New Druid Minion - Anub'Rekhan

Im giving this 4 stars out of respect of its possible power level. Because even I know this card wouldn't see any play in standard because there's no way to seriously gain enough armor for this to be worthwhile. And its mana cheating is a bit redundant with Wildheart Guff around

But that said, it does possess a worthy level of power. You can in effect make the sire denathrius combo out of this card assuming you have the armor to do it. And that alone is worth most of the fuss because its only against control and value where this card truly shines anyway.

In wild however, this card can be defining because Linecracker exists there. Not sure if its still fast enough to beat all those combo decks, or if the druid combo can be easily bolstered by this card. We'll have to wait and see.

Does "armor cost" count as damage? How does it works with Violet Illusionist? Anyway it's busted card. Just moment ago we had Blood Magic brawl and now druid got it as archetype. Even without Linecracker you can perform OTK combo on turn 8. I smell nerf to this card or even rework.

The fact that this legendary gives you 8 armor means you can play 2 8 cost cards in the same turn, at a minimum. In a dedicated armor deck, the value grows even more. I really like this type of design tbh, you are sacrificing survivability to play minions which is an interesting tradeoff, especially if you desperately need the armor to survive. 

There's also the Insatiable Devourer and Earthen Scales combo to gain massive amounts of armor, so I wouldn't be surprised if Mark or Dane figure out an armor OTK here.

It seems... fair enough ?! When compared to previous mana-cheating engine in Druid at least.

Apart from the usual counter (dirty rat, theotar &co), the opponent has the opportunity to counter it by interacting with your armor pool/ armor generation.

It's a replacement effect, so once it goes off, you are locked out of your mana pool until the end of the turn. It's actually quite restricting.

Also, it deserve some bonus point for being a relatively novel concept.

I'm worried to see that Druid can deploy 2 big treats, and possibly 16 mana worth of minions (and more, actually), for only 8 mana..! That should make for pretty big tempo plays and swing turns.

On an unrelated note, think this might be my favorite artwork for this expansion; like how dynamic the pose is

This seems pretty good. The 8 armor allows you to cheat out Crypt Keeper for free, and Anub'Rekhan is obviously setting up Druid for post-rotation, as Druids main "mana cheat" engine (Wildheart Guff) will rotate next year. And Armor druid technically has some support in the core set, and maybe the armor package makes Colaque a good legenary. (Finally)

And on it's own, Anub'Rekhan already is a 0 mana 7/7, which is decent i guess. The only thing i wonder about is how Anub'Rekhan works together with Ivus, the Forest Lord. Does ivus still take your remaining mana? Or does it use up all your armor instead. If it uses all your armor, then it might have an other niche i guess.

And if it does use armor, imagine a giant ivus thanks to the Linecracker combo in wild for the memes. And you can OTK with it if you do the Linecracker combo first, then Silas Darkmoon a Soulbound Ashtongue, then kill the Soulbound Ashtongue with the huge Ivus, the Forest Lord. Some Mecha'thun combo might be better/easier, but this combo sounds a lot more spectacular. (I really hope Ivus will use the armor now tbh)

I don't get why people are saying "just play Guff lmao". Not only does Guff rotate in a year, but also, why not both? Why not cheat mana even harder? Consistency matters and this is basically just Guff 2 in terms of mana cheating potential.

This will be powerful.

I could be wrong, but when you play a card under a cards cost health effect, don't they take armor first if you have any? So this would be like that, except that you can't play anymore after you use up your armor. Still, the fact this gives you 8 armor to play with means you could play 16+ mana worth of minions in one turn.

Brann, Innervate, Anub'Rekhan, 5 mana Astalor, 8 mana Astalor x2, maybe also a Zola or Sire D...

Yeah, Armored Ramp Druid is going to be good.

Looks super busted, can't wait to see what kind of combos come out of this!

Ayo nerf this shit and give me my fucking dust blizzard. 

Quote From dapperdog

Im giving this 4 stars out of respect of its possible power level. Because even I know this card wouldn't see any play in standard because there's no way to seriously gain enough armor for this to be worthwhile. And its mana cheating is a bit redundant with Wildheart Guff around

But that said, it does possess a worthy level of power. You can in effect make the sire denathrius combo out of this card assuming you have the armor to do it. And that alone is worth most of the fuss because its only against control and value where this card truly shines anyway.

 

In wild however, this card can be defining because Linecracker exists there. Not sure if its still fast enough to beat all those combo decks, or if the druid combo can be easily bolstered by this card. We'll have to wait and see.

Edit: reply deleted. Have some proper manners.

- Avalon