The real question is why would you run Peon at all? If you are already running broomstick for other reasons, there are far better 2-drops to include. Even Rock Rager would be better than this if you are dead-set on including a 2-drop that is useless without the broom.
Swipe has practically been an auto-include in Druid decks in nearly every meta. The only time it's not is when Token Druid is strong (like now), because that archetype wins the wide-board contest by default.
Board clears may not be Druid's strongest suit, but every class needs some way to handle swarms of small stuff. Your "big thing" isn't going to do you any good if your opponent already has a wide board and some kind of hard removal in hand.
I did say "very few," not "none." Of those three cards, only Deckhand has weapon synergy, and it's not even present in every version of the deck. Nor is Sap, for that matter. Just goes to show that they are not as big a deal as you seem to think.
Evis is a big blow to literally every single Rogue deck, but all classes (except Paladin) are facing similar losses, so that may just balance out as a separate issue.
Secret Mage didn't exist as an archetype at all for the first few years of the game. Then it kind of worked in Mean Streets of Gadgetzan, but wasn't top-tier. Now it's stronger than it's ever been. That's evolution.
You can go into the Year of the Gryphon with a chip on your shoulder and hate everything about it, or you can adopt a more positive attitude and spend your energy looking for ways to have fun instead of tearing it down.
Sure, there's a lot of Rogue at the moment, but I'll take that over a Control Warrior dominated meta anytime.
Of course, set rotation is going to cure a multitude of ills, so it seems a bit strange that they'd even bother doing nerfs at the same time as the big update. Then again, very few cards in the Self-Sharpening deck are going away, so maybe it is necessary.
I would also like to point out that Paladin is still at the top of the chart, and its win rates are just as high as Rogue's.
I'm sure a spell-heavy deck will eventually be possible, but I'm not expecting tokens to have a strong start in the Year of the Gryphon, and there's no other spell-heavy archetype jumping out at me with all of Druid's burn going away as well.
Prediction: Barrens will have a Druid card that damages the enemy board based on the Hero's Attack. They can't just delete Swipe and Starfall and expect Druid to survive without any board clear whatsoever. They have hinted that most Druid damage spells will be coming from the face now (like Pounce), and this is the most straightforward way to accomplish that.
Agree. The ability to ramp without skipping your turn is a very big deal.
Note, however, that you're going to rely on card draw more than ever when using a tactic like this. There is precious little draw in the Core set, and Overflow is leaving us, so here's hoping something turns up in Barrens.
You could argue that Paladin is changing the least as a class when you consider that the Legacy cards it is losing are seldom seen these days. Every other class is losing some powerful auto-includes, but Paladin gets to keep all of theirs.
Dude Paladin has always been interesting to me, but it never seems to be strong enough to truly succeed. I worry that the lil guys are gonna need a health boost in addition to the tools we've seen, or they won't live long enough to make an impact. Lothraxian is all well and good, but as a legendary, he can't exactly be counted on to show up early in the game when you need him most.
The new Hearthstone is about the board, not face burn, not hard control. In that light, cards like Aegwynn and the hero power cards make sense, as well as the deletion of cards that freeze the entire enemy board or transform key minions.
The Core Mage kit may seem to lack win conditions, but I think that's a good thing. Instead of seeing the same old one-trick pony for the whole year, we get to see Mage strategy evolve and expand with each expansion.
Varied quests encourages playing between formats, which is good for Blizzard.
It really, really doesn't, though, with the sole exception of the quest you cannot reroll. As long as a reroll option exists, I will always choose that over actually playing Battlegrounds.
Players are willing to give new things a try when they are free. Free Arena/Duels tickets encourage people to try those modes. Battlegrounds being completely free has made it extremely popular. Hearthstone itself snares most of its players by being "free" (in air quotes). We've all tried all of these things not because of quest rewards, but out of simple curiosity. But once you've tried them, you know whether or not you like them. This weekly incentive to try them again is not engaging; it's annoying.
Almost everyone on Reddit argues that the Tracking change is a nerf, and the way they justify it just sounds like people who try to make themselves look better than they are because they understand the "difficult to comprehend" value of deck thinning.
Yes, I get the feeling people have grown so accustomed to trying to convince people that the discard isn't hurting them, they've gone a bit overboard and started to believe it's the most important aspect of the card. In reality, the positive statistical impact of one or two cards' worth of deck thinning is super tiny -- literally exactly as tiny as the danger of "needing" the cards you lost.
This change doesn't make the card better or worse. It just makes it work the way they probably wanted in the first place.
I don't find any of this confusing at all. Given all the Nature (and normal) Spell Damage flapping about, I'm very happy that Wrath of Air Totem and Lava Burst are out. If they were still in, Burn Shaman would be Tier 0, and there would be no room for any other Shaman archetype. Zapper alone makes Wrath of Air waaaay too strong of a highroll.
The real question is why would you run Peon at all? If you are already running broomstick for other reasons, there are far better 2-drops to include. Even Rock Rager would be better than this if you are dead-set on including a 2-drop that is useless without the broom.
Yes, Librams are definitely Holy. It would be the dumbest thing ever if they weren't.
We are going to need so many owls ...
The horse hasn't exactly been tearing up the meta. Even in combination, the two won't exactly be oppressive.
If you don't have anything better to use your broomstick on, you shouldn't be carrying a broomstick.
Nope. The definition of Frenzy is "the first time this minion survives damage."
It's a River Crocolisk, plain and simple. It's definitely not worth wasting a broomstick on.
Nope. The definition of Frenzy is "the first time the minion survives damage."
Obviously there will be Fel synergy. If you're dismissing this card because you think spell schools won't matter, you're in for some big surprises.
Imagine, if you will, a minion with the text: After you cast a Fel spell, give all friendly minions +1/+1.
That's just off the top of my head. I'm sure there are even more creative things in store.
Swipe has practically been an auto-include in Druid decks in nearly every meta. The only time it's not is when Token Druid is strong (like now), because that archetype wins the wide-board contest by default.
Board clears may not be Druid's strongest suit, but every class needs some way to handle swarms of small stuff. Your "big thing" isn't going to do you any good if your opponent already has a wide board and some kind of hard removal in hand.
I did say "very few," not "none." Of those three cards, only Deckhand has weapon synergy, and it's not even present in every version of the deck. Nor is Sap, for that matter. Just goes to show that they are not as big a deal as you seem to think.
Evis is a big blow to literally every single Rogue deck, but all classes (except Paladin) are facing similar losses, so that may just balance out as a separate issue.
That's a ridiculous attitude.
Secret Mage didn't exist as an archetype at all for the first few years of the game. Then it kind of worked in Mean Streets of Gadgetzan, but wasn't top-tier. Now it's stronger than it's ever been. That's evolution.
You can go into the Year of the Gryphon with a chip on your shoulder and hate everything about it, or you can adopt a more positive attitude and spend your energy looking for ways to have fun instead of tearing it down.
Sure, there's a lot of Rogue at the moment, but I'll take that over a Control Warrior dominated meta anytime.
Of course, set rotation is going to cure a multitude of ills, so it seems a bit strange that they'd even bother doing nerfs at the same time as the big update. Then again, very few cards in the Self-Sharpening deck are going away, so maybe it is necessary.
I would also like to point out that Paladin is still at the top of the chart, and its win rates are just as high as Rogue's.
At the moment, the only viable all-spell strategy for Druid is tokens. It's very strong right now, but it's losing Treenforcements, Dreamway Guardians, Rising Winds, BEEEES!!!, Blessing of the Ancients, and Savage Roar -- in other words, half the deck, including an important finisher.
I'm sure a spell-heavy deck will eventually be possible, but I'm not expecting tokens to have a strong start in the Year of the Gryphon, and there's no other spell-heavy archetype jumping out at me with all of Druid's burn going away as well.
Prediction: Barrens will have a Druid card that damages the enemy board based on the Hero's Attack. They can't just delete Swipe and Starfall and expect Druid to survive without any board clear whatsoever. They have hinted that most Druid damage spells will be coming from the face now (like Pounce), and this is the most straightforward way to accomplish that.
Agree. The ability to ramp without skipping your turn is a very big deal.
Note, however, that you're going to rely on card draw more than ever when using a tactic like this. There is precious little draw in the Core set, and Overflow is leaving us, so here's hoping something turns up in Barrens.
You could argue that Paladin is changing the least as a class when you consider that the Legacy cards it is losing are seldom seen these days. Every other class is losing some powerful auto-includes, but Paladin gets to keep all of theirs.
Dude Paladin has always been interesting to me, but it never seems to be strong enough to truly succeed. I worry that the lil guys are gonna need a health boost in addition to the tools we've seen, or they won't live long enough to make an impact. Lothraxian is all well and good, but as a legendary, he can't exactly be counted on to show up early in the game when you need him most.
The new Hearthstone is about the board, not face burn, not hard control. In that light, cards like Aegwynn and the hero power cards make sense, as well as the deletion of cards that freeze the entire enemy board or transform key minions.
The Core Mage kit may seem to lack win conditions, but I think that's a good thing. Instead of seeing the same old one-trick pony for the whole year, we get to see Mage strategy evolve and expand with each expansion.
Agreed, it's such a waste. You get to see your opponent's mainly when they discover something, and you pretty much never get to see your own.
It really, really doesn't, though, with the sole exception of the quest you cannot reroll. As long as a reroll option exists, I will always choose that over actually playing Battlegrounds.
Players are willing to give new things a try when they are free. Free Arena/Duels tickets encourage people to try those modes. Battlegrounds being completely free has made it extremely popular. Hearthstone itself snares most of its players by being "free" (in air quotes). We've all tried all of these things not because of quest rewards, but out of simple curiosity. But once you've tried them, you know whether or not you like them. This weekly incentive to try them again is not engaging; it's annoying.
Yes, I get the feeling people have grown so accustomed to trying to convince people that the discard isn't hurting them, they've gone a bit overboard and started to believe it's the most important aspect of the card. In reality, the positive statistical impact of one or two cards' worth of deck thinning is super tiny -- literally exactly as tiny as the danger of "needing" the cards you lost.
This change doesn't make the card better or worse. It just makes it work the way they probably wanted in the first place.
You might be surprised at how soon you get over these feelings.
I don't find any of this confusing at all. Given all the Nature (and normal) Spell Damage flapping about, I'm very happy that Wrath of Air Totem and Lava Burst are out. If they were still in, Burn Shaman would be Tier 0, and there would be no room for any other Shaman archetype. Zapper alone makes Wrath of Air waaaay too strong of a highroll.