Dean Ayala recently announced that the Hearthstone team was looking to unnerf 10 cards that had previously been nerfed - 5 from currently Wild expansions, 4 from Year of the Raven expansions that will rotate soon, and 1 from the Year of the Dragon. Those exact numbers aren't final, but we should still expect a fair few cards to be restored to their former glory. As such, we've taken a look at all the potential candidates and selected a few of our favourites that we want to see get unnerfed.
For completeness sake, here's a list of every card* that could see a reversion in the update.
*This list includes every card which was explicitly listed as nerfed by Blizzard. Cards affected by mechanics changes, like Jungle Giants, or cards that were changed but not acknowledged as a nerf, like Lynessa Sunsorrow, have not been included.
**Both these cards were buffed and then reverted to their pre-buff state; while not technically a nerf in the same way we would consider the other cards, they've been included for completeness sake.
Added Armaments
Nerfed from (2) mana to (3) mana
Quote From Demonxz95 I'd love to see this thing back at 2 mana. At 3 mana, it was just a laughing stock and we all knew that it would happen. When it was buffed to 2 mana, everything changed. The card was actually seeing play and it was great. I remember being a bit disappointed when it was nerfed back to 3 where it would see more play than it did before, although ultimately going back to its former status. Put this thing back at 2 mana.
How Long Can This Go On?
Nerfed to summon a Saronite Chain Gang instead of a copy of this minion
Quote From ShadowsOfSense Ah, Saronite Chain Gang. A very interesting card nerfed for the sins of one of my favourite cards, Shudderwock. Interesting hand-buffing strategies fell under the weight of infinite freezing and/or damaging Shudderwock combos, utilising now-Wild fun like Grumble, Worldshaker.
Not that those Shudderwock combos were ever particularly powerful - I'm fairly certain they were sub-50% and even sub-40% winrate for the majority of their brief time in the sun. They just fall into that obnoxious 'unfun to play against' category that is a fair if annoying reason to change something.
Wild is a different story, however. How do we know that? Why, because Doppelgangster exists there and Wild has yet to implode due to the oppression of Shudderwock Shamans. Give us back those interesting interactions with Saronite Chain Gang in a mode that won't suffer for a bad, silly combo.
In Spite Of Everything...
Nerfed from (6) mana to (7) mana
Quote From Echo Spiteful Summoner was probably one of my least favorite cards back when it was at 6 mana. Being able to play a card as early as turn 5 in most cases to get a massive minion would often close out the game on its own. However, in wild it is a different story now. While the high roll potential is still there for sure, wild not only has more ways of dealing with large minions but also has a wider variety of bad minions Spiteful Summoner can hit. Combine with the heavy deck restriction that you cannot run cheap spells and it turns Spiteful Summoner into a deck defining card to one that even when the plan goes well, often will just whiff and disappoint. Because of this, I believe Spiteful Summoner to be a great candidate to be unnerfed as it will breathe life into a dead archetype without pushing the envelope too much.
Always Huffer
Nerfed from (8) mana to (9) mana
Quote From Demonxz95 I love Hunter. Back in WotOG, this card at 8 mana was the absolute bread and butter of the class. Every Hunter ran it, sometimes even Face Hunter just because if you got to 8 mana as Face Hunter, the card was really just that good. When an 8 mana card warps Hunter decks to include two copies of each, you know that it's insane, and Call of the Wild was indeed insane.
At 9 mana, it basically stopped seeing play and just kinda disappeared. I'd love to see this thing unnerfed and with how much the game has grown in power (looking at you, Ultimate Infestation), I don't believe it would be as strong at 8 now as it was then, but I do believe it would be playable.
Top of the Totem Pole
Nerfed from summoning any random Totem to summoning any random Basic Totem
Quote From Sinti I think this guy could deserve to be reverted to its original self. Back in a day, this was a huge power play, if you could get a Totem Golem out of it, but nowadays, it doesn't seem that much different from other RNG swing cards. There are also three new Totems that were added since - Primalfin Totem, Serpent Ward and EVIL Totem - which further dilutes the pool. Would also make these cards see more play, as it is always the way with random effects, giving you cards you might not have put in your deck yourself, which is cool!
I guess one could argue that while adding new Totems can dilute the minion pool, which could keep this card in check, it could potentially also restrict the deisgn space, since making any big Totem would give too much of an early game swing, if rolled right. But are we, or rather should we, see any big Totems in the future? Things can of course change, but so far, Totems were being designed as small support effects to enhance play, not as big beefy punchers. So I think we should be quite ok in this regard.
Bow Down Before The God Of Death
Nerfed from casting a random spell for each spell you've cast this game, to stopping when he leaves the Battlefield
Quote From ShadowsOfSense Praise Yogg!
The decision to nerf this card was the closest I ever came to quitting the game. I'm very glad that I didn't, but I always feel the need to mention that when discussing it. I'm really serious about how much I miss this card. It's my favourite legendary, and part of the reason I love Tortollans so much; Tortollan Primalist and Tortollan Pilgrim help scratch that same itch.
As it stands, post-nerf Yogg is nothing more than a panic button. You're losing the game? Alright, at least you can jam Yogg and hope for something to go your way. That's exactly the reason that they nerfed him, but in turning him from a pretty good panic button to a kind of meh one, they destroyed any fun the card had.
The point of Yogg was to build a deck of spell after spell after spell, all geared towards that final fantastic lightshow at the end. Where before Yogg was the Fourth of July Finale, now he's a single Catherine wheel that comes unstuck two seconds after you light it and flies into your face.
Ban it from competitive play; hell, ban it from the Ladder if you need to. Just give us back the fun of the card that you stripped from it.
Comments
I think Corrupt Elementalist should get the revert treatment. I think the shaman nerfs went a step too far.
EDIT: To be clear, I chose Elementalist because I figured it was the one that could get reverted while being the least likely to signal the return and domination of Galakrond Shaman. I realize most people hate shaman right now, but its not fair to take the whole archetype away. Shaman was hit with a TON of nerfs. Maybe not Elementalist, but something should get walked back.
I think it's also interesting to note that Year of the Raven only had 6 cards nerfed in total. Two of which were reversions of previous buffs. Which cards aren't getting reverted might be a better question. I think Giggling Inventor is one. Maybe Raiding Party is the second? Extra Arms? Hard for me to say.
Cards I hope could get some consideration are: Call to Arms Saronite Chain Gang
It's true that most nerfs are there to stop a deck dominating standard and would be fine to be removed when the card goes to wild. Theres only a few that would continue to annoy even in wild.
Patches? Give it charge again or maybe give it rush instead?
Totemic definitely needs an unnerf, it's completely unplayable at the moment. The amount of totems that exist mean that it's very random
: Evil totem, 4 basic totems, Flametougue, Serpent Ward,Vitality Totem, Amalgam, Totem Golem
True a 3/4 is a 1 in 5 chance with the 10 totems.
They could simply increase it's cost to 4 mana make it a 3/3 and restore the random totem generation.
I think the surest nerf reversion is Dr Boom Mad Genius back to 7 mana. At 9 mana it's just an unplayable dead turn. At 7 mana, you could play it alongside stuff like Reckless Fury, Execute or cheap mechs that would immediately gain rush. Even just getting to use a hero power is a big deal! Odd Warrior would love to put this back into it's gameplan
Raza the unchained. It's not even debatable
Raza dominated both Standard AND Wild. I wouldn't hold my breath for that one.
As a yogg noob (didn't start the game till post WotOG) I'm rather excited by the prospect of him being unnerfed, as I unpacked a golden copy in last week's wild bundle.
Can anyone educate me in the ways of the yogg. What classes / decks did he shine in post-nerf?
Pre-nerf days Yogg was often played in both mage and druid for maximum stall/value generation with spells before dropping Yogg
Thanks for this! I'm pretty sure I've heard talk of yogg hunter in the past as well. Looking forward to messing around with the card.
Tbh I'm not sure if I can see yogg being unnerfed, mind you. I was thinking about it and, given the way that shudderwock, lynessa, tess greymane, etc have been adjusted, it seems that blizzard are aiming for consistency in the idea that all minions with 'do x for every y you have played earlier in the game' will stop casting if they get killed. But I live in hope...
Thanks again, and props for the 'his dark materials' reference. Cracking set of books - I'm currently working my way through the book of dust :)
Tuskarr Totemic? You sure have a really strange way to spell Raza the Chained
Could not agree more with what ShadowsOfSense said about Yogg. By far my favourite time playing Hearthstone was during WotOG while playing decks cramped with way too many spells just to fuel Yogg who would almost always deliver the most spectacular moments. I would be totally fine with Yogg being a casual only card, because he should be played to have fun, not necessarily to win (currently he is played for "maybe possibly sometimes fun" at most).
I am currently not playing Hearthstone and am instead focussing on Legends of Runeterra, but if Blizzard wants me back then unnerfing Yogg would by far be their best move.
Is it bad to me to think that most of the cards that do end up getting reverted won't be many of the more interesting cards to change, but will instead be less impactful cards that didn't see play in wild to begin with?
Just not feeling super optimistic about what T5 will do tbh.
I hope they will unnerf Reckless Experimenter. That need didn't disable Mecha'thun combo because in combo itself nothing was discounted to 0 but it reduced consistency because you wouldn't be able to play Loot Hoarder or Bloodmage Thalnos alongside combo so that you don't need waste extra turn
My personal guess is that the four Year of the Raven cards shortlisted for revision are the four ones that were actually nerfed, and not the ones that had their buffs reverted.
Which is a shame, because I agree with Demon that Extra Arms would be nice to see return. I just think it makes the most sense, especially since I don't really see any of them being an issue in Wild.
Well Reckless Experimenter was actually nerfed... Not sure why you responded to me with that?
I was agreeing that Reckless Experimenter is one of the most likely candidates, along with my reasoning for thinking that.
But then it whould be better then Fresh Scent, which is not fair...
Fireball is better than Mortal Strike. Flik Skyshiv is better than, well, pretty much all similar cards.
In this case priest is known to be good at buffs, hunter less so. So I think it is perfectly fair, after all hunter has better cards than priest in other areas.
It's weird to see all these cards that literally would have 0 to no affect in Wild. They should probably un-nerf several more cards after the initial un-nerf.
My thoughts as well.
My feelings (and hopes) are that this is some sort of experiment. If it is successful and people like, then they will be more aggressive in the wild unnerf agenda!!!
There is a 4th added totem that a reverted Tuskarr Totemic could summon: Nightmare Amalgam. As a result it is actually more likely to high-roll into a 3/4 than it was before. That is not necessarily enough to mean it shouldn't be considered for an un-nerf, but it does make me a little uneasy about the prospect.