As the Year of the Gryphon approaches its end, the set rotation comes closer and closer: all the cards from Ashes of Outland, Scholomance Academy and Madness at the Darkmoon Faire (plus the Darkmoon Races Mini-Set) will leave Standard, but will still be playable in Wild (and most of them in Duels too!).
As you might remember, last year we received a huge balance patch, with which Team 5 reverted a large amount of nerfs that happened in the past, a portion of which were Standard cards from the Year of the Dragon that were about to rotate to Wild - remember Dragonqueen Alexstrasza or Necrium Apothecary? We're talking about them!
Although we have no confirmation that such decision will be taken this year as well, we should hear about that on March 15, we went ahead and thought about what impactful nerf reverts we may receive in a few weeks. For reference, these are all the nerfed cards from the Year of the Phoenix sets that will leave Standard during the next rotation.
- Ashes of Outland - Crimson Sigil Runner, Kayn Sunfury, Metamorphosis, Warglaives of Azzinoth, Imprisoned Antaen, Skull of Gul'dan, Priestess of Fury, Fungal Fortunes, Scavenger's Ingenuity, Hand of A'dal, Astromancer Solarian, Evocation, Incanter's Flow, Apotheosis, Blackjack Stunner, Shadowjeweler Hanar, Boggspine Knuckles, Darkglare, Imprisoned Scrap Imp, Corsair Cache, Bloodboil Brute, Mo'arg Artificer, Kael'thas Sunstrider.
- Scholomance Academy - Shardshatter Mystic, Gibberling, Guardian Animals, Jandice Barov, First Day of School, High Abbess Alura, Mindrender Illucia, Cabal Acolyte, Flesh Giant,Secret Passage, Pen Flinger, Voracious Reader, Lorekeeper Polkelt.
- Madness at the Darkmoon Faire - Dreadlord's Bite, Il'gynoth, Deck of Lunacy, Hysteria, Nitroboost Poison, Cloak of Shadows,Crabrider.
As you can see, most of the nerfed cards belong to Ashes of Outland, which gave birth to problematic cards like Incanter's Flow and Darkglare. While some potential reverts are not likely to make an impact on Wild, there are some that could shake up the meta, and that's what we're going for.
Here below you can find our personal top 5 cards we think should be reverted once the rotation takes place to kick off the next Hearthstone year. Moreover, this article was written with the aid of our Wild expert Swizard, who will help to individuate the targets that are more likely to come back to their original prowess.
1) Demon Hunter
If you take a look at the last Vicious Syndicate Wild Meta Report, the numbers will unequivocally tell you that "there is no 10th class in Wild." While Odd DH was a thing in the first few months after Illidan's release, the class rapidly fell out of popularity under the weight of the frequent balance changes aimed at toning down what was an absolute powerhouse in Standard. If right now the class is barely playable in Standard, it's no surprise that it is struggling so much in Wild.
Going to a mass unnerf of many key components may be the right way to give Illidan all the help it can get, as Swizard is going to explain in a bit.
Quote From Swizard Demon Hunter is the weakest class in Wild by far, and it is a rare occurrence to encounter it on ladder at all. Therefore, we think a potential nerf revert patch could boost Illidan's power level in the format. The class has an inherent disadvantage in Wild from being relatively new and therefore having a much smaller card pool than the original 9 classes. In addition, most of the nerfed cards were hit because of Standard issues. Odd Demon Hunter used to be strong, but is currently very weak and barely sees play.
We think reverting the nerf to most of the rotating class cards not only will help Demon Hunter to come back as a class, but also foster more experimentation with a more midrange version of Odd DH, with less 1 drops and a more long-term, sustainable gameplan. This version of Odd Demon Hunter existed briefly in the past, before the massive wave of nerfs early in Outland.
Worth noting is that, with Shardshatter Mystic's nerf revert, all of Demon Hunter's Soul Fragment cards (with the exception of Marrowslicer) will be odd-costed, meaning that Odd Soul DH could be worth theorycrafting about.
Furthermore, unnerfing these cards and the even Kayn Sunfury may help other Demon Hunter archetypes including Tax Aggro Demon Hunter, which has recently been on the verge of meta viable with the new Kurtrus, Demon-Render. Finally, Il'gynoth was never a problem in Wild and having that unnerfed may lead to another possible deck for Demon Hunter of the combo variety.
Skull of Gul'dan deserves a separate discussion. Our initial approach was that Skull was better to remain at 6 mana, as we did not want to ask for changes that will make the Wild meta even faster. On the other hand, there's the argument that Demon Hunter is truly nonexistent in the format, so "what could go wrong?", literally. In the end, almost every other class has broken tools that can abuse, and leaving Illidan out of the party is kind of rude, isn't it? We are faithful that Team 5 will make the right decision, but we can at least think about the possible outcomes.
2) Lorekeeper Polkelt
Original form cost 4 mana.
Back in the day, Lorekeeper Polkelt was nerfed not only with Wild in mind, but also because he allowed extremely strong turns in fast-paced builds like Face Hunter, Highlander Hunter and Soul Demon Hunter: being able to draw your Skull of Gul'dan, Dinotamer Brann and Kill Command on demand was quite the effect, and Team 5 was forced to slow Polkelt down, maintaining his functionality but forcing the players to invest more mana into it.
On the other hand, 4 mana is a lot in Wild, and Swizard explains us why a potential unnerf is going to be beneficial for the game mode.
Quote From Swizard Back when Lorekeeper Polkelt was nerfed, Reno Priest was at the top of the meta and used him to put their main combo pieces on top of their deck. This nerf was useful in slowing down the archetype and allowing other strategies to flourish. In the current situation, Reno Priest has fallen in misery and barely sees any play at all, as Questline Hunter does what it did faster and more consistently with the combo enabler - Defend the Dwarven District - always starting in hand. Therefore, unnerfing Lorekeeper Polkelt would only help the meta variety. In addition, we're talking about a card that leads to interesting deckbuilding decisions regarding the top end of your deck, and could see play in many decks:
- At its former cost of 4, it would also be available to even decks, and a current meta list like Even Reno Warlock might want to use him to put its finishers on top;
- He could be useful in decks with powerful top ends like Hero Power Mage, which will have access to Mordresh Fire Eye and such faster;
- Shirvallah, the Tiger OTK Paladin could be executed with one less mana, therefore increasing the archetype's overall success!
Overall, we think unnerfing Lorekeeper Polkelt would lead to greater experimentation with higher cost cards and variety in the meta while not leading to any deck becoming oppressive.
3) Guardian Animals
Original form cost 7 mana.
Back when Guardian Animals was released in August 2020, the card was so good that players were able to find a place for it in Wild too, supported by other evergreen tools like Oaken Summons, Branching Paths, Ultimate Infestation, Spreading Plague and Jade Idol. While Guardian Animal's nerf to 8 mana didn't hurt the spell's playability in Standard (which has seen play throughout both its years in the format), the same cannot be said about Wild, where it completely disappeared. In the meantime, the class has slowly lost the grasp on the meta, being outclassed by faster decks.
7 mana is a lot, even with all the Ramp tools that Malfurion has access to, so reverting Guardian Animals' nerf won't make the Wild format more aggressive than it already is, but it will probably help players to slow things down. Guardian Animals back to 7 mana could also mean that Hunter may be interested in playing some Big Beast shenanigans, pretty much like players are already doing in Standard.
Unfortunately, we do not have a Sphere of Sapience at disposal, so we have to way to know if our prediction is going to be correct, but we think that it's still worth the shot.
4) Secret Rogue
Blackjack Stunner - Original form increased the bounced minion's cost by 2 mana.
Shadowjeweler Hanar - Original form had 5 Health.
Let's be honest: Secret Rogue was barely a thing in Standard and has never been in Wild - only Dane and a few other chosen were able to succeed with it. Therefore, reverting Blackjack Stunner and Shadowjeweler Hanar back to their former glory may not be the most impactful change we're going to ask for in this article, but a flavorful one for sure.
What we're trying to say is that Hanar represents such a unique and creative design that it would be a shame if it couldn't see any form of play in Wild: increasing its Health total to 5 will definitely make it more resilient, forcing your opponent to sink more damage into it and granting you more chances for it to survive an additional turn.
Secret Rogue is not a historical archetype like Secret Mage or Secret Hunter are, but that's exactly the reason why we can ask for some love without being worried about it going ham and wreaking havoc.
5) Crabrider
Original form naturally had Windfury.
Due to its strong synergy with some 2-mana buff spells like pre-nerf Hand of A'dal and Libram of Wisdom, Crabrider represented a very strong early game tool that was able to seize the initiative for the player and potentially snowball out of control. This unit represented such a strong opened that, with the right follow-up, it was able to win games by itself, with little to do for the opponents. Looking back to this nerf, we think that it was a good call from Team 5, given that from that time we received many cheap buff spells in Doggie Biscuit, Bless and so on.
However, things may be different in Wild, as Swizard is going to show us.
Quote From Swizard Crabrider was a major component of several Wild midrange and buff decks, including Murloc Shaman, Tax Paladin, Handbuff Paladin and Handbuff Rush Warrior. The current Wild meta is filled with aggressive and combo decks, and we think unnerfing Crabrider will give midrange decks a boost. While Tax and Handbuff Paladin were very strong when Crabrider was in its original form, this unnerf shouldn’t turn them into an issue for the current meta, where the power level is a lot higher due to the prevalence of Questline Pirate Warrior and Questline Hunter. Murloc decks are close to extinct in Wild as well, so giving them back prime Crabrider can only help with meta diversity. Overall, we think this nerf revert would help raise the power level of decks that are almost never seen currently and bring a positive meta shakeup with Handbuff Paladin, Murloc Shaman, and more becoming more viable.
Honourable Mentions
- Boggspine Knuckles - One more Attack point won't be enough for Evolve Shaman to become oppressive, and that's why we think the archetype could use some love.
- Astromancer Solarian - Casino Mage might not be in a good spot in today's meta, but it has many followers, and a 7 mana Solarian Prime won't break the current Wild.
- High Abbess Alura - One could argue that a 4 mana Tip the Scales is not a healthy interaction, but we tend to Mrglgrglgl!
Which cards do you think deserve to be unnerfed when they get relegated to Wild? Let us know in the comments below!
Comments
Please never un nerf Crabridder. Aggro is already king in Wild
May revert nerfs of Naga Sea Wtch (cost 6), Crabrider, Kael'Thas (spells cost 0, still 7 mana), Illucia (still 3 Mana, read Battlecry: Swap hands and decks with your opponent until your next turn), Level up and Priestess of Fury?
Apprentice is no chance at all, it was onyl very recently nerfed Because of Wild.
And kael could maybe to 0cost spell, and the 7cost thing may even be better then 6 for druid.
Level up and priestess of fury are completly safe unnerfs, DH is a dead class in wild and priestes nver was op in first place in wild . And odd pally has been dead since conviction nerf and evrythign else has just gotten alot stronger and faster then it.
Ok I feel noob now 😅 I'm not familiar with the "Tax" Archetypes mentioned, like Tax Paladin and Tax Aggro DH. Maybe I'm being silly, but would appreciate an explanation, thanks.
I think its a term for decks that mainly play cards that increases your opponent's card cost, like Nerub'ar Weblord and Far Watch Post. Admitably this is a rather fun archetype in duels, where paladin can just keep reviving these stuff out.
Honestly, if nerubar weblord, loatheb, and mindbreaker was in standard you'd legit have a paladin that does nothing but prevent your opponent from playing.
I see, definitely seen loads of Nerub'ar Weblord in wild, surprisingly enough
God, I want Crabrider to be unnerfed. I do not care if it would be healthy or not, I just want to play Tax Pally again.
As a Wild player and DH main, most of the cards are likely safe to unnerf. Skull might be fine to unnerf. The Il'gynoth OTK combo had seem to be only playable if Polkelt was at his original cost(this was back DMF era for me). I never did try it back in SW before the pieces were nerfed as we had/have Hunters and Warriors running around and DH being easily preyed upon. DH needs new archetypes in Wild, and most of the reverted cards should help them.
I used to enjoy playing a Metamorphosis DH, but after it changed to only dealing 4 damage the combo became a little harder to pull off if your opponent gained basically any armor and you weren't able to constantly chip away at it. It was mildly successful, setting up either a TTK or pulling off an OTK of 40 damage max (one or two turn depending on what cost reductions you got, often full combo was two turns because I had to set up Metamorphosis the turn prior). If Metamorphosis, Skull of Guldan, and Lorekeeper all got unnerfed, I could potentially see this deck working again due to getting key expensive pieces reduced in cost sooner in the game (if playing Lorekeeper on curve at 4) reaching the combo turn faster.
Admittedly, the combo win was always pretty rare though. I had to play for tempo while waiting to set up the combo pieces, and could often win with only 20 damage. Used things like Clockwork Automaton to increase damage, Garrison Commander for using Meta HP twice in a turn. If for any reason you wanted to reshuffle your cards after playing Polkelt, use a card that shuffles soul fragments. I enjoyed it for a while, but yeah... the nerfs to benefit Standard really hurt DH in Wild. I'm hoping a lot of the rotating cards see reverts as well to maybe make it more viable. Right now all I usually play in Wild DH is Odd. And with Druids gaining a shit ton of armor, or big priests with giant taunts, etc, the archetype isn't great!
I agree with all you said.
For unnerfing i think anythig but illucia, og darkglare (refresh 2 mana) Hysteria to any minion , Incantarers to 2, Kaelthas to 0 cost spell and flesh giant, will not break the format in half/be super oppresive .
Though still are others to be wary off if fully unnerfed, like Ilgynoth it never was an issue in wild. But if unnerf it, mo'arg, skull of guldan, lorekeeper, and even kaelthas possibly , it most likly will be fine, but ilgynoth and rest of stuff unnerfed never where a thing at the same time so its a bit harder to say just how good it woulld be, and is the possibility it could lead to a another flamewaker/Mozaki mage style deck thats just very early combo/OTK, but again could very well just be to frail against disruption or aggro or not consistent enough to be high tier.
Not a obvious card per se, but 0 mana first day of school, had some very very high winrate, and if combine it with other unnerfs could be something to keep an eye on.
Fungal fortunes while probbaly wouldnt break the format in half, i dont think needs the unnerf as druid is good already atm, and the card still sees a good amount of play as it, and could be problematic with a possible kaelthas unnerf.
Darkglare as 2 mana would be very scary, but the deck has fallen of a good bit latly, and we have quest hunter being stronger then ever and just evrything else having gotten stronger id say its fine now
(providing flesh giant isnt unnerfed, and as i see it you either unnerf none of them, or only darkglare or only Giant, never both).
And it could have some other warlock decks aswell, with discard which ran it as a package and even warlock, may posisbly use it aswell as essentialy free lifetaps. But if is unnerfed it could quite easly be problematic in future again, but if needed could always be adjusted again.
Gibberling, balance wise would be fine i feel like, but id aslo something id personaly prefer not to see as its a very highrolly card , super early in the game
Skull of gul'dan is maybe scary? it would be very good, and it would push odd hunter alot, but even then im not convicned it would be all that provblematic, Wild has gotten alot faster and stronger since it was nerfed, and Odd would appereticate some extra draw for sure but i feel like might not be fast enough skull to matter vs odd hunter, though with altruis if he also gets unnerfed it could be still enough to matter before the DH dies.
And i just feel like Ilgynoth is scarier with skull then odd dh. And if would become problematic i think would be better to nerf the cost reduction effect then increase its mana cost again.
And pen flinger , raza priest isnt veyr relevant anymore, but darkglare could use it, and maybe it makes librams better, so i think would be fine nowdays, albeit it would still be a very annoying card to face.
Cloak of shadows i guess could be problematic in future with pillager, but that deck isnt that good or common atm , and was bit more common before the nerf but not something problematic, though could be in future, but thats wild. I think for now its still safe to unnerf it.
Allura could have the tip the scales again and is highrolly, but it comes out alot later then gibberling so is easier to deal with. But it does dependt on what blizz does with paladin spells but overall i dont see it having much of a impact on wild.
Crab rider is something im against personaly, but im aslo not entierly convinced it would lead to a tier 0 deck/break the game, but its certainly a risky card and said by others here in hadnbuff was one of the strongest decks, but is aslo caverns below (which shouldnt be tier 1/high tier and common for the health of the meta), innerfire priest, tax pally with call to arms reverted and nowdays drekthar, and embiggen aggro druid with Drek'thar, even more so if they get gibberling unnerfed aswell,, so maybe it would be fine in 1 of those decks , but its aslo like would it be fine in all of them? and is it worth the risk to have it around with how easly it can snowball out of control when are multiple decks atm where Could be potentialy problematic already.
So if it does get reverted it should certainty be kept an eye out and is one of the higher risk unnerfs id say.
The rest i think is 100% safe to fully unnerf.
Also i hope they do unnerfs to already rotated cards (like faceless corrupter or level up among others) and dont leave it at just the rotating cards.
Antaen should have been reverted a long time ago. That card's been dead ever since they bumped it to 6, which if I'm not mistaken was one of the day 1 nerfs.
Skull on the other hand I'd prefer not reverting. Even at 6 mana, that card is still insanely powerful. Demon Hunter doesn't have the tools to abuse with it right now, but that doesn't mean you should open the path to something extremely broken happening once those tools appear. There are better ways to make the class appealing over giving them blatantly overpowered cards.
I would be saying the same thing if wild Demon Hunter is not 6 feet under the other classes. IMO They need Skull of Gul'dan unnerf in order to even have a slight hope to be competitive in wild.
You say that now, until you have to deal with unnerfed skull and actual good Demon Hunter cards in the future. Better safe than sorry.
Ontop of Sense already said, other classes have their crazy stuff (and alot mroe dh due just being around for far longer) and get the new crazy cards aswell;
Skull of guldan at 5 + good future dh cards, wouldnt be anything out of the ordinary in wild ,thats what the other classes do.
Like druid with their ramp or the vargoth oaken summons package,priest with their ressuect spells or the mana cheat of radiant or rogues whole idenity of mana cheating basicly,or kingsbane + any future weapon buffs/supports.
SKull would likly be a main stay if unerfed for evry dh practicly, but like other classes have that aswell such cards
Safe than sorry was never the ideology of wild. The developers intended wild to be a place where people can play cards the way they were. Unless some decks demand an immense apology (Ignite Mage). Changes in wild were made reactively not proactively.
Well, my other reason is that Skull at 6 mana could probably be a Core set card. Probably not this Core set, but sometime in the future. I think it's a flavourful card, and I even think it's an interesting card to play. At 5 mana there's absolutely no goddamn way it could work its way back into Core, and as a Standard player I think that would be a shame.
I still stand by 5 mana Skull being unnecessarily powerful, but I do like the future-proofing as well.
Crabrider handbuff paladin was basically the strongest deck the format ever saw, super underrated right up until its nerf, not sure I wanna see a deck like that again. Iksar confirmed it was preforming extremely highly and was even holding prenerf darkglare down
Here’s the thing - that deck also had Hand of A’dal and Conviction nerfed.
Right now handbuff paladin is so rare, you almost never see it at all. In addition, it doesn’t even show up at tier 4 at meta reports and is almost nonexistent on hsreplay stats.
Back when it was overpowered, first of all the overall meta power level was lower and secondly it also had Hand of A’dal and Conviction. Right now, with current power level of the meta and with no Hand of A’dal and no Conviction unnerf, would Crabrider alone make this deck go from almost nonexistent to oppressive?
Back then handbuff paladin was a tier 2 deck in the meta before it got Crabrider and Hand of A’dal and Conviction combined to push it to tier S. Right now handbuff paladin is not tier 2, and will only get Crabrider and not the other cards in this scenario.
Hopefully, this clarifies the reasoning behind calling for a Crabrider unnerf and why it would be different in the current situation than when it was opprsssive.
Also woudl fit in caverns below quest rogue, and that deck is quite good (not tier 1 but tier 2-ish) right now, and its not the type of deck that really should be high tier/tier 1 aswell
Also handbuff never was the strongest, one of them yeah, but it never was tier 0/ Tier S, it was no demon seed or snipsnap.