What are you one trick pony players gonna do when they nerf that gnoll? How you wonder? by keeping it the cost you play it as instead of keeping it at 10. 4 out of 6 people in Legend rank had that -------------------- deck. Not sure how you manage to get him so early but seeing a 12/12 turn 4 will not go unnoticed with so many of you riding that copied play.
How many of you know to which I refer?
They never did that, tho it would be the most logical nerf to evolve cards. Knowing them, they will nerf the Gnoll by 1-2 Mana expecting to delay him in the average game. Maybe also nerf the wonderful evolve card since it’s definitely waaay better than most evolve cards.
that would be the less logical one
they can just roll back the buff to the evolve mechanic from 3 years ago
That could be an alternative. But I still think they will default to mana nerfs. They always go the easy route.
I mean, why not take the easy route when it hurts the least amount of other cards. Clearly gnoll is the problem, so gnoll should be the only card hit.
The sheer amount of times the Gnoll comes out is insane. I honestly don’t care what stats may tell you, I see that Gnoll and location combo in at least 90 percent of Shaman games on curve. It’s a guaranteed draw. I’m absolutely positive this has been algorithm boosted to coincide with the mini-set release.
Amazon has an exploit??!!
That’s not so clear, imo. Besides Shaman, Gnoll by itself only sees significant play in Warlock (and that is because the class’ hero power works really well with it). Besides those two, the card is at best average in any other class. Nerfing it will only accentuate this disparity, either killing the card or continuing its roll in the same two classes while the other classes will be more prone to avoid it.
And the easy route won’t change the core problem. Any high cost cards with discounts can possibly be abused by Evolve effects. The Gnoll is currently their food, but if HS was to print a Giant or any card with a discount condition that can be easily fulfilled, that would be the new Gnoll.
So, what I truly want to say is that Evolve in its current state limits design space. If they choose to nerf Gnoll, then they have to preemptively nerf or be careful with any future card printed of the aforementioned category (which is pretty common in HS if you ask me).
I dont think it limits as much design space as you think. Usually with giants or other cost reducing cards, you have to actually do stuff to make them cheaper. Gnoll is unique in the fact that it starts out extremely cheap without the player having to do too much.