The latest expansion of Hearthstone was just released and players are already complaining about seemingly unbalanced cards. Following Master Tour Seoul and the victory of Felkeine, Mage and Warrior classes are currently considered overpowered by most people. The fact that Felkeine and Zhym reached the first and the second place with two identical decklists didn't go unnoticed...
It seems that Hearthstone Principal Game Designer Mike Donais is well aware of this, to the point that he implied that balance changes should soon be applied onto some cards.
An overrepresentation of Warrior and Mage classes in Seoul?
The distribution of Master Tour Seoul classes testifies strongly of such overrepresentation: more than 60% of players were actually playing one of these two classes. We don't need more to underline the fact that Warrior and Mage might indeed deserve a nerf.
Nerfing Mage and Warrior: how?
Obviously, balance changes don't mean that these two classes should be dissected and dislocated. Some specific cards which are currently overpowered should be targeted.
[Mage] Luna's Pocket Galaxy
The least we can say is that this card caused a lot of ink to flow — at least since it was buffed. At first, the card cost (7) manas and was almost unplayable. However, Blizzard decided to buff the card in June, changing its mana cost from (7) to (5). Suddenly, the card became one of the best of the game — thus giving to the already omnipresent Mage class a new tool to obliterate other players.
Dog won Master Tour Las Vegas with a Mage deck. Felkeine won Master Tour Seoul with a Mage deck. The coincidence seems a bit too much... Then, how to nerf this card?
- Increase its cost to (6) mana ;
- Change the effect of the card to make it reduce the cost of minion instead of changing it. For instance, the card might reduce by half the cost of a minion instead of setting its cost to (1) mana.
[Warrior] Dr. Boom, Mad Genius
Another big problem of the current meta: the alternative Warrior Hero — Dr. Boom Mad Genius. In the current state of the meta, this card is the very definition of the Control Warrior archetype — meaning you can't even consider playing this type of decklist without it.
The main issue of this card lies in its passive effect: "For the rest of the game, your Mechs have Rush." If you think about the Hero Power of Dr. Boom, then you immediately understand how strong this passive is: thanks to Dr. Boom's Hero Power, you can swarm your opponent with an infinite amount of Rushing Mechs.
Yes, Dr. Boom's Hero Power actually has five different effects — meaning you won't discover Mechs every turn. You might gain seven armor points, deal one damage to all enemies, deal three damage to any target, or summon three 1/1 Microbots. Most of the time, we consider RNG as a nerfing factor, but Dr. Boom is always good. The card itself will generate an incredible value. So how could it be nerfed?
- Passive: Give "Rush" to only one Mech per turn
- Mana cost: Change its mana cost from (8) to (9)
- Hero Power: Change the Discover mechanic for "Add a random Mech to your hand"; reduce the armor gain to four or five points
- Wild: Remove the card from the Standard mode — in the same was than Hagatha the Witch or Zul'Jin
[Mage] Conjurer's Calling
This is THE card that pushes people towards madness. Most of us already experience such dirty and disgusting luck of the draw, when a Mage player chains Elemental Invocation, Mountain Giant, and Conjurer's Calling on turn four. Then, he proceeds to play the card again the next turn because it's a Twinspell. Currently, in the same way as Dr. Boom Mad Genius with the Control Warrior, Conjurer's Calling is the very definition of Mage archetypes — to such a point that no players would play any Mage deck without that cards.
Currently, all decklists from all classes are revolving around this precise cards by trying to answer the following questions:
- Is my decklist fast enough to beat a Mage before turn six or seven?
- Is my decklist capable of dealing with one or two Mountain Giants on turn three or four?
Most of the time, the answer is no — which is the main reason why Druid, Paladin, or Warlock decks aren't really popular these days. Thanks to Sap, the Rogue can try to deal with an early Mountain Giant, while the Warrior can handle this threat with Shield Slam or Execute, and the Hunter with Deadly Shot. So, how to nerf this card?
- Change the mana cost to (4)
- Remove the Twinspell attribute
- Apply both of the previous ideas.
- Send Mountain Giant to the Hall of Fame
Should Rogue be also nerfed?
If these nerfed were to be applied, the Rogue class would suddenly rise to the top of the tier list. Because of Myra's Unstable Element, Rogue aggro archetypes can rebuild their hand when they're supposed to be out of resources. Also, the card synergizes perfectly with Chef Nomi...
But how to nerf this card? Do you think increasing its mana cost would be enough? You opinion matters, let us know what you think about this in the comment section!
Won by Felkeine, the Masters Tour Seoul was a great success for French players with four of them in the Top 8. A historical performance that was made possible because of one major thing... their decklists. Check out those of the Top 8 players of the competition.
