Hearthpwn

Very good nerf in my eyes. BGH was so notorious because of how much value he provided. For 3 mana he could almost fully nullify Dr. Boom, the most broken card ever, and allowed you to follow up with Shredder/Belcher. Just too much tempo in one play, too much punishment for playing something big. And Dr. Boom got out of it pretty well with Boombots, cards like Malorne or even Mekgineer were rendered completly useless due to this one damn BGH. Reducing the overall tempo swing is precisely what had to be done.

Such tempo swing fits tech cards wel, like in the case of Kezan. For 4 mana you are getting a 3 mana body, destroy a 3 mana secret and grand yourself a 3 mana secret - so basically you get 9 mana value for 4. But for that value to appear, you must be facing a mage, and a mage that plays secrets. BGH gave insane value in almost every matchup - kills Rhonin when facing a mage, Giants when facing a warlock, GahzRilla when facing a hunter.

Fine nerf but they really need to look at Mountain Giant handlock has almost no counter play right now

a 4/2 is 2 mana, the effect is 2 mana so totally they cost 5. Shadow Word: Death is 3 mana but it has no body. So I think this card is very balance now.

I will still run 1 of it, it still better than polymorph, Assasinate, SIphon soul etc. Since it has 2 heath it can trade with at least a 1 drop or a spell. So in the worst case you bgh a 4 drop and trade for a spell that not really tempo loss, if you bgh a 6+ drop you already gain tempo. Still with this nerf it is not easy to comeback by bgh a 7+ drop and develop a big drop on board. After you BGH on turn 7+ you can only develop a 2->5 mana drop which is more easy for opponent to play board clear and retake control of the game, and that is important.

so, 5mana 4/2 with "destroy minion with 5+ attack" and vanilla priest 5 mana card 0/0 with "destroy minion with 5+"

seems fair =.=

Why do you all guys compare BGH manacost with Deathwing? There are extremely f few decks running it

Perfect nerf. It is still a hard counter against huge minions like it should be but the cost is now really severe. There won't be a Dr. Boom in standard -> not everyone will have 7+ attack minions anymore + this card isn't that much of a tempo swing anymore if it works (but still amazing) and a tempo loss if just played as a minion (like other tech cards). So this is a really nice change.. It still keeps super greedy metas in check but is a real tech card now.

I can't see the "but Handlock with Mountain Giant" argument.. Handlock loses Molten Giant (which is huge)! Controll decks have other cards which can deal with giants and aggro decks beat Mountain Giants anyway, since the Handlock player can't afford doing nothing in the first few turns against aggro. Maybe a minority of decks will have problems with the Mountain Giant on turn 4 but that is fine too, everything is supposed to be counterable. (and it surely won't be unbeatable op)

The increase in cost was a good move but it's not the change required.

I drop big but slow fatty on turn 7/8/9/10, you BGH it. I have nothing, you have a body, you got the value and tempo.

Hard removal (hex, polymorph etc) may be cheaper in terms of mana, but it's still one card for one card for one card (and often I'm left with some kind of token to compensate).

Not a bad nerf, but not the right nerf.

Yes! Now I have a slightly better chance to pull off Illidan!

Think 2/4 would be better, at that stage of the game 2 or 4 hp doesnt matter, but 4 attack can trade, finish of other minions easily

The "God-Killer" is alive.

Handlock : Now , we are unstoppable !

Blizzard : Keep calm , Molten giant get +5 mana :) 

Quote from Tomas13CZ >>

Handlock : Now , we are unstoppable !

Blizzard : Keep calm , Molten giant get +5 mana :) 

i feel like this is one of the very few reasonable nerfs announced. bgh was such a tempo swing since you could both remove a big minion and build a solid board yourself on the same turn. games shouldn't be decided by whether you have this card in hand or not. 

HAHA! NOW WHEN I ANCESTRAL CALL OUT A Y'SHAARJ THEY HAVE TO WAIT AN ENTIRE TURN BEFORE THEY CAN KILL IT!

Quote from TazdingoFTW >>

Quote from Kakimori >>

Exactly what I was hoping for.  I'll still run this in Control Warrior, but it won't be as brain-dead anymore.

For all of you who are whining that it even exists...if this card didn't exist, HS would become a game of "Who played the big minion first?" once class hard removal is exhausted.  Did your opponent play the minion first?  Congrats, you lose.  Cards like this are necessary tech to prevent late-game bombs from being an auto-win once they hit the board.

At 5 mana, people will at least have to weigh the pros and cons.

 Most classes have amazing removal tools by now, except Druid. Look at Paladin, do you think the class will ever run out of removals for you big stuff? Keeper of Uldaman, Peacekeeper, Equality. And Druid will play the "who plays the big stuff first" game anyway when standard comes out because ramp will be a thing.

I don't mind having bgh in the game, but it's not a necessity.

Well, you listed the class that has more ways to screw over big minions than any other class in the game.  Most classes will have between 2-4 spot removals in their deck and, if they're lucky, 1-2 hard removals (Polymorph, Execute, Assassinateowaitthat'sbadlikemostRoguecardsthough, Siphon Soul etc.).

Although big minions are far less efficient than small ones in HS, they have a very high threat profile and are harder to deal with especially if the board state is even.  So if you don't have an answer within probably 1 turn of your opponent dropping a Ragnaros the Firelord or something, you're toast.  BGH lets decks tech in a third hard removal to deal with that eventuality.  I don't see the problem.

Based on the current meta I would say this nerf is fair. You aren't really seeing 7 attack minions by turn 5 and this card is more so a tech card than anything. Also doesn't allow the player of BGH to have too much of a tempo swing from the turn it's played. 7/10

Still playable, 5 mana is ok, Blizzard didn't kill the card, good nerf.

First of all, i think this is an ok nerf. Usually, when it comes to nerfing, Blizzard completely destroys the card (look at Warsong Commander ). Big Game Hunter won't be an auto-include card anymore, which is great, but still playable in specific decks (Fatigue decks, for example), and i say this because it won't be a good tempo card.

Said that, there is something that no one is really taking into consideration: WILD FORMAT STILL EXISTS. We can't just ignore that fact. I saw some people saying: "Oh, that card isn't being nerfed because it won't be in the Standart". I mean, Dr. Boom is probably the strongest card in the whole game, and with the nerfed Big Game Hunter , it will become even stronger! I think cards that are outside the Stardart need to be nerfed as well. Wild, Arena, Tavern Brawl can become entirely unbalanced because of this...

I think this will affect more control players and will crush mid range players/decks, because 5 mana to drop a 4/2 is a horrible play agains aggro. I never saw BGH be played in aggro, so they are safe. If some deck find a way to drop 7+ attack minions on the board before turn 5, aggro or zoo decks are the only good options. This also hits druids pretty hard since he was the best removal option for them, RIP druid in Wild format.

I forsee people complaining about this nerf in the future!

I'm kind of pissed off at how they handled this nerf.

"We nerfed BGH by making it worse against decks that don't run 7+ attack minions".
Gee. Thanks..!

So... IF NOBODY plays any good 7+ attack minions, I can play a 7+ attack minion...
and if good 7+ attack minions exist in the meta -- I can't play non-good 7+ attack minions...

and nothing changed.
Except that decks running BGH lose early tempo.

Seriously.
Was a tempo nerf what BGH needed..?

Tempo gain when killing a 7 cost minion:
Old BGH:
2.5 mana body + 1 card advantage + 7 mana board advantage -0.5 for the BGH body = 9.5 mana advantage / 11.5 with the card
New BGH:
2.5 mana body + 1 card advantage + 7 mana board advabtage -2.5 for the BGH body = 7 mana advantage / 9.5 with the card

...

It's like they went:
"How can we nerf this card that's overrepresented in the played cards statistics?"

"I have no idea! Why do people even play this card?"

"I heard some streamers say it gives a tempo advantage."

"Tempo? What's that..?"

"It's mana. It gives you a mana advantage."
"But for cards on the board. Tempo is the value of cards you have on the board."

"Oh. So. If we increase it's cost... everything will be fine?"

"Sure. I think so."

...

I don't see how any serious debate on the value of this card ever could reach the conclusion "increase it's cost by 2" unless the people debating the card had absolutely zero idea why the card limits future design space.

Worse against aggro.
Just as good against decks that run 7+ attack minions.