English version - Année du Mammouth: Avis joueurs Millenium

I welcome the Year of the Mammoth with open arms and am looking forward towards a fresh metagame. The introduction of the Hall of Fame is actually really important to keep standard fresh so we don't see the same powerful cards in every rotation. When Standard first was introduced I was thinking that there's no way standard will ever feel like it's changing if the Classic set stays in the Format forever. I would have liked to see even more cards go into the Hall of Fame because of that reason, but i guess the overall card pool of standard is too shallow that removing too many cards would hurt the format short term. We can expect more cards to go into the Hall of Fame next rotation because we will actually get more cards this year than we got last year, so the pool will be big enough to sustain the departure of more cards from the Classic set.

So speaking of the 6 Hall of Fame cards, I think it is a good move to put Strong Neutral cards that every deck has access to into the Hall of Fame since those are the cards that dominate the format the most because they appear in the most Decks. I think it's only good to remove Class Specific cards if they are an auto-include in any decktype for that class. I don't think Power Overwhelming, Conceal and Ice Lance fulfil that criteria. People hating combo decks, because they are not fun and interactive enough to play against, is probably the real reason these cards got included in the HoF. But i can understand why these cards are in the Hall of Fame since they can be very powerful and would be an inclusion in a lot of decks in the future.

Another thing i would like to see though is the release of the new sets before every HCT Championship. Seeing the pros that qualify for that tournament compete with an all new meta would add another player of skill to the tournament. Innovative Deckbuilding and new Metagame predictions would definitely reward the better prepared player rather than the player who got luckier with old decks of an already established meta. Hopefully Blizzard will change that release schedule, because unfortunately the Winter Championships will not feature  Journey to Un'Goro :(

Hall of Fame is a good thing. Some classic cards were too strong and prevented the use of new cards. I like the fact that these cards aren't nerfed, unlike the last Standard season, so they can still be played in Wild (e.g. Ancient of Lore is now unplayable).

I'm disappointed about Sylvanas' retreat. That card made trades very interesting. Also surprised, cause that card hasn't been played so much this year. Azure Drake's suspension was necessary, it will let new five drops like « Burgly bully » spawn in midrange decks. This card will certainly be very useful during the Year of the Mammoth. Ragnaros was also a card which was preventing 8 drops to be played, cause it was able to deal with all of them. I'm glad this card disappears, I won't miss the coinflips, especially between two Ragnaros.

I'm a bit surprised about the withdrawal of Power Overwhelming. I guess Blizzard doesn't want to see OTK Warlock's decks, with Charge Minion + P.O. + Faceless Manipulator. In my opinion, not a big loss. Despite the fact that I'm totally fond of the Rogue, Conceal's withdrawal is a good thing for the game : it wasn't interactive enough, especially with Edwin or Questing Adventurer.

Finally, Ice Lance's departure pays the new Blizzard's philosophy which prevents OTKs decks. I'm a bit sad about it, not only cause it means the end of the Freeze Mage, but cause I liked the concept of a bonus if the target's frozen.

I hope they'll print new cards with this concept.

Im really looking forward to the "year of the mammoth", hopefully Blizzard will bring some fresh air into the game, the community desperately begs for. The "hall of fame" announcement was surprising and has a huge impact on the meta, rotating azure drake, an auto include in a lot of popular decks, will make a huge difference, but also a card like Ragnaros, which is incredibly strong in the right meta for it.

I am not too happy about the sylvanas and ice lance rotation though, because these cards are not only strong, but also help raise the skill-level of decks. Sylvanas often is difficult to play around and if you get it in the right spot it can change the game outcome immidiately, or ice lance, part of the really skill heavy freeze mage deck.

So as i said im really looking forward to the rotation, not only to bring us great new cards with the next expansion, but also losing really impactful cards to help get a refreshing new meta.

In mid February Blizzard announced they are considering to rotate some of the cards of the classic set to Wild for the first time. The were several reasons for this move. Firstly Azure Drake was for example since 2013 a staple for several decks in the 5 mana-slot, having a very powerful and immediate effect and in the same time demanding an answer from your opponent. Ragnaros is also a very powerful card and his effect can sometimes decide the outcome of a game. “Lucky” rag shots have been the theme of several 2014 and 2015 tournaments giving tournament wins to players such as Amaz, Rdu and Orange.

The other cards which will be rotated in the year of the Mammoth are Ice Lance, Power Overwhelming, Sylvannas and Conceal. The Hearthstone design team announced that the main reason of the first 3 cards being rotated is design space in the sense that these cards may enable incredibly powerful combos in the future. On the other hard, Conceal, is a powerful card which is very hard to play around and is unfun to play against.

As a competitive player who loves deckbuilding and tweaking I am always happy when new cards are released and I believe the release of 3 130+ card sets in 2017 is going to be a good thing for the game. After all, creating new powerful combos and being able to adapt quickly to the new metagame are two of the biggest advantages professional players have over the more recreational ones.

Last but not least, we have Small time Buccaneer and Spirit Claws getting nerfed. Both of the cards are incredibly powerful and I was quite shocked when the cards were announced. Not only are they very strong, they also have an upside when the player has a good hand/outcome (weapon/spell damage), making the games even more polarised - you either devastate your opponent or draw Patches/no weapon and lose. They are mistakes that the Blizzard design team underwent and they have to prevent such strong cards being printed for competitive Hearthstone’s well being. 

About the cards rotation coming with the new Standard year, I think it's a very good thing. These cards overpower the meta since Hearthstone's release, and they would have been played despite the new Standard mode. Blizzard operates a rebirth of the meta and that's very cool. About the Year of the Mammoth, I'm pretty happy that it comes so early, cause we've seen same decks over and over again during the Year of the Kraken, despite all the extensions. Like last year, I'm beginning to be fed up of Hearthstone, but I'll surely enjoy the new Standard mode and the new extension.

I'm currently sceptical about Adaptation mechanics. It seems to be a more random « Discover » type, considering that we only have 33 % chances to have the desired effect. But we've seen only a few cards so hard to say. Nevertheless, Ben Brode's rap was cool !

I think Blizzard definately did the correct thing by nerfing both Smalltime and Spirit Claws. Both cards are extremely strong and just boosted aggro shaman to the top. Even tho this doesnt really slow down the meta since aggro decks are still superstrong it definately helps make shaman more "balanced" since its been the top class for quite some time now.About the cards that are being rotated into Hall of Fame i definetely feel sad for most of them. I thinkg Ragnaros should definately be removed from the game since the rag outcomes decide a lot of games. Now about some other cards i dont feel the same way since i like combo cards like conceal/ice lance. Combo decks have a high skill cap and reward good plays. I am really excited for Un'goro expansion since right now the game is starting to get stale. Any change at this point would just make the game way more intresting.