It is clear the goals of the Classic nerfs are to put more emphasis on Expansion cards by nerfing classic and Basic card to the point that they cannot support strategies on their own. This allows for the Standard meta to constantly change as new cards enter in and old card depart for Wild only pastures.
However there is a flaw to this.
Because Blizzard Team 5 doesn’t make cards of the same amount of brokenness between the classes, 2 problems arrise.
Some classes are regulated to variants of the same deck as they don’t get even power from mulitple angles to produce multiple styles of deck. We see this with Druid, Warlock, and Priest.
If they miss their mark and make a card too powerful and strong enough to hold up a deck, the weaker classes might be too far down in power to compete with them. This causes the meta to warp drastically and lowers fun as the diversity drops. Then the calls for a balance patch are heard.
If Classic and Basic are gonna be downplayed, then the new cards of each class need to be unchained. Taking turns and manufacturing classes to have booms and busts has to stop.
This is a sentiment lots of players express, but I think they view blizzard as these omnipotent beings that know exactly how the meta is going to play out. They arn’t sitting in a room cackling saying “Which class is gonna be OP this meta-game? buhaha”
There are always patterns with rotations, right after rotation is arguably the most imbalanced because its a huge change to the card pool.
The meta is evolving even now, with many magnitudes more players than blizzard could ever dream of testing with internally. Give them a break.
That’s debatable. “Evil blizzard wants you to buy packs, ect ect…”
What seems more likely is (And I use this concept sparringly, as most people use it completely wrong) DESIGN SPACE.
They are normalizing the classic set. The classic set is a double-edged sword. It’s nice to have a pool of cards that most players have access too all the time, but its also bad if some of those cards are powerful every meta. The classic set should be designed to supplement expansions, ideally nothing in the classic set should be able to carry a deck on its own.
There have been many times when members of the team have said they have given a class a strong card because it was currently weak or a weak card because it is currently strong.
They create thematic sets of cards where some classes get a decent or strong card and other classes get a joke card or weak card.
The nerfs to the Classic set is being done piece by piece over 4 years and not all at once.
There is no denying that the team is having classes take turns. It might be on purpose or accidental or consequence of the way they schedule. But it is happening and it must stop.
But you have got to agree, they pretty much nailed almost all predictions for Rise of Shadows. It’s evident in the Whizbang decks. Only Nomi Priest and Conjurer Miracle Mage was a surprise.
So they do have a pretty good idea how the meta will shape out.