Mike Donais Slams Nonsense, Talks About Cubelock Power and Nerfs
Yesterday afternoon, Hearthstone's Principal Game Designer, Mike Donais, responded to a post on reddit which claimed they fought 17 Cubelock decks in a row and proved them wrong. Through internal statistics, Donais discovered that no one in all of Hearthstone fought that many Cubelock decks in a row that day and that there are indeed better decks than Cubelock.
Here's what Mike had to say about Cubelock's power level and nerfs in Hearthstone.
- Cubelock is currently ranked as the 12th best deck in their system.
- The deck will be stronger after the card nerfs arrive due to no cards within the deck being nerfed.
- Cubelock is challenging to play so it may improve more as players get better at it, though it may also get countered more if popularity increases.
- If Warlock is a big problem post-patch and players have had time to adjust to it, they'll evaluate it then.
- Win rate is not the only factor in deciding when cards get nerfed. How players feel about cards matters too.
Here are Mike's full posts which the above points were taken from.
Quote from Mike DonaisI just checked the data, and no one played 17 cubelocks in a row today.
If you are indeed having trouble with Cubelock there are several decks that beat it consistently right now. It is currently the 12th best deck.
I did enjoy the title of your post though. (Source)
A couple people asked why the stats I mentioned don't metch VS power ranking so I looked up VS 79 and across all rankings Control Warlock is the 10th best deck. I assume they mix control and cube warlock in their stats. We have decks broken out a bit more but 10th gives you the general idea.
Obviously after the nurfs it will be stronger since none of the cards in cubelock are being nurfed and that concerns me but it is a pretty challenging deck with a lot of opportunities to show off player skill. People will eventually get better at playing it, but people will also put in more weapon destruction or silence cards if it gets more popular.
I am excited to see what people figure out after the patch. If Warlock is a big problem after people have some time to adjust and tune the new decks then we will look into it. I have said many times before that win rate is not the most important factor in our nurf decisions. How people feel matters more, so we will listen to players and make decisions based on that, just like we did in the past with Quest Rogue and Patron Warrior. (Source)
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Posted Feb 10, 2018 (Patches Nerf)-
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Posted Feb 7, 2018 (Patches Nerf)Yeah sure Cubelock 12th best deck...sure almost unplayable Tier 5 Deck....i cant take Donais serious anymore with such comments. Did he even see Worlds?! Basically any pro player you ask will say its OP.
And sure nobody played 17 warlocks in a row...did anybody sice alpha played 17x against the same class in row during ranked?!
Maybe hes just trolling....
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Posted Feb 10, 2018 (Patches Nerf)-
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Posted Feb 7, 2018 (Patches Nerf)Why does he spell nerf as nurf? Does the Nerf Brand have a problem with it?
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Posted Feb 7, 2018 (Patches Nerf)After Blizzard stated they removed the "Sorry" emote because it was the least used emote, I stopped believing anything they said about gameplay statistics.
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Posted Feb 7, 2018 (Patches Nerf)Interesting logic: winrate is not main factor for nerfs but how players feel. Yet, Cubelock is Ok because it has not the highest winrate. I see what you did there Mike.
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Posted Feb 7, 2018 (Patches Nerf)Do not worry people, cube lock will be nerfed. They needed 1.5 years to nerf Patches, so you can expect nerf in a year or so.
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Posted Feb 7, 2018 (Patches Nerf)"If you are indeed having trouble with Cubelock there are several decks that beat it consistently right now."
[...]
"Obviously after the nurfs it will be stronger..."
I hate when people are so obviously unreasonable / intellectualy dishonest. I mean he writes this Post while Raza and Aggro-Cards are getting nerfed, and to me little noob it's "obvious", that Warlock will be a real crusher. Of course I might be wrong.
"but people will also put in more weapon destruction or silence cards if it gets more popular."
And people could have used more Dirty Rats and Coldlight Oracles to counter Razakus, lol. Though granted: I didn't like this deck as Priest player too and prefered the Dragon Razakus flavor. It can be frustrating for both sides.
Anyway, so a deck that has such a brutal combo and thanks to the new healing cards crazy card draw that is hard to punish is ok? It's simple, this deck is the new and more consistent Razakus ...
But of course his BS will have no consequences for him.
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Posted Feb 10, 2018 (Patches Nerf)-
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Posted Feb 6, 2018 (Patches Nerf)I take it that he spells it 'nurf' because they must have either received a cease and desist letter regarding trademark rights from Nerf, or their own lawyers/insurance company warned them. lol
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Posted Feb 6, 2018 (Patches Nerf)"If Warlock is a big problem after people have some time to adjust and tune the new decks then we will look into it."
Considering Blizzard speed in taking action I guess he is talking about Feb 2019, two months before lackey, weapon and dark pact rotate to wild :D
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Posted Feb 6, 2018 (Patches Nerf)-
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Posted Feb 6, 2018 (Patches Nerf)and yet he said "there are several decks that beat it consistently right now", how's the other player that still can't build a deck and its only to fight cubelock and lose against other decks later? :v
it was only 16 in a row XD ikr
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Posted Feb 7, 2018 (Patches Nerf)Mike Donais: "Bro, that's happened yesterday, why the drama? It's in the past."
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Posted Feb 6, 2018 (Patches Nerf)nerfing cards is only done by blizzard for 1 reason... and that is to maximize design space. Remember, they need to keep making new cards to keep the game fresh and "alive", appealing to new players and attracting them to download and play more often. Cubelock is a fun deck to play, especially vs that aggro crazy deck and your down to 10hp and you finally get out a voidlord or 2 ahaha, how good does that feel!! i love it, so sorry agggro deck >.<. To play against it, i agree can sometimes be frustrating. if you have a well rounded deck with proper tech cards.. it should be just as even and fun game to play. you win some you lose some.
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Posted Feb 6, 2018 (Patches Nerf)-
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Posted Feb 7, 2018 (Patches Nerf)If their only goal is that, then delete all card from the game = maximal design space. Seriously, if they only goal to make up "space", it's equal that they aim to destroy the cards they are nerfing. This is the lowest design conception you can find. We don't need "design space", we need a designed space.
On the other side, THIS TIME, the nerfs where put on right.
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Posted Feb 6, 2018 (Patches Nerf)Welcome to hearthstone where salt reigns supreme. If you cant beat a deck, just complain and Blizzard will nef it.
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Posted Feb 7, 2018 (Patches Nerf)Nope, seen it happen whenever there is a top deck people cant beat. It may take some time for the nerf, but eventually it happens. Then the cycle repeats itself because there will always be a top deck that is hard to beat.
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Posted Feb 7, 2018 (Patches Nerf)Well the salt thread is about 10x more posts than the pepper thread. more people like to whine than talk about good things based on that trend.