Secret Ingredient
A 2-attack buff is decent for 0 mana, helping us deal with early-game threats. Secret Ingredient is important at activating some of the attack-related synergies in the set. An enabler that costs no mana makes it easier for us to trigger specific payoffs on curve and more consistently.
The second option is weak. Generating a random card from a pool that is large and varied is not worth the investment of the card, even if it costs no mana. We will usually be using this card for the attack buff.
Generally, for decks with ramp, Innervate will be the superior card in most situations. However, in the case of a Chef Neth’rek deck that may not contain ramp, there is a good argument to value this spell as it helps us overcome our likely weakness to aggression.
This is a little better than Pounce, which did see competitive play.
Score: 3
Spiderling
A 1-mana 1/3 with an aura buff on our hero that provides it with 1 attack. This is almost as good as a 1-mana 2/3 if you squint, with a little bit more flexibility of where we put the damage in, but worse when it comes to trades.
A 1-mana 2/3 would be very powerful 1-drop, so Spiderling looks impressive. It works well with an attack package but is likely to slot into other Druid decks due to its ability to control the board or snowball an advantage. A strong card for aggressive Druid decks.
Score: 3
Widow’s Bite
Three cards in one, Widow’s Bite gets stronger with every iteration, once the previous one is played. To best evaluate this spell, we should judge the iterations by themselves.
Widow’s Bite reminds us of Press the Advantage, though it is noticeably weaker due to not possessing direct damage. However, adding a card to our hand resembles drawing, so they share some similarities.
Widow’s Feast would comfortably be a viable constructed card, doubling Widow’s Bite’s effect while generating a high-quality card. Widow’s Banquet is the strongest of the three and an exponential upgrade on Widow’s Feast. Just this piece alone can clear a mid-sized threat while negating its damage in the process.
Widow’s Bite represents good value and a way to efficiently spend mana while impacting the board. Its initial form is only slightly weaker than Press the Advantage, then scales past it. It is an essential enabler for punching strategies, but we suspect that its utility will be valuable in other Druid decks, as early-game removal is highly valued in the class.
Score: 3
Noxious Bribe
The Choose One pool is not of high quality, so discovering a Choose One card for 2 mana seems excessive. The upside is that the Choose One card will be merged with its counterpart, forming a significantly more powerful card on paper.
Unfortunately, some Choose One cards are not particularly impressive even in their merged form. And if we are discovering a desired card, we are giving its baseline form to the opponent. The net gain of card advantage for a 2-mana spell does not seem good enough.
We do not really see which Druid deck would play this, considering the class has access to superior value generators in its toolkit, ones that do not carry drawbacks and tap into higher quality card pools. We suspect the class will stick with those.
Score: 1
Lethal Recipe
Tutoring two minions for 3 mana is barely good enough to be a competitive card, considering it is slightly stronger than an Arcane Intellect. The extra effect is powerful, providing a 6/6 total buff to the minions we have drawn, but is conditioned on hitting 10 mana.
This condition becomes trivial to meet in a deck that runs Chef Neth’rek, as we will always hit 10 mana after 5 turns. This means that Lethal Recipe becomes active on turn 6, which is a reasonable window to make an impact in any kind of matchup, since we have a lot of mana to instantly play the minions we have just drawn.
This should become an important card in any deck that runs Neth’rek, regardless of its style. If we want to pressure an opponent with a low curve, we can benefit from big buffs on our minions. If we want to swing back against an aggressive deck, the same logic applies.
Score: 3
Infest the Scullery
We should know by now that a spell that summons a random minion of the same cost is not good enough, as even a minion that costs X+1 is usually not good enough. For Infest the Scullery to be remotely playable, it needs to summon at least a 6-cost minion, with a view of scaling it further to the biggest possible threat. That means two hero attacks in the early game.
To accomplish this, we need to build a Druid deck that runs attack buffs. We cannot count on hero powers, as they are too inefficient. Secret Ingredient comes to mind as a good enabler, as it costs no mana.
The issue we see here is that this card needs significant support but does not offer a legitimate win condition in slow matchups. A single big threat is not a problem for a defensive deck with removal. 4-mana giants are not enough.
On the other hand, this card is not quick enough to create a consistent swing in faster matchups. It is unlikely that we can summon a 6-drop on curve against an aggressive deck. Remember that we can only attack with our hero once per turn, so this spell scales slowly. Even in the case of summoning a 6-drop on curve, there is no guarantee that it makes a large enough impact to stop the opponent’s snowballing.
Furthermore, this spell cannot be played with Chef Neth’rek, which appears to be an extremely impactful rulebreaker we will talk about later. We do not think the decision between Chef and this spell is a difficult one.
Score: 1
Spider Rider
This card fits with the hero attack package on paper, though we are not particularly enamoured with it. A 2-mana 1/4 that draws a card is nothing special. While it is true that Rider has a persistent effect that can activate the next turn, making it a threat that the opponent needs to remove, it is a weak body that is easy to trade into and only draws a card on the turn we play it if we pair it alongside an attack buff or a hero power.
This makes Rider’s theoretical cost a bit higher than it looks like. If we need to spend a card and mana to make sure Rider draws a card, we did not really spend 2 mana on drawing a card. We needed to invest additional mana as well as a resource. Some cards can be like that if they allow us to chain multiple draws, but this is not the case here.
We believe that Rider is not mandatory in the very decks it was designed to be played in, as Druid has plenty of card draw options to choose from that we consider to be superior. If there is space, it can fit in.
Score: 2
Spiteful Chef
Much like Lethal Recipe, Spiteful Chef is intended to be a payoff for Chef Neth’rek. Its baseline effect is not too bad for the cost, but it is not good enough to be a constructed card, and a normal Ramp Druid deck cannot afford to wait to hit 10 mana to make it useful.
Chef solves the problem by activating Spiteful Chef to its full potential after 5 turns. A random 6-drop taunt minion attached to a 3/2 for 3 mana is a fantastic deal. Take notes, Infest the Scullery.
This card can act as both a pressure card and a defensive stabilizer. It is important to mention that 6-mana taunts are an incredible pool of cards. The worst rolls are a 4/6 and a 4/7, while most other minions possess valuable deathrattles or healing effects. Spiteful Chef will always provide us with some level of protection.
This card should follow around Chef Neth’rek wherever it goes.
Score: 3
Chef Neth’rek
This unique rulebreaker sets us to 10 mana after 5 turns have resolved in the game, but its condition seems daunting. While it accelerates us to the late game and gives the opportunity to overwhelm our opponent with a mana advantage, we cannot play cards that cost more than 3, limiting our ability to play late-game threats that can capitalize on the advantage.
The question becomes whether it is possible to build a late-game-oriented Druid deck that tops the curve at 3 mana. The answer is yes.
Druid has multiple value generators that can provide it with threats following a Chef setup. The most notable ones are Azshara’s Triumph and Kaldorei Cultivator, cards that were initially meant to pair with Krona but never worked out. This is their chance again, as Chef is a perfect fit and Druid has ways to tutor their generated value.
Mossbinding is another card that can completely overwhelm the opponent on turn 6 and is particularly devastating due to its double threat potential. Add Defias Smuggler/Spiteful Chef, and Druid has the tools to both pressure the opponent and swing back against aggression.
A mana advantage to this extent is no joke. A Chef Neth’rek deck can scam opponents in ways that should be respected and feared. We would watch out for this one.
Score: 4
Staff of Trickery
3 discovers for 4 mana is a weak deal, but the baseline discount for these discovers offsets the initial cost to a significant degree. What we really want to do with Staff of Trickery is to buff our own hero with attack value and swing, increasing the discount to the point Staff gives us more mana than it costs.
Is it possible? Absolutely, thanks to the support available in this set. Is it worth it? This is where we question the endeavor. While discovers on a discount are good, we wonder how this Druid deck is supposed to win in the late game.
If we consider Staff of Trickery and Infest the Scullery a package deal due to their need to be fueled by the same cards, then we wonder how this deck is supposed to beat any deck with more value than it possesses. Druid cannot realistically deal an enormous amount of burst damage either.
While it is possible that this attack package is inserted into an established deck with a known late game plan (such as Merithra), it requires a significant transformation of the established deck, one that may not be worthwhile. This package does not have much synergy with other tools available to the class and cannot be played alongside Chef Neth’rek.
We are not too enthusiastic about leveraging this card to its highest ceiling with attack buffs, but its baseline effect could be good enough in a slow Druid deck, as it discovers 3 cards for an overall net cost of 1 mana. Not a bad value engine.
Score: 2
Final Thoughts
Violet Hold Set Rank: 3rd
Overall Power Ranking: 4th
Druid probably received one of the most exciting rulebreakers in the set, one that has massive potential. You can think of Chef Neth’rek as ramp that always gets drawn and you do not need to spend mana on it. That is a bonkers effect.
The deck restriction is obviously massive, but Druid can work around it with some of its cheap value generations. Cards like Azshara’s Triumph and Kaldorei Cultivator suddenly look like important late-game pieces for the class. The key is to have enough draw and tutors to fish for what we shuffle into the deck. It also helps that the class is getting some solid Neth’rek payoffs.
What Chef Druid is going to do is leverage its mana power spike to scam slower opponents by playing giant threats against them from turn 6 onwards, until they crumble. Against faster decks, it can use the mana advantage to stabilize. Games against most aggressive decks are not yet decided by turn 5, especially when the Druid’s curve is low. It should be to avoid getting stomped most of the time.
We are less enamoured by the hero attack package. It could find its way to Merithra Druid, as it does not have the damage or the threat density to beat slower decks. But it is possible the package is just not worth it. Token Druid gets a couple of nice cards but nothing game-changing.
Eyes will be on Chef Neth’rek at the launch of the expansion, no doubt.
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