The Comprehensive TITANS Preview

Forest Seedlings

Forest Seedling is a baseline Living Roots, summoning a couple of 1/1 Saplings. If the spell sits in your hand for two turns, it upgrades into Forest Blossoms, which summons a couple of 2/2 Treants. It’s important to understand the timing of the blossom. The spell ticks at the end of your turn, which means that if you have it in the opening hand, it’ll be ready in its upgraded form on turn 3.

This is a solid card for an aggressive Druid deck, especially one that specializes in summoning Treants, which carry quite a bit of value in this set. Its baseline power level is already a serviceable card. If you’re running a low curve with other 1-drops, you can afford to hold it in hand for a couple of turns. Summoning a couple of 2/2’s for 1 mana is quite strong. The only issue is that it’s strangely not a nature spell.

Score: 3

Lifebinder’s Gift

This card would already be incredible if it simply stated that it discounts all spells in your hand. The additional option of adding 2 random Nature spells is quite relevant since Druid is getting a lot of support for combining the effects of Choose One cards. A combined Lifebinder’s Gift will add these spells to your hand first, then discount all spells in hand after, much like Palm Reading.

Notice that Lifebinder’s Gift can give you any nature spell, including those from other classes! There are plenty of juicy spells, especially in Shaman, that Druid could appreciate. A lot of removal and AOE. This card is a big boost to Druid’s survivability.

So, we’re saying this card adds both survivability and bulk mana reduction to Druid, a class that relies on power spiking through spells, where playing a high impact spell a turn earlier could be the difference between winning and losing a game. There’s no doubt in our mind that this is one of the best cards in the expansion. Period.

Score: 4

Cultivation

This is a big finisher/buff for board flooding decks, one which guarantees that every Druid archetype that looks to adopt that playstyle is going to be highly interested in running a Treant package. If we compare Cultivation to other board finishers, we can comfortably say that at 4 mana, this card is already quite powerful. At anything less than that cost, it becomes absolutely cracked.

Can Druid discount Cultivation quickly enough to this cost or below it? Absolutely. It can very easily discount Cultivation to a meager cost by the mid-game just by running playable Treant cards. This means that Cultivation might be the most significant build-around card for Token Druid decks since the introduction of Herald of Nature.

We have little doubt it becomes meta defining at some point. Just a matter of time.

Score: 4

Embrace of Nature

Embrace of Nature tutors a Choose One card for 1 mana, but if you forge it, the spell will have both effects combined. Let’s consider the opportunity cost to spend 2 more mana to forge the card.

Is that 2 mana worth combining the effect of a Choose One card? Unless the card costs less than 2 mana, it should be worth it. If we’re looking at an expensive Choose One card such as Nourish or Drum Circle, it’s a no brainer. Each separate effect is worth more than the 2-mana investment in forging Embrace of Nature.

But even if we’re looking at a cheap card, such as Lifebinder’s Gift, the option to combine the effect and draw it more consistently is far too strong to pass up. Embrace of Nature is the kind of glue card you build a deck around, because it increases the consistency of any kind of plan you have for a package of Choose One cards.

Decks will be built with a curated Choose One package that accomplishes a goal, and Druid may thrive as a result.

Score: 4

Conservator Nymph

You can think of Nymph as a 3 mana 3/4 that gives +3/+3 and taunt to a Treant, since all of them are 2/2’s at their baseline. On the surface, this looks like a powerful card, but the condition is not easy to meet unless you run a Treant heavy deck. Ideally, it’s a deck that’s quite fast to get on the ground.

Nymph becomes stronger if you can play cheap Treants for a low mana cost on the same turn, making her less reliant on one of your Treants sticking for a turn. For example, Nymph is quite good alongside a Blossom Seedling on turn 4, or a Treant generated by a Witchwood Apple.

The most enticing enabler for Nymph is Blood Treant. Suddenly, this card looks like a good fit for constructed. A turn 3 Blood Treant/Conservator Nymph is a lot of pressure coming down very early.

We like Conservator Nymph, but she needs to go into a very aggressive Druid archetype. If one finally appears after such a long slumber, she has a good chance of seeing play.

Score: 2

Frost Lotus Seedling

This is another card that ‘blossoms’. At its baseline, Frost Lotus Seedling gains 4 armor and draws 1 card. That sounds quite terrible, as it is weaker than the old Shield Block. The Blossom version is strong, combining the effects of Arcane Intellect and Heavy Plate in one 3-mana card.

The problem is that it takes ages for this Seedling to Blossom. If you keep it in the mulligan, you can’t even play the Blossom version on turn 3. If you draw it later in the game, it’s going to take eternity in Hearthstone terms for it to blossom into the strong version.

Our biggest problem with the card is that its initial version is so weak. Forest Seedling can be played at its baseline and offers a cheap way to produce a couple of bodies for an aggressive deck. A weaker, old Shield Block is not something we want to play. If this can’t be a good enough mulligan keep, which it isn’t, it’s not good enough. Drawing it later in the game should only makes it worse.

Score: 1

Disciple of Eonar

They finally buffed Raid Negotiator! Disciple of Eonar makes the next Choose One card cast both effects combined. Considering the stat penalty of a 4 mana 4/4, we can consider the cost of the ability to be significantly less than the 2 mana it costs to forge Embrace of Nature. Disciple doesn’t draw us the card, which is why it’s not as good, but it curves perfectly into Nourish and doesn’t fall off later in the game since our deck is likely built to abuse Choose One cards.

For example, Drum Circle becomes a single card win condition if you combine both of its effects. Nourish becomes absurd and so does Lifebinder’s Gift. There are two more Druid cards below that become significantly more powerful with the effect, but we’ve already mentioned the key pieces that make Disciple of Eonar a likely inclusion in Druid decks going forward.

Score: 3

Ancient of Growth

This 7-drop doesn’t look too strong by itself. A 5/5 that summons 3 Treants may pass the vanilla test for stats per cost but being a 7-mana card means that it’s likely too slow for an aggressive Druid deck. It just doesn’t do enough for that stage of the game. The other option is even worse, since it’s basically a more expensive version of Treespeaker, a 5 mana 4/4 that saw no play. Ancient of Growth gives them taunt, which makes it a little better, but if you have a board of Treants surviving to your turn, you should be casting Cultivation and win the game on the spot.

Where things get interesting is having Ancient of Growth combine its effects through Embrace of Nature or Disciple of Eonar. A combined Ancient will first summon the 3 Treants and then transform them into Ancients with taunts. This means that your Cultivation will still be discounted as you’ve summoned the Treants, and you’ve developed a big board of 20/20 in stats for 7 mana, with 15/15 of them in taunts.

Ancient of Growth is not as strong as Drum Circle when you envision a 7-mana card that abuses the combination of its Choose One effects. It doesn’t produce as many stats, and it doesn’t get discounted by Lifebinder’s Gift. But it does add redundancy to the plan, which could be valuable. If a slower Treant Druid deck exists, one that doesn’t race for the opponent’s face from turn 1, but looks to power spike in the mid-game, this card could have a role.

Score: 2

Freya, Keeper of Nature

Freya’s first form is an unconditional Elise the Enlightened that costs 3 more mana. That does sound weak, but Elise had a Highlander restriction, which is quite a big deal. The other form is a stronger version of Gloop Sprayer, summoning copies of all minions you have on the board.

On the surface, Freya seems difficult to utilize. If you have a board worth copying, you’re already way ahead in the game as a Druid and likely winning. Double your hand does sound strong for late game matchups, but in this case, Freya is an 8 mana 4/6 that does not impact the board or protect you. Freya generally seems like a very greedy card, even if you manage to combine her effects with Disciple of Eonar or Embrace of Nature.

There is one utilization of Freya that does seem very promising, which is a 2-card combo with Eonar to copy the TITAN after a mana refresh and basically do whatever you please. If you hard ramp to Eonar and Freya, they offer a very powerful payoff that should be game winning. For that reason, we think Freya has potential.

Score: 2

Eonar, the Life-Binder

Eonar is the most expensive TITAN at 10 mana, an appropriate cost for her abilities and the ramping nature of her class. A 5/7 body that summons a 5/5 Ancient with taunt every time she uses her abilities, so she has a built-in way to protect herself and the Druid if she continues to survive.

Spontaneous Growth is a similar ability to the battlecry of Malygos the Spellweaver, but you can draw every type of card, not just spells. This is a very strong payoff for ramping, as we’ve seen in past iterations of Druid. Ramping requires us to sacrifice card advantage, while Eonar offers a payoff that replenishes our hand completely. We should now have all the tools required to win the game from that point.

Bountiful Harvest is a Reno Jackson full heal. This ability is very powerful, as it offers another payoff that covers the weakness of ramping. Ramp Druids sacrifice board control to ramp, so they are often vulnerable to aggression. If you manage to ramp quickly enough to play Eonar, you get a full heal that invalidates all the damage your aggressive opponent has previously dealt. Add the fact that you’ve also summoned a TITAN and a taunt that they cannot ignore, and you should be able to win.

Flourish is a complete mana refresh ability, one we’ve seen in the past from Kun, the Forgotten King. We think this ability might be the most common one in ideal circumstances since the mana refresh ability allows us to copy Eonar and cast another one of her abilities on the same turn. This is made possible by Freya or Cover Artist. Note that Freya will also copy the Ancient, so you’ll end up with Freya, two copies of Eonar and three Ancients on the board after this play. Other combos could emerge thanks to this ability.

We think Eonar could become the crown jewel, the cornerstone, the ultimate win condition of Ramp Druid decks going forward, replacing the nerfed Anub’Rekhan and becoming Summer Flowerchild’s new best friend. All her abilities are game changing. Mommy TITAN shall not disappoint.

Score: 4

Final Thoughts

TITANS Set Rank: 4^th

Overall Power Ranking:  3^rd

After creating chaos throughout Festival of Legends and suffering brutal nerfs to its win conditions as a result, Druid is ready to take revenge and return to the format, armed with new win conditions that could be just as powerful as the ones it lost, if not more. The class is currently a gun without any bullets. TITANS is giving it new ammunition.

Ramp Druid just needed to find a new late game. A Choose One package consisting of Drum Circle, Nourish and Lifebinder’s Gift and a late game combo consisting of Eonar and Freya, look like a recipe for success. A combined Drum Circle is a game ending turn against any deck that doesn’t have mass removal tools, giving Druid the ability to turn the corner in faster matchups.

The existence of Summer Flowerchild should always mean that Druid’s late game gets an added boost in its consistency and execution. Embrace of Nature is another major consistency tool that makes Druid’s late game more threatening. Whether it leans into the hero power package, or whether Lifebinder’s Gift pushes it to leverage Topior and Nature spells, Ramp Druid looks intimidating again.

But there’s more to Druid beyond ramping to single card win conditions. The Treant package looks juicy. Cultivation could revive Druid’s board-flooding strategies and might be one of the most impactful win conditions of this set. We can see two ways to leverage the card.

One way is a Treant Druid archetype that’s not the fastest to get on board, but one that looks to set up an Ancient of Growth or a Drum Circle swing into a Cultivation payoff. This deck could sustain threats through Topior and constantly demand board clears from a defensive opponent in the late game.

Another way is to revive Aggro Druid, employing a fast-paced strategy with a low curve that looks to take over the early game, develop Treants and finish the opponent off with either Cultivation or Herald of Nature.

All these strategies exhibit their own promise. From a dead class, Druid looks revitalized and seems to have so many options. It’s a bold prediction, but we’re quite optimistic about Druid’s chances of competing in the new format. If Druid doesn’t get its face pounded too hard, its emerging game plans should thrive.