Now this has been a hot button issue for a long time. Preparation is arguably one of the most powerful Rogue cards in the game. It single handedly makes some of the most expensive spells not only playable but also efficient. It's also the backbone of Rogue's ability to use Edwin VanCleef and Gadgetzan Auctioneer effectively. At the same time, it has been argued many times that it's holding back the Rogue class by forcing all Rogue Spells to be designed with a much higher than average mana cost.
Because of this, many players have argued that Preparation should be nerfed or added to the Hall of Fame in order to free up design space and make Rogue spells better on average.
Now here's why I think there's a big problem with that sentiment:
One of the biggest problems about removing Preparation would be that all the spells that previously depended on it would become completely unplayable. Nobody would put Sprint in their deck without the ability to reduce it to 4-mana.
Now obviously, the easiest solution would be to rebalance all those Rogue spells, but here's where the paradox comes in:
How exactly do you rebalance them. On paper, Sprint is playable because of Preparation. Without Prep we would have to reduce Sprint's mana cost, but by how much? We can't just make it 4-mana by default, because that would be ridiculous. Value wise, Prep+Sprint effectively only gives you a 2-card advantage (since you had to use two cards to draw 4).
So let'S say we make it 4-mana, draw 3. That would make it better than Nourish in card that has way more access to tempo than Druid so that's not an option either. Now let's be ultra conservative and make it 5-mana draw 3, effectively a worse older Nourish, which is balanced by the fact that Nourish had to be nerfed anways.
Sounds good right?
Now ask yourself: "Is there are Rogue deck I would play 5-mana, draw 3" in? Probably only in some slow, combo or value oriented deck. Unlike Druid however, Rogue doesn't not have the luxury of defense and can't really spend 5 mana doing pretty much nothing just for 3 cards. Prep Sprinting is already hard to justify as is.
This is the problem I quite honestly haven't found a solution to and it applies to a lot of Rogue spells.
Fan of Knives is Arcane Explosion + card draw, which is already pretty fairly priced at 3-mana, but it would see barely any play without Prep, since that's the combo used most commonly in conjunction with Spell damage. No rogue would play a 5-mana 2- card consecration. It's anti-tempo and we can't do anti-tempo in a class without reliable comeback mechanics.
Walk the Plank is a great removal to combo with Prep to kill a minion for only 1 mana and still develop the board at the same tiem. without Prep it wouldn't see play, at 1- or 2-mana it would be broken, at 3-mana it would just barely be playable but effectively too slow to be ever considered in a deck that values tempo.
Repeat this reasoning for Necrium Vial, Vanish, Cannon Barrage, Assassinate, and so on. this is why I would argue, that Preparation CANNOT be removed or nerfed in any major way (maybe reduce cost by only 2, but that would still leave the problem of rebalancing those old spells, which frankly aren't really that overpowered even with current Prep)
Now that is not to say there aren't a few spells that have been desigend a bit too strictly. WANTED!, Academic Espionage, Headcrack, Violet Haze, and few others didn't really need to be designed so strictly around Prep as their effects aren't nearly as powerful even when played for a reduced cost.
I mean, I would consider playing Headcrack at 2-mana as extra reach in an Even Rogue deck for example, and I would actually play WANTED! at 3-mana as Rogue's version of Bash.
At the end of the day, I don't really want to argue for or against the removal of Preparation, but rather demonstrate how integral the card is to the Rogue playstyle and, ironically, acts as somewhat of a balancing barrier, preventing certain powerful spells to be used in decks that could possibly abuse them. JUst as an example:
Imagine Cannon Barrage was 4-mana and Raiding Party was 2-mana. Now imagine a Pirate Swarm deck that can fill the board quickly and just nuke you down with cannons. i've played Cannon Rogue a lot and while it's extremely hard to pull of consistently, when it does work it's a goddamn massacre. The ability to balance certain cards around the fact that they need other cards to work which then require yet another set of cards to be worth running is not as bad as you might think.
In the end, despite ROgue getting a lot of terrible spells over the years they've always managed to find a way into the meta one way or another. I'm not sure throwing their framwork out the window and hoping to fix them afterwards is a good idea.
As long as Rogue spells can be played consistently with Preparation, why bother?
However, the release of Raiding Party (a ludicrously efficient card draw, even with no discount) suggests something may be going on, and Preparation might be the next target for HoF... Or Maybe not
At least, I hope it's going to be HoF and not nerf.
As long as Rogue spells can be played consistently with Preparation, why bother?
However, the release of Raiding Party (a ludicrously efficient card draw, even with no discount) suggests something may be going on, and Preparation might be the next target for HoF... Or Maybe not
At least, I hope it's going to be HoF and not nerf.
I thought so too until I actually played Raiding Party in a Aggro/Tempo Pirate deck....Turns out spending 3-mana (technically more since you have to also combo) for 3 cards isn't really that good for tempo.
Casting any spell with 3-mana or more for its original cost just doesn't feel goood when playing Rogue, I can't really explain why.
If they do choose to rotate Prep (which I would still be fine with) they need to have a plan going forward or else the whole Rogue class will degrade into neutral infested tempo bots like the worst days of Keleseth Rogue.
Rogue without Prep is like Mage without Spells. Sure, you can do without, but it just doesn't feel like you're playing the same class anymore.
I'm not sure throwing their framwork out the window and hoping to fix them afterwards is a good idea.
I wonder if Team5 agrees, considering what they did with Druid and with any control-sytle Paladin. If the framework is located in Basic and Classic cards, nothing's safe. It's a bad idea for sure, but as we learned, having good cards in Classic and Basic is the true crime.
That aside, I disagree with the argument that Preparation is holding Rogue back. Most of the spells they get are still fair for their Mana cost, and Prep is just one of Rogue's main tools to gain an advantage over other classes while lacking things like good taunts, healing, AoE and with Cold Blood made significantly worse, their burst potential also took a hit.
You say, Sprint would be too expensive without Prep? It's the single largest nonconditional Draw effect in the game outside of the horrendous Ultimate Infestation or the more situational DOOM!. Sure, most classes wouldn't play Sprint either, because spending 7 Mana just to draw cards can backfire severely, but the card is by no means too expensive for its effect. And it's not even like Roge can't have easier card draw either. Fan of Knives is good, Shiv is ok, Elven Minstrel is very good, even Mimic Pod is alright, although you ususally prefer to get 2 cards instead of one twice.
You say Walk the Plank is unplayable for 4? It's the cheapest destroy effect with nearly no downside, and arguably better than cards like Mulch, Blastcrystal Potion or Polymorph (if the Transformation doesn't matter).
Headcrack and WANTED! are overcosted, yes, but every class gets trash cards that are not meant to be played competitively. Team5 thinks that at least half of all the cards (likely much more) should be pack fillers that give players reference for what makes a good or a bad card. They are not so expensive because of Prep, but for the same reason that Warrior gets cards like Rocket Boots, or Mage gets Shatter or Greater Arcane Missiles.
Yes, Rogue is a different class. It has no good board clears, not many ways to stay alive, not much for a lategame, and that's where Prep comes in to save the day. What I mean to say is, without Prep, the class would get a LOT worse, but the spells themselves are still fine, just in the wrong class.
But I think people are misguided if they say that Rogue should have all these things and only Prep is getting in the way. Rogue is meant to be the fast class that gets worse the longer the game lasts. It's not supposed to have tons of answers, full board clears, huge swings and big lategame legendaries. And still, some decks like Big Rogue or N'Zoth Mill Rogue can sort of go the distance. It's a lot tougher, but you know you are stretching the limits of the class with these decks. If you want Rogue to be a control class with powerful spells that only can't be printed because of Prep, you are asking Rogue to be another class.
I hope that Prep is not going to get trashed anytime soon, and I hope that the class will keep its identity.
I do agree that many of the cards Rogue is getting seem uninspired, hard to utilize and disappointing (welcome to Hearthstone). The class feels stuck. But I think it's more because the devs are afraid of taking more risks and have an aversion against making cards more complex. For example, they could have changed Cold Blood to have the downside of "your hero takes 2 damage, Combo: 4". Or they could give Rogue some good stuff for the lategame, but tie it to conditions like "Battlecry: Do something awesome, if your deck contains no spells that cost less than 3". You can take Rogue to new directions without Prep making it too good, if you put some thought into it. And even IF, we have seen other classes getting to the point of being "too good" plenty of times. I honestly would prefer we start the debate when it happens, instead of before.
Regardless, if the devs would actually explore more options, we wouldn't have the discussion about Prep. But making this spell responsible for it is, in my opinion, the wrong direction.
I'm not sure throwing their framwork out the window and hoping to fix them afterwards is a good idea.
I wonder if Team5 agrees, considering what they did with Druid and with any control-sytle Paladin. If the framework is located in Basic and Classic cards, nothing's safe. It's a bad idea for sure, but as we learned, having good cards in Classic and Basic is the true crime.
That aside, I disagree with the argument that Preparation is holding Rogue back. Most of the spells they get are still fair for their Mana cost, and Prep is just one of Rogue's main tools to gain an advantage over other classes while lacking things like good taunts, healing, AoE and with Cold Blood made significantly worse, their burst potential also took a hit.
You say, Sprint would be too expensive without Prep? It's the single largest nonconditional Draw effect in the game outside of the horrendous Ultimate Infestation or the more situational DOOM!. Sure, most classes wouldn't play Sprint either, because spending 7 Mana just to draw cards can backfire severely, but the card is by no means too expensive for its effect. And it's not even like Roge can't have easier card draw either. Fan of Knives is good, Shiv is ok, Elven Minstrel is very good, even Mimic Pod is alright, although you ususally prefer to get 2 cards instead of one twice.
You say Walk the Plank is unplayable for 4? It's the cheapest destroy effect with nearly no downside, and arguably better than cards like Mulch, Blastcrystal Potion or Polymorph (if the Transformation doesn't matter).
Headcrack and WANTED! are overcosted, yes, but every class gets trash cards that are not meant to be played competitively. Team5 thinks that at least half of all the cards (likely much more) should be pack fillers that give players reference for what makes a good or a bad card. They are not so expensive because of Prep, but for the same reason that Warrior gets cards like Rocket Boots, or Mage gets Shatter or Greater Arcane Missiles.
Yes, Rogue is a different class. It has no good board clears, not many ways to stay alive, not much for a lategame, and that's where Prep comes in to save the day. What I mean to say is, without Prep, the class would get a LOT worse, but the spells themselves are still fine, just in the wrong class.
But I think people are misguided if they say that Rogue should have all these things and only Prep is getting in the way. Rogue is meant to be the fast class that gets worse the longer the game lasts. It's not supposed to have tons of answers, full board clears, huge swings and big lategame legendaries. And still, some decks like Big Rogue or N'Zoth Mill Rogue can sort of go the distance. It's a lot tougher, but you know you are stretching the limits of the class with these decks. If you want Rogue to be a control class with powerful spells that only can't be printed because of Prep, you are asking Rogue to be another class.
I hope that Prep is not going to get trashed anytime soon, and I hope that the class will keep its identity.
I do agree that many of the cards Rogue is getting seem uninspired, hard to utilize and disappointing (welcome to Hearthstone). The class feels stuck. But I think it's more because the devs are afraid of taking more risks and have an aversion against making cards more complex. For example, they could have changed Cold Blood to have the downside of "your hero takes 2 damage, Combo: 4". Or they could give Rogue some good stuff for the lategame, but tie it to conditions like "Battlecry: Do something awesome, if your deck contains no spells that cost less than 3". You can take Rogue to new directions without Prep making it too good, if you put some thought into it. And even IF, we have seen other classes getting to the point of being "too good" plenty of times. I honestly would prefer we start the debate when it happens, instead of before.
Regardless, if the devs would actually explore more options, we wouldn't have the discussion about Prep. But making this spell responsible for it is, in my opinion, the wrong direction.
I do think team5 has plans for both Druid and Control Pally and they basically just chose to nerf them preemptively because there finally was a precedent.
that said, I have to disagree about Rogue spells being used without Prep. Yes, they would still be "playable", but they wouldn't nearly be good enough to actually build a deck around them. Drawing 4 for 7 is good, but it'S not good enough for a class that, as you said, gets worse the longer the game lasts (in most cases. Pogo Rogue is another story, but that deck is shit anyways). Sprint is playable, but playable isn't enough in Hearthstone. Prep makes Sprint actually good, which is why people actually run it successfully.
This argument could have also been used to argue against nerfing Wild Growth. The current Druid tool kit has nothing to do on turn 2 without WG. And doesn't have anything to do for five mana after playing it on turn 3.
The argument doesn't carry any weight.
If the card has to go, it has to go. Rogue might go through the same pain Druid is going through now. They will survive.
Rogue has no big minions, no healing, no AOE, and no taunts. And yet, every single winning WC lineup has included Rogue. How? The answer is in their cheap spell arsenal. Backstab, Sap, and especially Preparation are way too good.
This argument could have also been used to argue against nerfing Wild Growth. The current Druid tool kit has nothing to do on turn 2 without WG. And doesn't have anything to do for five mana after playing it on turn 3.
The argument doesn't carry any weight.
If the card has to go, it has to go. Rogue might go through the same pain Druid is going through now. They will survive.
Rogue has no big minions, no healing, no AOE, and no taunts. And yet, every single winning WC lineup has included Rogue. How? The answer is in their cheap spell arsenal. Backstab, Sap, and especially Preparation are way too good.
Wild Growth is a completely different story. Prep has never stopped other Rogue decks from existing. Prep was never an auto include in every possible deck.
The exact problem about Wild Growth was the fact that it completely shut out the possibility of any Druid 2-drop ever seeing play at all since there is nothing that could top skipping a turn.
Prep doesn't limit design space as much as it just influences how spells are costed. No Druid card has ever been overcosted just because the can ramp, which was exactly the problem. Since the game only goes to 10-mana you can't really balance something like Ultimate INfestation as long as Wild Growth and NOurish are as efficient as they are. You can, however, design spells in such a way that they need Preparation to be the most efficient and as such force certain decks to include Prep as a way to curb their power level appropriately.
if they nerf preparation they would need to reduce every rogue spell by 1-2 mana. sprint would be fair draw 4 cards for 5, evisecrate could cost 1, fan costing 2 is fair since rogue in constract to mage has no other aoe, vanish could cost 5 or 4.
they would need to get a pass over every other rogue spells as well, mostly the expensive ones, cannon barrage should be reduced to 4 to keep the even rogue fantasy.
of course blizzard won't do that though I think they will keep printing overcosted rogue spells until HS eventually dies
The Rogue class is in an exciting place right now. There are multiple fun decks, some slightly competitive decks, and absolutely no Tier 1 decks that dominate.
Every match feels like a race, regardless of the match-up you're facing or the play style you are shooting for. I played a home brew espionage deck this morning without Valeera the Hollow or Tess, and beat a Togwoggle Druid in a heart-stopping 20 minute match. It was worth getting an email from my boss that I went over on my break time. :)
I digress, though. Preparation is fine. It fits with the Rogue class identity, which is, in a word "combo".
Reduce the cost of Sprint to 6, twice the cost and twice the draw in comparison with mage and Vanish to 5 manas (6 manas are full board removal cost) and send Prep to HoF and finally we don't see terrible insanely overcosted spells again like Tea or Wanted!.
Now this has been a hot button issue for a long time. Preparation is arguably one of the most powerful Rogue cards in the game. It single handedly makes some of the most expensive spells not only playable but also efficient. It's also the backbone of Rogue's ability to use Edwin VanCleef and Gadgetzan Auctioneer effectively. At the same time, it has been argued many times that it's holding back the Rogue class by forcing all Rogue Spells to be designed with a much higher than average mana cost.
Because of this, many players have argued that Preparation should be nerfed or added to the Hall of Fame in order to free up design space and make Rogue spells better on average.
Now here's why I think there's a big problem with that sentiment:
One of the biggest problems about removing Preparation would be that all the spells that previously depended on it would become completely unplayable. Nobody would put Sprint in their deck without the ability to reduce it to 4-mana.
Now obviously, the easiest solution would be to rebalance all those Rogue spells, but here's where the paradox comes in:
How exactly do you rebalance them. On paper, Sprint is playable because of Preparation. Without Prep we would have to reduce Sprint's mana cost, but by how much? We can't just make it 4-mana by default, because that would be ridiculous. Value wise, Prep+Sprint effectively only gives you a 2-card advantage (since you had to use two cards to draw 4).
So let'S say we make it 4-mana, draw 3. That would make it better than Nourish in card that has way more access to tempo than Druid so that's not an option either. Now let's be ultra conservative and make it 5-mana draw 3, effectively a worse older Nourish, which is balanced by the fact that Nourish had to be nerfed anways.
Sounds good right?
Now ask yourself: "Is there are Rogue deck I would play 5-mana, draw 3" in? Probably only in some slow, combo or value oriented deck. Unlike Druid however, Rogue doesn't not have the luxury of defense and can't really spend 5 mana doing pretty much nothing just for 3 cards. Prep Sprinting is already hard to justify as is.
This is the problem I quite honestly haven't found a solution to and it applies to a lot of Rogue spells.
Fan of Knives is Arcane Explosion + card draw, which is already pretty fairly priced at 3-mana, but it would see barely any play without Prep, since that's the combo used most commonly in conjunction with Spell damage. No rogue would play a 5-mana 2- card consecration. It's anti-tempo and we can't do anti-tempo in a class without reliable comeback mechanics.
Walk the Plank is a great removal to combo with Prep to kill a minion for only 1 mana and still develop the board at the same tiem. without Prep it wouldn't see play, at 1- or 2-mana it would be broken, at 3-mana it would just barely be playable but effectively too slow to be ever considered in a deck that values tempo.
Repeat this reasoning for Necrium Vial, Vanish, Cannon Barrage, Assassinate, and so on. this is why I would argue, that Preparation CANNOT be removed or nerfed in any major way (maybe reduce cost by only 2, but that would still leave the problem of rebalancing those old spells, which frankly aren't really that overpowered even with current Prep)
Now that is not to say there aren't a few spells that have been desigend a bit too strictly. WANTED!, Academic Espionage, Headcrack, Violet Haze, and few others didn't really need to be designed so strictly around Prep as their effects aren't nearly as powerful even when played for a reduced cost.
I mean, I would consider playing Headcrack at 2-mana as extra reach in an Even Rogue deck for example, and I would actually play WANTED! at 3-mana as Rogue's version of Bash.
At the end of the day, I don't really want to argue for or against the removal of Preparation, but rather demonstrate how integral the card is to the Rogue playstyle and, ironically, acts as somewhat of a balancing barrier, preventing certain powerful spells to be used in decks that could possibly abuse them. JUst as an example:
Imagine Cannon Barrage was 4-mana and Raiding Party was 2-mana. Now imagine a Pirate Swarm deck that can fill the board quickly and just nuke you down with cannons. i've played Cannon Rogue a lot and while it's extremely hard to pull of consistently, when it does work it's a goddamn massacre. The ability to balance certain cards around the fact that they need other cards to work which then require yet another set of cards to be worth running is not as bad as you might think.
In the end, despite ROgue getting a lot of terrible spells over the years they've always managed to find a way into the meta one way or another. I'm not sure throwing their framwork out the window and hoping to fix them afterwards is a good idea.
I tried having fun once. It was awful.
Again, I totally agree.
As long as Rogue spells can be played consistently with Preparation, why bother?
However, the release of Raiding Party (a ludicrously efficient card draw, even with no discount) suggests something may be going on, and Preparation might be the next target for HoF... Or Maybe not
At least, I hope it's going to be HoF and not nerf.
I thought so too until I actually played Raiding Party in a Aggro/Tempo Pirate deck....Turns out spending 3-mana (technically more since you have to also combo) for 3 cards isn't really that good for tempo.
Casting any spell with 3-mana or more for its original cost just doesn't feel goood when playing Rogue, I can't really explain why.
If they do choose to rotate Prep (which I would still be fine with) they need to have a plan going forward or else the whole Rogue class will degrade into neutral infested tempo bots like the worst days of Keleseth Rogue.
Rogue without Prep is like Mage without Spells. Sure, you can do without, but it just doesn't feel like you're playing the same class anymore.
I tried having fun once. It was awful.
I wonder if Team5 agrees, considering what they did with Druid and with any control-sytle Paladin. If the framework is located in Basic and Classic cards, nothing's safe. It's a bad idea for sure, but as we learned, having good cards in Classic and Basic is the true crime.
That aside, I disagree with the argument that Preparation is holding Rogue back. Most of the spells they get are still fair for their Mana cost, and Prep is just one of Rogue's main tools to gain an advantage over other classes while lacking things like good taunts, healing, AoE and with Cold Blood made significantly worse, their burst potential also took a hit.
You say, Sprint would be too expensive without Prep? It's the single largest nonconditional Draw effect in the game outside of the horrendous Ultimate Infestation or the more situational DOOM!. Sure, most classes wouldn't play Sprint either, because spending 7 Mana just to draw cards can backfire severely, but the card is by no means too expensive for its effect. And it's not even like Roge can't have easier card draw either. Fan of Knives is good, Shiv is ok, Elven Minstrel is very good, even Mimic Pod is alright, although you ususally prefer to get 2 cards instead of one twice.
You say Walk the Plank is unplayable for 4? It's the cheapest destroy effect with nearly no downside, and arguably better than cards like Mulch, Blastcrystal Potion or Polymorph (if the Transformation doesn't matter).
Headcrack and WANTED! are overcosted, yes, but every class gets trash cards that are not meant to be played competitively. Team5 thinks that at least half of all the cards (likely much more) should be pack fillers that give players reference for what makes a good or a bad card. They are not so expensive because of Prep, but for the same reason that Warrior gets cards like Rocket Boots, or Mage gets Shatter or Greater Arcane Missiles.
Yes, Rogue is a different class. It has no good board clears, not many ways to stay alive, not much for a lategame, and that's where Prep comes in to save the day. What I mean to say is, without Prep, the class would get a LOT worse, but the spells themselves are still fine, just in the wrong class.
But I think people are misguided if they say that Rogue should have all these things and only Prep is getting in the way. Rogue is meant to be the fast class that gets worse the longer the game lasts. It's not supposed to have tons of answers, full board clears, huge swings and big lategame legendaries. And still, some decks like Big Rogue or N'Zoth Mill Rogue can sort of go the distance. It's a lot tougher, but you know you are stretching the limits of the class with these decks. If you want Rogue to be a control class with powerful spells that only can't be printed because of Prep, you are asking Rogue to be another class.
I hope that Prep is not going to get trashed anytime soon, and I hope that the class will keep its identity.
I do agree that many of the cards Rogue is getting seem uninspired, hard to utilize and disappointing (welcome to Hearthstone). The class feels stuck. But I think it's more because the devs are afraid of taking more risks and have an aversion against making cards more complex. For example, they could have changed Cold Blood to have the downside of "your hero takes 2 damage, Combo: 4". Or they could give Rogue some good stuff for the lategame, but tie it to conditions like "Battlecry: Do something awesome, if your deck contains no spells that cost less than 3". You can take Rogue to new directions without Prep making it too good, if you put some thought into it. And even IF, we have seen other classes getting to the point of being "too good" plenty of times. I honestly would prefer we start the debate when it happens, instead of before.
Regardless, if the devs would actually explore more options, we wouldn't have the discussion about Prep. But making this spell responsible for it is, in my opinion, the wrong direction.
I do think team5 has plans for both Druid and Control Pally and they basically just chose to nerf them preemptively because there finally was a precedent.
that said, I have to disagree about Rogue spells being used without Prep. Yes, they would still be "playable", but they wouldn't nearly be good enough to actually build a deck around them. Drawing 4 for 7 is good, but it'S not good enough for a class that, as you said, gets worse the longer the game lasts (in most cases. Pogo Rogue is another story, but that deck is shit anyways). Sprint is playable, but playable isn't enough in Hearthstone. Prep makes Sprint actually good, which is why people actually run it successfully.
I tried having fun once. It was awful.
This argument could have also been used to argue against nerfing Wild Growth. The current Druid tool kit has nothing to do on turn 2 without WG. And doesn't have anything to do for five mana after playing it on turn 3.
The argument doesn't carry any weight.
If the card has to go, it has to go. Rogue might go through the same pain Druid is going through now. They will survive.
Rogue has no big minions, no healing, no AOE, and no taunts. And yet, every single winning WC lineup has included Rogue. How? The answer is in their cheap spell arsenal. Backstab, Sap, and especially Preparation are way too good.
Wild Growth is a completely different story. Prep has never stopped other Rogue decks from existing. Prep was never an auto include in every possible deck.
The exact problem about Wild Growth was the fact that it completely shut out the possibility of any Druid 2-drop ever seeing play at all since there is nothing that could top skipping a turn.
Prep doesn't limit design space as much as it just influences how spells are costed. No Druid card has ever been overcosted just because the can ramp, which was exactly the problem. Since the game only goes to 10-mana you can't really balance something like Ultimate INfestation as long as Wild Growth and NOurish are as efficient as they are. You can, however, design spells in such a way that they need Preparation to be the most efficient and as such force certain decks to include Prep as a way to curb their power level appropriately.
I tried having fun once. It was awful.
if they nerf preparation they would need to reduce every rogue spell by 1-2 mana. sprint would be fair draw 4 cards for 5, evisecrate could cost 1, fan costing 2 is fair since rogue in constract to mage has no other aoe, vanish could cost 5 or 4.
they would need to get a pass over every other rogue spells as well, mostly the expensive ones, cannon barrage should be reduced to 4 to keep the even rogue fantasy.
of course blizzard won't do that though I think they will keep printing overcosted rogue spells until HS eventually dies
The Rogue class is in an exciting place right now. There are multiple fun decks, some slightly competitive decks, and absolutely no Tier 1 decks that dominate.
Every match feels like a race, regardless of the match-up you're facing or the play style you are shooting for. I played a home brew espionage deck this morning without Valeera the Hollow or Tess, and beat a Togwoggle Druid in a heart-stopping 20 minute match. It was worth getting an email from my boss that I went over on my break time. :)
I digress, though. Preparation is fine. It fits with the Rogue class identity, which is, in a word "combo".
Reduce the cost of Sprint to 6, twice the cost and twice the draw in comparison with mage and Vanish to 5 manas (6 manas are full board removal cost) and send Prep to HoF and finally we don't see terrible insanely overcosted spells again like Tea or Wanted!.
This card is a curse for the rogue class.