Introducing the Core Set and Classic Format

Community Discussion
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Blizzcon 2021. On stage. Garbage bags are brought on stage. A pile of garbage bags. The whole stage is littered with garbage bags. One of the developers stands up and announces in a solemn atmosphere: "guys, we have accumulated a lot, we have saved for years, from year to year, we put it all into one huge pile…mo, now it’s all dere…we give you and then pause the most important thing absolutely free and free instructions for use. Before opening the trash bag. 1. it is necessary to carry out wet cleaning. 2. Wash all this dog stuck and frozen der … mo. 3. Wash it all with soap. And only then use it.

new classic mode

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By law - a company’s terms of sale need to be prominent and transparent. Across websites/public media it was largely an accepted fact that Classic was a permanent fixture of Standard because this is what Blizzard portrayed. Even if Blizzard have some obscure small print somewhere saying they can do what the hell they like - that is neither transparent nor prominent. As such - by law, their contract of sale may be up for scrutiny [Unfair Contract Terms, under the Consumer Rights Act 2015].

A new game mode exclusively for Classic wasn’t what I bought into. I bought Classic Packs, and spent time, money and resources on crafting a complete Golden set because I thought I’d always be able to play them alongside Expansion sets as they were released. I did not buy them so that I could play them in isolation.

I am not against the Core Set. I am totally for the game being more accessible to new players, and a move towards a more free to play game is awesome.

What I am against is there not being any compensation for players who have invested into Classic Packs, because they were led to believe they would be a fixed feature in Standard when they purchased them.

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But if the Core Set can’t be used in Wild, you can’t use the cards in the Core Set, which would mean you lose over 200 cards in Wild, even though you have the original, because that’s how reprints work, they’re the same card.

They’re not saying they can do what the hell they like, they’re saying they can do what the hell they like to improve the balance and experience of the game (which is what they’re doing). Yes, that’s an important difference, and yes, it is in fact a vital selling point in any competitive game. So no, it is not an Unfair Contract Term.

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Their terms of sales is simple:
They reserve rights to explain promises and advertisements regarding the content of the game. They never promised classic would not be rotated through a fundamental game change. They only said classic would most likely not go away as an entire set through regular rotation. You agreed to that. No matter how unfair to you it is, you clicked yes before you started playing the game.

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A forum member commented on a post about my figures pertaining to the costs of obtaining a Golden Classic set. They argued I did not buy all the Classic Packs and would have got resources from Tavern Brawls etc. I did acknowledge this in my original post - it was meant for illustration and a rough guide.

So I decided to look at my investment purely from a dust value…

I believe my argument still stands in that I used dust that I obtained through the purchase of other card packs [be they rewards from Tavern Brawl, Arena or other Expansion Set Cards]. Had I known Classic was not going to remain in Standard Play - I would have invested dust into crafting plain copies of Classic cards, and used the rest to craft Expansion Cards… which means I would have had to purchase less Card Packs.

At the end of the day - the actual worth of a full Golden Classic Set remains - however it was obtained.

Let us look purely at Dust Costs:

Golden Legendary Set: 32 Cards x 3200 Dust = 102,400 dust
Golden Epic Set: 72 Cards (36 x 2 copies) x 1600 = 115,200 dust
Golden Rare Set: 160 Cards (80 x 2 copies) x 800 = 128,000 dust
Golden Common Set: 184 Cards (92 x 2 copies) x 400 = 73,600 dust

Total dust used to craft a complete Golden Classic Set = 419,200

Now let’s look at the cost of a non-golden Classic Set…

Regular Legendary Set: 32 Cards x 1600 Dust = 51,200 dust
Regular Epic Set: 72 Cards (36 x 2 copies) x 400 = 28,800 dust
Regular Rare Set: 160 Cards (80 x 2 copies) x 100 = 16,000 dust
Regular Common Set: 184 Cards (92 x 2 copies) x 40 = 7,360 dust

Total dust used to craft a complete Regular Classic Set = 103,360

Now let us look at what that difference in dust value equates to. Regardless of whether the packs were bought from Classic or an Expansion - disenchanting them and using that in-game resource still has value.

419,200 (Golden) - 103,360 (Regular) = 315,840 dust I could have saved… and used to craft other cards rather than waste it crafting a Golden Set Blizzard have now made largely defunct.

So what could I get for 315, 840 dust???

Madness at the Darkmoon Faire Expansion Set has 135 cards… Silas was given for free so I won’t include him. How much would that cost in dust to craft a regular (non-Golden) copy of the entire set?

Legendary: 24 Cards: 24 x 1600 dust to craft = 38,400 dust
Epic: 24 (x 2 copies) = 48 Cards: 48 x 400 dust to craft = 19,200 dust
Rare: 32 (x 2 copies) = 64 Cards: 66 x 100 dust to craft = 6,400 dust
Common: 54 (x 2 copies) = 108 Cards: 108 x 40 dust to craft = 4,320 dust

Total dust cost = 68,320 dust.

Had I not crafted my Golden Set I would have had 315,840 dust surplus. With that dust I could have crafted 4.6 full expansion sets.

And you wonder why I am so mad?

That is what my investment amounted to. That is what Blizzard have now just thrown to one side and said we are perfectly happy to make that investment worthless in Standard Play… and instead we will simply make you play ‘Classic’ or Wild Format… we know that’s not what you signed up for… but well… we don’t care. You aren’t getting your dust refunded because if we did - across our entire player base - think how many expansion sets wouldn’t get bought. Think of the loss to our profit margin!!!..

Through this one action - Blizzard have dealt a huge blow to long term loyal customers who have invested heavily into their game, specifically into the Classic Set. Instead they create ‘Classic Format’ in an effort to dodge having to compensate players - and in doing so save themselves huge financial losses.

Well Blizzard - I did not sink all of my time, money and resources to play my Classic Set in isolation, in a format where I cannot play my other Cards alongside them. I did not sign up to play Wild Format either - which today remains largely unpopular with fans. You have misguided players into thinking Classic would remain in Standard play - and now taken that away - and just expect players to suck it up.

For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.
Basic law of physics.

Blizzard have acted - and this is my reaction:

(1) Put in an official complaint to Blizzard’s legal department.
(2) Stop investing money into Expansion Sets, Hero Skins, Tavern Pass, and other money-draining promotions.
(3) Join the free to play crowd.

If the majority of your big-spending fanbase just follow step (2) - I strongly believe Blizzards profit margins would tumble. I won’t be losing any sleep over that - just as they don’t seem to be losing any sleep from screwing us over.

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351

LOL. I can’t help but laugh because you’re getting mad at a card game for treating everyone better over you? There’s no promise whatsoever expect for classic not rotating out as an entire set (do you like Hall of Fame then?) during regular rotation. 90% of the classic cards are useless garbage cards you won’t ever use except in meme decks (which suits wild better). You agreed to the user end agreement when you started to play, read it. Blizzard has every right of explaining their actions and advertisements. They’re moving away most low level cards is classic and add more viable cards in there to form a core set that is free while in standard. How is this not better for everyone? Better, and more competitive gameplay. You can play your meme decks in wild, they’ll do just fine with a couple of cards added in.

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Hey, arguments of people like you are very childish, so stop that.

  1. There’s no promise… - yes, there was that exact promise a long time ago. Thats why people bought it. Who would buy, like you call it “garbage cards” for $$$ if they will never use them and then they rotate, think, before you speak damn you…

  2. You agreed to the user end agreement… but trade law is always superior to any agreement - ie. if you would agree that someone can kill you in any agreement, he could actually still not. This is a case for lawyer tho, no speculations required on this.

  3. How is this not better for everyone? - many of you are like “Hey you guys paid and now you deserve to lose it hahaha” - this is both childish and extreme-communistic.
    -a) those people are the only reasons why the project was not shut down. If those payers all to one stopped paying, the income would be 0 and the project would be sht down.
    -b) 2, imagine you purchase expesive new car, maybe even some unique 1M+$ worth, and the year ago, the developer company come with statement “Hey dude, the other guys are jealous for your car, it will be better for everyone if we will replace your 1M+$ car with old 10k$ car like everyone around you has. No refunds, sorry, its better for community”, i would like to see your reaction.

Just realize, some people arent kids, who get infinite money from parents or grandmas to spend everywhere without even thinking. Some people had to earn those money.

I said it once and i will repeat it, I fully understand all the raging people. And argument “it is just game” is NO argument at all, you spend real life and real money within it, so it is exactly the same as cars, houses and other real life property.

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The agreement is legal and the user must agree before playing. If they do, they must follow it. There’s no trade law stating the content of a game cannot shift into different formats with different rules.

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Yes but there are Trade Laws that prohibit companies from marketing a product as one thing (Classic Cards as Evergreen in Standard) and then when consumers have spent a tonne of money buying the product - suddenly change their minds and say - actually - it isn’t that thing we said it was when we sold it to you. Tough. How is that just, fair or legal? If that were the case nobody would ever buy anything.

Here is your iPhone - it will be compatible with all these other Apple Products… Actually - we changed our minds - you won’t be able to use it with your Mac or your iPad anymore. Tough. And I’m sure the Apple Consumers would just roll over and say - hey thanks! Yes that’s fine!!!

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Yes, that happens! Here’s your iPod touch. Oh, what’s that? Yeah, we stopped updating the OS for it. So all those apps we said it could run, won’t work anymore. Yeah, go buy a new one.

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Not if the consumer agreed to allow it to change. If you don’t sign the agreement, you have no right to use the product. Universal trade laws don’t apply here. “Hey, I allow the company to change and freely advertise it whenever they want and it is up to me to stay alerted about it, otherwise I can’t use the product.” “NO! IT CHANGED! IT CHANGED!”

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yep. and even things are made right before a change. like there’s a guitar pedal that you have to keep an old ipad/iphone to use. they said they would continuously add new things and update it, and very quickly it became a brick. people were mad then too but it wasn’t illegal despite being “deceptive.” none of those people had any grounds to sue because it worked as advertised.

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After reading this thread, although that is as usual, one can be truly amazed by the absence of empathy and amount of envy seething around some comments. And what is 100% certain is that those exact individuals preaching equality would be the loudest if they were the ones getting scammed for their money. Yet they preach unselfishness that SUITS THEIR OWN SITUATION and gloat on other people’s misery on burning money they actually worked for. And on top of that they HOPE that people who got screwed will NOT get anything, only because they have nothing to get. So it matters more for them even that the whales will get screwed than actual improvements to the gameplay! This thread is a priceless read for a psychology study! :smiley:

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Care to provide some examples? I don’t recall reading anything like that.

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Stupid question: but if i never play Wild - I may as well dust most everything ???

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Yes if you include not playing duels or any new future game mode. You will get loaned cards each year for standard

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I am willing to take consequences for something I did wrong. Now I know how little acceptance some people have over their own losses.

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i specifically crafted a ton of gold ones because i like em… oh well :confused:

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One more thing to add, aside refunds etc, that is most discussed.

Noone actually mentioned the fact, that the core of the game is the collection.

Getting a bunch of cards called “core” that will swap over year, wow… does it not feel like losing a point of the whole collection thing?

It is missing the basics, the magic and the sense of game.

Am I the only one who feels like that?

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I am a collector and I play Wild. In the future, I will play Classic.
I worked hard to collect the cards I have. I will keep them because I worked hard to collect them.
As far as I’m concerned, the devs can do whatever they want to Standard. They have already been gradually destroying the Basic and Classic sets via nerfs, moves to Hall of Fame, etc. Now they are finally being honest and just moving the sets out of Standard.
As long as I can continue to play the cards I collected in Wild, I will be ok. There needs to be a sense of continuity, of permanence, as you said, of working hard to obtain something that won’t disappear or be taken away from you in the future.
This is what is frustrating the people who invested real world money into crafting golden Classic cards. They did so believing they would be able to use them in Standard forever, since that’s what we were told. Now the rules have changed so they are upset, understandably.
For me, I have sort of learned to roll with the punches over the years but that doesn’t mean they don’t hurt. The latest change to the Shaman hero power completely demolishes a deck I love - Odd Shaman. It’s an enormous blow and I will get zero dust refunds associated to it. It’s another punch that I’m going to have to absorb and move on because frankly I don’t think the devs care at all.

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