Quest Mage In Wild Might Get Another Nerf in the Future
If you are playing Wild mode, you might've come across a lot of Quest Mages, who are really annoying to play against, mainly because of the Flamewaker and Sorcerer's Apprentice combo, but the Sorcerer's Apprentice alone can cause a lot of problems and create a huge tempo swing in early/mid rounds.
A Twitter user asked a Hearthstone developer (Cora) about her opinion about this problematic combo or deck in general and she replied with the following answers.
Q: What do you guys think about Sorcerer's Apprentice shenanigans' in wild? Do you think its acceptable the way it is now? (Talking about giants quest mage)
A: It's definitely on our radar. We hit Open the Waygate a while back, but we're very aware that it's a volatile situation and a few new cards could make things really unpleasant. SOURCE
A: We're not just going to leave Wild out to dry. If changes are necessary then we'll make them. SOURCE
Sorcerer's Apprentice : Your spells that cost (2) or more cost (1) less.
Book of Specters : Cost 3. Just like the druid spell.
Mana Giant : Cost 12. It's just stupid, this giant is busted, and it always cost 0 when you finish the quest. I also agree with rippeR, all giants should have a minimum casting cost of 3, just like Mountain Giant.
Time Warp is just an horrible unhealthy design, it's almost impossible to fix. The card would need a totally different reward, or a totally different (and slower) quest. Something like Quest : Play at least one spell on (10) different turns.
Hopefully the nerf comes in the form of a hit to Time Warp (+2 mana to 7 Cost?) or Flamewaker (4 mana 2/3 or 4 mana 2/2?). Quest Mage already had trouble with Aggro prior to the first nerf and is only busted when the spell package variant highrolls with Flamewaker. A nerf or meaningful change to Sorcerer's Apprentice beyond its statline would completely kill the card and a lot of cool combo potential for the class in both Standard and Wild.
Twinspell cards should not count as a spell that wasn't in your deck to begin with.
And for god's sake can we finally fix the coin to not count for these kinds of effects?
How about this:
Quest: Cast 8 Mage spells that didn't start in your deck. Reward: Time Warp.
This would be an easy solution to the coin problem.
That would be a really harsh nerf on a lot of stuff that isnt broken, though.
It's always been broken, in all facets of the game. And it's about to become an even bigger problem, now that you have a 50% chance to get a free immediate spellburst activator while the other person does not. Their newest keyword has a significant parity problem there.
That doesn't really make it broken. If it's a problem for Mana Giant or the Un'goro quest they can just change the number to compensate for it (the two cost increase was pathetic). Mana Giant would be godawful in standard if Twinspell didn't count as a card that didn't start in your deck.
Yes it's broken when there is fundamental mechanic differences for the person going first or second. You don't seem to notice I'm not just talking about Quest Mage here.
the most hated deck for me
What? You don't like dying turn 5 to : Sorcerer's Apprentice, Flamewaker, x10 free spells (including several arcane missiles), evocation, x5 more free spells? It's your fault for only having 30hp turn 5.
I want this deck to be nerfed but I wish for a solution that doesnt involve nerfing the girl. But sadly, it seems inevitable.
Reduce the cost of spell but not lower than 1 mana cost? Would that hit her to hard?
Yes it would kill Exodia mage. I know its just a meme, but I dont want that meme to die. And I also think that the girl would be fine (like she is now in standard) but she is just the cornerstone of a very broken deck in wild so the nerf seems inevitable.
I would also like to use her in a new kind of OTK with Mozaki, Master Duelist, but if they nerf her its gonna be impossible.
Sounds a bit more balanced.
Increase spells to cast from 8 to 10 or even 12! Then we can say it's balanced...
As I mentioned in the past, nerfing Time Warp to 10 mana will definitely be enough to solve Quest Mage problem forever. The flavor of quest reward's cost isn't really an issue since they did nerf Dr. Boom, Mad Genius to 9 mana.
Nerfing Time Warp to 10 essentially nullifies the advantage of additional turn. that would kill the quest.
Really? 10 mana? What's the point of completing the quest then? To get a 10 mana single card draw?
10 mana Time warp is probably overkill, but when I have 3-4 0 mana 8/8s I would gladly pay 10 mana to be able to attack with them right away.
Except you can still play giants with the quest which means the quest isn't completely useless, and that's enough reason to nerf the quest to 10 mana since the purpose is to completely solve the Quest Mage issue instead of make it useful after the nerf, just like Naga Sea Witch.