In general I am not huge fan of cards that destroy or remove unplayed cards because that always feels cheap and anti fun. But this card on a whole different level. Its a discover card so this means that not only does it show you cards in the opponents hand, but it allows you to take one and replace it with a bad one. However I think there is a fairly easy to balance this card. Which is essentially the same way Steamcleaner is balanced.
When the opponent plays Theostar both players can choose a card to take in each deck. Many cards balanced by having their effect be for both the enemy and caster. This would still keep as a fairly powerful card because the caster can play around this effect by casting it when they don’t have good cards, but it would make the card harder to play if you are also running a combo deck. Sort of like how Steamcleaner is not really want to be playing if you are running a plague dk deck.
No. You absolutely would be able to play, but you’d have to be a lot more careful when you played it and with what decks. Steamcleaner is balanced a similar way that it effects both players and people play it to good success sometimes.
The card seems okay as is, and with it only being able to take a selection of one of 3 cards (not counting duplicates in-hand if i remember right), that usually will limit the goodies it can take from the opponent’s hand, unless they top decking. Also you still have to time it properly because if you put him into play but all the cards in your hand are important for your win condition(s), that can still be a setback.
I think you are drastically underestimating how powerful it is. Its a 6 mana card that lets you see 3 cards in the opponents deck, take one of them and also lets you decide what to give to your opponent. And the only real way to counter this is to have more cards in your hand or weaker cards. Which isn’t always feasible. Its even worse if your playing against a rogue that makes copies of this card.
Most cards that destroy a card in someone’s hand do so at random like Mutanus. And I am not really that fond of this card either, but its not as bad as the other one. Dirty rat doesn’t destroy cards, but imagine if it let you pick the minion to put on the field. Or what if Mutanus left you decide what minion to eat? Allowing this much agency with a card like this is bad. This is the sort of card that should have an benefit for both sides when played.
How do you feel about this suggestion then? What if he swapped one card at random with the opponent’s hand and one random card from their hand? Cause the suggestion I have is one idea, but there could be other ways to balance it. However with my suggestion the opponent would also get to look at their deck.
I think it could be fair if they change it to 5 mana and the effect “at start of opponent turn, they discover and take a card from your hand”, no longer choose a card to give them.
Just my thought, since i didn’t play at that expac.
And i think it still be very playable, if you don’t want your opponent to do so, you must plan to play it and kill it off on your own turn (like the 1/3 discover of priest, or 3/4 weapon discover of warrior).
Theotar improved the wild format a lot since its appearance, in fact I measure the history of the game with him as a reference, everything before theotar belongs to the dark age of hs.
why someone want to nerf him now when the otks have become so fast that they laugh in his face.
There is a lot of problems in wild right now. But I personally they should move away from card stealing abilities, secrets, cards that double stats for the entire game, cards that destroy cards before they can be played and limit the scope of some combos.
Right now yes, but if you were to a whole bunch more secrets it would get harder and harder to tell what secrets the opponent might have in play. In the beginning an opponent could only have so many secrets since there wasn’t that many, but now there is all kinds of secrets that add more uncertainty. And depending on those secrets do then you could run into a bunch of different problems.
The card is perfectly fine as is right now. It’s a necessary card needed to put OTK and Combo decks in check. It’s one of the very few tools players have to attempt to counter those OTK and Combo decks.
There’s nothing wrong with the card at current cost.
With your suggestion, the card could be a 1 mana 1/1 and would never see play. The entire point of the card is to take away a card from your opponent to disrupt their combo while not hurting yourself. With your suggestion, you’d actively be hurting yourself AND be at the mercy of the RNG even more (what if your selection choice sucks and the opponent’s selection choice is great?)
Furthermore, your suggestion is impossible with current coding and ruleset for Hearthstone. Hearthstone doesn’t have a single card that allows the opponent to make a choice during your turn.
No one wants to play a game where you consistently lose via some combo on turn 4 or 5 that is unstoppable because you have no way to disrupt their combo. These cards exist for a reason.
The main people who really complain about this card are Combo/OTK players because they want to be able to do their Combo/OTK without the opponent having the ability to answer it. That is even further evidenced with your wanting removal of secrets, etc.
In short, you want to play solitaire. Decks that operate like that have made the game worse and the devs have outright stated they do no want that style of play.
My problem with the card is not that it takes a card from the opponent, but that it informs the player of your hand far too much.
If that were addressed, I would be fine with the card. I have no suggestions other than the blind idea I offered to make it more fair, but that would probably make it not be played.
IDK, maybe if it gave a choice of three from your entire deck? The opp. should already know what deck you are playing by turn 6.
I used to think that was pretty strong when the Priest legendary minion came out many years ago. The 1/1 that changes to your opponent’s card in hand.
Turns out, that really sucked bad. It was basically unplayable.
Rogue has gotten cards that do the same and those cards have always sucked.
New expansion coming has even more for Rogue now. In fact, Rogue is getting a 1 cost non-legendary minion that only turns into minions…and it’s going to suck.
MTG had a 1 mana card that was an enchantment that let you see the opponent’s hand forever until they could remove it. So for 1 mana, see your opponent’s ENTIRE hand instantly and constant if they can’t remove. And that card wasn’t that good.
In short, knowing exactly what is in your opponent’s hand isn’t as strong as you might think. It’s beneficial, but almost not worth the mana. We’re probably close to getting a card that’s cheap that gives you all that information and I’m willing to bet it won’t see real play.