Spirit of the Raptor

Spirit of the Raptor Card

Spirit of the Raptor is a 1 Mana Cost Rare Druid Minion card from the Rastakhan's Rumble set!

Card Text

Stealth for 1 turn. After your hero attacks and kills a minion, draw a card.

Flavor Text

“Loti! LOTI! Drop it. Drop it Loti! Down! Down Loti!”

Spirit of the Raptor Card Review

Killing minions with Hero seems to be “the thing” for Druid this expansion, but this theme just doesn’t feel strong at all. Druid has no weapons (besides Twig of the World Tree, which has 1 point of Attack and is usually used for different strategies), any kind of attack the class gets is temporary. At the base level, he can only gain 1 Attack with Hero Power, but that’s often not enough to finish anything off, and really slow. He CAN gain more attack, but usually through sub-optimal cards such as ClawGnash or Bite that he doesn’t want to put into the deck. The only realistic way to trigger those effects consistently is Malfurion the Pestilent, but basing a strategy like that on a single card that you might not even draw doesn’t seem great.

But let’s even assume that you can finish a minion off with your Hero Power one turn. Playing this + doing it is basically cycling for 3 mana, and then assuming it doesn’t die, and you have more targets, you need to use some more mana on your consecutive turns to draw. You rarely finish minions off with your Hero turn after turn, but just using it to draw one is very bad. I mean, this card is like a conditional and significantly worse Mana Tide Totem. You’re limited to 1 per turn anyway, since you can’t attack with your Hero more than once (I’m talking about realistic scenarios, not the one where you somehow get Doomhammer).

The whole theme seems pretty bad to me, and this card in particular is very weak. You will rarely draw more than 1 or maybe 2 cards, and it will cost you quite a lot. If you’re going for the Hero Power strategy, then yeah, it’s a good option, but I don’t see this kind of strategy working, to be honest. Druid has better ways to draw cards.

The only deck I could see this played in is Odd Druid, which has limited access to card draw (no Branching Paths, no Ultimate Infestation) and a better Hero Power. Would it be good enough? Hard to say, but has some potential.

Card rating: 6/10 in Odd Druid, 2/10 in other decks

Leave a Reply

24 Comments

  1. GlosuuLang
    November 23, 2018 at 8:34 AM

    Odd Druid here we go.

  2. Soup And Salad
    November 23, 2018 at 7:06 AM

    Spirit of the Raptor is a little slow early on, but even as a turn one drop, it isn’t terrible. Druid’s default Hero power should be enough to kill things against Paladin and Warlock. Once you’re hiding behind a Spreading Plague and Malfurian the Pestilent, you should be able to both protect and active its effect fairly often.

    The problem is Druid is the go to class for just drawing cards, and most of the class’ card draw doesn’t require a ton of screwing around. This is something the class neither wanted nor would even consider currently.

  3. Ryosuke1976
    November 23, 2018 at 5:56 AM

    Good card, specially when combined with Druid DK.

  4. Thrombin
    November 23, 2018 at 5:51 AM

    Savage Striker together with this card suggests that the Druid’s attack power may be a factor in the synergies this expansion. It would certainly represent a new direction!

  5. Scarecrow72
    November 23, 2018 at 4:46 AM

    This card can potentially draw 2 cards with some sort of combo. Seems balanced and probabll will see some play, specially in Odd Druid.

  6. Mockingstuffs
    November 23, 2018 at 4:10 AM

    summary of the 16 comments below
    5 people stay neutral ( waiting for the loa card or depending for the meta or just say wtf)
    4 think it will mate druid even more OP
    7 think this is trash tier

  7. Dude
    November 23, 2018 at 3:34 AM

    Why is Druid being able to gain more armor than Warrior and having more card draw than Warlock, while being the only class to be able to ramp up. Hello Blizzard? Hello hello hello!!!

  8. PandaWolf525
    November 23, 2018 at 2:45 AM

    After Rotation with the next set this could see some serious play depending on what the current state of Druid is. And even Odd Druid, depending on what else comes out in the future, might have some fun with this. Being able to draw over many turns if this is not removed would be nice and if anything you can get at least 1 card minimum the turn you play this. And who knows. Maybe Druid will get cards that can permanently give it 1-2 attack. Or Minions that with ether Battelcry or after attacking can give Druid X attack for the turn.

  9. Ccas023
    November 23, 2018 at 2:14 AM

    Am I the only one seeing potential in this in odd druid? Two attack will let it trigger easily.

  10. Kirtap101
    November 23, 2018 at 1:51 AM

    To be honest, Card draw is card draw. True, its in the class with the most amount of card draw options, but 1 mana card draw (3 technically with hero power) that could benefit you over several turns could be potentially powerful, however due to druids high draw rate, it might be hard to fit this into any decks we have right now, but potentially could work if the loa revealed along with other druid cards in the set synergies’s well.

  11. KingKalevi
    November 23, 2018 at 1:25 AM

    Either Druid sticks the Ramp>Draw>Win Condition-strategy, or the Druid Loa is something beautiful.

  12. Muzek
    November 23, 2018 at 1:16 AM

    5 stars, the best card to give the best class in the game.

  13. ResidentStandard
    November 23, 2018 at 12:53 AM

    Good thinking Blizzard, just what Druid needed, more card draw!

  14. Decycle
    November 23, 2018 at 12:52 AM

    So happy that druid gets such a bad card!!! LOL

  15. Morhazel
    November 23, 2018 at 12:35 AM

    I’ll wait before ranking this card so low… We haven’t seen anything for Druid yet, so who knows, maybe we’re going to get cards that have sinergy
    The problem with this card is that it’s really mana inefficient (1 mana + 2 mana for the hero power, the only method I can think of to activate this effect other than savage roar, is really bad), without mentioning the fact that you have to draw and play the card, putting it in your deck instead of actual good cards.
    I’ll wait and see, but until then I think it’s trash tier

  16. MockRock
    November 23, 2018 at 12:30 AM

    They’re completely backed into a corner with this class. On the one hand, I fully expect this theme to be way below par compared to the existing strong Druid archetypes, which there are like 5 of. On the other hand, if this theme IS good enough to see Standard play…think of how ridiculously powerful they’d need to make it.

  17. Piterno
    November 23, 2018 at 12:29 AM

    We haven’t seen any other hero attack cards for Druid than the Savage Attacker… And judging by the druid troll champion’s hint text, they’ll be the legendary to watch out for, which is getting revealed in 48 hours. It’s probably just another Treant druid.

    2/5 unless hero attack druid is somehow insane…

  18. MelaMalone
    November 23, 2018 at 12:26 AM

    Clearly Blizzard got tired of people calling Druid their love child, so they made this card to prove us wrong.

  19. Skoopy
    November 23, 2018 at 12:20 AM

    wtf is this?

  20. Pindead
    November 23, 2018 at 12:14 AM

    Very bad. Won’t see play.

  21. Skyscale
    November 23, 2018 at 12:14 AM

    I’d rather not play this at all and immediately draw a good card instead.

    • Pretzel Guy
      November 23, 2018 at 9:40 AM

      That’s hilariously true (or, if you prefer, sadly)

  22. politzo
    November 23, 2018 at 12:13 AM

    mhmm mhmm i see what you did there…but why?