Hearthpwn

I want to die. Got to the top of 1 today for the first time ever, queued into 4 unfavorable matchups in a row, counter-queued with Odd Warrior because it was favored against all the decks I faced, and then I run into THE ONE F*CKING TAUNT DRUID ON THE ENTIRE DAMN LADDER and got completely castrated. Tilt doesn't even BEGIN to describe my emotions right now. I've played this game for 5 years and after all this time I'm still a giant failure no matter how fucking hard I try. Fuck. I don't even care about HCT points or "being competitive" because I don't have a full collection and don't have the money to support ONE account, much less MULTIPLE accounts across the other servers like the pros do. I just want my damn card back. :(

As accurate as that is given Warsong Commander, I don't think they'll make it THAT bad if they do nerf it.

I know we're easily 7 or 8 months away from the rotation of the Year of the Mammoth sets, but I wanted to talk about this anyways since Boomsday is launching and everyone is losing their minds over the potential of "Druidstone" and all that (frankly, I'm not worried).

Given Team 5's design and balance philosophies, I think the cards I'm listing here have a very good chance of getting Hall of Fame'd at the rotation. If you have your own thoughts or cards you'd like to see Hall of Fame'd, leave a comment! Keep in mind that this is a candidacy list and not so much a "this card is awful and terrible to lose against so I want it gone" list. I love most of the cards on here, but I can also recognize when something's stale or limiting for design.

Malygos - This thing has been the bane of everyone long since before Boomsday. Given the length of time this thing has been in Standard and the amount of design space that's limited by its existence (not to mention the absurd amount of play it's going to see now that Malygos Druid got insane consistency thanks to Lunara's Juicy Melons and Flip-Flop-Floop), this one has a good chance of entering the Hall.

Gadgetzan Auctioneer - Talk about limiting design space. Miracle Rogue is a fine deck, it's just that it's been around since before Launch and despite the frequency of nerfs it's received, it's still around. It's gotten significantly weaker, but that's just because they haven't really been able to print any other good cheap Rogue spells because of Gadget (although that doesn't seem to have stopped them from going nuts with Priest, looking at you Topsy Turvy). IMO, it's stale, samey, and limiting: all good reasons to rotate it to HoF.

Doomguard - This one is significantly less likely especially since Cubelock already got nerfed twice and Skull of the Man'ari is rotating by time the next HoF happens, but I still think this is worth considering. Charge is a mechanic that has proven to be extremely unhealthy for the game, we know this. That's why Rush has been so successful (at least in my eyes). Doomguard and Leeroy (we'll get to him) are examples of cards that really shouldn't exist in an evergreen environment. (Since I mentioned Cubelock, I still think Carnivorous Cube should have been nerfed to where its Deathrattle only summons one copy of the minion it eats. Still playable, but not off-the-walls bonkers that it is now).

Leeroy Jenkins - "At least I have chicken."  Leeroy combos have existed since before launch (alongside Gadget, ironically) and we're about to get another one in Boomsday thanks to Necrium Vial, Necrium Blade, Shadowstep, Carnivorous Cube, and Preparation. Lots of cards for a combo, sure, but when Rogue has as much card draw as it now has (Thanks Obama, I mean Myra's Unstable Element) then combos of that size aren't nearly as impossible as they used to be. 42 damage burst is just not okay (same reason why Malygos should go. Burst damage through taunt is also just not okay). And even without that crazy combo you still have Leeroy-Shadowstep-Leeroy-Cold Blood-Cold Blood as 20 damage burst. It's a bit ridiculous, and extremely frustrating when your deck can't even compare or defend itself despite having 66% of your starting health.

Cold Blood - SOMETHING needs to happen to this card. Rotation might be too much to ask for since Rogue already lost Conseal, but some sort of nerf is in order, especially given how easy it is to combo this card with Charge minions for burst damage. Even IF Leeroy rotated you're still in a position where every single minion in aggressive Rogue decks is a threat and suddenly you can take 8 damage for 2 mana (and 2 cards, sure, but this is Rogue we're talking about). What do you do to this card? I don't know. I could say "just rotate it" but that's a mindless, whiny way of approaching it. Maybe the rotation of Gadget and Leeroy will be enough to bring this card down a few notches, who knows. Regardless, I recognize this card as a real problem, mostly due to the fact that Rogue has so much card draw now. Paladin has Blessing of Might which doesn't need Combo and grants 1 less Attack, so why isn't it a problem? Less Charge applications, I suppose, given that Southsea Deckhand is always live for Rogue but nigh impossible to reasonably run in a Paladin deck.

Divine Favor - Again, not another "NEEDS TO BE ROTATED" card, but it's a potential candidate for the same reason that Gadget is. Aggro Paladin's entire strategy involves emptying your hand against anything that's slower than you and then drawing a bunch of cards for 3 mana. I could see this getting nerfed to 4 mana and having it be okay, or maybe "Draw cards until you have as many in hand as your opponent, minus 1" (or however you'd conventionally write that). With Favor gone, or at least nerfed, you have to be smarter with your minions and resources instead of just throwing them at the screen without a care in the world.

Naturalize - "But Fudo, when Mammoth rotates out, so will Hadronox, so Naturalize won't be nearly as good!" But the fact that it's in the game at all means that they can't print cards similar to Hadronox without some serious considerations to be made. Milling sucks, that's why they HoF'd Coldlight Oracle (but they still gave Mage Research Project, go figure). Druid needs good removal and right now Naturalize is the only thing that answers cards like Mountain Giant, so this is a tough call to make. Swipe doesn't cut it. Spreading Plague is rotating. Their sustain and control viability is just not very good. Aggro and Token Druids are fine but I don't want that to be the entire identity of the class, especially since so much of the BASIC cards are focused on Ramp and therefore a much slower game pace. They could print a new Druid removal card like say, a 4-mana spell that destroys a minion whose attack/health is greater than your hand size. I don't know, just throwing ideas around.

Honorable mentions include Shadowstep, Pyroblast, Inner Fire or Divine Spirit (though the latter is a Basic card so they'll probably never touch it), Flame Imp, Mountain Giant, and of course, the OBVIOUS Hall of Fame candidate, Wisp.

>Magma Rager awards didn't even have the actual Rager of the set lol

If I were to guess, I'd say it has to do with their wording of "Play" vs "Summon" but I honestly couldn't tell you for sure.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

If there was a third pre-order buying option I'd do that too. No regrets.

Probably the easiest card to cut but I think my thought process was you play it alongside Power Word: Shield and Reckless Experimenter to draw a bunch of cards. (while also putting the PW Shields back in your hand since Test Subject dies at the end of the turn and/or instantly due to Topsy.

It also can potentially contribute to Anduin's burst damage when combined with Topsy Turvy.

M-Morty. We've gotta put this Pocket Galaxy in our M*burp* Mage deck Morty.

MORTY IT'S LIKE A MICROVERSE WE'VE GOTTA SUE BLIZZARD MORTY DON'T YOU UNDERSTAND ME MORTY?!?!?!

alt art

Something like this: the idea being that if you HAPPEN to have a magnetic minion survive the duration of the game or at least stick around in the late game then you can slam a minion on the board but not have any of the missiles (could be literal Mechanical Eyeball MISSILES) hit face because screw that (although if blizz were to print it that way I guess it would see competitive play which may or may not be better? it's all hypothetical so whatever).

It's neat, I guess, but I was hoping for something more Magnetic-themed

SUPER Equality! Dunno if this makes Control Pali viable but I'm sure gonna try it.

shooting star memes intensify

I know Whizbang is great for new players, but I was really hoping it would replace your deck with one from a selection of "wacky" themed decks instead of just the recipes.

shoutouts to the roboticized Larry the Cucumber