There are two things that Balance Druids are known for in the World of Warcraft Trading Card Game: one of those, I talked about in detail on Tuesday. Here's the cliff-note version: Moonfire spamming is fun.
The other strategy associated with Balance Druids in the WoW TCG, particularly thanks to popular old cards like Force of Nature and the theme's focus in the Blood of the Gladiators expansion, is tokens. Balance Druids, in that block, focused primarily on being a gardener of sorts, creating 1 health/1 ATK Treant tokens with nearly half of the Druid's abilities in the second set of the Drums of War block. Even the hero flips in this set involved tokens, with Gwon “Mikey G” Strongbark being perhaps the trademark, or 'token' hero for the nature-loving class of WoW.
Occasionally, new sets have touched back to the Treant theme, but it has not gotten treatment like it did in Blood of the Gladiators. While Scourgewar and Wrathgate have not dedicated much to tokens, Run Good Club's new preview card from the Icecrown expansion can make plenty of Treants. Today's preview card not only makes Treants, but also incorporates some great flavor that has been given to Druids in the Wrath of the Lich King block.
Hello there, Natural Reclamation! I'd like to introduce you to Call of the Grove and No Mere Dream.
One of the clear synergies that this new ongoing ability has is with Druid's focus on resource acceleration. Put lots of quests into play, complete them, and reap more than just the quest rewards with Natural Reclamation. Call of the Grove encourages strategies like this, where you are given the option to accelerate your resources as you place quests. The Death Rattle effect also helps you hit your resource-drops each turn, making cheap and efficient quests that cycle cards out of your hand another way to get Natural Reclamation active quickly.
This ongoing ability is clearly going to encourage you to run quests which are not expensive to complete. A Question of Gluttony, a quest already known for often being completed at no cost, will get even more benefit once Natural Reclamation is in play. Mounts, such as the Swift Nightsaber or Great Kodo, also help you in getting Natural Reclmation's effect active as soon as possible, and is a natural combo with one-cost quests such as Forces of Jaedenar and A Donation of Wool.
Swift Nightsaber, an Alliance-based mount, also contributes to one card that I feel combos very nicely with all the quest acceleration effects that a deck like this could utilize: Corki's Ransom. This is also one of the main reasons I'd primarily see Natural Reclamation being played with Gwon Stormbark, as having access to the one quest that always lets you hit and complete one each turn is going to make cards like Call of the Grove and Natural Reclamation far better than they otherwise would be.
Aside from the obvious quests to be included with Natural Reclamation, another long-overlooked way to get multiple Treants into play in a single turn is to complete Call to Arms: Alterac Valley. Often considered to be an underrated quest for its capability to find you cards quickly in combination with Rise and Be Recognized, the Field of Honor quest can also help you power out extra Treants at the end of an opponent's turn, giving you some allies that are ready to attack as you go into your own turn! Combining this quest with Gurok the Usurper, one of my favorite quests from March of the Legion block. The set 4 quest can do its best impression of Call to Arms: Alterac Valley, allowing you to complete it for five resources instead of four, but it will also enable you to chain Alterac Valley quests you have in play to put multiple tokens into play.
Icecrown, based on the previews so far, looks to be a densely powerful set. I can't wait to start brewing new decks once all of the cards revealed. Icecrown will be officially released on September 14.
If you are in the San Diego region, Sky High Comics will also be running a Release Celebration on Sunday, September 18th, at 1:00 PM. I hope to see you there!
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