Why is it that druid gets the opportunity to play multiple tier 1 and 2 archetypes? Aggro, ramp, dragon, combo, and fatigue are all viable and completely enabled. What is the design decision behind juicing one class to the extreme while being completely uninspired and lackluster in the design of other classes?
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I also wonder this exact same thing to be honest. I donât think I have seen a single shaman card in the past 3 years and went: âOMG thatâs so OP wtfâ. That exact thought has crossed my mind with druid card reveals almost every single time.
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With the exception of the Highlander Brann card specifically, Druid is the only class that consistently makes me think, âWhat the frick were they thinking.â The class regularly operates outside of the normal boundaries (or âstandardsâ) of the game. No other classes can do the things that Druids can do, to the point where it feels like youâre playing an arena deck against somebodyâs Duels deck.
Challenge: go two sets without Druid doing something hellishly stupid and degenerate.
Level: Impossible
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It would be nice. The problem is not just degenerate decks and cards, but degenerate players.
If youâre choosing to play any type of Chad deck, then it follows that you are a degenerate in life as well.
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Itâs the combination of ramp plus draw. Those two mechanics should not be available so easily in one class.
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Its not even the ramp and draw its the fact that the ramp and draw cards can also double as defensive tools. I know druid gets limited AOE options but the ability to double their hitpoint total through armor while targeted drawing is why they can live long enough to do their stupid combos on turn 6 without being dead.
But the draw itself is pretty insane as well. A motivated druid can go through their entire deck by turn 6 or 7.
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Remember everyone, Force of Nature was nerfed to the ground and Wild Growth was nerfed to 3 mana to pave the way for Modern Druid. I hope youâre all happy.
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When they decided that Druid would be a class with little removal thatâs when it all fell apart. They compensated with mana ramp and cheat and with no counter window in the game they can run mostly free and not worry about removal because they can create lethal boards/combos far faster.
I donât disagree per say with that kind of design but you need to take extra care when you give them cards. Costs, stats and effects all need careful adjustment for Druid.
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Druid is balanced to be the king of greed. And that is fine, but they keep doing the same mistake over and over. Druid cannot have good survivability. It should be a class that preys on slower decks that let them ramp but dies to aggro easily. They keep ignoring this because they donât even seem to know what theyâre even doing tbh.
Wow. More than 7 years and you still havenât gotten over it.
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Iâve been over it for more than 7 years. Can facts no longer be stated? Or, you donât like when facts are stated? In which case, idk what to tell you.
Iâm convinced that different people work on different classes. When designing cards. The people in charge of designing druid are liberal card designers in the sense that they donât care about giving power at the cost of nothing.
Meanwhile, some of the other classes have extremely conservative card making devs And theyâll create cards that wouldnât even see play five years ago.
The best card priest got this mini set was probably designed by a druid dev. Thereâs no way the priest card making dev made that card. If it was it would have been a ten mana card
I think one dev specifically said he has been mostly fully in charge of this miniset. Wonât give names because I donât wanna promote any kind of abusive behavior or anything; but I think the workload is more compartimentalized by set for different designers and they get some extra help here and there.
Druid identy:
Do all the things faster than everyone else.
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Yeah thats all well and good. But then druid gets to play busted neutrals like ignis. Balance its cost and effect for druid and you have a card unplayable for everybody else. Same with thaddius. And jailer. And many others.
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Druid is the cause for so many neutral nerfs because of this exact reason.
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If you ask me neutral cards are bad design. Just in general.
One of three things is going to be true:
- You donât have any mechanics that manipulate mana (in particular, ramp) at all, and your game is boring. Unacceptable, I actually meant two things.
- The uneven impact of cost on different classes essentially gives the ârampâ classes a broader card pool than the other classes. In this case, neutral cards are basically an expansion on Druid class cards.
- Every neutral card is going to have its viability tied to strong synergies with the non-ramp classes. For example, a neutral Undead when DK has the best Undead tribe cards. But then all youâre doing is effectively expanding on the DK class card pool, maybe an effective dual class card.
At the end of the day itâs just class cards or dual class cards with more steps.
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Very true for the most part. Itâs especially true because of mana ramping and mana manipulation. If you allow a single class to have ramp AND have access to mana cheating beyond what any other class has, it canât possibly work in a way that is fair and balanced.
How many cards have been nerfed specifically because of Druid? Tons. And itâs ALWAYS tied to mana ramping and mana cheating. Always. Eonar simply should not refresh all your mana crystals. It makes it, by default, mana cheating out a 5/7 and 5/5 for absolutely no cost whatsoever to you. Thereâs a reason Amanâthul doesnât target Titans. You could exploit that mana cheating immediately. Yet, Druid is allowed to do just this with its Titan.
If you go back and look at the history for cards that are nerfed, a great deal of them are nerfed because of mana cheating in some fashion or doing something that is too powerful for the mana provided.
Combine all of this with a class that is built around ramping, cheating mana AND has the synergy in cards to allow it to do both while also gaining advantage for doing both is just absurd.
The reason Druid is so busted right now is because they gave it copy cards without the copy tax. As Priest, I pay 2 mana to copy a minion from the board and put it into my hand. I then have to pay the mana cost of the original minion to play it. I pay original mana cost + 2 to get a copy.
Then this new spell drops. Because it just so happens to be a Druid card, Druid can now play this copy card, immediately gain all their mana back in the investment they made and sit as if they never spent a single mana. They arenât just not paying a copy tax, they are actively getting mana BACK. Itâs a reverse tax. Druid gets an immediate tax refund.
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After writing that I realized that sometimes one might want to design a synergy card thatâs used in more than two classes. An example would be Reno Lone Ranger, for Highlander decks. Thatâs a card that is neutral and probably should be neutral. I guess Kobold Miner is in the same category. So when I say âneutrals are bad designâ I donât mean it as a rule that has zero exceptions. There should be some neutral cards.
The problem is more in the absolute prevalence of the mechanic. There are and always have been way too many neutral cards. The ability to just ignore class should be a very rare mechanic applied in rather narrow situations, not something thatâs on dozens of minions every expansion. Itâs tremendously overused and has led to a depressing amount of pack filler.
Funny how the âking of greedâ has the best aggro deck in the meta.