Hearthpwn

Quote from GetDroned jump

He was a 2/4

Doesn't seem like a necessary nerf.

Quote from Spice_Weasel jump

 I don't have a problem beating the deck. I play decks on ladder that have a near 100% winrate against Patron, so I don't think the deck is unbeatable. The problem is the fact that it so heavily warps the meta, because SO many decks are no longer viable because of a bad matchup against Patron. If Patron did not exist, I think it would be very fair to say that there would be twice as many viable decks at ranks closer to Legend on ladder. But because it does, now even if you run a deck with several AoE spells AND Harrison AND EVEN Acidic Swamp Ooze, you can still lose to a board that was empty the previous turn when you are at full health.

Which decks are unplayable in the current meta because of Patron Warrior?

I think Blizz has pretty much given up on balancing anything going forward. From here on out I think it is just about shoveling more cards out the door to keep the meta in flux.

Quote from Empyrium77 jump

Haven't read anything but the title; I'm sure this must be about Patron Warrior - what else. It won't be nerfed. This is Blizzzard-style; expect more similar annoying nonsense to come. Why even nerf - if you don't have your opponent dead by the time they can play a patron and something (that's turn 6+) you're doing it very wrong and pretty much deserve to lose anyway. 

So basically you have to play aggro now. GG control and midrange, you weren't good enough for the meta of a constructed card game.

I don't think they'll step in and nerf anything yet.  They'll just introduce tools with TGT to make other decks stronger, and see if that's enough to shift the balance.

Historical nerf notes give a lot of insight into why cards get nerfed. Patron definitely shares a bunch of these issues:

- too much card draw for low cost (battle rage)
- punish for playing minions
- non-interactive
- deck dominance affecting the variety of cards being played

=====================================================

During the development of Goblins vs Gnomes, we kept an eye on the state of game balance as more Hearthstone matches were played with the new cards we introduced with Curse of Naxxramas. After careful consideration we have decided to make balance changes to the following cards: Soulfire (Warlock), Gadgetzan Auctioneer (Neutral), and Flare (Hunter)

The following balance changes will be made in an upcoming patch:

• Soulfire now costs 1 (up from 0)
• Soulfire, along with fast and powerful minions, allowed Warlock rush decks to get ahead on the board and stay ahead. We’ve upped Soulfire’s mana cost by 1 to slow down the Warlock rush deck just a bit and allow more players time to react and interact against the Warlock.

• Gadgetzan Auctioneer now costs 6 (up from 5)
• Gadgetzan Auctioneer’s ability allows for a player to potentially draw many cards for little cost. Card draw and card advantage are important to the game—overall, games are less interesting when a player draws their entire deck. This change brings Gadgetzan Auctioneer’s cost more in line with its power level.

• Flare now costs 2 (up from 1)
• Flare allowed the Hunter an advantage versus decks that revolve around Secrets, while also allowing the Hunter to draw a card for little cost. We want to encourage a variety of decks in Hearthstone. With this change, Flare will continue to be useful against decks playing Secrets, but will be weaker against other decks

• Undertaker now reads: Whenever you summon a minion with Deathrattle, gain +1 Attack.
  
  
  • Undertaker was frustrating to play against. It often gained both Attack and Health stats significantly above those of other inexpensive minions very early in the game. With this change, we expect Undertaker will still be better than other 1-Mana minions when played in a deck with a Deathrattle theme, but more likely to die in combat against other minions.

The following balance changes will be made in an upcoming patch:

• Leeroy Jenkins now costs 5 (up from 4)
• Starving Buzzard now costs 5 (up from 2) and now has 3 Attack and 2 Health (up from 2 Attack and 1 Health)

Leeroy Jenkins created a strategy that revolved around trying to defeat your opponent in one turn without requiring any cards on the board. Fighting for board control and battles between minions make an overall game of Hearthstone more fun and compelling, but taking 20+ damage in one turn is not particularly fun or interactive. This was occurring when Leeroy was used in combination with other cards like Power Overwhelming, Faceless Manipulator, Cold Blood, Shadowstep, and Unleash the Hounds, among others.

The amount of cards Starving Buzzard allowed Hunter players to draw ultimately ended up being too excessive for its low cost. This change will allow the Hunter’s opponent more time to react to both the Starving Buzzard and the cards drawn by its power.

• Unleash the Hounds (Hunter) now costs 3 (up from 2)

Over the last few months, we have seen hundreds of different decks do well in game depending on many different factors. Our community is incredibly creative, and we’ve seen players constantly trying out new things and coming up with new strategies to counter whatever decks they have trouble with.

At the very highest levels of play there are a lot of different decks performing well, and the decks at the top change from week to week. Since we’ve seen many cards and deck types in the current state of the game rise and fall as players adapt, we did not want to change Unleash the Hounds immediately. However, Hunter decks have become increasingly more dominant and are doing better than we are comfortable across many levels of play.

We do like the idea of decks that have a really big turn and pull off a sweet combo, but when playing against Hunter decks, you may feel punished too much for playing minions. Playing minions is one of the key, fun pieces of the overall Hearthstone puzzle, and feeling like your options are limited by the opponent creates a play experience that may not be particularly enjoyable.

We will continue to make balance changes to Hearthstone when we feel they are necessary in order to increase the variety of cards seen at all levels of play, with the goal of making Hearthstone a more fun and interactive game for everyone.

There will be no nerf in the near future due to TGT coming out.  This deck may disappear? or it may even get better but patron will not be evaluated until after TGT has been out for a minimum of 2 months (just a guess), then they will look at the meta.

Quote from sneakytoddman jump

Historical nerf notes give a lot of insight into why cards get nerfed. Patron definitely shares a bunch of these issues:

- too much card draw for low cost (battle rage)
- punish for playing minions
- non-interactive
- deck dominance affecting the variety of cards being played

=====================================================

During the development of Goblins vs Gnomes, we kept an eye on the state of game balance as more Hearthstone matches were played with the new cards we introduced with Curse of Naxxramas. After careful consideration we have decided to make balance changes to the following cards: Soulfire (Warlock), Gadgetzan Auctioneer (Neutral), and Flare (Hunter)

The following balance changes will be made in an upcoming patch:

• Soulfire now costs 1 (up from 0)
• Soulfire, along with fast and powerful minions, allowed Warlock rush decks to get ahead on the board and stay ahead. We’ve upped Soulfire’s mana cost by 1 to slow down the Warlock rush deck just a bit and allow more players time to react and interact against the Warlock.

• Gadgetzan Auctioneer now costs 6 (up from 5)
• Gadgetzan Auctioneer’s ability allows for a player to potentially draw many cards for little cost. Card draw and card advantage are important to the game—overall, games are less interesting when a player draws their entire deck. This change brings Gadgetzan Auctioneer’s cost more in line with its power level.

• Flare now costs 2 (up from 1)
• Flare allowed the Hunter an advantage versus decks that revolve around Secrets, while also allowing the Hunter to draw a card for little cost. We want to encourage a variety of decks in Hearthstone. With this change, Flare will continue to be useful against decks playing Secrets, but will be weaker against other decks

• Undertaker now reads: Whenever you summon a minion with Deathrattle, gain +1 Attack.
  
  
  • Undertaker was frustrating to play against. It often gained both Attack and Health stats significantly above those of other inexpensive minions very early in the game. With this change, we expect Undertaker will still be better than other 1-Mana minions when played in a deck with a Deathrattle theme, but more likely to die in combat against other minions.

The following balance changes will be made in an upcoming patch:

• Leeroy Jenkins now costs 5 (up from 4)
• Starving Buzzard now costs 5 (up from 2) and now has 3 Attack and 2 Health (up from 2 Attack and 1 Health)

Leeroy Jenkins created a strategy that revolved around trying to defeat your opponent in one turn without requiring any cards on the board. Fighting for board control and battles between minions make an overall game of Hearthstone more fun and compelling, but taking 20+ damage in one turn is not particularly fun or interactive. This was occurring when Leeroy was used in combination with other cards like Power Overwhelming, Faceless Manipulator, Cold Blood, Shadowstep, and Unleash the Hounds, among others.

The amount of cards Starving Buzzard allowed Hunter players to draw ultimately ended up being too excessive for its low cost. This change will allow the Hunter’s opponent more time to react to both the Starving Buzzard and the cards drawn by its power.

• Unleash the Hounds (Hunter) now costs 3 (up from 2)

Over the last few months, we have seen hundreds of different decks do well in game depending on many different factors. Our community is incredibly creative, and we’ve seen players constantly trying out new things and coming up with new strategies to counter whatever decks they have trouble with.

At the very highest levels of play there are a lot of different decks performing well, and the decks at the top change from week to week. Since we’ve seen many cards and deck types in the current state of the game rise and fall as players adapt, we did not want to change Unleash the Hounds immediately. However, Hunter decks have become increasingly more dominant and are doing better than we are comfortable across many levels of play.

We do like the idea of decks that have a really big turn and pull off a sweet combo, but when playing against Hunter decks, you may feel punished too much for playing minions. Playing minions is one of the key, fun pieces of the overall Hearthstone puzzle, and feeling like your options are limited by the opponent creates a play experience that may not be particularly enjoyable.

We will continue to make balance changes to Hearthstone when we feel they are necessary in order to increase the variety of cards seen at all levels of play, with the goal of making Hearthstone a more fun and interactive game for everyone.

Thank you for perfectly summing this up. This deck displays almost ALL of the problems that caused nerfs in the past.