A few days ago, famous Hearthstone streamer Jambre (here are his Twitter and Twitch) started an interesting discussion on Twitter regarding the possibility of implementing balance changes in today's Standard meta.
Many notorious voices from the community decided to answer that post and what we got is an interesting picture about how the pros would like some cards to be changed. It is also important to notice that while some classes are clearly over the top right now, what most players (like Casie) suggested is buffing rather than nerfing - something we've been seeing since Ashes of Outland (when Torrent, Shattered Rumbler and The Lurker Below received a power-up) and that we'd love to see again.
Here is a recap together with our personal takes.
Disclaimer: the following cards are the ones that feel problematic in some ways - the fact that more cards from a single class appear in this list doesn't mean that they should all get nerfed. Nerfs should weaken a class, not destroy it.
Twin Slice
Suggested change: Second Slice grants +1 Attack instead of +2.
Twin Slice has been a crazy good card since its release, it doesn’t matter which of its two forms you’re talking about.
When it was 0 mana it allowed crazy turns like Battlefiend The Coin Battlefiend Twin Slice for a turn 1 4/4 with very little chance to get the board back; turn 5 Twin Slice into Glaivebound Adept; or massive Altruis the Outcast swings (mandatory Kibler’s clip from a while ago).
On 1 mana, it grants more damage, the ability to get generated by Wandmaker and high synergy with cards like Aldrachi Warblades, Bladed Lady and Blade Dance (a card we’ll talk about in a second).
This balance change, suggested by Ridiculous Hat, could weaken both Aggro and Soul Demon Hunter, buying the opponents a bit more time to close or stabilize the game.
Blade Dance
Suggested change: Cost increased from 2 to 4 mana.
This change is mainly suggested so that Blade Dance won't be played for free after Skull of Gul'dan anymore. As Blizz stated a long time ago, large minions should be Demon Hunter’s weakness; however, Illidan can easily get a huge amount of face attack and a 2 mana fully charged Cascading Disaster is quite the polarizing move.
My personal suggestion would be that Blade Dance should consider only the equipped weapon's attack (but that would make it a very terrible card) or should consume the player's face swing for that turn.
Shardshatter Mystic
Suggested change: Cost increased from 3 to 4 mana.
Quote From Ridiculous Hat Soul DH needs one board control card […] to move by one mana
3 mana Duskbreaker for Demon Hunter is not bad, huh? Pretty much what the quote up here says: even though Demon Hunter should be about face damage, it has way to efficient board clears for (who would have guessed) too small mana investment. This is probably an aut aut: either Blade Dance bites the dust, or Shardshatter Mystic does.
Overgrowth
Suggested change: Cost increased from 4 to 5 mana.
Quote From Jambre Feels like Druid has been getting more extreme with every set. Would hate to see Malfurion get a set of nerfs, be dumpster for this expansion and then give it a set like Librams/K&C Warlock (obviously not that powerful) to build on for next year.
We've all come to personally experience that when a Druid hits Overgrowth on curve the win chances dramatically shift in their favor: the card is so good that it is able by itself to determine whether Malfurion will be able to make it to the end game and play the big stuff (Survival of the Fittest, Carnival Clown and Ysera, Unleashed) or just succumb to aggro.
The fact that Overgrowth will stay in Standard for more than a year means that it will surely need a rework at some point: even though Guardian Animals just took the bullet in its place, why not now?
Little upside of this change is that Anubisath Defender would become more relevant, Steel Beetle could return to see some play and Bogbeam/Ironbark could be casted in the same turn Overgrowth is played.
Boggspine Knuckles
Suggested change: Cost increased from 5 to 6 mana.
I have to be honest with you: this is a suggestion I didn't see coming. Shaman has been unplayable throughout the entire Year of the Phoenix and now that the Old Gods gave Thrall some decent tools to play with, someone's not okay with it. Jokes apart, the main concern seems to be that the class is able to cheese out early highrolls because of Lightning Bloom, creating gamebreaking curves that can close the match on the spot. Even though the cards are different, this is the same problem Shaman showed around a year ago, during the Doom in the Tomb event: early Evolve highrolls are unstoppable most of the times; even more when your opponent can just bypass taunts thanks to Revolve.
Bladestorm
Suggested change: Cost increased from 3 to 4 mana.
Quote From Ridiculous Hat Bladestorm is going to be around [for more than a year] and both Bomb and Control Warrior need to get worse.”
It is funny, because when Bladestorm got released people thought it was a reverse (and much worse) Defile: little did they know, since then it's been an auto-include in every Warrior deck that is not sheer aggro.
Even if it doesn't clear the board, Bladestorm is a better Lightning Storm most of the times (and without Overload: (2)!) and it can remove big threats out of Shield Slam's reach that could otherwise be a headache (Edwin VanCleef is a good example). Unless, of course, a minion manages to get over 30 Health :)
Given its effectiveness, it is easy to see why the community would like to see a change to this spell.
Risky Skipper
Suggested change: Cost increased from 1 to 2 mana or Health decreased from 3 to 2.
People have been asking for ages for a change to Risky Skipper: since its release in Galakrond’s Awakening, it didn’t take much time to pros to exploit its Wild Pyromancer-ish effect and win games. The fact that it can be tutored with Ancharrr makes its swing turns extremely reliable and consistent: even in Wild people tend to play the Skipper-Ancharrr-Armorsmith package just to shut down aggro boards and gain a ton of armor at the same time. Back in July, Skipper likely dodged the nerf because the devs were afraid that it would have killed Warrior, but maybe now that Garrosh has received new cards from Scholomance and Darkmoon Faire the situation might be different.
What do you think of these suggestions? Do you agree with them? Are there any other cards you'd like to see nerfed?
Comments
I like this potencial nerfs. I take it's only for standard, though I think wild need some serious nerfs. IMO raza needs to go back to HP costs 1.
It would be awesome if this posts could be joined by cards to buff to imagine what we could have imopoved (I don't really know which or how in this case)
Paladin is consistently one of the best classes but it always seems to dodge nerfs, including fam suggestions for nerfs. 4-mana goody two shields and a 1-mana increase to libram of hope and libram of wisdom would be very welcome right now
regarding the skipper i dont know. the problem is the combo with the armoursmith isnt it?
Yeah, i'd rather reduce Armorsmith's health by 1.
LETS NOT MAKE THE TERRIBLE CLASSIC EVEN WORSE
Armorsmith has been chilling as a good card since Classic, but was never close to problematic until the Skipper arrived. I personally wouldn't nerf the Skipper (as a midrange/control player I rarely care if the warrior gets a bunch of armour), but I certainly wouldn't be targeting Armorsmith.