People used to pay 5 mana for 3 random spells, with this card it's really easy to generate them.. that being said mage spells gone worse since unguru and old gods..
Cabalist's Tome was mostly used for finishing the quest, iirc.
With both Stargazer Luna and Gadgetzan Auctioneer you need to be drawing into something, so maybe good for a combo deck. I'm not sure about Cyclone because the average mage spell is not very good since the last three expansions diluted the pool.
Might have seen play with a pre-nerf Mana Wyrm. Could be useful if a Gadgetzan Auctioneer driven combo deck can be made to work. But I think this will be bad, unless there is another Flamewaker type card created.
Yet more value cards for mage. Mage has been pushed into the card value class for a while now. That was awful against the combo decks and infinite value cards like DK Rexxar. Maybe control mage can return, but it needs something to help it survive.
This is the worst state Hearthstone has ever been in. I see no consistent meta which makes picking a counter-meta deck impossible. The match-ups are either one-sided or almost entirely dependent on the draw because of the super-powered cards.
A quick list of cards I think are poorly designed and shouldn't exist at all;
Naturalize, Tundra Rhino, Animal Companion, Deathstalker Rexxar, Frost Lich Jaina, Open the Waygate, Divine Favor, Divine Spirit, Archbishop Benedictus, Prophet Valen, Uther of the Ebon Blade, The Caverns Below, Fire Plume's Heart, Secretkeeper, Gadgetzan Auctioneer, Alexstrasza, Baku the Mooneater, Mecha'thun, Mountain Giant and (the other mana-cheating cards), Skull of the Man'ari (and all of the recruit cards).
They already removed Coldlight Oracle to cut down on neutral card draw so they may do so again but I have not seen Gadgetzan Auctioneer in a while and the only times I have seen Loot Hoarder and Novice Engineer is in Paladin decks, and that's because of Crystology and Call to Arms.
Each of the cards I listed have seen continuous play since the beginnings of HS. (Novice Engineer was even nerfed). It isn't about what is played right now. It's about the bulk and kind of neutral draw and the fact that, being in basic and classic, it will always exist.
There are many cards that have seen continuous play from the beginning. I don't mind so long as they are not in many decks almost all of the time (as Ragnaros was). Regarding card draw specifically; everything atm has been pushed to an extreme, so there is an incredible amount of card draw, as well value generation, and armour gain, and board flooding, and so on. I think the Basic/Classic set should give options for filling the final few spots in a deck so I am happy that there is neutral card draw, although I would not object to losing those cards that can draw multiple cards (Acolyte of Pain and Gadgetzan Auctioneer.)
The neutral draw packages have ultimately led to too much consistency in OTK and combo decks. When combined with 6 full set of expac draw cards, roughly half of your deck can draw or tutor. In a game where your deck consists only of 30 cards, this is not good for the long term outlook of things. It'll probably lead to some form of OTK stone at the end of every year.
They already removed Coldlight Oracle to cut down on neutral card draw so they may do so again but I have not seen Gadgetzan Auctioneer in a while and the only times I have seen Loot Hoarder and Novice Engineer is in Paladin decks, and that's because of Crystology and Call to Arms.
It's unfortunate that the best druid cards were balanced with WG/Nourish at 2/5. Besides this fact, Hunter being the best class in the game is terrible for Druid...as it was bad for Druid when Druid was the best class in the game. If hunter play rates drop off, I can see Druid being in a fine spot.
That said, it's still a good nerf for the long term health of the game.
Every defensive card that made druid OP this year is rotating out. Even with those OP cards still around Druid is dead. So you have to ask yourself, if 3 expansions of OP cards can't make druid playable, how are they going to be in a good spot next expansion?
Last year's 3 expansions gave everybody OP cards so many of the OP cards used by other classes will rotate out too. Druid still has a pretty decent Basic/Classic set compared to some classes, so I think Druid should be okay.
Consistency is a big problem too. You have a lot of cards for specific match-ups (such as Demonic Project) as well as quite a few expensive cards. The more you try to have an answer to every deck to more reliant you become on getting a good draw.
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Cabalist's Tome was mostly used for finishing the quest, iirc.
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Witchwood: Book of Specters, Cinderstorm, Snap Freeze
Boomsday: Astral Rift, Luna's Pocket Galaxy, Research Project, Shooting Star, Unexpected Results
Rastakhan: Blast Wave, Elemental Evocation, Scorch, Splitting Image.
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Might have seen play with a pre-nerf Mana Wyrm. Could be useful if a Gadgetzan Auctioneer driven combo deck can be made to work. But I think this will be bad, unless there is another Flamewaker type card created.
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Yet more value cards for mage. Mage has been pushed into the card value class for a while now. That was awful against the combo decks and infinite value cards like DK Rexxar. Maybe control mage can return, but it needs something to help it survive.
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This is the worst state Hearthstone has ever been in. I see no consistent meta which makes picking a counter-meta deck impossible. The match-ups are either one-sided or almost entirely dependent on the draw because of the super-powered cards.
A quick list of cards I think are poorly designed and shouldn't exist at all;
Naturalize, Tundra Rhino, Animal Companion, Deathstalker Rexxar, Frost Lich Jaina, Open the Waygate, Divine Favor, Divine Spirit, Archbishop Benedictus, Prophet Valen, Uther of the Ebon Blade, The Caverns Below, Fire Plume's Heart, Secretkeeper, Gadgetzan Auctioneer, Alexstrasza, Baku the Mooneater, Mecha'thun, Mountain Giant and (the other mana-cheating cards), Skull of the Man'ari (and all of the recruit cards).
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Sometimes it can do incredible things but it's far from essential.
I once had it give me both Grommash Hellscream and Tess Greymane, and sometimes it will give you another Sindragosa or Shudderwock and it is a lot of fun when that happens, but it's not worth crafting.
Janalai is also good if you have that, and Astromancer is fine too.
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Mossy Horror is a risk because of Shadow Madness. Double Divine Spirit on that will do 28 damage to you.
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There are many cards that have seen continuous play from the beginning. I don't mind so long as they are not in many decks almost all of the time (as Ragnaros was). Regarding card draw specifically; everything atm has been pushed to an extreme, so there is an incredible amount of card draw, as well value generation, and armour gain, and board flooding, and so on. I think the Basic/Classic set should give options for filling the final few spots in a deck so I am happy that there is neutral card draw, although I would not object to losing those cards that can draw multiple cards (Acolyte of Pain and Gadgetzan Auctioneer.)
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They already removed Coldlight Oracle to cut down on neutral card draw so they may do so again but I have not seen Gadgetzan Auctioneer in a while and the only times I have seen Loot Hoarder and Novice Engineer is in Paladin decks, and that's because of Crystology and Call to Arms.
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Last year's 3 expansions gave everybody OP cards so many of the OP cards used by other classes will rotate out too. Druid still has a pretty decent Basic/Classic set compared to some classes, so I think Druid should be okay.
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Consistency is a big problem too. You have a lot of cards for specific match-ups (such as Demonic Project) as well as quite a few expensive cards. The more you try to have an answer to every deck to more reliant you become on getting a good draw.