Overall, I think this is a very successful patch in fixing a pretty good amount of cards in the game and warrior feels viable now (I’m not going to go so far as saying warrior feels great but playing a pure control deck actually feels like a real, functioning deck).
I overall would like to see more nerfs and buffs but it’s not really Blizzard’s thing to do a complete overhaul of anything, probably because they don’t want to upset balance in an opposite direction, but I think there are enough discernable problem cards right now (either being way too unusable or way too strong) that doing a comprehensive overhaul isn’t something to be afraid of. Card overhaul aside (and I do think Blizzard needs to look back as classic cards and cards from older sets), I would also like to see some other fixes.
Some things I’d like to see changed are specific within the meta but I’d also like to see some overall game state fixes as well. I think the biggest one I’d like to see is a clear goal in mind for mana costs and demarcating at what mana cost should cards be doing what. For example, 1 and 2 drops should aim to stabilize the early game (working as intended), 3 drops should be to curve, 4 drops should be the area where you have higher impact cards where the tradeoff is possibly lower tempo from not playing multiple smaller cards, 5 cost should be the beginning of the midgame, 10 mana cards should be your big finisher cards.
Currently, it seems like the design around mana costs are ‘well these cards in the past were these mana costs and they didn’t work because they were undervalued, so instead of making cards in the appropriate mana cost range, we’re just going to powercreep everything.’ This naturally is just how things go, but right now 5 drops often times feel like they have no place in the game and 8 drop cards have become the new 10 cost and 10 cost cards really just feel like worse 8 drops. I feel like there’s design space to tidy up and give identity to mana values since things kind of seem all over the place.
One of the other fixes I’d like to see is to discover. I think this should be a premium mechanic if generating from a random pool since now-a-days there is often times no drawback from discovering class cards as class cards have become better and better. Instead, I think there should be a decision to discover cards from your deck (not copies, but the card itself) and there can be associated mana costs that are more transparent with each type of discover option. Generating infinite cards I think is turning away a lot of players from the game and I think this is overall a better choice as it implements skill into (1) playing around cards you know your opponent is exhausting from their deck (2) fatigue being a bigger factor in control matchups. It also would mean balance between aggro and control can be more careful curated as control decks can have access to more specific tools on demand but has a critical mass of how often these decks are allowed to manage on-board threats. It also means that more powerful aggro cards can be allowed to exist since the variance in random discover being polarizing in either direction is controlled.
The last change I’d overall like to see changed is the loss of keywords and mechanics over sets and class identity. As the game moves forward, there’s a lot of homogenization and I think Blizzard should stop standardizing efficiency in effects and stats across classes and double down at what classes are good and bad at what with specific tools that have cross-class identity (LIKE legendaries or specific in-class archetypes). We’ve seen inspire, adapt, double and triple class cards, and recruit all disappear (this is not an exhaustive list), and other mechanics such as “cannot be targeted by spells or hero powers” not even having a keyword and are seen on very few cards which also happen to be weak. I think the misguided consensus is that these mechanics are bad when in reality these mechanics were either slapped onto cards where there was very little support (such as early day elementals having few elementals to trigger the “if you played an elemental on your last turn” clause), the cards themselves were very weak stat wise or ability wise, or the classes themselves were fighting against other classes that were just dominating in their respective meta.
I don’t think these are good barometers on whether or not a mechanic is a success or failure, I just think many of these ideas were experimental and once failed were tossed out. I understand Blizzard wants each set to have its own mechanics and flavor, and people generally really enjoy the flavor, but I think the current design philosophy is really limiting to card design and implementing old ideas back into the game would feel really fulfilling and also help control card balance since there are more restrictions you could place on cards or more ways you could trigger powerful effects that aren’t just ‘battlecry: destroy your opponent’s minions and you win the game.’