Once upon a time, Blizzard nerfed a card called Leeroy Jenkins. The card allowed too much damage to be dealt from hand in one turn, they said.
Fast forward nearly a year, and we are firmly in the clutches of the Patron Warrior meta. The deck, focused around being able to proc Grim Patrons and Frothing Berserkers several times with Warsong Commanders providing them with charge, has dominated the game since the Blackrock Mountain expansion.
No matter how far ahead you are in a game against it, if Emperor Thaurissan has gone off on the right cards you can die no matter your life total. Even if it’s double the 30 life characters start with.
In yesterday’s NA Road to Blizzcon matches, Andrey “Reynad” Yanyuk managed to pull off a turn against teammate George “Hyped” Maganzini that has to be seen to be believed.
Staring down an empty board with two Armorsmiths and a gaggle of Patrons, Maganzini probably felt pretty safe. In the Patron mirror, the player who gets his Patrons down first generally wins most of the time. Except sometimes this happens.
Thanks to his Emperor Thaurissan, Yanyuk has all the firepower he needs with two Frothing Berserkers, a Warsong Commander and three whirlwind effects. With the actions locked in, the players can only sit back and watch as over a minute goes by. The turn timer elapses, but with so many animations to go off, the rope keeps on burning.
Eventually, Yanyuk swings in with his Frothings for a total 72 damage, well over what was needed even with Maganzini’s two Armorsmiths. With the series balanced at 2-2, the loss sends Maganzini out of the tournament.
The worst part? Yanyuk didn’t even play the turn in the best way possible. He could have killed one of the Armorsmiths and reduced the armor gain significantly, but it didn’t even matter.
While plays like this are amazing, players and fans are getting increasingly restless—how much longer can Blizzard really justify letting this sort of thing go by unchecked?