If you think the problem with Genn/Baku was they forced a deck to be built around a gimmick... yikes.
The problem with Genn/Baku was that the kind of hero-power focused gameplay they encouraged was boring and repetitive. The odd/even restriction was good, actually. There were a tonne of cards which came out of the woodwork and saw play for the first time in essentially ever. Raid Leader? Seriously? That's great! What wasn't great was Button. Button. Button. Button. Button. This made all the games against odd Paladin, odd Warrior, and so forth feel the same. All they do is make dudes and that's enough. All they do is gain armor, and that's enough. The contents of the deck becomes irrelevant, and all that matters is that hero power, and that's bad.
Highlander restrictions don't do that. The consistency of the decks go down, the contents of the decks vary more with a lot more room for tech choices, and games *don't* all feel the same. It's pretty much the exact opposite of how Genn/Baku played out. Zephrys being a swiss-army-knife to do anything you need does restore *some* consistency, but he's one card out of 30.
I, for one, don't dislike the hero power stuff. I agree, odd/even went out of blizzards hands, but I feel like, it was the community that disliked the mechanic and not a broken power level. Hall of Faming those cards still was the easy and bad way to drop an otherwise interesting mechanic. I loved using cards that were okay-ish in regular decks but suddenly excelled in odd/even decks (looking at stuff like Raid Leader or Argent Commander.
And that is the essence why highlander also is great. You actually see and play cards that do not have a top tier power level but still manage to work out because it is balanced by other cards/mechanics. Remember: OG Reno singlehandedly made highlander viable for a year up until MSoG.
Your arguments are mostly your personal feelings rather than a real assessment.
Yes, he is a powerful card that potentially turns a game around. Despite being powerful, it requires a certain skill to be played correctly. The turn you play him. The card you aim for by knowing the pool and how to manipulate your odds to get the correct card.
Unpopular opinion: Cards that require build arounds are good incentives to construct decks. Be it highlander or, yes, the unpopular opinion part, odd/even. It's not the mechanic in general that is inherently broken, the problem rather is single cards that turn games upside down.
I do not think Zephrys is such a card. Alexstrasza feels much more broken. She can turn real games by simply giving you incredible cards with no mana cost. There is no skill required other than drop and hope for the best. Zephrys needs much more careful planning when to be dropped and what to aim for. The worst thing you can get is a regular card, fully priced. What's worst? Flamestrike, Fireball and so on and so forth. Nothing inherently broken. Yes, they fit the situation in every case, but only if you manage it correctly.
I, for one, don't dislike the hero power stuff. I agree, odd/even went out of blizzards hands, but I feel like, it was the community that disliked the mechanic and not a broken power level. Hall of Faming those cards still was the easy and bad way to drop an otherwise interesting mechanic. I loved using cards that were okay-ish in regular decks but suddenly excelled in odd/even decks (looking at stuff like Raid Leader or Argent Commander.
And that is the essence why highlander also is great. You actually see and play cards that do not have a top tier power level but still manage to work out because it is balanced by other cards/mechanics. Remember: OG Reno singlehandedly made highlander viable for a year up until MSoG.
Your arguments are mostly your personal feelings rather than a real assessment.
Yes, he is a powerful card that potentially turns a game around. Despite being powerful, it requires a certain skill to be played correctly. The turn you play him. The card you aim for by knowing the pool and how to manipulate your odds to get the correct card.
Unpopular opinion: Cards that require build arounds are good incentives to construct decks. Be it highlander or, yes, the unpopular opinion part, odd/even. It's not the mechanic in general that is inherently broken, the problem rather is single cards that turn games upside down.
I do not think Zephrys is such a card. Alexstrasza feels much more broken. She can turn real games by simply giving you incredible cards with no mana cost. There is no skill required other than drop and hope for the best. Zephrys needs much more careful planning when to be dropped and what to aim for. The worst thing you can get is a regular card, fully priced. What's worst? Flamestrike, Fireball and so on and so forth. Nothing inherently broken. Yes, they fit the situation in every case, but only if you manage it correctly.