The recently announced changes are hitting many cards considered problematic in the current metagame, including Druid staples and powerful neutrals. So, how did the pros feel about it?
Savjz
"[card]Ancient of Lore[/card] is pretty much trash tier now, there's no reason to play it over [card]Azure Drake[/card] now," says the player and caster from Team Liquid. The Druid class was among the most heavily nerfed - in fact, the only class specifically targeted due to how little it changed throughout the expansions due to its very powerful classic set - and the hand-refreshing Ancient of Lore was a core problem.
Savjz is pretty pessimistic about [card]Keeper of the Grove[/card] as well, which had its stats reduced to 2/2 from 2/4. "You will be playing [card]Spellbreaker[/card] now, instead, forget about Keeper. And same for [card]Ironbeak Owl[/card]," Savjz says.
Kolento
"[card]Blade Flurry[/card] is unplayable, just garbage," the Rogue master comments on one of most impactful cards in the class. Blade Flurry, together with [card]Tinker's Sharpsword Oil[/card] was the main win-condition and board clear technique of Oil Rogues and now it's in a position where its mana cost is doubled and it can't damage face.
"Man, you don't play a 3 mana 4/4 to give your opponent a mana crystal, instead you play a 5 mana 4/6, this card is unplayable," is Kolento's verdict on [card]Arcane Golem[/card]. Previously a charging 4/2, Arcane Golem acted as the finisher for not just aggro decks, but also Combolocks running [card]Power Overwhelming[/card] and [card]Faceless Manipulator[/card] which could kill from upwards of 16 damage.
Brian Kibler
"My general thought is they did a great job," starts Kibler. "There are core philosophies here. One is shifting the environment so that new cards get played instead of being pushed by super powerful old cards."
"Speaking of enemies of fun, there's BGH, a card I've railed against for a while and I'm pretty happy to see it changed. I think the new version will still be played in certain decks when they're looking to deal with big minions specifically, but it's no longer a good tempo play and a great deal straight up, which was part of the problem."
Reynad, Noxious and Amnesiac @ Value Town
Finally, take a look at Reynad, Amnesiac and Noxious discuss the nerfs in detail.
"It's fucking disgusting that the community is not more upset about [card]Knife Juggler[/card]," exclaims Reynad when talking about aggro decks' best friend. "This is really the atrocity here. Blizzard doesn't understand about the overarching way the game works. There's inconsistency in how they're nerfing cards. They nerf Druid because every single Druid deck looks the same. They nerfed [card]Novice Engineer[/card] because it was in every deck. They don't nerf [card]Knife Juggler[/card] even though it's literally in every aggro deck."
