In 2016 Yogg-Saron, Hope's End was introduced and he got nerfed due to his random nature, that created a lot of problems in competetive scene. "A I losing? Time to have a roll to win or lose game!" Sure, it was fun for a lot of people, that enjoyed randomness in the game. Although it wasn't a good card design (imo).
I am really frustrated, when I lose a game because of Puzzle Box of Yogg-Saron shinanigans. "Oh, I've got 7hp and I am losing on board! Let's do a roll and fully heal me, freeze all my oponents minions and get a huuuuuuuuuuuuge tempo swing". Of course this card may lose you game. It just feels not fair to play against it.
The next one is Kael'thas Sunstrider. Blizz, why? I am not against combo decks. I am not against combo tempo swings. I am against combo, that I can't really do anything to stop it. OTK DH wasn't that bad. He had to draw a lot of cards and combo was somewhat stopable.
Druid is a unstopable beast with ramp. As a aggro deck I can't beat druid fast enough, before he makes high tempo swing, that wins him a game. As a control I can't do anything either, because druid get's his combo faster than I get a counterplay. Midrange is in a similiar position. Ammount of cheaps spells avaible for druid in early turns is now crazy. Ramp is the fastest in the history. Maybe I do something wrong? Just let me know if you can consistently win against such decks.
So what should Blizzard do about it? Nerfs seem to be a bit lazy and how can you nerf thos cards? I feel like there is a need for a rework. How to do it? I don't know. Maybe some of you have an idea?
When you're playing against it, treat puzzle box as if it were a 10 mana guaranteed board wipe with card draw and it should no longer irritate you.
When Yogg Saron was in standard, there were far more obnoxious token generators (esp Call of the Wild) as a proportion of the card pool, plus you'd get the spell count up to more like 15-20. It was frequently a massive tempo reversal, puzzle box with the current set of cards doesn't do that as often.
IMO Kael'thas Sunstrider is a really cool card, and Combo is an archetype that should exist. That being said, it's only really a problem in Druid since they can ramp to it quickly and have the 0-mana cards to trigger the effect consistently. If I were to offer a suggestion, it would be that he says "Your third spell each turn costs (0)" so that it can only be triggered once per turn. Still really strong, but stops the turns where you can cheat out 15-30 mana.
Puzzle Box of Yogg-Saron is imo badly designed randomness. The variance is extremely high, and it can single-handedly win or lose games on the spot, or do literally nothing. Compare it to something like Solarian Prime, which is much healthier randomness in comparison. It's 5 spells instead of 10, it's only mage spells rather than any spell, and it targets the enemy if possible. It's still high variance, but at least the range is much smaller.
If I'm being honest, I'd just want the card hall of famed. But if you want to salvage it, maybe it could be changed to only cast Mage spells, to at least reduce the variance of it a bit.
IMO Kael'thas Sunstrider is a really cool card, and Combo is an archetype that should exist. That being said, it's only really a problem in Druid since they can ramp to it quickly and have the 0-mana cards to trigger the effect consistently. If I were to offer a suggestion, it would be that he says "Your third spell each turn costs (0)" so that it can only be triggered once per turn. Still really strong, but stops the turns where you can cheat out 15-30 mana.
Puzzle Box of Yogg-Saron is imo badly designed randomness. The variance is extremely high, and it can single-handedly win or lose games on the spot, or do literally nothing. Compare it to something like Solarian Prime, which is much healthier randomness in comparison. It's 5 spells instead of 10, it's only mage spells rather than any spell, and it targets the enemy if possible. It's still high variance, but at least the range is much smaller.
If I'm being honest, I'd just want the card hall of famed. But if you want to salvage it, maybe it could be changed to only cast Mage spells, to at least reduce the variance of it a bit.
It's pretty early in the expansion, but I feel like this game has a problem with 2 cards: Kael'thas Sunstrider and Puzzle Box of Yogg-Saron.
In 2016 Yogg-Saron, Hope's End was introduced and he got nerfed due to his random nature, that created a lot of problems in competetive scene. "A I losing? Time to have a roll to win or lose game!"
Sure, it was fun for a lot of people, that enjoyed randomness in the game. Although it wasn't a good card design (imo).
I am really frustrated, when I lose a game because of Puzzle Box of Yogg-Saron shinanigans. "Oh, I've got 7hp and I am losing on board! Let's do a roll and fully heal me, freeze all my oponents minions and get a huuuuuuuuuuuuge tempo swing". Of course this card may lose you game. It just feels not fair to play against it.
The next one is Kael'thas Sunstrider. Blizz, why? I am not against combo decks. I am not against combo tempo swings. I am against combo, that I can't really do anything to stop it. OTK DH wasn't that bad. He had to draw a lot of cards and combo was somewhat stopable.
Druid is a unstopable beast with ramp. As a aggro deck I can't beat druid fast enough, before he makes high tempo swing, that wins him a game. As a control I can't do anything either, because druid get's his combo faster than I get a counterplay. Midrange is in a similiar position. Ammount of cheaps spells avaible for druid in early turns is now crazy. Ramp is the fastest in the history. Maybe I do something wrong? Just let me know if you can consistently win against such decks.
So what should Blizzard do about it? Nerfs seem to be a bit lazy and how can you nerf thos cards? I feel like there is a need for a rework. How to do it? I don't know. Maybe some of you have an idea?
When you're playing against it, treat puzzle box as if it were a 10 mana guaranteed board wipe with card draw and it should no longer irritate you.
When Yogg Saron was in standard, there were far more obnoxious token generators (esp Call of the Wild) as a proportion of the card pool, plus you'd get the spell count up to more like 15-20. It was frequently a massive tempo reversal, puzzle box with the current set of cards doesn't do that as often.
IMO Kael'thas Sunstrider is a really cool card, and Combo is an archetype that should exist. That being said, it's only really a problem in Druid since they can ramp to it quickly and have the 0-mana cards to trigger the effect consistently. If I were to offer a suggestion, it would be that he says "Your third spell each turn costs (0)" so that it can only be triggered once per turn. Still really strong, but stops the turns where you can cheat out 15-30 mana.
Puzzle Box of Yogg-Saron is imo badly designed randomness. The variance is extremely high, and it can single-handedly win or lose games on the spot, or do literally nothing. Compare it to something like Solarian Prime, which is much healthier randomness in comparison. It's 5 spells instead of 10, it's only mage spells rather than any spell, and it targets the enemy if possible. It's still high variance, but at least the range is much smaller.
If I'm being honest, I'd just want the card hall of famed. But if you want to salvage it, maybe it could be changed to only cast Mage spells, to at least reduce the variance of it a bit.
HOTF for Puzzle Box of Yogg-Saron seems to be a good idea. Nerf for Kael'thas Sunstrider is also pretty nice idea. Cool concept.