The new Hearthstone card “Purify” for priest is hated by the community. Ben Brode comments on this.
Purify – the worst card ever?
Although there are plenty of standout cards in the new “One Night in Karazhan” expansion, one card particularly displeases players. We are talking about “Purify” for the priest. It is generally considered the worst card of the expansion, likely to flourish neither in the arena nor in normal play.
Purify is a new spell for priests that costs 2 mana. The spell silences a friendly minion and allows the priest to draw a card.
The issues with this card are quite obvious. It costs 2 mana and is even less versatile than “Silence,” which is already included in the priest’s basic set. So for 2 mana, you sacrifice the ability to silence an enemy minion and receive in return the option to draw a card – a pretty bad deal, almost all players think.
Ben Brode has now commented on this issue and released a new “Designer Insights” video.
Basically, Brode agrees with the accusations and even admits that the developers made a mistake. However, he sees some possibilities for how priests can emerge stronger from the expansion. If that does not succeed, adjustments will be made in future expansions. The developers know that priests are currently at the lower end of the meta, both in the arena and in general, but they did not want to further enhance the “Silence” mechanic after it was just recently made more expensive.
In general, it should be noted that not every card in Hearthstone should be “powerful,” but many serve a pure fun factor. How exactly that is supposed to be possible with “Purify” remains to be seen.
Perhaps all these worries are unfounded, and in two months we will all shake our heads wondering how we could underestimate this card – so far, it does not seem so.
