Slow warriors still feels hard to play despite the changes made to From the Depths, which is a bit unfortunate. Perhaps some pro will make up a tier 2 deck, but right now seems like its really fodder for aggro decks. Riffs still feels like shit.
Playing any warrior that isn't menagerie or enrage feels like throwing stuff around hoping they would gel into a unit. Feels like everything in warrior comes with a condition that makes it hard to play, in comparison with other classes.
Only other change here that even remotely matters is Sinful Brand practically being nuked to orbit. I would be very surprised to see this card ever again in competitive.
As for duels, I feel its extremely harsh for team5 not to just reset everything and refund my run, especially since Im at 4 wins only to find my hp got nerfed. Not even sure why the nerfs were made, because the only problematic passive right now is staking a claim, all others seems fine.
But duels may be at its twilight anyway. The mode simply isn't the same ever since the bucket change.
Not sure if its a bug or feature, but that's exactly what happens. For second turn players, coin gets shuffled into the deck but you get an extra card in hand. Its weird.
If I were to guess, the code for the brawl must have been modified from an existing brawl, likely one of those that also features coin being shuffled into the deck.
Dont pick pure pally or anything that'll put a dragon in your deck. Basically what team5 did is offhandedly insert noz into your deck via code so the deck acts like noz is actually in it. Pure pally would simply not work because of that. Wouldn't be surprised if even decks doesn't work neither.
If I had to guess, I think management simply decided that the costs are too high and overwatch 2 isn't giving them the returns they want. So they had to axe something, and the PvE aspect is deemed the less risky choice, on top of saving loads of man hours.
A shame really, because what we left with now can be said to be definitely overwatch 1.5 instead of 2.
Finally they're going to unnerf the old From the Depths, a long overdue buff. Unfortunately, we had to go all around the world buffing tons of other warrior cards before team5 finally realised that this was the one thing they needed to do all along. Still probably going to change the mana reduction to 2 instead of 3.
Other buffs not so interesting. Chorus Riff doesn't need a buff, but the riffs are overall so weak its perhaps unsurprising that they decided to do it.
As for the nerfs,
Pretty much I can see why all of those are getting nerfs. Stuff like Sinful Brand simply shouldn't exist alongside so much face damage potential. Besides, its toxic as hell trying to avoid getting destroyed out of nowhere. Shades of quest mage in stormwind.
Its funny how Predation is being targetted here, when its far better to simply just nerf Lady S'theno to give everyone back their dust because predation at 0 mana is probably one of the few things that keeping her alive anyway.
Anub'Rekhan nerf is a bit harsh, because outside of big druid the entire class is 100% dependent on it. Not sure what team5 is going to do with this. Maybe nerf it to 9 mana? or grant only 4 armor. Because we all know why this is getting nerfed, and that's because of its unfortunate combo with zok.
The one time big dhunter is competitively viable, and then we nerf it naught but three weeks after. Just amazing.
I play dhunter myself, but dont have felerin. Never came to my mind that I needed that card, but its tricky this one. It has a good play winrate, but I just dont like crafting legendaries that get weaker over time.
Stheno is one of those cards that pros will always be abusing, hence why it remains relevant despite its win rate tanking. Up to you on this one. Its probably one of the hardest to use legendaries Ive seen around, but it'll likely be playable until rotation next year.
But if you'd like to play dhunter, but dont want to spend any dust on legendaries, just play big dhunter. Probably the one and only time this archetype will ever see competitive without a major push from team5.
Probably dont, unless youre playing on a lower MMR level, because at higher MMR stheno is basically mandatory for wins.
Felerin is the one card I dont like but cannot deny that in the current meta where there's less trash outcast cards this is basically a slightly smaller unnerfed Drek'Thar. If youre going to play dhunter, this card will almost always be in it. But unless youre going all into one class I wouldn't recommend crafting this since its very likely it'll be watered down to nothing in the later expansions.
IMO, people still play Hearthstone only because it was the first big, successful digital card game, and for a few years, it was the best one out there. During this time, it collected an enormous player base.
It isn't the best one out there anymore, by a wide margin, but people already invested a ton of time and money into it, so they fall victim to the sunk cost fallacy and keep playing it, rather than picking up and trying out a new card game.
If Hearthstone entered the scene fresh and new into the current digital card game landscape, in its current form, it wouldn't have a whisper of a chance of gaining traction against the better-designed games that exist right now.
(Side note - I do not include Snap in my list of better-designed games. Snap is a nefarious bait-and-switch that lures you, hooks you, and then becomes an entirely different game once the hook is good and set in your jaws - as soon as you reach series 3.)
Im actually curious what you would call as the best digital TCG out there, because Ive lots of friends who have been playing the old stuff like yugioh or magic and still are, never really turning into hearthstone players like myself.
To me, hearthstone is still (likely) the most intuitive TCG currently available and that is the main reason why its not died down yet, and if all were made available at the same time it'll still be the most popular - if only because it hangs on the coatails of its much venerated cousin in warcraft.
There's just something about dragging cards towards the face that's just satisfying, gotta admit that at least.
2) Strategy- HS lost its strategy edge. Yes, you still need to know how to pilot some decks, but usually the power level of Druid, or DK, will solve the match. In Snap, where you put your cards, and the order you play has significance. Just the play of different locations makes for a different game experience.
I dont think much has really changed in this regard. The game evolved past the usual curve gameplay (which incidentally still works pretty well) into patterns of play, like how most competitive decks tend to have burst turns, or turns that really define the deck's power level. For some like hunter, its still turn 1-2-3 whereas for others like big druid its turn 5.
Its a bit too simplistic to call it all on power level alone. Certain decks wins late game better than others, whereas others dominate the early game. Druid has lots of OP cards, but will still get slapped up like a bitch if you simply curve minions in the early game. Blood DK is a menace to most aggro decks, but sustained pressure would still beat it.
But ultimately, I feel its just more fun to be able to do powerful things that define a deck, rather than play a game of psuedo-chess. Lifecoach pretty much departed the HS scene for that reason alone, and has been touting Gwent as the superior game because decisions have more significance. Gwent lasted about 2-3 years and is currently, unfortunately, dead.
SNAP is in its early days, as the years go by it'll be forced to evolve and pretty soon I think we'll see the same thing happening to it as it has to hearthstone. It happened to pokemon TCG, and to certain extents the old, now defunct, digimon TCG.
I just have to applaud your resilience, because you must be one of the very, very few LoR commenters on this website that's consistently putting out article after article on the subject even though there's more banter going on in a morgue than any of yours. Some recent articles even have multiple replies from yourself, presumably to yourself. Its incredible just to watch. Its like next level trolling where you troll yourself because no one's taking up the bait.
If you are as good as you think you are, just consider streaming. Or go full pro, shouldn't be too difficult given the current LoR landscape. Gain the respect you think you deserve via hard work and a little exposure, instead of haunting websites with self congratulatory notes
I'll be honest. In those few articles where you actually put out analysis of LoR's meta, its not half bad. But then you just had to insert what seems to be a dose of megalomanic self-delusions into them and it ruins the whole thing. Keep up with the analysis of the subject, and leave the rest of the near paranoia shit behind. That'll do wonders to your brand.
Im not even sure it goes into blood DK, because post turn 2 there's really not much breathing room in that deck to play a 2 mana do nothing. And that's essentially what it was. Fortunately, with the buff to Spitelash Siren, this shit card has now peaked to being at least playable in one deck.
As for the mage spell comment. Well, Frozen Touch is clearly OP but there are other spells that are impactful. Like Blizzard, Deathborne, the very tilting Objection! and its equally hated sister Counterspell. Not to mention utility cards like Solid Alibi, card draw options, freeze, damage, etc. There are good mage spells in the pool the main problem with Infinitize the Maxitude is that the card is nigh unplayable. Compare this with Vast Wisdom for example and there's an even chance you'll go for that instead of a card whose conditions is atrociously hard to fulfill.
Cant say that I had the same experience. Haven't seen a single DK all day, and Ive been pushing more than my usual quota of hearthstone games today. Lots of warriors, doubtless trying out the riffs and discovering after 3 games as I have, that they're all still shit.
If youre trying to climb quickly up, you can try secret coc rogue or face midrange hunter which can absolutely win against blood DK, though its more a 50-50 against frost DK. Should easily beat all the warrior tryhards. Might be a bit testy with naga mages or implocks.
But the way unholy plays marrowgar is simply a way out where most aggro decks dont get any. The real strength of UUU decks is Grave Strength, which is quickly turning my eyes back into its sockets.
The deck is simply stronger with marrowgar despite its obvious weakness. Certain decks that cant do board clears will immediately fold to it.
Well, I was expecting slightly different than simply disallowing discovers for triple rune cards. For starters, I think some of their cards simply needs slight nerfs. Bone Breaker and Plague Strike are two cards that absolutely needs touching for example.
But really, the one issue I have with DK is not even its powerlevel, its the fact that the class is built to run on extremes. Blood DK and Frost DK is practically the extreme examples of an archetype you can find and its sadly warping the meta. It makes the whole meta more about who you face rather than the solidity of your deck itself. Lots of decks are going greed because blood DK is such a fucking slog, and then you queue into a frost DK and get your arse kicked sideways.
I was thinking team5 might actually revise the power levels and make it more interesting to actually mix up the runes. The rune system was supposed to make deck building more interesting but its ironically now doing the exact opposite. Why, for example, would anyone bother playing anything that isn't a triple rune deck? I guess one day I'll see an absolutely OP card being printed for each triple rune combinations because there wouldn't be any reason to play them without it. This is just an illusion of variety where none actually exist.
Okay, let's move on from that and focus on the buffs.
- Played lots of warrior today. And I can say resolutely that the riffs are still shit though much less shit than it was previously. Anything that's not enrage warrior feels clumsy, overcosted, and completely unable to affect tempo. It feels a lot like playing one card per turn and praying your opponent cant remove it.
If you want to play warrior, just play enrage. At least that deck can snowball well as opposed to riffs or menagerie that are slow as shit
- Ive seen implock doing well but admitably havent gone round to try it. But looking at the buffs, there's definitely something there, because Crazed Conductor can absolutely win you the game out of nowhere.
- Ive seen lots of shaman trying overload but thus far its a bit mild. Still cant see it top the excellent swarm-totem shaman build that at very least can contest against anything that's not frost DK
- Rogues will be jamming those cocs for a long time. The changes to blingtron is just nuts, but likely not nuts enough for it to see play outside of menagerie rogue
Edit:
- Just to add one more to the list, because it cropped out hard a few games after I wrote my initial impressions.
Naga mage may be legit. Seems like we already forgotten the shit Spitelash Siren was hurling at opponents before it got nerfed to oblivion. Probably a mistake from team5 because that deck in sunken city was good but its main crime was its bs game plan. And here we are, introducing it back again, expecting it to be less tilting than it was before.
Now with Rewind, this deck is just taking the piss. Again, we are asking team5 to just cut the crap and disallow all these card slinging to go past the fucking rope. I dont mind my opponent playing 100 cards as long as they're using their time to do it. What I do mind is having to see card after card being played by my opponent when its MY turn.
The only good decision here is to limit the cards to standard. Otherwise, this would just be combo galore
As it stands, pally is the best class because of Front Lines; thaddius, Stoneborn General and neptulon doing huge work to deny your opponent any comeback.
I can assure you that Infinitize the Maxitude is just plain bad, nothing to do with the pool of spells. Was grinding out achievements and let me say that even attempting to trigger its finale outside of turn 2 is a nightmare, never mind the fact that 90% of the time you'll never get to play what you pick.
The unfortunate reality is that discovering a spell whilst having no mana to play it almost always means its useless. I'd rather just play Vast Wisdom. Most games rarely pass the turn 7 mark anyway and trying to get value out of this card is pointless. The fact that team5 is buffing this surprises no one because if this card discounted the discovered spell by 1-2 it'll still be just passable.
If you mean the token generated from hp, dont hold your breath. The whole point of DK's hp is to generate corpses while allowing a ping. It makes control decks in DK more viable, so its unlikely team5 would ever change that.
Besides which, its hardly broken. I happen to think that DK's hp is perhaps one of the best designed hp among the classes.
Because frigidara into frostwyrm's fury is pretty much a deathknell. Apart from anything else, its a 6 mana AoE that curves and tutors the best card in the deck. If you were a board based deck seeing frigidara on 6 is pretty much an instant concede.
Team5 probably doesn't want to weaken triple rune cards because those are pretty much the only reasons to play triple rune decks. Curbing their consistency and general bshittiness (discovers etc.) is a better gameplan.
The fact that death knight is getting some major changes is the step in the right direction, because I think team5 suspects (correctly) that there wouldn't be any real changes in the gameplay pattern, card choices, or overall effectiveness of the class simply because of how the rune system works (Frost Queen Sindragosa still remains impossible to play etc.) and how discover works overall in that class.
If I were to guess, team5 would probably make it impossible to discover cards outside of the deck runes, and make certain cards like Frostwyrm's Fury no longer up for discovers. But if Im being honest, the best thing they can do is to revamp the rune system so its less restrictive, because its absolutely a joke. I've asked it before, and shall again, why would anyone bother mixing up runes when the triple rune decks are tons better, with no indication that it'll ever change.
Dont like the idea of Rowdy Fan getting nerfed. Pretty much one of the better cards this expansion, and a real card in for contention everytime an aggro deck is built. Not OP by any means, just a really good card. Sad that its getting capped off.
Holy Nova and Shield Block getting buffs is probably not something I'd think is necessary at all. But whatever. Its not like they're ripping off the meta anyway. Shield block probably gets the nod because team5 discovered that no one wants to play control warrior when blood DK does it tons better than warrior ever could.
Slow warriors still feels hard to play despite the changes made to From the Depths, which is a bit unfortunate. Perhaps some pro will make up a tier 2 deck, but right now seems like its really fodder for aggro decks. Riffs still feels like shit.
Playing any warrior that isn't menagerie or enrage feels like throwing stuff around hoping they would gel into a unit. Feels like everything in warrior comes with a condition that makes it hard to play, in comparison with other classes.
Only other change here that even remotely matters is Sinful Brand practically being nuked to orbit. I would be very surprised to see this card ever again in competitive.
As for duels, I feel its extremely harsh for team5 not to just reset everything and refund my run, especially since Im at 4 wins only to find my hp got nerfed. Not even sure why the nerfs were made, because the only problematic passive right now is staking a claim, all others seems fine.
But duels may be at its twilight anyway. The mode simply isn't the same ever since the bucket change.
Not sure if its a bug or feature, but that's exactly what happens. For second turn players, coin gets shuffled into the deck but you get an extra card in hand. Its weird.
If I were to guess, the code for the brawl must have been modified from an existing brawl, likely one of those that also features coin being shuffled into the deck.
Dont pick pure pally or anything that'll put a dragon in your deck. Basically what team5 did is offhandedly insert noz into your deck via code so the deck acts like noz is actually in it. Pure pally would simply not work because of that. Wouldn't be surprised if even decks doesn't work neither.
If I had to guess, I think management simply decided that the costs are too high and overwatch 2 isn't giving them the returns they want. So they had to axe something, and the PvE aspect is deemed the less risky choice, on top of saving loads of man hours.
A shame really, because what we left with now can be said to be definitely overwatch 1.5 instead of 2.
Finally they're going to unnerf the old From the Depths, a long overdue buff. Unfortunately, we had to go all around the world buffing tons of other warrior cards before team5 finally realised that this was the one thing they needed to do all along. Still probably going to change the mana reduction to 2 instead of 3.
Other buffs not so interesting. Chorus Riff doesn't need a buff, but the riffs are overall so weak its perhaps unsurprising that they decided to do it.
As for the nerfs,
Pretty much I can see why all of those are getting nerfs. Stuff like Sinful Brand simply shouldn't exist alongside so much face damage potential. Besides, its toxic as hell trying to avoid getting destroyed out of nowhere. Shades of quest mage in stormwind.
Its funny how Predation is being targetted here, when its far better to simply just nerf Lady S'theno to give everyone back their dust because predation at 0 mana is probably one of the few things that keeping her alive anyway.
Anub'Rekhan nerf is a bit harsh, because outside of big druid the entire class is 100% dependent on it. Not sure what team5 is going to do with this. Maybe nerf it to 9 mana? or grant only 4 armor. Because we all know why this is getting nerfed, and that's because of its unfortunate combo with zok.
The one time big dhunter is competitively viable, and then we nerf it naught but three weeks after. Just amazing.
I play dhunter myself, but dont have felerin. Never came to my mind that I needed that card, but its tricky this one. It has a good play winrate, but I just dont like crafting legendaries that get weaker over time.
Stheno is one of those cards that pros will always be abusing, hence why it remains relevant despite its win rate tanking. Up to you on this one. Its probably one of the hardest to use legendaries Ive seen around, but it'll likely be playable until rotation next year.
But if you'd like to play dhunter, but dont want to spend any dust on legendaries, just play big dhunter. Probably the one and only time this archetype will ever see competitive without a major push from team5.
Probably dont, unless youre playing on a lower MMR level, because at higher MMR stheno is basically mandatory for wins.
Felerin is the one card I dont like but cannot deny that in the current meta where there's less trash outcast cards this is basically a slightly smaller unnerfed Drek'Thar. If youre going to play dhunter, this card will almost always be in it. But unless youre going all into one class I wouldn't recommend crafting this since its very likely it'll be watered down to nothing in the later expansions.
Im actually curious what you would call as the best digital TCG out there, because Ive lots of friends who have been playing the old stuff like yugioh or magic and still are, never really turning into hearthstone players like myself.
To me, hearthstone is still (likely) the most intuitive TCG currently available and that is the main reason why its not died down yet, and if all were made available at the same time it'll still be the most popular - if only because it hangs on the coatails of its much venerated cousin in warcraft.
There's just something about dragging cards towards the face that's just satisfying, gotta admit that at least.
I dont think much has really changed in this regard. The game evolved past the usual curve gameplay (which incidentally still works pretty well) into patterns of play, like how most competitive decks tend to have burst turns, or turns that really define the deck's power level. For some like hunter, its still turn 1-2-3 whereas for others like big druid its turn 5.
Its a bit too simplistic to call it all on power level alone. Certain decks wins late game better than others, whereas others dominate the early game. Druid has lots of OP cards, but will still get slapped up like a bitch if you simply curve minions in the early game. Blood DK is a menace to most aggro decks, but sustained pressure would still beat it.
But ultimately, I feel its just more fun to be able to do powerful things that define a deck, rather than play a game of psuedo-chess. Lifecoach pretty much departed the HS scene for that reason alone, and has been touting Gwent as the superior game because decisions have more significance. Gwent lasted about 2-3 years and is currently, unfortunately, dead.
SNAP is in its early days, as the years go by it'll be forced to evolve and pretty soon I think we'll see the same thing happening to it as it has to hearthstone. It happened to pokemon TCG, and to certain extents the old, now defunct, digimon TCG.
Pally probably the best class here.
Disco Maul, Jitterbug for reload, Funkfin for burst, and the loads and loads of divine shield tokens, drawn by Boogie Down
But the best is probably Kangor, Dancing King. If your opponent has no silence, the game is over.
I just have to applaud your resilience, because you must be one of the very, very few LoR commenters on this website that's consistently putting out article after article on the subject even though there's more banter going on in a morgue than any of yours. Some recent articles even have multiple replies from yourself, presumably to yourself. Its incredible just to watch. Its like next level trolling where you troll yourself because no one's taking up the bait.
If you are as good as you think you are, just consider streaming. Or go full pro, shouldn't be too difficult given the current LoR landscape. Gain the respect you think you deserve via hard work and a little exposure, instead of haunting websites with self congratulatory notes
I'll be honest. In those few articles where you actually put out analysis of LoR's meta, its not half bad. But then you just had to insert what seems to be a dose of megalomanic self-delusions into them and it ruins the whole thing. Keep up with the analysis of the subject, and leave the rest of the near paranoia shit behind. That'll do wonders to your brand.
Im not even sure it goes into blood DK, because post turn 2 there's really not much breathing room in that deck to play a 2 mana do nothing. And that's essentially what it was. Fortunately, with the buff to Spitelash Siren, this shit card has now peaked to being at least playable in one deck.
As for the mage spell comment. Well, Frozen Touch is clearly OP but there are other spells that are impactful. Like Blizzard, Deathborne, the very tilting Objection! and its equally hated sister Counterspell. Not to mention utility cards like Solid Alibi, card draw options, freeze, damage, etc. There are good mage spells in the pool the main problem with Infinitize the Maxitude is that the card is nigh unplayable. Compare this with Vast Wisdom for example and there's an even chance you'll go for that instead of a card whose conditions is atrociously hard to fulfill.
Cant say that I had the same experience. Haven't seen a single DK all day, and Ive been pushing more than my usual quota of hearthstone games today. Lots of warriors, doubtless trying out the riffs and discovering after 3 games as I have, that they're all still shit.
If youre trying to climb quickly up, you can try secret coc rogue or face midrange hunter which can absolutely win against blood DK, though its more a 50-50 against frost DK. Should easily beat all the warrior tryhards. Might be a bit testy with naga mages or implocks.
But the way unholy plays marrowgar is simply a way out where most aggro decks dont get any. The real strength of UUU decks is Grave Strength, which is quickly turning my eyes back into its sockets.
The deck is simply stronger with marrowgar despite its obvious weakness. Certain decks that cant do board clears will immediately fold to it.
Well, I was expecting slightly different than simply disallowing discovers for triple rune cards. For starters, I think some of their cards simply needs slight nerfs. Bone Breaker and Plague Strike are two cards that absolutely needs touching for example.
But really, the one issue I have with DK is not even its powerlevel, its the fact that the class is built to run on extremes. Blood DK and Frost DK is practically the extreme examples of an archetype you can find and its sadly warping the meta. It makes the whole meta more about who you face rather than the solidity of your deck itself. Lots of decks are going greed because blood DK is such a fucking slog, and then you queue into a frost DK and get your arse kicked sideways.
I was thinking team5 might actually revise the power levels and make it more interesting to actually mix up the runes. The rune system was supposed to make deck building more interesting but its ironically now doing the exact opposite. Why, for example, would anyone bother playing anything that isn't a triple rune deck? I guess one day I'll see an absolutely OP card being printed for each triple rune combinations because there wouldn't be any reason to play them without it. This is just an illusion of variety where none actually exist.
Okay, let's move on from that and focus on the buffs.
- Played lots of warrior today. And I can say resolutely that the riffs are still shit though much less shit than it was previously. Anything that's not enrage warrior feels clumsy, overcosted, and completely unable to affect tempo. It feels a lot like playing one card per turn and praying your opponent cant remove it.
If you want to play warrior, just play enrage. At least that deck can snowball well as opposed to riffs or menagerie that are slow as shit
- Ive seen implock doing well but admitably havent gone round to try it. But looking at the buffs, there's definitely something there, because Crazed Conductor can absolutely win you the game out of nowhere.
- Ive seen lots of shaman trying overload but thus far its a bit mild. Still cant see it top the excellent swarm-totem shaman build that at very least can contest against anything that's not frost DK
- Rogues will be jamming those cocs for a long time. The changes to blingtron is just nuts, but likely not nuts enough for it to see play outside of menagerie rogue
Edit:
- Just to add one more to the list, because it cropped out hard a few games after I wrote my initial impressions.
Naga mage may be legit. Seems like we already forgotten the shit Spitelash Siren was hurling at opponents before it got nerfed to oblivion. Probably a mistake from team5 because that deck in sunken city was good but its main crime was its bs game plan. And here we are, introducing it back again, expecting it to be less tilting than it was before.
Now with Rewind, this deck is just taking the piss. Again, we are asking team5 to just cut the crap and disallow all these card slinging to go past the fucking rope. I dont mind my opponent playing 100 cards as long as they're using their time to do it. What I do mind is having to see card after card being played by my opponent when its MY turn.
The only good decision here is to limit the cards to standard. Otherwise, this would just be combo galore
As it stands, pally is the best class because of Front Lines; thaddius, Stoneborn General and neptulon doing huge work to deny your opponent any comeback.
I can assure you that Infinitize the Maxitude is just plain bad, nothing to do with the pool of spells. Was grinding out achievements and let me say that even attempting to trigger its finale outside of turn 2 is a nightmare, never mind the fact that 90% of the time you'll never get to play what you pick.
The unfortunate reality is that discovering a spell whilst having no mana to play it almost always means its useless. I'd rather just play Vast Wisdom. Most games rarely pass the turn 7 mark anyway and trying to get value out of this card is pointless. The fact that team5 is buffing this surprises no one because if this card discounted the discovered spell by 1-2 it'll still be just passable.
If you mean the token generated from hp, dont hold your breath. The whole point of DK's hp is to generate corpses while allowing a ping. It makes control decks in DK more viable, so its unlikely team5 would ever change that.
Besides which, its hardly broken. I happen to think that DK's hp is perhaps one of the best designed hp among the classes.
Because frigidara into frostwyrm's fury is pretty much a deathknell. Apart from anything else, its a 6 mana AoE that curves and tutors the best card in the deck. If you were a board based deck seeing frigidara on 6 is pretty much an instant concede.
Team5 probably doesn't want to weaken triple rune cards because those are pretty much the only reasons to play triple rune decks. Curbing their consistency and general bshittiness (discovers etc.) is a better gameplan.
The fact that death knight is getting some major changes is the step in the right direction, because I think team5 suspects (correctly) that there wouldn't be any real changes in the gameplay pattern, card choices, or overall effectiveness of the class simply because of how the rune system works (Frost Queen Sindragosa still remains impossible to play etc.) and how discover works overall in that class.
If I were to guess, team5 would probably make it impossible to discover cards outside of the deck runes, and make certain cards like Frostwyrm's Fury no longer up for discovers. But if Im being honest, the best thing they can do is to revamp the rune system so its less restrictive, because its absolutely a joke. I've asked it before, and shall again, why would anyone bother mixing up runes when the triple rune decks are tons better, with no indication that it'll ever change.
Dont like the idea of Rowdy Fan getting nerfed. Pretty much one of the better cards this expansion, and a real card in for contention everytime an aggro deck is built. Not OP by any means, just a really good card. Sad that its getting capped off.
Holy Nova and Shield Block getting buffs is probably not something I'd think is necessary at all. But whatever. Its not like they're ripping off the meta anyway. Shield block probably gets the nod because team5 discovered that no one wants to play control warrior when blood DK does it tons better than warrior ever could.