I’ll cut right to the chase. I am one of several longtime players that enjoys wild mode. I would venture a bet that people such as myself constitute a disproportionate share of revenue for the game. Because we buy packs and stuff.
The level of overpowered in wild has always been a little larger, and that is expected. However-- wild has become a graveyard of terrible cards that never got appropriately nerfed, and are becoming progressively more overpowered with every expansion because of new synergies.
There are a few cards in wild that need serious attention.
Coldlight Oracle is a key example. Something must be done about this card because of the Rogue’s ability to bounce cards, and with the new Spirit of the Shark, it is too easy to force your opponent to draw 6 or more cards in a single turn, and this problem is getting worse and worse. Mill is a fine playstyle but I think that if you’re going to have an effect that powerful it should be harder to pull off. A comparable effect is in Fell Reaver / Treachery Warloc, which generally takes 10 mana 2 of 3 specific cards in your deck to pull off (assuming you carry 2x Treachery). That combo is hard to pull off even with Warloc draw, and generally only lasts for one turn, but it is strong enough to build a deck around. I know that you devs keep envisioning Pogo Rogue and it is a noble idea, but when you print a card like Daring Escape it is only empowering this trash on wild. I don’t know what the answer is with this one. Maybe you add text that it cannot be bounced, or that it loses the effect once it does. Maybe you get creative with hand size (perhaps don’t discard until the end of YOUR turn?). Increasing it to 4 mana would solve a lot of problems as well.
Barnes. Similar to Rogue, it is too powerful because of the Priest’s ability to resurrect minions for very little mana. The end game mass resurrect in this deck has a power level comparable to N’Zoth, with Priest having 4 such spells, as well as ample removal. The point is this is a good deck as-is, and like Rogue, by itself is not a bad playstyle. But the interaction with Barnes is too good. There is no card in the entire game that is a better play on turn 3/4 by a considerable margin. The only serious counters are Potion of Madness, Sap, Poly or Hex/Evolve, elite removal options available to only 4 classes that must be spent on a 1/1. Coin + Keleseth + 2x Shadowstep in Rogue is a pretty good Turn 1 play and it might be the only combo in the game with a power level comparable to Turn 3 Barnes, of course the Rogue combo requires and depletes a unicorn hand and Barnes requires only itself to generally win the game. Like Coldlight, this deck is being enabled by the current direction to make the Priest class resurrect focused. Maybe you can make the 1/1s un-resurrectable. Maybe you make Barnes a 6-cost. Maybe he summons a 1/1 random Legendary minion instead of one from the deck. But please fix.
Coldlight and Barnes are bad cards because they cannot be countered except for devising a very specific deck. Coldlight Oracle for example is basically a math game of mana, if your deck has too much mana you lose under normal circumstances. So the game is basically war and in most cases, over before it started to a much greater extent than other matchups. Barnes aside from being the ultimate luck play is almost impossible to counter, especially in some classes like Druid or Warrior. Even if a Druid wants to tech in Recycle to counter this nonsense he couldn’t play it for another turn or 2, long enough for the 1/1 to have died. You’re stuck with Tinkmaster Overspark, praying you draw him almost as hard as your opponent is praying for Barnes, then hoping he targets the right minion AND hoping for squirrel. Like Coldlight, Barnes current interaction with Priest is lifeless and results in a match that is decided before it begins.
Please don’t mistake the complaints for tears. There are a lot of cards I hate (Kill Command, Deathstalker Rexxar) but they are not game breaking cards. There are some cards that are really good and have a super overpowered effect, like Shudderwock, but at least that takes until turn 8-9 and requires a bunch of other cards to be played. There have not been any other interactions I would put on this level in my years of playing.
Also Genn and Bakuu-- I am sure you understand what a terrible mistake these two cards were, but moving them to wild is not a solution. In fact the bad part of these cards effect will only be worse in wild, where there is a larger selection of cards. There is a real danger that Baku/Genn decks will completely dominate the meta once there are enough cards (especially, cough, with lazy reprinted effects like Seance). I personally think these cards should be deleted from the game even in wild, as you have already essentially admitted the card was a mistake. Short of that, there needs to be a counter for the hero power. Maybe a neutral 5 cost 5/5, Battlecry if your deck has no duplicates, Hero Powers are disabled this game.
In short, please pretend wild matters, and don’t just dump stuff there and not fix it. I get that minimal effort is spent on the wild experience but if you care that little about it then these changes should be easy to make and would be welcomed by the community. I lot of us play wild and frankly it is us who derive the most enjoyment out of the product you work so hard to create, not the regulars, and please just take like 10 minutes to long-term fix at least these major issues.
Thanks