TL;DR - Based on the release of Gadgetzan, Un'Goro, and Frozen Throne since the change, I don't think Charge should have been changed. Skip to the last bolded section for my reasons so we can discuss it.
History of the change
With the recent nerf to Fiery War Axe and the massive decline in warrior's popularity, it's really made me miss an old warrior archetype that was deleted from the game via a change to Charge. For those who don't know, it used to be 3 mana and read "Give a friendly minion +2 attack and charge".
Also, for those who didn't experience it, the old combo used to be: Raging Worgen + Charge + Inner Rage + Rampage + Faceless Manipulator for a 13 mana, 44 damage combo. Emperor Thaurissan was used to discount 3 cards. Other combos are possible that deal less damage, but require fewer discounts from Emperor.
Why they changed it
They made the change during Karazhan. Blizzard's reasoning for the nerf was design space. They worried that Charge would cause problems in future expansions, and cited the Grimy Goon's buff mechanics (see Don Han'Cho, Grimy Gadgeteer) as the primary reason for changing the card.
Discussion of why I think it should not have been changed
The Grimy Goons mechanic would not have impacted Charge in any competitive way. The Worgen OTK list would not have run handbuff mechanics because they were not needed, and no other OTK warrior deck would have been as good as Worgen. Maybe with the rotation of Emperor Thaurissan (making it impossible to combo Faceless Manipulator) people would have had to run handbuffs, but that would weaken the list significantly considering how slow and RNG-based those cards are.
Dirty Rat was released in the very same expansion that they made this change in preparation for. If Worgen OTK became a problem, people could tech Dirty Rat to pull Worgen and win.
There have since been NO new warrior or neutral cards that would create competitive warrior combo decks using the old Charge. I encourage you all to think of one to see if I missed something.
Changing a card for design space and then not using that design space makes no sense to me. Oil Rogue was a similarly butchered deck because a change to Blade Flurry was made to make way for good rogue weapons that have not yet been printed.
They also said that they changed Charge because it did not promote interactive playstyles, but decks like razakus priest are capable of OTKs and went untouched when nerfs came a few weeks ago. They clearly do not hate all OTKs, they just hated Worgen.
giving a minion charge is just broken especially with thaurissan, imagine c'thun warrior based around this? plays 15/15+ c'thun and gives him charge equals in 30+ damage with just 2 cards, this is not even including other attack buffs warrior has
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Kobolds are almost as bad as goblins, they gotta die (⌐■_■)–︻╦╤─
The old Charge would have been abused sooner or later. Imagine some big Frothing Berserker combo or better yet a permanently stealthed Vicious Fledgling for 6 mana.
giving a minion charge is just broken especially with thaurissan, imagine c'thun warrior based around this? plays 15/15+ c'thun and gives him charge equals in 30+ damage with just 2 cards, this is not even including other attack buffs warrior has
C'Thun warrior and Worgen warrior existed (and were both quite good) in the same meta. People didn't run it then, either because it wasn't good enough, or people hadn't discovered its power yet.
The old Charge would have been abused sooner or later. Imagine some big Frothing Berserker combo or better yet a permanently stealthed Vicious Fledgling for 6 mana.
Frothing Berserker combos would all be reliant on there being a large board. In any other scenario, Worgen would always be better. Maybe Vicious Fledgling would have been a problem, but it's still a 6 mana 2 card combo and you aren't guaranteed a good adaptation. I think Bittertide Hydra would be a bigger problem with Charge, but I don't really even see that as a problem because once again, it's an 8 mana 2-card combo. It's no worse than Leeroy Jenkins + Cold Blood.
Maybe the old Charge could see play in pirate warrior with Fledgling and Hydra, but I think it would be too inconsistent for the deck.
TL;DR - Based on the release of Gadgetzan, Un'Goro, and Frozen Throne since the change, I don't think Charge should have been changed. Skip to the last bolded section for my reasons so we can discuss it.
History of the change
With the recent nerf to Fiery War Axe and the massive decline in warrior's popularity, it's really made me miss an old warrior archetype that was deleted from the game via a change to Charge. For those who don't know, it used to be 3 mana and read "Give a friendly minion +2 attack and charge".
Also, for those who didn't experience it, the old combo used to be: Raging Worgen + Charge + Inner Rage + Rampage + Faceless Manipulator for a 13 mana, 44 damage combo. Emperor Thaurissan was used to discount 3 cards. Other combos are possible that deal less damage, but require fewer discounts from Emperor.
Why they changed it
They made the change during Karazhan. Blizzard's reasoning for the nerf was design space. They worried that Charge would cause problems in future expansions, and cited the Grimy Goon's buff mechanics (see Don Han'Cho, Grimy Gadgeteer) as the primary reason for changing the card.
Discussion of why I think it should not have been changed
What do you guys think?
giving a minion charge is just broken especially with thaurissan, imagine c'thun warrior based around this? plays 15/15+ c'thun and gives him charge equals in 30+ damage with just 2 cards, this is not even including other attack buffs warrior has
Kobolds are almost as bad as goblins, they gotta die (⌐■_■)–︻╦╤─
The old Charge would have been abused sooner or later. Imagine some big Frothing Berserker combo or better yet a permanently stealthed Vicious Fledgling for 6 mana.