Shadowcrafter Scabbs needs a major nerf to it's Battlecry

Dear Blizzard,

Shadowcrafter Scabbs battlecry is by far the best board removal in the game. Hero power is fine.
Battlecry

  1. Ignores deathrattles and deletes any buffs.
  2. Any discounted large minions generated through quests that people worked literally the entire game to discount, such as Libram of Hope, Charged Call etc go back to hand at full mana and become unplayable except one by one.
  3. Put your own cheap resources (e.g. Wand Thief) back in your hand.
  4. Impossible to play around Scabbs with a board based minion game at all.

Even Twisting Nether is not nearly as powerful.

I’m not sure what the right solution is, but here are some random ideas

  1. Make the number of minions removed conditional on something, and selection random.
    This allows for example to put a bunch of random small minions on the board, and hope that your big one is not removed, because Scabbs only earned to remove 6 minions and there are total of 9 on the board (yours and opponent).

For example Scabbs could have all 3 of these battle conditions (chosen by player during the game).
Either:
a) Number of SI cards played this game (compatible with Quest Rogue)
b) Number of cards from other classes played (compatible with Thief Rogue)
c) Number of something (not sure what) for Poison Rogue

Or alternatively.
2. Make it damage based and put a number of Gizmos in your hand, or select Gizmos to put in your hand. Similar to other hero powers.

This will make the Battlecry similar to other Hero cards in power level.

3 Likes

I actually think the 4/2 summons is the best part of the battlecry. Vanish was always kinda meh besides in mill because it gives no counter tempo

3 Likes

The 4/2 summons can be played around, as there are a number of board removal tools that don’t need you to target a minion. In many cases just 1 card will take care of the summons. The summons may be a secondary problem, but the primary one is the Battlecry where it literally completely deletes any board progress made by the opponent, including battlecries, discounts, buffs and it is impossible to play around it - that is simply too oppressive.

1 Like

Freeze shaman and handlock both deal with scabbs pretty decently. One with battlecries one with discounts. Quite a few decks can get back on the board after scabbs, but fewer can deal with the 4/2’s setting up a lethal push

You realize there was a card for years that did the exact same effect for 1 less mana, and could have 2 of them run in the deck? I think the bigger problem with Scabbs is the fact that minions are being added on the board which you HAVE to deal with to avoid taking a lot of damage. Also the hero power is just really useful in Rogue. Honestly if I had to nerf rogue, I would probably only mana nerf it to 8 and focus on nerfing Gnoll to 6 mana

5 Likes

Lol no… literally the only class that really hurts to the vanish part is Paladin, and yeah that class needs a counter badly…

Other classes will just drop their taunt back down the next round and proceed as nothing has happened… not to mention there is a number of times where you don’t want to play scabbs because the opponent will get some good battlecry minions back in hand…

2 Likes

So, you say you don’t like vanish?

That’s A LOT OF WORDS to say so.

This. If you don’t have any aoe, you should consider adding some to your deck, and make stealthie 4/2s go AAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHH!. I do it all the time, quite fun.

Beat me to it.

2 Likes

stay away from classic… i can tell you wont be able to handle vanish

I’m not sure how I missed this. Twisting nether nukes the whole board, and a clever player could just drop something after they played it. Even a jaraxus hero power comes to mind.

Nah. Nerf to 8 and/or make the hero power cost 1/2 and discount 3/4.

One of the hidden strengths of the card is you can hero power and play something after the vanish, effectively making scabbs cost 5. Which is way too good.

2 Likes

Hilarious OP. You need to stop playing Libram Paladin…the training wheels class of HS. The Garen of HS.

2 Likes

I play the card so I like it, but it might indeed be a bit too powerful. I believe people will still play it if the cost was increased to 8 mana. Other suggested nerfs will just remove the card entirely from being played.

remember when mage could make the whole board go poof, i miss that

but hey they have mass poly, can run 2 and almost does what OP hates about the vanish

1 Like

I dont think scabs should be nerfed i mean my pick for hero nerfs is dh hero and shaman.

most classes don’t have AoE

Except rouges themself, please mention a class that don’t have a do two damage or more aoe??

1 Like

Druid? Characters and characters.

2 Likes

When we all saw that card it didn’t take a genius to see it was ridiculous. Didn’t stop them though, did it?

It could, I feel have at least been 8 at launch and it would still have seen plenty of play. They often overtune cards (esp legendaries because…$$$) as they are scared they’ll be overshadowed by older stuff, but this one was never in doubt. What makes it worse was that Vanish was HoF’d because Rogue wasn’t allowed board clears , so nobody saw this coming.

The Paladin and DH hero cards can get in the sea too. And just Paladin as a class in general based on the entire year so far.

You can kinda play around the DH hero by not having too many stats on the board, though. I don’t find it particularly problematic. It’s not very powerful if your opponent doesn’t over extend. Half the time with Fel DH I’m praying they drop more stats. Not too many, however. Just about 14/14 in stats. :yum:

1 Like