Why Druids are not competitive

A druid player enthusiast here, played druids in all versions since pre-WotW (discards, portal, cerys, Draco, you name it) but never felt like it was able to consistently compete with the top decks out there. There are a multitude of reasons why Druids-Alchemy are never in the top meta, I’ll do my best to detail them below:

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1) Leader Ability

I think its fair to compare Battle Trance with similar leaders like Lined Pockets, Nature’s Gift, and Arachas Swarm. These 3 leaders provide an unconditional point for every special card played, compared to Battle Trance which requires a damaged unit to heal it back up. Unless you run self-damage units, finding value from the leader passive is not guaranteed.

• The Fix: unless they remake the passive into something better, devs need to introduce more cards that synergize with the overall archetype and with the passive, maybe tears of siren can spawn two 1 point sirens instead of a single siren so you can heal them both back up.

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2) Alchemy Cards

While if used right, Mardoeme is by far the best alchemy card in terms of points-provisions but it lacks good targets, bronze alchemy cards in general are too conditional to provide their full value compared to other special cards like Dip in the Pontar or Spontaneous Evolution, Rhyzome requires a druid, Froth requires 3 adjacent units, and worst of all the new Tears of Siren requires 2 enemy units on the same row with the risk of hitting armor or shields, not to forget that there are zero viable 5 provision alchemy cards in the game.

• The Fix: payoff of the conditional alchemy cards needs to be higher than other unconditional special cards of the same provision, especially Tears of Siren since rain will be the focus of the future of Druids.

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3) Druids

I cannot stress this enough, Crow Clan Preacher needs to start at 5 power. A very large percentage of points come from your ability to trigger the bonded effect of the preachers, which is extremely difficult to achieve when it deploys at 4 power and needs an extra 1-2 turns to start growing. So many units can deal 4 damage nowadays, they rarely stick. Adding to this is the new drummer which also doesn’t stick at 3 power 1 armor. Not to forget the many unutilized druids which never see play, notably Axel-Three Eyes, Corrupted Flaminica, and Artis (meme card at best).

• The Fix: preacher buff to 5 power and drummer armor to 2 for a start. Buff to Axel, more ways for Corrupted Flaminica to find value, and a reworked Artis (maybe synergy with mardoeme to trigger the 2nd chapter of Gedy and utilize its damage).