Is there a single reason why classic should be in the game for ever and GvG not? They could have made GvG the new core set by your "every expansion has good and bad cards" logic. Or TgT.
Why do we need to play Tirion for ever in Paladin? Why will Hunter be stuck with an unplayable King Krush for ever?
Face it: the announced 1-2 nerfs (behold there will be 0 buffs) wont fix major imbalances that were in the game and only got corrected through later expansions that they will now remove.
The core cards will change over time, just like they do in other CCGs and TCGs like Magic. Magic's core set has slowly evolved over time, but generally speaking the bulk of the cards are effectively the same.
Except, it doesn't look like Blizzard has any plans to change the core set. ...
They didn't realize that creating an AAA title within a genre that Wizards of the Coast had an AAA monopoly on was a guaranteed success. They're apparently absolutely clueless as to why the game was so bloody successful, and they seem desperate to pull out -- like a virgin 40 year old's first night with a girl who actually likes him.
...it's painful to watch. I want to tell them: "Don't worry, Activision-Blizzard -- have fun! Do whatever you want, try out all the new things you always wanted to do -- the fanbase will love you!"
But they wouldn't listen. They're desperate to leave the fans wanting, and get home to their father's dungeon.
and they can't be played by knowledgeable players.
Aaand I play them. In a reno-fatigue deck, and it's not just "fun" deck, it crashes every control deck it sees. It's substitution for other reactive control cards, and this substitution isn't that bad as it seems:
1. It's armor. It messes up with Alex. It creates HP advantage if minion have less attack than HP. 2. It's good removal against several minions with same HP.
It should get small amount of tempo buff to be played really effectively. If Bite + Savagery was 5 damage from Savagery, and Claw + Savagery was 3 damage from Savagery, it would be considered one of the best removal options in druid.
And Swipe [/card]is pretty much always better than Bite. 5+2 damage with [card]Azure Drake or Wild Pyromancer, with 0 damage to your own face when hitting 5/6/7/8/12 attack minions. And it bypasses taunts.
And then, Starfall [/card]is more likely to generate value than Bite: You can't use [card]Bite to kill any minions, profitably. No 3 attack minion that costs 4+ mana dies to Bite without generating far more tempo or profit than the druid got from Bite when killing it.
And then, just to add insult to injury: Bash: A melee attack that bypasses taunt while the Warrior keeps all the armor Shield Slam: A melee attack that bypasses taunt and easily deals 35+ damage to a minion
Rogue: Expend the last charge of a once, twice or thriced buffed weapon to wipe the board or win the game outright: 2 mana deal 3++++++ damage to all enemies including your opponent and every single minion he's got, at practically no expense; Rogue hero power: 2 damage for 2 mana. Deadly Poison: 4-10 damage for 1 mana. Warlock: Expend a Power Overwhelming-ed token after hitting face or a minion with it: 5 mana deal 5 damage to all enemy minions at practically zero expense. Druid: 2 mana deal 2 damage to a minion... or 5 mana deal 4 damage to a minion.
The power difference is just plain idiotic: Savagery would still be the weakest of the three if it dealt damage to all minions equal to the Druid's attack, because it requires you to expend two cards on one turn, without being able to prepare one of the cards beforehand, like the Rogue's Weapon and Warlock's minions.
Are we supposed to expect reprints? Oh boy I can't wait for the Spring 2016 set which will have a lot of cards I already own in it, that will make opening packs really fun. The Basic and Classic cards exist, and are being kept standard by Blizzard, in order to provide a baseline for the game. What is the point of this foundation if its full of cracks?
It's fine for the base set to have some cracks, it lets the expansions fill those cracks in different ways.
For example, the "mech" cracks. If they don't put many mechs in the next release, that's fine, we'll have a mech-less meta for a few months allowing other concepts to shine. But the release after that would probably have a tonne of mechs and then shake everything up again.
Base set doesn't have any 3/4s, but there are lots of them in the expansions even after standard.
The bigger problem is where standard is too good and the expansions don't change things. Druid, Handlock, freeze mage (arguably), etc...
None of us can make any accurate statements about the standard format until we see the new expansion and the card adjustments. Without that information any statements about the health or balance of the new standard meta are simply unfounded and premature.
Lets see what the new cards and changes to existing cards look like before making unfounded statements.
As far as the basic set being "not good" - Its not good or bad. It has some very good cards that are staple cards for most classes and will form "base" for the standard meta. That is all. No need to over-analyse it.
...
They didn't realize that creating an AAA title within a genre that Wizards of the Coast had an AAA monopoly on was a guaranteed success.
They're apparently absolutely clueless as to why the game was so bloody successful, and they seem desperate to pull out -- like a virgin 40 year old's first night with a girl who actually likes him.
...it's painful to watch.
I want to tell them:
"Don't worry, Activision-Blizzard -- have fun! Do whatever you want, try out all the new things you always wanted to do -- the fanbase will love you!"
But they wouldn't listen. They're desperate to leave the fans wanting, and get home to their father's dungeon.
It's substitution for other reactive control cards, and this substitution isn't that bad as it seems:
2. It's good removal against several minions with same HP.
And Swipe [/card]is pretty much always better than Bite.
5+2 damage with [card]Azure Drake or Wild Pyromancer, with 0 damage to your own face when hitting 5/6/7/8/12 attack minions.
And it bypasses taunts.
And then, Starfall [/card]is more likely to generate value than Bite:
You can't use [card]Bite to kill any minions, profitably.
No 3 attack minion that costs 4+ mana dies to Bite without generating far more tempo or profit than the druid got from Bite when killing it.
And then, just to add insult to injury:
Bash: A melee attack that bypasses taunt while the Warrior keeps all the armor
Shield Slam: A melee attack that bypasses taunt and easily deals 35+ damage to a minion
Then compare Blade Flurry and Shadowflame to Savagery...
And how Rogue, Warlock and Druids can utilize their cards:
Rogue: Expend the last charge of a once, twice or thriced buffed weapon to wipe the board or win the game outright: 2 mana deal 3++++++ damage to all enemies including your opponent and every single minion he's got, at practically no expense;
Rogue hero power: 2 damage for 2 mana.
Deadly Poison: 4-10 damage for 1 mana.
Warlock: Expend a Power Overwhelming-ed token after hitting face or a minion with it: 5 mana deal 5 damage to all enemy minions at practically zero expense.
Druid: 2 mana deal 2 damage to a minion... or 5 mana deal 4 damage to a minion.
The power difference is just plain idiotic:
Savagery would still be the weakest of the three if it dealt damage to all minions equal to the Druid's attack, because it requires you to expend two cards on one turn, without being able to prepare one of the cards beforehand, like the Rogue's Weapon and Warlock's minions.
Okay.
Team 5 just pisses me off at this point.
None of us can make any accurate statements about the standard format until we see the new expansion and the card adjustments. Without that information any statements about the health or balance of the new standard meta are simply unfounded and premature.
Lets see what the new cards and changes to existing cards look like before making unfounded statements.
As far as the basic set being "not good" - Its not good or bad. It has some very good cards that are staple cards for most classes and will form "base" for the standard meta. That is all. No need to over-analyse it.