Hearthpwn

A card so bad that Ice Rager, an immensely improved direct upgrade of it, also never saw play.

This obviously needs some sort of buff, though it's equally obvious that Blizzard doesn't care about balancing useless standard cards.

Would it be too much to give this guy Rush if you played an Elemental last turn?

Random damage to an enemy battlecry? I don't know what but he needs something.

And ruin one of the most iconic cards in the game?

I'd rather have all cards be playable than make jokes about them being useless.

It'd make for a far better new player experience and a more varied meta.

An admirable goal, but not a realistically achievable one simply due to Sturgeon's Law. Even if you could theoretically make all cards playable, the deck size limit prevents you from using all of them; as such, people are going to pick and choose the best among them, and some cards will therefore be left by the wayside and become unplayable by definition. The only way you're not gonna have this happen is restricting people to less than 30 cards per class, which would of course not contribute to a varied meta.

Of course, as with all card games, there are also cards intended to be bad and joked about; MTG has One With Nothing, YGO has Sparks, and Hearthstone has Magma Rager and Angry Chicken, just to name a few. 

Also, Magma Rager is just one Basic card out of many. There are still more than enough basic cards available to scrounge together a functional deck, and he's not exactly cluttering up your packs with unplayable garbage that's only worth the dust you get from it. That would be things like Millhouse Manastorm.

Just offering my 2 cents.

Trying to make all cards competitive at the highest level is probably impossible, but trying to make every card playable in ladder as a design principle to balance against others can work.

And cards like Magma Rager are so far from decent that Ice Rager, a strict upgrade of it, never gets played.

People will always look for the strongest decks, but the developers could use that as a guide to nerf decks that grow too dominant and buff cards that are never seeing play.

I wish they'd treat the cards more like characters or classes in balance, tinkering with the balance often with minor buffs and nerfs to sort of keep any meta deck from settling for too long while buffs could give rise to new decks.

With so many people playing Hearthstone I think there'd be bound to be more deck variety with an effort to do that. But it's a very different balance philosophy than that of the Hearthstone team.

My ideal is that every card would be playable in some deck under some circumstance, and I think basic card decks would get absolutely thrashed on ladder.

But I'm mostly a Wild player since I like the options to experiment. This is a bit off-topic, but it's a depressing to see the same five decks over and over again rather than creativity being rewarded.

This flaming pile of dung will always have a special place in my heart. Hard to believe, but this dude helped me beat my first ever Dungeon Run. So there I was, trading blows with King Togwaggle as a Druid. He keeps disintegrating my minions, but I'm still able to get some hits in and whittle his health to 10. I finally manage to draw the card that fills your board with legendaries, so I thought I finally had his ass. Alas, he wipes my board clean again. Dejected, I just play a Party Portal and cast some spells to summon some random minions, one of which was the useless Magma Rager. Togwaggle, now down to 5 health, expectedly plays another AoE that destroys two of my minions...but lo and behold, the turn ends with Magma Rager still standing! One more click and BOOM! BURN IN HELL, TOGWAGGLE!

The memory of Magma Rager standing alone, ready to deliver the finishing blow to Togwaggle's mug, still brings a tear to my eye. For once in his pathetic, mockery-filled life, he wasn't a useless piece of crap :')

He will always be in our hearths too.

They should give him Deathrattle: deal 2 damage to all characters, and change Ice Rager to a 3 mana 1/5 with Freeze.

That would make both of them ridiculously OP.

Yeah most likely they would have to change their stats to accommodate these changes. Ice Rager maybe being a 1/3-4, I just see freeze as a fitting mechanic for it, While I don't quite agree with the change to Magma Rager making him that good, as he'd have penalty of friendly fire, a possible reduction to his attack might suffice. This would change his role as a glass canon vanilla minion, to a more utility role providing a board clear with a body as has been seen with a few other minions. In the end I'd just like to see them have their own place in the game, if not by these changes then maybe something more fitting.

One of these days they'll release a card that says 'give +X health to all 1-health cards' or 'give keyword to 1-health'

And soon, dear Magma Rager, soon they will pay for years of mockery...

Did you forget Steward of Darkshire?

You called it. Mark my words.

Dr. 3

The golden version is actually very beautiful <3 Gotta lvl up that stupid shaman :(

I genuinely love this card, and the only way I've tried to make it useful is by playing it on turn 4 and using Power Word: Shield.

But it's just as easy to remove as a Magnataur Alpha. ;(

I tried, Magma Rager, but I will spread your meme forever!

OH LORD OF MEMES, OH LORD OF HORRIBLE THREE DROPS, MAY YOU BE USEFUL IN THE HEAVENS AFTER YOUR OPPONENT DEALS one damage, which is super easy. Yeah sorry big guy.  

Mage can kill it with hero power for two mana. Feels bad man.

Soon, my friend

Instead of nerfing this OP card, you're giving it "Elemental" tag !!! GOOD JOB BLIZZ !!!