Time for some Druid loving...she’s just so damn different and interesting. She also does a lot. She can control vast amounts of the board, her generic creatures have good cost/attack efficiency amd lots of triggers to consider at all stages of a given turn. Most importantly she is capable of all sorts of shenanigans through her power and unqiue casting 'Vine casting'. In short she's ready for all seasons...here it is
If you find my mentioning of the rules of the Druid patronising (which many of you will be familiar with) please don't! When i first started playing Druid she was pretty damn confusing to me! So I hope this can be helpful to first time Druids...
HELP! How do i do spoiler tags...is it not [spoiler] [/spoiler]?
note: all card types are ranked in importance descending down the page. The complete expectation is creatures that are grouped roughly in type/cost descending
[spellbook]
[spellbookheader]
[spellbookname][/spellbookname]
[mage]Druid For All Seasons Vol 1[/mage]
Mage [mwcard=DRUIDABILITYOUTLINE]Druid[/mwcard]
[spells]
[spellclass]Attack[/spellclass]
[mwcard=DNA01]4 x Acid Ball[/mwcard]
[spellclass]Conjuration[/spellclass]
[mwcard=DNJ12]1 x Vine Tree[/mwcard]
[mwcard=DNJ06]3 x Nightshade Lotus[/mwcard]
[mwcard=DNJ02]2 x Corrosive Orchid[/mwcard]
[mwcard=DNW01]3 x Bloodspine Wall[/mwcard]
[mwcard=mw1w04]1 x Wall of Thorns[/mwcard]
[mwcard=DNJ10]2 x Stranglevine[/mwcard]
[mwcard=mw1j22]3 x Tanglevine[/mwcard]
[mwcard=mw1j13]1 x Mana Flower[/mwcard]
[spellclass]Creature[/spellclass]
[mwcard=DNC21]4 x Thornlasher[/mwcard]
[mwcard=DNC20]4 x Vine Snapper[/mwcard]
[mwcard=DNC10]4 x Raptor Vine[/mwcard]
[mwcard=DNC17]1 x Tataree[/mwcard]
[mwcard=MWSTX1CKC09]1 x Giant Wolf Spider[/mwcard]
[mwcard=MWSTX1CKC06]1 x Guardian Angel[/mwcard]
[mwcard=mw1c36]1 x Tarok, the Skyhunter[/mwcard]
[mwcard=DNC06]1 x Kralathor, The Devourer[/mwcard]
[mwcard=DNC18]1 x Togorah, Forest Sentinel[/mwcard]
[spellclass]Enchantment[/spellclass]
[mwcard=mw1e29]1 x Nullify[/mwcard]
[mwcard=DNE01]1 x Barkskin[/mwcard]
[spellclass]Equipment[/spellclass]
[mwcard=DNQ04]1 x Druid's Leaf Ring[/mwcard]
[mwcard=DNQ08]1 x Vinewhip Staff[/mwcard]
[mwcard=DNQ06]1 x Mohktari's Branch[/mwcard]
[spellclass]Incantation[/spellclass]
[mwcard=mw1i12]4 x Force Push[/mwcard]
[mwcard=mw1i23]3 x Rouse the Beast[/mwcard]
[mwcard=DNI02]4 x Burst of Thorns[/mwcard]
[mwcard=mw1i24]1 x Seeking Dispel[/mwcard]
[mwcard=mw1i06]2 x Dispel[/mwcard]
[mwcard=mw1i07]2 x Dissolve[/mwcard]
[mwcard=DNI04]2 x Renewing Rain[/mwcard]
[/spells]
[cost]Total cost: 120 pts[/cost]
[/spellbook]
Game plan: The druid is capable of great amount of versitility. She is inhertlly capable of board control and two of the most diverse spawn point in the game, Vine Tree (imho) and herself! She has the ability to cast Vine spells anywhere on board so long as you sacrifice a Vine Marker. Importantly Vine Makers ensare enemies in the same way that moving into or from an enemy creatures zone does. This build focuses on enhancing these abilities:
*Opening with tempo/board control
* Aggro gear shift
* Answers to a variety of threats
An alleged weakness or complaint of the Druid is that plants can be avoid therefore they are potentially useless. Not enitrely true. Using actions with out of postion trees (ala guard) can gain the action advantage, no creature is really out of play even if it becomes out of position. Given her creatures are pretty cheap don't feel shy about dropping them down.
Each "out of postion" creature is always a pontenial ambush (lasher/force push) and one less square for the enemy to move into or through.
To summarise: No range limitation on Vine Spells, constantlly lumbering enemies, board control, suprise attacks, fortified postions...there is a lot going on for a Druid in her own right.
A select choice of 1 ofs makes up an 'answer package'.
Card choices for the sake of discussion:
Nightshade Lotus/Orchid: Probally two of the best reasons to play Druid. Cast sleep or disolve (albeit expensive) to any zone. Use force push/thornlasher to bump a creature into place.
Thornlahser: Should you run 4 rooted, low damage dealers? Hell yes. Snatch can be used for the offense (to draw them in) it can be used for defense (pull away) as well. Fun plays involve pulling through walls (bloodspine) or into a posion gas cloud of which Thornlash regens 2.
Tataree: For me the quick cast and the action action advantage is the key reason i run it. Healing, mana ramping is good too.
Wolfspider: A new addition to try again...it fits the all seaon theme. Big attacks with Whipvine/stangle&tangle/plus and its ability to tangle non-gaurding fliers makes it useful.
Tarok/Angel: Tarok for offense. Angel for defense. Angel for rear gaurd against divine intervetion/teleport suprises as you know...gaurding stuff. Conjurations stranglevines/tangle vines/posion gas cloud especially. I'm not sure if Tarok is good without buffs
Togorah: Most certainlly not a fake but he is not a unit to attack with alone. He is great on the defense and absorbs enemy actions on the offense to support other creatures work. Hard to move into postion but he is the ultimate for tanking and action control.
Potential Cuts/Inclusions:
As always. Is there something obvious that i'm not able to deal with in the current build?
-1 Wolf Spider, you are on notice pending performace. Watch this space...
-1 Tarok, tbh never used him too much, lack of buffs not so good?
+1 Vinewhip staff, for the sake of redundancy? Is there merit redundancy...Vinewhip is pretty useful
+1 Poison Gas Cloud, despite mentioning it im not running it (right now). I endose the card full for Druid and this build but Guard Angel forced some things out.....Gaurdian Angel and Poison Gas cloud also have nice synergy...hmm
+1 Teleport, because it's teleport?
Match Reports (coming soon)
OCTGN Replays (coming soon when my own pc is fixed)
