by JR Cook - 10 years ago     show comments

Druid is incredibly strong right now in Hearthstone. It arguably boasts the greatest amount of raw power given its versatility, efficient board clears and Ancient of Lore. Quite possibly the only real downsides to the class are that it can be a bit slow to get rolling and it lacks a  kill card as efficient as say, Assassinate. In the place of an Assassinate, Hex or Polymorph, Druid has access to a strange card called Naturalize. Incredibly mana flexible, Naturalize costs all of one mana and destroys a target creature. It would be outlandish if not for the fact that it awards its victim two cards. That caveat is why the spell is generally not used. Druid Midrange is often looking to build card advantage, and Naturalize is counterintuitive to that agenda. That said, I believe there are a couple of reasons to run this card at present over something like, Big Game Hunter or Tinkmaster Overspark.

Ancient Watcher/Sunfury Protector/Defender of Argus

This combination is exhausting to deal with, especially for Druids. There really is no convenient way for Malfurion to get rid of a buffed Ancient Watcher, at least in the early going. Ancient Watcher’s five health (six health with Defender of Argus) is usually going to require multiple cards to deal with, possibly Shapeshift to boot. Naturalize is a solid answer here because it cheaply gets rid of the taunted Ancient Watcher, keeps your Wraths/Claws/Swipes in your hand and might just leave you enough mana to drop a Harvest Golem, Chillwind Yeti, some kind of generic beater minion that will allow you to dictate the tempo. There’s always the chance your opponent draws into exactly what they want, but that seems like an acceptable risk to me. How does the old adage go? Desperate times call for desperate measures.

Guardian of Kings/Boulderfist Ogre

These two commonly seen minions are straight up beef machines. They come in, don’t die easily and begin wrecking your face. It might be that you can handle either of these guys by trading out, making intelligent use of spells, whatever. If you can’t though, and you need a panic button, Naturalize is always an available option. Again, you’re giving two cards to your opponent, but if you need these guys gone, you need them gone. Moreover, you can be sure of at least one card they won’t be drawing.

Divine Shield

Tirion Fordring, Argent Commander and Sunwalker are three relevant cards that do show up in Ranked Play Mode. While a Druid can activate Shapeshift to pop Divine Shield, that costs two mana and, more importantly, however much health they attack for. It’s not always an issue, but sometimes it can be. Divine Shield is a popular mechanic because it usually requires an additional card/mana investment to deal with. If you’re able to Naturalize one of these Paladins off the battlefield, you can confidently say that you’re only really giving your opponent one card with Naturalize, because realistically you were probably going to give them an extra one anyhow to deal with the threat.

Giants

Okay, so this is usually where Big Game Hunter would come in, but I’ve found (I’m at rank 7, and don’t play a TON of constructed, so bear that in mind) that he more often than not sits in my hand lately, never to be played. Aside from the errant Ragnaros and matchup with a Handlock deck (which, you can’t really predict that most of the time) I don’t tend to see a lot of Molten or Mountain Giants. Sea Giant’s probably on a milk carton he’s been missing so long. Is Big Game Hunter better here? Yes, by a lot. It’s not even close. However, Naturalize is useful in far more circumstances, and that’s why I choose to run it over Big Game Hunter. In a tournament matchup you’d totally drop Naturalize, but Ranked Play Mode is about cards that are useful in more circumstances.

Ysera

The Aspect of the Green Dragon Flight is nowhere near as common as she once was. These days, I really only see her in Warrior control decks it feels like. However, if I do run into her, Naturalize is basically the best answer I could possibly hope to have as a Druid. While she can be silenced, and it definitely diminishes her worth, she’s still a marauding 4/12 on the board. Naturalize is still not a perfect answer  but this example is probably the most solid use of the card. What else deals with a giant dragon this handily?

Those are just some of the situations I like Naturalize in. There are other cases to be made, and as ever, the card should be compared against Tinkmaster Overspark and Big Game Hunter. For me, the decision comes down to this. I would most of the time rather deal with giving my opponent cards safe in the knowledge that an annoying minion is dead, as opposed to gamble that it gets turned into a 5/5 (also problematic for a Druid) or does not feature seven or more attack. In tournaments, I’d absolutely run something else, but again. Ranked Play Mode is about playing with cards that offer you the most overall value.