I wish you all a nice Wednesday. After spending the last few weeks first in joy (Legion!) and then in grief (Legion developers!), it is now time for me to finally focus on a topic that I have been putting off for a while. Hearthstone and its new special rules in the Arena. Since the last patch, a total of 45 class cards can no longer be drawn in the Arena.
Honestly, I must say that I could understand the ban of most cards related to C’Thun. It was just pointless to have cards in the deck that solely supported a specific Legendary – I understood that. It made sense.
Arena ban list without sense and reason
But the changes now? I have no understanding for that. In the official blog post from Blizzard, it even stated that they made sure not to take away “iconic cards” from the classes. Ultimately, that is, of course, a very subjective view, but with some of these cards I can only roll my eyes.
A warlock without “Detect Demons” and “Succubus”? Hello? What could possibly be more iconic than the Succubus? Priest without “Mind Blast”, “Holy Nova” and “Inner Fire”. Especially the last ability has been with priests since Warcraft 3. So either my view of “iconic” deviates greatly from Blizzard’s opinion or they just wrote a nice “blah blah” text around these changes.
In general, I consider it a moderate disaster to ban cards from the Arena. Because the appeal of the Arena has always been the random factor in deck building. The excitement of being able to get the best out of the offered cards.
Moreover, one now basically has to memorize even more than before. I still have to remember all the cards in the game (because different effects can still be triggered), but at the same time have to keep in mind the list of cards that I definitely cannot draw. That annoys me. Very much.
I do understand that some mage cards cause problems. But couldn’t they have simply increased the rarity of the corresponding cards so that they are no longer drawn as often? Why must it all end with a sledgehammer?
What do you think about these ban lists in the Arena? Am I getting upset for no reason or do you miss some cards?
Oh, what the heck… I am already saving gold for the next expansion anyway. Because the Arena is still my favorite mode. I hope that the ban list doesn’t change that.
