This is a very simple fix. Look at the effects of the heroes involved. Some are oppressive, others are not. For example: Warrior gaining 4 life is absolutely ridiculous. It allows for a 5 mana flamestrike. To fix this, simply reduce it to 3 armour which is on par to the 3 damage of the hunters hero power. As for the paladin, just give it a 2/2. It’s not unheard of to have a 2 mana 2/2. These are the two biggest hero power culprits now in baku decks.

Flametongue – Dire Wolf Alpha. Cold Blood, just another 1 drop or a deadly poison inclusion if you are trying for another type of rogue deck.

Rambo, you certainly did hit the nail on the head here. The nerfs remain more controversial than anything and the logic surrounding them doesn’t seem to buy Team 5 any favours. I think they fail to realize the current staleness and direction of the game is really causing them to lose valuable assets in the terms of competitive streamers and a new player base. They have got rid of the basic fundamentals of the game, which is interaction and minion-based combat into flashy stall mechanics and OTK wonder and awe type archetypes. This is less about playing the game and not even presenting a strategy that once seemed like a puzzle for combo or OTK decks. It doesn’t do anyone any favours. Developing cards like “Time out” where it basically allows your opponent to do nothing and no real way to play around it feels very lazy and basically shows that it rewards greed. Yes, we have a meta where there are a lot of playable classes, but to what level? The majority of them act the same where you stall, clear, draw as many cards as you want. Card draw was supposed to be a very powerful effect in the game with some downside of losing tempo. Now, you don’t even care about the state of the board and it is less about minions and the combat system of the game.

Priest is a classic example of this. Sit idly by for half the game and do nothing. Then the problematic cards kick in. Druid is another example where you put in a bunch of garbage cards just for the sake of cycle. Playing an auctioneer on turn 6 should not allow you to draw some 10 cards. There is absolutely no strategy required for it, just cycle. Any Mech’Cthun deck falls under the same light. This is a time where life as a resource and managing resources mean absolutely nothing as well. The sooner Team 5 realizes this, the better the game can become. It is too often where it feels like your decisions do not matter or you are not even playing the game.

Baku/Genn are the real mistakes here. Nerfing cold blood and flame tongue do absolutely nothing, but take away further identities from classes. These type of decks should exist to punish the greedy decks, however, the current-state-of-affairs allow for these cards to not really even make that much of an impact consistently. There are too many restrictions put into place. Odd Warrior is another prime example. 4 armour a turn to gain. It’s a joke and only promoting staleness. Equality, as I mentioned before, has to be in tandem with another card to really only give paladin the big swing it needs. That is resource management. Hunters mark? Seriously, 2 mana is way too much. The problem was candle shot. I don’t know why people can’t see this.

This is a very poor and thought out decision. The current scourge that plagues the game is the combo-oriented, OTK decks that has very little care if you develop a board or not. The strategy is always the same, draw as much cards as you can and clear the board. There is very little in terms of decision-making or interactivity. Priest is the biggest culprit right now by doing absolutely nothing until turn 5 and then start running board clears or revivals. Aggro decks are supposed to exist to counter such decks and to keep their greedy plays in check. Classic example is Malygos Rogue which get absolutely obliterated by aggro, which it should. However, due to other classes having access to endless AOEs and defensive options, they are more viable than ever. Cold blood and flame tongue nerfs are absolutely unnecessary. I know people are going to say, oh look, there’s Mojomaster Zihi and the Nerubian. Problem is that they are later in the game and it does nothing to really prevent card draw or put pressure on the opponent. Rogues are combo-oriented and requires an alternative play before getting the reward from the combo card. It is their identity. I’m sure odd rogue and other rogues will exist with this nerf, but it certainly puts a damper on class identity. As many people agree, the problem lies within baku/genn being so restrictive.

Hunters mark didn’t need another nerf, the problem was candleshot. Equality nerf was unjustified… as paladin only really had access to 2 board clears and required a 2 card combo. Cards like Time out which acts as a pseudo ice block are the problem and it really does nothing for the game – zero interaction and rewards greed. It basically cries out, “my deck sucks so bad I need to stall 2 times in order for my deck to be viable”.

Either way, will be interesting to see what happens.

I uploaded my guide here:
http://www.hearthstonetopdecks.com/decks/tweegs-spiteful-smith-3-legend-deck-guide/