Hearthstone Talk: Housekeeping

So it's been a pretty chatty couple of weeks for Hearthstone -- in addition to the announcement of the nerf for STB and Spirit Claws, the setup of 2017's sets and the lack of adventures, we're also getting some of the best cards in Classic rotated into Wild, all of which I've talked about before It's all very healthy changes that promises some change to the monotony that Hearthstone has been having with the dominance of Pirate-Aggro Shaman and Warrior everywhere -- decks that are ever-present but not exactly super fun to play. They're all pretty healthy changes, I think, even if the meta is absolutely stale at the moment and I'm only logging in for my daily gold.

Shit, the nerf for Small-Time Buccaneer and Spirit Claws was announced, what, two weeks ago? Where are my nerfs, damn it? Also where is Un'goro and my dinosaurs? (Probably they'll make the announcement around mid-to-late-March by my count)

But there's a lot of talk by the developers about their design process, talking about good versus bad combos in response to the Conceal/Power Overwhelming exile, about what kind of balance they're looking for, stuff like that. I won't repeat what they're saying for the most part. But we're getting some changes too soon, which I'll do a super-speedy recap of:

• Arena will be Standard in the future. Not sure how I feel about this, TBH. I'm very much on board with the Hall of Fame and the nerfs, but Arena has always been one of the funnest things simply by virtue of the sheer amount of cards in it. I'll acknowledge that Arena is problematic, though, and shaking up the meta by reducing the amount of cards is definitely something they can do. The developers also promise to rotate things out, citing things like a Naxx-only Arena, or a Legendaries-and-Spells only arena. 
• Spells will show up more often than they are now in Arena drafts, while neutral Classic cards will show up less. Finally, those asshat Windfury Harpies and Mogu'shan Wardens can fuck off from my drafts.
• In addition, Flamestrike and Abyssal Enforcers, two degenerate AoE cards that are super one-sided if you ever manage to draft them, will appear less often. Thank you thank you thank you Blizzard balance team.
• Golden cards will show up in Arena if you have them in your collection. It's about time, really, and I'm surprised this wasn't implemented in like the first year.
• Druid of the Claw's text is going to be changed to reflect its transformation effect, finally.
• Legend-rank matchmaking has been improved -- like in a patch that should roll out very soon.
• The team is considering unnerfing at least Molten Giant and moving it to Wild. I agree with this, but not to the sentiment of unnerfing, like, Leper Gnome, Knife Juggler and others. Still no plans to fill in the gaps left by hall of fame cards, though apparently isn't set in stone. People Fake OCD need each class to have equal amounts of class cards, though, so I'm hoping for this to happen, even if we're going to introduce some sub-par cards. 
• No plans to move Reno Jackson to Classic, or to move Fiery War Axe out of Classic. I see no problems with either of this, and people who do really need to step back and get a better perspective on balance. 

Which is all well and good, if only some or all of these changes actually show up in the game. I'm getting bored of getting my face fucked by pirates in both Standard and Wild, and Arena's stale as all hell. Or announce Un'goro, so we can all speculate and drool over all the new cards.