Shudderwock got nerfed for its ability to win games all on its own. It’s not about symmetry. It’s about avoiding hugely spiky moments of all-or-nothing gameplay. Most folks remember what happened with Shudderwock. What do you do to prepare for that massive battlecry? You just have to watch as your opponent plays one battlecry after another, and hope they don’t have it to plop on the board as soon as they’ve played the right cards. Games would be won or lost based on when exactly the one card got drawn.
It’s not even the same as the old Jade Golem decks. With those, yeah, you had to kill them before they could really get rolling, but you always knew exactly what they could do next turn, and could prepare for it. The next Jade Golem could only be +1/+1 bigger than the last. There’s an obvious buildup. With Zul’Jin? It’s just do they have it or not. It’s a binary explosion, a card that either wins a game that’s otherwise lost, or they lose.
Whining about zul’jin ,when there are cards like dr.boom (infinity value),OMEGALUL Devastator 4 mana 4/5 which deals 10 dmg plus let’s say 4 more from the Dr.boom effect and of course you get cards again like omega Devastator and dynomatic every f*cking time from delivery drone and omega assembly ?! And those cards are from one class ?
It’s possible for more than one thing to be a problem, but right now I’m seeing much more of hunter at the moment than I am of warrior.
But for the sake of discussion, I agree. And there’s definitely a trend. The classes that still have playable heroes after the Death Knights rotated out are really, really strong right now. Murloc Shamans with Hagatha are super strong, too, and seem to never run out of steam.
and aggro shaman is doing well too…without hagatha
Maybe. What about spell hunter? Would you run such a deck without Zul’Jin? That’s not even really my main point. Hagatha’s also probably the least powerful of the 3 playable heroes in Standard.
Zul’jin is strong. Maybe even the best in theory.
Its weakness is the Hunter class. If Zuljin was a Priest, Druid or Warrior card, it would been insane.
Imo if it was in Warrior class, every Wild Warrior would play it. 10 mana, clear board, whirlwinds, executes, 30 armor, hand refill, DMH… it would be very unbalanced.
10 mana “I win cards” are not going to be nerfed. Zul’jin is a hero card, it’s supposed to be powerful. As a Hunter card he is fine.
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People have this weird misconception that you’re just going to play Zul’jin on turn 10 and win.
Not like he requires some unorthodox / sub-optiomal / mediocre cards choices to be included, often at the expense of other, more popular and powerful-on-curve picks.
Zul’jin decks tend to be very slow, with a nearly non-existent early game. One’d prefer not to use their Kill Commands early on without a good reason, or risk them just flat-out cutting off power from his battlecry. Some spells are hit or miss, risk over-draw and fatigue, and so on.
It’s a combo / control card. If you’re complaining about Zul’jin, why aren’t you complaining about the rest of the field; other game-winning late game cards, both past and present.
It’s a clear trade-off: suck it against aggro and faster decks, for the ability to out-value and out-pressure warriors and rogues. Because let’s be honest, it’s a very underwhelming card against anyone else - hunter’d much prefer finishing mages off well before turn 10, has no time to play Zul’papa vs shamans, and it serves outright no purpose against paladins.
The strongest lists don’t run him at the moment. That ought to be telling.
Ahem.
Cards which arent even 100% used in decks that are perfectly suited to maximizing their synergies cannot ever be broken cards.