Hearthpwn

On curve with Fire Elemental and Kalimos, Primal Lord :|

With the new expansion and standard rotation coming, it's highly probable that Blizzard will nerf some of the cards again. Here are some cards that I think need a little rework, most of them are nerfs.

1. Ice Block

A lot of players blame combo decks' lack of interaction on the damage combos, but I think that, for the most part, stall mechanics play a bigger role in causing the opponents' frustration. This version of Ice Block is still powerful for stalling, but can at least be played around. This way decks with big minions can better deal with Ice Block. Another stimulus for this change is how utterly terrible the card is in any context other than Freeze mage (or a Reno mage that runs freeze cards), and even though this is technically a powercreep to Ice Barrier, you're probably running both anyway.

2. Feral Rage

Speaking of Ice Barrier powercreep... Feral Rage. Feral Rage is really powerful, with or without Fandral Staghelm. Especially in a deck that puts its focus on summoning big minions, the 3 mana is really convenient as it allows the druid to play 2-3 other cards on the same turn if they wish to, whilst also giving them the armor that they need. Though I don't think that an increased mana cost is too great for the card, considering how Jade Idol costs only 1 mana, the amount of armor being reduced will hopefully help any deck that doesn't run ten 8/8s.

3. Jade Idol

There have been many good proposed nerfs to this card, as even though the card isn't top tier with an overwhelmingly high winrate, it's certainly destroyed many good control decks like warrior and priest. With this version, you can still have an infinite amount of jade golems, but only with Fandral Staghelm and/or Gadgetzan Auctioneer, making it a lot more difficult to pull off.

4. Gadgetzan Auctioneer

This nerf is much less directed towards druid and more towards rogue. Having played quite some rogue for several expansions, I feel like, at this point, Blizzard should just make this a rogue class card. The small attack nerf should make Cold Blood x2 + Eviscerate x2 or something of the sort less tough to deal with, that and having auctioneer become easier to trade.

5. Fiery War Axe

War Axe has always been a staple in every warrior deck - Worgen warrior, Patron warrior, pirate warrior, control warrior, C'Thun warrior.... and seems integral in all of the aforementioned decks, it's such a powerful card that I'm surprised Blizzard didn't nerf it the first time around. Going forward, even I think they should just print some good cards to replace war axe and whilst making it weaker. That's not to say that this version of war axe is useless, though, this kills quite a lot of 1 drops and can be played on turn one, it's just much less powerful later on in the game.

... and finally,

6. Big Game Hunter

When it comes to reverting card nerfs, I feel like many of the cards that were core to some skill based decks should be reverted (Warsong Commander, Starving Buzzard, Molten Giant, Blade Flurry), but since Blizzard is going with the "new player experience" and "RNG is fun" route, I'll leave that be. BGH was ran in every deck back when handlocks and Dr. Booms were roaming amidst rank 10 and up. It was basically Shadow Word: Death for anyone who wasn't a priest, but other than killing giants and scholarly goblins, BGH didn't serve much purpose. With 4 mana 7/7s, Jades and Renolocks about, as well as upcoming new cards that create huge minions, I think that BGH will make the meta better for the most part, but then RIP Swamp King Dred.

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What other cards should be changed for Year of the Mammoth? I might've missed a few. Thanks for your time :)

Something that Team 5 (the Hearthstone Devs) really wants to make meta, so they print really powerful cards for that deck. Not all of these decks work, though. Examples include Jade Druid, Beast Druid, Dragon Priest.

Next: 10 mana spell for druids that has a nature thematic.

Random wildlife include...

Next: A neutral card that allows "weird" playstyles of a class (e.g. Sir Finley Mrrgglton allowing warriors to play aggressive)

Having a new Rogue hero is great and all, just wish it was an more rogue rogue (Maiev's a Warden and a Rogue but not really...?), like Vanessa VanCleef, Mathias Shaw , Garona Halforcen or even fucking Taoshi or Genn Greymane. I don't want to come off as ungrateful, because I'd still be using Maiev, it's just that since only Mage had 2 hero skins, I think it's highly unlikely that we'll ever get those heroes. It's like they really want Elves to be the face of Hearthstone. This is nowhere near as "controversial" as putting Azure Drake in their "Hall of Fame" (why didn't you put Warsong Commander and Blade Flurry there :( ) and openly saying that versatile cards are bad for the game. This post doesn't have any real meaning lol; maybe when Druids get Zen'kiki the apprentice druid as their playable hero instead of Hamuul Runetotem or Broll Bearmantle and Warlocks realise that there aren't any notable Warlocks other than Gul'dan in Warcraft so they're bound to get some random NPC, they might have the same feeling.

Anyway, I hope that they make some more skins, even purchasable ones would be ok, at least for me. It can't be as hard as printing a new expa- oh, you can't fill skins with Worgen Greasers. Nevermind. On a slightly more serious note (can't really get that serious talking about hero skins), do you guys like Maiev as the Rogue hero? Or Maiev as a character in general?

The Monk

(Custom Class by In_Your_Phase)

First off - the Hero and their unique Hero Power. I've picked Emperor Shaohao, last emperor of the Pandaren as the class' hero, mainly because all the other variations of Monk had Chen Stormstout as the hero. Shaohao is also a revered Monk among the Pandaren, but is definitely less iconic than Chen in the Warcraft lore. As for the Hero Power, I went with "The Circle of Life", which is a little pun on the shape of the Sphere. Since Monks use Chi and Energy as resource in WoW, I felt that the representation of spending Chi to empower card effects was somewhat compulsory. Chi Spheres isn't exactly the same as Chi - the resource, but for simplicity's sake, I made a compromise and the two became one card. Note that Chi Spheres are not collectible. When buffed by Justicar Trueheart, it becomes "Endless Circulation", which adds a Chi Sphere AND a Healing Sphere to your hand. Healing Sphere is a card from the basic set.

Basic Set

 Classic Set

 GvG Cards

 TGT Cards

WoG Cards

Mean Streets of Gadgetzan Cards

[1/2]

Next: A combo card tool (not a survivability tool), just because someone on Blizz Team 5 was talking about combo decks.

With that logic, then, we should all learn to cook from the employees at McDonald's and learn to write scripts from Michael Bay. Just because the card game is popular doesn't mean that it's due to it's good design. In fact, it's usually the opposite - most things popular are dumbed down or simplified in one way or another, and the removal of Azure Drake from standard supports this. It's much easier for the viewing audience to see a Christmas Tree on top of Uther's head and 30 eyes popping out of a 30/30 minion to know that the Paladin/Druid player just did something powerful than it is for them to identify that the 6 mana 4/4 is a crucial target that needs to be killed and for them to remember that exactly 7 murlocs have died and they just drew Anyfin Can Happen.

I don't know how you manage to play "2-4 minute game"s as a player who "only play control or midrange decks", because I've played face Hunter mirrors that lasted for longer than that. Admittedly, the so-called combo decks of the current meta are actually more fast-paced than those in BrM or LoE - most of the time a combo vs control matchup would end with the combo player fatiguing - and even if they weren't, it's still not the fault of the concept of combo decks, but rather the stalling tools that they must use to fight against minion based decks. The point of a combo deck is to edge in that 9th or 10th turn to pull off a 20ish damage combo, emphasis on the 'edge in' part. What Hearthstone has right now are control decks, like Reno Mage and RenoLock, that have no way to finish off their opponent. In most other card games or even in previous metas, control decks' endgame was to have 3-4 large minions on the board that the opponent cannot easily get rid of (i.e. Sylvanas, Ysera and Cabal Shadow Priest), but instead the devs have printed budgeted versions of said cards, like 4 mana 7/7, thus making big-minion control decks less, or not at all viable.

The "cycle" of deck archetype should go as follows: control beats aggro, aggro beats combo, and combo beats control. However, in almost every expansion after TGT, control decks have been surviving way too well and aggro decks have been too difficult to grind out, thus making it necessary for any type of combo deck to include a ton of board clears to exist even in tier 3 or 4. Think of it this way, combo decks are actively using cards that do not draw them cards and make them pull off their combo faster like they should in this meta, and that's not the fault of combo decks, it's the fault of the sheer strength of low mana cost cards such as Tunnel Trogg and Swashburglar. So the "right", or healthy thing to do is to nerf aggro, which will make control and combo decks better against them, which in turn will make them appear more, which in turn will make combo decks run more card draw (to finish off the control decks) and less boring Frost Nova + Doomsayer-esque board clears.

On the note of playing a 20 minute game, if you're 10 minutes in and you know that you're not even close to beating your opponent, then why not just concede? You say that you lose said games anyway, right? And no-one gets to choose who they fight against in the ladder, so it's not up to you to say "I don't want to fight against slow decks, this is clearly an issue in game design. Since the games are too long for me to play my deck and do my stuff, it's obviously a flaw in game design; combo decks are so boring to play against." Again, yes, Ice Block, Frost Nova, Reno Jackson and other similar stall cards are very uninteractive, and those cards should be nerfed, removed, or (actually usable) counter cards should be printed like Unfreeze Nova or Ice Break or whatever, but that isn't the fault of the concept of combo decks, it's the flaw of those individual cards, as well as the necessity to put them in due to aggro decks being too effective. If anything, they should start supporting combo decks, not with Counterfeit Coin, Alexstrasza or Emperor Thaurissan, because these cards allow for any slow deck to run 4-5 combo pieces for burst damage, instead they should print more cards like Blade Flurry, Aviana and Charge, cards that are terrible in control decks, but are excellent combo tools. And no, combos aren't meant to be "countered", they're meant to be prevented

So, to conclude, if you want more interactive games, you should instead be supporting combo decks.

I think that the line between control and combo is increasingly hard to draw. Other than 1000 Armor vs Not A Warrior and Jade Druid, there haven't been a control deck without a damage-based finisher since LoE (there was Priest, but they were tier 4 for not having a win condition...). 60 Health hero decks like Roulette Warlock and Blackjack Mage (and going a bit back in time, Count-to-14-Druid) don't deserve a combo finisher, but Anyfin Paladin (the one with Old Murk Eye) and almost every slow deck in the meta when everyone were still getting in there and blades were still thirsty were both difficult to play and easy to counter, and allowed for some less trading intensive decks like 4 Huffer Hunter and 1/1lock to co-exist with control and combo decks. imo combo decks are fun, it's the stalling mechanics like Ice Block and Frost Nova that aren't.

I have a feeling that this is the same guy who removed Azure Drake from standard for being "too versatile" (a.k.a too well designed).

Well, decks like Oil Rogue and Patron Warrior were way more interactive and interesting than curvestone decks. If the devs don't want combo decks to turtle until turn 12, then maybe they should weaken cards like Justicar Trueheart and Ice Block. Trading up minions and using removal to regain tempo every single game is repetitive, too, and I, for one, would rather they print more Loatheb-like cards that can by itself wreck a combo deck if played right.

Also, having the same viewpoint as the Hearthstone devs doesn't necessarily make your point more valid. Not to bash on them too much, but they've made many "meh" decisions to say the least - printing Purify at Priest's weakest, nerfing Warsong Commander right after the birth of Secret Paladin (yeah because you can react to Mysterious Challenger; that's not a combo deck), and killing all combo decks altogether by printing C'Thun.

Overall, though, I actually agree with the blue post that combo decks should be kept at mid to low tier (therefore a minion based deck is top tier).

As the third Mage Hero, work really needs to be done to differentiate between Medivh and his student, Archmage Khadgar. Below is what I propose - reskinning Mage basic cards, and this is how it should be done (entirely reflective of the character).

kappa

 

Next: Supposing there would be a mode on Hs about Alliance vs Horde, make an alliance-only legendary and a horde-only legendary.

So it says in the Blue Post that Standard Mode is where only Basic, Classic and Cards Released in the past and current year can be included in the deck. But what about summoned cards?

e.g. Can Dark Peddler discover Naxx and GvG cards such as Clockwork Gnome or Undertaker?

e.g. Can Spellslinger give you Naxx and GvG spells like Avenge or Lightbomb?

I'm not sure if I missed it or Blizz never addressed this, any constructive response is much appreciated :P Thanks.