After 1.5 weeks of the expansion being out nerfs have finally been announced. Priest and Druid being 2 of the strongest classes got nerfed but how much do these nerfs actually affect the class? In reality not much at all.
This post is mainly about the Kael'thas Sunstrider nerf but let's talk about Mindrender Illucia real quick for the sake of it. Does it change anything? Well yeah, it is 1 mana more expensive so you'll be able to play less cards from your opponent and that will matter in some scenarios but the card still keeps its powerful niche of dunking on combo decks (Like Mozaki OTK) or allowing you to play the opponent cards in case your hand is either rather empty or you just don't have a good turn but in reality I don't think this nerf will achieve a lot.
Now about Kael. Since the release of this card, everyone realized how busted it trully was. Remember it was 6 mana, the card was just disgusting and then it got nerfed to 7 mana and it died for a bit at the end of the last expansion. So why did it suddenly become fantastic with the new release? Well, simple, Druid got 2 fantastic high cost spells in Guardian Animals and Survival of the Fittest which in conjuction with good ol' Overflow and the also newly released Lightning Bloom (Innervate was nerfed for being too strong and then they print this, ok) made Kael have prime spells to cheat for 0 mana while also having and enabler in bloom, which also allows Druid to do insane shit by itself btw.
Having said all this, it'll look like making it so Kael's third spell now costs 1 instead of 0 is a big change and that it'll affect Druid greatly and all that right? RIGHT? Well in theory yes, but in reality not that much. A lot of pros have been saying that on the right hands a deck like Malygos Druid is much more stronger than Survival of the Fittest builds just cause it feels more consistent and it isn't reliant on hitting with your dudes, as that is kinda weak to mage freezes. The said pros are for example Hunterace and Orange (You can check their Twitter if you still don't trust me) and I'm not a pro, not even close, but the games I've played with Maly Druid feel a lot more stable than the Kael builds I've tried.
Here's an example of the most popular Maly Druid list you'll see https://www.vicioussyndicate.com/decks/malygos-guardian-druid/ You can notice that it doesn't run Kael'thas at all cause your endgame consists on Omu + Malygos and all your burn spells (if you use all 4 you do a total of 30 damage) and you also have the help of Jepetto Joybuzz and a backup plan/pressure by running Ysera. The deck doesn't need to run Kael so a spell like Overflow does feel kinda weird without him (You still should run flow) but in reality he wouldn't make the deck better if you played him.
My point here is that while the Kael'thas nerf does affect Druids, it reallistically won't achieve much. Druid will still be played as much as it is right now. We'll have to see if Maly Druid or Mountseller builds end up being better but Druid is not going anywhere. Kael'thas won't become thrash either, the nerfs effectively make him unplayable for any other class (Not that it sees play anywhere else but it's absolutely unplayable for anything other than Druid now) but due to Innervate and Lightning Bloom it might still keep a niche in some form of Druid deck.
After 1.5 weeks of the expansion being out nerfs have finally been announced. Priest and Druid being 2 of the strongest classes got nerfed but how much do these nerfs actually affect the class? In reality not much at all.
This post is mainly about the Kael'thas Sunstrider nerf but let's talk about Mindrender Illucia real quick for the sake of it. Does it change anything? Well yeah, it is 1 mana more expensive so you'll be able to play less cards from your opponent and that will matter in some scenarios but the card still keeps its powerful niche of dunking on combo decks (Like Mozaki OTK) or allowing you to play the opponent cards in case your hand is either rather empty or you just don't have a good turn but in reality I don't think this nerf will achieve a lot.
Now about Kael. Since the release of this card, everyone realized how busted it trully was. Remember it was 6 mana, the card was just disgusting and then it got nerfed to 7 mana and it died for a bit at the end of the last expansion. So why did it suddenly become fantastic with the new release? Well, simple, Druid got 2 fantastic high cost spells in Guardian Animals and Survival of the Fittest which in conjuction with good ol' Overflow and the also newly released Lightning Bloom (Innervate was nerfed for being too strong and then they print this, ok) made Kael have prime spells to cheat for 0 mana while also having and enabler in bloom, which also allows Druid to do insane shit by itself btw.
Having said all this, it'll look like making it so Kael's third spell now costs 1 instead of 0 is a big change and that it'll affect Druid greatly and all that right? RIGHT? Well in theory yes, but in reality not that much. A lot of pros have been saying that on the right hands a deck like Malygos Druid is much more stronger than Survival of the Fittest builds just cause it feels more consistent and it isn't reliant on hitting with your dudes, as that is kinda weak to mage freezes. The said pros are for example Hunterace and Orange (You can check their Twitter if you still don't trust me) and I'm not a pro, not even close, but the games I've played with Maly Druid feel a lot more stable than the Kael builds I've tried.
Here's an example of the most popular Maly Druid list you'll see https://www.vicioussyndicate.com/decks/malygos-guardian-druid/ You can notice that it doesn't run Kael'thas at all cause your endgame consists on Omu + Malygos and all your burn spells (if you use all 4 you do a total of 30 damage) and you also have the help of Jepetto Joybuzz and a backup plan/pressure by running Ysera. The deck doesn't need to run Kael so a spell like Overflow does feel kinda weird without him (You still should run flow) but in reality he wouldn't make the deck better if you played him.
Another example of a deck that doesn't run Kael is this https://mobile.twitter.com/Ike__HS/status/1291781564272189451/photo/1 by the pro player Ike. The plan here is pretty straight forward. You ramp, play animals and then you have Ysera, Unleashed and Exotic Mountseller to close games. This deck is another example of a decent build that doesn't include Kael.
My point here is that while the Kael'thas nerf does affect Druids, it reallistically won't achieve much. Druid will still be played as much as it is right now. We'll have to see if Maly Druid or Mountseller builds end up being better but Druid is not going anywhere. Kael'thas won't become thrash either, the nerfs effectively make him unplayable for any other class (Not that it sees play anywhere else but it's absolutely unplayable for anything other than Druid now) but due to Innervate and Lightning Bloom it might still keep a niche in some form of Druid deck.