With the current meta, it feels like every minion is a threat. I call this: The Carnivorous Cube Effect.
Carnivorous Cube is one of my all-time favorite cards. It’s a 4/6 with the ability to destroy your own minion and resummon two as a deathrattle. Basically, Conjurer’s Calling with extra steps.
One of the reasons I fell in love with Hearthstone is during The Witchwood expansion, the game didn’t feel like an RNG Fiesta™. It felt like games, especially best-of-five matches, were a series of calculated risks in which good decision making was generally rewarded.
I used to love control mirrors until they continuously hit turn limit; good job changing Archivist Elysianna by the way. They felt like a series of decisions on how to allocate resources: whether to use cards immediately when a threat appeared, or conserve them for future value.
One of my favorite periods is when Cubelock and Taunt Druid were popular, despite nerfs to Warlock, and Token Druid generally being better. With both decks, the individual minions played weren’t a big problem, but if left unchecked, there was always the game-losing threat of minions multiplying through Carnivorous Cube.
Being able to make every card a threat, bluffing your opponent into unnecessarily clearing, and sometimes being forced into risking a silence or polymorph effect is the calculated, nerve-racking gameplay which drew me to the game.
Now, especially with the prevalence of mechs, I see Hearthstone returning to the game I fell in love with.
Every class follows this principle. Generally, there are no throw-away minions. Every class and most archetypes have threats that, if not dealt with immediately, can multiply the following turns.
Shaman has murlocs, Druid and Warlock have field buffs, Priest literally multiplies health and runs cards like Archmage Vargoth, Mage has Conjurer’s Calling and Khadgar, Rogue has a million bounce options, and every class has access to mechs.
Remember when Blizzard gave us a free golden legendary? Turns out, SN1P-SN4P is pretty nifty.
Although the frequency of use may be a little high, I really like the concept. It gives every class access to a card that can be played alone, but also allows players to use it aggressively turn three, save it for turn six or nine, and can be equipped to a minion for even more value.
Basically, what I’m saying is SN1P-SN4P is a three-mana Carnivorous Cube and I like that.
From a gameplay and balance perspective, Blizzard is making the right moves. Or, at least moves I like.
Now, if they could bring back Last Hero Standing and sponsor a few more tournaments, that’d be swell.
