The power creep and massive pendulum swings that can occur in a single turn are at an all time mind-blowing high. It’s hilarious and laughable (not fun though).
Let me give an example of a game that while I won, I was disgusted to my core upon winning.
This was either at plat 1 or dia 10 (as I can recall) for anyone who cares. I was highlander dragon druid with sky avia or whatever and weapon forge brann and some ish. I was playing vs overheal priest. It was turn 10, I had forged out a 10 mana whirlwind weap a couple turns earlier and had 30health/15armor and 10 cards and the priest had 30 health , about 8 cards and had just cleared my board and was sitting with 2 titans and a big body (6/6) while I had 0 minions and my turn. I pulled a 1 cost Zarimi, had Dragon Golem and some other beefy dragon and played them all , got my extra turn, played the 10mana weap and faced the priest for 30 damage and won. It was filthy and I felt dirty. I alt-f4’d after winning and actually felt bad for the first time ever in the game of HS for a priest. How could he have known that I could pull 30 damage and win when I had 0 board, no equiped weap and there’s no way he could know I pulled Zarimi. Maybe he thought I’d play the 10 mana weap and deal 10 damage and get a couple 8 cost dudes or maybe I’d play Reno and neutralize board or maybe even build a big board and hope he didn’t delete more of my guys again as he had multiple of the Titan who poofs dudes out of existence. But 30 damage/you lose probably wasn’t first on his expectations. Horrendous gameplay, terrible design, immeasurable un-fun for both. I got no joy from it.
This isn’t the only game like this I encountered in the past couple expansions. It’s more typical than atypical. I don’t rage, I get that’s where the game is now, I try to craft decks I have fun with and want to play and just enjoy the challenge I create for myself. It doesn’t mean I can’t die a little inside every time I run across such horrendous game design and progression though from a game at one time I thought was massively ahead of its time to a game now that feels grossly misguided and mismanaged.
It made me weep for the old days of HS where there was a need to control the board to some degree. I’m yelling at clouds because back in MY day, HS was pretty cool. You had to choose between minions , taunt, removal spells and aggression. You couldn’t have it all or the ability to draw the most amazing 1 or 2 cards to reset the game back to neutral after you played like a monkey for 10 straight turns. Nah.
OG HS was more like chess with cards. It made me think, what if chess evolved like HS.
“Hey, let’s make pawns move 2 forward all the time!” (Pawn storm face rushes ruin chess). “Hey, let’s nerf pawns but lets have the King teleport 2 squares for more exciting end games” (Ruins the game). “Nah, lets have a move where you can go 2 turns in a row while your opponent just watches as you move your queen and rook wherever you want on the boad for checkmate!”
1,000 year old game RUINED! People are still playing chess at the highest levels known in the history of man and still finding some amazing things. HS though has died. It died a couple expansions ago easily.
We need memes of chess ideas gone bad after following HS designer logic if anyone wants to post them.
EDIT: Mountaineer posted that I didn’t study the history of chess otherwise I would have realized it has evolved. He is right. The “current” version of chess is from approx 600 years ago and the last minor changes came approx 160 years ago. That completely invalidates the foundation of my post as I was going for humor and parody comparing hearthstone to a classic game that has remained essential unmodified for 600 years. Please ignore my post , it’s irrelevant now thanks to Mountaineer.
Mods please delete.
Thanks!