Hearthstone Card Balance Changes (9/22) and more

Balance Changes:
http://us.battle.net/hearthstone/en/forum/topic/14279128810

Blizzard wrote:

• Leeroy Jenkins now costs 5 (up from 4)
  
• Starving Buzzard now costs 5 (up from 2) and now has 3 Attack and 2 Health (up from 2 Attack and 1 Health)
  

So the last time buzzard was nerfed i said it was unplayable with 1hp, but people just comboed it with unleash for the card draw instead of playing it as a minion which made it playable making me wrong
This time though im going to say buzzard really is unplayable at 5 mana, its stats suck to be played as a 5 mana minion, and it costs too much to combo with unleash or anything really, youd have to wait till turn 6 to draw a single card with it, it should be at least a 4/4 at 5 mana to be comparable to drake/auctioneer which are somewhat similar cards
Personally i think a 4 mana 3/4 with the same ability would be best, so its at least in line with void caller

A leeroy nerf has been needed for some time, leeroy was the next legendary i was going to craft now i probably wont, at 5 mana he isnt unplayable but it stops most of the combos that made him OP, he cant be used in handlock to deal 20 dmg anymore (he can only do 12 with a combo (20 with soulfires)) and in miracle rogue he can "only" deal 20 for 10 mana, so miracle could still use him but thats more because shadowstep is OP

In both decks arcane golem is better than leeroy now, golem deals up to 32 dmg in handlock and up to 29 dmg in miracle, though both of those require more cards than with leeroy
Handlock = golem + power + power + faceless + soulfire x2 (28 is guaranteed, the other soulfire has at best a 25% chance to be discarded, this will almost never go off because all of these cards, other than golem, are useful at other points of the game)
Miracle = golem + shadowstep x2 + cold blood x2 + sinister strike x2 + deadly poison on a weapon from last turn (this one isnt really practical as youd want to use the sinister strikes and deadly poison with auctioneer to draw into golem/shadow/cold blood, but even without the sinister or deadly poison its still 20 dmg which is the same as the leeroy combo but for 3 less mana and 1 more card)
So id say arcane golem will take leeroys place in those decks, miracle might change radically, adding something like malygos, but i doubt it

Overall i like the changes and i expect to see a rise in shaman and handlocks because hunter is basically removed from the game, hunter was the one thing stopping them from being amazing, also secret mage and aggro pally should rise too because theres no more flare/unleash
It also gives me a chance to revive an improved version of my unorthodox hunter (i had to stop playing it cause it sucks vs standard hunters and is weak to egg which everyone was using for awhile)
And i think they might have to nerf arcane golem next


Also blizzard announced theres going to be a 100+ card expansion: http://www.mmorpg.com/gamelist.cfm/game/974/feature/8885/Hearthstone-Heroes-of-Warcraft-Eric-Dodds-on-New-Classes-Class-Balance-and-More.html
Youll buy new card packs to get the cards from that expansion, it wont have an adventure mode to earn the cards, you just spend gold on the new packs
Im guessing it will be out in april or may with how slow blizzard is

i like the leeroy nerf. i only ever used leeroy for control. id combo it with like swipe or something small but effective to make a makeshift mage-level-efficient removal that often stuck around
ill probably de him after the nerf and make someone more fun. or if id rather trade him with a better control card i guess cairn. between cairn, ysera and sylv who would you pick next? or thalnos, i always liked him an excessive amount given his actual impact

the buzzard nerf seems way over the top to me too. i dont understand how they jumped straight to 5

yay hunter is dead and yay free legendary of choice with the leroy refund. im gonna be crafting black knight since its one of the best legendaries in the game. and seren id definitely craft either cairne or sylvanas. ysera should be one of the last of the important legendaries you should craft.

agreed buzzard nerfs seem redic (althought we can all agree hound buzzard combo was an incredibly stupid thing for its cost and counter intuitive to play against)

Fuck leroy may that garbage card burn in hell. Its been stupid from the start.

Maybe if they delete warlocks from the game ill come back to it

Ysera is a fun card but you shouldnt craft it early like i did, its a very slow card and while it does work in the current meta with a really late game control deck you need other legendaries to get you into a position where ysera will stick to the board and draw multiple dream cards

Rag cairne and sylvanas are the first 3 you should craft
Rag can single handedly win games if rng works out for you, at worst it deals 8 dmg to the face, on average it swings the game in your favor even if its only slightly
Sylvanas causes them to trade in a very inefficient way or to just ignore your 5/5 (which is good in many situations), it also draws hex/poly/silence instantly (which is sometimes what you want to protect other legendaries from it later in the game, like ysera)
Cairne is really boring basically 2 yetis in 1 but he survives any aoe, he will draw hex/poly/silence too, and he usually gets at least 2 for 1, a lot of the time 3 for 1

If you just want to have fun though, with your druid deck, if you have 2 ancient of wars + cenarius and onixia you could put ysera in there and it would be ok, but that deck is too fast to really benefit from ysera

Sylvanas is the card i would craft if i were you though, i crafted cairne before sylvanas (after rag) and while it is a good card its just so boring and sylvanas basically does the same thing (doesnt survive aoe, but can steal something after being killed by aoe) with more potential and more fun
Rag would also work but again not that much fun to use after the first couple times, especially when rng hits a totem on a board with 3-4 prime targets and 1 totem, literally if rag hit any 1 of the other targets, even face, you would be back in the game/win but no he decides to incinerate the healing totem that isnt doing anything because all the minions are at full hp


And bacon, i havent seen zoo in a while, ive been seeing more of demonhand than anything, specifically this deck: http://www.hearthpwn.com/decks/54115-from-the-void-midrange-demonlock-with-analysis
Though i dont think anyone uses 2 sense demons because ive never seen 2 and will see something like sylvanas or faceless in some games
The warlock problem is not really as bad as you think
Recently ive been hoping to see zoo because its almost a free win with the decks ive been playing