Strategies against Vine Tree Druid

[Nealo]

Hello all!

I've been struggling a lot against various Druid builds that use Vine Tree. I am somewhat new, and I am often not sure how to approach this spellbook. On the one hand, there is the option of trying to go straight for the vine tree right off the bat. However, it has 12 health after treebond, 1 armor, regen 2, and the ability to transfer damage away from it. Recently I played a game where I got it to 11 damage twice in a row only to have it heal back to safe damage and overwhelm me with creatures.

On the other hand if I try not to focus the tree and instead focus on creatures, I find that I get overwhelmed very quickly. The creatures are very strong and their regen is very difficult to deal with. While the vine tree is casting all sorts of creatures at greater and greater distances, the druid is free to hang back and fire incantations and enchantments to either buff the creatures or barrage me with tanglevines, jinxes and all other manner of spells.

I know that Druid is far from unbeatable, but I think I just need to learn a good way to approach this problem and exploit the weaknesses of the druid. The inclusion of the Nightshade Orchid and Corrosive Orchid means lots and lots of actions, an easy way to sleep large minions, the ability to trash equipment without spending a mage action, and small attacks to wake up any sleeps I may cast on the Druid's creatures.

Anyway, I could use some help learning to combat this strategy. I have mainly played either Araxian Crown Warlock or Necromancer with a focus on curses. I have had some victories, but I find that the Vine Tree spellbooks tend to snowball quickly if not handled correctly early. Any tips? Thanks!

[Halewijn]

I have mainly played either Araxian Crown Warlock .or Necromancer with a focus on curses. I have had some victories, but I find that the Vine Tree spellbooks tend to snowball quickly if not handled correctly early. Any tips? Thanks!

Here are a few general tips. I'm certain there are plenty more.

 - When your playing a druid as a warlock. I presume you don't have much fire in your deck since you focus on curses? Anyway, exploit the fire you do have! (fireball is 8 dice and a huge chance on 1-2 burns)

- Stop the regenerate. poisoned blood could help or [mwcard=MW1J19]Deathlock[/mwcard]. As a necro the [mwcard=DNJ01]Altar of Skulls[/mwcard] can be a very nice counter.

- I don't think your necro has it. But she has a difficult time handling flyers, and they don't get hindered by vines. (Don't expect it to be easy though)

- If you decide to kill her tree. Make sure you have enough dice to do it in 1 or at max 2 turns. once you take a longer time you will probably waste too much resources and lose anyway. Maybe let the druid think you don't care about her tree untill the moment you have a favorable position and suprise her with blasting it to the ground.

- Her creatures are mostly rooted and have no armor but regenerate. If she summons a [mwcard=DNC20]Vine Snapper[/mwcard], kill it in 1 turn, or let it be and move the battle elsewhere.  she could teleport it once or twice but in general you gain much by forcing the battle to move between zones.

[technicallynerdyrebel]

The strategy that has messed up my Druid + Vine Tree the most has been when my opponent played the Necromancer with a zombie swarm type book. He then played Deathlock and Idol of Pestilence (this worked super well for him as everything he controlled in the arena was immune to poison damage) and they completely halted my healing and I wasn't prepared to deal with that or attempting to destroy those conjurations. Of course I'm now aware of the strategy and attempt to prepare better in the future. But it's still a hell of a thing to combat.

[V10lentray]

deathlock and idol of pestilence is exactly you always carry force hammers.

[JasonBourneZombie]

Only know of three relevant methods. Kill the tree very early, spend creature actions on trimming vines back, or make a concerted effort to kill the Druid only while making sure she is hindered at all times. As a necromancer, options 2 and 3 work well. Forcemasters, warlocks, and fire wizards can take option 1 easily.

[V10lentray]

killing the vines doesn't really work. The vine tree gets 2 vines a turn during deployment, (upto 3 if using the Vinewhip staff) and you can immediately deploy from the vines you just placed.

[RomeoXero]

I think he's more referring to picking off vine tokens before certain actions. Have a minion kill a vine before your mage acts so the mage isn't hindered. Its action inefficient,but it might make that turns mobility issue go away (for a time)

[V10lentray]

That's still very costly. If i see that as a strategy, i'm going to drop the vinewhip staff and just clutter the board beyond belief with vine markers.

At that point I wouln't even use the markers to cast items too, just use them as a potential roadbolcks.

[Zuberi]

I think it's important to remember that the question was for tactics to deal with a Druid using Vine Tree.  Every single tactic that you can use in this game, no matter which Mage you play or who you play against, can be countered in some fashion. So, while pointing out how a Druid might counter these suggestions is somewhat useful, since knowing what might happen is a big part of mastering this game, I don't think we should make it sound like every tactic is futile and the Druid can not be beat because that just isn't true. All of the suggestions thus far are very apt and can give the Druid a very hard time, even if they aren't auto wins.