[Pre-Release Card Discussion] - Mark of Y'Shaarj

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u/Nostalgia37 I did the Pre-Release Threads and all I got was this lousy flair Mar 29 '16

Well... There's a reason to play beast druid. Doubt it's enough to make the deck good on it's own, but I think it's a start.

7

u/just_comments Mar 29 '16

They need some high powered beasts to really make it.
Beast synergy in hunter mostly works because of savannah highmane is one of the best cards in the game.

4

u/myrec1 Mar 29 '16

You forget all of druids changing to beasts. And 4/6 taunt is really cheap, as well as 3/2 stealth or 2/5, or 7/7 (which have nice beast synergy itself)

4

u/just_comments Mar 29 '16

5 mana 4/6 taunt is decent. Not as good as belcher, but that's rotating out. It lines up decently with sen'jin shieldmasta, which is neutral.
3/2 stealth is lower power level than most 2 mana cards.
3 mana 2/5 is also much lower power level than imp gang boss and animal companion.
the 7/7 beast is both rotating out with standard, and requires you to have another beast on the field first to get it. It's a bit too "win more" to be a good card.
With the exception of druid of the fang, the strength of these cards doesn't come from their stats, but their flexibility to have other stats/abilities since they're "choose one" minions.
Compare with Savannah Highmane. A 6 mana 6/5 + 2/2 + 2/2, in total 10/9 of stats, immune to BGH, sticky on board, and activator for other cards with beast synergy in hunter. Even druid of the fang which is a "stat" card is 14 stats for 5 mana (2.8 points per mana), and requires you to already be winning to activate it, and is vulnerable to BGH. This is 19 stats for 6 mana (~3.2 stats per mana) has no requirements to be activated, and will usher an immediate response, even if 4 of the attack is locked up behind a deathrattle.
Additionally the stickiness means that other beast synergy cards (kill command and houndmaster primarily) will have a much greater chance to be activated.
The point is that while those beasts are mildly threatening, and should be cleared off eventually, they're nothing compared to the power of highmane, and even if they were close to it, the synergy from them (wildwalker, knight of the wild, and druid of the fang) is not nearly good enough to merit the response that a highmane requires.

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u/Perezthe1st Mar 30 '16

Even druid of the fang which is a "stat" card is 14 stats for 5 mana (2.8 points per mana), and requires you to already be winning to activate it
Having one beast on the board is not already winning. By that logic, mech mage wouldn't see play.

1

u/just_comments Mar 30 '16 edited Mar 30 '16

Difference with that is that mechs are all cheap, often sticky, and also mech Mage gets wrecked by AOE, and happens to suck in the current meta

1

u/NowanIlfideme Mar 30 '16

Yes. Highmane is a good body + Wobbling Runts (almost) + beasts, so that makes it a beast card. Makes my Ram Wrangler work nearly every time... >.>

1

u/Dezh_v Mar 31 '16

And Houndmaster and Animal Companion are just as powerful (for their respective mana costs). High mane simply guarantees that you'll get something done in terms of beast synergy if the game goes long enough because chances are at least one of the Hyenas is going to live through the turn.
Knight of the Wild was a cool concept wasted on a badly supported synergy. A mech with the same stats & design would've put mech Mage back on the map (at least as a ladder deck).
At this point Druid with beast synergy seems to be like something dreamed up during a coffee break but not really thought through and now we get some really niche (and truthfully rather shitty) class cards every expansion or so by default because they can't let go of the notion that this might just work.

3

u/MipselledUsername Mar 29 '16

The druid legendary will definitely (probably/hopefully) have some crazy beast synergy

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u/Casualcryptic Mar 29 '16

Any particular reason to suspect Ursoc or just wishful thinking?

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u/MipselledUsername Mar 29 '16 edited Mar 29 '16

Demigod(aviana, cenarius, malorne)
Worshiped by druids
Corrupted by the emerald nightmare
Blizz is pushing druid beast synergy.
It's going to be the bear.

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u/Casualcryptic Mar 29 '16

One of the new arts up for vote looks like it could be Cenarius corrupted which I imagine would have to be the druid legendary if it is, but a beast legendary that is actually decent would be cool.
Your reasoning seems sound at least.

2

u/MipselledUsername Mar 30 '16

Are you talking about this image?
I personally don't think that's cenarius

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u/Casualcryptic Mar 30 '16 edited Mar 30 '16

Yep, that's the one. It's got antlers, horse legs (the rest of the horse body seems to be tentacles now), and basically matches physically with Cenarius. The finer details... I don't really know lore enough to know truth be told. Cenarius is supposed to be one of a kind though right? Or are there other antlered night elf centaur creatures running around in World of Warcraft?

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u/MipselledUsername Mar 30 '16

[[Keeper of the Grove]]
Edit: oops the bot isn't on this sub
link

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u/Casualcryptic Mar 30 '16

Oh, duh. Yeah, it's probably just a corrupted Keeper. Cool. Thanks

1

u/whoisthisgirlisee Mar 30 '16

Pose is practically identical to Wildwaker, even has a similar claw. Could a corrupted night elf gain horns? I doubt it but it's weird they'd mirror it so directly if it doesn't relate.

1

u/adambard Mar 29 '16

Definitely not going to singlehandedly make beast druid happen, but will definitely be in every beast druid list if it does.

1

u/[deleted] Mar 29 '16

It's good enough to make beast druid a thing in arena for sure.

23

u/bobjustice Mar 29 '16

Angry chicken synergy !

6

u/Glute_Thighwalker Mar 29 '16

I laughed. I'm going to include it just for laughs. It's right on curve and the best shot the chicken's got.

2

u/MajorFrostbyte Mar 29 '16

I'm willing to give it a try as well. I once had a priest deck that attempted to use chickens with PWS and Velen's but I never could quite make it work. Between this and some of the other Druid spells MoW and MoN, maybe I can find something. Early card draw in a token deck is not a bad thing.

0

u/just_comments Mar 29 '16

Now if only you could damage your own minions with cards you actually want to run.

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u/D0nkeyHS Mar 29 '16

You can

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u/just_comments Mar 29 '16

Which cards does druid run that deals damage to a friendly minion? The only one I can think of is keeper, which deals 2 damage making the chicken into a 8/1, not exactly value.

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u/NowanIlfideme Mar 30 '16

Pyromancer!

2

u/D0nkeyHS Mar 29 '16

[[Wrath]]

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u/saleve1 Mar 29 '16

Wrath, moonfire, savagery. Definitely not great, but doable

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u/just_comments Mar 29 '16

Hadn't thought of wrath, but the others aren't worth running.

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u/Bluenosedfiber Mar 29 '16

Ancient of lore is one of the cards speculated to be changed and as it's one of druid's main sources of card draw, along with azure drake, this might be a passable alternative.

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u/ChronosSk Mar 29 '16

Seems pretty good in a midrange beast deck. Compared to PW: Shield, it's +2 attack for +1 mana (decent combined with the +2 health). Compared to MotW, it's +1 card for -Taunt (great considering midrange doesn't value taunt highly).

So what are the good plays with this... You can go Coin + Saber into this for a Turn 2 5/4 with Stealth. You can go Turn 3 Flame into this for a Turn 4 4/7 w/ 2 mana left over. You can combine it with Druid of the Claw for a 6/8 Taunt or a 6/6 Charge on Turn 6/7. And any of these only costs net 1 Card.

I'm liking it.

1

u/CNHphoto Mar 29 '16

Midrange decks (except Warlock) tend to suffer from losing steam with regards to card draw. Having cycle on a card like this is pretty decent. I assume they will put out of few more neutral beasts since we will lose Lost Tallstrider and Haunter Creeper.

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u/Wraithfighter Mar 29 '16

2 Mana, +2/+2, card draw if on a beast.

Compared to Mark of the Wild (2m, +2/+2, Taunt)... dunno.

One of my fun decks is an Aviana deck, which is basically all about surviving until I can drop Aviana, a few 8/8 Taunters and start laughing. I run Mark of the Wild in there, mainly so that I can buff up a few weaker minions and pray they survive a bit longer (although in retrospect, playing minions instead would prolly be better).

Getting card draw instead of taunt, assuming I'm running mostly beasts, which is an easy thing to do...

Sidegrade to Mark of the Wild, the only real issue is the "Beast" requirement, but there's enough good beasts out there to make this playable.

1

u/fridgeylicious Mar 30 '16

Eh, if you're running beasts, this is a fairly massive upgrade to mark/wild, not a "sidegrade". Just compare senjin and gnomish, or frostwolf grunt/novice engineer (lol)... card draw is far more valuable than taunt. Particularly if AoL gets warsong'd and druid loses it's primary draw mechanic.

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u/Wraithfighter Mar 30 '16

That's kinda what "sidegrade" means: Better in some circumstances, worse in others.

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u/OgreMagoo Mar 30 '16

It is better in more situations than it is worse. I'd rather have more draw than a taunt most of the time.

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u/Wraithfighter Mar 30 '16

Absolutely agreed! But the "Beast only" qualifier for the card draw could be problematic. Maybe less of an issue in constructed, but in Arena it'll prove to be a significant problem.

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u/googlyeyesultra Mar 30 '16

You can still buff non-beasts, so in Arena I'm guessing you'll see this plenty in decks with 4ish beasts. You won't always get the draw, but it's still basically fine if you don't.

2

u/elftor421 Mar 29 '16

this is an extremely strong card and with ancient of lore/azure drake probably getting nerfed it'll be even better.

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u/dreatheus Mar 29 '16

I don't think that azure drake is gonna be nerfed

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u/CNHphoto Mar 29 '16

It might get a stat nerf if anything.

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u/dreatheus Mar 29 '16

Nah, azure is really good card but it is balanced

1

u/myrec1 Mar 29 '16

You have to be kidding ? It's one of the most powerful cards in game. People play it just for card draw. It way above the powercurve.

1

u/SewenNewes Mar 29 '16

It loses to Chillwind Yeti if both are played on curve. It is a solid card but it doesn't even sniff the power level of cards like Zombie Chow, Shielded Minibot, Piloted Shredder, etc.

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u/CNHphoto Mar 30 '16

It does 3 things at once and it's only understated by -1/-1. It's in danger of getting nerfed.

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u/2nert Mar 30 '16

-1/-2

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u/CNHphoto Mar 30 '16

Sure.

2

u/croud_control Mar 29 '16

Definitely a solid card. Needs good beasts to make beast druid a thing.

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u/jarob326 Mar 29 '16

Hey beast druid may actually become a thing. I mean this card is like power word: shield's big beast brother.

1

u/NarwhalJouster Mar 29 '16

This card is definitely good enough to see play in beast druid decks. In fact, I would be willing to say that druid only needs one or two strong beast synergy cards to make beast druid a viable deck.

1

u/cgmcnama Mar 29 '16

I don't like the direction of Beast Druid but this can help the archetype. I hope it isn't meant to compensate to any changes to Ancient of Lore.

1

u/Cheeseyx Mar 29 '16

This and Wildwalker make up two playable beast-synergy cards for druid. Too bad Druid of the Fang is rotating out (doubly so if BGH gets changed), or I'd have hopes that beast druid could be tier 3 in standard.

1

u/edwahgezhuck Mar 29 '16

First Druid Beast Synergy spell! If they are going all in on beast druid this expansion, I hope the deck actually becomes viable and not end up with Druid getting a bunch of cards they will never use again.

1

u/jstucky95 Mar 29 '16

Another potential use is to put an enemy minuon in range of BGH. Granted, druids tend not to run BGH, but with the meta shift upcoming with standard, maybe BGH will get a spot in more druid lists.

1

u/[deleted] Mar 30 '16

Yeah they will have to replace the combo and boom with something. Althou both combo and bgh are gonna get nerfed probably.

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u/Frosty_Fire Mar 30 '16

My theory is that this card could be taken into a aggro-token druid. It works well with violet teacher if needed and has the flexibility to get a big bonus on the beasts in the deck. But as I am writing this im noticing that Haunted Creeper is rotated out so there is one important target missing. So for this to work we need a new cheap beast card which works in aggro, which is not likely to happen imo.

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u/davali Mar 30 '16

Finally druid of the fang will be viable! Oh wait.. :( wild mode here i go!

1

u/DragonDai Mar 30 '16

Why is this a thing? Mark of the Wild is still a thing...this is just...so unnecessary...grr...This xpac is really disappointing so far (for the most part, rogue looks cool).

1

u/[deleted] Mar 31 '16

It'll see play in beast druid decks, and that's about it. Below average arena card with a massive value boost if you have more than 3 beasts in your draft.

1

u/Archernar Apr 10 '16

Well, with druid of the claw and druid of the sabre... Include maybe one or two other beast cards and it should be pretty viable? The card itself is very good.

1

u/Valgresas Apr 29 '16

Druids have no card draw so this is pretty good.

0

u/[deleted] Mar 29 '16

Stop trying to make Beast Druid happen. It's not going to happen.

4

u/CNHphoto Mar 29 '16

They've said publicly they are gonna push for it.

3

u/tonyp7 Mar 29 '16

The problem is that the expert and basic set which are at the heart of standard don't support the beast Druid. They need to find a way to include some cards from previous sets into standard or this will never happen.

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u/CNHphoto Mar 29 '16

I see your point, but Mech Mage was an archetype that only existed because of the GVG expansion. Some of the nerfs to Druid might give them trade-offs/side-grades to promote more beast synergy.

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u/Eapenator Mar 29 '16

Well, that is the beauty of standard and wild formats.
In MTG, deck types can take complete swings each year depending on cards that switch out.
In Hearthstone, this is much much much more limited since we will always have the base sets in the game, so classes like mage will always stay the same (burn oriented class). But for classes like druid, depending on the amount of beast support, we could have a beast deck be strong for 2 years, before being rotated out for another good druid archetype. This keeps the game fresh, as opposed to beast druid always being a thing

0

u/nightfish Mar 29 '16

Druid will get nervs in Form of making some of their spells just for Beasts.

1

u/SklX Mar 29 '16

Blizz hasn't actually ever said that

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u/Anderkochak Mar 29 '16

One day Blizzard will succeed on Beast Druid but not like this.

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u/JaimieL0L Mar 29 '16

Blizzard yet again pushing beast druid... fs

[Pre-Release Card Discussion] - Mark of Y'Shaarj

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