I think they'll nerf Kaelthas to spells costing 1 instead of 0. Kaelthas is just broken especially in druid. Change Kaelthas and you nerfed druid for good
I wouldn't include #7 and #8 for now, maybe even #5 and #6, but every other card is problematic due to mana cheating or massive card draw. Also if they changed (0) cost generated cards to (1), shouldn't it be fair to do the same for kael' thas?
I learned my lesson after the last expansion and am just sitting on all of my dust from extra cards for when there's the early rounds of nerfs. Druid's definitely given me the most headaches very early on, though Enrage Warrior has helped me pull off some fun wins even against a couple of crazy druid decks.
Thanks for the detailed comment! Really do appreciate it for discussion haha.
With regards to the Kreen and Trueaim Crescent, truth be told, while Kreen can get you a good 1-turn tempo in taking out minions, what held me back was that against a Demon Hunter, you're already trying to stabilise the board to control it by removing their minions. Thus, oftentimes, Crescent just becomes a 1-damage ping that doesn't do much.
Both cards feel more like a "win-more" kind of card, which don't do as much if you're behind on the board.
Mindrender Illucia's on the other hand, is such a pain to deal with and unfun to play against. I had considered her on the list, but even then, her effect is such a headache to deal with and balance.
I'd be up for nerfing Kael'thas as follows: The third spell you cast each turn costs 0 (means it only works once a turn, will put a stop to some really stupid shenanigans in Wild). Also Kael's effect would only count when he's on the board, so if you play two spells to ramp up to playing him, you're at 0/3 for his effect. Also wrecks Mechathun Warlock which consistently wins around turn 8 if you're playing anything remotely controlly.
I wrote a forum item about this. I love Secret Passage, but as it stands, it is just too powerful. Nerfing it to (2) mana would make it less abused across the board. Raise Dead should probably be changed to get (1) minion back. With Priest's rez abilities already through the roof, this is absurd. As for Flesh Giant I've cheated him out so quickly in suicide lock it's not even funny. Pretty much all other "giants" cost around (10) so I could see that being changed.
7th August update: Knoepklapper's WILD Taunt Druid, ft. Vectus! (Scholomance Academy) (1080p)
Taunt value. Deathrattle value. Reborn value. Satyr value. Taking on a Mage meta! Thanks to Knoepklapper for the deck (https://twitter.com/Knoepklapper_HS).
My first deck played for the Scholomance Academy expansion.
Ah yes, some random user links a deck on a website that has roughly 50 LoR users and because of him everyone starts playing it in ranked.
Given the title of this thread you are absolutely right. But i think if "his" deck is being copied, its more likely to happen while at ranked games rather then the other way around.
Kael'thas Sunstrider has been a broken card for a long time, and the original nerf probably wasn't sufficient. That said, I think it's way too early to discuss the nerfs on these other cards, and I think the nerfs are going to be particularly complicated for the dual-class cards because the degree to which they're "well tuned" varies by class. Because of that, I expect that if Blizzard decides to start nerfing class archetypes, they will be far more likely to nerf supporting class cards rather than dual-class cards.
Guardian Animals is probably the best example presented here - nerfing Survival of the Fittest and Twilight Runner would go a long way to decreasing the power level of the Big Druid decks without making Guardian Animals even worse for Hunter. Similarly, I think Raise Dead and Flesh Giant are both pretty fair in Priest, so the best approach to fixing the Self-Harm Zoolocks will probably be to weaken any of Darkglare, Diseased Vulture, or even the Soul Fragments mechanic (perhaps by making them only heal for 1).
I mean, it's not like the game lacks single-target removal, and efficient ones too. Or just silence.
As for Secret Passage and Tour Guide, the meta will soon adjust against hyper-Aggro, as with any expansion. In particular, Secret Passage is only abusable with an extremely low curve, which means a really fragile game for Rogue, which has no solid low cost minion to stabilize board. Nerfing the card to (2) as some suggested means making the card unplayable, and unnecessarily so.
I am still unsure about Voracious Reader, but I tend to think the same as above: it's draw 3 only if you have a very low curve, which often implies a high risk of getting out-Tempoed and out-Valued (eg I bet a properly adjusted Enrage Warrior can deal with the majority of the Aggro decks above).
Wild streamer, Roffle, highlights a deck made by Corbett that is killing opponents by turns 2 and 3: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JsU6JpEUiFQ. Something's definitely got to be done about druid, particularly Kael'thas Sunstrider.
I'd say that for Survival of the Fittest, Blizzard will most likely nerf the surrounding cards around it, similar to the time when Grim Patron was nerfed out of existence due to the changes to pre-final nerf Warsong Commander. I'd say it's an alright payoff for playing ramp decks, but gosh does Druid have a lot of over-powered mid-range tools this expansion to reach there.
Case in point, I had a much tougher time dealing with Druid's that are following Charon's list - which is a mix of Dragons and Beasts while cutting away Survival of the Fittest. Gosh does that deck hit so badly in the mid-game.
Mindrender Illucia is just no fun. Having key cards stripped away from hand is just abominable, and doing it for (2) is dirty cheap. This card should cost (3) or even (4).
I just wanted to echo how bad this feels to play against...and the emoting that comes after makes it all the saltier, haha
But beyond the gut punch, I just don't believe that a single card should be able to completely disrupt an entire archetype (Combo/OTK), especially when that archetype is a counter to what the class typically likes to do (play Control). I'm not against disruption cards in general, but this one seems too strong/guaranteed.
Thinking of nerfs, I agree that an increase in cost is most likely, but personally I'd like something different. I feel that there needs to be more of a way to play around this card as an opponent. So maybe the nerf could be that you only swap 4 or 5 cards from hand, randomly chosen, along with swapping decks. This way Combo decks could at least add some RNG into the equation by keeping their hand full, but it would come at a cost that would benefit Priests (in terms of losing tempo and/or having to add more card draw to the deck). Alternatively, you could add restrictions on the other end such as swapping only the number of cards that the Priest has in hand.
Listen, nerf Survival of the Fittest. And Overgrowth. I'll just go ahead and email Blizzard a list of all my golden cards I opened. They're problematic.
But seriously, it seems like so far everybody has something fun and new to do that just gets wrecked by Druid.
I think that Soul Fragment as a card by itself is completely fine. The package, on the other hand, is a very strong addition to existing archetypes. Marrowslicer is such a great weapon even though it acts similar to Truesilver Champion, and Soulshard Lapidary is just an insane amount of burst and tempo at the same time and the effect is extremely consistent to be played on turn 5. I think it's as balanced as Demon Hunter always is so might need some nerfs but I can't think what to hit.
I'll say this right now but ever since I saw Glide being shown as a card I only thought that card to be a bad card in terms of both design and strength. Even now, I don't think the card is good. It's annoying sure but it feels like you should just run Skull of Gul'dan instead because you get so much tempo from the Mana cost reduction instead of the random RNG effect that you don't ever know is good or bad. Every time I see a DH play Glide on me when I have an 8 card hand, all I could think of was 'oh hey he wasted 4 Mana and I lost 4 cards but that's fine because he skipped half his turn'. Overall, if this card gets nerfed to 5 Mana, I wouldn't complain but I just don't see it's power right now. (Maybe I'm just bad because I'm not a Legend player.)
Lightning Bloom is a card that feels so busted I think that they should just remove the card entirely or redesign it because you can't balance it properly for it to still see some amounts of play. If you make it so that it's Overload (3), I wouldn't mind. If you make it into Overload (4), I wouldn't run this card in any deck but OTK. This card is problematic in not Druid but also Shaman because you get so much mana cheat early on that it would just boost the deck's win rate by 20% every time a single one is played. This card really makes you think why the hell pre-nerf Innervate was never nerfed for years.
Secret Passage allowing you to keep cards you get during that time is pretty broken and I think that's the main reason why it's so good because it's just better The Soularium but you can run 2. If a nerf happens, it's probably going to be a Mana cost nerf. 2 Mana should be fine because 3 is unplayable in Rogue.
The nerfs I really want are:
1. Kael'thas Sunstrider to 8 Mana because cheating things out at 7 Mana is no longer slow and when the average of doing so is on turn 4 or 5.
OR
Overgrowth to 5 Mana, but it might kill the card which should've been fine if they never printed Lightning Bloom. (Even if the card was strong before that.)
OR
Guardian Animals to 8 Mana, because it allows Druid a way to stop Aggro so much more efficiently than any other card they have.
2. Mindrender Illucia to 3 Mana, because this effect for 2 Mana is too cheap and tbh I can't believe they made this effect as a Collectible card and not as a Solo Adventure card.
4. Voracious Reader to 3 Mana, this card enables Aggro decks to get their bursts quickly and for so much value and for almost no repercussion. The stats in the card won't matter too much because it's insanely cheap in the first place, therefore a Mana change should be good. (Might be wrong about this one but idk.)
5. Diligent Notetaker to a 2/2, this card can be read as a 2 Mana 2/3 draw a card that you choose and in some cases that's Lightning Bloom or another burst damage spell like Lightning Bolt or Storm's Wrath and I think that's too much value. Might not be necessary seeing that some of the weaker Shaman archetypes but this card by itself is so insanely strong I can't ever see anyone sane enough to not run this card in Shaman in the future.
This might be the first week of the expansion but I can already tell that Druid's going to shape the meta into a race. Yes, I understand that Aggro is usually only good in the first few days because it's easier to make but this is... ridiculous right?
Top 10 Hearthstone Cards That Are Gonna Get Hit by the Nerf Bat in Scholomance Academy
I think they'll nerf Kaelthas to spells costing 1 instead of 0. Kaelthas is just broken especially in druid. Change Kaelthas and you nerfed druid for good
Hearthstone Hotfixes - Mindrender Illucia No Longer Can Steal a Deck Permanently, Drakkari Enchanter Fix
I hadn't experienced either of these, but I have to say that would really suck for either situation
Top 10 Hearthstone Cards That Are Gonna Get Hit by the Nerf Bat in Scholomance Academy
I wouldn't include #7 and #8 for now, maybe even #5 and #6, but every other card is problematic due to mana cheating or massive card draw. Also if they changed (0) cost generated cards to (1), shouldn't it be fair to do the same for kael' thas?
Top 10 Hearthstone Cards That Are Gonna Get Hit by the Nerf Bat in Scholomance Academy
That Roffle video is insane!
Top 10 Hearthstone Cards That Are Gonna Get Hit by the Nerf Bat in Scholomance Academy
I think Kael'thas might instead be "the third spell" every turn. instead of "every three", because three is improtant for flavor.
Day 1: What works and what doesn't?
Magehunter has been so good for me in Soul Fragment Demon Hunter. Strong vs Druid and Paladin, where Silence is MVP.
Trick Totem
Need to add this to access later.
https://www.reddit.com/r/hearthstone/comments/i46io3/trick_totem_infographic_oc/
Top 10 Hearthstone Cards That Are Gonna Get Hit by the Nerf Bat in Scholomance Academy
I learned my lesson after the last expansion and am just sitting on all of my dust from extra cards for when there's the early rounds of nerfs. Druid's definitely given me the most headaches very early on, though Enrage Warrior has helped me pull off some fun wins even against a couple of crazy druid decks.
Top 10 Hearthstone Cards That Are Gonna Get Hit by the Nerf Bat in Scholomance Academy
Thanks for the detailed comment! Really do appreciate it for discussion haha.
With regards to the Kreen and Trueaim Crescent, truth be told, while Kreen can get you a good 1-turn tempo in taking out minions, what held me back was that against a Demon Hunter, you're already trying to stabilise the board to control it by removing their minions. Thus, oftentimes, Crescent just becomes a 1-damage ping that doesn't do much.
Both cards feel more like a "win-more" kind of card, which don't do as much if you're behind on the board.
Mindrender Illucia's on the other hand, is such a pain to deal with and unfun to play against. I had considered her on the list, but even then, her effect is such a headache to deal with and balance.
Top 10 Hearthstone Cards That Are Gonna Get Hit by the Nerf Bat in Scholomance Academy
I'd be up for nerfing Kael'thas as follows: The third spell you cast each turn costs 0 (means it only works once a turn, will put a stop to some really stupid shenanigans in Wild). Also Kael's effect would only count when he's on the board, so if you play two spells to ramp up to playing him, you're at 0/3 for his effect. Also wrecks Mechathun Warlock which consistently wins around turn 8 if you're playing anything remotely controlly.
Top 10 Hearthstone Cards That Are Gonna Get Hit by the Nerf Bat in Scholomance Academy
Kael'Thas Sunstrider
Every third spell you cast each turn costs (0).
Every third spell you cast each turn costs (1).
Top 10 Hearthstone Cards That Are Gonna Get Hit by the Nerf Bat in Scholomance Academy
I wrote a forum item about this. I love Secret Passage, but as it stands, it is just too powerful. Nerfing it to (2) mana would make it less abused across the board. Raise Dead should probably be changed to get (1) minion back. With Priest's rez abilities already through the roof, this is absurd. As for Flesh Giant I've cheated him out so quickly in suicide lock it's not even funny. Pretty much all other "giants" cost around (10) so I could see that being changed.
Darkseeker's channel - 13th November update: KOtsosKOtsos' Reno Evolve Shudderwock Shaman - ft. Archivist Elysiana
7th August update: Knoepklapper's WILD Taunt Druid, ft. Vectus! (Scholomance Academy) (1080p)
Taunt value. Deathrattle value. Reborn value. Satyr value. Taking on a Mage meta! Thanks to Knoepklapper for the deck (https://twitter.com/Knoepklapper_HS).
My first deck played for the Scholomance Academy expansion.
Deck code: AAEBAZICCuCsAsLOAq/TAo3wAsLxAr/yAoz7AqCAA9aZA4rSAwrpAYoOy7wCntIChOYC/7UD5LoD6LoD87sD8NQDAA==
https://youtu.be/1zf1Jo_vwYU
That's what I get for linking a deck and description.
Given the title of this thread you are absolutely right.
But i think if "his" deck is being copied, its more likely to happen while at ranked games rather then the other way around.
Top 10 Hearthstone Cards That Are Gonna Get Hit by the Nerf Bat in Scholomance Academy
Kael'thas Sunstrider has been a broken card for a long time, and the original nerf probably wasn't sufficient. That said, I think it's way too early to discuss the nerfs on these other cards, and I think the nerfs are going to be particularly complicated for the dual-class cards because the degree to which they're "well tuned" varies by class. Because of that, I expect that if Blizzard decides to start nerfing class archetypes, they will be far more likely to nerf supporting class cards rather than dual-class cards.
Guardian Animals is probably the best example presented here - nerfing Survival of the Fittest and Twilight Runner would go a long way to decreasing the power level of the Big Druid decks without making Guardian Animals even worse for Hunter. Similarly, I think Raise Dead and Flesh Giant are both pretty fair in Priest, so the best approach to fixing the Self-Harm Zoolocks will probably be to weaken any of Darkglare, Diseased Vulture, or even the Soul Fragments mechanic (perhaps by making them only heal for 1).
That's what I get for linking a deck and description.
Never played a single game agaisnt Hecarush in my journey from Plat 4 -> Masters.
But nice to know your deck is getting some recognition.
Top 10 Hearthstone Cards That Are Gonna Get Hit by the Nerf Bat in Scholomance Academy
Goody Two-Shields is far from OP once the meta knows how to deal with it (basically a double ping) AND Paladin needs strong cards.
Same thing goes for High Abbess Alura.
I mean, it's not like the game lacks single-target removal, and efficient ones too. Or just silence.
As for Secret Passage and Tour Guide, the meta will soon adjust against hyper-Aggro, as with any expansion. In particular, Secret Passage is only abusable with an extremely low curve, which means a really fragile game for Rogue, which has no solid low cost minion to stabilize board. Nerfing the card to (2) as some suggested means making the card unplayable, and unnecessarily so.
I am still unsure about Voracious Reader, but I tend to think the same as above: it's draw 3 only if you have a very low curve, which often implies a high risk of getting out-Tempoed and out-Valued (eg I bet a properly adjusted Enrage Warrior can deal with the majority of the Aggro decks above).
Now, what about Trueaim Crescent and Ace Hunter Kreen, as well as Mindrender Illucia and Sorcerer's Apprentice?
Our Thoughts on Hearthstone's Scholomance Academy Neutral Cards (Part 3)
Why should Vectus avoid being used with Lucentbark?
Top 10 Hearthstone Cards That Are Gonna Get Hit by the Nerf Bat in Scholomance Academy
Kael'Thas should've never been printed and should've been nerfed much harder long ago. Absolutely broken card.
Top 10 Hearthstone Cards That Are Gonna Get Hit by the Nerf Bat in Scholomance Academy
Wild streamer, Roffle, highlights a deck made by Corbett that is killing opponents by turns 2 and 3: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JsU6JpEUiFQ. Something's definitely got to be done about druid, particularly Kael'thas Sunstrider.
Top 10 Hearthstone Cards That Are Gonna Get Hit by the Nerf Bat in Scholomance Academy
Great article! Thanks.
Top 10 Hearthstone Cards That Are Gonna Get Hit by the Nerf Bat in Scholomance Academy
I'd say that for Survival of the Fittest, Blizzard will most likely nerf the surrounding cards around it, similar to the time when Grim Patron was nerfed out of existence due to the changes to pre-final nerf Warsong Commander. I'd say it's an alright payoff for playing ramp decks, but gosh does Druid have a lot of over-powered mid-range tools this expansion to reach there.
Case in point, I had a much tougher time dealing with Druid's that are following Charon's list - which is a mix of Dragons and Beasts while cutting away Survival of the Fittest. Gosh does that deck hit so badly in the mid-game.
Nerf Predictions for Scholomance Academy
I just wanted to echo how bad this feels to play against...and the emoting that comes after makes it all the saltier, haha
But beyond the gut punch, I just don't believe that a single card should be able to completely disrupt an entire archetype (Combo/OTK), especially when that archetype is a counter to what the class typically likes to do (play Control). I'm not against disruption cards in general, but this one seems too strong/guaranteed.
Thinking of nerfs, I agree that an increase in cost is most likely, but personally I'd like something different. I feel that there needs to be more of a way to play around this card as an opponent. So maybe the nerf could be that you only swap 4 or 5 cards from hand, randomly chosen, along with swapping decks. This way Combo decks could at least add some RNG into the equation by keeping their hand full, but it would come at a cost that would benefit Priests (in terms of losing tempo and/or having to add more card draw to the deck). Alternatively, you could add restrictions on the other end such as swapping only the number of cards that the Priest has in hand.
Top 10 Hearthstone Cards That Are Gonna Get Hit by the Nerf Bat in Scholomance Academy
Listen, nerf Survival of the Fittest. And Overgrowth. I'll just go ahead and email Blizzard a list of all my golden cards I opened. They're problematic.
But seriously, it seems like so far everybody has something fun and new to do that just gets wrecked by Druid.
Nerf Predictions for Scholomance Academy
I think that Soul Fragment as a card by itself is completely fine. The package, on the other hand, is a very strong addition to existing archetypes. Marrowslicer is such a great weapon even though it acts similar to Truesilver Champion, and Soulshard Lapidary is just an insane amount of burst and tempo at the same time and the effect is extremely consistent to be played on turn 5. I think it's as balanced as Demon Hunter always is so might need some nerfs but I can't think what to hit.
I'll say this right now but ever since I saw Glide being shown as a card I only thought that card to be a bad card in terms of both design and strength. Even now, I don't think the card is good. It's annoying sure but it feels like you should just run Skull of Gul'dan instead because you get so much tempo from the Mana cost reduction instead of the random RNG effect that you don't ever know is good or bad. Every time I see a DH play Glide on me when I have an 8 card hand, all I could think of was 'oh hey he wasted 4 Mana and I lost 4 cards but that's fine because he skipped half his turn'. Overall, if this card gets nerfed to 5 Mana, I wouldn't complain but I just don't see it's power right now. (Maybe I'm just bad because I'm not a Legend player.)
Lightning Bloom is a card that feels so busted I think that they should just remove the card entirely or redesign it because you can't balance it properly for it to still see some amounts of play. If you make it so that it's Overload (3), I wouldn't mind. If you make it into Overload (4), I wouldn't run this card in any deck but OTK. This card is problematic in not Druid but also Shaman because you get so much mana cheat early on that it would just boost the deck's win rate by 20% every time a single one is played. This card really makes you think why the hell pre-nerf Innervate was never nerfed for years.
Secret Passage allowing you to keep cards you get during that time is pretty broken and I think that's the main reason why it's so good because it's just better The Soularium but you can run 2. If a nerf happens, it's probably going to be a Mana cost nerf. 2 Mana should be fine because 3 is unplayable in Rogue.
The nerfs I really want are:
1. Kael'thas Sunstrider to 8 Mana because cheating things out at 7 Mana is no longer slow and when the average of doing so is on turn 4 or 5.
OR
Overgrowth to 5 Mana, but it might kill the card which should've been fine if they never printed Lightning Bloom. (Even if the card was strong before that.)
OR
Guardian Animals to 8 Mana, because it allows Druid a way to stop Aggro so much more efficiently than any other card they have.
OR (the best choice)
Everyone, dust your Lightning Blooms immediately.
2. Mindrender Illucia to 3 Mana, because this effect for 2 Mana is too cheap and tbh I can't believe they made this effect as a Collectible card and not as a Solo Adventure card.
3. Secret Passage to 2 Mana.
4. Voracious Reader to 3 Mana, this card enables Aggro decks to get their bursts quickly and for so much value and for almost no repercussion. The stats in the card won't matter too much because it's insanely cheap in the first place, therefore a Mana change should be good. (Might be wrong about this one but idk.)
5. Diligent Notetaker to a 2/2, this card can be read as a 2 Mana 2/3 draw a card that you choose and in some cases that's Lightning Bloom or another burst damage spell like Lightning Bolt or Storm's Wrath and I think that's too much value. Might not be necessary seeing that some of the weaker Shaman archetypes but this card by itself is so insanely strong I can't ever see anyone sane enough to not run this card in Shaman in the future.
This might be the first week of the expansion but I can already tell that Druid's going to shape the meta into a race. Yes, I understand that Aggro is usually only good in the first few days because it's easier to make but this is... ridiculous right?