Update: Cora has clarified her original tweet and stated this might happen when the set rotation happens. See further below for the update. Our original post remains below.
Hearthstone Senior Game Designer, Cora Georgiou, has taken to Twitter this morning to state that Brann Bronzebeard has likely earned himself a vacation. The card has been a complaint in the community, especially in more recent times, and it looks like that hasn't gone unnoticed.
Quote From Cora I think Brann has probably earned himself a little vacation away from Standard. I'll see what we can do.
Brann was brought back into Standard via the 2022 Core Set after a long time away when he made his original debut in the League of Explorers adventure alongside other fan favourites Elise, Sir Finley, and Reno Jackson. We're fans of the friendly dwarf, however, believe that his time with us has been longer than needed considering the power level of 2022 cards.
Although this is not a promise of removal and instead shows that the developers will at least talk about it, we're curious: do you think Brann needs to be given the boot from Standard? Should all the explorers rotate out of the core set in April 2023? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!
Update: Maybe Not
Quote From Cora Just to be clear, if he goes on vacation it would most likely be when the core set rotation happens with the first set release of next year. I don't want to get any hopes up for something sooner.
Update 2: Tweet Deleted
Cora has deleted the original tweet. Here is her new response.
Quote From Cora Went ahead and deleted the Brann tweet because it seemed like it was hurting more than it was helping. Never intended to bait people. Just wanted to reassure that we see the Brann conversation, and that he will 99.9% not be sticking around in Core for next year.
A balance patch is coming and outliers will be addressed. Choosing not to rotate Brann early doesn't mean we are ok with the state of certain things, and we're discussing solutions for a number of areas now.
Comments
Ofc, the League of Explorers have to retire after the next Standard rotation, that's a given. My only hope it that Team 5 replace the whole Core set for next year. Not just some selective cards sprinkled about for each class. The main reason for the core set was to change up the meta and have no ever green cards for the next "Year of the X". Most of the core sets cards are still from 2021 when it was originally introduced. C'mon Blizzard, replacing the whole core set will be more of a positive than a negative and I'm all for it.
To be fair, not many of the core cards saw any play, even after being buffed. And team5 have explicitly set out that their main objective is to get players to play the current expansion cards. So I can see why they largely retained the old core set, and selectively put out a few nostalgia cards like Wild Pyromancer and Acolyte of Pain
They'll likely just make selective removals and additions once again. Wouldn't be surprised since its a lot easier on them to do so. Then again, Im not exactly upset even if that's the case. The only item on my wishlist would be for them to not include Overgrowth and Nourish into core next year.
Update 2
Im not really a fan of removing brann until next year, but I concede its the most efficient way to correct a good deal of wrongs. Although it wont address some core fundamental issues, and it does make the game slightly less enjoyable because when brann is used for something other than scamming wins, he's very well darn fun.
That said the impact is likely to be limited to a few classes, namely druid. Because it is only because of brann that druid has a win con that cannot reliably be interacted with. Couple that with insane ramp, card draw, and 40 health the deck can never lose the late game, only vulnerable within the first 5 turns. Removing brann means druid has to fight for board, and likely turn to Kazakusan or The Jailer. Both of which are nowhere near the levels afforded by Sire Denathrius and now Astalor Bloodsworn
The only other deck that will suffer would be blood DK, who needs both alexandros and patchwerk to win any games, both of which rely on brann in those greed matchups. But you can conceivably just play zola in brann's spot anyway.
Likely team5 wouldn't do anything to brann until rotation, which is coming in 4 months time. In my opinion there are more cards that deserves more attention, like Sinstone Graveyard, jerry rig into nourish, blood DK cards, etc.
Please, do it! U cant tweet something like that and not ban him, ban him now, please
Update: Maybe not
As much as I like what Brann has done for several sclasses in the last two expansions, at this point it's very obvious that he just keeps taking cards that aren't problematic by themselves and turns them into low interaction game enders. I think the game as a whole benefits from him rotating out of Core a bit earlier.
That being said, there are a few decks that'll probably just die without Brann. Relic DH would be one of them, although it at least has the replacement of Spell DH to fall back on. Meanwhile Curse-Implock is probably going to drop off hard without Brann. Those lategame curse combos are important for your winrate.
Druid probably also falls off now that Astalor isn't a wincon by himself anymore, but at this point I'm tired of Druid doing the same exact bullshit for 3 expansions straight and not having to innovate once, so good riddance (although I would have liked to see Quest Druid popping off at least once)
Then there's all the Renathal control decks that use School Teacher and other discovery effects. Very curious about how the meta will shape up after this considering Brann is present in about 90% of them.
Brann Bronzebeard is such fun card, but with today's Battlecries it's just a bit too much for Standard.
I think main brann abuser is druid with guff and now anubrekan. I think they should just ban some netral cards for some classes.
I think all of the explorers could leave standard and no damage would be done. The two actually viable ones, Brann and Reno, both end up being busted ways to abuse recent mechanics, especially the former. While a lot more difficult to use, the fact Reno can heal someone up to 40 if not 70 health is really insane albeit limited by the deckbulding. I dont know if they should kick them out Now rather than just not have them be in the core set for next year, but at least Brann should be gone by then.
Yeah, for sure, also boot the Shadowstep while we are at it... i am even fine with bringing some other bounce effect to replace it just a bit more expensive please...
I don't think Shadowstep is that much of a problem. Having Sinstone Graveyard as a 2-mana card when it has the potential to scale infinitely probably is.
Shadowstep is the reason they decided to nerf Pandaren Importer
Location is also problematic of course, but Shadowstep was evil since long time ago... I am complaining about it for more than 4 years already and was advocating for it to be HoFed since 2019
One of the signs that your design is bad is that you have to absolutely destroy other cards that, alongside 99% of the card base, present no problem to preserve the problematic card.
Shadowstep was specifically built in a world where the Battlecries of today and the Rush keyword would have been rejected or toned down due to power level. Cheap bounce is out of place and limits the crap out of design space.
I’m with you. It’s so annoying to sit there and watch Rogue play 10+ cards per turn. I don’t even care if I end up winning, it’s still an unpleasant experience.
I don't get the downvotes: you're more than right