And it’s as of the mini-set release.
That’s probably the funniest thing I’ve ever seen. You hard nerf a deck and somehow it becomes better at Top1K Legend. 
https://i.ibb.co/5LDWnhq/top1kwar.png
5 Likes
Maybe people weren’t prepared for it because they thought it’d be out of meta?
I mean, the Brann nerf isn’t relevant to the aggro matchups, which weren’t decided by Brann…
It was relevant to slow matchups, but those were oppressively in favor of warrior, and they’ll still be able to throw away a turn 8 just like they could with Odyn (and still can with Odyn at 9) if it means you basically auto win the game afterward.
Blizz doesn’t know how to make an interesting late game anymore. They just make game ending cards because that’s easier.
8 Likes
Not surprised. Could probably be 10 mana and it would probably still get played.
3 Likes
Is that really surprising with all the late game combos warrior still has. Bombboss to delete half your opponents deck, zillax with brann or otherwise to heal up to full… excavate to throw in a large board that can burst with the charge guy and ragnaros and then the mech resummon guy to heal to full again and do a potential 24 damage to face.
No other class has that extensive of late game options. Shaman is pretty close but its missing the delete your opponents card library card. Brann just happens to turbocharge an already hideously powerful late game option but probably isnt even necessary.
Lets not forget to mention the massive health gain (armor) + draw to price out OTK decks, and reno as the oh crap reset button alongside the turn 1-8 removal curve to price out all but the fastest of aggro decks.
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The surprising thing is that Top1K Legend is chalk full of aggro/otk and stuff that generally beats Brann Warrior.
The fact that it rose in tier after getting nerfed is the funny thing because all that aggro/otk still exists.
This is all because Mage suddenly became playable so everyone and their mother is playing Mage. So Brann is back on top because of that. Pretty funny that by nerfing it they buffed it in a way in Top1K
2 Likes
Id have to imagine that its also favored against warlock too and while I dont follow the data sites outside of what is posted here I have to think that warlock has seen a bump in playrate and its a favored matchup for warrior?
No, it’s worse matchup is Pain Lock which is seeing tons of play.
What’s happened is Brann getting nerfed allowed a lot of Mid Range / Slower decks to emerge like Highlander Shaman, Highlander Paladin, Highlander Priest, Highlander Hunter etc.
People are picking those decks up and Brann is no longer massively favored against them. Highlander Priest and Highlander Hunter roll over Brann now but Brann still beats the other 2, but not by a landslide anymore.
So the Brann nerf was right, it opened up the meta.
But it’s right back on top because by opening the meta, it allowed Mage to have a decent deck, and anytime Mage has a decent deck, the players flock to it hard and so Brann is beating it up.
Brann isn’t at the top because it’s good, it’s only there because it’s now average, but beating the snot out of the Mage players and a few other decks.
1 Like
I’m actually running into the occasional warrior decks NOT running Brann right now. The late game isn’t as oppressive but it’s still plenty strong. I’m assuming this makes matchups against the aggro decks even more consistent in the early game.
The cause is how the world changed around it.
Also…
If blizzard really gonna take that posture against combo decks we get to the point where the amount of armor some classes can generate turns into an issue instantly.
There is no midterm to this.
Yeah, it’s basically what I said about the nerf before it went in.
Nerfing Brann lets more things get under it, so it “opens up the meta” a bit.
But it doesn’t really change the fact that Brann is still a hard limit to game length, so some decks that think they are free from Brann warrior trying to come back just shows off that Brann warrior is still a good deck for deleting those style decks.
So if stuff shows up to counter the aggro meta, Brann warrior is still waiting to shut that idea down hard. They needed to nerf his effect, not his Mana cost.
At least it’s less likely that Brann is 20% of the meta again though…
legend 1000 doesn’t indicate that much there are smaller amount of people they face each other again and again. it is like micro habitat. The real meta is in between d5-legend
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So, the Brann nerf wasn’t effective, or it wasn’t effective enough?
Brann isn’t the card that makes the deck win over 50% of its match-ups it simply is the best “close out”/“late game” effect in standard so other late game decks can’t beat it.
Most likely with the release of the new mini-set many people are trying out the new cards in new/old lists and finding that it doesn’t change the matchup of warrior so they still use zilliax+Boom(maybe brann as well but not needed if they follow up a reno) and Brann+Boomboss to still win games.
It was a strong deck that won games without brann so a 2 mana nerf to an unrequired card doesn’t destroy the deck
1 Like
It was very effective. It was probably the perfect nerf.
The overall take isn’t that the nerf didn’t do anything, it’s that it did something drastic but in a funny way.
2 Likes
vs warrior me HL druid deck doing very good multiple aviana compare bombs and some armor gain save your life when zilliax come second time…vs mage demon hunter DK shaman work very well too …hunter pala wl priest depends what you draw …rogue depends what deck
at lest i am happy druid is playable now not best deck but is still ok
Eh, the perfect nerf on my view would have removed the rest of the game part and turned it into a next turn effect like flash of lightning.
Making it cost 8 was adequate for the meta, but the card is equally frustrating now as it was before.
It doesn’t seem like the nerfs have changed the amount of complaints the card gets.
Brann’s issue is at the design level, not the cost.
3 Likes
or next 2-3 battlecry and warrior must think what is use …bomb zilliax or excavate minion