I mean people are saying Prep, but what is the point? It's not like it can be used to churn out a board and its not like rogue would ever get a card like that (Call of the Wild).
This is actually why Prep is a prime candidate for the HOF. Crap like Cannon Barrage and (to a lesser extent) Hooktusk have to cost 6 and 8 respectively because Prep is a card. Cannon Barrage is so much worse than Avenging Wrath, and yet they have to cost the same because of Prep. Hooktusk, while probably fine at 8 as it is, had to cost more than 7 because of Cannon Barrage/Prep. Rogue can never get something like Call of the Wild while Prep exists in standard.
Generally, I think the OP is missing the point on why the HOF was created. (To be fair, I think Blizzard is confused about how they want to treat the HOF sometimes, as well.)
The main reason is to remove cards from standard that cause design issues for one reason or another. - Azure Drake, Ragnaros, and Sylvanas were going to be impossible to beat out at their mana costs. They were just too good, and, as neutrals, kept people from playing much else at that spot. - Coldlight Oracle was too good by itself in mill that they basically could not print any more mill cards. - Conceal and Ice Block would always encourage the same degenerate playstyle in Rogue and Mage forever. Basically outclassing most of the things the class would otherwise try to do.
The two that don't fit into the design issue category above are Power Overwhelming, Mountain Giant, and Ice Lance. These were HOF'd because they were "too powerful." IMO, those are a examples of Blizzard being confused itself on how to treat the HOF. This is evidenced by how they walked back the Molten Giant nerf a while back.
IMO, they should look at Prep (for the reasons above) and most of the Giants. I don't think a neutral "Giant on 3 or 4" is a thing that they should want this game to be doing. Mountain is the worst offender because it's completely under your control. Sea is a bit more tolerable because there's counterplay. Molten, actually, is good in the HOF already. (Could you imagine Thekal and Mountain Giant?).
There was a time I thought Maly should be HOF'd, but not any more. I think it is good to have a neutral, burn win condition in the basic/classic set as long as we are going to have basic/classic.
Prep has always stuck out like a sore thumb. It fits the category of why they hall of fame cards in the first place. It ends up being in pretty much every applicable deck and it limits design space. Malygos will get fixed in standard by the removal of recruiting mechanics over time.
the entirety of rogues spells would have to be readjusted. Every card printed had to take prep into consideration, so getting rid of it would mean all rogue spells need to be reduced in price. I seriously doubt they'd want that on their hands.
also decks with prep are never the "cancer" decks that dominate ladders. I really don't see why this would be HoF'd.
If you took prep from rogue you'd kill a lot of it's identity.
however if they did get rid of it, maybe it would be for the better due to prep not being considered when printing new rogue cards.
TBH I wouldn't lose any sleep if we lost it as long as they rebalance the class. I have feeling I'll be left with my main being unplayable though if they take out prep. (I mean I will just play odd rogue as that doesn't need it)
prep can't go to hall of fame, the entirety of rogues spells would have to be readjusted. Every card printed has to take proper into consideration, so getting rid of it would mean all rogue spells need to be reduced in price. I seriously doubt they'd want that on their hands.
also decks with prep are never the "cancer" decks that dominate ladders. I really don't see why this would be HoF'd.
If you took prep from rogue you;d kill a lot of it's identity.
Are you kidding? Quest Rogue's consistent viability is almost entirely dependent on Prep. Also, which other Rogue cards would need to be rebalanced? Sap and Eviscerate are fine. Sprint is actually the correct mana cost for draw 4 (or at least it was until UI and the Nourish nerf). I guess Blade Flurry is probably wrong at that point...maybe. Vanish is fine at 6, being a worse Psychic Scream.
Seriously, what cards in Basic/Classic would need to change?
I wouldn’t trust blizzard to print some good rogue spells for at least another year, even if prep is rotated.
the way the game is made, rogue will be dumpster tier if they remove prep (for about 3 expansions at least). all the cards are already made with prep in mind, they will hamstring the class if they remove it before they rebalance everything else.
thing is I don't put it past them after what they did to druid. (they nerfed it's identity to fix broken cards in current expacs)
prep can't go to hall of fame, the entirety of rogues spells would have to be readjusted. Every card printed has to take proper into consideration, so getting rid of it would mean all rogue spells need to be reduced in price. I seriously doubt they'd want that on their hands.
also decks with prep are never the "cancer" decks that dominate ladders. I really don't see why this would be HoF'd.
If you took prep from rogue you;d kill a lot of it's identity.
Are you kidding? Quest Rogue's consistent viability is almost entirely dependent on Prep. Also, which other Rogue cards would need to be rebalanced? Sap and Eviscerate are fine. Sprint is actually the correct mana cost for draw 4 (or at least it was until UI and the Nourish nerf). I guess Blade Flurry is probably wrong at that point...maybe. Vanish is fine at 6, being a worse Psychic Scream.
Seriously, what cards in Basic/Classic would need to change?
all the spells cost too much without prep. everything would need rebalanced. not to mention the next few expacs will be terrible as those spells will all be designed with prep in mind.
we're talking about the minions here too. the cost of rogue cards have prep factored in, you can't say that prep is not a factor when cards are printed. to remove prep would ruin rouge. what rogue does is part of it's identity.
I'm not saying that you won't be able to play rogue spells without prep, it will just make it terrible. part of what makes rogue strong is the ability to combo all these cards. edwin would become dumpster class as well as you wouldn't be able to combo enough cards to get him big enough to play.
the whole of rogue is built around prep, what I'm saying is if you just take out prep, rogue will suffer.
without a rebalance you kill off like 90% of the fun rogue builds. there are tons of rogue builds that would just become unplayable without prep, and these decks aren't even that competitive anyway.
I've never played quest rogue and I was on a break before the nerf. I don't think it's good now.
I actually think removing prep would be healthy, but rogue would suffer for it for at least a year till they started making new cards that were not built around prep.
prep can't go to hall of fame, the entirety of rogues spells would have to be readjusted. Every card printed has to take proper into consideration, so getting rid of it would mean all rogue spells need to be reduced in price. I seriously doubt they'd want that on their hands.
also decks with prep are never the "cancer" decks that dominate ladders. I really don't see why this would be HoF'd.
If you took prep from rogue you;d kill a lot of it's identity.
Are you kidding? Quest Rogue's consistent viability is almost entirely dependent on Prep. Also, which other Rogue cards would need to be rebalanced? Sap and Eviscerate are fine. Sprint is actually the correct mana cost for draw 4 (or at least it was until UI and the Nourish nerf). I guess Blade Flurry is probably wrong at that point...maybe. Vanish is fine at 6, being a worse Psychic Scream.
Seriously, what cards in Basic/Classic would need to change?
all the spells cost too much without prep. everything would need rebalanced. not to mention the next few expacs will be terrible as those spells will all be designed with prep in mind.
rogues spells are made with prep in mind, if you remove prep without a rebalance you kill off like 90% of the fun rogue builds.
I've never played quest rogue and I was on a break before the nerf. I don't think it's good now.
I actually think removing prep would be healthy, but rogue would suffer for it for at least a year till they started making new cards that were not built around perp.
All the spells cost too much? Name 5? Cause Sap, Evescirate, Vanish, Myra's unstable element, Sprint are all fine. Fan of knives is good, backstab, Cold blood, walk the plank is fine, shadowstep, cannon barrage. There could be arguments made for the spells that no one use (such as wanted!), but honestly. The reason rogues get such bad spells overall is the presence of preparation
all the spells cost too much without prep. everything would need rebalanced. not to mention the next few expacs will be terrible as those spells will all be designed with prep in mind.
rogues spells are made with prep in mind, if you remove prep without a rebalance you kill off like 90% of the fun rogue builds.
I've never played quest rogue and I was on a break before the nerf. I don't think it's good now.
I actually think removing prep would be healthy, but rogue would suffer for it for at least a year till they started making new cards that were not built around perp.
A bunch of bad expac cards may be affected by it, but like I said, none of the basic/classic cards are (with the slight exception of maybe Blade Flurry).
I think they HOF stuff not because its OP, but because it limits design space. Ice Block and Molten Giant weren't dominating the meta, they just kept other stuff from being made because they'd be too frustating to play against in combination with new cards (Think Ice Block in Odd Mage or Coldlight Oracle in Pirate Kingsbane Rogue)
Stuff like the Hyena and Divine favor don't really fall into that category. Midrange Hunter will take a huge hit with Rexxar and Razormaw going out, so much so that I doubt it'll be tier one unless we get another 1 drop beast on similar power level to Dire Mole. Divine Favor isn't seen in any good decks right now, and paladin has the best aggro deck. So I don't think either of them will rotate.
I would guess Leeroy or Malygos as the two most likely candidates
prep can't go to hall of fame, the entirety of rogues spells would have to be readjusted. Every card printed has to take proper into consideration, so getting rid of it would mean all rogue spells need to be reduced in price. I seriously doubt they'd want that on their hands.
also decks with prep are never the "cancer" decks that dominate ladders. I really don't see why this would be HoF'd.
If you took prep from rogue you;d kill a lot of it's identity.
Are you kidding? Quest Rogue's consistent viability is almost entirely dependent on Prep. Also, which other Rogue cards would need to be rebalanced? Sap and Eviscerate are fine. Sprint is actually the correct mana cost for draw 4 (or at least it was until UI and the Nourish nerf). I guess Blade Flurry is probably wrong at that point...maybe. Vanish is fine at 6, being a worse Psychic Scream.
Seriously, what cards in Basic/Classic would need to change?
all the spells cost too much without prep. everything would need rebalanced. not to mention the next few expacs will be terrible as those spells will all be designed with prep in mind.
rogues spells are made with prep in mind, if you remove prep without a rebalance you kill off like 90% of the fun rogue builds.
I've never played quest rogue and I was on a break before the nerf. I don't think it's good now.
I actually think removing prep would be healthy, but rogue would suffer for it for at least a year till they started making new cards that were not built around perp.
All the spells cost too much? Name 5? Cause Sap, Evescirate, Vanish, Myra's unstable element, Sprint are all fine. Fan of knives is good, backstab, Cold blood, walk the plank is fine, shadowstep, cannon barrage. There could be arguments made for the spells that no one use (such as wanted!), but honestly. The reason rogues get such bad spells overall is the presence of preparation
I actually agree with you. I think prep is factored into every aspect of rogue, so removing it would be detrimental to the current state of rogue and would effect it for at least a year I would say.
But yes, in the long run it would be better, as we wouldn't have to base everything around 1 card.
all the spells cost too much without prep. everything would need rebalanced. not to mention the next few expacs will be terrible as those spells will all be designed with prep in mind.
rogues spells are made with prep in mind, if you remove prep without a rebalance you kill off like 90% of the fun rogue builds.
I've never played quest rogue and I was on a break before the nerf. I don't think it's good now.
I actually think removing prep would be healthy, but rogue would suffer for it for at least a year till they started making new cards that were not built around perp.
A bunch of bad expac cards may be affected by it, but like I said, none of the basic/classic cards are (with the slight exception of maybe Blade Flurry).
yeah dude. all I'm saying is taking prep out will effect rogue negatively.
I agree that it's more of a hindrance than anything though as everything printed has to take prep into consideration. we're not just talking cards that can benefit from it, to balance the class it has to be taken into consideration with everything.
hope this makes sense.
PS: no one is playing sprint in a deck without prep.
prep can't go to hall of fame, the entirety of rogues spells would have to be readjusted. Every card printed has to take proper into consideration, so getting rid of it would mean all rogue spells need to be reduced in price. I seriously doubt they'd want that on their hands.
also decks with prep are never the "cancer" decks that dominate ladders. I really don't see why this would be HoF'd.
If you took prep from rogue you;d kill a lot of it's identity.
Are you kidding? Quest Rogue's consistent viability is almost entirely dependent on Prep. Also, which other Rogue cards would need to be rebalanced? Sap and Eviscerate are fine. Sprint is actually the correct mana cost for draw 4 (or at least it was until UI and the Nourish nerf). I guess Blade Flurry is probably wrong at that point...maybe. Vanish is fine at 6, being a worse Psychic Scream.
Seriously, what cards in Basic/Classic would need to change?
all the spells cost too much without prep. everything would need rebalanced. not to mention the next few expacs will be terrible as those spells will all be designed with prep in mind.
rogues spells are made with prep in mind, if you remove prep without a rebalance you kill off like 90% of the fun rogue builds.
I've never played quest rogue and I was on a break before the nerf. I don't think it's good now.
I actually think removing prep would be healthy, but rogue would suffer for it for at least a year till they started making new cards that were not built around perp.
All the spells cost too much? Name 5? Cause Sap, Evescirate, Vanish, Myra's unstable element, Sprint are all fine. Fan of knives is good, backstab, Cold blood, walk the plank is fine, shadowstep, cannon barrage. There could be arguments made for the spells that no one use (such as wanted!), but honestly. The reason rogues get such bad spells overall is the presence of preparation
I actually agree with you. I think prep is factored into every aspect of rogue, so removing it would be detrimental to the current state of rogue and would effect it for at least a year I would say.
But yes, in the long run it would be better, as we wouldn't have to base everything around 1 card.
all the spells cost too much without prep. everything would need rebalanced. not to mention the next few expacs will be terrible as those spells will all be designed with prep in mind.
rogues spells are made with prep in mind, if you remove prep without a rebalance you kill off like 90% of the fun rogue builds.
I've never played quest rogue and I was on a break before the nerf. I don't think it's good now.
I actually think removing prep would be healthy, but rogue would suffer for it for at least a year till they started making new cards that were not built around perp.
A bunch of bad expac cards may be affected by it, but like I said, none of the basic/classic cards are (with the slight exception of maybe Blade Flurry).
PS: no one is playing sprint in a deck without prep.
HoF prep and they can change Sprint for the right 6 manas cost.
I think Leeroy is A#1 candidate. Just too much potential with this guy, and we all know how problematic charge minions are, historically. Too many ways to push like 20+ damage to face with this guy, and he goes into everything aggressive.
Malygos also seems like a likely candidate. Although, it does seem like Team 5 likes these types of decks. It just seems ubiquitous, as does Leeroy, which is a main reason they have HoF'd cards in the past.
I think they would have too much to replace if they HoF'd the cards you mentioned. Zoolock would be totally dead for all eternity, for sure. No way to replace Flame Imp and/or Doomguard. Plus, those cards also don't have the snowball issue, like Hyena (which would be a good choice to either HoF or nerf to only buff attack).
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Nature is the Day. Man is the Sun. Woman is the Moon. The Stone is the Sky. The Art is the Way.
My thoughts - If Hunter is too oppressive, they might consider HOFing animal companion. Other than that, MC tech is being HOFed for sure. Other possibilities - Malygos and Leeroy. Thats it.
They won’t HOF prep. It’s not even just about spell cost, it’s too critical to how Rogue functions with the combo mechanic. It’s a core part of how Rogue has worked as a class since the beginning and they can’t remove it from standard without radically retooling the class.
Even Wild Growth and Nourish weren’t HOF’d and they were way more oppressive than preparation could ever hope to be.
They won’t HOF prep. It’s not even just about spell cost, it’s too critical to how Rogue functions with the combo mechanic. It’s a core part of how Rogue has worked as a class since the beginning and they can’t remove it from standard without radically retooling the class.
Even Wild Growth and Nourish weren’t HOF’d and they were way more oppressive than preparation could ever hope to be.
I agree, but like you said about nourish etc. they nerfed druids identity, so maybe they will be foolish enough to mess with rogue too?
I really hope if they do do it, they don't release the next expac having been designed around prep as rogue will suck and it's the class my resources are most invested in right now... it would be huge blow for my main to just stop being fun any more.
I guess really though if it is to happen, I just have to adjust and move on.
It seems that Blizzard has gotten less reluctant to nerf cards. For example Azure Drake was HoF-ed, but I think that today it would more likely get bumped to 6 mana instead. See for example Mana Wyrm.
So HoF candidates would be cards that are hard to nerf. For example Ice Block, they can't increase its mana cost because all Mage secrets cost 3 and there is no other change that doesn't fundamentally alter the card.
Preparation could be nerfed (several suggestions were made last time Quest Rogue ruled), but it would significantly change how the card is played, so maybe they decide to HoF it instead.
Malygos keeps showing up in similar decks over the years. It could be nerfed to 10 mana, but that would break a lot of old Malygos decks and they may prefer to keep those decks viable in Wild.
Alexstrasza also keeps showing up in decks, but is not as deck-defining as Malygos. Also with all the lifesteal and armor gain from recent sets, I think she has become less effective, so probably there is no problem with design space, at least for the moment.
Swipe is an auto-include in most Druid decks and most Basic/Classic auto-includes got HoF-ed or nerfed. But after the recent changes to Wild Growth and Nourish, I think they'll probably postpone any planned changes to Swipe.
Divine Favor is a card that keeps popping up in aggressive Paladin decks. I think it would be fine to nerf it instead though: that would make it harder for a player to dump their hand and redraw in the same turn.
Gadgetzan Auctioneer could potentially enable overpowered combos with cards from future sets, so depending on what they're play testing, he could be moved to the HoF.
Leeroy Jenkins is the best choice for a finisher in many aggressive decks and has been for a long time. Adding one to his mana cost isn't going to make much of a difference except moving him from Odd to Even decks. So this is a prime HoF candidate in my opinion.
I saw Bloodmage Thalnos mentioned and while that is a card that sees a lot of play since forever, he is not an auto-include. This is the kind of card that you add when you think "this deck could use a bit more draw". So I don't think it's likely they'll HoF him.
To summarize: Preparation, Malygos, Gadgetzan, Leeroy are the most likely HoF candidates in my opinion. Probably not all of them, but I would be surprised if not a single one of them gets picked.
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This is actually why Prep is a prime candidate for the HOF. Crap like Cannon Barrage and (to a lesser extent) Hooktusk have to cost 6 and 8 respectively because Prep is a card. Cannon Barrage is so much worse than Avenging Wrath, and yet they have to cost the same because of Prep. Hooktusk, while probably fine at 8 as it is, had to cost more than 7 because of Cannon Barrage/Prep. Rogue can never get something like Call of the Wild while Prep exists in standard.
Generally, I think the OP is missing the point on why the HOF was created. (To be fair, I think Blizzard is confused about how they want to treat the HOF sometimes, as well.)
The main reason is to remove cards from standard that cause design issues for one reason or another.
- Azure Drake, Ragnaros, and Sylvanas were going to be impossible to beat out at their mana costs. They were just too good, and, as neutrals, kept people from playing much else at that spot.
- Coldlight Oracle was too good by itself in mill that they basically could not print any more mill cards.
- Conceal and Ice Block would always encourage the same degenerate playstyle in Rogue and Mage forever. Basically outclassing most of the things the class would otherwise try to do.
The two that don't fit into the design issue category above are Power Overwhelming, Mountain Giant, and Ice Lance. These were HOF'd because they were "too powerful." IMO, those are a examples of Blizzard being confused itself on how to treat the HOF. This is evidenced by how they walked back the Molten Giant nerf a while back.
IMO, they should look at Prep (for the reasons above) and most of the Giants. I don't think a neutral "Giant on 3 or 4" is a thing that they should want this game to be doing. Mountain is the worst offender because it's completely under your control. Sea is a bit more tolerable because there's counterplay. Molten, actually, is good in the HOF already. (Could you imagine Thekal and Mountain Giant?).
There was a time I thought Maly should be HOF'd, but not any more. I think it is good to have a neutral, burn win condition in the basic/classic set as long as we are going to have basic/classic.
Prep has always stuck out like a sore thumb. It fits the category of why they hall of fame cards in the first place. It ends up being in pretty much every applicable deck and it limits design space. Malygos will get fixed in standard by the removal of recruiting mechanics over time.
prep can't go to hall of fame, surely?
the entirety of rogues spells would have to be readjusted. Every card printed had to take prep into consideration, so getting rid of it would mean all rogue spells need to be reduced in price. I seriously doubt they'd want that on their hands.
also decks with prep are never the "cancer" decks that dominate ladders. I really don't see why this would be HoF'd.
If you took prep from rogue you'd kill a lot of it's identity.
however if they did get rid of it, maybe it would be for the better due to prep not being considered when printing new rogue cards.
TBH I wouldn't lose any sleep if we lost it as long as they rebalance the class. I have feeling I'll be left with my main being unplayable though if they take out prep. (I mean I will just play odd rogue as that doesn't need it)
Are you kidding? Quest Rogue's consistent viability is almost entirely dependent on Prep. Also, which other Rogue cards would need to be rebalanced? Sap and Eviscerate are fine. Sprint is actually the correct mana cost for draw 4 (or at least it was until UI and the Nourish nerf). I guess Blade Flurry is probably wrong at that point...maybe. Vanish is fine at 6, being a worse Psychic Scream.
Seriously, what cards in Basic/Classic would need to change?
the way the game is made, rogue will be dumpster tier if they remove prep (for about 3 expansions at least). all the cards are already made with prep in mind, they will hamstring the class if they remove it before they rebalance everything else.
thing is I don't put it past them after what they did to druid. (they nerfed it's identity to fix broken cards in current expacs)
I feel like Malygos is #1 on the chomping block. Too many shenanigans have been had around this one card.
all the spells cost too much without prep. everything would need rebalanced. not to mention the next few expacs will be terrible as those spells will all be designed with prep in mind.
we're talking about the minions here too. the cost of rogue cards have prep factored in, you can't say that prep is not a factor when cards are printed. to remove prep would ruin rouge. what rogue does is part of it's identity.
I'm not saying that you won't be able to play rogue spells without prep, it will just make it terrible. part of what makes rogue strong is the ability to combo all these cards. edwin would become dumpster class as well as you wouldn't be able to combo enough cards to get him big enough to play.
the whole of rogue is built around prep, what I'm saying is if you just take out prep, rogue will suffer.
without a rebalance you kill off like 90% of the fun rogue builds. there are tons of rogue builds that would just become unplayable without prep, and these decks aren't even that competitive anyway.
I've never played quest rogue and I was on a break before the nerf. I don't think it's good now.
I actually think removing prep would be healthy, but rogue would suffer for it for at least a year till they started making new cards that were not built around prep.
All the spells cost too much? Name 5? Cause Sap, Evescirate, Vanish, Myra's unstable element, Sprint are all fine. Fan of knives is good, backstab, Cold blood, walk the plank is fine, shadowstep, cannon barrage. There could be arguments made for the spells that no one use (such as wanted!), but honestly. The reason rogues get such bad spells overall is the presence of preparation
A bunch of bad expac cards may be affected by it, but like I said, none of the basic/classic cards are (with the slight exception of maybe Blade Flurry).
I think they HOF stuff not because its OP, but because it limits design space. Ice Block and Molten Giant weren't dominating the meta, they just kept other stuff from being made because they'd be too frustating to play against in combination with new cards (Think Ice Block in Odd Mage or Coldlight Oracle in Pirate Kingsbane Rogue)
Stuff like the Hyena and Divine favor don't really fall into that category. Midrange Hunter will take a huge hit with Rexxar and Razormaw going out, so much so that I doubt it'll be tier one unless we get another 1 drop beast on similar power level to Dire Mole. Divine Favor isn't seen in any good decks right now, and paladin has the best aggro deck. So I don't think either of them will rotate.
I would guess Leeroy or Malygos as the two most likely candidates
Unpopular opinion: Rogue is OP
I actually agree with you. I think prep is factored into every aspect of rogue, so removing it would be detrimental to the current state of rogue and would effect it for at least a year I would say.
But yes, in the long run it would be better, as we wouldn't have to base everything around 1 card.
yeah dude. all I'm saying is taking prep out will effect rogue negatively.
I agree that it's more of a hindrance than anything though as everything printed has to take prep into consideration. we're not just talking cards that can benefit from it, to balance the class it has to be taken into consideration with everything.
hope this makes sense.
PS: no one is playing sprint in a deck without prep.
HoF prep and they can change Sprint for the right 6 manas cost.
I think Leeroy is A#1 candidate. Just too much potential with this guy, and we all know how problematic charge minions are, historically. Too many ways to push like 20+ damage to face with this guy, and he goes into everything aggressive.
Malygos also seems like a likely candidate. Although, it does seem like Team 5 likes these types of decks. It just seems ubiquitous, as does Leeroy, which is a main reason they have HoF'd cards in the past.
I think they would have too much to replace if they HoF'd the cards you mentioned. Zoolock would be totally dead for all eternity, for sure. No way to replace Flame Imp and/or Doomguard. Plus, those cards also don't have the snowball issue, like Hyena (which would be a good choice to either HoF or nerf to only buff attack).
Nature is the Day.
Man is the Sun.
Woman is the Moon.
The Stone is the Sky.
The Art is the Way.
Malygos should have never even been printed. Same with Prep.
Fun > Meta
well at this rate I should get a fair bit of dust back if all these get dusted.
silver linings.
My thoughts - If Hunter is too oppressive, they might consider HOFing animal companion. Other than that, MC tech is being HOFed for sure. Other possibilities - Malygos and Leeroy. Thats it.
They won’t HOF prep. It’s not even just about spell cost, it’s too critical to how Rogue functions with the combo mechanic. It’s a core part of how Rogue has worked as a class since the beginning and they can’t remove it from standard without radically retooling the class.
Even Wild Growth and Nourish weren’t HOF’d and they were way more oppressive than preparation could ever hope to be.
Malygos must go. The ridiculous 1 turn kills it allows are sickening. I've had enough of it.
I agree, but like you said about nourish etc. they nerfed druids identity, so maybe they will be foolish enough to mess with rogue too?
I really hope if they do do it, they don't release the next expac having been designed around prep as rogue will suck and it's the class my resources are most invested in right now... it would be huge blow for my main to just stop being fun any more.
I guess really though if it is to happen, I just have to adjust and move on.
It seems that Blizzard has gotten less reluctant to nerf cards. For example Azure Drake was HoF-ed, but I think that today it would more likely get bumped to 6 mana instead. See for example Mana Wyrm.
So HoF candidates would be cards that are hard to nerf. For example Ice Block, they can't increase its mana cost because all Mage secrets cost 3 and there is no other change that doesn't fundamentally alter the card.
Preparation could be nerfed (several suggestions were made last time Quest Rogue ruled), but it would significantly change how the card is played, so maybe they decide to HoF it instead.
Malygos keeps showing up in similar decks over the years. It could be nerfed to 10 mana, but that would break a lot of old Malygos decks and they may prefer to keep those decks viable in Wild.
Alexstrasza also keeps showing up in decks, but is not as deck-defining as Malygos. Also with all the lifesteal and armor gain from recent sets, I think she has become less effective, so probably there is no problem with design space, at least for the moment.
Swipe is an auto-include in most Druid decks and most Basic/Classic auto-includes got HoF-ed or nerfed. But after the recent changes to Wild Growth and Nourish, I think they'll probably postpone any planned changes to Swipe.
Divine Favor is a card that keeps popping up in aggressive Paladin decks. I think it would be fine to nerf it instead though: that would make it harder for a player to dump their hand and redraw in the same turn.
Gadgetzan Auctioneer could potentially enable overpowered combos with cards from future sets, so depending on what they're play testing, he could be moved to the HoF.
Leeroy Jenkins is the best choice for a finisher in many aggressive decks and has been for a long time. Adding one to his mana cost isn't going to make much of a difference except moving him from Odd to Even decks. So this is a prime HoF candidate in my opinion.
I saw Bloodmage Thalnos mentioned and while that is a card that sees a lot of play since forever, he is not an auto-include. This is the kind of card that you add when you think "this deck could use a bit more draw". So I don't think it's likely they'll HoF him.
To summarize: Preparation, Malygos, Gadgetzan, Leeroy are the most likely HoF candidates in my opinion. Probably not all of them, but I would be surprised if not a single one of them gets picked.