So aggro. ever since the early days of zoolock players have hated it, I have personally hated it. the issue being three things, first is decision making, second is interactivity, and third is consistency.
Aggro players say that it requires skill and decision making, and it does, just a million times less then any other archetype, statistically a game that lasts 6 turns is going to have far less decisions to make then one that lasts 10, along with that the fact is that aggro means click face, in an average game the aggro player will make decisions besides clicking on the face on two or three turns per game and even then its only if the opponent has already broken their board. there is a reason that bots play aggro, because its easy.
Secondly is interactivity, the simple fact of the matter is that an aggro deck is far less interactive then even a combo deck who’s entire combo comes from the hand. do the math with me here, if you shorten a game with an aggro deck down to 6 turns how many cards does the non agro player get to play? typically 3 or 4, and consider which of those turns they can make a meaningful impact on the board, if you consider that the main way to beat aggro is with a board wipe they may only get to make one major play in the game, and that is limited to turn 5 or 6, right before they die. along with that combos can be disrupted in a number of ways, hecklebot being the most obvious but beyond that mechathun combos can be out-healed, and they can also be killed before the combo goes off, the other fact about combo decks is that if any one thing disrupts them the game is over, the combo loses. compare that to an aggro deck, the only ways to beat the current aggro decks out is to either out aggro them or to get exactly a board wipe into healing, and even if you get exactly that combination you still have no guarantee of winning as many of the aggro decks today are hyper resilient, rogue because its cards are so value that they only need to play a couple to create a board that can kill you quickly, druids because they can reload stupidly quickly and often.
Consistency, oh boy, first is the point that in any other card game a deck that can be as aggressive as hearthstone’s aggro decks would simply die at the first hint of a board wipe, whereas hearthstones aggro cards reload your hand and sometimes your board by their sheer existence (hunter’s charge cat, fox in rogue, acornbearer in druid). secondly is the fact that aggro at this point in time is so strong that it is near impossible to counter, even a deck specifically built to beat aggro will sometimes lose to aggro because the aggro deck simply kills them before they can play the cards meant to give them the advantage. lastly the fact that most cards in aggro decks are fairly interchangeable, the amount of available aggressive cards is so high that you can have redundancies on top of redundancies in an aggro deck where you have to draw exactly your 2/30 board wipe to beat them, and that’s if they don’t kill you before you can play it anyway or immediately reload after.
so you can see the issues i have with agro decks, lets identify some problem cards. I will be making general suggestions for the class, then following with some things i think could help fix individual cards within that class.
Rogue: The class as a whole is pretty alright, though changing some of its classic set cards to not hit face would not be a bad idea.
Wagglepick: 4 mana 8 damage is too strong, my suggestion? either add one mana cost or lose one attack or durability with a reduction in mana cost to cover the value, leave it as a cool secondary shadowstep without giving smorkers 8 free damage.
Hench clan thug: Can be an issue, if i had my way its base stats would be 2/3 or 2/2, maybe stick rush on there to keep it decent.
Druid: Oh boy what do we even say about this piece of work? tokens everywhere, the main issue with the class is the way it quickly reloads after having its board broken, along with the fact that most of the cards it uses to buff its big boards buff the health above three which causes big problems for board wipes, it costs warrior (the best wiper at the moment) 6 mana with warpath to clear 3 health minions, by that time you are super dead.
Power of the wild: this is a classic card that has been consistently strong since the advent of the game for one reason or another, the simple fix would be to add one to the mana cost making both modes much less appealing, other options would be to make the buff mode only +1+0 to make it less board wipe resistant or +0+1 to make it less aggressive.
Acornbearer: make it give one squirrel, simple, easy, reduces how hard this card lets druids reload and makes them have a much less valuable one drop slot.
Savage roar: Since classic this card has been a big problem child, I would say this and bloodlust both need to be nerfed into the ground in all honesty due to the fact that they give any deck that spams out minions aggressively the ability to play a single card and have you dead from 20. the nerf i would suggest would be to bring it up to 5 mana, if that seems extreme then instead make it give the opponents hero immune til the next turn so that it can be used as a value clearing tool but not a smorking tool.
The forest’s aid: this card is far too strong of a reloading tool, the text basically says “if the opponent does not play a board wipe next turn they lose the game” and can be played twice, keep in mind that most classes only have two copies of a single board wipe at the moment and you see the problem, remove the twinspell.
Wispering woods: far too strong in a class with cards like acornbearer, if you nerf savage roar along with acornbearer this card would be mostly in an acceptable state though i would still point to implosion and fiendish circle in support of making it cost 5, 6 if other cards remain unnerfed.
Hunter: while this deck isnt in the top 5 meta i thought i would add one card here because honestly it needs fixing.
Kill command: should never have been able to target face.
Thoughts in general:
I know blizzard likes aggro, it appeals to a wide player base because some people really don’t like making decisions, those impulsive people probably buy a ton of packs, but I know if people had a reason to want your high cost legendaries they would also buy a lot more packs, think about it.
I really wish blizz would put out some cards that target aggro in the same way they put out cards that target combos, that way if people hate playing against aggro or it gets stupidly popular like it is now savvy players can stock their deck full of cards that counter it, imagine a 3 mana 1/1 that board wipes if its played before a certain turn, or a card that heals you to full and gains taunt if you took enough damage before a certain point in the game but was trash if played under any other conditions, you could start teaching aggro players how to play around certain cards whilst also giving others the option to have an easier time dealing with aggro at the cost of having dead cards against other decks.
TL:DR
went over some reasons I dislike aggro and its bad for the game, suggested some fixes for the least acceptable meta decks.
Final thoughts:
I love hearthstone, I really do, but until I can actually play my cards and not die before i have the mana to do so I will be refraining from purchasing more packs. each time a new expansion comes out I buy a big preorder thinking things will get better, I have every expansion for the past few years, but it hasnt gotten better and im burned out, so thanks for the fun times bliz, ill probably keep an eye on the game and play time to time but i cant justify more purchases.
Thanks for reading!