Has Tourist access to: Mage
Cards can be played by: Warrior
Trail Mix
This spell allows us to invest 2 mana on a turn, to have an extra 2 mana the next turn. Trail Mix will give you the extra mana even if it exceeds the maximum.
Considering that Druid is all about sacrificing initiative to ramp into power spikes, Trail Mix seems like the ideal fit for the class. We can Trail Mix into Crystal Cluster, for example, to accelerate our ramping. We can use it to cheat out a threat earlier, or set up a swing turn, such as Zilliax, Yogg, or Eonar.
Warrior loves getting access to this card, too. We can once again play Brann on 6. We can play Odyn on 7. We can Ryecleaver on 5. Being able to play a key win condition two turns earlier is a huge boon to any late game strategy. The only thing we must be wary of is proper turn planning. Look ahead at what we can do next turn and decide whether to Trail Mix or not.
This card makes us realize how insane old Innervate was, but even though it’s worse than old Innervate, it’s still a game changer for both classes who gain access to it.
Score: 4
Tortollan Traveler
This card looks strong for the cost. We get a 1/5 taunt body, which isn’t a bad way to stall early aggression. We get to tutor a taunt minion on its deathrattle, which is a stronger effect than simply drawing. Remember Treasure Guard? That was a very competitive card. Tortollan Traveller is already better.
But that’s not all, we also discount this taunt minion by 2 mana? So Tortollan Traveler has an effective net cost of 1 mana, while allowing us to potentially play a taunt minion two turns earlier than we normally can? Can we think of a taunt minion we would like to tutor this way? Perhaps the game winning Zilliax by any chance?
This card is going to be a strong consideration for every Druid and Warrior deck that runs Zilliax, which essentially means it’s going to be considered in most of their decks. There are other ways to tutor Zilliax in both classes, so we don’t think it’s going to be a permanent inclusion. It can also draw Hamm. That’s going to be the low roll. We’ll happily take that.
Score: 3
Bouldering Buddy
This minion might be serviceable in a Ramp Druid deck that runs Crystal Cluster, since you can play Cluster on 6 and drop Buddy the next turn. Buddy has both rush and taunt, which means it’s a great way to turn the corner against our opponent’s pressure. Since we’re playing Ramp Druid, our opponent is going to be ahead on the board and try to rush us down. However, this card doesn’t have the best synergy with Tortollan Traveler, which we’re likely to value more. It also potentially interferes with our chances of tutoring Zilliax.
In Warrior, this card won’t make the cut. Even though the class does gain some ramp, its ramping isn’t going to be lighting fast. If you can’t play Bouldering Buddy consistently on turn 6, you probably shouldn’t be interested. It’s also an Elemental, which interferes with our chances of finding our big cheese elemental from All You Can Eat.
Score: 2
Hiking Trail
On the surface, this location is a decent value card, but nothing exceptional. For 3 mana, we get to discover three taunt minions over the course of the next few turns. Both Druid and Warrior can gain armor through their hero power, so they could reopen the location easily if they want to, though we would generally want to avoid hero powering in a competitive Hearthstone game, especially on turn 4.
Hiking Trail does have a cute combo in this set, thanks to the neutral 2-drop XB-931 Housekeeper, which gains armor when you use a location. This means that we can expend all three charges of Hiking Trail in one turn. Combined with the availability of Tide Pools in Mage, Druid has a couple of 3-mana locations that are quite easy to refresh, especially after ramping. This makes us wonder whether Druid is the best candidate to utilize Seaside Giants.
Generally, we don’t focus too much on the random value this card generates. If Hiking Trail sees competitive play, it’ll be in a deck with Seaside Giants.
Score: 2
Dozing Dragon
This minion is worth a lot of stats over 2 turns. On the turn it’s played, it summons a 3/5 taunt. The next turn, it summons another. On the final turn, it wakes up as a 3/5 without taunt.
The first turn is ‘undersized’ for the cost. We’re developing a 5 mana 3/5 taunt. However, by the next turn, we more than make up for it. Considering the dragon tag, this is an effective stabilizer for Dragon Druid. It discounts Fye three times.
What’s important to note is the mana breakpoint. Druid has the option to choose from three different 3-mana cards that ramp. We have New Heights, Malfurion’s Gift and the nerfed Splish-Splash Whelp. We can also play Trail Mix on 2. We’re going to need turn 5 follow-ups now. Dozing Dragon offers a great initial follow-up to our ramp, so we expect it to become a staple for the archetype.
Squint a little and you’ll see Wildpaw Caverns. But without Lightning Bloom.
Score: 3
Hydration Station
A massive resurrection card that is specifically targeted towards high-cost taunts, making it both a threat in slower matchups, as well as a game ending win condition in faster ones.
With both Warrior and Druid gaining additional ramp this expansion, on top of ways to specifically tutor Zilliax more consistently, a Perfect/Virus Zilliax followed up by Hydration Station sounds like game over. Warrior is already doing this with Inventor Boom. The class now gets two additional copies of Inventor Boom. Druid can also have three copies of Hydration Station, with Mistah Vistah being able to repeat the spell.
This card should be extremely popular in most late game-oriented Warrior and Druid decks. There has been a movement toward cutting Virus Zilliax for Twin Zilliax in recent weeks, following the nerf to the Virus Module. We suspect there will be a switch back to Virus with the launch of this expansion. Yogg-Saron will still have a lot of work to do.
Score: 4
New Heights
The last card revealed by us on this website, one that we expected to generate a lot of noise. It did not disappoint.
We do think that in a sense, New Heights was bound to be overrated by players. This is not Wildheart Guff. It’s not even a mini-Guff. There is no persistent hero power that continues to accelerate us to that raised maximum mana. In the average game that lasts 8 turns, this will mostly feel like Wild Growth. There is nothing “broken” about this card. It has a clear upside when we do encounter drawn-out late game matchups, where the Druid (or Warrior) can have a constant mana advantage.
But the thing is, New Heights doesn’t need to be broken to be extremely influential. With Malfurion’s Gift, we now have incredibly consistent early game ramping, even without opting for a Dragon package with Splish-Splash Whelp. Crystal Cluster becomes stronger, as it will help us accelerate to the 10+ mana mark. Druid and Warrior will be stronger in late game matchups.
That’s enough for New Heights to be a card that’s played by every Ramp Druid deck, as well as every Control Warrior deck, for the next 20 months. It’s the humblest of meta defining cards.
Score: 4
Sleep Under the Stars
A superbly versatile card that should be a staple in late game-oriented Druid and Warrior decks. With Sleep Under the Stars, we get to choose one of three effects, three times, with any combination possible. If we want to, we can draw 6 cards, or gain 15 armor, spending the entire mana available on immediate value.
Alternatively, we can utilize Moonkin Constellation to turn it into a much faster card, spending 1 mana to draw 2 cards, which is an effect that every deck in the game would love to have. The flexibility in different matchups is what makes it so valuable. If we’re facing an over-the-top burn deck, we suddenly have an easy way to gain 15 armor on the spot. If we’ve spent all our cards ramping up, we can stock up our hand and find our win conditions. Sleep Under the Stars is always good. Always useful. Never a dead draw at any point in the game once we hit 7 mana.
Its utility in Odyn Warrior should be highlighted. Since every instance of armor is separate, we can trigger Razorfen Rockstar three times with it. Double Rockstar and one Sleep is worth 27 damage. Add a hero power on 11 mana (thanks to New Heights) and we’re dealing 33 damage with 3 cards post-Odyn. This makes post-Odyn execution incredibly easy and lessens the need for us to run fringe combo pieces such as Verse Riff.
Undoubtedly one of the best cards in the set.
Score: 4
Cruise Captain Lora
This was one of the first cards that was revealed during reveal season, clearly as a ploy to lull players into a false sense of security that Druid was going to get a bad set.
Jokes aside, Lora is not a terrible card in theory. There are 19 locations in the random pool. Their average mana cost is 2.84. Two locations are worth 5.68 mana. Throw a 4/5 on top of it, and it doesn’t look like a bad deal for 7-mana in a class that can ramp.
A concern that might arise is synergy. A significant number of them should have no synergy in the Druid class. This might surprise you, but only 2 out of the 19 locations that can be summoned by Lora can be considered “useless”: Sanguine Depths and Jungle Gym (the absolute worst one).
The rest of them range from situationally useful, decent, to several that are very good. Muck Pools is ironically one of the cheapest ones, yet an insane spawn from Lora as we can instantly evolve her into a random 8-drop. Just an example.
Still, Lora might be best utilized in a location-focused deck that runs Tide Pools, Hiking Trail and Seaside Giant. If we can play Lora and click on a couple of locations while dropping a free Giant in the process, then we won’t be too upset. Especially if one of those locations is Forge of Wills. Or Dance Floor. Or Prison of Yogg-Saron.
There are far worse cards in this set. We’ll be the math nerds and go with the science. This is playable. It’s just that Druid might have better things to do.
Score: 2
Mistah Vistah
Mistah Vistah is an outstanding standalone card, one that offers its own win condition to Ramp Druid decks.
The reason being is that it represents an oppressive clock on the opponent and perfectly fits the Ramp Druid playstyle. We’re playing a 5 mana 5/5, which isn’t a good play for the board, but setting a clock that expires in 3 turns, when we repeat every spell we’ve played since dropping Vistah to the board.
The amount of free mana we might be getting here could be enough to decide the game, even if we’re significantly behind on the board. Beyond the fact that Ramp Druid tends to be a spell-heavy archetype that’s likely to play many of them within the timeframe, some spells are particularly absurd to replay.
Access to the Mage set makes Mistah Vistah more appealing thanks to Tsunami, but Druid has its own new powerhouse spells to repeat in Hydration Station and Sleep Under the Stars. We can’t forget about Drum Circle or Crystal Cluster either. There are so many directions we can go here.
We would probably rate Mistah Vistah highly even if it wasn’t a Tourist at all. Only one other Tourist would fit that description.
Score: 4
Final Thoughts
Perils in Paradise Set Rank: 1st
Tourist Synergy Score: A
Overall Power Ranking: 1st
We believe that the Druid set stands a class above the rest and expect it to emerge as the class to beat when the expansion launches. Druid’s collaboration with Mage boosts its late game prospects and allows it to execute one of the fastest OTK’s in the upcoming format.
If you haven’t noticed, Dragon Druid has been dominating the last week of Standard with a 3-mana Splish-Splash Whelp. This deck is now getting another 3-mana ramp card, it’s getting a 5-mana stabilizer, while having the choice to adapt its late game curve to whatever the format entails.
Druid may not even need the Dragon shell to succeed. With Rising Waves, it gains access to an early AOE spell that can help it fend off early aggression. A game plan centered on Mistah Vista and Crystal Cluster sounds incredible, with Ramp Druid guaranteed to have a massive mana advantage on the opponent once it hits the late game.
We mostly expect Druid to lean heavily into Hydration Station resurrecting Zilliax. We have the capability to tutor Zilliax with Tortollan Traveler and discount it to 7 mana, which is the perfect setup for a turn 8 Station. This gives Ramp Druid the win condition it needs to beat aggressive decks.
Finally, perhaps the most terrifying direction of them all, is a Boomkin Druid that skips Owlonius. In Druid, Concierge finds its most dangerous form, becoming the foundation of a win condition that involves building our own Malygos. Magical Dollhouse, Chia Drake and Go with the Flow can all be activated for cheap in a single turn. Seabreeze Chalice scales incredibly with spell damage, with Tidepool Pupil and Bottomless Toy Chest potentially copying it, while Concierge makes all those drinks free of charge. The burst damage Druid can dish out to kill an opponent this way, even when they boast a respectable board of minions, is obscene.
Whatever the format looks like, Druid will likely play a major role. Whether it will have the highest win rate or not, it will be one of the most popular classes and the one that determines other decks to be worthy… or cast aside.
The reign of Malfurion isn’t over. It’s only just ramping up and reaching new heights… above the maximum mana.
