The Nerfs are Coming!

Introduction

The nerfs are coming! The nerfs are coming!

OH MY! They are already here! Hide yo mama, Hide yo Wife! Today’s article is going to be all about the nerfs and if you should point your D09-Disenchanting-Prototype-Gun at them or not.

Before we start, I would just like to say that I liked these changes. They were good and healthy for the game, you can’t deny that.

So, without any more delays, let’s start discussing the cards shall we?

About Disenchanting

Oh I almost forgot this part. Ok so there is the disenchanting part. Obviously, I will be talking about this for each and every separated card if you should or if you should not disenchant a card, but the main idea here is to disenchant everything and only craft it back if it either sees play or if you want to play it.

Because you’ll be getting the full card price disenchant value if you DE (disenchant) the card after the nerf hits, meaning there is no harm at all DEing the cards you got.

Leper Gnome

So, this guy becomes a 1/1. I liked this nerf, not because it gets instantly unplayable, but because it gets reduced down to the playability level of the other 1-drops in the game. Leper Gnome isn’t an instant Face-Deck addition as it was before. Now there are many and many different comparisons for you to make before choosing your 1-drop. Do you want to buff stuff? Maybe argent-squire is better. Do you want to do damage quickly? Maybe we’re looking for worgen-infiltrator. Do you want to always deal at least 2 damage? You’re likely to still want leper-gnome. This change is good for the game, but I would still advise DEing this card.

Big Game Hunter

At 5 mana it gets too close to the-black-knight and I don’t know about you, but I would prefer the tempo swing of The Black Knight over Big Game Hunter any time. Sure, BGH can still be playable if the metagame gets too gigantic, but overall I believe there is naturally to be more TBK targets than BGH targets in the game. Feel free to DE this one.

Ancient of Lore

Everybody saw this coming. And the exact nerf everyone thought was going to happen as well. Lore was indeed too strong drawing 2 cards, and with this change it doesn’t stop being a very powerful and versatile card, it just stops being the thoughtless number one option for 7-drop in the Druid. You’ll still want this if you’re playing let’s say Midrange decks that want to cycle through quicker than other decks, and I advise not taking this out of your deck just now as it is still a very powerful card, regardless of nerf. I wouldn’t DE this if I were you and still wanted to play Druid.

Hunter’s Mark

Well shit. This is a basic card, so there is no DE option for this one. But being honest with you, I don’t see this being a big change. This nerf was supposed to have happened years ago, everyone always thought Hunter’s Mark was supposed to be a 1-cost card and not a 0-cost, and Blizzard finally noticed that as well. I don’t believe the card gets unplayable because of this change, given how any Hunter deck that would want to run Hunter’s Mark for 0 would still want to run it for 1.

Knife Juggler

Can’t say this wasn’t deserved as well. Knife Juggler was always too powerful and too good with cards like Muster for Battle and Unleash the Hounds. Fact is? It is still very powerful, even as a 2/2. The damage input you have diminishes, right, but it is still a card that is superior to most 2-drop in the game simply because of its interaction with multiple-summon effects. This card is still playable, despite the nerf, I still don’t know if other decks will want to run different 2-drops just because of this change simply because the number of playable 2-drops isn’t very high right now (at least not in standard). In Wild this is still the card of choice for both Hunters and Paladins. Verdict? DE this if you want, since it is not guaranteed to be playable after the nerf and the rest of the expansion reveal, and in case you want to play it later, re-craft.

Arcane Golem

This became totally unplayable. Easy disenchant right here.

Ironbeak Owl

Another totally fair nerf. Silence is indeed a very powerful effect that it can’t just cost 2 mana and come attached to a body. At 3 mana it becomes more fair, and while the nerf do was powerful, this won’t stop seeing play simply because it is: 1) A silence effect. 2) A beast.

Don’t DE this unless you have a Golden one like I do 😀

Force of Nature

This wasn’t really a nerf. The card changed completely, I call this a re-work. I think I have discussed the “Combo” portion of the Midrange Druid so much in my past articles that pushing that button again would just be too repetitive. This was needed, not only for Druid’s deck design but also for other classe’s deck design as well – the combo was very limiting when it came to deck design. Now there aren’t many ways to combo with savage-roar (if there are any) outside of maybe leeroy-jenkins dealing 11 damage at turn 10 or 10 damage at turn 8, but I believe that is all about it. No more 24 damage in one turn, even Arcane Golem got nerfed so there isn’t even the possibility of Double Golem+Roar anymore – And now we start seeing the bigger picture!

Ok, now to the new card itself – it looks weak, won’t deny you that. Don’t know if this will see play in some sort of Token Druid, but very likely it won’t. Feel free to DE this.

Master of Disguise

Oh my god what will be of our lives now that we don’t have Master of Disguise????

Well, this card never saw play anyway, but I believe this nerf came because of stuff like what Amaz did on his stream (Mal’Ganis+Master of Disguise) shouldn’t be allowed to happen, and some day someone would be finding a broken combo with it. Well, not anymore as the card got nerfed.

Blade Flurry

Before I start going deeper on this card’s change, I would just like to say this card became totally unplayable. Not only the cost got doubled up to 4, the damage is now also limited to only minions.

Ok, now to the talk, the change here is huge. Not just for the card itself but for the Rogue class: it loses a lot. Blade Flurry plays were also the biggest thing revolving around Midrange Combo Rogue strategies: From Malygos Rogue to Oil Rogue and Miracle Rogue, everyone wanted Blade Flurry. The card was just that needed. Rogue is that type of strategy that relies on always having the tempo of the game, because it is just too fragile to play from behind.

This change kills Malygos Rogue, which was the last Midrange Combo Rogue strategy supposed to live post-rotation, simply because you can’t easily board clear anymore. If you played Malyrogue as much as I did, you noticed how Malygos->Coin->Flurry was a constant play, and you simply can’t do that anymore. What made Malygos Rogue playable when League of Explorers came wasn’t the tomb-pillager’s interaction with gadgetzan-auctioneer alone, but also the interaction the coin had with Malygos and Blade Flurry. Well, not anymore!

This change, however, opens up for Deck building. Rogues will need a more resilient build and a less Tempo-oriented one, as this change implies in a lot of changes for the Rogue deck base, maybe we’ll see different strategies rise up? Who knows!

Oh, and just to say: instant DE on this card.

Molten Giant

At 25 this goes from Decent to unplayable. There is no more Echo Mage in standard for we to play, so we can’t just play him after our opponent pops our ice-block and combo. While, with Warlock strategies 5 Health is just too risky, and at 10 playing this for 5 mana is way too wasteful. Not to mention you can’t play this with lord-jaraxxus anymore, which is yet another reason why this card becomes unplayable post-nerf. I understand the need of a nerf like this, but I have to say I will miss my Molten Giants. Easy DE here.

Keeper of the Grove

Well this is the final nerf I wanted to discuss. This was yet another nerf we all saw coming. Keeper was just too good: There wasn’t a single Druid build or deck ever that didn’t want to run 2 of these. The choice was automatic and there was just no room for deck building. With these changes the card won’t stop being playable, but at least now you’ll have compare its power to the one of other 4-drops before thinking about adding this to your deck.

In my opinion, this card becomes too weak to be played and I would DE it after the nerf. Sure, it can still see play later, but in case it does just re-craft it as you’ll have your 100 dust anyway, I just think it is unlikely.

Closing

Won’t put a lot of words here as you all already want to read this article and I am still here, writing.

I hope you guys enjoyed the changes, now more than ever I am ultra excited about the 26th. The nerfs announcement is likely to be more important and meta-defining than the whole expansion we’re about to witness, but that doesn’t mean we won’t get hyped about the new cards, right? 😀

I love you guys, hope to see you around soon!

Oh, and don’t miss our coverage of the announcement they will make day 21, a lot of cool stuff to talk about!

Cuddles, daddy loves you!

Nuba

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