Hearthpwn

My take on the current iteration of jade druid trying out the 40 card package Prince Renathal provides.

I was almost in disbelief that this version of the architype could outclass the Oaken Summons variant that we've seen since kobalds and catacombs.  It turns out that the inconsistency provided from having a 40 card deck averages out to the level of inconsistency you would have gotten with oaken summons by drawing your copies of Injured Marauder.  Making the Renethal variant more appealing by adding a new breath of fresh air to the architype by opening up minion slots that cost <5. I believe Prince Renathal to be a positive direction for druid. 

(However, Oaken Summons and the consistency of having 30 cards still has a place in the right architype/meta)

Theotar, the Mad Duke and Widowbloom Seedsman have really sold the cut for Oaken Summons.  Both of these two cards provide a massive buff to the gameplan that druid wants to shoot for, giving us more draw, ramp and interaction to take the place of the four mana slot.  Notably, Topior the Shrubbagazzor has provided druid a much stronger end game and board presence/removal by giving us threat/removal to our nature spells that may have otherwise have done nothing.  

I'm not running Twig of the World Tree or Sphere of Sapience as these cards do not help with the matchups you actually struggle with and only make the harder matchups worse.  The highroll potential is not worth the loss of consistency.  

On the same note, I believe Sire Denathrius is not the direction this particular architype wants to go in.  While I can't deny his surface power level is high especially in druid.  He is too slow to play in the aggro matchups, and the situations where he is good you would have already been in a winning position.  The same could be said about the control and combo matchup.  Control lists are playing interaction such as Theotar, the Mad Duke and reno priests have adapted a thief package.  Having Sire Denathrius opens you up to them stealing it and faulting your game plan, and could even have them killing you with it in a matchup you would have been favored against without him anyways.  As for combo, he is just far too slow.