The Comprehensive March of the Lich King Preview

Data Reaper Report - Druid

Lingering Zombie

Lingering Zombie

This is the stickiest 1-drop in Hearthstone’s history. Offers almost permanent board presence in the early game, and is an undead minion throughout, meaning it is pretty good at activating undead synergies. Regardless of whether we run undead or not, Lingering Zombie is going to be a card we auto-include in every aggressive Druid deck from December 6th until the moment it rotates to Wild. Plain nuts.

Score: 4

Nerubian Flyer

Nerubian Flyer

This card has vanilla baseline stats but is conditionally very powerful. The problem we have with the card has more to do with available undead 1-drops past Lingering Zombie. We can’t see this card activating on turn 2 often enough to be a powerhouse. Of course, it does get better at later turns provided we have a critical mass of undead minions in the deck, but that is also not a trivial condition to meet without significant sacrifices in Aggro Druid. Solid, but doesn’t make us too eager.

Score: 2

Unending Swarm

Unending Swarm

We see two main applications for this card. The first is a top end reload tool for aggressive Druid decks, such as… an undead swarm deck. The issue we have with it is that it’s quite slow and a dead draw at the early stages of the game when it’s critical for us to seize the board and develop minions in the first place. Unlike a board buff that can quickly take advantage of a lead, Unending Swarm requires the game to drag out.

The second application is pseudo 3rd and 4th copies of Scale of Onyxia. Yes, a card like Jerry Rig Carpenter could slightly pollute the resurrection pool, but it should still do a good job at 6 mana. The problem is that this card is a dead draw, again, until we find the first Scale of Onyxia. It’s tough to say how this would play out but Scale of Onyxia is a hell of a card and additional copies of it are hard to write off.

Score: 3

Crypt Keeper

Crypt Keeper

If a 4/6 taunt starts to get decent at 4 mana, then Crypt Keeper should have plenty of opportunities to be ‘very good’ and potentially ‘nuts’ in Ramp Druid. There are many ways in which we can play Crypt Keeper for little to no mana later in the game when many of its enablers come online.

The biggest one is Celestial Alignment, as a single point of armor is enough to make Keeper cost no mana post-CA. We can even set up a Chitinous Plating before the CA turn so that we play Crypt Keeper at the CA turn, providing immediate defense.

It’s a little trickier to get Crypt Keeper going early, as Feral Rage is not a good fit in Ramp Druid if Jerry Rig Carpenter is in Standard. How often do potentially free taunts in Druid not see play? Basically never.

Score: 3

Chitinous Plating

Chitinous Plating

We usually scoff at cards that gain life while doing nothing else, but there comes a point in which the cost is so low that it can be good, and we think Plating is a good candidate for this moment. This spell gives us 8 armor for 2 mana, and the delay in half the armor could be an advantage in future Ramp Druid decks, since having guaranteed armor at the start of the turn could help cards such as Crypt Keeper come online, as well as big swing turns with Anub’Rekhan and Celestial Alignment. It’s a nice armor card.

Score: 3

Beetlemancy

Beetlemancy

From a card with a very good price on armor, we now have a card with a very bad price on armor. 5 mana for 12 armor is a terrible deal, even when taking Crypt Keeper into consideration. 5 mana for 2 3/3 taunts is nice but is still not something we’re that desperate to play.

In addition, this card is unplayable in Vanilla Ramp or Celestial Druid because it gets drawn by Jerry Rig Carpenter, which has consistently seen far more success when it’s guaranteed to find Nourish. Might have a chance to see play post-rotation, strictly for the taunt minions option and viewing the armor option only for emergencies or Crypt Keeper.

Score: 1

Wither

Wither

This card acts as both a removal and a board buff for a swarming undead Druid deck. The more undead minions you have on the board, the more stats you can potentially steal from an enemy minion. This could be the way such a deck can buff its board, but it is reliant on both having a wide board and the opponent offering a target for it, which makes it very situational. It is also quite limited by deck building, as you’re required to run a critical mass of undead minions to make use of it. Not a hopeless card but heavily limited by its tribal restriction.

Score: 2

Underking

Underking

If you really want to gain armor in Druid, we’re not sure there’s a better card to do it with than Underking. This card doesn’t make sense for how good it is compared to Beetlemancy. A 6/6 rush on top of 12 armor gain, half of it attached to a deathrattle admittedly, but for a total of 7 mana. That just seems like an incredible amount of value in one card that should see play in every ramping Druid deck. The survivability alongside Scale of Onyxia on 7 mana is impressive. Auto-include without even considering armor synergies.

Score: 4

Elder Nadox

Elder Nadox

This card is a bit disappointing. Once again and much like Wither, the effect’s condition is restricted to undead minions (though the absence of a restriction could cause problems with cards such as Naga Giant). This card costs 5 mana, which is quite a lot for an aggressive deck, and it’s highly conditional on having a big board to buff. This is the nature of board buffs, but when they cost 5 mana, it makes them more difficult to use. Also, we’re not fans of having to sacrifice a minion to activate it unless it strictly ends the game. This is no Savage Roar or Herald of Nature, though its effect might be abused in a way that’s more subtle. Crypt Keeper? Incorporeal Corporal?

Score: 2

Anub’Rekhan

Anub'Rekhan

This legendary is one of the best cards in the set, period. The ability to turn armor into mana is unreal, even if it only counts towards minions. Anub’Rekhan is already a good card at its baseline, since it gives you 8 armor in its battlecry, meaning you have at least 8 ‘free’ mana to work with when you play it.

But once you get into the details, this card looks extremely busted. Brann/Anub requires an initial investment of 11 mana, which means either Guff or Innervate, and leaves you with 16 armor to further spend on minions. Anub’Rekhan after Celestial Alignment makes every minion you play cost 1 armor, which means that you can essentially play as many minions as you want during the turn. You’re limited by board space more than anything else!

The possibilities with this card feel endless, and it’s going to shape Ramp Druid’s late game over the next 4 months, or 2 weeks because it either gets nerfed, or gets Celestial Alignment nerfed again.

Score: 4

 

Final Thoughts

March of the Lich King Set Rank: 4th

Overall Power Ranking: 3rd

Ramp Druid has gotten some exciting new toys to play around with. They can help it survive better against aggression as well as develop some intimidating late game combos.

The armor package is a perfect fit. It provides a decent amount of removal and defense. Crypt Keeper is a very enticing piece, as ‘free’ taunts have traditionally been utilized in some of Ramp Druid’s most successful archetypes throughout history. Underking is a 7-mana stabilizing powerhouse. Unending Swarm could offer the 3rd and 4th copies of Scale of Onyxia. Ramp Druid’s success is usually limited by its aggressive matchups. If it can survive better against those, it usually has a good time.

When it comes to its late game, Anub’Rekhan looks terrifying in combination with Celestial Alignment. Ramp Druid might have been able to play infinite cards per turn if board space wasn’t limited, but it should be able to abuse Denathrius even better than it used to, and leverage Astalor to its advantage too.

Aggro Druid hasn’t been left out. Lingering Zombie is a staple for the archetype, no doubt. The big question here is the undead package and its potential clash with the Nature package headed by Herald of Nature, the best card in current Aggro Druid.

The issue we see here is that the undead package feeds on itself. You need to run a high-density package of undead minions to get the most out of them. An inconsistent Nerubian Flyer is a River Crocolisk. Wither requires you to develop a wide board of undead minions to become a powerful enough card to justify playing. Elder Nadox is reliant on the constant presence of undead minions on the board. On the other hand, Herald of Nature needs a critical mass of Nature spells to activate. Current Aggro Druid runs between 10 and 12 nature spells, as well as a spell tutor in Jerry Rig Carpenter.

So, we’re not convinced you can fit Nature and Undead in the same deck. Perhaps, Undead Druid is a different kind of Aggro Druid, and it can afford to drop Herald and have its own 3-mana board enabler, such as Hawkstrider Rancher.

Either way, we expect Druid to do well. Ramp Druid looks sweet. Aggro Druid will figure out what it’s supposed to do and perform. It’s unlikely that Druid doesn’t find a good place in the format.