Renathal Prestor Druid

Leírás

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Druid has been the class most dramatically affected by the introduction of Prince Renathal. Both of its popular archetypes have leaned into the Prince to find success with extra-large decks.

The introduction of Renathal has changed the format so much that we had to postpone last week's report as any field we would have presented was completely outdated. Druid is the best example. The class was previously a fringe afterthought and has now become one of the most popular classes in the format at all levels of play. Prestor Druid, a deck that had a brief appearance during Alterac Valley before fading as a meme, has now turned mainstream. Celestial Druid, mostly running Renathal, has also spiked in play. Druid numbers at legend are at 25%. Malfurion is back to being an enemy and Wildheart Guff must be nerfed again, apparently.

Prestor Druid is perceived to be a menace on ladder, but the numbers indicate that it is not too powerful. It's a deck that seems to take advantage of the popularity of some of the underperforming decks in the format. Prestor Druid is strong against passive decks that are incapable of pressuring it effectively to punish its weak early game and absence of any notable defensive tools. We suspect it will decline in play, but perhaps stay ‘overplayed' much like Ramp Druid was before Onyxia's lair. It's a deck that needed Renathal to be competitive, and we explain why in the Druid section.

Let's start with Prestor Druid and understand why Renathal works here. There are three primary reasons.

The first is that Prestor Druid is extremely linear in its early play pattern and lacks defensive tools. The extra health helps you get there on time before you get rolled over by an aggressive opponent. The deck looks to draw Prestor as consistently and early as possible. With Capture Coldtooth Mine and Jerry Rig Carpenter, you will always have Prestor on time, while Innervate and Mailbox Dancer help you cheat it out earlier.

The second reason is most important and might be the least intuitive. A bigger deck means a larger number of threats, and with Wildheart Guff, you're able to draw two dragons a turn post-Prestor. The higher number of dragons is crucial because it means you're more likely to generate Kazakusan, which is game changing in late game matchups (we did some complicated math and found that your chance to generate a single Kazakusan in the average game is roughly 65%). Without a higher dragon count, defensive decks would be more likely to run you out of resources. This is partly why Prestor Druid is strong in slow matchups. It turns the drawback of a bigger deck into an upside.

The third reason is simple: The rest of your deck beyond Prestor, Guff and your tutor cards matter very little. When most of your deck doesn't matter, running 40 cards over 30 cards is less of a penalty since you're guaranteed to draw the cards that do matter. The minions in your deck possess some synergy with your game plan, but none of them are crucial. They are all expendable pieces to transform into dragons.

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