Hello everybody. Today, we will be talking about the Charge and Rush mechanics as they're a fairly hot topic right now.
Historically, Charge has always been a dangerous mechanic. Having an effect which ignores "summoning sickness" is common in CCGs like this; Haste in MTG is a perfect example. Or in the case of games like Legends of Runeterra, summoning sickness simply doesn’t exist at all. Those games seem to make it work just fine, so what’s wrong with Charge? Well… unlike MTG, Hearthstone doesn’t use a blocking system or have Instant-speed cards that can be used as counterplay. The closest things we have to those in Hearthstone are Taunts and Secrets respectively, both of which do the job preemptively instead of proactively. In MTG, if your opponent plays a Haste creature, you can use a creature to block it, an Instant spell to kill it, etc. But in Hearthstone, if your opponent plays a Charge minion, it’s just going to attack your face unless you happen to have a Taunt minion or a Secret up.
Some of the most historically powerful and notable cards in the game are Charge cards. Leeroy Jenkins is a classic (literally) staple finisher for Aggro decks, and continues to be as such even after it was nerfed from 4 mana to 5 mana. Doomguard has seen play in most forms of Warlock decks over the course of the game and was sent to the Hall of Fame last year for just being too darn good. Warsong Commander has also had an extensive history being nerfed and changed multiple times before being given its current design (which incidentally, was the first one which had nothing to do with giving minions Charge).
Notice how all 3 of these examples come from the Basic or Classic set? To work as a typical Haste mechanic, Charge appears fairly frequently in these two sets. In TGT, Charge appeared on 6 cards (by far the most out of any set). After that though, Team 5 had admitted how much of a problematic mechanic Charge is and this came at the same time that Warsong Commander was nerfed to its present day form. As such, Charge became used very sparingly. The last Charge card that was made was Chillblade Champion in Knights of the Frozen Throne, about 2 and a half years ago!
This is where we enter the world of Rush.
A modern day warrior mean mean stride, today’s Tom Sawyer mean mean…
Err no, not that Rush (RIP Neil Peart).
Rush was introduced in The Witchwood as a way to still print Charge effects but on a less dangerous mechanic because it doesn’t allow early face damage. Rush can be considered to have 3 Beta versions: Icehowl in The Grand Tournament, Charged Devilsaur in Journey to Un’Goro, and the nerfed Charge card.
While they aren’t proper Rush effects, they would eventually lead to Rush as a keyword. When Rush was introduced, it was exactly what the Hearthstone community had been asking for. It proved to be very strong and very popular, as it is currently the third post-launch mechanic to appear outside its debut set. Because it wasn’t nearly as dangerous as Charge as it allowed for immediate action without face damage, it was printed much more frequently. There are currently 74 cards in the game with Rush on it, whether it be a minion that has Rush (naturally or conditionally), summons a token with Rush, grant Rush to something else, or interact with Rush minions in a specific way. This is more than double the amount of Charge cards in the game printed in about half the time the mechanic has been around. Rush is absolutely everywhere, but that may not be a good thing after all.
Last month, a member by the name of Scarth asked the question “Does anyone else feel like Rush has ruined the game?” Whether you agree or disagree that Rush has ruined the game, one thing everyone agreed on in that thread is that there’s too much Rush. The Witchwood in particular has quite a lot of Rush cards, which is perfectly natural for a set attempting to introduce the keyword to the game. Even outside of The Witchwood though, it has appeared fairly abundantly in every succeeding set. Saviors of Uldum being the lowest with 8, and The Boomsday Project being the highest with 13 (about one-tenth of the set). It’s clear that Team 5 really likes Rush as a mechanic. I like it as a mechanic too, but I will agree that too much Rush may end up shifting the game in a negative way and we may be approaching that point. If you dislike Rush as a mechanic, you may be relieved knowing that 41 of those cards (55%) will be rotating out when the first expansion of the new year releases in roughly a month and a half to two months from now.
There’s one more aspect of Rush that I want to talk about though, which is the fact that it has essentially replaced Charge. While this is overall a change for the better in my opinion, it does raise a few interesting implications. Will there ever be another Charge minion printed again? The closest we’ve had is Dinotamer Brann who summons the ever-notable King Krush. While Brann summons a Charge minion, it still isn’t a natural Charge on a card and is the only time the mechanic has been used since 2017.
Do you consider this as basically Team 5 admitting this is what Charge should’ve been the whole time? If you take a look at all the Charge cards in the game (mostly the evergreen sets, although this could apply to expansions as well), imagine if all of them were changed to have Rush (and stat balance change to compensate)? I’ve seen this idea popped up a few times, with many people stating that Leeroy Jenkins is the only card in the card in the game that needs Charge, and some people include Stonetusk Boar as well. In your opinion, would this be a positive change or a negative change?
Would the previous design of Warsong Commander be printable with Rush instead of Charge? Team 5 (mainly Ben Brode) has stated in the past about the reluctance to add a new keyword to the base sets as part of why Rush doesn't appear there. Despite this however, we did get Plaguebringer as a replacement Basic card for Rogue. Whilst Poisonous has existed since launch, it did not exist in its keyworded form until Journey to Un’Goro. Plaguebringer would also not have been possible to print without the keyword as the textbox would be very clumsy otherwise. Could Rush be added to the permanent evergreen set? One effect of this would be that because Rush is always available no matter what, less cards with it would need to be printed in expansions. There is precedent for significant retroactive changes to the evergreen sets besides card nerfs, so while I would consider it unlikely to happen, I wouldn’t consider it completely impossible. What do you believe?
Comments
Too complicated for a Basic card. And dangerously powerful as well, considering Lackeys.
If they're to include Rush as a Basic keyword, they'd better make commander a simple (3) 2/3 Rush (or Rush+Taunt) and call it a day.
Too complicated perhaps, but Lackeys can't really be argued as making it 'dangerously powerful' when we have cards like Magic Carpet already in the game.
Houndmaster Shaw shows that giving everything Rush really isn't a problem - making it a weaker version of that would be fine.
Commander is a Basic card, not a rotating one.
Lackeys are also rotating cards. I'm saying that I don't think any of the cards mentioned are too powerful to be a card in the Basic or Classic set.
Too complicated for Basic, sure, but too powerful? I don't see it.
It poses a strong condition in the design of 3-attack minions or lower.
That does not fit a Basic card.
I really don't think it restricts design all that much. Charge certainly did, because you could end up with the potential for OTKs, but I don't see any issue with Rush.
I'm struggling to come up with a single existing minion that would become in any way an issue with Warsong changed to its old effect but giving Rush instead of Charge.
I do like having charge on a select few minions with rush being the more prevalent keyword. However, I do think that it has become too ubiquitous, especially on neutral cards. Rush takes the place of removal spells and classes with access to those should have less access to rush minions.