairly strong Treasure. It will often play spells that summon you minions in the early game, or randomly clear your opponent's board. However, the small risk of random spells clearing your board with spells like Cataclysm prevent this Treasure from being a good choice. |
Crystal Gem | Average | Crystal Gem provides a boost in tempo by ramping up your Mana Crystals. However, it pales in comparison to some of the more impactful Treasures. |
Dr. Boom's Remote | Average | Dr Boom's Remote creates a small amount of early-game tempo that allows you to comfortably secure control of the board going into the mid game. |
Elixir of Vim | Average | Elixir of Vim provides a constant supply of resources to allow you to continually pressure opponents. However, unless you are also able to draft Elixir of Vigor, a very low-curve deck is required to get full use of the Treasure. |
Expedite | Average | Expedite provides a small tempo boost compared to Robes of Gaudiness, but is still a well-rounded choice that will prevent you from being overwhelmed from bosses later in your run. |
First Aid Kit | Average | First Aid Kid provides a consistent supply of healing for your minions, greatly increasing the benefit of value trading. However, most encounters will be too fast for the Treasure to offer significant value. |
Mysterious Tome | Average | Mysterious Tome provides a small early-game tempo boost, similar to Dr. Boom's Remote that will allow you to safely reach the mid game. |
Robe of the Magi | Average | Robe of the Magi adds a huge boost in value to spells. However, the Treasure primarily targets AoE damage spells which Druid is lacking in, aside from Swipe and Starfall. |
Small Backpacks | Average | Small Backpacks provides you with a boost in card advantage from the beginning of the game. The additional cards can help you play any deck more effectively due to the additional options available. |
Stargazing | Average | Stargazing provides a consistent supply of value by allowing you to use your Hero Power twice per turn for a reduced Cost. However, as Druid is not offered any 1-Mana Hero Powers in the Dalaran Heist, the Treasure is not as strong for Druid as other classes. |
Totem of the Dead | Average | Totem of the Dead is a solid Treasure that boosts Deathrattle effects. However, Druids do not have access to strong card buckets that support Deathrattle minions. |
A Prince's Ring | Bad | A Prince's Ring may look good on the surface, but is significantly weaker than the Death knights it mimics. Without Battlecries and powerful passive effects like Frost Lich Jaina, Death knight Hero Powers are often only marginally better than other starting Hero Powers available. |
Elixir of Vigor | Bad | Elixir of Vigor is a deceptive Treasure that appears strong at first. However, the uncontrollable effect will punish you for playing early-game minions, populating your deck with poor draws. The Treasure is only ever worth considering if you already have Elixir of Vim. |
Elixir of Vile | Bad | Elixir of Vile offers a short-term tempo advantage by allowing you to play spells with Health. However, encounters will go much longer against late bosses and the cumulative cost of spells will often result in a critical loss of Health. |
Glyph of Warding | Bad | Glyph of Warding is unimpactful compared to most Treasures and will often just be a minor inconvenience for most bosses. |
Hagatha's Embrace | Bad | Hagatha's Embrace performs a random hand buff to one of your minions at the end of each turn. While it offers consistent value, the effect is very weak relative to other Treasures, especially compared to similar effects like Captured Flag. |
Recycling | Bad | Most Druid decks will never play enough minions for Recycling to have a significant impact in a game. Even in decks build around the Treasure, it is still unlikely to provide as much healing as First Aid Kit or Potion of Vitality. |
The Hand of Rafaam | Bad | The Hand of Rafaam is a Treasure that will make quick work of early bosses with low Health pools. However, against later bosses the 4 damage per turn is insignificant and the additional Mana Crystals the final 2 bosses start with allows them to comfortably play their Curse of Rafaams |
Togwaggle's Dice | Bad | Togwaggle's Dice is a very unpredictable card. For it to offer significant value, a very high-Cost deck is required and even then, Treasures like Scepter of Summoning and Robes of Gaudiness are much better choices for that situation. |
Card Buckets
After you defeat each boss, you will be offered a choice of 3 different card buckets that you can add to your deck. Each bucket contains 3 cards that fit a certain theme and will help shape your deck in different ways.
The table below contains a list of all the possible Druid card buckets and gives a general rating as to how good each card bucket is on average. The comments section contains further details of each bucket and when to choose them.
Bucket | Rating | Comments |
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Choices, Choices | Excellent | Choices, Choices contains all cards with Druid's unique class ability, Choose One effects. Because of this, the bucket nearly always offers very strong choices that can fit into any deck. |
Nurture and Grow | Excellent | Nurture and Grow contains Druid's Ramp and card draw tools, a core part of the class' identity. Due to the strength of these tools, you should look to pick up 1 or 2 copies of this bucket for any deck, looking out for Jade Blossom, Azure Drake, Nourish, and Ultimate Infestation in particular. |
Nature's Wrath | Good | Nature's Wrath contains all Druid spells. The broad range of spells available causes the bucket to have inconsistent value, but you should always look to be picking up cards like Wrath and Swipe when offered. |
Legends | Good | Legends is a solid bucket for Druid due to the many high-cost minions offered being able to supplement the Mana Acceleration of the Nurture and Grow bucket. |
Protectors | Good | Protectors contains a range of powerful Taunt minions available for Druid. This bucket can be especially strong in combination with Ramp tools from the Nurture and Grow bucket. However, it should be avoided in chapter 4 due to cards like Witchwood Grizzly having their Attack and Health swapped. |
Roar! | Good | Roar! contains a range of high-cost Beasts and Beast synergies. Due to the naturally high cost of the minions, it is a good general choice if you have picked up any Ramp cards. |
All Bark | Average | All Bark contains a range of tree-themed cards. Most notable it contains a mix of Treant synergies like Dendrologist and Landscaping if you pick the bucket multiple times. However, the bucket offers very little utility to most decks. |
Beasts and Buffs | Average | Beasts and Buffs contains cheap Beasts in addition to board-wide buffs like Mark of the Lotus. It has great synergy with Treasures like Captured Flag but has minimal late-game value and should be supplemented with high-cost buckets. |
Big Friends | Average | Big Friends contains a range of powerful minions in addition to the Jungle Giants Quest. While the big minions can work well with the Nurture and Grow bucket, the requirement of having to also pick up the Quest makes this bucket significantly weaker. |
Feral Bite | Bad | Feral Bite contains a range of Feral-themed cards that include attack buffs and Armor gain. As neither of these are strong in the longer encounters against later bosses, this bucket is very weak and should be avoided. |
Recovery | Bad | Recovery contains a range of healing-themed Druid cards. This bucket is very weak in most situations due to healing being ineffective throughout runs. However, the bucket does also offer Lucentbark and Dreamway Guardians, which are reasonable cards on their own. |
Swarm | Bad | Swarm contains a range of very cheap, 1-Attack minions in addition to Hobgoblin to buff them. While this bucket can sometimes yield value with Treasures like Captured Flag, it is often very low value and will cause you to run out of cards against later bosses. |
Changelog
- 31 May 2019: Guide added.
This guide is presented to you by Kat, a professional Hearthstone player competing at the highest level since closed beta. She is a consistent legend player in both Wild and Standard with multiple high-rank finishes.
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