It’s time for the final reveals for Perlis in Paradise, exclusively at vS. We’ve got some game changers to share with you. Remember that Warrior has access to these Druid cards through its Tourist, Hamm the Hungry, which was revealed yesterday.
Let’s go over the last 4 cards in the Druid set, starting with Bouldering Buddy.
You’re not interested in playing Buddy for its full cost, but once you hit 10 mana, this big elemental taunt only costs 1 mana. This makes it a strong payoff for ramping, allowing you to swing the game and stabilize. It’s particularly strong with Crystal Cluster, while offering a resurrection target for Hydration Station, the 8-mana Druid spell revealed earlier today.
Druid is getting another great spell it won’t mind ramping into: Sleep Under the Stars.
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With Sleep Under the Stars, you get to choose one of three effects, three times! You can pick any combination of effects, as one choice has no bearing on the others. If you want to, you can draw 6 cards, or gain 15 armor. This spell reminds us of Branching Paths.
Sleep Under the Stars is deceptively strong, despite its initial high cost, thanks to Moonkin Constellation. Once you hit 7 mana, you can play Sleep Under the Stars and draw 2 cards for 1 mana, which we think will be the most common choice for players. But if Druid manages to ramp quickly, it might opt for more card advantage, or armor to stabilize against burn. Flexibility leads to consistency, which is why we think the card has a great chance to become a staple in Ramp Druid decks. Control Warrior decks could be interested too.
But if you think high value spells look like a juicy proposition in Ramp Druid, you’ve seen nothing yet. Let’s take a look at the Druid Tourist, which grants the class access to the Mage set. Give it up for Mistah Vistah!
Mistah Vistah starts a timer that triggers in 3 turns. Once Scenic Vista activates, it will recast every spell you’ve played since the moment you played Mistah Vistah.
While Mistah Vistah is an initial 5 mana 5/5 body that doesn’t protect us or impact the board very well, the payoff it can potentially provide us is massive. We’re talking about repeating every spell we’ve played through multiple turns, which could represent incredible value and free mana gained. If the opponent does not manage to kill us before the clock goes off, it could be game over.
As an example, here’s Mistah Vistah casually repeating Crystal Cluster and Tsunami.
How strange is it that we don’t close out the article with the Tourist legendary? Well, you’ll understand once you see the final card of Perils in Paradise. Did you think we would spend an entire article talking about Ramp Druid without getting a new ramp card in the set? Of course we wouldn’t. In Perlis in Paradise, Druid’s ramp potential reaches New Heights!
New Heights gains one empty mana crystal, much like Wild Growth, but also increases your maximum mana by 3. Note that it doesn’t set your maximum mana to a specific number, which means that two copies of New Heights will increase your maximum mana to 16. Add additional discovered copies and things could get crazy. This ain’t no Audio Amplifier!
We have not seen such a card since Wildheart Guff. We’re not comparing the cards in terms of power level. Wildheart Guff had a built in hero power that could accelerate the Druid’s ramping like no other card in the history of the game. However, New Heights is still pretty good as a non-legendary. It curves into Mistah Vistah/Summer Flowerchild and possesses significant late game implications. With Crystal Cluster, which we think will become a crucial card for Ramp Druid this expansion, Druid will have no trouble hitting 10+ mana at a relatively early stage.
What can Druid do with so much mana? The possibilities are endless. New Heights (and Trail Mix) also means that Warrior will now have access to ramp. We’re very excited to explore ideas there.
Remember that plenty of content will arrive on this website before the expansion’s launch.
First, a podcast episode discussing our initial impressions of the set will be out early next week.
A Comprehensive Preview of Perlis in Paradise will be out next weekend. We will evaluate every card and try to guess how impactful it can be.
A theorycrafting article, with all kinds of decks from every class for you to try, will be published a day before the expansion’s launch.
We’ll see you again for all of that, soon.
The Vicious Syndicate team.
Zach wasn’t lying when he said that the last druid card would piss people off lol