Hello guys! Today we gonna take a look at Nature cards along with newly revealed, Selena, Champion of Nature. For those that missed earlier reviews, you can see them here: Neutrals, Light, Death, Magic, and Deception.
Before we start, I would also like to mention here the last balance patch we got since it is only one thing that was changed and which is:
The favor cost of all cards in the Sanctum has been doubled.
To see their reasoning take a look at the original post on Reddit.
I think this change is a bit drastic but making cards cost more in Sanctum is generally a good idea.
DISCLAIMER:
All of this data is subject to change before and after the release of Trial of the Gods.
Many card names are placeholders. Many cards do not have tribes assigned, but will prior to release.
Rarity of cards are not final. Some of these cards may be deleted. We may add cards prior to release."
Selena's Bow
A 2 mana 0/3 legendary relic that reads: After you play a Nature card, add 1 durability to this relic. Ability: Deal 2 damage to a random enemy creature, then remove 2 durability from this relic.
This is the best one yet. It isn't the most impactful relic but it does a lot for its cost. Even if you get to use it only once it is okayish but even in the situation where you don't play any Nature cards you can deal 4 damage over two turns. Nature, especially built aggressively can play a lot of Nature cards with only a couple of mana because of a couple of Refresh mechanics such as Revenant Lynx and Pack Stalk while also generating new resources with god power Forage. This card such amazing potential for such a low cost and it perfectly fits for already established Midrange decks and it could help strengthen Amazon decks that really so much on having the board control.
Selena's Insight
A 6 mana spell that reads: Target friendly creature attacks a random enemy creature. If the enemy creature dies and your creature survives, destroy all enemy creatures.
A great removal tool for decks that use a lot of Confused creatures that are bigger than average creatures in other classes because most of the time they struggle to efficiently trade on the board versus wide boards even though they can survive a trade with any of the present creatures. This weakness is perfectly assisted with this card and will most likely find a way in value-oriented decks that want to have more chances versus Aggro while preserving enough value to contest the greediest decks out there.
Selena, Champion of Nature
A 4 mana 3/3 legendary Amazon creature with Backline. Ward. Roar: Each friendly creature is no longer confused, Ability: Deal 2 damage to an enemy, and then a random enemy creature becomes confused.
A nice combination of Backline and Ward makes this card pretty safe to play if you have at least some tempo advantage already or even on an empty board. Confuse removal is also such a nice inclusion in this card and makes her work really well with archetypes that are supported by Selena's Bow and Insight. On top of it all, she has a strong ability for such a safe creature and an okayish body that can trade with most early game creatures. Amazon tribe tag is probably the "weakest link" here. What I mean by that, is that potential synergies that Amazones have are buffing stats, especially strength which won't be fully utilized by this card but it will still make it more resilient to trades and removal. A well-rounded card will be used a lot in many Nature decks.
[Story Card] tbc
A 5 mana spell that reads: Add a random Death, Nature, and War card to your hand.
I haven't seen any published name for this card yet so we will leave it at that. 5 mana for 3 random cards is generally a bit worse than drawing 3 cards but in some situations, it's just straight-up better. This kinda limits the use of this card because in faster decks you want as much synergy as possible to get the most out of your cards as efficiently as possible. This could sound like a bit of a stretch but it possible that this card will create an option for Midrange decks that don't want to run Forage but still have something to reload their hand. It doesn't sound consistent but we'll see.
Amazon Winedrinker
A 6 mana 5/5 Amazon creature with Regen 3 and Roar: Give all friendly creatures "After this creature attacks a creature, deal 2 damage to a random enemy creature".
This card is amazing! A 5/5 body with Regen 3 is alright and if it makes a single trade it can have a potential of a 5/8 but that's nothing compared to what the Roar effect can do. Since this is an Amazon card it will go well with that archetype and we know that Amazon decks usually have wider boards so that you can buff as many of Amazons with cards like Arkmonian Onslaughts and Penthesilean Warriors. Well, this card does a similar thing but instead of stat power, it gives a nice trading potential. With all that, it goes in the 6 mana slot which isn't that populated with cards that go well with this archetype so it is almost a guarantee that it will make it on those decklists.
Arkmonian Hydra
A 7 mana 8/8 Wild creature with Can't attack and Roar: Summon a 2/2 Hydra Head with regen 1. After a Hydra Head dies, summon two of them. At the end of your turn, if you control 5 Hydra Heads, give each of them +5/+5.
For 7 mana you get a lot of stats on the board. Even though you can't attack with an 8/8 body, your opponent needs to get rid of it before they get overwhelmed with Hydra Heads. Can't attack keyword is not completely true, and I said that because you can make it attack with Selena's Insight. So there is a whole new threat your opponent is facing if they don't try to get rid of the Hydra. A card like this could actually, just maybe make Natural Selection a card you will use a deck slot for because not only does it enable Hydra to attack but also you can use it on the Head to make more of them faster. Such a solid card.
Beast Speaker
A 4 mana 3/3 Mystic creature with Roar: If you control a Wild creature, refresh 3 mana.
Okay, this one is nice also. If you have a Wild creature on the board this is, for the most part, a 1 mana card, and it's 3/3! Obviously that's pretty good, but is the card consistent? Let's see, currently, there are around 6-7 pretty strong Wild creatures in Genesis and Core set, this set doesn't include more Wild tribe but this is plenty as it is. You can fill half of your deck with those beasts with ease, even include Hydra and you are at 14-16 Wild creatures in the deck. That is more than enough to make this card consistent and that makes it good. You still can't guarantee a Wild creature on the board before but with some patience, you can unload your hand on turn 5 starting with Revanent Lynx into this card and still have 3 mana to work with. This card will make Pack Stalk more relevant for more planed tempo swings.
Blessing of Nature
A 1 mana spell that reads: Give regen +2 to target friendly creature. Gain 4 favor.
Oh boy, this card is so much better than Cyrene's Blessing (2 mana give all friendly creatures regen +2). Regen is such a powerful mechanic when you are fighting for the board and because this is only 1 mana, it is easy to fit in the curve while developing creatures. For 1 mana you will at least heal a creature for 2 and if that's a bigger creature it will create pressure for your opponent to get rid of it as quickly as possible, otherwise, they will lose so much value so they might also desperate use their removal. Gaining 4 favor is a nice bonus but this card would be decent even without that.
Call for Aid
A 3 mana spell that reads: Summon three confused 1/1 Amazon Recruits.
This card is kinda meh. The good thing is that it creates 3 Amazon bodies that can be buffed, but otherwise it is just a bad card. I can't say if it will be a good addition in Amazon decks but outside of that it definitely sucks. Confused makes them even worse since it is too risky to try and trade with them without buffing them. Gloam Druid might get more playtime if this turns out to be a competitive card.
Chiron The Teacher
A 1 mana 1/1 legendary creature with Regen 1 and Roar: Give a random other friendly creature +1/+1. Give burn 1 to a random enemy creature. Remove 1 durability from your opponent's relic.
Well, there is a lot of little things on this card but realistically you won't be using all of it every time you play it. For a legendary creature, it is a bit lackluster but it's still a decent card. I would rate this one as one really good Shieldbearer but nothing amazing. Still, this is enough to be used in aggressive decks. Other than +1/+1, removing 1 durability might be really handy in the new meta, regen requires some buffs to even make sense and burn is so situational but hey it is in this whole bundle so it can't be bad. Not much else to say about this one, strong 1-drop, just what Aggro needs.
Den-Mother's Staff
A 6 mana 1/4 relic with Blitz and Twin Strike that reads: After you attack summon a Black Jaguar.
The value of this card is absolutely amazing! The 4 potential uses can summon 12/12 worth of stats across 2 turns in some situations which is crazy! There is just one problem, it is soooo clunky to use and sometimes even impossible. The first turn you play it, you can only hit creatures which means you need to take damage. It's all good if you can hit small creatures but if there is are only big creatures or just a big Frontline in the way, this card becomes instantly really bad. The conditions on the board affect this card so hard that it is so risky to use, not to mention that it can get removed also. I wouldn't be surprised if we don't see this card used at all.
Dionysian Bull
A 6 mana 3/7 creature with Confused, Frontline, and Regen 4.
This is kinda a win more card. The stats are too bad but not good enough to stand on its own. If you already have board control, this card becomes incredibly strong. Once you are able to remove its Confuse and/or buff it just a little it will easily create a lot of value while trading. A solid one indeed, pretty good against Aggro.
Dionysian Goat
A 3 mana 2/3 with Confused, that reads: At the start of your turn deal 2 damage to a random enemy creature.
Another win more card and this one is even better so faster decks might be including this one on the list. If you can play this uncontested and you opponent doesn't have removal, they will quickly start losing any chance to come back on the board without a strong board clear. When you are losing this card won't help you a lot because of its weak body but it still feels worth it to run in Midrange since those decks have a lot of tools to play from behind and reclaim the board control. Also, a 3 mana slot isn't that crowded for Nature so this is a good option to have in deckbuilding.
Dionysus, Wine God
A 9 mana 8/8 legendary creature with Roar: Add nine random Nature cards to your hand. Set their cost to 1. Deal 6 damage to all enemy characters.
Nature was never representing any top meta Control decks (not for long at least), but it's because it was missing something like this. 6 damage is enough to clear most boards, plus it deals 6 to face. The body is big enough and even though it doesn't have any keywords like Ward/Protected and such it doesn't matter since you just reloaded your whole hand and you can unload all of them the next turn. In addition to that "Story Card" (that we don't know the name of) and even cards like Photogenesis, Nature has so much value generation that it can use any god power other than Forage and never worry to run out of cards. This mass of value could possibly enable Nature to go full anti-aggro while being able to out-value even the greediest Control decks.
Figure in the Streets
A 8 mana creature with Frontline, Regen 2, and Afterlife: Add two random nature cards to your hand.
Another value generator with big stats and also Frontline. This is also included in the same Control archetype like the last card. Not much else to say really.
Homesick Wiccan
A 2 mana 1/2 Amazon creature with Afterlife: Add a random Nature card to your hand.
Interesting inclusion for the Amazon decks. It gives a body that can be buffed and doesn't cost you a card to do it. Only it's a body is so weak that it won't be that good in the early game while it is the most important thing to get as much tempo as possible but rather it will be a mid-game card that can give just a bit more resources to continue the pressure. 2 mana slot is contested with many strong cards so fitting this into a deck is going to be a hard task. Probably gonna see some play but not too much I'd say.
Retort of Motion
A 6 mana spell that reads: Deal 3 damage to four random creatures. Add a random nature card to your hand.
It deals a decent amount of damage for a 6 mana board clear. Since it can do damage to your creatures as well it is most likely that you would want this card in the Control style decks. It is versatile because it can be used to clear wide boards as well as big creatures. Getting a random Nature card on top of this is a nice bonus. Strong board clear is another addition to this greedy Control archetype.
Ritual Madness
A 4 mana spell that reads: Deal 12 damage to a random enemy creature and a random friendly creature. Add a random Nature card to your hand.
Just meh. Don't think you will need 12 damage that often. Lightning Strike is so much better, and it's cheaper. This is something that could be decent if you get it from randomly generated cards. Not much else to say about this one.
Seasonal Rebirth
A 7 mana spell that reads: Deal 15 damage to each enemy creature. Your opponent summons a 1/1 Walking Plant for each creature damaged by this effect.
Basically this will destroy any creature without Protected and Ward and heal the opponent on the next turn for each creature that got affected by this spell. With what we've seen already I don't think that this card will be that necessary outside mirror match-ups so having more than this one in the deck would be an overkill. I don't think this will see a lot of play unless it turns out that Control decks are on top of the meta.
Trial of the Hydra
A 5 mana spell that reads: Each friendly creature gains regen +1. Then, each friendly creature gains +X/+X where X is their regen amount.
This card requires a lot of deck being built around its effect to make it strong enough to use. The expansion is offering us a lot of Regen creatures but I'm not sure if that will be the highlight of Nature. Other archetypes look so much better so to make something work better with this will be hard to accomplish. Not the worst card but I feel like it will require more support to make it work.
Wandering Amazon
A 3 mana 1/3 Amazon creature with Roar: If you control two or more other creatures, gain +3/+2. If you don't, gain frontline instead
Having two creatures on board with Amazons won't be too hard. So we can say that this will be in most cases a 3 mana 4/5. That's definitely strong. Gaining Frontline if you don't have creatures won't do much, but hey, why not? This card isn't the most consistent one but still a solid pick for a 3-drop in an aggressive deck with Amazon support.
That's it for today's review. Nature is getting a lot of Aggro, Midrange, and Amazon support and looks good all over the board. Also, this can all be easily overshadowed with value-oriented greediest cards that were clearly meant for some kind of Control archetype where you never run out of cards. I gotta say I like Nature the most out of all the classes we reviewed so far. So, that leaves us with War as the last god to take a look at. I'll wait with that one until the GU team reveals us the Champion of War.
In which direction will Nature go with so many options? What will be the best deck to play with? It is really hard to tell. What do you guys think? If you have any questions or want to discuss some cards in more detail please leave a comment below.
Useful tools for Gods Unchained statistics, meta, deckbuilding, leaderboards, etc. :
https://unchainedstats.com/
https://gudecks.com/
Markets:
https://gu.cards/
https://tokentrove.io/GodsUnchainedCards
https://opensea.io/assets/gods-unchained
Custom cards generator tool:
https://www.gucustom.cards/
Gods Unchained discord channel:
https://discord.gg/G8YAWcX
Thank you for reading!
,z3ll