Certainly one you want both choices. But the mere fact that it offers a discount opens up a variety of possibilities. For one thing it'll make Timber Tambourine druid a bit faster and that's scary.
As for the nature spells, there's a lot of good stuff there, even Convoke the Spirits. A shame you cant discover them but then it'll just literally be OP.
I'll afford it respect because its still a strong win con, and if youre going treants you'll going to swarm board.
The main problem? Well there's simply not enough treants to keep the swarm going, or indeed to discount this appropriately early enough to win with it. Seems more like a turn 6 play, and even then likely not at zero mana.
I think it'll just never see play because of its atrocious condition. But hey, maybe next rotation core druid would get all their treants back. About 8 months late, but what the hell.
Bad. If druids go full treants most decks would just hard target them to make this card impossible on curve, where it is at its strongest. Past turn 3 this card gets diminished in power until in the late end where it becomes completely worthless.
Besides, where are these treants even supposed to come from. Far as I see, there's no treant card that curves into this, unless you want to go Witchwood Apple on 1 and double 2/2s on 2. Your opponent will likely have no problem clearing those.
Play this on 4 and Nourish on 5. That's practically its one and only use this card will ever be considered for. The only other option would be Lifebinder's Gift, but that means youre holding on to that card just for this, which doesn't seem like a good play.
For the nourish interaction alone, this card is viable and will likely see play.
Its just bad. In fact, its actually kinda strangely bad.
Drum Circle summons 4 treants, with an arguably better second choice, whereas this card is not only dependent on the actually having treants to gain value, will very nearly always be forced to choose the former - spawning three treants.
I cant see a world where this card is good. If you have a bunch of treants on board chances are good you'll be winning anyway, just buff them with something like drum circle and go for face. Hell, why bother with this card and just play drum circle, the superior option.
On the face of it it doesn't look impressive. But this is druid we're talking about so any card that doubles their hand value cannot be dismissed and Im fairly certain a degenerate combo will exist in some capacity over the next two years.
In standard what you're looking for is 0 mana cards like giants so you can immediately take tempo after playing this. Or a couple of Innervates to get back 4 mana to do whatever.
The only drawback is that druid tend to have big hands fairly often, and that there's no immediate cancer combo I can think of in standard.
Well, this is probably one of the tamest druid expansions Ive seen in a while. Not a good sign for druid, since the class is currently floundering in the unplayable regions, but after what happened the previous rotation I can hardly expect anyone to feel any sympathy.
Will the treant builds work? In my opinion, no. Most druid builds either go fast or go long, and treants are kinda somewhere in the middle, similar with Timber Tambourine builds, something which might actually be the better of the two. The only way this would have worked is that they bring back Mulchmuncher and Aeroponics, without which there's simply no reason whatsoever to play treants at all.
But at least druid did get something. Lifebinder's Gift will easily prove to be broken, because druid does druid things, while Freya, Keeper of Nature has the potential to be as cancerous as most druid legendaries tend to be (though probably will take some working on)
Too slow, and practically worthless. Dont know how it got printed in the same expansion as Astral Automaton, something of which is vastly superior to this card but yet quite shit even on its own right.
Im tentatively putting this on two stars because there's a world where you can get multiple copies on this card on board and it does only cost 1, so its not entirely impossible to do quickly, unlike Pogo-Hopper.
But honestly, this kind of card often turn out to be trash. Too slow, no taunt, and no rush. Basically you've just spent your entire turn to do something of which your opponent can happily ignore. So against aggro this is bad, and against control this is only marginally better but nearly any AoE effect would get rid of this no matter how big it gets.
Destroyed entirely by Whirlpool. Meaning you auto concede against one of the most annoying deck in the game. Yeah, Im not liking its chances.
At least the pool is restricted so youre not getting total rubbish.
For every Najak Hexxen, there's a Lady in White. In other words, priest legendaries tend to be absolutely broken or complete trash. Its going to feel bad losing to shit like this but that's practically a hard coded identity for priest anyway.
Its more useful in control priest than it is for the intended use of getting more Astral Automaton
Use this to get another disruption card, to get another titan, and the forge makes it even better. Essentially this allows you to practically tutor cards you need for occasions, something priest does tend to struggle with.
Its never going to work the way you think it should.
The problem is that its too slow and too expensive to ever be a combo piece. The main intention is obviously to charge up Ra-den or Astral Automatons but its fairly obvious that the game would be over well before this card ever becomes anything useful.
The other point is to cheat out 10 mana minions like thaddius, but even then its still 8 mana with conditions that cannot be realistically controlled. I just dont see a world where this works.
You'd think there's enough guys on the pantheon for priest to choose from, so why is Ra-den, someone with lightning on his fingertips isn't printed for shaman instead.
The intention, Im guessing, is for us to play a bunch of copied Astral Automaton, and then when they inevitably get wiped out we play this and get an entire board of big burly bots that threaten lethal.
The problem? Well, Im not much hopeful for priest to play the long game that isn't control, and Ra-den would be a dead card in your hand for the vast majority of the gametime. More likely he's more helpful just summoning two things after him, but I still dont see how priest can do things like that without giving up tempo and this card isn't giving you any advantage before he dies.
Also, why the fuck is this not a shaman card. Its Ra-den, theres lightning on his hands, why is he a priest card?
The high cost, priest's inability to gain loads of minions in hand quickly, and the fact that its a card that essentially means your deck dont matter, sort of like the old prestor druids where the entire deck is just prestor and a bunch of random cards strung about.
So, can this card feature even in a limited capacity in a competitive deck? My opinion is no, unless youre not arsed about winning. The best chance its got is as a discover card, sort of like the last hail mary option. And even then you've got to question why this card cost 3 when you consider that Shadow Council, a fairly powerful fun card, cost only 1 and still saw zero competitive play.
Forget the overheal, that's a fringe benefit. The main point is that this heals for 8, and is not completely worthless in mirrors.
Im always wary about giving priest sustain cards because that class is freaking annoying to face against. And the last thing we need to suffer from priest is yet more healing.
Its basically Shadow Word: Void except slightly better because it'll prevent 2 damage per minion no matter their size.
The problem? Well, shadow word void was never a genuine contender even on its day. So even an updated version today would simply cause head scratching. Why would anyone play this over, say, Holy Nova or just plan Clean the Scene? And its worth bearing in mind that this doesn't actually do any damage, so its usage is somewhat limited.
Certainly a tech card. If there's a bunch of swarm decks then maybe this would see play.
Except we all know where priest is going next expansion, its going to be control and we'll all be hating the card Grace of the Highfather at the end of that 4 months.
There was once a time we all joked that paladin heals better than priest. Well, team5 must have been seething over that joke ever since because over the last 2-3 years playing against priest seem to requires a near excess of 60 damage sometimes, what with the endless healing over and over.
One of the best cards for druids for sure.
Certainly one you want both choices. But the mere fact that it offers a discount opens up a variety of possibilities. For one thing it'll make Timber Tambourine druid a bit faster and that's scary.
As for the nature spells, there's a lot of good stuff there, even Convoke the Spirits. A shame you cant discover them but then it'll just literally be OP.
I'll afford it respect because its still a strong win con, and if youre going treants you'll going to swarm board.
The main problem? Well there's simply not enough treants to keep the swarm going, or indeed to discount this appropriately early enough to win with it. Seems more like a turn 6 play, and even then likely not at zero mana.
I think it'll just never see play because of its atrocious condition. But hey, maybe next rotation core druid would get all their treants back. About 8 months late, but what the hell.
Bad. If druids go full treants most decks would just hard target them to make this card impossible on curve, where it is at its strongest. Past turn 3 this card gets diminished in power until in the late end where it becomes completely worthless.
Besides, where are these treants even supposed to come from. Far as I see, there's no treant card that curves into this, unless you want to go Witchwood Apple on 1 and double 2/2s on 2. Your opponent will likely have no problem clearing those.
It'll see play because you mostly would be playing Chitinous Plating anyway, and this card offers somewhat a better upgrade.
Only downside is perhaps the fact that it takes 3 turns for this to upgrade, and that's a fair bit, like a third of most total game turns.
Play this on 4 and Nourish on 5. That's practically its one and only use this card will ever be considered for. The only other option would be Lifebinder's Gift, but that means youre holding on to that card just for this, which doesn't seem like a good play.
For the nourish interaction alone, this card is viable and will likely see play.
Its just bad. In fact, its actually kinda strangely bad.
Drum Circle summons 4 treants, with an arguably better second choice, whereas this card is not only dependent on the actually having treants to gain value, will very nearly always be forced to choose the former - spawning three treants.
I cant see a world where this card is good. If you have a bunch of treants on board chances are good you'll be winning anyway, just buff them with something like drum circle and go for face. Hell, why bother with this card and just play drum circle, the superior option.
On the face of it it doesn't look impressive. But this is druid we're talking about so any card that doubles their hand value cannot be dismissed and Im fairly certain a degenerate combo will exist in some capacity over the next two years.
In standard what you're looking for is 0 mana cards like giants so you can immediately take tempo after playing this. Or a couple of Innervates to get back 4 mana to do whatever.
The only drawback is that druid tend to have big hands fairly often, and that there's no immediate cancer combo I can think of in standard.
Well, this is probably one of the tamest druid expansions Ive seen in a while. Not a good sign for druid, since the class is currently floundering in the unplayable regions, but after what happened the previous rotation I can hardly expect anyone to feel any sympathy.
Will the treant builds work? In my opinion, no. Most druid builds either go fast or go long, and treants are kinda somewhere in the middle, similar with Timber Tambourine builds, something which might actually be the better of the two. The only way this would have worked is that they bring back Mulchmuncher and Aeroponics, without which there's simply no reason whatsoever to play treants at all.
But at least druid did get something. Lifebinder's Gift will easily prove to be broken, because druid does druid things, while Freya, Keeper of Nature has the potential to be as cancerous as most druid legendaries tend to be (though probably will take some working on)
Too slow, and practically worthless. Dont know how it got printed in the same expansion as Astral Automaton, something of which is vastly superior to this card but yet quite shit even on its own right.
Im tentatively putting this on two stars because there's a world where you can get multiple copies on this card on board and it does only cost 1, so its not entirely impossible to do quickly, unlike Pogo-Hopper.
But honestly, this kind of card often turn out to be trash. Too slow, no taunt, and no rush. Basically you've just spent your entire turn to do something of which your opponent can happily ignore. So against aggro this is bad, and against control this is only marginally better but nearly any AoE effect would get rid of this no matter how big it gets.
Destroyed entirely by Whirlpool. Meaning you auto concede against one of the most annoying deck in the game. Yeah, Im not liking its chances.
At least the pool is restricted so youre not getting total rubbish.
For every Najak Hexxen, there's a Lady in White. In other words, priest legendaries tend to be absolutely broken or complete trash. Its going to feel bad losing to shit like this but that's practically a hard coded identity for priest anyway.
Its more useful in control priest than it is for the intended use of getting more Astral Automaton
Use this to get another disruption card, to get another titan, and the forge makes it even better. Essentially this allows you to practically tutor cards you need for occasions, something priest does tend to struggle with.
Its never going to work the way you think it should.
The problem is that its too slow and too expensive to ever be a combo piece. The main intention is obviously to charge up Ra-den or Astral Automatons but its fairly obvious that the game would be over well before this card ever becomes anything useful.
The other point is to cheat out 10 mana minions like thaddius, but even then its still 8 mana with conditions that cannot be realistically controlled. I just dont see a world where this works.
Just a small little tiff.
You'd think there's enough guys on the pantheon for priest to choose from, so why is Ra-den, someone with lightning on his fingertips isn't printed for shaman instead.
The intention, Im guessing, is for us to play a bunch of copied Astral Automaton, and then when they inevitably get wiped out we play this and get an entire board of big burly bots that threaten lethal.
The problem? Well, Im not much hopeful for priest to play the long game that isn't control, and Ra-den would be a dead card in your hand for the vast majority of the gametime. More likely he's more helpful just summoning two things after him, but I still dont see how priest can do things like that without giving up tempo and this card isn't giving you any advantage before he dies.
Also, why the fuck is this not a shaman card. Its Ra-den, theres lightning on his hands, why is he a priest card?
Its just a poor card.
The high cost, priest's inability to gain loads of minions in hand quickly, and the fact that its a card that essentially means your deck dont matter, sort of like the old prestor druids where the entire deck is just prestor and a bunch of random cards strung about.
So, can this card feature even in a limited capacity in a competitive deck? My opinion is no, unless youre not arsed about winning. The best chance its got is as a discover card, sort of like the last hail mary option. And even then you've got to question why this card cost 3 when you consider that Shadow Council, a fairly powerful fun card, cost only 1 and still saw zero competitive play.
Forget the overheal, that's a fringe benefit. The main point is that this heals for 8, and is not completely worthless in mirrors.
Im always wary about giving priest sustain cards because that class is freaking annoying to face against. And the last thing we need to suffer from priest is yet more healing.
Its basically Shadow Word: Void except slightly better because it'll prevent 2 damage per minion no matter their size.
The problem? Well, shadow word void was never a genuine contender even on its day. So even an updated version today would simply cause head scratching. Why would anyone play this over, say, Holy Nova or just plan Clean the Scene? And its worth bearing in mind that this doesn't actually do any damage, so its usage is somewhat limited.
Certainly a tech card. If there's a bunch of swarm decks then maybe this would see play.
Three cards, three directions for priest to go.
Except we all know where priest is going next expansion, its going to be control and we'll all be hating the card Grace of the Highfather at the end of that 4 months.
There was once a time we all joked that paladin heals better than priest. Well, team5 must have been seething over that joke ever since because over the last 2-3 years playing against priest seem to requires a near excess of 60 damage sometimes, what with the endless healing over and over.
Unironically the best card in the rogue set.
So much utility, so cheap, it'll fit into anything including miracle. And that's probably the most rogue-thing you would want out of your expansion.