1.Still, a 3/5 rush deal with most minions by turn 2 or 3. A mana increase would be much harsher a nerf.
2. Of course tournaments should be basis for nerfs, they determine the strongest decks in the view of pros.
3. ST was a very strong card, with vanilla stats and discover a up to 3 cost spell while paying 1 mana only for it. It wasn’t singled out, about a dozen cards were nerfed.
4. ST may not be the best performing card in Naga Priest, but the deck was tier 1 and clearly would be the strongest after all other T1 decks got nerfed across 2 to 4 cards.