I legit have no hope for the current year, becoming any better.
The Great Dark Beyond & Starcraft Mini set’s are horribly designed, and ruined this entire year’s archetype diversity. Thank God they aren’t insanely viable in Wild, so, after rotation I won’t see these horrid play patterns ever again.
Anyhow, here are some wishes for next year’s standard experience:
Actively change the Core Set
Add and remove cards to the Core Set with each expansion release. This will make it so the new archetypes being introduced can get complementary cards added to the core set. This as well makes the case for less “reprints” for certain card types (for example, Priest Big 7+ mana Removal spell).
Add the Death Knights Hero Cards to the Core Set
Frost Lich Jaina, Bloodreaver Guldan, Deathstalker Rexar, Shadowreaper (Machinegun) Anduin, these are all fun cards that could spice up Standard in a good way. There are some Death Knight hero cards on the weaker side (Shaman, Warrior) but a rework could be done.
As for Demon Hunter and Death Knight, well Death Knight could keep its current Hero Card, and they could make a new Hero Card for Demon Hunter.
Tech Cards and Transformation Effects are good for the game, actually
Getting Devolved, Poly Missiles, and Polymorphed feels bad, but those effects are good for the overall health of the mode.
This entire dominance of The Great Dark Beyond & Starcraft Mini set could have been avoided if transformation effects were readily available (or if the Starship tech card didn’t suck).
Make the classes core set’s better
Its hilarious how mediocre/bad some for the classes core set are compared to Death Knight’s. Try to avoid doing that again.
I am down with almost all you say.
I would like to see a great many cards removed.
All of the dual class and tourist cards.
All of the “look at opponents hand” cards.
All of the “game gives you the counter” cards.
It wont happen of course, but were I in charge, it would be a great start back to what the game should be imo.
Diversity is not a dirty word.
Counter cards are good for the game, actually.
The only egregious one ever printed is Theothar, but that is only available in Wild.
Anyhow, after next rotation, Imbue decks will probably dominate the game. Mostly, because current Quest decks lose a good portion of their support. Same with the current scam deck (dummy warrior). However, Blood DK stays mostly untouched, because their cards are from the Emerald Dream expansion and the core set, so, if you are sick of DK’s leech package, well, we are just at the start of it.
People will cry and complain about transform effects because they desperately want to play solitaire and never want to learn how to draw out removal and play around things.
Why are so many people terrible at spelling lose? I see it constantly.
I’m ok with counter cards, but the “how” is what I take issue with.
I came to this game from poker, and have always had issues with cards that let you spy on the opponents hand, or use an algorithm to play for you.
That type of card is disruptive for sure, but imo it’s not skill based, and should not be allowed. Theo and others feel like cheating to me. Dirty Rat is fine imo. That seems disruptive and fair.
And tourist and dual class simply homogenize the game so that every class does everything. That’s boring to me.
Hope you are wrong on imbue. Tired of it already:)
Theotar was actually healthy for the game imo. Yes, everyone would run him, but only because there weren’t any other options for the same function, and he’s been nerfed/power crept out of relevance anyway. OTK is the most toxic thing in this game and it needs counters, or it needs to be nerfed out of existence.
This ain’t poker. This game was based off MTG, and is doomed to repeat its mistakes if it doesn’t work to avoid them. Does having your hand looked at really feel worse than losing because you brought the wrong deck to rock, paper, scissors? I hate the latter a lot more, and that’s what we’ve been getting. It’s also getting worse every expansion.
If you ask me, this is what the game used to be when I started playing. Now it’s just a big ol’ mess.
And I did not say the game was poker.
Even in 2014 it wasn’t the case. Miracle rogue and other decks were annoying, but they didn’t guarantee a win, and the back and forth was present for every match. Only recently, with their new game direction has this begun to change, to the point where deck building is just following the formula because there’s no viable alternative, and you win or lose based on what your opponent brought to the fight, no skill, just hsreplay. That’s where we’re headed, and counter play cards are the only thing that can stop that.
Something non linear and a tone down of the mana cheat… or at least dont make it the game. Oh and lets get rid of the resurrect stuff.
I mean one of hte main decks right now is quest warlock which is about as linear a deck as you can get… Play 5 temp cards, play quest reward, summon demons… Thats it. Thats the entire game. The fact that its viable while being so very bland is unfortunate.
The rest of the mana cheat stuff… turn 5 tortulla (or turn 3 testing dummy)… turn 6 fyrakk… so on and so forth that stuff is too easy, too consistent and not very exciting. Mana cheat like that one shaman dragon that gives you 1 more mana the next turn (essentially a mana cheat coin - and i dont mean naralax type coin mechanics) allows for some varied play but isnt just lets play a powerful 9/10 drop on turn 5 like so many things in this game today.
As for the resurrect stuff… I’m tired of killing the same minion(s) about 20 times per game… be it protoss priest, hydration station whatever, or whatever DH is doing that stuff was played out when priest was doing it 6 years ago.