I'm really not trying to start another salt mine on this, plainly very powerful card, as I think there are plenty of other places for that. However, I had a thought on a possible balance to the ubiquitous Myserious Challenger that I haven't heard elsewhere.
My thought is this: instead of nerfing Myserious Challenger directly, why not take a look at Noble Sacrifice? Noble Sacrifice isn't, in itself, OP; however, it interacts with Avenge in a way that's extremely frustrating. Unlike Hunter Secrets, such as Freezing Trap, which only procs when you attack with a minion, and Explosive Trap, which only procs when you attack the hero, Noble Sacrifice procs whenever 'an enemy attacks'... full stop. Therefore, there's really no way for the opposing player to play around it or to avoid getting an Avenge on the board. The result is that you have to be lucky to counter Myserious Challenger: either you've had a very aggressive draw and can just go face, forcing the Paladin to use their new 9/8 beast for board clear, or you happen to have drawn hard removal, like Big Game Hunter. Both of these depend much more on luck than real skill or board-play.
This, I think, is really the main issue with Myserious Challenger. Being very powerful is one thing, but what makes a card frustrating is when it cannot be played around. I think a small nerf to Noble Sacrifice could possibly change the whole dynamic around the card, and could make Secret Paladin a more skill-reliant deck -both to play with and to play against.
I'm really not trying to start another salt mine on this, plainly very powerful card, as I think there are plenty of other places for that. However, I had a thought on a possible balance to the ubiquitous Myserious Challenger that I haven't heard elsewhere.
My thought is this: instead of nerfing Myserious Challenger directly, why not take a look at Noble Sacrifice? Noble Sacrifice isn't, in itself, OP; however, it interacts with Avenge in a way that's extremely frustrating. Unlike Hunter Secrets, such as Freezing Trap, which only procs when you attack with a minion, and Explosive Trap, which only procs when you attack the hero, Noble Sacrifice procs whenever 'an enemy attacks'... full stop. Therefore, there's really no way for the opposing player to play around it or to avoid getting an Avenge on the board. The result is that you have to be lucky to counter Myserious Challenger: either you've had a very aggressive draw and can just go face, forcing the Paladin to use their new 9/8 beast for board clear, or you happen to have drawn hard removal, like Big Game Hunter. Both of these depend much more on luck than real skill or board-play.
This, I think, is really the main issue with Myserious Challenger. Being very powerful is one thing, but what makes a card frustrating is when it cannot be played around. I think a small nerf to Noble Sacrifice could possibly change the whole dynamic around the card, and could make Secret Paladin a more skill-reliant deck -both to play with and to play against.