The Comprehensive Day of Rebirth Preview

 

Ritual of Life

This is a 2 mana 2/2 that discovers a turn 3 play. A good comparison would be with Creature of Madness. It has a superior early body, with the potential of finding a static effect (such as a deathrattle) to push the advantage further. The 3-drop will be weaker, as it will not have a Dark Gift. So, Ritual of Life is better on turn 2 and worse on turn 3.

The value of Ritual of Life comes from the fact it is a Holy spell, a proactive one to boot that can be played into any board state. That is important for Quest Priest, but not so important for other Priest decks.

Should Priest need a proactive Holy spell in its decks, then it will include Ritual of Life, but we do not believe Quest Priest is approaching a competitive level, so we would not expect this one to make an immediate impact.

Score: 2

Atlasaurus

This expensive taunt has a high value deathrattle with a very wide variety of outcomes. It can summon Tortolla or Beached Whale. It can also summon Twilight Medium. The average outcome is favorable for the Priest, as it should be when minions are this expensive.

This is a large roadblock for the opponent to hit the Priest in the face, as it needs to punch through 10 health and then face another big taunt, but turn 8 is when games against aggressive decks have already been decided. For Atlasaurus to be competitive, we need ways to cheat it out.

Priest does not have the tools to utilize it well in Standard. We do not like it with Rest in Peace. This minion might sit in the collection until Priest gets either a cheat card or a stronger resurrection card. At that point, it can become a serious competitive option.

Score: 2

Behemoth Mask

A 7-mana buff that turns our minion into a Blackwater Behemoth. This card’s effect belongs in a defensive minded deck, but we need to land this buff on a minion, which is hard to accomplish in faster matchups, when we are on the back foot.

The dependency on minion development should disqualify this card from inclusion in defensive decks. There are more reliable and effective ways to sustain pressure against aggressive decks. This one comes online on turn 7 only if our opponent is stupid. In slower matchups, this spell is useless.

Score: 1

Final Thoughts: There is nothing here to tell us Priest will change following the mini-set. Ritual of Life is a decent card for Quest Priest, but it is not enough to make that deck playable.