The Comprehensive Day of Rebirth Preview

Longneck Egg

The buff occurs after the beast is summoned, so Longneck Egg summons a guaranteed 2/3 with its deathrattle. Of course, the main upside of the deathrattle is the fact it can land on all friendly minions, which can be extremely threatening in board flooding decks. If the buff lands on three other friendly minions, then we think it becomes a good deal for the cost. Not an easy goal to meet.

Board flooding has been the main theme of the Druid set this expansion, but it has failed to make an impact. Quest Druid is far from an acceptable competitive level, while Aggro Druid has not even been seriously attempted.

This is mostly a useful card for Aggro Druid, as it does not help Quest Druid complete its quest and Quest Druid does not need more board buffs to win the game. We doubt this card turns Aggro Druid into a serious meta contender. If the archetype emerges at some point in the future, this egg could take part.

Score: 2

Panther Mask

A buff that sets stats is generally good when we run small minions. This buff is also quite expensive, so we cannot see it being played in a passive Druid deck that does not proactively develop minions in the early game. Panther Mask makes the most sense in an aggressive Druid deck, with bonus points for running eggs, as Panther Mask is a great spell to cast on an egg.

If we value the buff itself at 2 mana, then the card draw effect makes the overall package enticing. Aggro Druid is sorely missing card draw and does not have a lot of ways to pop eggs, so Panther Mask fills two needs. This card is more awkward to run in Quest Druid, though the archetype similarly suffers from the lack of draw.

If Aggro Druid emerges from the mini-set, which we do not see as too likely of a scenario, it will be thanks to this card doing some heavy lifting.

Score: 3

Seismopod

A big, expensive minion with a deathrattle packed with value, but one that forces us into a very specific deck. We need to run a Druid deck with ramp, but this Druid deck also needs to have a high density of minions to take advantage of the buff. Ramp Druid is generally dense with spells, as spells are more likely to help us survive.

There is no way we would want to play this minion without massive synergy. The taunt and elusive are nice but we cannot count on Seismopod to help us survive against aggressive decks when it costs 9 mana. The only possible path here is Hydration Station and we find the idea a bit farfetched. Current Hydration Station Druid is competitively weak, while adding Seismopod to it requires some serious adjustments that may not be beneficial.

Score: 1

Final Thoughts: We expect some experimentation with Aggro Druid and Hydration Station Druid, but we will be surprised if they materialize into competitive decks in the immediate term.