Hearthpwn

Quote from Raskolnikow92 >>

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. 

Quote from SlydE >>

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.)

 

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.