Since I can't post on Blizzard's HS forums....
How do you guys think the meta of Hearthstone will change after Small Time Bucc and Spirit claw nerfs roll out, and when Reno, tunnel trogg, Thaurissan, Rag, A Drake, and Finley rotate out?
10 Comments
The balance nerfs will help game health a lot. Pirate decks (or any aggro deck that ends the game by turn four) really suck a lot of the enjoyment out of the game for a lot of players, and it doesn't take a lot of skill to win that early with pirates so it doesn't look good for Hearthstone as a whole.
However, losing Reno and Thaur is a big hit to control and combo decks respectively. Stalling the game until turn 6 for Reno is one of the most reliable ways to combat aggro and that's disappearing. With the balance nerfs, I'd say it's an overall gain for aggro since there can still be horribly quick aggro decks without Buc and Claws and Trogg and Finley.
Likewise, Thaur disappearing shuts down a multitude of fun combos and card interactions that are normally almost impossible due to costing more than ten mana. Combo decks can be pretty unhealthy at times as well, but at least you have to assemble the combo pieces before you can use it. Things like Dirty Rat can really bone you as well, since they can break your combo.