Here’s a real question: Why hasn’t Blizzard considered a significant buff patch to revive dormant archetypes to a semi-playable level?
It’s odd for a game like Hearthstone to approach things the way they do.
If you look at sites like d0nkey, you’ll notice that each class typically has only one or two viable decks, with some exceptions but that’s what they are: exceptions.
Take Mage, for instance. It’s in a rough spot right now. But what if Blizzard buffed Spell Mage, reverted Rainbow, buffed Excavate, and also buffed Elementals?
Suddenly, Mage could have four or five playable decks, or perhaps even more with some innovative hybrid builds. Which isn’t a thing because there is no real balance between the cards released. Hybrids can’t be created because it’s evident some cards are way worse than others. They are unplayable from the moment of their creation.
I understand not knowing how to balance cards properly before release. But after you get the data you should have the capability to give out a lot of buffs. And sure, text buffing is hard and time-consuming, but what’s the reason to not stat buff or mana buff. It isn’t a time-consuming project and only good can come out from it.
This approach could be applied across all classes, and the more diversity would allow for more counter play when there is an outlier. It would end the complain → nerf cycle.
Sounds great to me, but you’re talking about the religion of some around here. And if even once Blizzard buffed a weak archetype to Tier 1, or to Tier 2 but it became popular, then the people to whom nerfing is a hammer and everything is a nail, they’d completely lose their minds.
Just once I’d like to see a patch that’s all buffs, zero nerfs. I don’t like how every buff patch is usually accompanied by a large meta shift of the top decks. Really makes it hard for the buffs to be meaningful when they’re trying to hit a moving target.
People don’t think that way. When they lose to something it’s always nerf it away. Also buffs are harder to balance. It’s easier to find the nail to hammer down with nerfs. Making cards better can have unforeseen problems that sprout up because players can find some broken interactions that weren’t thought of before. IE buffing card X to make deck A better could instead create a new Deck B that is OP broken tier. While nerfing Card Y to make Deck C worse isn’t going to mysterious spawn a Deck D that uses Card Y in most cases. The corner case being an Even/Odd mana change but that is unlikely.
More often than not buffs end up with them having to revert the buff. How many times we ended up with broken deck because of poorly conceived buff? Miracle Rogue, Pocket Galaxy Mage, Odyn Warrior… and the list goes on.
They have a major problem with power creep. Buffs are the last thing the game needs in standard.
Get the power level to a manageable level first then you can look at underperforming archetypes. Otherwise this expansion rotation is going to be absurd.
Buffs are always harder than nerfs. If you nerf one thing, everything else gets buffed relative to that one thing, so nerfs are easier.
But as we see, we’re back to Flood/Handbuff Paladin decks being back on top. What’ll they do, nerf that deck again? So we can actually stay on a set loop? Nerfs to one or two decks at a time are clearly not satisfactory. And mass buffs are too unstable and exasperating.
What Hearthstone really needs is mass redesigns. Cards should not be doing things that are as powerful as what they currently do, and there should not be so much synergy.
The overall power level is already high. Games in standard can end on turn 5, whereas that used to be a thing (mostly) only seen in crazy combos in wild. Buffs would only make this worse, and suggests nerfs that slow down the power level are a better way to balance at the moment.
The last thing we need are buffs. Standard feels like wild atm, before the recent nerfs it felt even worse. A complete power level reset are undoubtedly needed so that the newer expansions and mini sets could be on par power level wise, if they start buffing stuff they have to print stronger alternatives later on.
Imagine if they started buffing the weaker classes, suddenly we got a Odyn warrior situation all over again, where the only option is to print stronger alternatives to force players to play different archetypes (brann).
I’d be down for a few buffs but only for unplayable cards. Not like Blizzard loves to do like Stoneskin Armorer and the 2-mana summon 2 2/5 for druid. I’m talking stuff that never ever saw play like DJ Manastorm.
From the Year of the Pegasus:
Magtheridon - 7-mana
Spot the Difference - discover and summon a 4-mana minion, if no minions repeat with a 3-mana minion too.
Wind-up Enforcer - 4/6 taunt
Pipsi - 8/4
Chalk Artist - 3-mana
Goldbeard - pirate doesn’t die
Fireworker - 7/5
Chemical Spill - deal 3 damage
Wind-up Musician - 5-mana
From the Year of the Wolf:
Bone Shredder - 4-mana 4/4
Eye of Shadow - 1-mana 1/3
Argunite Golem - 1/6
Load the Chamber - deal 3 damage
Eredar Deceptor - 3/6
Fel Fissure - 3-mana
Guitar Soloist - 4-mana
Hodir, father of Giants - 7-mana
Banjosaur - 9-mana 6/7
Holotechnician - 3/3, “after any other minion takes damage…”
DJ Manastorm - 9-mana
The Stars Align - 2-mana, “Discover two minions in your hand, transform them into ones that cost 3-more.”
Tram Heist - 3-mana
Shapeless Constellation - change every 8 into a 7
Slagmaw -12/12, elusive, dormant for 4 turns, excavate to awake a turn sooner
Snake Oil Seller - 3-mana 3/4
Yep, I’ve been saying this for years now. Blizzard’s base designs of cards is the problem, not the turn they happen to occur on.
The game revolves around low player agency card designs. Nerfing (or buffing) the costs just shifts which one rules the meta.
The devs need to go through basically every card and check if it’s design allows for it to create non-game situations. There are a TON of them. They ALL need redesigns, or restrictions so absurd they could never be a meta deck (like simultaneously summoning 7 cultists to get 1 minion that deals 20 damage to all).
Just off the top of my head blizz needs to redesign:
Sargeras
Wheel of Death
Odyn
Brann
Boomboss
Jungle Gym
Zilliax (ticking and twin modules)
Sif (it can come back to meta if blizz gives mage cheap spells or easy hand discounts)
Helya
Rheastrasza
Owlonius (not currently a problem, but potentially problematic design)
Flash of Lightning
Some of the giants
Zarimi
Sonya
Shadowstep
Ignis
Reno Jackson, Lone Ranger
Like… It’s literally not surprising at all that the meta has been perpetually bad regardless of nerfs when we are just cycling around between ALL of that being the best deck’s win condition.
And that’s not even getting into cards that need Mana or other number adjustments.
As for the OP’s insistence for buffs, there are no buffs that will make the game feel better. It will just create a bunch of stuff racing to beat the list above. It can be “balanced” but you will have next to no player agency. It will almost all be about drawing the good card first.
How about we just flush all the cards on your list from the game?
It would actually create the imaginary design space that team 5 has used as a nerf excuse for years.
