Hearthpwn

I don't think they should have banned it so fast, a balance patch would have been better and just up the mana on it to three.

I can only talk for myself but I don't feel like I've faced a majority of Druids prior to this ban and neither did I think that Druid was my worst matchup with any of my decks. Of course I've had games where Druids ramp up like crazy and just runs away with the game, but I've also have had hunter games where they had leathal turn 4 or Shamans lethal turn 6.

For me the big offender in the meta is still Paladin, strong minions a weapon with great tempo that buffs your entire hand three times. Smashing minions 24/7 that just grows and the 2nd you are unable to clear it all boom Aura and almost dead or in the off chance you manage to stabilze all the aggression you look at a 26 damage leeroy turn 9.

To me that Paladin deck is way more reliable than the Druid deck ever was. In fact my 100 games prior to the ban Druid was the 3rd most common class i faced both Warriors and Death Knight were higher. And apart for Demon Hunter, Druid was the class I had the highest winrate against.

Of course the decks I play might not struggle as much against Druid as some others.

They somehow missed to remove Splish-Splash Whelp  from the Dragon Tales pool.

About time ... Turn 6, I have 3 mana and opponent has 9. Doomkin should only take or give mana crystal, not both.

Ramp is a defining Druid mechanic to make up for poor removal.  Splish Splash is fine.  As other have pointed out, Doomkin is where the balancing change should have happened.  A planned change announced ahead of time would be the wiser course of action.

What about players (me, yesterday) who crafted a couple Legendary cards to play this deck?  I guess we are screwed.  I am done.

Ramp is a key element, and the card is fine on paper, but I suppose in the current meta, the early whelp is just too impactful, even if you don't curve perfectly into Doomkin. Too many good followups, and it's one of the main reasons why you even use dragons. Remove Doomkin, and the deck itself is more likely to remain, just missing one particular punch.

It's by far the strongest deck, the most popular deck, and this heavily discourages people from playing it any longer. I think a temporary ban is a good solution here: nuke a deck people got sick of, which makes the new expansion more interesting, and then see where the meta ends up before (potentially) allowing it back in.

That said, I can understand the frustration of crafting a deck and see it disappear because one common or rare gets trashed all too well. Spending dust should never feel like a gamble.

The design team is beyond clueless. Ramp has been in Druid since the beginning… but NOW it’s a problem? LOL Remember there used to be a 2-cost spell that gave you a mana Crystal AND draw a card if you’re holding a dragon? Remember 4-mana gain 2 mana crystals? Remember Nourish? Whelp is NOT the problem. It’s a basic, simple card that is needed for any ramp deck. They’ve killed the Ramp Druid archetype, which is all the class has right now. The real problem is doomkin paired with Dorian. But they can’t seem to see that?

Ramp is defining for Druid but until now ramp used to cost at least 3 mana. It’s not the same to have a mana advantage on turn 6 or to have it on turn 3. But I think what made it more troublesome is the 4 mana dragon that refreshes 4. A Druid getting 12 mana worth of minions on the board and the opponent has 3 mana to deal with it, that’s probably what caused this ban. It will probably be back as a 3 mana 2/2 or something like that. 

No you didnt and no you're not stop crying.

Uh, no. Wild Growth originally cost 2, with no limitations. Breath of Dreams cost 2, and had the same limitation as splash splash. Darnassus Aspirant cost 2.

A 2-mana ramp card that requires a dragon in your hand is not broken.  It’s a staple of ramp. The design team wasn’t smart enough to fix the Doomkin problem, so they kneecapped all ramp druid.

How did doomkin suddenly become meta? Cards been out for ages, what changed?

Well, there is Puppetmaster Dorian , but my honest opinion is that there are some cards that people don't even try, and then somebody creative enough makes a competitive deck (I could be wrong, but I think it was DaneHS), and because 90% of de players use competitive meta-decks, they start to play the card.

But there is honestly a lot of cards that people don't even give a chance just for prejudices, and they are actually better than how they look. I know it for experience, cause I play with a lot of offmeta cards for fun, and I found cards like Relentless Worg that is amazing for hand buff decks, but people don't even bother in try it until they see somebody else ranking with it.

To be honest I'd be cool with knocking Dorian down to a 2/5 too, 6 health is just really tanky and difficult to deal with such that you can plop him on an empty turn 4 board and 8/10 times he sticks. For a card that essentially has a "you need to kill this right fucking now" aura like Brann, he feels too overstatted for how strong the effect is. Right now he's just part of the "neutral legendary crew that you should always run" crew.

Yeah because splish splash whelp was the problem. Not the huge mana swings doomkin does making you unable to respond with higher mana plays because you are 5 mana behind...

Doomkin is worse than the whelps according to the stats, and I know why because I was playing that deck. Doomkin is just bad if your OTHER draws are mediocre and you only get Doomkin on curve; the true power of the deck was a combination of mana cheating with the little whelps and the coins and THEN using Doomkin; I said "was" because I suspect nobody will play Druid now (or at least not that deck).

Druid was trash tier until somebody figured out how to turn it into a tempo powerhouse using ramp and Doomkin. With this short-notice ban, the class is hosed. Only option now is Reno, but with less ramp than before, it will be weaker.

Splish Splash

Your balance is trash

Glad they caught that game-breaking bug: I saw Druid had passed Paladin AND Hunter for top performing, and I just knew something foul was afoot. /s

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Yes but now there’s a dragon that you can play for free if you have 4 mana. 12 mana worth of minions and the opponent has 3 mana to respond is a bit too much