I loved Chillwind Yeti. It was such a regular and such a tank of a card being deployable in any class. I miss seeing the Wampa wannabe.
For me its always the cards that generate more copies of other cards using pretty much any mechanic. Shuffling into deck is most fair but has its issues, but also discard copying, secret copying, etc. Now I’m guilty of playing some Dark Iron Dwarves and the newer variant of the same with the Frenzy tag. Also the ooze that makes a copy of itself at the end of the round it was played from hand. So Im not innocent of the things I dislike lol. But Im not cloning copies of Reno, Jabberwock, denathrius, colossi, etc. Im only cloning that singular minion as it has that ability and not one to clone another target minion or random. Revive spells arent a part of this particular gripe.
the abyssal curses, for me. they cost life, cost mana, and cost hand space, with the life cost being fatigue damage. just seems unfair all the way around to me
Bonelord is a high risk high reward card, it enables some broken combos but comes with a significant drawback. Mankrik is a low risk cards that only rewards luck. You can get either a spider tank or a free 4/7 on turn 4 (crazy that it was 4/10).
Other interesting mechanics IMO are Murloc Holmes, Azshara, Dungar… basically cards that involve decision-making.
Duskfallen Aviana. 5 mana, 3/7. When she’s on the board the first card each player plays costs 0.
Notes: There’s no way to summon her on your turn without playing a card.
Dr. Morrigan. 6 mana 5/5. Deathrattle, shuffle this in your deck and summon a minion from your deck
Notes: This card was released at 8 mana! You can’t run any low cost minions, or any Battlecry minions, because they just get summoned!
Splitting Festerroot. 8 mana 4/4. Deathrattle, summon 2 2/2 (with DR summon 2 1/1).
Notes: 8 mana 4/4!
But you’re kinda right. It’s not THAT boring. I mean, if I’d really given it some thought, I would have named something else. Something so boring you have to look its name up. Which I was too busy to be asked to do at the time.
But not now, so I’m changing my nomination to Ravenholdt Assassin. Now THERE is a badly designed card.
I think the typical mindset to “what is a bad card” is entirely wrong. Cards that generate controversy are GOOD designs. They get the noggin joggin’. Also, controversy is fun.
The bad cards are the ones that are the most invisible, adding pretty much nothing to the game. Wastes of programming, art commission, and voice acting. Like Ravenholdt Assassin.
I don’t consider these bad DESIGNS so much as bad BALANCE. Like for instance, if Millhouse Manastorm was a 5/5, or maybe cost 1 less mana, he’d be a more interesting card. Or maybe that’s not enough, and you’d want to go 6/6 or 0 mana. But the point is that the drawback isn’t really the problem, Millhouse and Avianna have interesting, potentially even fascinating drawbacks. It’s the lack of reward to offset the risk that makes them bad.
Would Avianna be a good card with a 4/12 statline? Food for thought.
As a former consummate Arena player, I don’t think Festerroot and Assassin are really in different tiers. They’re both about equally crap and both good examples of bad design.
Crap like anub’rekhan that allows people to play 30 mana worth of stuff. Any other card that allows that sort of obscene mana cheat like stash/tess. A little mana cheat is ok and keeps the game interesting but when you’re casting a card that allows for 3 full turns worth of mana cheat it starts to break the game. Hiding the mana cheat behind random effects does not help.
Any card that generates random spells that can affect you negatively. IF Im a mage and I go roulette on the spells, the pool needs to be made of cards that do dmg but cant target me or my minions. Nothing that does whole board dmg either. No random among all characters. Last time I did book of wonders in duels in one match I drew two of them back to back and both were the giant 10 dmg fireblast spell and both hit my own face. Turn 1. Instant loss. That shouldnt be allowed in terms of whats in the pool and who or what can be targetted. Always enemys, never any self damage or friendly fire.
Any card that enables another card to be played for free
I see Trickster was mentioned and fully agree, and it is a great example. This is a game with Mana used to play cards. No card should allow any card to go below (0). It’s one of the reasons Miracle Rogue is so friggin’ strong. Such a discount with Graveyard is why we are seeing 12/12s on turn 4/5. And while Jackpot! Rogue is sort of a highroll, it’s still decent cards most of the time for free.
I’d love the game to skew away from any card like this some time soon.
I think innovate + coin into yeti is as stretched as any “big deck” should get. The statline was also well thought out for classic, 4 attack dodged many kill spells and 5 health was out of kill range for most things.
Millhouse Manastorm on the other hand is bad design because it is make or brake, can win or lose games on the spot.
I still use Mukla in midrange paladin. It’s very niche, but I would say the deck would be weaker without it and it is my only golden legendary so golden bananas.