We got the official announcement of both the new Hall of Fame cards and a rework to Priest that Hall of Fames some cards today; conspicuously absent from the list of cards was Edwin VanCleef, a card Hearthstone players have been speculating might be moved for quite some time.
Chadd Nervig - Initial Game Designer for Hearthstone, Celestalon on Twitter - took this opportunity to lay out why they didn't move him with this rotation, despite being on their shortlist.
Quote From Chadd Nervig I'm seeing this topic discussed in Twitch chat, in Reddit, on Twitter, etc, so I'll just respond generally here…
Let's talk about Edwin VanCleef, and why he isn't going to the Hall of Fame (at least, not yet, anyway).
Edwin was very much on our short list of potential cards to Hall of Fame this year. (Sea Giant was the other close contender).
He definitely has been extremely powerful, for a long time. So, why not rotate him? Well, a couple reasons.
- He's really good, but he's also in a class, not Neutral, and that goes a long way.
- He's also right up Rogue's alley in terms of class identity.
- He skews Rogue in general toward playing lots of little cards, but not toward any particular archetype overly strongly.
- Much of his *current* power level is dependent upon Year of the Dragon cards. This sort of ebb/flow with expansions is good! Not disputing that he's been pretty strong all along, but Year of the Dragon in particular has had really strong synergies for him.
This is definitely a card that we'll continue to reevaluate each year, so I wouldn't be surprised if Edwin does make it to the Hall of Fame in the future. But at least for the Year of the Phoenix, we think the Standard game is better with him still there.
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Comments
Imo Edwin rewards the good game play aspect of risk taking, something that has been eroding from the game imo.
You dedicate many of your resources early to midway during your game and potentially get rewarded with a lot of pressure/damage, and sometimes even with a win. This is quite different from just getting lucky and pulling off a win due to silly rng, or from using 1-2 cards (such as back in the Barnes/Big/Priest/Y'Sharjj days) that won you games without dedicating many of your resources.
In other words Edwin rewards good game play in the hands of more experienced players who weigh when they can maybe get a read on a good risk-taking.
I remain more concerned about Alexstraza. Everyone's favorite "15 to face and an 8/8".
I'd rather know why they didn't HOF Gadgetzan Auctioneer, right after announcing a class with a bunch of cheap (and/or already draw-oriented) spells.
Surprised and not surprised at the same time that Edwin dodged the nerf hammer once more, after all, he's excellent at that ^^
Yep, I'd rather see one of the five cards they chose go. Edwin can be a problem when it's a 8/8+ on Turn 3, but that doesn't happen every game, and there's only one chance to do it each game.
Edward has never been a problem. With Poly and Hex and Silence and other ways to kill minions with ease, even if a rogue burns our whole hand on some massive 12-12 or 16-16 Edward, the number of ways to remove him from the board alone prove his not such a issue to need HoF'ed unlike Leeroy.
I don't get the hatred for him. If he bothers you that much, just fucking run Ironbeak Owl. It fits the exact mana slot and leave the Rogue without ressources (they don't have Mana Cyclone, you know).
There are way more consistent blowout cards with far less counters (such as Mountain giant and Divine Spirit, which, big surprise, just got HoF'd). They already killed Preparation, what more do you want?
I want Inner Fire completely deleted. Divine Spirit wouldn't be problem without it, but i really got bored to see that card after those years and we will continue to see it in Wild + Standard. :(
it was fun when it was 2016, you know...
Why would he be moved to HoF? He is not a problem, never was.
I don't think the objections towards him are so much about his statistical average performance as much as the outliers--i.e., the possibility for a ridiculous big early Edwin that decides the game. Much like playing a MC Tech and hitting the one-out-of-four that will win you the game.
He's not that oppressive though
He is a rogue after all. Managed to evade the HOF hammer.
My comment seems awfully redundant after reading yours, but after all, great mind thinks alike ^^
+1
'Ole Eddie just doesn't seem to be that big of a problem to me. This new Priest big minion board clear, however...