Your argument is double edged: [Hearthstone Card (Kingbane) Not Found] is a perfectly good card that just happened to be the victim of Leeching Poison, but we can also say that Leeching Poison was a perfectly good card that just happened to be the victim of Kingsbane (in fact before the release of K&C saw little to no play). Which one is cooler? Kingsbane. Which one is more difficult to nerf? Kingsbane again. That's what happened.
Furthermore, on the regard that "nerfs are not supposed to be dust dispensers", yes and no: we can say without the shade of a doubt that the Leeching Poisonnerf completely murdered the Kingsbane archetype as we used to know it, right? Well then, imagine a guy crafting 2 Doomerangs, Valeera the Hollow and a bunch of other stuff just because he found that weapon in a pack. Fun stuff, but then the balance patch hits and he's left with 80 dust and some niche cards (Doomerang fucking sucks).
The same thing can be said for Shudderwock: Grumble, Worldshaker is a tier 4 legendary and yet some people crafted it for that sole purpose.
Now, let's be reasonable: people can't pretend full dust refund if their deck gets hit, but if it is brutally murdered through a nerf of a common/rare card which invalidates other expensive and bad cards, well, I guess the situation is pretty different.
Luna's Pocket Galaxy is one that I see people wondering why it didn't go to 6 mana; the simple answer is that they don't want it to be remotely playable again.
I'm happy to see some nerfs and while some of them will definitely change the current situation, I'm a bit concerned about the effectiveness of others.
Luna's Pocket Galaxy back to 7 will totally see less (if not zero) play: it was unplayable before the buff and now its only chance is Tortollan Pilgrim, which doesn't look very convincing in my opinion.
Conjurer's Calling's nerf is the same I suggested literally a week into Rise of Shadows meta: 3 mana CC is just dumb and shouldn't exist. Now that it costs 4, it will be no longer possible to discover it from Magic Trick (pretty big deal) and Mages won't be able to play it three times in the same turn unless they have [Hearthstone Card (Sorcerer apprentice) Not Found] on board. Despite being totally fine with this nerf, I kind of liked Kripp's solution to change it in order that it would summon minions of the same cost you payed yours. Oh well, I don't want to be too picky, so I'll take it.
Extra Arms: I don't know man. Ok, but I don't know man.
Barnes: I don't play Wild despite following it, so I don't feel like judging something I haven't felt on my skin before.
Dr. Boom, Mad Genius - I think it doesn't totally solve Warrior's problem: don't get me wrong, nerf shouldn't annihilate classes, but the only difference I see is that Aggro will have an easier life, nothing more and nothing less. The issue of a "infinite" removals is still there and that's what worries me the most.
No, Northshire Cleric is really strong (I dare to say it's one of the few good 1 drops remained in the evergreen set, if not the best).
However, I have two arguments for you:
1) Healing and drawing cards rarely win games since you can't kill your opponent. Yeah, this new midrange style may change the situation, but still
2) Cleric is one of the few good cards that Priest has in his evergreen set, alongside with Inner Fire, Divine Spirit, Power Word: Shield and arguably Shadow Word: Death (rip Mind Blast). The rest is meme/trash stuff. Now, Priest can be considered a class for like 4 months per year, and this is in part possible because of Northshire Cleric. You can't just erase it with a nerf or replace it with a random Radiance.
Team 5 doesn't want Cleric to be the way it is now? Fine: rework Priest's Basic and Classic set to be playable (not broken or meta defining, just playable) and we have a deal, but as long as the situation remains unchanged it would be unreasonable to touch Northshire Cleric
I always suggest to disenchant the card and wait to see if it will be any good in the future. However, you wrote "to make a Legendary that I actually want to use", so I guess you're not a Big Priest player and that this nerf won't affect any of your current Wild strategies.
In this case, I'd say keep him for the sake of full collection purposes.
Priest needs to be reevaluated period. Make it a class that can't possibly be a threat and that always gives me a free win when I face it. The problem is is that it's always been focused around playing cards which isn't fun to play against.
I think even Priest players (been Priest main until last rotation) would be all down for the Divine Spirit/Inner Fire reign to be over: yeah, it's a strong finisher, but it's so boring, dumb and repetitive.
Edit (cause I think people didn't understand my point of view): yeah, HoF it but give us something different (and possibly playable) in the evergreen set to play with
I've played Midrange Hunter for the last 4 months as main deck and with solid results, so I know very well what you mean: yeah, if your opponent doesn't highroll with bombs, you should get the upper hand with the insane burst that Dire Frenzy can generate.
However, if played well it's still a 70/30 or so matchup (if you consider the Bomb archetype too; on the other hand, I agree with you that against a deck that doesn't create lots of pressure like Control Warrior building a fat Zul'jin is not a huge deal); moreover, having a bad matchup doesn't indicate that the card is ok: that's just looking at data and arriving at conclusion solely through them, and we don't want to do that. Right?
In fact, the biggest concern about Boom is how it feels to play against it and what it allows: yeah you can win, but at what cost? It usually feels like if you don't have a good play every turn you're gonna lose all your chances to win the game; it feels like that it doesn't matter what you do, your opponent will deny it and take control of the board at the same time. Always. That's what Control decks usually want to do, but this is on another level given the current situation in Standard. You can either flood the board every turn (Mage, partially Quest Druid) or burst them down (Mid Hunter). In the end, it feels like playing against Rexxar or Jaina: bad.
For the regards of Conjurer's Calling, this is what I repeat (every time the exact same words) when people ask me what I think about the card: "3 mana Conjurer's Calling is just a stupid card and shouldn't exist." I'm all in for classes to have powerful cards that allow powerful turns, because that's what define them, but the current situation of that card is just stupid: you can generate an (almost) invincible board by turn 6, creating a wall of big drops with little effort (Naga Sea Witch PTSD here). Again, it feels really bad to play against CC: if you don't have removal for every single threat, you're doomed, and sometimes it isn't even enough given that they can do that dumb shit in the same turn (thanks Luna's Pocket Galaxy, thanks Mana Cyclone, thanks Elemental Evocation a.k.a. pre nerf Innervate for Elementals).
I could go on with this, and I'd be glad if you wanted to continue the conversation, but I don't want to make this post too long since we are in a forum.
I end my reply answering you final question: both Boom and CC are both beyond broken, each one for its reason (with CC gameplan logic checks out, with Boom you can't expect to be leading the game anymore unless you're that far ahead that it doesn't almost matter what your opponent does).
I wanna underline this concept: having overpowered cards is ok (otherwise we would just play with vanilla minions), having stupid cards is not.
The problem with CW is not just the removal per se, but the removal on top of the removal: in other words, it's the insane ability of generating tempo while clearing the board.
Omega Devastator and Dyn-o-matic, two of the most powerful cards right now, are super good not just because you clear your opponent's threats, but because you have the chance to get rid of whatever survives too.
If you don't have Boom, your removals are technically halved, since you can't rush any mech you play and your opponent has bigger chances to develop a board and thus fight you.
I understand that against warrior, if one is reaching the point of playing Zul'jin, the game is lost nonetheless :
Wait, what? You're completely off the track mate: if you can't SMOrc Warriors down then you just have to switch to Control mode Zul'jin is what allows you to do so. Dire Frenzy into shuffling 12 overstated beasts into your deck is something even Boom struggles to deal with.
As an aside, why are we still calling Master's Call Hunter a "midrange" deck?
What would you call it then? It's too slow for aggro and too fast for control and it doesn't have an OTK or massive combo.
I think I would consider it closer to control at this point. It's basically all removal, card draw, life gain, and value generation. (A lot of the removal just happens to be on a 1/1 body. ) I don't think it's that fast, outside of an early Hyena stealing games.
I agree: I either outheal aggro or OTK with Tundra Rhino Control deck, which is not how a proper Midrange deck would act
Ladder is SO fucked up at the moment. I can't even get wins at rank 5 if I'm not extremely lucky with draws and RNG in general. And I'm not playing crappy decks.
Once you play a fun deck against either Mage or Warrior you know you'll end up raped. But yeah, fun: who would ask such an unreasonable thing in the first week of a new expansion?
Oh well, time to wait for another Developer Insight to read that they have to collect more data in order to understand that there's something wrong in the game right now.
Your argument is double edged: [Hearthstone Card (Kingbane) Not Found] is a perfectly good card that just happened to be the victim of Leeching Poison, but we can also say that Leeching Poison was a perfectly good card that just happened to be the victim of Kingsbane (in fact before the release of K&C saw little to no play). Which one is cooler? Kingsbane. Which one is more difficult to nerf? Kingsbane again. That's what happened.
Furthermore, on the regard that "nerfs are not supposed to be dust dispensers", yes and no: we can say without the shade of a doubt that the Leeching Poisonnerf completely murdered the Kingsbane archetype as we used to know it, right? Well then, imagine a guy crafting 2 Doomerangs, Valeera the Hollow and a bunch of other stuff just because he found that weapon in a pack. Fun stuff, but then the balance patch hits and he's left with 80 dust and some niche cards (Doomerang fucking sucks).
The same thing can be said for Shudderwock: Grumble, Worldshaker is a tier 4 legendary and yet some people crafted it for that sole purpose.
Now, let's be reasonable: people can't pretend full dust refund if their deck gets hit, but if it is brutally murdered through a nerf of a common/rare card which invalidates other expensive and bad cards, well, I guess the situation is pretty different.
Yeah, good point here! Leeching Poison and Saronite Chain Gang's PTSD are still present
This.
The problem of "infinite" removals is still there though: yeah, now Aggro can SMOrc better, but... I don't know man.
I don't play Warrior, but I would still include Boom in every deck (maybe with the exception of Aggro now), which is not a really good sign.
I'm happy to see some nerfs and while some of them will definitely change the current situation, I'm a bit concerned about the effectiveness of others.
Luna's Pocket Galaxy back to 7 will totally see less (if not zero) play: it was unplayable before the buff and now its only chance is Tortollan Pilgrim, which doesn't look very convincing in my opinion.
Conjurer's Calling's nerf is the same I suggested literally a week into Rise of Shadows meta: 3 mana CC is just dumb and shouldn't exist. Now that it costs 4, it will be no longer possible to discover it from Magic Trick (pretty big deal) and Mages won't be able to play it three times in the same turn unless they have [Hearthstone Card (Sorcerer apprentice) Not Found] on board. Despite being totally fine with this nerf, I kind of liked Kripp's solution to change it in order that it would summon minions of the same cost you payed yours. Oh well, I don't want to be too picky, so I'll take it.
Extra Arms: I don't know man. Ok, but I don't know man.
Barnes: I don't play Wild despite following it, so I don't feel like judging something I haven't felt on my skin before.
Dr. Boom, Mad Genius - I think it doesn't totally solve Warrior's problem: don't get me wrong, nerf shouldn't annihilate classes, but the only difference I see is that Aggro will have an easier life, nothing more and nothing less. The issue of a "infinite" removals is still there and that's what worries me the most.
I guess it's time to craft Dinotamer Brann.
Probably yes
No, Northshire Cleric is really strong (I dare to say it's one of the few good 1 drops remained in the evergreen set, if not the best).
However, I have two arguments for you:
1) Healing and drawing cards rarely win games since you can't kill your opponent. Yeah, this new midrange style may change the situation, but still
2) Cleric is one of the few good cards that Priest has in his evergreen set, alongside with Inner Fire, Divine Spirit, Power Word: Shield and arguably Shadow Word: Death (rip Mind Blast). The rest is meme/trash stuff. Now, Priest can be considered a class for like 4 months per year, and this is in part possible because of Northshire Cleric. You can't just erase it with a nerf or replace it with a random Radiance.
Team 5 doesn't want Cleric to be the way it is now? Fine: rework Priest's Basic and Classic set to be playable (not broken or meta defining, just playable) and we have a deal, but as long as the situation remains unchanged it would be unreasonable to touch Northshire Cleric
I always suggest to disenchant the card and wait to see if it will be any good in the future. However, you wrote "to make a Legendary that I actually want to use", so I guess you're not a Big Priest player and that this nerf won't affect any of your current Wild strategies.
In this case, I'd say keep him for the sake of full collection purposes.
Oh I see: so it's kinda a lore-wise inconsistency, right?
I may have lost something here: what's wrong with KK's art? It looks dope to me
There you go. I fixed it for you.
Extra Arms without Twinspell would just be a 2 mana give +2/+2 and wouldn't even be worth including in a deck.
On the other hand, CC without Twinspell would force players to move from the Mountain Giant build to a value one.
I think even Priest players (been Priest main until last rotation) would be all down for the Divine Spirit/Inner Fire reign to be over: yeah, it's a strong finisher, but it's so boring, dumb and repetitive.
Edit (cause I think people didn't understand my point of view): yeah, HoF it but give us something different (and possibly playable) in the evergreen set to play with
I've played Midrange Hunter for the last 4 months as main deck and with solid results, so I know very well what you mean: yeah, if your opponent doesn't highroll with bombs, you should get the upper hand with the insane burst that Dire Frenzy can generate.
However, if played well it's still a 70/30 or so matchup (if you consider the Bomb archetype too; on the other hand, I agree with you that against a deck that doesn't create lots of pressure like Control Warrior building a fat Zul'jin is not a huge deal); moreover, having a bad matchup doesn't indicate that the card is ok: that's just looking at data and arriving at conclusion solely through them, and we don't want to do that. Right?
In fact, the biggest concern about Boom is how it feels to play against it and what it allows: yeah you can win, but at what cost? It usually feels like if you don't have a good play every turn you're gonna lose all your chances to win the game; it feels like that it doesn't matter what you do, your opponent will deny it and take control of the board at the same time. Always. That's what Control decks usually want to do, but this is on another level given the current situation in Standard. You can either flood the board every turn (Mage, partially Quest Druid) or burst them down (Mid Hunter). In the end, it feels like playing against Rexxar or Jaina: bad.
For the regards of Conjurer's Calling, this is what I repeat (every time the exact same words) when people ask me what I think about the card: "3 mana Conjurer's Calling is just a stupid card and shouldn't exist." I'm all in for classes to have powerful cards that allow powerful turns, because that's what define them, but the current situation of that card is just stupid: you can generate an (almost) invincible board by turn 6, creating a wall of big drops with little effort (Naga Sea Witch PTSD here). Again, it feels really bad to play against CC: if you don't have removal for every single threat, you're doomed, and sometimes it isn't even enough given that they can do that dumb shit in the same turn (thanks Luna's Pocket Galaxy, thanks Mana Cyclone, thanks Elemental Evocation a.k.a. pre nerf Innervate for Elementals).
I could go on with this, and I'd be glad if you wanted to continue the conversation, but I don't want to make this post too long since we are in a forum.
I end my reply answering you final question: both Boom and CC are both beyond broken, each one for its reason (with CC gameplan logic checks out, with Boom you can't expect to be leading the game anymore unless you're that far ahead that it doesn't almost matter what your opponent does).
I wanna underline this concept: having overpowered cards is ok (otherwise we would just play with vanilla minions), having stupid cards is not.
Have you been playing the game in the last 4 months?
The problem with CW is not just the removal per se, but the removal on top of the removal: in other words, it's the insane ability of generating tempo while clearing the board.
Omega Devastator and Dyn-o-matic, two of the most powerful cards right now, are super good not just because you clear your opponent's threats, but because you have the chance to get rid of whatever survives too.
If you don't have Boom, your removals are technically halved, since you can't rush any mech you play and your opponent has bigger chances to develop a board and thus fight you.
Wait, what? You're completely off the track mate: if you can't SMOrc Warriors down then you just have to switch to Control mode Zul'jin is what allows you to do so. Dire Frenzy into shuffling 12 overstated beasts into your deck is something even Boom struggles to deal with.
The gameplay is really similar to the Deathstalker Rexxar Midrange Hunter with Dire Mole and Crackling Razormaw, but instead of generating huge Zombeasts you slowly build a favorable Yogg.
I agree: I either outheal aggro or OTK with Tundra Rhino Control deck, which is not how a proper Midrange deck would act
Ladder is SO fucked up at the moment. I can't even get wins at rank 5 if I'm not extremely lucky with draws and RNG in general. And I'm not playing crappy decks.
Once you play a fun deck against either Mage or Warrior you know you'll end up raped. But yeah, fun: who would ask such an unreasonable thing in the first week of a new expansion?
Oh well, time to wait for another Developer Insight to read that they have to collect more data in order to understand that there's something wrong in the game right now.