Story of Barnabus
We know that drawing a minion for 2 mana is not good enough. We only need to look at Reforestation to see that this spell is completely redundant in most decks, so the only way it can see play is if its condition can be consistently activated.
Gaining 5 armor makes Story of Barnabus slightly better than Shield Block. The health bonus puts it over the top as a strong card. For this spell to see play though, we need to play a deck with a highly restrictive deck building condition. Most playable constructed minions do not have 5 attack, so the shell needs to be spell-dense with a top end of haymakers.
One candidate to keep in mind is a Loh/Giants deck, where we can tutor our blow out pieces with Story of Barnabus and buy time in the process. In this context, this tutor seems perfect for the role, but it remains niche.
Score: 2
Skyscreamer Eggs
This looks like an enticing egg for Token Druid decks. Four 2/1 bodies are easily worth a 3-mana investment, so it is all about whether the archetype can consistently activate the egg. Between board buffs and single target buffs, such as Mark of the Wild, Skyscreamer Eggs seem trivial to pop at relative speed. Life Cycle is another card that Druid receives in this set that looks like a good egg popper.
What makes this card strong is that it is difficult to ignore, yet it is extremely difficult to clean up on the opponent’s turn, as they risk leaving up multiple bodies on our turn. It merits a board wipe on its own.
While this egg looks good in a normal Token Druid deck, we cannot forget its potential in Quest Druid, as it can help us fill the board at a relatively cheap cost. Skyscreamer Eggs/Life Cycle is a 4-mana combo that summons 5 minions to the board.
Should be a strong card in aggressive Druid decks, regardless of whether Quest Druid specifically pans out.
Score: 3
TREEEES!!!
A bigger version of ‘BEEEES!!!’. Trees can act as removal, dealing up to 8 damage for 5 mana, which is an inefficient ratio, but the bonus of this card is its versatility as a board building spell. In fact, we may want to target a small minion with this spell so that we have Treants survive, giving us a wide board. We can also target a friendly minion with it, such as an egg.
The downside of this card is that it cannot be played without a minion target, which makes it slow and questionable in an aggressive Druid deck. In Quest Druid, this should be significantly better, as we are more likely to have a contested board. Note that it can help us trigger our quest progression even if the Treants proceed to die when the spell resolves, as they are summoned first.
Our instinct tells us this is too slow for Token Druid, but it could be serviceable in Quest Druid.
Score: 2
Ravenous Flock
Summoning three 2/1 bodies for 2 mana is a great deal. The delay keeps the spell balanced in terms of power, as the Hatchlings are summoned on turn 3. Let’s think about this: Would we play a 3-mana spell with this immediate effect? The answer is probably yes, and it would be a powerful card for Token Druid.
This card is better than the hypothetical, as it allows us to summon these minions and buff them without counterplay. Ravenous Flock into Hatchery Helper is a devastating turn 2-3 curve that should obliterate some matchups. Furthermore, pre-loading a play helps us fill our board more easily in Quest Druid, without letting the opponent interfere with our game plan through AOE effects.
A core card in Token Druid decks going forward.
Score: 3
Hatchery Helper
A serious new win condition for Token Druid decks. Hatchery Helper represents an absurd amount of stats for the cost. It is enough for us to buff a single minion for it to be better than a 3 mana 3/5, so hitting two minions already puts us well above the curve for a 3-mana card.
In Token Druid, this should either act as a game ending finisher, or an early blow out turn. It is enough for us to have two uncontested minions on turn 3 to allow Helper to put tremendous pressure on the opponent. The sheer existence of this card forces opponents to overtrade or blow resources on smaller boards in their attempts to fend us off.
Sometimes, our opponent does not even have counterplay. Ravenous Flock/Hatchery Helper is game over in some matchups. This is a meta defining card Druid has been waiting for to revive an aggressive archetype. Its condition is elegant and trivial to follow, as there is no need for us to develop big minions. We just go wide at a frantic pace.
Score: 4
Hybridization
A mega minion tutor. Hybridization draws 4 minions and packs a crazy mana reduction effect if we have played a Nature spell on the prior turn. While 5 mana is a significant initial investment, a 4-mana total discount guarantees us the ability to regain initiative quickly after the reload turn.
This is a great top end card for a deck with a low curve. If we play an active Hybridization on turn 5, we can play all the minions we have drawn on turn 6, giving us an elegant and immediate follow-up.
Including Nature spells should not be an issue, as there are plenty of cheap ones that fit the game plan of an aggressive deck well. We can see Hybridization being played in Token or Quest Druid. It might even sneak into slower decks if they can construct a useful minion package that this spell can tutor. Imbue Druid should massively benefit from this spell. Game changer.
Score: 4
Life Cycle
This spell is meant to target our own minions, as it is not an effective removal effect. The best targets are deathrattles, as we can trigger them while trading the undersized initial body for a bigger one. Eggs are perfect targets for Life Cycle, with Skyscreamer Eggs looking like the biggest candidate to be popped. However, there are other, more subtle options, such as Eternal Seedling or even the forgotten Giggling Toymaker.
If a Druid deck opts to run a deathrattle/egg package, Life Cycle will be strongly considered. But if going wide with cleaner minions ends up the path forward, then this spell will be skipped over. Currently, we do not see a slower Druid deck running this card, as it does not have an enticing deathrattle to target it with.
Score: 2
Eternal Bloodpetal
This card can be viewed as a “soft egg”. Its initial body is hard to ignore with its 5 attack, but it gets pinged by everything. At that point, it turns into a Seedling “egg” that resummons Bloodpetal when it dies. This loop is infinite, so our opponent cannot get rid of this minion without a silence, transform or ‘poof’ effect. Clearly, this is a sustained pressure card.
Our issue with the card is that Eternal Seedling require constant activation to be relevant. Otherwise, it is a slow insurance policy to AOE, which is not good enough if we are playing a deck that looks to pressure our opponent early. A deck that runs Eggs and Life Cycle can consider it as a 4-mana minion we can tutor with Hybridization. It is a strong Life Cycle target, but we suspect the archetype will have better options at this cost.
Score: 1
Loh, the Living Legend
Loh casts an aura effect that changes our minions’ initial cost to 5 mana. Where that becomes particularly powerful is when those minions have cost reduction mechanics, such as Giants or the Protoss Carrier. The cost reduction will apply after the cost is set to 5, so Playhouse Giants will cost no mana once we play Loh, provided we have drawn 5 cards during the game.
This makes Loh a potentially massive blow out turn, especially when The Ceaseless Expanse is available for inclusion. Ramping into Loh/Ceaseless/Giants/Carrier sounds incredibly powerful, if not outright toxic. Druid has access to several minion tutors that can support the consistency of the blow out turn, with Story of Barnabus looking like a great fit.
The question is whether Druid can support this blow out package with a spell dense shell that is strong defensively, and whether a late game win condition can be added to beat defensive decks with mass removal that can deal with the Loh turn. We think both requirements can be met on paper.
Hard to give this legendary anything but the maximum score. One that we can see break the game and get nerfed at some point. Strong Murmur vibes.
Score: 4
Restore the Wild
Filling our board is a difficult task, even for board flooding decks. This might be the quest requirement with the most available counterplay for the opponent, as they can make it difficult for us to progress the quest by repeatedly clearing our board. While Druid does have some tools available to it that can make this task easier (Flipper Friends), it requires a significant deck building investment with cards that are weak by themselves.
Timing is difficult to evaluate for the quest, as it can vary depending on the matchup. We suspect that it will be easy to repeatedly proc the quest when we are faced with a passive deck that does not have great AOE tools, but defensive decks with strong AOE or fast decks that can contest the board might delay our progression further.
The good news is that Quest Druid might not be in a huge rush to complete the quest, as the reward is a very powerful weapon that can set up waves after waves of threats, turning our board flooding tools that help us complete the quest into massive boards that must be answered or win the game. We can even complete the quest and equip the weapon on the same turn, asking our opponent an immediate and game ending question.
Still, there are flaws in this game plan that we cannot ignore. We need to fill our board consistently despite starting with less resources. The nature of our quest progression might lead to a polarizing matchup spread. We cannot help but feel that Druid will be better off ignoring the quest and playing an old-fashioned Token Druid, considering that it already has strong board buffs to leverage. Do we need to work that hard when we have Hatchery Helper and Overheat?
Score: 1
Final Thoughts
The Lost City of Un’Goro Set Rank: 1st
Overall Power Ranking: 2nd
We think Druid received the strongest set in Un’Goro, one that injects a burst of power across a multitude of its archetypes, both established and emerging.
The main story spanning most of the cards in the set is the promotion of a Token Druid deck, one that floods the board aggressively and finishes off the opponent with board wide buffs. Restore the Wild offers The Everbloom, a massive board buffing weapon, rewarded to those successfully flooding the board on multiple turns.
But we are not convinced this quest is necessary. The difficulty in completing it against defensive decks with strong AOE kits is our primary concern. Restore the Wild may enhance our ability to punish decks without a strong removal toolkit, but it enhances our weakness to AOE.
This suspicion is further supported by the promise of an aggressive Token Druid deck without the quest that may render the quest obsolete. Most of the cards in the set fit this archetype perfectly, and with both Overheat and Hatchery Helper available, do we even need The Everbloom?
Imbue Druid is an established archetype that receives a massive boost with the addition of Hybridization. We think this draw engine looks insane in different Druid decks, but it might peak in synergy and power in Imbue Druid specifically, tutoring its entire minion package with remarkable precision.
The most dangerous Druid deck in this expansion might be a new one entirely, built around Loh, the Living Legend. The prospect of ramping into Loh and then dropping a free Ceaseless Expanse, on top of Giants/Carriers, may lead to extreme play patterns. Keep an eye out for Loh’s ability to blow out opponents without reasonable counterplay.
Considering how promising the class looks through multiple directions, it is hard not to be optimistic about the state of Druid in Un’Goro.
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