TL;DR: Many card games (Most notably M;tG) have sets or cards that release directly into the older formats without disrupting the current standard, allowing them to print cards that don't make sense in current sets or even print cards that are above an acceptable power level for Standard. Should Hearthstone do the same?
First, we must accept some truths:
1) As time marches on, Wild will grow in power level. It's just the nature of the beast, as only the best of the best cards out of the 50 or so sets get played, and there will be strange interactions between cards that were never meant to be played together (Mal'Ganis and Gluttonous Cube, Naga Siren and giants). This will lead to....
2) Eventually, there's only going to be a handful of cards (likely 5, at most 10) from any set that make a dent in the Wild metagame. This will lead to the format being "solved" and it will become relatively unchanging, and rather stale. Rather than a shake up in the meta every time a set releases, you'll see top tier decks adding one or two cards, maybe a new deck emerge, but that's it. For 3-5 months.
3) Printing cards specifically meant to be played in Wild in any Standard format runs the risk of either being worthless to standard players opening the packs, being so broken that they define the meta they weren't even designed for, or not making sense for the set they are included in.
If we can accept those as true, then how do we inject new cards into Wild? Blizzard should take a leaf out of WotC's book and create a 50 card "set" at the end of the year using previous mechanics in the game taken up to eleven to be able to compete in Wild. This would allow old decks to still flourish, still shake things up with an influx of cards, and not disrupt Standard at all while being a massive push to give Wild a try.
This would allow Blizzard to continue exploring design space as it comes up (Ben on a recent Hearthstone Tech Support video said that while they could still explore things like Inspire, they'd rather not retread ground and move on to new and exciting things), but they don't have to waste an entire set around bringing the new mechanic back or figuring out how to word the keyword so it makes sense and fits the cards. If they wanted to see how well an old and new keyword would work together, they could using this sort of system.
Say, something like this:
This is really powerful. Convert a 5 drop into Sabretooth Stalker with Windfury, Get a 1/1? Poisonous. Any taunt with +3 health or +3 Attack... This really makes the bad rolls that much better. It's too powerful to really print into Standard, but in a Giant filled meta? Could be a nice spell.
The second thing this gives Blizzard is a chance try to fix keywords. Discard, Handbuff, Inspire..... These are all keywords (or mechanics) that could really use a push to help them be even remotely playable. Say, a Warlock card that discards a random card, but can summon a 1/1 copy of it on Inspire. I know that sounds crazy, but it'd be going up against dumping 40/40 worth of stats on the board for free in one turn. WAY too powerful to be in Standard, but it could work in Wild. (I'm not making a mock up on this card because this isn't the card creation forum and I already have one up above, but if the mods allow it I'll do it for readability).
Keep in mind that this would be 1 mini-set of 40-60 cards at the end of the year, not anything too major. It'd certainly help the end of year content draught we find ourselves in, and would help direct players to Wild if only for a little bit. I'm curious as to what kind of discussion this idea will bring about.
I believe that this could be a fun idea that could lead to less meta stagnation, but I don't believe Blizzard is even remotely interested in using Wild for anything besides relegation of cards they deem problematic.
While I would love to have more wild-exclusive stuff to make the mode feel as if it has a more diverse meta game from standard (I know it is different, but time and time again tier 1 decks in standard are tier 1 in wild too), I don't think blizzard is ever going to do this.
As for the little thing on the top mentioning Magic the gathering, most the time these sets, like modern masters, are mostly just there to make rare cards not worth as much. Due to magic being a mostly paper card game (MTGO is a literal joke and should die in a fire for the most part), Wizards needs to go and have these mini sets to make sure the game stays accessible for the general populace of people who play it. The only sets that actually bring in new cards are the commander sets, because commander is the best format by far, and then the planeswalker decks, which are essentially just a pre-built deck filled with mostly bad cards but with some cool figurehead card that is new.
Anyway, onto the actual main point of your post. For your first point, you mention how the power level is going to increase, which is true entirely. Look at any eternal format for a game without a banlist (or at least an extensive one) and most of the cards are just going to be essentially unplayable. However, I don't feel like adding new cards, unless they are ones like Mysterious Challenger, will really help with making different cards see play. Only reason why I say Mysterious Challenger was able to do it here is solely for the fact that it made an unplayable type of deck into tier 1 easily. This is not healthy game design and adding more cards like that to wild I feel would only hurt the mode unless they were perfectly balanced with one another, but let's be real here, thats not going to happen.
As for your second point, this is also very true for most eternal formats for card games. If you look at vintage in Magic the Gathering, there has only been 3 cards within the last ~3-4 years that have seen any play, one of which is like Mysterious Challenger, while the other two are just really good supporting cards. What shakes up the meta for formats like this is by putting in restrictions to make certain decks less good. In terms of Hearthstone, this would be a bit more difficult, as straight up banning some cards, like Naga Sea Witch, ruins the deck and makes it completely unplayable. Even a restriction to make that card only being able to be ran as a 1 of would make it considerably worse, which leaves the only option for it to be nerfed to truly change the meta game. However, seeing blizzards track record with nerfs, this would probably break the legs of the deck anyway so it doesn't really matter.
With your third point, I'm not going to address it because I don't really understand it. This is probably just me though and being tired, sorry for not addressing this one.
As for the card you provided, while it is able to highroll incredibly well with, I don't feel it's really that strong at all. Evolve is a good card because while it may turn a lot of creatures into bad ones, it affects your entire board so that you can hopefully not hit a lot of low-statted creatures. As for Unstable Evolution, which despite the state of shaman, I feel is a good card, it is good because even if you were to hit a dud, you can just cast it again (most the time), so it lets you avoid those. The card you recommended can be good in a lot of cases, but it feels like it can be a lot worse a lot more of the time. You mention how if you roll a 1/1, you can just give it poisonous or taunt or whatever, which yeah it'll help eliminate some big creature, but adapt only adds more to the RNG already in the card. If you roll a 1/1 and the adapt options are +0/+3, Stealth, or divine shield or some other combination of that, you are going to start losing board real hard. Maybe if it was more like Evolve and affected the entire board, but then costed like 2-3 mana.
My final gripe with this idea is that Blizzard likes to be flashy with their expansions. Most of their expansions (excluding Un'goro and KFT) all have a cinematic song to tie them all together (and to make it easy to market but that's beside the point). While making a small, adventure sized expansion would be nice for wild to try and bring more diversity, it won't have the same feeling as the expansions as they probably would lack a theme. While sure they can go and throw on a theme and stuff, but then it becomes an issue with cards being either functional or thematic. Going back to using Magic the Gathering as an example, sets like Masters 25 don't make the game fresh. They don't have a central theme so they rely on the cards being good in order to sell packs. In terms of Hearthstone, if they go need to make a set with mostly, if not all cards being good, something that would be a balance nightmare. Or they just print Mysterious Challenger or The Caverns Below 2.0.
After reading over what I wrote (sorry for the fact its really long, whoops), I guess my main point is that while it would be awesome to have more tools to play with, it feels like it would just be a balancing nightmare or another TGT. I'm all for having wild get more cards as I love deckbuilding and experimentation, but Blizzard is going to need to do a ton of testing to make sure that the expansion is balanced.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
I don't have something witty about this deck, I just like it because Malygos is fun.
I'm not against the addition of cards that synergize with wild but I feel like most of those cards are fairly relevant for standard too. Wild isn't designed to be this overpowered place of absurd synergies. Adding crazy strong cards to wild offsets the balance even more. At least with just relying on standard additions, new things can show up. You say that it will just be a series of T1 decks that get one or two new additions each expansion, yet this expansion has brought massive changes in the wild meta and I would assume that future ones will continue to do so. If you're talking about new mech synergies for example, then that's a great idea. Adding things to revitalize old sets sounds good to me but just adding strong cards isn't worth doing IMO.
This is the type of thing where polls don't give the full picture.
A majority of the HS community doesn't care about Wild more than they care about other formats, therefore the majority will inevitably oppose this; it uses Blizzard employee time and effort to create content they're less interested in than alternative content Blizzard could make with the same resources. That said, other than that one reason, the non-Wild players wouldn't care, because the expansion wouldn't effect their play experience in any other way. So lots and lots of mild dislike.
On the other hand, such a set could potentially be beloved by Wild players. If they like it enough, that could be a minority of the population with intense love. It's possible (but not guaranteed) that the payoff could exceed the annoyance dealt to the majority.
I‘m curious if you could give a example, because it’s been a couple of years when I played magic but I can’t remember a set that wasn’t in the standard format. The only thing I remember is that some cards were instantly restricted.
HS has Standard, Wild and Arena. 8 expansions (including witchwood) and 4 adventures
MTG has vintage, legacy, modern, standard and limited (draft and sealed) (and in 1v1, 2HG, Team-Trios). Casual formats oficially include commander, brawl, archenemy, planechase and many others not so official, but existing, like tiny leaders, duel commander, etc. With 78 expansions (including dominaria), and endless support products for the different formats.
First of all, I really hope they scrap "transform into +cost minion" as a core mechanic for shaman. I am sure some players like unpredictable randomness, but I am NOT one of them.
As for your suggestion, I think it could make in one soecific scenario only: A class is struggeling in Wild, but is very strong in standard, and they come up with a powerful card to fix the issue. Otherwise, they can just print cards with stronger synergies in Wild, like Lost in the Jungle and Call to Arms and leave it at that.
I have to say the Powercreep has been massive the last 2 years, to the point where splitting into 2 formats was almost unnecessary. Maybe the next rotation will shake up things, and the next few expansion will not completely outclass the previous ones (once again.)
I‘m curious if you could give a example, because it’s been a couple of years when I played magic but I can’t remember a set that wasn’t in the standard format. The only thing I remember is that some cards were instantly restricted.
Now-a-days, there's sets like Conspiracy (which is mostly a vessel for additional legendary creatures for Commander and reprints) and the Commander product itself, which will see cards like Containment Priest (Exile anything not played from hand), Magus of the Wheel (Wheel of Fortune on a body), True-Name Nemesis (Protection from Target Player) and other cards that are either usable/busted in older formats/EDH but doesn't disrupt Modern/Standard.
Not to mention that "Each Player Votes on what this card will do" would never have happened in Standard.
First of all, I really hope they scrap "transform into +cost minion" as a core mechanic for shaman. I am sure some players like unpredictable randomness, but I am NOT one of them.
As for your suggestion, I think it could make in one soecific scenario only: A class is struggeling in Wild, but is very strong in standard, and they come up with a powerful card to fix the issue. Otherwise, they can just print cards with stronger synergies in Wild, like Lost in the Jungle and Call to Arms and leave it at that.
I have to say the Powercreep has been massive the last 2 years, to the point where splitting into 2 formats was almost unnecessary. Maybe the next rotation will shake up things, and the next few expansion will not completely outclass the previous ones (once again.)
Trust me, I hate Evolve shaman too. Evolve is not a mechanic I'm very happy with, but I'm honestly really really surprised we never saw Evolve then Adapt on a card in Un'Goro.
I also hope they reign in the power creep, but honestly I'm not entirely sure if they're aware of it or not. Not to sound like I'm trying to say they're incompetent, but it may or may not just look like people are experimented with the new cards in both formats, not that stuff is outright replacing things in Wild. Mind you.... it's not hard to powercreep the earlier sets.
I‘m curious if you could give a example, because it’s been a couple of years when I played magic but I can’t remember a set that wasn’t in the standard format. The only thing I remember is that some cards were instantly restricted.
Now-a-days, there's sets like Conspiracy (which is mostly a vessel for additional legendary creatures for Commander and reprints) and the Commander product itself, which will see cards like Containment Priest (Exile anything not played from hand), Magus of the Wheel (Wheel of Fortune on a body), True-Name Nemesis (Protection from Target Player) and other cards that are either usable/busted in older formats/EDH but doesn't disrupt Modern/Standard.
Not to mention that "Each Player Votes on what this card will do" would never have happened in Standard.
First of all, I really hope they scrap "transform into +cost minion" as a core mechanic for shaman. I am sure some players like unpredictable randomness, but I am NOT one of them.
As for your suggestion, I think it could make in one soecific scenario only: A class is struggeling in Wild, but is very strong in standard, and they come up with a powerful card to fix the issue. Otherwise, they can just print cards with stronger synergies in Wild, like Lost in the Jungle and Call to Arms and leave it at that.
I have to say the Powercreep has been massive the last 2 years, to the point where splitting into 2 formats was almost unnecessary. Maybe the next rotation will shake up things, and the next few expansion will not completely outclass the previous ones (once again.)
Trust me, I hate Evolve shaman too. Evolve is not a mechanic I'm very happy with, but I'm honestly really really surprised we never saw Evolve then Adapt on a card in Un'Goro.
I also hope they reign in the power creep, but honestly I'm not entirely sure if they're aware of it or not. Not to sound like I'm trying to say they're incompetent, but it may or may not just look like people are experimented with the new cards in both formats, not that stuff is outright replacing things in Wild. Mind you.... it's not hard to powercreep the earlier sets.
First off, Will of the Council is a really good mechanic imo, when it works out. It can do a ton of mindgame stuff that most other cards aren't really able to do. (Same thing with Parley, but most the cards with that are bad so whoops).
I hate to be a debbie downer on this but I don't see Hearthstone ever getting it's power creep issues fixed in wild. Maybe in standard if Blizzard brings a whole bunch of balanced/meh sets like Whispers of the Old Gods or TGT for a whole year, then standard will have a much lower power level so power creep won't be much of an issue there, but wild can't really do that well. However Blizzard has made it obvious that they are trying to help wild somewhat with the nerfs Patches the Pirate and Raza the Chained because while yes they are both still in standard and were in tier 1 decks at the time, their wild counterparts were just as strong and if Blizzard let them stay the way they were, like with Mysterious Challenger, then wild would still be filled to the brim with Reno Priest and Pirate Warrior.
Blizzard has also said numerous times that they want to support wild players more by having things like the Brawliseum and the 1 wild tournament a year, but hopefully they'll start doing something new for wild to make it feel more unique in terms of the meta (other than just giants).
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
I don't have something witty about this deck, I just like it because Malygos is fun.
Nice idea. I could imagine that at some point, some old interesting wild-only archetype will no longer be playable in wild due to the power creep of meta decks, and adding one or two synergetic cards for that archetype may make it playable again. This parts sound sweet.
Like Echo said, as a developer you would have a hard time justifying the special addition. If your addition only makes sense in wild, for example, a jade card in the year of raven, then you benefit the jade archetype only and players will complain that you don't show love for their beloved archetype, say, freeze mage, and it's unfair in some sense. As archetypes accumulate and rise and fall, you will never be able take care of all of the falling ones. Instead, nerfing the super-dominating ones are often better choice in enhancing all other ones, like Blizzard smartly did to Raza. If your addition makes sense in standard but you are afraid they are too op in standard, you probably shouldn't print them in the first place. In this case, just rely on naturally op or interesting standard card to find its place in wild. (for example, I like that Kobold Illusionist allow people to try big rogue in wild, but it's not an op card in standard at all)
Btw, I actually think your primal evolution is not that op, maybe not even as op as evolve. So if you are thinking more of those, they can directly go into standard.
I think Blizzard should increase the size of the deck up to 40 in Wild, this way some cards won't be contesting for one "eight mana slot" (I'm talking to you Ragnaros the Firelord)
I don't really think wild is is need for mini-sets to shake up the meta since most of the old powerhouse decks of wild get knocked to the curb due to the powercreep that new expansions bring (see Christmas Tree Pally for an example of this).
However, I'm not necessarily against having mini-sets either. It could be interesting to see what T5 could come up and if it was implemented right it could potentially avoid disrupting the production of full new expansion content.
I generally agree with the OP. My suggestion for Blizzard would be to look at all the bad legendaries in wild and give them a one time buff as opposed to being useless. Cards like Mekgineer Thermaplugg might be a 7 mana 6/7 with the same effect. It potentially could fit into midrange deck but not an aggro deck that might challenge or counter some of the dominant control decks. Wild needs as much variety as possible.
2) Eventually, there's only going to be a handful of cards (likely 5, at most 10) from any set that make a dent in the Wild metagame. This will lead to the format being "solved" and it will become relatively unchanging, and rather stale. Rather than a shake up in the meta every time a set releases, you'll see top tier decks adding one or two cards, maybe a new deck emerge, but that's it. For 3-5 months.
You forgot that Blizzard keeps power creeping the game through the roof despite the existence of Wild.
We've had a similar discussion before, it wouldn't harm to put out a promo card every or every other month to shake things up like the Direwolf guys do.
TL;DR: Many card games (Most notably M;tG) have sets or cards that release directly into the older formats without disrupting the current standard, allowing them to print cards that don't make sense in current sets or even print cards that are above an acceptable power level for Standard. Should Hearthstone do the same?
First, we must accept some truths:
1) As time marches on, Wild will grow in power level. It's just the nature of the beast, as only the best of the best cards out of the 50 or so sets get played, and there will be strange interactions between cards that were never meant to be played together (Mal'Ganis and Gluttonous Cube, Naga Siren and giants). This will lead to....
2) Eventually, there's only going to be a handful of cards (likely 5, at most 10) from any set that make a dent in the Wild metagame. This will lead to the format being "solved" and it will become relatively unchanging, and rather stale. Rather than a shake up in the meta every time a set releases, you'll see top tier decks adding one or two cards, maybe a new deck emerge, but that's it. For 3-5 months.
3) Printing cards specifically meant to be played in Wild in any Standard format runs the risk of either being worthless to standard players opening the packs, being so broken that they define the meta they weren't even designed for, or not making sense for the set they are included in.
If we can accept those as true, then how do we inject new cards into Wild? Blizzard should take a leaf out of WotC's book and create a 50 card "set" at the end of the year using previous mechanics in the game taken up to eleven to be able to compete in Wild. This would allow old decks to still flourish, still shake things up with an influx of cards, and not disrupt Standard at all while being a massive push to give Wild a try.
This would allow Blizzard to continue exploring design space as it comes up (Ben on a recent Hearthstone Tech Support video said that while they could still explore things like Inspire, they'd rather not retread ground and move on to new and exciting things), but they don't have to waste an entire set around bringing the new mechanic back or figuring out how to word the keyword so it makes sense and fits the cards. If they wanted to see how well an old and new keyword would work together, they could using this sort of system.
Say, something like this:
This is really powerful. Convert a 5 drop into Sabretooth Stalker with Windfury, Get a 1/1? Poisonous. Any taunt with +3 health or +3 Attack... This really makes the bad rolls that much better. It's too powerful to really print into Standard, but in a Giant filled meta? Could be a nice spell.
The second thing this gives Blizzard is a chance try to fix keywords. Discard, Handbuff, Inspire..... These are all keywords (or mechanics) that could really use a push to help them be even remotely playable. Say, a Warlock card that discards a random card, but can summon a 1/1 copy of it on Inspire. I know that sounds crazy, but it'd be going up against dumping 40/40 worth of stats on the board for free in one turn. WAY too powerful to be in Standard, but it could work in Wild. (I'm not making a mock up on this card because this isn't the card creation forum and I already have one up above, but if the mods allow it I'll do it for readability).
Keep in mind that this would be 1 mini-set of 40-60 cards at the end of the year, not anything too major. It'd certainly help the end of year content draught we find ourselves in, and would help direct players to Wild if only for a little bit. I'm curious as to what kind of discussion this idea will bring about.
*Fart noise*
I believe that this could be a fun idea that could lead to less meta stagnation, but I don't believe Blizzard is even remotely interested in using Wild for anything besides relegation of cards they deem problematic.
Short answer: NO
Elaborated answer: NO, FOR GOD'S SAKE!
While I would love to have more wild-exclusive stuff to make the mode feel as if it has a more diverse meta game from standard (I know it is different, but time and time again tier 1 decks in standard are tier 1 in wild too), I don't think blizzard is ever going to do this.
As for the little thing on the top mentioning Magic the gathering, most the time these sets, like modern masters, are mostly just there to make rare cards not worth as much. Due to magic being a mostly paper card game (MTGO is a literal joke and should die in a fire for the most part), Wizards needs to go and have these mini sets to make sure the game stays accessible for the general populace of people who play it. The only sets that actually bring in new cards are the commander sets, because commander is the best format by far, and then the planeswalker decks, which are essentially just a pre-built deck filled with mostly bad cards but with some cool figurehead card that is new.
Anyway, onto the actual main point of your post. For your first point, you mention how the power level is going to increase, which is true entirely. Look at any eternal format for a game without a banlist (or at least an extensive one) and most of the cards are just going to be essentially unplayable. However, I don't feel like adding new cards, unless they are ones like Mysterious Challenger, will really help with making different cards see play. Only reason why I say Mysterious Challenger was able to do it here is solely for the fact that it made an unplayable type of deck into tier 1 easily. This is not healthy game design and adding more cards like that to wild I feel would only hurt the mode unless they were perfectly balanced with one another, but let's be real here, thats not going to happen.
As for your second point, this is also very true for most eternal formats for card games. If you look at vintage in Magic the Gathering, there has only been 3 cards within the last ~3-4 years that have seen any play, one of which is like Mysterious Challenger, while the other two are just really good supporting cards. What shakes up the meta for formats like this is by putting in restrictions to make certain decks less good. In terms of Hearthstone, this would be a bit more difficult, as straight up banning some cards, like Naga Sea Witch, ruins the deck and makes it completely unplayable. Even a restriction to make that card only being able to be ran as a 1 of would make it considerably worse, which leaves the only option for it to be nerfed to truly change the meta game. However, seeing blizzards track record with nerfs, this would probably break the legs of the deck anyway so it doesn't really matter.
With your third point, I'm not going to address it because I don't really understand it. This is probably just me though and being tired, sorry for not addressing this one.
As for the card you provided, while it is able to highroll incredibly well with, I don't feel it's really that strong at all. Evolve is a good card because while it may turn a lot of creatures into bad ones, it affects your entire board so that you can hopefully not hit a lot of low-statted creatures. As for Unstable Evolution, which despite the state of shaman, I feel is a good card, it is good because even if you were to hit a dud, you can just cast it again (most the time), so it lets you avoid those. The card you recommended can be good in a lot of cases, but it feels like it can be a lot worse a lot more of the time. You mention how if you roll a 1/1, you can just give it poisonous or taunt or whatever, which yeah it'll help eliminate some big creature, but adapt only adds more to the RNG already in the card. If you roll a 1/1 and the adapt options are +0/+3, Stealth, or divine shield or some other combination of that, you are going to start losing board real hard. Maybe if it was more like Evolve and affected the entire board, but then costed like 2-3 mana.
My final gripe with this idea is that Blizzard likes to be flashy with their expansions. Most of their expansions (excluding Un'goro and KFT) all have a cinematic song to tie them all together (and to make it easy to market but that's beside the point). While making a small, adventure sized expansion would be nice for wild to try and bring more diversity, it won't have the same feeling as the expansions as they probably would lack a theme. While sure they can go and throw on a theme and stuff, but then it becomes an issue with cards being either functional or thematic. Going back to using Magic the Gathering as an example, sets like Masters 25 don't make the game fresh. They don't have a central theme so they rely on the cards being good in order to sell packs. In terms of Hearthstone, if they go need to make a set with mostly, if not all cards being good, something that would be a balance nightmare. Or they just print Mysterious Challenger or The Caverns Below 2.0.
After reading over what I wrote (sorry for the fact its really long, whoops), I guess my main point is that while it would be awesome to have more tools to play with, it feels like it would just be a balancing nightmare or another TGT. I'm all for having wild get more cards as I love deckbuilding and experimentation, but Blizzard is going to need to do a ton of testing to make sure that the expansion is balanced.
I don't have something witty about this deck, I just like it because Malygos is fun.
I'm not against the addition of cards that synergize with wild but I feel like most of those cards are fairly relevant for standard too. Wild isn't designed to be this overpowered place of absurd synergies. Adding crazy strong cards to wild offsets the balance even more. At least with just relying on standard additions, new things can show up. You say that it will just be a series of T1 decks that get one or two new additions each expansion, yet this expansion has brought massive changes in the wild meta and I would assume that future ones will continue to do so. If you're talking about new mech synergies for example, then that's a great idea. Adding things to revitalize old sets sounds good to me but just adding strong cards isn't worth doing IMO.
This is the type of thing where polls don't give the full picture.
A majority of the HS community doesn't care about Wild more than they care about other formats, therefore the majority will inevitably oppose this; it uses Blizzard employee time and effort to create content they're less interested in than alternative content Blizzard could make with the same resources. That said, other than that one reason, the non-Wild players wouldn't care, because the expansion wouldn't effect their play experience in any other way. So lots and lots of mild dislike.
On the other hand, such a set could potentially be beloved by Wild players. If they like it enough, that could be a minority of the population with intense love. It's possible (but not guaranteed) that the payoff could exceed the annoyance dealt to the majority.
Too soon.
HS has barely 3 formats and less than 2k cards. Magic has 5 (without casual formats like commander and variants) but more than 15k different cards.
First of all, I really hope they scrap "transform into +cost minion" as a core mechanic for shaman. I am sure some players like unpredictable randomness, but I am NOT one of them.
As for your suggestion, I think it could make in one soecific scenario only: A class is struggeling in Wild, but is very strong in standard, and they come up with a powerful card to fix the issue. Otherwise, they can just print cards with stronger synergies in Wild, like Lost in the Jungle and Call to Arms and leave it at that.
I have to say the Powercreep has been massive the last 2 years, to the point where splitting into 2 formats was almost unnecessary. Maybe the next rotation will shake up things, and the next few expansion will not completely outclass the previous ones (once again.)
Editor of the Heartpwn Legendary Crafting Guide:
https://www.hearthpwn.com/forums/hearthstone-general/card-discussion/205920-legendary-tier-list-crafting-guide
I don't have something witty about this deck, I just like it because Malygos is fun.
Nice idea. I could imagine that at some point, some old interesting wild-only archetype will no longer be playable in wild due to the power creep of meta decks, and adding one or two synergetic cards for that archetype may make it playable again. This parts sound sweet.
Like Echo said, as a developer you would have a hard time justifying the special addition. If your addition only makes sense in wild, for example, a jade card in the year of raven, then you benefit the jade archetype only and players will complain that you don't show love for their beloved archetype, say, freeze mage, and it's unfair in some sense. As archetypes accumulate and rise and fall, you will never be able take care of all of the falling ones. Instead, nerfing the super-dominating ones are often better choice in enhancing all other ones, like Blizzard smartly did to Raza. If your addition makes sense in standard but you are afraid they are too op in standard, you probably shouldn't print them in the first place. In this case, just rely on naturally op or interesting standard card to find its place in wild. (for example, I like that Kobold Illusionist allow people to try big rogue in wild, but it's not an op card in standard at all)
Btw, I actually think your primal evolution is not that op, maybe not even as op as evolve. So if you are thinking more of those, they can directly go into standard.
I think Blizzard should increase the size of the deck up to 40 in Wild, this way some cards won't be contesting for one "eight mana slot" (I'm talking to you Ragnaros the Firelord)
I don't really think wild is is need for mini-sets to shake up the meta since most of the old powerhouse decks of wild get knocked to the curb due to the powercreep that new expansions bring (see Christmas Tree Pally for an example of this).
However, I'm not necessarily against having mini-sets either. It could be interesting to see what T5 could come up and if it was implemented right it could potentially avoid disrupting the production of full new expansion content.
I generally agree with the OP. My suggestion for Blizzard would be to look at all the bad legendaries in wild and give them a one time buff as opposed to being useless. Cards like Mekgineer Thermaplugg might be a 7 mana 6/7 with the same effect. It potentially could fit into midrange deck but not an aggro deck that might challenge or counter some of the dominant control decks. Wild needs as much variety as possible.
We've had a similar discussion before, it wouldn't harm to put out a promo card every or every other month to shake things up like the Direwolf guys do.